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Forced to watch advertisements??

On 18 Apr, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

According to a patent filing, Phillips (an electronics company) has invented a method, using existing technology, to stop you from either changing the channel, or fast forwarding through a recording, during a commercial. Yes, you heard me right. I imagine it might also prevent you from using the mute button.

So now, no only is there nothing of any substance or use on television, they expect to force you to watch commercials (or, of course, you can pay to get that 'feature' removed.) But, actually, I won't notice, since I don't watch TV.

What I find fascinating is that as network television gets fewer and fewer people watching it, since more people watch cable, watch TV shows on DVD, or from iTunes, or downloading, or they just spend more time surfing the web, they are inventing things that are more likely to drive people away from TV. Does that make any sense?

technorati tags: television, advertisement

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Via Crucis Grid Blog Station 8: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

On 12 Apr, 2006 By mpm

I was among the crowd, and they were jostling me around. I tried to stay close to the edge of the road, so I'd see him coming. My friends, all women, were standing around me, and we were holding each other for support. "Did you get to talk with him last week?" one asked me. I hadn't. I'd missed him entirely because I was off running an errand, buying a new goat. I now regretted how I let something so trivial get in the way of something so important.

"Here he comes!" someone shouted. I saw a phalanx of centurions, with their shiny armor and pikes, marching in step. There seemed to be many others in the moving group, so it was hard to see him. But he was there. He looked so small, inside that circle of centurions. So fragile, weak. Not like I'd seen him last, a few months ago. He was strong, and was doing a pretty good job of facing down my older brother the Pharisee. He now looked so tired, so weary, so broken.

Behind him, there was a tall man carrying the cross - struggling to keep up. Every once in a while a centurion would crack his whip, so that the poor man would push himself forward. There were some in the crowd that were spitting at Jesus, mocking him, taunting him. My friends and I pushed forward, wanting to provide him with comfort, with some level of support. He'd been so good, and so understanding with us over the year that we'd followed him. He looked up, looked in my eyes, and I knew, at that very moment, that everything would be OK.

(Some of you may not know what the Stations of the Cross are. Wikipedia has a nice entry, which is a good introduction to this depiction of the last hours of Jesus' life, and the liturgical significance of it. Station 8 is called "He meets the women of Jerusalem." and is a reference to Luke 23:27-31 which depicts Jesus speaking to some women who are wailing and weeping for him.)

Other Via Crucis Posts today: (7) His second fall Annie, Jonathon, Jason, PmPilgrim (8) He meets the women of Jerusalem Dry Bones Dance, Jonathon, Jason

Tomorrow (9) His third fall Ron, Jonathon, PmPilgrim (10) He is stripped of His garments Ron, Mark, Jonathon, Church Geek

Blog Category:

Can you say "sampling bias"?

On 12 Apr, 2006 By mpm

The Washington Post today has a story, which they title "Most Seniors Enrolled Say Drug Benefit Saves Money." In the first paragraph, they say:

Millions of senior citizens have not signed up for and do not know much about Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, but among those who have enrolled, three-quarters said the paperwork was easy to complete and nearly two-thirds said the program saved them money, the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

OK, so the ones that managed to sign up (over half haven't) thought the paperwork was easy and most of them saved money. This poll means absolutely nothing. Perhaps many seniors didn't sign up because they realized after number crunching that they wouldn't save any money. Some might not have signed up because, for them, the paperwork was too hard. No where in this article do they suggest that the millions that didn't sign up might be different than those that did.

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine begs to differ with the sentiment of the Washington Post. A salient quote:

Despite its youth, the Medicare drug benefit is already chronically ill. But with extensive rehabilitation, it could go on for years, albeit with impaired functional capacity. Debate continues over whether its early spasticity was caused by inept management of its birth or a genetic disorder present at its creation. Proponents of the first explanation suggest that Medicare and its private insurers were not ready for the millions of applicants and hundreds of millions of prescriptions that poured in early in January, in a flood that they were ill prepared to handle. The layer of insurance companies inserted into the process in the name of efficiency exacerbated the confusion. An administration and Congress guided by Ronald Reagan's principle that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" put his vision into practice in a chillingly convincing way.

I'm happy to report that my old home state of Massachusetts has started a different ball rolling, by passing new legislation which virtually guarantees everyone health insurance coverage. Yay!!\

technorati tags: medicare, healthcare, polls, massachusetts

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Holy Week, and what it's like to be observant but theologically radical

On 10 Apr, 2006 By mpm

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the beginning of Holy Week. This is, basically, the first time I've observed Holy Week in any sense of the word. When I was a kid, growing up, and when I was a fundamentalist I remember Palm Sunday, and Easter, but nothing else registered. And from what I could tell, it was Christmas that was the most important holiday of the year. Then, of course, I ignored the whole thing except for noticing the chocolate eggs and chicks arrive at the store. Then, as a Unitarian Universalist, basically, the whole thing never really registered except that we had really nice balloons and a cool flower ritual on Easter Sunday.\

This year, since I kinda sorta observed Lent (that's another whole long story I'll write about sometime,) Holy Week has made quite the imprint in my life. During this week in our morning Lectio Divina practice, we're doing the sections of Mark's gospel relating to the last week. I'm going to a Holy Thursday service (which will have foot washing and communion, how cool is that?) a high church Good Friday service at Grace Cathedral in SF, and then stuff on Sunday.

I'm doing all of this on purpose, really. See, this is the deal. I can't and won't take the whole "Jesus died for our sins" thing at anything even remotely close to face value. I could spend a lifetime unpacking those 5 words. Every single one of those words are at least five questions, not an answer. And, truth be told, I don't think that for me, there really is only one answer to any one of those questions. And what's turning out to be true for me, is that it is practice, which, in this case means both my daily contemplative practice, and worship a couple of times a week, that helps me look at those questions, connects me with the most direct (for me) avenue to ask and explore those questions: God. I guess that's why I'm a mystic. And, this sounds hauntingly familiar. It was practice that connected me with any understanding of Buddhism I managed to come away with. This seems to mean that for me, spiritual practice is the core of my spiritual life.\

I'm turning into a Christian that is, in the greater scheme of things, somewhat unusual. I said, not so long ago, that I thought that Protestants spent too much time on faith, and not enough time on practice. Most Christians that are observant in terms of spiritual practice are pretty conservative theologically. Most Christians who are progressive or radical in their theology are not especially observant (like most mainline Protestants, for example.) I imagine there are Christians who are not observant, but theologically conservative. But the quadrant I find myself on the far end of, is the quadrant of those that are observant, that is, do a lot of spiritual practice, but are theologically progressive or radical. And that is a really interesting place to sit. I know that I have company. There are folks here at PSR who are in a similar place. (And, actually, a lot of Episcopals sit here, too.) And I wonder, given the new interest in things like Taizé services (a contemplative ecumenical service,) Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer and Christian meditation, that perhaps more people are beginning to populate this quadrant.

Anyway, one more note about Holy Week. I'll be blogging as part of the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) grid blog project. I'll be blogging on Wednesday on station 8, "He meets the women of Jerusalem."\

technorati tags: religion, easter, lent, christianity, viacrucis

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And what good is blogging?

On 10 Apr, 2006 By mpm With 2 Comments

Ages ago in "blog time" (that's about a month) Beth wrote a blog entry, called "Blogging as Professional Development." Not too long later, when I was talking with Cindy about my upcoming work next year as an intern at Fairfax Community Church, and expressing the (at this point, mild) stress of thinking about writing sermons, she said I had no excuse - I had lots of sermon material already at hand.

This lead me to think about what blogging means to my professional career (which, at this point is simply my career as a seminarian) and what it means to be a blogging professional. In her post, Beth talks about reflection, and how blogging allows for the expression of what comes from reflection about experiences, or new learning.

There are an increasing number of religious leaders who blog, although most are relatively young. But it's interesting to watch what they write, and how, and why. And it will be interesting to watch whether or not, and how, my blogging changes as I move forward on this path. And it will also be interesting to see how we all, as blogging religious professionals, interact with each other in this medium.\

technorati tags: blogging, professional, religion

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Gospel of Judas

On 07 Apr, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

With impeccable timing, National Geographic has published the text, and a lot of information on a recovered codex, which contains something called "The Gospel of Judas." It's considered the biggest find in ancient Christian related text since the Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in 1948, and popularized by Elaine Pagels and others, containing the Gospel of Thomas. Apparently, this text was written around the same time as the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, and provides a different view of the relationship of Judas to Jesus. The text is Coptic, which is the same language as the Nag Hammadi Library. Coptic is an acient Egyptian language. A lot of texts have been preserved from Egypt, because of its very dry climate.

It's worth having a look at the National Geographic site, it gives you a good idea of the context, the fragments of codex themselves, and what kind of work is involved in recovering old text like this.

I haven't delved much into the whole issue of this Gospel, and I haven't read much of it yet. In general, I'm pretty interested in exploring the wide range of non-canonical texts that exist. For one, it shows the incredible range of theology in the early church. I'm hoping at some point I'll find a class on this stuff.\

I think for me, one of the most interesting questions (of course this all is predicated on the notion that there was someone called Judas that betrayed Jesus) is that if, according to core Christian doctrine, Jesus had to die, then in what way really was Judas a traitor? And in what way did he have free will? I'm sure there are many theologians who've grappled with this, and I just haven't read them yet, but I've found that whole thing to be really interesting - Judas is the infamous betrayer, yet the betrayal was, according to doctrine, necessary. That's pretty fascinating stuff.\

technorati tags: bible, christianity, jesus, judas

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All the fuss about Boot Camp

On 05 Apr, 2006 By mpm With 2 Comments

Those of you who are Apple fanatics like me have already heard the news. Those of you who are just garden variety Apple users should know about this. And the Windows users should perk up your ears. Those of you that run Linux, well, go get some coffee, maybe.\

This is one of the biggest earthquakes in the Apple world that I can remember (and I've been an Apple user since 1978, although I'd say I've only actively followed the doings of apple since the mid 80s,) up there with, in recent memory, Apple clones, OS X, the switch to Intel chips. What happened was that Apple released new software, called Boot Camp, that allows you to run Windows and Mac OS X on the same machine (not at the same time, but I'm sure that's not too far down the pike.) And it will be an integral part of the new release of OS X, called Leopard (10.5 - won't they running out of cat names soon? And when is OS XI due?)

There are all sorts of theories flying about this. Is it a way for Apple to finally make inroads in the business market? Is it a way to recover from the losses in educational market share? I think it's a bit of both of these, but mostly, I think it's about consumers. Consumers have always been the most important market for Apple, and it's been their main focus (that link is a really good article that argues that MS is in the bind it's in with Vista because of Apple.) The main reason why there isn't a Macintosh in every home is that Jane Q. Public is running Windows at work, is used to Windows, and needs to log in to the corporate network/read a document/run an application/what have you. So JQP buys a Dell, or a Toshiba, so that she doesn't have to think about whether or not she can work at home. But now, with Boot Camp, JQP gets to have her cake, and eat it too. And there is another big one. Imagine thousands (millions?) of desktops and laptops with OS X and Windows installed. Users switch back and forth. It's my bet that OS X will just shine in that kind of comparison, especially with the continued, ongoing security issues dogging Windows and IE.\

No question, there are vendors right now preparing to sell you Intel Macs with both OS X and Windows on them. In the beginning, this will not at all diminish Windows sales (in fact, I imagine there might be a small uptick) but the long term prospects for Windows are chilling, especially if they come out with a new release of Windows that is very late, and far from spectacular, which Vista looks like it will be. It will be fun to watch.

What's your take?

technorati tags: apple, macintosh, windows, osx

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Scholar's Instincts

On 05 Apr, 2006 By mpm

One of the very neat things I've learned in the last few weeks of writing a biblical exegesis (basically, interpretation) paper, is that somehow, even though this is a completely different field, my scholars tools still work, and I still have what I'll call 'scholar's instincts': whatever that is inside my head that leads me inexorably forward in researching a topic.

In some ways, I can get lost at sea. I'm doing my paper on Luke 10:25-37. I was beginning to read an article on that piece of scripture (called a pericope) when the article I was reading got all Greek on me. Literally. I put it down. And also, it feels like there isn't a lot to stand on sometimes. In science research, there always seems to be some place where you can make assumptions about a foundation, and move foreward from there (even though, of course, that is sometimes a bit false security). But with biblical research, sometimes it all feels like it's sitting on a surface of soup, ready to sink into the muck.

