Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Turn off the TV! Relief from Mainstream News -- by Jeff Imbach

“Turn off the TV!”

“I would love to, but I need to hear the news!!”
“The news you hear on mainstream TV is just that -- “mainstream” owned by corporate giants.  There is another way...“
“Yeah, if I was a tekkie maybe, but the web is not friendly to me.  So massive that I get lost and angry.”

The above has been the kind of conversation that has run through my mind over and over.  Is there really an alternative to the traditional news media?  I don’t mean “neutral” as they supposedly are on national TV news, but at least a thoughtful and non-abrasive alternative.

First Crack: Note from Solitary Confinement -- from Chris Hoke and Neaners

As a coffee roaster with Zach and the guys in the Underground Coffee Project, I've had to study the process of transformation all roasters know intimately: how a hard, small and flavorless coffee bean becomes something larger, edible, and  extremely aromatic. This art of transformation, which amounts to the application of heat among other beans, helps the hard bean's hidden character to emerge, becoming a tender grain that, when broken, wakes sleepy people up and fuels a day. For a long time, the beans roll around and stay green in the roaster, no matter how high you crank the flames. 

But something eventually happens called "the first crack." You hear it. The beans, like hard hearts, break inside. It is not gradual, but sudden. The hard internal cells can't endure the heat, and the beans suddenly snap inside and jump to a larger size. The thin layer of chaff, its original protection, falls off. Intense heat does this. No matter how much you hammer a green bean, this "first crack" will never happen. You'll just dent or crush both the bean and the hammer. It's only intense, care-full heat.

Bos and Forest's 'For the Peace from Above' - Review by Ron Dart

Fr. Hildo Bos & Jim Forest (eds.), For the Peace from Above : An Orthodox Resource Book on War, Peace and Nationalism, 2011.

My wife asked me a couple of weeks ago when we were on a retreat in the desert a leading question. ‘If I was on a deserted Island for a few years, what three books would I want with me?’ I pondered the answer to the question for a few days. Our answers to such questions often tell us much about the state and orientation of our soul. My answer emerged after some listening: Bible, Tolstoy’s War and Peace (of the six editions, the longest and complete one) and the Adages (all 4151 of them) of Erasmus. What do all three books have in common? All deal with both the subtle inner and outer dimensions of war and peace. The Bible constantly returns to the war-peace motif, Tolstoy’s War and Peace is the finest novel ever written on the theme, and Erasmus is, probably, one of the most important Christian theologians of peace within the Christian Tradition. So, it was with much delight and anticipation that I received and read For the Peace from Above: An Orthodox Resource Book on War, Peace and Nationalism.

Rhythm (Redo) - Brian Zahnd

Rhythm (Redo) Posted: 21 Nov 2011 01:14 PM PST I’ve been thinking about Advent today. It starts Sunday, you know. (For those of us at Word of Life it really starts Friday night with our Thanksgiving Communion Service and Christmas Tree Lighting.) Anyway, alert reader Gerald Lewis reminded me of this four and half year old post and it seems apropos. So with a few alterations, here is Rhythm (Redo). RHYTHM Life is full of rhythm. The daily rhythm of sunrise and sunset. The seasonal rhythm of winter, spring, summer, fall. The lunar rhythm seen in the cycles of the moon. When we consider the human body we can say life is rhythm. The steady rhythm of breathing. The syncopated rhythm of the heart. The many rhythms of a healthy body. When your body is out of rhythm you are sick. If the rhythm is not restored you are dead.

Hellbound?

Intro to the Philokalia - Archbishop Lazar Puhalo and Ron Dart

A Runaway Slave: Note from Solitary Confinement - Epistle of Neaners to Chris Hoke

Friends,

This week I will keep my commentary short, because Neaners' words are longer. 

What he is doing in this letter is a beautiful example of why I first went to Washington seven years ago after college: to begin reading the Bible through new eyes. Alongside Bob Ekblad in the Skagit County Jail, who was about to publish Reading the Bible With the Damned, I found a place where I could read the scriptures alongside people on the margins of society--at a time when I was mistrustful of the churches or seminaries where I could otherwise go to learn. Neaners here is doing "contextual theology" at his finest, what we try to do in the jail. That is, not getting lost in abstract doctrinal debates and prooftexting but letting the story of scripture illuminate what God maybe is already doing in our own lives. Organic theological reflection and a robust faith often emerges...
 

A Runaway Slave

Wut up dogg? Me, just posted up here in my cell. But peep this: I just wrote something down I was thinking while reading Philemon (I don’t know how to pronounce it) in the New Testament.

Experiencing (or not) divine encounters in Paris' streets and prisons - Bob Ekblad

It’s been nearly three months now since I’ve been in direct contact with people incarcerated in a jail or prison-- the longest period in over 17 years.  While life and ministry here in Paris is rich, I miss my routine of Thursday and Sunday Bible studies in Skagit County Jail and occasional forays into foreign prisons.  I especially miss the many jailed men I’ve come to know and love, the times of discovery of very Good News of Jesus’ love for them and me, their love and friendship, and times of prayer where the Spirit seems to always move to comfort, heal, awaken hope. 

So one of the first appointments I made here in Paris was with the national director of jail/prison chaplaincy for France of the Service justice et aumônerie des prisons, Aumônier national.”  He warmly welcomed me into his office and suggested that I accompany each of the chaplains of jails and prisons around Paris as they lead Bible studies and visit.  I loved this idea, and immediately sent him a copy of my passport.  I’ve since been waiting for the call, feeling the distance grow and missing connecting with inmates.  In the meantime I’ve found myself greatly challenged by another reality that is much more complicated and too easy to ignore.