But, be that as it may, one of the bad things about my scholar's instincts, and the way I've been trained, is that I'm basically having to constantly remind myself when I'm doing the research that I'm writing a 10 page paper, not a dissertation. I guess there are worse things.

technorati tags: bible, exegesis, research

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Tidbits

On 03 Apr, 2006 By mpm

I've been recuperating from being sick. I'm slowly on the up and up, but this is why you haven't heard from me lately. Anyway I have quite a few little things that are worth attention.

I'd never heard of DocuTicker, but it's a great site. If you are a data junkie (I don't quite yet fall into that category) you'll love this site. It's put together by a company called ResourceShelf which is "Information and News for Information Professionals" (read librarians - you all know I have a soft spot in my heart for librarians). They compile all sorts of reports put out by all sorts of governement agencies and nonprofit organizations, like this report from the Pew Hispanic Center on our immigration issues. Anyway, the DocuTicker's feed is mosdef worth a place in your newsreader.
The National Council of Churches put together their annual yearbook (in print, so 1990s,) which, interestingly enough, appears to suggest that the Emergent Church, and Blogging, are the two biggest trends right now. Chuck Currie has more details.
People are getting all upset about The Da Vinci Code again, already. These people have neither a sense of literature, nor a sense of humor, and everything feeds their persecution complex. Give it a rest, please!
And, in the breaking news department, Tom Delay dropped out of his re-election race. Some people say that even the Republicans are predicting they will lose the House. Woo Hoo!
There is a great article in Salon by Amaryta Sen, about the dangers of religious identity. A snippet:"The increasing tendency to overlook the many identities that any human being has and to try to classify individuals according to a single allegedly pre-eminent religious identity is an intellectual confusion that can animate dangerous divisiveness. An Islamist instigator of violence against infidels may want Muslims to forget that they have any identity other than being Islamic. What is surprising is that those who would like to quell that violence promote, in effect, the same intellectual disorientation by seeing Muslims primarily as members of an Islamic world." It is a great read.
TreeHugger is having an eco-packaging contest - to figure out the best ecologically sensible packaging in this completely overpackaged world. I'm voting for the Netflix sleeves, even though I know that cost, and not ecology is the important factor.
Also over at TreeHugger - those Canadians are always so far ahead of us (or perhaps they are just smarter?) 9 out of 10 Canadians fear that their lifestyles are not sustainable! I wonder what the poll would be like here?
Has the weather gone bezerk? Or am I imagining things? One one hand, it hasn't rained so much in California in 100 years. On the other you have a group of storms that kill 23 people in one day. Yikes.

technorati tags: politics, data, davincicode, churches religion

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From the Divine to the Digital

On 28 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I was chatting with a friend at one point, and he said something like "so you're paying more attention to the Divine than the digital." I kinda like that. Anyway, this post, in a rare moment these days, is about the digital.

What's starting this off is the brou-ha-ha about Windows Vista, which is the newest version of Windows, that was supposed to be out by now, but is not going to see the light of day until 2007. Microsoft employees are even up in arms about it. One of the big complaints about Windows Vista has been that there really isn't much there there. Vista has an updated user interface, called "Aero", which, actually looks alot like that other OS. And, in one person's view, "Windows Vista Beta 1 is a much-needed demonstration that Microsoft can still churn out valuable Windows releases, after years of doubt." Wow, that's really profound.

My guess is that for most consumer Windows users, this is really not a big deal. More and more Windows users are switching to Macs (especially given the switch to Intel chips), but the delay of Vista probably won't make much of a difference. Where this becomes interesting, I think, is in big enterprises, which have been using Linux more and more over time. Will this delay mean perhaps they might begin to move to Linux? I don't know, but it might be interesting to watch. And, since Microsoft can't seem to move quickly in response to security vulnerabilities, I'm wondering how long people will be patient with that.\

The second story is about Apple. Apple uses a codec (called AAC) which in connection with FairPlay, protects the content that they sell on the iTunes Music Store. Because that creates a monopoly (content sold on the ITMS is only playable on iPods) France wants Apple to open it up, so that other devices can play content from ITMS. If they don't do this, they can't sell content in France. France also wants Sony and Microsoft to open up their proprietary formats as well, so that all devices and content can play nice. Many are hailing this legislation, for a variety of reasons. But some people think it's not likely to spread far. The reason why anybody should care, is that this is one more voice in the argument about Digital Rights Management - that family of technologies that is increasingly infringing on our rights to listen to and watch creative content in any way we'd like, on any number of devices we own, etc.

OK, back to the Divine.

technorati tags: apple, microsoft, windows, itunes, itms, macintosh, osx, france

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My newest metaphor

On 28 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I am a fan of metaphors. I think I got to really appreciate them as I learned to use them in teaching. They also became pretty valuable to me in understanding my own internal processes.

I have a new one, one I really enjoy.

You have two people, and a plan for a building, and all of the neccesary raw materials (but really raw - sand, metal ore, trees). You explain to each person that the plan doesn't need to be exact, given the difficult nature of the assigment, but that the assignment is to build something along the lines of the building plan. One person dilligently refines the ore, and shapes it to make metal, heats up the sand to make glass for the windows, cuts down the trees, and shaves the bark, and planes the wood, you get the picture, and builds the building pretty much according to plan. You'd think that person was pretty smart and able, wouldn't you?

The second person, though, doesn't do any of that. They put a very, very few things together (somewhat mysteriously), and stand back, and the little process they created causes the building to build itself. And along the way, it turns out, that not only do buildings along the lines of the plan get built, but several other kinds of buildings too - smaller houses, garages, big mansions, warehouses, etc., all seem to spring up all over the place. Indeed, the buildings are also full of furniture, and fixtures, and clothing, and everything anyone needs to move in.

Which person is the better builder?

You might have figured out by now that this metaphor is the metaphor of the creationist's God (person #1) compared to the evolutionist's God (person #2). Since we can't possibly imagine what process might have been put in place to start the long chain of events from big bang to big brains, some folks seem to need to suggest that it must have been done the way the first builder built it. Talk about underestimating the talent of builders.\

technorati tags: God, creationism, evolution, metaphor

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Science

We've got to do better than this

On 26 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I've been recouperating from a nasty cold (I'm still kinda sick) so you haven't seen many posts from me lately. I have come across a few things that are somehow tied together in my mind, and point to the ways in which religion can bring out the worst in us, even as all religious traditions seems to be about bringing out the best in us.

The first is from Tricycle Blog, which is the blog written by the editors of Tricycle magazine - a buddhist magazine that has great articles. This is a story that surprised me, but, apparently from the authors, it's not a surprising thing. In Thailand, a young man tried to destroy a statue of a Hindu god, and was killed by a mob. It's an article worth reading, especially if you have Buddhist leanings.

The second story I found in Radical Torah, which is a blog that, in their words, "features multiple takes on parshat hashavua (the weekly Torah portion), as well as commentaries on holidays, rituals and various concepts in Judaism, as seen through the lens of progressive religious and political viewpoints." It's a really cool blog, worth a read. Anyway, the story is about one of Israel's leading rabbis, who said:

You cannot mix pure with impure. Of course we have to keep apart from all the other nations. You must stand in the breach and prevent this. One cannot mix light with darkness. The people of Israel are pure. The Arabs are a nation of donkeys. They are an evil plague, an evil Satan, an evil pestilence.

There is more detail in the article, and it's definitely worth a read.

The next story is about the man in Afghanistan who was possibly going to be sentenced to death for apostacy. He converted to Christianity 16 years ago. It appears that they are going to manage to sidestep the whole issue (he has been considered unfit to stand trial, and taken to a hospital, which doesn't do him any good, but avoids an international incident.) One of the unfortunate side effects is that this makes Islam continue to appear extreme, when there are a diversity of voices in Islam about this. It's kinda like the Christian fundamentalists getting to speak for all Christians (gee, isn't that familiar?)\

And finally the last story is about Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, who has been making a name for himself calling Islam an evil religion, which continues to fan the flames of anti-islamic, and anti-arab sentiment in the US. (BTW, that link is to a mediamatters.org story that is pretty interesting in terms of media bias.)

There was a opinion piece in the LA Times, by the writer Nora Gallagher, who is a pretty well known writer. The piece, called "Cutting at Christianity" starts out with her bristling at things that really aren't a big deal (like a woman who complains about crucifixes in an episcopal school, or the cartoon that went around after the 2004 election, with the red states as "Jesusland".) She feels like it's politically correct now to criticize Christians. Yeah, sure, so what? She actually goes into depth in the second part of the piece about all of the reasons why people don't like Christians, and, in her words, "The connection between Christianity and political power is enough to make this believer hang her head." From my perspective, this country is so dominantly Christian in culture and belief, that we don't get to complain when people criticize us. Complaining is divisive, not helpful, and feeds into the persecution complex of fundamentalists. What we do get to do, and what we do need to do, is, as she also says in her piece, is practice "costly grace" instead of "cheap grace" - doing instead of saying. She did send a nice reply to my email to her about this op-ed, and I hope we can be engaged in dialogue about it at some point.

Why do these all connect for me? It seems that moments when people feel that their religious beliefs or practices, or the religion itself, is being attacked or threatened, or, really, is just better/more right than everyone elses, instead of a loving, inclusive approach, people reach for their weapons, whether it be actual weapons, or their words. It's no wonder that people who are secular look at religions and forget all of the positive stuff, and just shake their heads. And, ultimately, the bottom line is that none of this really is about religions themselves, or about God, after all, is it? It's about human beings, our attachments, and the ways that we react to things, even when all of our traditions tell us otherwise. I think if you want a really good example of sin, this is it. And, ultimately, this is the sin that threatens the life, safety and freedom of huge numbers of people in the world.\

technorati tags: buddhism, christianity, israel, afghanistan, islam, interfaith

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"Where were we?" and where are we?

On 22 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I was reading the transcript of an interview given by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, of Harry Belefonte, who was, at the last moment, disinvited from speaking at the funeral of Coretta Scott King. I think for a lot of people, where the funeral was, and the way in which it happened, wasn't something that sat well with them, particularly that Bush was at the funeral, and spoke. There are some pretty interesting comments he makes in the interview:

Some ministers who were quite angry at all of this said, "Come on down here. Let's -- let's -- We have to talk to the press," and I said, "Talk to the press about what?" "About this. We cannot let it stand." I said, "I don't think that's appropriate. These are the children of my friend. These are the children of the movement. Where did we let them get caught? Why was Bernice giving this kind of sermon? How did you let Reverend Long become the minister of choice? Why wasn't it at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King preached? And before we go public and begin to vent our anger, let us understand what role we played in this capitulation that has led to this moment, and let us try first to repair it rather than to go into public discourse.\ \ When do we sit in a circle of healing? When we begin to talk about getting back to where we lost stride. How do we fix this? Not how do we play the vanity game, and get off on going public and talking about how I was crucified. You know, it's what it is, and there is a way in which we have to do this that not only prevents -- I don't know that there'll be another moment quite like that, because Dr. King and Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer, folks like that were so rare that to be a part of the final ceremony of their departure is a rare moment in history, but I think that it goes along with what I have been saying here. What role have we played in letting all this happen? Where were we? What were we doing that had us so distracted? How can it be this way? How did you priests and ministers let the evangelical rightwing Christian forces co-opt the greater truth about Christianity and the philosophy of liberation? And how did you all let that happen, and where are your voices in opposition publicly?\

I also picked up a book recently by Michael Eric Dyson, who is a pretty amazing writer, called "Is Bill Cosby Right?: or has the Black Middle Class lost its mind?" I haven't read it yet (spring break reading,) but I'm really interested in his point of view, which is always insightful. And then I read a recent article in the New York Times (it was covered all over) about the situation of young and undereducated Black men, most of whom are either incarcerated, or unemployed.\

I am, of course, a child of the movement, a person who benefitted from the work of people who went before me. Every time I see a clip of the big march on Washington, I remember that my parents went. And I remember, mostly from reading, and seeing old clips of things (since I was young when it was happening), when the civil rights movemment, which was intertwined deeply with the peace movement and the labor movement, was active, vibrant and working.\

And now, where are we, and how did we get here? We are as in need, as ever, of the movements of the 1960s, but we have splintered, separate movements, with people who don't talk much to each other, more poor people and poorly paid people than ever, at the same time as there is incredible, sometimes extreme, comfort, a growing cancer that is the marriage between the religious right and the Republican party, which has, in Harry's words "co-opt[ed] the greater truth about Christianity and the philosophy of liberation."

Finally, Harry said:

Everybody has a part in this. Everybody has something to look at, and I think it is a collective experience, and that's why I think rather than sitting here drifting, we've got to talk about this, not just where we failed and where you failed, and we've got to come out of this discourse and this discussion, not just talking about it but saying, "Here's where we go," and take courage in the fact that we can turn this around, because the truth of the matter is we are the only ones that can turn this around. Nothing and no one else can do it. Nothing.

Right on.\

technorati tags: civilrights, corettascottking, harrybelefonte, movements, poverty

Blog Category:

America

Follow ...

On 20 Mar, 2006 By mpm

... this link. I promise you'll appreciate it!

Thanks Caitlyn!\

technorati tags: politics, connecticut, georgewbush

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Humor

Christian Koans

On 20 Mar, 2006 By mpm

One of the really cool things, in my mind, about being both religiously pluralistic in perspective, as well as intensely interested in contemplative practice and mystical thought, is that you get to think about how practices and concepts from outside one's own religious tradition can positively impact one's own spiritual practice and journey. I've talked a bit about what I've been learning from Jewish religious and mystical tradition (check out my first midrash,) and I had an interesting thought this morning about koans. In our morning Lectio Divina practice, we read Matthew 5, which has this verse (13): "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot."

This is really nothing but a koan. Salt's essense is it's saltiness - if it loses it's saltiness, it is no longer salt.

I think a Christian koan isn't really much like a Zen koan, and shouldn't be structured like one. But I think that the essence of a koan, just like this verse, is that it contains paradox and unexpected twists, that make you really have to think about your own concepts and ideas. I've been doing a fair bit of bible reading lately (gee, I wonder why? Oh, right, I'm in seminary!) It's been a challenge at times to be faced with verses that go against the grain of my own ideas and perspectives about God, the world, and human beings. And it's our ongoing work to not toss out the baby of the kernels of truths and opportunties for thought, contemplation and knowledge of God present in the Bible with the bathwater of text that is sometimes flawed and very much from its temporal context.\

technorati tags: bible, zen, koan, christian

Blog Category:

Communities of Spiritual Practice

On 20 Mar, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

I had a great conversation with a friend over cooking dinner last night, about communities of practice, and how much of a difference that makes in terms of one's life, and one's own spiritual practice. She's someone who practices in Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition. We were sharing that the time we spend in communal practice (for her, most mornings at her Sangha, for me, mornings and evenings at PSR doing contemplative Christian practices like centering prayer, lectio divina, and taizé chanting,) makes a huge difference when we practice on our own, and also makes a huge difference in the effects of our practice in our daily life. And it didn't seem to matter at all that we both practice in different traditions - the core concepts about communities of practice we discovered together were pretty much the same.\

Even though I'd been on retreats, and gone sometimes to once-a-week sittings, I'd never been a part of a community of practice on a regular basis like the way I am now. Although I'd been able to maintain my practice earlier this year on my own, doing it in community since early February has made a big difference. It's very sweet, and I am thankful that it exists. It's something that I know I'll have to figure out a way to be a part of for the rest of my life.\

technorati tags: spiritual, practice

Blog Category:

Search Terms

On 20 Mar, 2006 By mpm

One of the things I like to do is collect the search terms that people use to find my blog. Sometimes they are not at all surprising (like people who are searching for me, or they might know that my blog name is 'pearlbear' and they are searching for that. Other things are much more surprising.

The most surprising one to me is that one of my blog entries comes up as number 10 on yahoo, when one searches using the term 'nonprofit'. If one searches for 'progressive christian' on MSN, my blog is 8th. Those amaze me. Interesting terms people have used to find my blog or blog postings include: "stop everything," "Buddhism by Karen Armstrong cliff notes" (that person must be a student!) "'finding missing people' organization, Larry King Live, CNN" and "William Shatner photos" (really!)

About 1 in 10 of the visits of people to my blog are people who find it via an unrelated search, which is interesting, and sort of surprising. Nothing will change in my blog because at least 10% of people are reading it with no idea of what it's about. But it's something that is good to know.

technorati tags: search, blog

Blog Category:

Procrastination

On 18 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I'm supposed to be writing 2 papers and studying. But at the moment, I'm procrastinating. I think I've said, my favorite form of procrastination is blogging. My second favorite form of procrastination is futzing with my iTunes library. Well, they've finally come together. I was perusing a rather interesting section of my iTunes library, and here's a little snapshot of what this looks like:

So which is it? Is God a girl, a real estate developer, or love? For fun, I looked up the lyrics. These are kinda good. From Groove Coverage: "A part of the future, a girl like me, There is a sky, eluminating us, Someone is out there, that we truly trust, There is a rainbow, for you and me, A beautiful sunrise, eternally." It's actually a really nice song.

Then, there is Michelle Shocked: "He may be an absentee landlord. This may be a low rent universe. The roof may need repairs but at last the floor is there. And the rent is not due 'til the first."

And then there is Marvin Gaye, for sure the most traditional of the three: "Don't go and talk about my father. Cause God is my friend. Jesus is my friend. He loves us whether or not we know it. Just loves us, oh ya"

Quite the interesting combination. I think my favorite, though, is "God is a Girl." But I bet you could have figured that out yourselves.

OK, back to writing a paper about the Psalms as lamentation.

Blog Category:

Holiness Manifesto

On 17 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I got a heads up from Ethics Daily, a Baptist (not Southern) news source, about a group of denominations that have been meeting for a while, and have come up with a new Holiness Manifesto. Why this was interesting to me was because, in my previous life as a fundamentalist, I belonged to two holiness denominations, the Nazarenes, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The Salvation Army, by the way, is in this group. These are pretty serious fundamentalist types. The Nazarenes used to prohibit dancing (I don't know if they still do.)\

So, for reasons that escape me, I decided to go in search for the genuine article (that is, the actual Manifesto; here it is in PDF form.) And I read it. I was expecting the usual fundamentalist stuff, innerancy of scripture, lots of male God language, etc. But, I was pretty darned surprised. In fact, the document is written inclusively (that is, purposely without male pronouns for God!) Read it for yourself, if you are interested. You might be amazed. Here's the punch line:

God wants us to be, think, speak and act in the world in a Christ-like manner. We invite all to embrace God's call to:\ • be filled with all the fullness of God in Jesus Christ---Holy Spirit-endowed co-workers for the reign of God;\ • live lives that are devout, pure, and reconciled, thereby being Jesus Christ's agents of transformation in the world;\ • live as a faithful covenant people, building accountable community, growing up into Jesus Christ, embodying the spirit of God's law in holy love;\ • exercise for the common good an effective array of ministries and callings, according to the diversity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit;\ • practice compassionate ministries, solidarity with the poor, advocacy for equality, justice, reconciliation, and peace; and\ • care for the earth, God's gift in trust to us, working in faith, hope, and confidence for the healing and care of all creation.

The "letter" of this manifesto is, basically, inclusive and progressive. I could almost imagine the UCC, in a moment of being focused on spirituality, perhaps, could almost write something like this. But what, actually, is the "spirit" of this manifesto? When a UCC person talks about the "reign of God" they are talking about a very, very different thing than if a fundamentalist says it (although it is true that many UCC people wouldn't say that at all.) I find the line about "advocacy for equality, justice, reconciliation and peace" especially interesting given the current controversies around gay marriage issues in religous circles. So what do they mean, exactly? Are they being serious? Did they have something else in mind?\

There are other very intriguing lines in the manifesto, like this one:

People in churches are tired of our petty lines of demarcation that artificially create compartments, denominations and divisions. They are tired of building institutions. They long for a clear, articulate message that transcends institutionalism and in-fighting among followers of Jesus Christ.

Which followers are they talking about? Are they really talking about all of them (from the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, to the UCC or even UU Christians), or just the ones included in their little group? Who is this for? The language and tone overall of the document suggests that they are talking to everyone (that is, all Christians.) But given what I know about this tradition, it's hard to believe that the spirit of this document extends in the directions the letter would suggest.The critiques stated early in the manifesto are clearly pointed toward things like prosperity gospel and mega-churches, not progressive voices in the church. Then there is this paragraph:

Holy people are not legalistic or judgmental. They do not pursue an exclusive, private state of being better than others. Holiness is not flawlessness but the fulfillment of God's intention for us. The pursuit of holiness can never cease because love can never be exhausted.

I'm intrigued, and will try to keep an eye on this (apparently a book is coming out that was a result of the three-year process that produced the manifesto.) This can only be one of three things: 1) a document only addressed to people within their tradition, and none other, 2) a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing kind of thing - trying to look inclusive and progressive, while not really being so, or 3) a huge sea change. I'm betting on 1 and hoping on 3.

technorati tags: holiness, nazarene, church, christianity

Blog Category:

Greater Good vs. Personal Gain

On 16 Mar, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

Two very different articles had something in common: they spoke volumes about how personal gain tends to win over what might be seen as a greater good.

The first one was a surpise. You might have heard about the controversy of the FCC possibly forcing cable companies to offer a la carte channels, instead of the big packages. With this notion, people could pick and choose among non-premium cable channels, instead of getting them all in one package, so they could be picky about what the got (the better, apparently, to prevent kids from seeing smut.) I'd known about this, and knew that a lot of evangelical types (like Concerned Women for America) were very much in favor of this. What I didn't know was that evangelicals are actually split on the issue. Why? Because, in the words of Jerry Fallwell:

Though well-intentioned, the fact is that a la carte would threaten the very existence of religious broadcasting and the vital ministry conducted over the television airwaves," said Jerry Falwell, president of the "Old Time Gospel Hour."

Read: "people won't choose the religious channels, so we will lose money."\

The second one was not a surprise at all. Bill Gates, yet again, found varied reasons to deride the \$100 computer that MIT and Google are working on, for children in developing countries. Bill might give a lot of his money away to help varied interesting causes (although a lot of people think that it's mostly his wife we should credit for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation) but if there are lots of computers to be sold without Microsoft Windows on it (which provides Microsoft with about \$100 per each computer with it,) it doesn't much matter whether or not they will help people in developing countries. Bill would rather those people have fewer (or no) computers, than have more computers without Windows. Like doesn't he already have enough money for one lifetime?\

In this society, personal gain trumps the greater good almost every time (even if the greater good is defined differently than I might want to) I think, if there is one thing that we need to change, it is that one equation. But then, it is that equation that is the heart of modern capitalism. The gain of insurance companies is more important than the health of the country, the gain of Haliburton, et al. is more important than the welfare of Iraqis, the gain of auto companies is more important than air quality. The placement of Wal Mart is more important than the quality of life for 300 plus families in LA. I hope we don't learn this lesson too late.\

technorati tags: capitalism, evangelicals, FCC, billgates

Blog Category:

Abortion, Religion and the future

On 14 Mar, 2006 By mpm With 3 Comments

I had an interesting discussion today, which reminded me that I'd had a post percolating on abortion for a while, and I might as well get it out. The conversation was at breakfast this morning with my fellow Bentonite (PSR dorm), Matthew Fox, and Rosemary Radford Reuther, who is considered one of the major feminist theologians ever. How cool is that? Matthew is very much hoping for a job with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), an organization I've always admired. We were talking about what RCRC was doing, as well as a group that Rosemary is involved with, Catholics for Free Choice. We were talking about how religious organizations should be not only carefully articulating the religious reasoning behind the position of choice, but also a place of pastoral care for women who have to make what is, truthfully, often a difficult decision.

I'd remembered that there were states that were poised to file new bills to outlaw abortions once they thought that the scales were tipped in their favor on the Supreme Court. Somehow, I didn't quite think it would happen so soon. First South Dakota, next Alabama, then, who knows. And the severity of the law is, frankly, draconian.

It will, of course, take years for this all to work itself out, and it appears the law won't go into effect until the Supreme Court hears it. Some anti-choice activist types even wonder whether it was too soon. There still, apparently, is a 5-4 majority in favor of choice on the bench, with Kennedy as the swing. Luckily, still, most people in the US remain pro-choice, although there are definite differences in opinion by religion.

Just today, there was a story on NPR about the shifting debate, with this comment:

Political commentator and columnist Will Saletan thinks that at least part of the problem is that the abortion-rights movement has become tone deaf to the moral ambiguity surrounding the procedure.\ \ "On the other side you have these pro-life folks who think it's murder and the public doesn't believe quite that, but then you have the pro-choice movement that sounds like they think there's nothing wrong with abortion, or you can't make any judgments about abortion," he says.\

As someone who has been a pro-choice activist, I basically agree with this statement. I completely understand why, in general, we don't talk much about how complicated the moral and ethical issues are around abortion. On one hand, we've been pretty darned busy (and still are) just making sure women have the right to have access - and have been afraid, I think (for good reason) that if we articulated these issues, it would be something that the anti-choice folks would jump all over. In that same story, Katha Pollit weighs in:\

Pollitt says that in many cases, abortion isn't bad, and that suggesting it might be sets up a dangerous slippery slope.\ \ "If you go down the road of saying abortion is bad 99 percent of the way, but that last one percent you say, 'But, oops, we think it should be legal, the best of a bad option,' then you're leaving the door right open for 'Well, why is abortion bad?'" she says.\ \ At the same time, she says, calling abortion bad puts the entire moral burden on the women who choose it.