Rowan Williams' 'A Silent Action: Engagements with Thomas Merton' - Review by Ron Dart

November 18 2011

Dear Ron,
A quick word of thanks for your wonderfully generous and stirring review. I’m specifically glad that you flagged up the ecumenical character of the book as it emerged. Thanks so much.
Yours Ever
Rowan Williams
Archbishop of Canterbury     

Review of R. Williams' A Silent Action - by Ron Dart

There are books that thread together, in explicit and implicit ways, a variety of themes and ecumenical connections. There are missives that are compact in their words said and thoughts articulated that need to be read not for information but wisdom and insight. There are contemplatives, intellectuals and theologians that both challenge a dated and waning way of knowing and being and point the way to paths with forgotten yet evocative clearings-----A Silent Action: Engagements with Thomas Merton is a book of such calibre and note.

I was introduced to Thomas Merton in the 1970s and read most of his writings then. I attended Regent College on the West Coast of Canada from 1979-1981 and when there wrote more than fifteen papers on Merton’s life and writings. I have been on the national executive of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada (TMSC) for almost ten years. So, I have some interest and commitment to Merton’s significant role in the renewal of contemplative theology, an ecumenical ecclesiology and a prophetic public witness via prose and poetry. 

Blood Relations -- posted by The Caffeinated Mystic (Deb)

 

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Christ only says what He hears the Father saying. If the letters are in red- we’re hearing the words of the Father.

It appears the people interviewed are not Christians- and they are obeying scripture.

Some christian groups here in the West, say there will be no peace until Christ returns- and argue that to speak about peace is at best- naïve. Others go further and respond harshly to any talk of peace that includes showing compassion to Palestinians. As if to say- loving Palestinians is equal to hating Israel.

That’s ‘Bully’ talk.

There is a chorus being sung against peace that is out of harmony with the ‘song’ being sung by Father. His song expresses His desire for forgiveness and reconciliation between 'enemies'.

dis·so·nant   [dis-uh-nuhnt] adjective

1. disagreeing or harsh in sound; discordant.

2. out of harmony; incongruous; at variance.

3. Music . characterized by dissonance.

Politically- the situation in the ME may appear ‘complicated’, but a strong desire for peace and the willingness to build relationships is evident- if we are willing to see.

The people desire peace. What do we desire?

• Do we believe in reconciliation? If not, why not?
• Have we been 'Bullied'?
• Is our first response to 'peace talk'- repulsion? If so, why is that?
• Are we afraid of appearing to be on the 'wrong side'?
• Are we afraid of disappointing God, by loving those whom we've been told we 'should' hate?

We need a new song. Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"

Sacrament of Tears: Note from Solitary Confinement -- by Neaners

This week's dispatch is a small fragment of a letter from Neaners, who is incarcerated in state prison. It shows a side few lifelong gang members will expose: weakness. I once heard that the monastic Desert Fathers considered tears to be one of the most potent signs of God's presence.

 

 

 

 

 

Sacrament of Tears

I’m sippin’ on some chanate [coffee] right now. I can buy it once a week because you and the people who support the ministry got my back. Some other inmates get their commissary because they have family putting money on their books. I don’t have that kind of family. You all are my family. 

So anyway, I’m reading my Daily Bread, the little pamphlets they give out with Bible verses and reflections. I used to think the Daily Bread was for white people, but I’ve been reading it for years now. It helps me and sometimes it doesn’t. 

Check this out homie. I told you how I be tearing up on anything, unable to stop crying? I feel now that I have let down my guard and am trying to put down all my hardcore attitude and let go of hurtful emotions, I'm real f***en sensitive. Like a child, bro. A baby who you yell at and cries. I cry for everything, carnal [brother]. It's beautiful.On the TV I can sometimes watch here there’s this commercial of a chunky lil’ boy, cute as hell, in a baseball jersey with a hat a lil’ too big. No one wants to pick him for their team, or something. So another older boy pats him on his shoulder, like picking him. It’s sick [cool], bud. I tear up on it.

I was reading in the Daily Bread about when Jesus wept for his friend Lazarus, when he lost him and other people were crying. The pamphlet thing says “Our tears attract our Lord’s loving kindness and tender care.” Every time I start tearing up, I used to stop it. All my life. But now I just let it flow, like you told me months ago in a letter. Whether I just let myself choke up a lil’ or really cry. It’s beautiful, bro. Like every day now, something makes me tear up, for deeper reasons than I understand.

It's kind like in Jeremiah 9:1, where he says "Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears." I wanna read more of his story because it says in my Bible that they called him "the weeping prophet." Not like a crybaby, but he cries of all the shit going on around his gente [peopel]. That's like me now, that I'm letting my guard down. I've seen so much, and after all these years I can't stop crying. 

Submission by Neaners via Chris Hoke (of Tierra Nueva) to whom he wrote this dispatch. 

Open Letter to PM Harper - Omnibus Bill C-10 by Steve Bell

Dear Mr. Harper,

I am deeply concerned about Omnibus Bill C-10.  It is my  wife’s research (as a social-work student at Booth University College in Winnipeg) that has refocused  my attention to the bill. The more I followed her work, the more concerned I have become.

Firstly, I believe there  are some good things in the bill – let me be clear about that. But there are also some alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtably be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is. For the love of God and your fellow Canadians, please slow the process of this bill down. Break-up the omnibus to its components and consider each individually and carefully.

Honestly… in the last election I was prepared, for the first time in my life, to vote Conservative. I tend to be a bit left leaning myself, but thought that at this particular juncture perhaps a conservative economic approach trumped other concerns. Also, I live in Conservative MP  Joy Smith’s riding and have deeply appreciated her noble fight against human trafficking. But in the end I could not, by extension, sign my name to a  bill that blanketly criminalizes the ill and the desperate when other measures are proven to be cheaper, more effective and more humane.