"The man never gets talked about," Pollitt says. "The crusade is not 'Let's make sure every man in America uses a condom every time he has sex, unless he's trying to make a baby.' That discussion is never had."

I see her point of view too, and really agree about the last part. But I do think that even Katha would agree that abortion is ethically complicated. We have to have that conversation. I think that this might be where we, as religious progressives, get to step in, and bridge the gap. I think, given the new attention being paid to religious progressives, it is incumbent on us to provide our own, relatively unique perspective to this issue, and help articulate why full access to safe, legal abortion is critical to maintain, and also to be able to facilitate true dialogue on this issue across viewpoints.\

technorati tags: abortion, religion, ethics, supremecourt, southdakota

Blog Category:

Identity Blogging

On 14 Mar, 2006 By mpm With 3 Comments

I think, by now, if you are someone who is reading this blog regularly, you've probably figured out that I am both an African-American, and a lesbian. If you are relatively new to this blog, you might not yet have figured out the gay part (since there is a picture of me on the side, the African-American part is pretty obvious.) Of course, if you are a friend or family member of mine, you've known this all along.

For the most part, when I write this blog, and what I want people to get out of this blog, is that it is just the complicated person called Michelle that I want to emerge from these pages. I have self-contradictory points of view, I combine sometimes contradictory identities within myself. I am simply, just me. Not representative of any identity that I might actually have.

Tiffany Brown, author of the blog blackfeminism.org, which is a newish blog for me to read, raises some interesting questions about blogging and identity. She suspects, and I agree, that people who chose identity blogging, being the "Black gay blogger" instead of a blogger who happens to be Black and gay, means that those people are more of a representative than those of us that choose not to be identity bloggers.

I think for me, the only way I am being an identity blogger in an active sense, is in my identity as a seminarian. I definitely chose to eschew the notion of identity blogging as either Black or gay. But I do think that speaking from my perspective (OK, I'll use our favorite phrase here "social location") as an African-American lesbian, that it can't help but change the way people read my blog. I imagine that it's quite possible that if people read this who don't know too many African-American lesbians, that I might, in fact, become a representative to them of that identity.

The second question feels like the question of my life, just focused on my blog "How do you reconcile your various identities? If you are, for example, a Boricua-Muslim-lesbian-amputee, (how) do you blend those identities on your blog? "

This one I don't have a ready answer for, since I don't have a ready answer for it in my life. Being the African-American-Afro-Carribean-lesbian-Christian-Buddhist-mystic-seminarian-geek-... that I am, I think the only way that I blend or reconcile these identities on the blog is simply that I choose to talk about an amazingly wide range of stuff, all from my perspective. I don't actively try to reconcile things here.

For me, answering these questions made me think a lot about why I blog in the first place. I remember years and years ago now (in net time), when I first started the blog, back in 2003, it was because I needed an avenue to vent about the war in Iraq. It then morphed into a way to tell folks about my transitions and travels. And now, I mostly talk about seminary. I'm writing some for my friends and family and some because I think that I have some things to say that people who don't know me might want to hear.\

technorati tags: blogging, blogs, identity,

Blog Category:

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Jewish Mysticism, and bloggy miscellany

On 14 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I'm taking this great class, called "Introduction to Jewish Mysticism" which is fabulous. I've been posting reflections that come from the readings and discussions of that class on my ministry blog. The latest reflection is about the ten sefirot, or emanations of God, from the Kabbalah.

If you ever read my ministry blog, (few people do, and that's really OK) you might have noticed that I changed the title to "The Contemplative and Mystic." I decided to focus my writing there on things relating to contemplative life and practice, and cool new mystical things I'm learning, like from this class.\

On the whole, in looking at my main blog lately, I'm writing a lot less about political events, or the news, or that sort of thing, and more about topics arising out of my seminary experience, religion and society, and my spiritual life. I decided that I'd like to spend more time writing substantial thought peices, and less time re-hashing news everybody already knows, unless it seems especially compelling. This likely means I will be posting less often. I just hope that the posts will be deeper and more meaningful. I'll still, however, tell you when I am in some unexpectedly strange place.

I found out that my Google page ranking is 5 out of a possible 10, which kinda surprised me - I didn't imagine it would be so high. I'm only one step below my buddy Beth's blog. It is, however, an exponential scale, so this does mean that according to Google, Beth's blog is an order of magnitude better than mine, which is about right.\

technorati tags: sefirot, kabalah, blog, Google, pagerank

Blog Category:

Sacred Time

On 13 Mar, 2006 By mpm

Have I said enough times how much I'm enjoying seminary? Case in point: today's subject in the Christian Worship class, which was how the church has looked at time over history. There are some fascinating things to think about in terms of our theology of time, and what we want in the rythm of life.\

Having been just recently introduced to the liturgical year (I'm learning most about it on my own, since I seem to have the tendency to ape the medieval mystics as much as possible), I hadn't really understood a lot of what it was all about. But the liturgical year is centered around Easter (the english word, by the way, probably has root in the Anglo Saxon spring goddess, Eastr.) For a long time, the only holidays there were were days set aside for events in Jesus' life, and saint's days. In the 19th century onward in the US, varied civic holidays got fed into the calendar. Protestants, of course, dispensed with the saint's days altogether.

An interesting point was made about our 24/7 culture - it has the effect of eliminating the rythm of life. There aren't defined rest days, or rest times, anything can happen at any time. And, really, is this a good thing? I think about an old friend of mine who is an orthodox Jew, and she arranges her life around the Sabbath - she walks to synagogue, doesn't answer the phone, go shopping, etc.

One of the things that's true of every religion I've ever encountered is that there are times set aside for reflection, spiritual deepening and growth, and community gathering. Maybe this is just a human need, and what makes time some times sacred is that we have listened to the voice we all have, to stop, reflect, play, worship (in our own different ways) gather, and love. I think that's something we could re-discover. I think a 16/6 world wouldn't be such a bad thing, after all. I'd absolutely give up the ability to go shopping one day a week if in return I got a 16/6 world. Doesn't even have to be Sunday. Why not Saturday? Wednesday?\

technorati tags: time, sacred, sabbath

Blog Category:

Biblical, Schmiblical, part II

On 13 Mar, 2006 By mpm

There is a fascinating discussion on the Christian Alliance for Progress blog, on a story about Jerry Falwell, who corrected the Jerusalem post, that had reported that he thought that Jews would go to heaven. He said "I continue to stand on the foundational biblical principle that all people --- Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Jews, Muslims, etc. --- must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to enter heaven."

The discussion, basically, is about the biblical basis (or lack thereof) for universalism (in shorthand, this is the idea that Jesus died for everyone, not just believers. Most liberal Christians, are, at this point, at least functional universalists) Both sides of the argument are quoting scripture. You could quibble, but the reality is, really, both sides are right, if you read the bible literally. In other words, scripture is far from clear on this subject. There are absolutely things both in the gospels and in Paul's letters which suggest that no one goes to hell. And, there are things both in the gospels, and in Paul's letters, which very much suggests the opposite.

I think we have to call a draw, if we're going to depend on literal readings of the bible for the whole argument. One of the most interesting comments, though, on that discussion was this: "If you are right, then why would Jesus say 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance' Mark 2:17 If everyone is going to heaven, why would anyone need to repent of anything?"

Funny. The whole discussion was about something that no one really knows anything about at all. That is, what happes to us after we die. What about what happens right here, right now? For me, hell is life of oppression, hopelessness, meaninglessness, unmet need, and violence. And what we need to repent of is our complicity in creating hell on earth for far, far too many people, sometimes in the name of God.\

technorati tags: religion, Jesus, heaven, hell, bible

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Can Peter Gabriel Predict the Future?

On 12 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I was reading the story about the amazing "Red Rain" that happened in India in 2001 that people think might be alien life. I then remembered Peter Gabriel's song, "Red Rain", that was on his album "So", which was released in 1986!

Anyway, in case it hasn't sunk in, depending on further research, we are about as close to proving the existence of life outside of the earth as we've ever been.

technorati tags: redrain, kerala, alien, life, petergabriel,

Blog Category:

Music

Science

Biblical Schmiblical

On 10 Mar, 2006 By mpm With 2 Comments

One of the cool things I'm learning in "the bible class" this semester (short for "Interpreting Sacred Texts") is that every way of reading the bible is interpretation. And that one very convoluted form of reading the bible is to read it as literally true. In fact, it really takes some mental gymnastics to do it. Case in point: the story of creation in Genesis.\

This has come up, because I just read a post from a site I hadn't read before, about "Biblical Manhood and Biblical Womanhood." Salient quote:

Genesis 1:26-31 tells us of the creation of man. In the creation, man and woman, made in the image of God, entailed them being a walking, talking, breathing witness of God. Biblical manhood and womanhood is essential to them fulfilling their responsibility to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. They are reflecting God's truth. Their roles are essential to imaging and representing God in the world. At the outset of creation manhood and womanhood matters for man to image God in the world - to point to a reality of God. Gender, then, is part of the very reason we were created.\ \ In Genesis 2 we see God saying "it is not good for man to be alone..." The Divine definition of being between one man and woman is rooted in these words, "for this reason." What reason? Because the Lord God fashioned a rib out of the man, brought her to the man, and said "here is Eve." Here is the helper that answers the need of fellowship. Marriage is created in the marriage order and. [sic]

I know that some of you know that there actually are two creation stories, not one. I know that fundamentalists like to suggest that there is only one, and Genesis 1 is the general, and Genesis 2 is the specific. But you just simply can't read it that way and remain intellectually honest. There are a number of reasons why. If you look at the Hebrew, the vocabulary used to name God is different, and there are form, and other language differences (Genesis 1 is from what is called the "Preistly" source, and Genesis 2 is the "Jawist" source.) Most simply, the order of creation of both are completely different. There is no way to reasonably reconcile them. In the first story, God creates plants on the 3rd day, and animals on the fifth day, and then, on the sixth day (Genesis 1:27):

So God created humankind in his image,\ in the image of God he created them;\ male and female he created them.\

OK. Keep track of this. In Genesis 1, God creates both men and women at the same time, in God's image. In Genesis two, God creates man after God has already created the garden of Eden. After that, God creates animals, so that he wouldn't be lonely. Right. Created the animals after man. Then God creates woman out of Adam's rib. That directly conflicts with the story in Genesis 1. I don't know how literalists get around this conflict, but it's a problem. And, since the idea that man was created before woman is one of the major foundations of the notion that women are men should not be equal, well, there is trouble in river city.

Of course, humans all got here by a different road (the evolutionary one), but this is just an example of the ways that people (mis)use the bible. As I mentioned before, I'm really enjoying the Jewish approach to scripture, and the ways in which we can find spiritual nourishment from the varied and multiple meanings of text, and often, the literal meanings aren't especially useful.

Isn't it hubris to limit God to the 775,000 some-odd words in the bible? Can we really decide, based on those very few words, exactly, precisely, what we think is right for everyone? Surely, God, in her grace and love, is bigger than that. I think we have to remind fundamentalists of a literal reading of Luke 10:25-28: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Or as the famous Rabbi Hillel said "That which is hateful to you do not do to others. All the rest is commentary."

Link from, who else but Carlos of Jesus Politics.

technorati tags: gender, religion, bible, genesis,

Blog Category:

SDS, back again

On 10 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I was just telling a friend of mine a few days ago that one of the things that was different now than in the 60s, was the presence of an active, large, student movement. Well, today, in my email box, comes a note about the reactivated Students for a Democratic Society.

We are activists from around the country who feel that a student movement is desperately needed to carry on the struggle for participatory democracy.

Right on!

technorati tags: students, activism, democracy

Blog Category:

Religious and Secular Left

On 10 Mar, 2006 By mpm

Bruce Wilson, on Talk to Action, has an interesting, and I think quite useful discussion of the issues relating to the ways in which the secular left and religious left talk to each other, and the broader community, and the language that gets used. He's mostly discussing Michael Lerner's new book, "The Left Hand of God," which is for sure on my list of books to read when I have the time. He says:\

As the religious left arises to flex, perhaps, newfound political muscles it would do well to remember that many of the great social justice battles of the last century in America were advanced by a coalition between religious and secular forces. And, the secular left has fewer bearings in the new landscape. So, it may be incumbent upon Michael Lerner's spiritual progressives to reach out - difficult or perplexing though it may seem - to those on the secular left for whom the religious left might now appear to be in a position of relative power.

There are quibbles with his perspective, and I'd say it's incumbent on both sides to reach out, but I think it's quite interesting that he feels that religious progressives now have the upper hand. Worth a read.\

technorati tags: religion, progressive, left, secular

Blog Category:

Books

Bits of cool webstuff

On 06 Mar, 2006 By mpm With 2 Comments

I've accumulated some neat links and webstuff that I've come across lately that are worth highlighting - things folks might be interested in. You can always check out my del.icio.us links - there's new stuff all of the time.\

New Monasticism - I discovered that there is, apparently, an interesting new movement "an attempt to discern the Holy Spirit's movement in the abandoned places of the Empire called America". They even have a book. Something to watch.
An interesting conversation on a new blog I've found, about "identity blogging" (as black, or gay, etc.) vs. personal blogging. I'll have more on that later.
Writing about recovery - I came across the website of a writer who is sharing her journey of recovery from childhood abuse. She has a great little manual for caring for one's inner child.
A compendium of sacred texts from many, many traditions.
Digglicious.com - an addictive tool to find cool stuff - combines del.icio.us and digg. They both are very different, but since they both change fast, there are some cool things that just appear, like a japanese video about how to peel a potato in one step!
If you ever wanted to know what liturgical season this is, here's the place to find out.\

technorati tags: websites, tools

Blog Category:

Web/Tech

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Is this just gambling, or am I missing something?

On 05 Mar, 2006 By mpm

I'm no economist, but apparently, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is now selling "Snowfall Futures":

Snowfall futures and options are geared to a snowfall index focusing initially on Boston and New York. The index will change based on official daily snowfall totals.\ \ Investors can buy and sell contracts trading on a monthly basis from October through April. A trader makes money on a contract when the index rises after it is purchased and loses money when it falls.

Kinda sounds like gambling to me. And then there is gambling with taxpayer money:

"From the standpoint of municipalities or companies that are concerned with excessive snowfall and whether they will have shipment of goods, there's now the opportunity to hedge your removal costs or transportation delays or other weather-related exposure," he said. "CME's had a very good idea on the weather."

What do you think? I'm having a hard time taking this seriously.\

technorati tags: investing, snowfall, hedgefunds, weather

Blog Category:

Faith vs. Practice

On 02 Mar, 2006 By mpm

One of the things I'm learning, due to a really fortuitous combination of courses this semester (primarily the combination of the big bible class, and Jewish mysticism) is that I get to do interesting comparisons of Judaism and Christianity. Judaism was of course, the religion of Jesus. What fascinates me most right now is that fact that we share a book (the Hebrew Bible) doesn't mean much. The fundamentals of both religions are quite different.

In my mind, one of the most dramatic (and amazing) differences is the difference between the roles of faith and practice in spiritual life. For Jews, practice is central, faith negotiable. For Christians, faith is central, and practice is negotiable. This is an oversimplification, for sure, but I think it has a nugget of truth in it. I've already talked about the other major difference I see, which is the approach to scripture.\

It has been so rich to be a part of conversations and arguments about deep theological issues (for example, exactly what was it that Moses got at Sinai, anyway?) and understand that those conversations and arguments have been not only going on for a long time, but documented. Deep arguments about Christian theology resulted in accusations of heresy, the burning of the books (and sometimes the people) who lost the argument, or later on, denominational schisms.\

I think that Protestants have been way too concentrated on faith. I understand why this came to be, and it makes all sorts of sense given what was going on in the Catholic church before the reformation. Also, the reasons most often given for practice (the evils of sin, punishment of God, obedience, etc.) are reasons that, in my opinion, would only serve to distance people from the divine, not bring them closer. Of course, given my Buddhist background, it makes sense that I'd find practice important - and it is a very important (at this point the central) part of my own spiritual life.

I went to a retreat last week, on a practice called Lectio Divina. The retreat was very good, but what I took away from it, more than the content itself, was that Christians of all theological persuasions (I was in the same room as someone who'd gone to seminary at Fuller) can actually relate to each other really well around practice.\

It would be interesting to think about ways to allow Christians to have those deep conversations about theology with no adverse consequences, as well as return to a place where practice is more central - but for the important reasons - one avenue to closer connection with God.

technorati tags: christianity, faith, Judaism

Blog Category:

Octavia Butler

On 27 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

2002830973 Octavia Butler, one of my favorite Science Fiction writers, and one of a tiny number of African-American Science Fiction writers, died this weekend.

She wrote a number of books that were really important to me. The first book of hers that I read was called Kindred, which was an amazing story of a black woman who is yanked backwards in time to help her slave-owning ancestor. I read the books of the Patternist series, including Mind of My Mind, and Wild Seed.

Her two-book series, Parable of the Sower, and Parable of the Talents, were, I think, two of the best science fiction books to deal with the near future, ever published. I haven't yet read her newest book, Fledgeling, but I think it will be on my summer reading list.\

There is a nice tribute on Blog Critics. Here's an obit.

\ \ She is a voice in Science Fiction that will not be easily replaced.\

technorati tags: sciencefiction, octaviabutler, writer, obituary

Blog Category:

Books

Progressive Faith Blog-Con 2006
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Progressive Faith Blog Carnival!!

On 26 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

Well, doing this on a cold rainy February day in Berkeley seems the right thing (for those of you in New England: no, really, I'm not complaining about the weather!)\ \ There are some interesting goings on in the progressive faith blogosphere, as usual. Next week, the carnival is being hosted by one of my favorite fellow seminarian bloggers, Feminary. The week after, it's being hosted by someone with probably among the top 5 coolest blog names, Velveteen Rabbi (and I love her blog, too.)

There is a lot going on right now in our country, domestically as well as internationally. Xpatriated Texan thinks that it's time to bring the troops home. Virushead (another cool blog name) thinks we need to ask Robert Dole about his relationship with Dubai Ports World. Tikun Olam has some interesting comments of his own on the Ports issue. Love Ministries asks us to think about politics and spiritual calling.

The Feminarian ponders about why evangelical Christians don't show up in interfaith conversations. My homie Radical Hapa asks "When Did the Bible Leave the Church?" Chuck Currie tells us about the World Council of Churches assembly.\

Street Prophets is starting a book club! Drat. Why do they have to start when I have no time to read?

Gosh, everyone is having blog awards. The Unitarian Universalists have the UU Blog Awards, the Buddhist blogosphere is having the Blogisattva award, and the Muslim blogosphere has the Brass Crescent awards. And what's cool is that Velveteen Rabbi won for Best non-Muslim blog! Also, check out Progressive Islam - very interesting group of blogs, across a spectrum of Muslim thought.\

Real Live Preacher gives up orthodoxy about homosexuality, and talks about it incredibly elegantly.

Greatful Bear talks about my favorite Gospel.\

I've been doing some interesting thinking about Lent, lately. Boy in the Bands gives us the details on how that ash is dished out, anyway. Another country does some interesting thinking, too, and takes up a new practice for Lent.

In doing this, and exploring, I found a few new blogs I'd like to check out more often:

And, last but not least, I love Dylan's cat blogging (and both her blogs, too!)\

technorati tags: blogs, progressive, religion, faith

Blog Category:

Stop. Everything. Now.

On 24 Feb, 2006 By mpm

From Energy Bulletin:

The scientific uncertainty in global warming isn't about whether it's occurring or whether it's caused by human activity, or even if it will "cost" us too much to deal with it now. That's all been settled. Scientists are now debating whether it's too late to prevent planetary devastation, or whether we have yet a small window to forestall the worst effects of global warming.

Our children may forgive us the debts we're passing on to them, they may forgive us if terrorism persists, they may forgive us for waging war instead of pursuing peace, they may even forgive us for squandering the opportunity to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle. But they will spit on our bones and curse our names if we pass on a world that is barely habitable when it was in our power to prevent it.\ \ And they will be right to do so.

technorati tags: globalclimate, climate, earth, environment

Blog Category:

Honda_fit {width="250" height="70"}

Woo Hoo

On 23 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I had already decided to drive the present car I have into the ground, so that by the time I needed a new (to me) car, I would likely be able to afford either a used hybrid, or a used diesel that could converted to biodiesel. Well, imagine my surprise that apparently, a whole new raft of little cars are headed to the US from Japan, one of which is going to be a really cheap hybrid. Treehugger (of course) has a story about the hybrid verson of Honda's "Fit" car, which is a little thingy. Cute, actually, and not so different than the car I drive now. Nice.

technorati tags: cars, hybrid,

Blog Category:

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Have we finally figured out that capital punishment is cruel and unusual?

On 22 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 2 Comments

There have been some interesting developments in the death penalty issue in California this week. Michael Morales was supposed to be put to death on Monday, but that has been indefinitely postponed. The basic reason is this: A judge had declared, based on a study about lethal injection, that California had to change their procedure. Lethal injection is based on the injection of three drugs, an anesthetic, a paralytic, and then Potassium Chloride. The study suggested that if the initial anesthesia wasn't perfect, that a person could be experiencing the incredibly painful process of being killed by the Potassium Chloride, thus constituing, for the Judge, cruel and unusual punishment. The judge said that anesthesiologists had to be present to either make sure the anesthesia was correct, or to administer a huge overdose of anesthesia to kill the prisoner.

However, doctors have ethics, and killing people isn't part of the picture for them. So no doctors would be a part of Morales' execution. Thus it's been postponed indefinitely. And this ruling may effect whether or not executions occur in other states (most states that execute people use lethal injection.)

The reason that lethal injection has been used is that judges have ruled that other forms of execution are cruel and unusual. Basically, killing people is not very nice for the person being killed, is it? I think it's cruel and unusual.\

technorati tags: deathpenalty, execution, california

Blog Category:

Progressive Faith Blog-Con 2006
Carnival {width="297" height="137"}

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Progressive Faith Blog Conference and Carnival

On 22 Feb, 2006 By mpm

As many of you know, there has been somewhat of an interesting coalescence in what could broadly be called the Progressive Faith movement. It seems to have most of it's center in Progressive Christianity, but there has been a real effort to be more broadly based and inclusive. As well, there are movements within other faiths to be a part of a broad coalition.

Sometime this year, there will be a Progressive Faith Blog Conference, that I hope to attend. In the meantime, they are hosting a Progressive Faith Blog Carnival, which basically is hosted at different blogs, and is a list of the coolest, most interesting blog entries in the Progressive Faith Blogosphere for that week.

Guess what? Next Sunday is my day to host! I'll be gathering posts on my own, as well as taking submissions. If you'd like to point me in the direction of a great post, please email me (michelle at murrain dot net). I'll be posting lateish in the day on Sunday (the 26th.)

technorati tags: blogs, progressive, faith, religion

Blog Category:

Another Quiz

On 22 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I don't really "get" enneagrams although apparently, they originate with Gurdjieff, who is someone I've always wanted to read, but haven't gotten around to (and his books always look so intimidating.) Anyway, there's a quiz I found, thanks to Poppy, that looked kinda interesting, and, as you'll see if you know me, is pretty close. So here are the results:

+:---------------------------------------------------------------------:+ | [the Peacemaker]{style="font-size: 1.4em;"}\ | | Test finished! | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | you chose BX - your Enneagram type is NINE. | | | | | | | | "I am at peace" | | ----------------- | | | | | | | | Peacemakers are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek | | union with others and the world around them. | | | | How to Get Along with Me | | | | - If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I | | especially don't like expectations or pressure. | | - I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advatage | | of this. | | - Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit. | | - Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to | | nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally. | | - Ask me questions to help me get clear. | | - Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery. | | - Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings. | | - I like a good discussion but not a confrontation. | | - Let me know you like what I've done or said. | | - Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life. | | | | What I Like About Being a Nine | | | | - being nonjudgmental and accepting | | - caring for and being concerned about others | | - being able to relax and have a good time | | - knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around | | - my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a | | good mediator and facilitator | | - my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here | | and now | | - being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe | | | | What's Hard About Being a Nine | | | | - being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive | | - being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline | | - being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and | | twitch of the mouth personally | | - being confused about what I really want | | - caring too much about what others will think of me | | - not being listened to or taken seriously | | | | Nines as Children Often | | | | - feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are | | unimportant | | - tune out a lot, especially when others argue | | - are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves | | | | Nines as Parents | | | | - are supportive, kind, and warm | | - are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective | | | | [Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele]{.small} | | | | [ ]{.small} | | | | [[The Enneagram Made Easy\ | | Discover the 9 Types of People\ | | HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages]{.small}]{.small} | | | | [\ | | You are not completely happy with the result?!\ | | You chose BX]{.small} | | | | [Would you rather have chosen:]{.small} | | | | [AX | | (SEVEN)]{.small} | | | | [CX | | (TWO)]{.small} | | | | [BY | | (FOUR)]{.small} | | | | [BZ | | (FIVE)]{.small} | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Link: The Quick and Painless ENNEAGRAM Test written by felk on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

technorati tags: enneagram, personality,

Blog Category:

\ create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Places I've been

On 21 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I've already told people I'm a sucker for quizzes. Well, I'm also a sucker for blog memes. So here's a new one. The countries and states you've visited...

\ create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks.

technorati tags: travel, world,

Blog Category:

"Middle class lock-down"

On 18 Feb, 2006 By mpm

This blog is definitely off of my beaten path, but this essay is really interesting. Sometimes, he seems to over-romantasize the past, but there's some good stuff, here. Here are some tidbits:

After all, what can we really do together? Consume. Drink. Consume. Talk. Consume tickets to entertainment. Consume. There is little else to do with other human beings in America than consume. So most of our primary life activity is solitary. We drive, do housework, pay bills, watch television... When we do "get together with friends," there is little to talk about, other than one form or another of consumption, consuming music, or movies or whatever. We can not tell each other anything new because we all get the same news and information from the same monolithic sources.

...

If anyone is going to turn the ship of the republic around, put us on a course more in the direction of liberty and openness, it will require the navigational help of those among us who can still remember what it was like before totalistic capitalism took such grip. People who can remember that genuine good will and intent were once alive in the hearts of most people even if never in the halls of Congress. Remember when at least some human and social progress was evident around us, thereby giving reason to hope.

technorati tags: capitalism, society, consumerism, middleclass

Blog Category:

America

(Insert Favorite Swear Word Here)

On 17 Feb, 2006 By mpm

Yet another study came out yesterday suggesting how much we are screwing up the planet.

Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, the result of a warming trend that renders obsolete predictions of how quickly Earth's oceans will rise over the next century, scientists said yesterday.

Sigh.

technorati tags: globalclimate, glaciers, ocean, environment

Blog Category:

My new conspiracy theory

On 17 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I am someone who tends to think that conspiracy theories are sometimes just silly, and generally, gross oversimplifications of a very complex reality. A couple of stories from EFF that came across my e-desk that have made me think up my own conspiracy theory, and it's not pretty. Here's the basic information. Clear Channel (yes, those people) was granted a patent by the USPTO for "System and method of creating digital recordings of live performances." EFF says:

Clear Channel claims that its patent creates a monopoly on\ all-in-one technologies that produce post-concert live\ recordings on digital media and has threatened to sue anyone\ who makes such recordings with a different system.\ This has forced bands like the Pixies into using Clear\ Channel's proprietary technology, and it hurts investment\ and innovation in new systems developed by other companies.

OK, so stick with me for a bit. For a while now, a lot of people have been flabbergasted by the patents that the USPTO has granted, particularly that they have granted patents that allow companies to own business processes that often have clear prior art, and that allow them to have control over the creative innovations of others, in ways that are pretty nonsensical. This one is a great example. This patent means that any musician and venue that records then burns a concert CD for sale after the concert has to use their technologies, or be sued for infringement of their patent. Right, this is completely nonsensical, and clearly violates the right of musicians to control their own creative product. I (and many others) had ascribed the actions of the patent office over the last few years as a combination of caving to corporate interests, and ineptitude. I'm starting to let go of the ineptitude - I think they are doing this on purpose.

Corporations of all stripes are in an incessant battle to expand their control of content and its delivery. Also from EFF is the story that the RIAA now says that it doesn't think that copying a CD that [you bought]{style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"} onto your iPod is fair use. That's right. Further, it turns out that there is an increasing effort to change the rules of internet traffic, and set priorities, and charge more for certain kinds of traffic (limiting, for instance, Skype traffic) or from certain origins (e.g. corporate traffic gets higher priority than, say, this blog.) I've always considered these sorts of things to be basically issues of corporations, as is their mission, to continually increase their profits.

But the recent events and wholehearted cooperation of companies like Google, MSN, Yahoo and others to happily censor content in China (which I had also ascribed to the profit motive), as well as the emerging picture of increased controls and limits on the creation and dissemination of creative content, is making me think a lot about what this is all about. I hate to wonder whether or not there is a connection between all of this stuff and the fact that we have one of the most power-hungry and controlling governments in history.

The whole RIAA/MPAA thing had, for a while, made me think that alternatives to the dissemination of music and movies would have to happen - creators would realize that these organizations don't work in their interest, and start their own companies and distribution methods. This has begun to happen, but the problem is that if the technology is locked down using things like Microsoft's Trusted Computing which could ultimately control what you can see and hear from your computer and other technology (there are all sorts of controls being built into the new generation of DVD players, that use blue lasers), then it is possible that alternative avenues will be squeezed or locked out. It seems that technology companies have been jumping overthemselves lately to cater to controlling interests, whether it be our government in spying, China in censorship, or hardware and software manufacturers with imbedded DRM.

So, it all adds up to, at best a nasty mess, at worst, complete control of not only how we can use content we own, but complete control of content creation, delivery, and viewing. That's the conspiracy theory. It's probably either silly, or a gross oversimplification of a complex reality. It does strengthen my already growing luddite tendencies, though. If they want to control me through technology, I'll let go of the technology. We can't get too attached.

technorati tags: patents, eff, clearchannel, recording, music, concerts, technology, government, control, corporations

Blog Category:

Intellectual Property

Law

Music

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A Jewish Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest

On 16 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

Really, I'm not making this up. An Israeli Jew has started a contest for Jews to submit their anti-semitic cartoons to. I'm not quite sure what I think of this, but it certainly is an interesting response to the whole Danish cartoon fiasco. A quote:

"We'll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!" said Sandy "No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!"

Let me know what you think.

technorati tags: danish, cartoons, antisemitic, israel

Blog Category:

Huh?

On 16 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I tend not to like John Dvorak, who some people (for reasons that are not at all apparent to me) think of him as some sort of tech guru. Anyway, this week, he proposes that perhaps Apple will drop it's proprietary OS (OS X) and switch to Windows, now that Macs work on Intel architecture. He for sure gets my "people who are out of their minds" award this week! (He beat out Dick Cheney.)

He says:

The only fly in the ointment will be the strategic difficulty of breaking the news to the fanatical users. Most were not initially pleased by the switch to Intel's architecture, and this will make them crazy.\ \ Luckily, Apple has a master showman, Steve Jobs. He'll announce that now everything can run on a Mac. He'll say that the switch to Windows gives Apple the best of both worlds. He'll say this is not your daddy's Windows. He'll cajole and cajole, and still hear a few boos. But those will be the last boos he'll hear, for then the Mac will be mainstream. We will welcome the once-isolated Apple mavens, finally.

This is nuts. Remember Apple's motto: "Insanely great"? No machine running any version of a Microsoft operating system will ever be "Insanely great." Plus, Macintosh sales are growing, not shrinking.

Yes, there are fanatical Apple users (like me) but there are a whole host of professionals (videographers, photographers, musicians, publishers, etc.) for whom the Mac OS is a necessary part of their work. Apple makes a lot of money selling software for those markets, and I would be hard pressed to believe that they would move that whole group over to Windows. This is just not going to happen, no matter how much John might want it to.

technorati tags: mac, windows, osx, macintel, technology

Blog Category:

When will we get it?

On 14 Feb, 2006 By mpm

Last week, in San Diego, authorities found a furnished two bedroom apartment in a storm drain. Apparently, quite a lot of work and ingenuity went into the project of setting this place up. How many different ways will people have to be homeless (like the folks from New Orleans who have been kicked out of their hotel rooms) before we realize that homelessness is again a huge and growing problem, and one that needs to be addressed in systemic ways? The booming real estate market of the early 21st century that seems to have benefitted so many with economic resources, has another effect: making the process of finding a home for those who don't have resources increasingly difficult.\

Via BoingBoing.\

technorati tags: homelessness

Blog Category:

Uncategorized

Cheney needs this...

On 14 Feb, 2006 By mpm

\ 'Nuff said. From BoingBoing.

Blog Category:

Humor

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This has got to be a metaphor for something...

On 12 Feb, 2006 By mpm

Cheney accidently shoots a fellow hunter. (Really!!!)

technorati tags: cheney, hunting

Blog Category:

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An element I never, ever thought about

On 12 Feb, 2006 By mpm

In reading my del.icio.us inbox, I happened upon an article (it's actually from last year) in a pretty obscure website, called EnergyBulletin.net, which is a website devoted to news and ideas relating to peak oil. It's quite interesting, and depressing and all that, so I won't read it much, or blog about it much.\ \ This article I really have to blog about, because it brings up an issue that I'd never thought about, but it would be a good thing if I did. The issue is the relationship between oil exports/imports and currency. Basically, oil is traded in both dollars and euros. The author of this article (William Clark) argues that one very un-reported reason why Iraq was invaded was because they were about to switch from trading oil in dollars to trading oil in euros. And he also argues (fairly persuasively, I might add) that an invasion of/attack on Iraq is possible because they are about to (in March 2006) embark on an oil bourse (n. A stock exchange, especially one in a continental European city.) which will trade oil in euros, not in dollars.\ \ He says:

The macroeconomic implications of a successful Iranian bourse are noteworthy. Considering that in mid-2003 Iran switched its oil payments from E.U. and ACU customers to the euro, and thus it is logical to assume the proposed Iranian bourse will usher in a fourth crude oil marker -- denominated in the euro currency. This event would remove the main technical obstacle for a broad-based petroeuro system for international oil trades. From a purely economic and monetary perspective, a petroeuro system is a logical development given that the European Union imports more oil from OPEC producers than does the U.S., and the E.U. accounted for 45% of exports sold to the Middle East. (Following the May 2004 enlargement, this percentage likely increased).

So what does this really mean? Well, remember the little dust-up last year when China said it would stop pegging its currency to the dollar? The basic situation is this: the less trade happens in dollars (whether it be oil, commodities, whatever) and the less people buy and use dollars, the less the dollar is valued, and less economic power the United States has - basically, it completely threatens our global economic dominance. We have made this situation so much worse by our enormous level of debt - and the more debt we have, the more dire our situation is, if the dollar gets devalued.

The possibility of a huge market in oil traded in euros instead of dollars is a pretty big deal, one that is so big, that this author thinks that the neocons in charge would be willing to nuke Iran because of it (using some other excuse as a cover).

I think that's going way too far, but I agree with his assertion that the ways in which the economics underlies some specific foriegn policy, particulary the economics of the (petro)dollar, is something that just isn't reported on, or investigated enough. Anyway, the article is worth a read, even though it will cause some eye strain for those of us who are not economists.

technorati tags: oil, Iran, dollar, euro

Blog Category:

Danish Cartoon Mess

On 12 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I have been struggling to understand and articulate my ideas around the recent mess of the Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper. However, Gary Younge at The Nation (of course) has done it far better than I could have. It's a good read.

One of the most important parts of this mess, which I hadn't understood is this:

Four months after the cartoons were published, Jyllands-Posten's editor apologized. In the intervening time Muslims engaged in mostly peaceful protests. Several Arab and Muslim nations withdrew their ambassadors from Denmark while demonstrators picketed embassies. According to Denmark's consul in Dubai, a boycott of Danish products in the Gulf would cost the country \$27 million in sales.\ ...\ For as criticism mounted, other European newspapers decided to reprint the cartoons in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten.

He calls this action "inflammatory". I have to agree. Anyway, read the rest.

technorati tags: muhammed, cartoons, danish, arab, muslim

Blog Category:

Pillow Fight Anyone?

On 11 Feb, 2006 By mpm

Apparently, on February 14th (just 3 days away) there is going to be a public pillow fight in San Francisco. This is apparently a new trend. And, of course Flickr has the evidence.

749281_751a58fb63 {width="250" height="187"}\ I think this is what we need. Less war, more pillow fights.

technorati tags: pillowfight, public, sanfrancisco

Blog Category:

TreeHugger greatest hits

On 11 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I've already told everyone how much I love Treehugger. Well, here's some more evidence:

A post on how to find stuff other people throw out, with a tool that uses Google's fantastic API.
Al Gore releases a film on the environment, and reminds us all that he's been a [real]{style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"} environmentalist from the start. Al Gore for president, anyone?
Bottled water might be good for you, but oh, the waste!
A new movement, I think along the lines of the Slow Food movement, to partake only in foods grown within a 100 mile radius.
A new material, made from recycled paper, but that can work like wood.
Cool new designs for homes for those displaced by Katrina.

I left out all the depressing stories about how we're going to run out of oil really soon. You don't need to read those, you already know that stuff anyway.

technorati tags: treehugger, environment, water, food, recycling, katrina, oil

Blog Category:

The Pacific Ocean smells different ...

On 11 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

than the Atlantic. Less tangy perhaps? It's subtle. If anyone has any ideas as to why this is, let me know.

I spent a wonderful day at the beach today. It was great - we went to Stinson Beach, a place I've been a couple of times before. It was popular. It was a little bit amazing that I was on the beach, and enjoying it, on February 11th. I did bring some work with me, and read for a couple of hours (and studied my Hebrew) so I felt virtuous. I apologize about talking of the beach to all of you about to succumb to the "blizzard of '06".

We also went to Sausalito, and had a great time hanging out.

The Bay Area is beginning to agree with me greatly.

technorati tags: sausalito, beach, pacific, ocean, atlantic

Blog Category:

Hamas (guest blogger)

On 09 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 5 Comments

Why is Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) targeted for its religious underpinnings in a way that the Jewish state is not? Can either Hamas or the Zionist state truly be a voice for the visions, goals, and daily survival of all of its peoples? Are the majority of members of the Knesset and the majority of Hamas parlimentarians in support of women's self determination and an end to violence of all kinds? Currently, Hamas has gone further with this than the Zionist, holding to a cease fire, while the IDF continues to massacre young Palestinian girls in their streets.

This is a guest post from my friend, and Middle East Historian, Elise Young, Associate Professor of History at Westfield State College, and, thankfully, on this side of the continent on sabattical this year. She expresses the complexities around the recent victory of Hamas in the Palestinian Parlementary elections with an informed opinion that I thought would be useful for people to hear.

Historical commentary has been one of the positive outcomes of reaction to the Palestinian elections with The Islamic Resistance Movement- Hamas, gaining a majority of seats in the Parliament. Those following the outpouring of editorials have learned about the kinds of activities that made the Muslim Brotherhood popular in Egypt and finally Hamas as an offshoot- providing social services in lieu of the state, refusing to capitulate to the demands of its oppressors- a respected spokesperson of a people being brutalized daily.

The larger context includes the streams of Arab nationalism, pan-Islamism, Arabism, and other comparable responses in the Arab world to developments post World War One. While these movements have their roots in responses to indigenous politics, geo-political developments have also played a major role. It's important to remember, as a friend noted in an e-mail recently, that Hamas developed in the context of an anti-colonial struggle and to think about other similar anti-colonial struggles, for example, the Algerian struggle against the French. Were those anti-colonial forces 'treated' in the same way- framed, even by the 'left', as terrorists? I don't think so. They were seen as what Hamas calls itself- as a resistance movement to colonialism.

In the United States, the spector of Hamas that has been raised by the media for years, is having its impact on how we evaluate and discuss the elections. Even the most liberal take as their starting point that Hamas is a terrorist group and that because Hamas has engaged in terrorism they cannot be recognized or engaged with. The nature of the anti-colonial struggle gets dropped out. But if you read the biographies that have been circulating of the 15 Hamas men who were elected to the Parliament, but who are in Israeli prisons, you might become 'confused.' It is not longer so easy to see Hamas through colonial eyes, or to define resistance as terrorism with the same 'meaning's as the terrorism of one of the most highly armed militaries in the world. Here's just one, and the others are not that different- "Hatem Qafisheh is a businessman who owns a tourism company, which also facilitates the Hajj pigrimage. He also studied contemporary Middle Eastern politics, and Islamic studies before having his studies interrupted by prison. Qafiesheh is a former deportee to Marj a-Zuhour, in addition to being a survivor of the 1994 Hebron massacre, where 29 Palestinian worshippers were killed by US/Israeli citizen Baruch Goldstein at an early morning prayer service. Qafeisheh was arrested and detained for 27 months after those events, and was a leading figure in the "Intifada of the Administrative Detainees" a hunger strike for prisoner rights held in Mejiddo, Damoun, and Talmond prisons in the mid 1990s." This is not to excuse or condone the terrorism of war in any context; rather, we have to be clear once again that violence breeds violence and that non-violence is the only historic tradition that makes sense.

In order for us to understand Hamas we have to acknowledge the violent expropiration and colonization of Palestine- the ground on which the Zionist state was built and continues to expand. The current U.S. government perpetrates a violent geo-political agenda and violent domestic agenda that is not new, of course, in this country. We have a sordid history of torture against Africans and a major historical role in the colonizing of the Middle East and we are in the forefront of those on-going processes today. Bush's controlling and conservatizing agenda for women fits his religious agenda; he has this in common with Hamas. Our vigilance about anti-Semitism and gender issues in relation to Hamas; our vigilance about anti-Arab racism and gender issues in relation to the Zionist state; our vigilance about racism and gender issues in the U.S., must be strong and must emerge out of an ideology that connects raicsm and the downpression of women everywhere in order to be effective.

So, liberals and others ask, can we consider Hamas a partner for peace? The question is disturbing. When has the U.S. Government or the Zionist state ever been partners for peace? In fact, any attempts at parity in negotiating peace have been squelched by the U.S., not supported. The question itself reveals identification with power.

It's helpful to watch how we react to this development while its meaning unfolds over time. In that way, as we peel away more and more layers of our own often unacknowledged to ourselves, identification with that which we fight against, then we get closer to reconfiguring our work- we become more honest, learn more about those we assume to be our 'enemies' by understanding who they are in historical context and from their perspectives. We can ask questions that are not mired in party affiliation (which means so many different things to party members), but that expose the politics of those in power in relation to the issues undergirding the war- violence against nature, privitization of resources, violence against women, against racialized peoples- issues that are critical to the survival of this planet.

Nationalism is itself a kind of religion and in many contexts reifies women as mothers of the nation in a 'religious' way. Here, women represent the purity and wholeness of the nation. So elevated, they deserve to be fed- and they are. So elevated, they are redeemed. Strong political women throughout the world, here and abroad, support this agenda as feminist. The often contradictory meanings of women's liberation in a range of geographic contexts is inevitable at this particular historical juncture given the range of circumstances women face. We all are included in the dictum that we must wage peace, not war.

Bush's reaction to the Hamas success makes it appear as though he stands over and against Hamas. But my fear is that Bush's policies further entrench the more conservative elements of Hamas (which has been the case historically since the U.S. armed Hamas), and that the Hamas success will further validate Bush's religious fundamentalism. They are the head and tail of the same beast when looked at in a large categorical way.

It simply cannot serve humankind to continue the racialized, sexualized, hierarchical statist system that governs societies in our era. There can be no two state solution, no partners for peace, in this colonialist context. But there can be, as we transition to a new form of governing ourselves, equal representation by all ethnic/religious/racial groups and genders in a single governing body in the region- what some call a secular 'democratic' form of governance. The governing principle would be the highest good of all, including the land and our precious air, water, wood and animals.

technorati tags: isreal, hamas, palestine, women, religion,politics

Blog Category:

Sacred text

On 09 Feb, 2006 By mpm

I love, I mean [love]{style="font-weight: bold;"}, getting my mind blown in seminary. This week is the week I get my mind blown in two different directions by approaches to sacred texts. I once wrote a ministry blog post on the bible (I promise, really, to do a ministry blog post in the next week, it's taken me a while to get back up to speed.) That post was about my own perspective on the text, and what good I think it is.

What's fascinating me now, is the amazingly complicated and convoluted process that happened over extraordinary periods of time to accomplish the book (and it's various versions) that I carry with me to class. I've pretty much always understood that it wasn't really a reasonable suggestion that the bible was inerrant. It's just now that I'm realizing how ridiculously unreasonable that suggestion is. I'm not even going to try and collapse 6 hours of classroom time about this subject into a blog post, but anyone who has, in any even half-serious way studied the bible, and any parts of the process of going from original manuscripts (which we do not have) to modern books, has to admit that it's just not possible for this to be so. Besides contradictions, blatant additions, subtractions and changes that have been systematically found to be missing in older manuscripts, the number of variants of text (providing the need for verse by verse analysis of the extant manuscripts,) translation issues (translation is by nature interpretation,) it is, in my view, extremely disingenuous to even suggest that the bible is inerrant. And it is unconscionable that people who went to seminary, and must have learned at least bits and pieces of this story get up in the pulpit, and point to the book, and say "God says..." There are a ton of fascinating and completely blatant examples (like the verse in I John that has a trinitarian declaration in the King James Version, that does not exist in early greek manuscripts.)

So the second direction of mind-blowing today is from my Jewish mysticism class, where I'm learning that for the most part, for Jews, as the Torah is the direct revelation from God to Moses, that it can't possibly mean just what it says - that there has to be more to it. Plus, engaging with the text in a questioning, even argumentative way, is a good thing. And, that anything anyone writes in terms of commentary on the Torah, etc., was within that revealed to Moses by God. (I am totally not doing this justice - perhaps in a few weeks I can do better.)

So you have two points of view: On one hand, the Christian (I think Protestant, actually, I think Catholics have a different approach) view, which starts with inerrancy (the text means what it says and says what it means, and you can't question it), and then moves inevitably (and rightly so) in the direction of critiquing that absurd view. In my opinion, this starting point and subsequent critical process reduces the richness, depth and meaning of the text, and it's abilities to speak to us about God. On the other hand, there is the Jewish view, which, in my opinion enhances the richness, depth and meaning of the text, and makes it more approachable, and increases its ability to speak to us about God. So which would I pick? I think it's obvious. It's not that I can accept, fully, the fundamental idea behind the Jewish notion of Torah as the direct revelation to Moses, but the overall approach is one that I think makes so much more sense. Unfortunately, we don't get to start again from scratch, but it's something to keep in mind.

technorati tags: bible, scripture, sacred, inerrancy, christians, jews, judaism, christianity

Blog Category:

My Datebook

On 07 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 2 Comments

I should be reading for a class, but my favorite procrastination technique, by far, is blogging. Be that as it may, I want you all to know that I am slowly, but surely, moving to luddite status. Gasp! You say "Michelle, a luddite? Never!"

Well, not to go too far out of my way to prove you wrong, I bought a 2006 datebook yesterday. I actually bought the datebook in the presence of a dear friend who was visiting me, who had bought a Palm Pilot the same year I did (he beat me by 6 months, because I was dilly-dallying about whether I'd buy a Palm or a Newton.) That was almost 10 years ago. So this is the first datebook I've owned in almost 10 years.

You are asking yourself why I bought this datebook. Well, the reason most of you use a datebook. You are scratching your heads now, I know it. I realized that, well, I really missed writing things in. I missed the ease of a quick jotted note. I missed the "penciling in" of tentative events. I missed the physicality of the book. Now that my schedule is so simple that I pretty much know what I'm doing in my head, I really don't need much more than a datebook. And I have decided that basically, if my schedule gets too complicated for a datebook, it's too complicated, and I need to simplify it. So a datebook it will always be.

I'm getting to the point where I like my technology inobtrusive, and really useful. I'm losing the desire for technology for it's own sake (really, I'll be OK, I promise) There was a time when keeping my schedule on a computerized device of some sort or another was necessary. But it is no longer, so why not ditch yet another technology for the simplicity of paper and pen? What a concept.

Then again, just ask my dorm-mate about what I said when she asked me to tell her about Apple's pending switch to Intel processors. (She said "Wow, you know a lot.") It will be a long road.

technorati tags: palmpilot, datebook, simplicity, schedule

Blog Category:

How I get my news now

On 03 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

As many of you know, I have a complicated relationship with the news. Frankly, I'm a news junkie, and I've tried various methods to cure my addiction. A while ago (2003), I did a cold-turkey - and didn't read the news, listen to the news, watch the news, etc. But that didn't last more than 6 months or so. I soon had my habit back, along with the obsession of obtaining a copy of the Sunday New York Times each week.

With the blog era, I slowly but surely obtained feeds of various different news sources, and then various political blogs, and kept up with all of that. Lately, I realized that I was suffering from that particular form of my addiction, and cleaned out my blogroll.

Sometimes, I listen to Democracy Now! online, which is a much better source of news than most. But it is [unrelentingly depressing]{style="font-weight: bold;"}. The news is depressing and Amy Goodman is depressing telling depressing news.

So, what's a news junkie to do to keep sane? Hearing depressing news from a young, smart, really funny dyke from Western Mass! Nothing is better. Rachel Maddow is my news junkie methadone. I should have listened to Cindy a lot sooner.

technorati tags: news, rachelmaddow

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Why flying isn't such a good idea

On 02 Feb, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

I'm really enjoying TreeHugger. Just the perfect combination of good new ideas, concrete (sometimes depressing) information, and hopefulness. Today they have a post on how taking an airplane uses an incredible amount of fuel. One transatlantic flight for a family of four results in twice the energy emissions as driving 12,000 miles, and is more than that family will generate in a year. So perhaps my plan to drive back to the east coast this summer isn't so crazed after all.

technorati tags: airplanes, travel, driving, trains, emissions, climate

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The mystic in me, where did it come from, and where is it going?

On 31 Jan, 2006 By mpm

I had a class today, where we were all going around the room, and the teachers had asked for a one word, or one phrase description of ourselves that would help them remember us. I said "I'm a mystic." Someone asked me once why I called myself a mystic. I had to think a minute or two. In that process, I realized that I came to that label not so much from a head space, but from a heart space, which is why I have a hard time sometimes explaining why I think I am one. But what's also true is that every time I read mystics and about mysticism, I feel affirmed (and it gets easier to explain to people.)

In 2004 my good friend Cindy and I co-led a summer service. Cindy introduced me to Rev. Tom Owen-Towle's concept of UUs as "free-thinking mystics with hands,"which, no matter my denomination, still fits me. I realize I've been a mystic for a long time, but I didn't recognize what it was. I've always been looking for God, looking to be with God, wanting to know God. It does feel pretty hard-wired in me, though. I looked for God when I was a 14 year old who wanted to be confirmed as a Presbyterian. I looked for God when I joined the Nazarenes. I looked for God in the Tao, in the Dharma, in the 7 Principles of UUism. I'm still looking for God. Sometimes I feel like my search for God is like that math problem about when will you get from point A to point B if you cover 1/2 the remaining distance each step? (The answer is never.) I get closer, and closer, but never quite manage to touch God (although, in a subject for a different blog entry, sometimes God touches me.)

Being a Protestant mystic in 2006 is kinda strange (although I'm getting the impression that it's not quite as strange as it might have been in 1906, or 1806.) I'm not sure I'm a very good mystic (but maybe that's also a subject for another entry.) And Protestantism (save the Anglicans and the Quakers) tried hard (and largely suceeded) to wipe mysticism and contemplative practice from their tradition. Thank Goddess some people are beginning to realize that wasn't such a good idea (took them long enough). So maybe I get to be part of the new trend. Who knows. Mystic bloggers, anyone?

technorati tags: mysticism, mystics, protestant, God

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The Shame of Earthsea

On 31 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

I just read a great essay by Pam Noles about, among other things, the adaptation of "A Legend of Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin by the SciFi channel last year. I read about this essay in BoingBoing, and there has been some interesting commentary on it.

It's really nice to read the perspective of another black woman sci-fi fan, there are so few of us. And she's a damn good writer, too.

technorati tags: sciencefiction, scifi, writing, race

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Science Fiction

Leaving Unitarian Universalism

On 30 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 8 Comments

I got a letter in the mail today. It's not really significant, on one level. On the other, it is very significant. What I got in the mail was the confirmation of the appointment I have with Section A of the Committee on Ministry of the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC), for what's called an "In-Care" interview. The meeting isn't until next year (2007), and there are steps to take beforehand. But it is the second step I've taken on the path to being ordained in UCC ministry (the first being joining New Spirit Community Church). I'm at the very beginning, but I'm also very cognizant of the fact that I have stepped off the path to UU ministry.

Some of you have read my piece about returning to Christianity. That path, that process, did not in any way preclude me from continuing on in UU ministry. In fact, there are plenty of UU Christians who are in ministry. So why am I leaving UUism?

There is basically only one reason, although that reason is multidimensional. The reason is this: where am I most likely to find a comfortable context (organizationally) to practice my ministry? No organization is going to be perfect, and if you know me, you know that I find it difficult when organizations don't walk their talk.

I'm a pretty unique person in a lot of ways. But I am, basically, an African American lesbian Christian mystic. UCC churches, like UU churches differ widely, and there are surely some in the UCC that would not want to call an African American, and there are surely many that would not want to call an out lesbian. I've been dealing with issues of race and sexuality for a long time now, and am pretty used to it. Unfortunately, the UUA has a fairly abysmal record of ordaining people of color into full time ministry, and I know that both race and class are still [huge]{style="font-weight: bold;"} issues in the UUA, issues that are not going away any time soon. The UCC is more ethnically diverse than the UUA, and I think they [get]{style="font-weight: bold;"} class much better than the UUA. But this doesn't mean I won't be involved in issues regarding race, class and sexuality - those are ever present. In the final analysis, it was being a Christian that was the pivot point. In all honesty, I didn't want to have to add the Christian battle, or the language of reverence battle, or the Jesus battle, to those other battles too. It just seemed like way too much to handle. There are few Christian-oriented or Christian-leaning UU congregations, and so it would not be likely that I'd be called to one. I didn't want to have to worry that if I used the "G" word, or the "J" word too much in "worship" (can't really use that word either) I'd offend someone. It felt too constraining. I also didn't want to be in yet another of what I have percieved to be a somewhat aggrieved (though persistant and loyal) minority within the UUA.

I hope this doesn't come across as either dismissive or whiny. My UU congregation is a community that was very important to my own journey, and one I treasure to this day. I am very thankful that there are communities like it in the world - that embrace diversity of spiritual paths, and provide community for all of that diversity. I hope that in my own ministry, in whatever form it takes, I'll be able to balance the respect of religious diversity, the desire to provide a safe space for people who've been hurt by religion and a space for people to worship in the ways that work for them. It's going to be an interesting journey, for sure, but it's a different path than I'd expected to begin with.

technorati tags: ucc, ministry, ordination, uu

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Uncategorized

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The virtual meets the real (or is it the real meets the virtual)

On 30 Jan, 2006 By mpm

Two "events" (I use the term lightly) occured in that world of ones and zeros this week that are worth a mention. I bet that most of you won't care a whole lot one way or the other about either of these, but they are both really interesting object lessons in how the digital world and the real live flesh and blood world interact in very interesting ways.

The first issue is that Wikipedia, that wonderful collaboratively edited on-line encyclopedia, which has been shown to rival (if not completely outshine) it's traditional competitors in terms of bredth, depth and accuracy, has blocked a group of IP addresses (read: specific computers) from making changes to Wikipedia. What IP addresses are those, you might wonder? Are they in China? Are they attached to some particularly annoying 14 year old boys that like to vandalize entries? Nope. They are attached to the US Congressional offices. Yes, you read me correctly. Apparently, a number of congressional staffers have been caught egregiously changing their congresperson's bio, to be completely favorable, and vandalizing others. Sigh. I thought we were all adults. Oh, nevermind.

The second issue is in the world of gaming, particularly what are called Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). There is one, I think it's the biggest (5.5 million players), called World of Warcraft (WoW.) Think elves and dwarves and swords and magic. I'm not giving it enough credit, but then I've never played it. Anyway, there has been lots of talk in the blogosphere (mostly in the part of the blogosphere I don't read) about their "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward LGBT folk. There is some interesting analysis about the policy in that link.

It is no surprise that not only the best (like Wikipedia itself, which is an amazing emergent creation of collaborative effort, as well as WoW, which is really an amazingly creative endeavor) but also the worst (silly behavior and discriminatory policies as mild examples) end up in anything that makes its way into the digital world. It is, after all, no matter what our intentions, still a reflection of all of what is human.

technorati tags: wikipedia, worldofwarcraft, virtual

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Web/Tech

Guest Bloggers

On 30 Jan, 2006 By mpm

I have some brilliant friends who will likely never blog (or at least aren't now.) So I thought it might be a good idea for me to provide them with a bit of an audience for their great stuff. So I'm going to blog for them. That is, they will email me their text, and I will post it for them, under their names. Expect the first of these guest bloggers soon, who will give us really good insight into the new issues around Palestine and Israel.

If you are one of my friends (old or new) who would like to guest blog, drop me an email.

Blog Category:

My Urban Persona

On 30 Jan, 2006 By mpm

I caught a glimpse of her yesterday, having gone into the the city (um, that's San Francisco) on BART (um, that's Bay Area Rapid Transit) My urban public persona is very different than my New England semi-rural persona. My urban persona is more distant (behind the iPod), wary, observant, with a little tough swagger, a bit aggressive on the edges. My New England persona is open, expectant and soft, completely non-aggressive. I had noticed that my early few forays into the city were a bit, well, painful, whereas this time, it felt kinda normal. And my urban persona almost missed the blooming rosemary bush!!

I grew up in an suburban context, with frequent forays into über-urban territory (I think Manhattan counts as über-urban,) and I lived in Cleveland for 6 years. That urban persona that I thought I'd left permanently behind is finding her way back. I just have to decide whether or not I like her.

technorati tags: city, persona, behavior

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Why the Puritans got hoisted on their own petard

On 25 Jan, 2006 By mpm

I heard a great talk this morning by Herbert Locke, who is a professor at University of Washington. He gave a great talk at the Earl Lectures titled "America and the Theocratic Vision: Why America is Not a Christian Nation (and, Pray God, Never Will Be)". It was a fantastic talk, which looked at the original failure to create a Christian nation by the Puritans.

He made a fascinating point, one which makes a whole lot of sense, and is a different perspective than I'd been thinking of this whole thing. My standard perspective about this is that we can't, and shouldn't be a Christian nation because all faiths (and people of no faith) need to be fully a part of and empowered in our society, etc. I'm sure he would agree with this perspective, but his approach was one that really speaks specifically to Christians, about Christians.

His point was that the Protestant concept of the "priesthood of all believers" that is, the idea that one is free to interpret scripture for oneself, and determine God's will for oneself, and not be dependent upon a hierarchy for interpretation of God's will, by necessity promotes democracy, and empowers dissent. The desire for theocracy by the Puritans was done in by the democratic nature of Protestantism, and the basic idea that everyone is free to interpret God's will for themselves. And that we should never, like they did, confuse the kingdom of God (which is always an ideal) with any nation state.

It's just the same now. Fundamentalists don't get to decide for everyone how to interpret scripture, or how to decide what God's will is, just like the Puritans didn't 300 years ago. And we cannot let them continue to proclaim the ridiculous notion that the U.S. is God's chosen instrument.

So perhaps again, that inherently democratic (and messy, and chaotic, and wondrous) process of each individual having the right to decide for themselves how to interpret God's manifestation in their own lives, will eventually hoist the fundamentalists on their own petard.

technorati tags: christianity, protestant, puritans, progressive, fundamentalists

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Why I love the Berkeley Bowl

On 25 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

For those of you who have lived in Berkeley, you know the Berkeley Bowl. I knew about it, but it was always so crowded, and impossible to find parking, that I avoided it. But then, one Monday morning at 10:00 (perfect time to go) I went shopping. And I was a happy camper. I finally found a way to get good, wholesome food without breaking the (at this point tiny little) bank, like I would by going to Whole Foods (commonly nicknamed whole paycheck, or whole checkbook).

There is an entry on Tree Hugger about an article on Alternet - which puts Whole Foods to the WalMart test: can an entry-level employee at Whole Foods afford to shop there, even with the discount? The answer is, of course, no.

It's nice to know that yes, Virginia, it is possible to get good wholesome food, at prices that won't make you broke. Farmer's markets, CSA programs, co-ops (I left the Pioneer Valley just in time for the River Valley Market coop to get going in Northampton) etc., provide a nice alternative to Whole Foods, which is, after all, simply another publicly traded company, and its major mission is to maximize profit for shareholders, not provide good, healthy, wholesome food at reasonable prices. Yes, they pay better than WalMart, but that's hardly saying much, and they remain ardently anti-union. It's nice to have alternatives.

technorati tags: organic, food, coops, berkeley, walmart

Blog Category:

Food

George W. Does Zork

On 24 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

Remember Zork? I can't even begin to think about how many hours my twenty-something self spent exploring the text-only adventure world of Zork. I loved Zork. Two friends independently sent me this hilarious post from defective yeti, which is a blog I have come across, but don't read regularly. It's hilarious. Even if you don't remember Zork, you'll still get a kick out of it. And, sadly, it's all too true.

Oval Office
You are standing inside a White House, having just 
been elected to the presidency 
of the United States. You knew Scalia 
would pull through for you.

There is a large desk here, along with a few 
chairs and couches. The presidential seal is 
in the middle of the room and there is a full-length 
mirror upon the wall.

What do you want to do now?

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> LOOK MIRROR
Self-reflection is not your strong suit.

> PET SEAL
It's not that kind of seal.

> EXAMINE CHAIRS
They are two several chairs arranged around the
 center of the room, along with two couches. 
Under one couch you find Clinton's shoes.

...

technorati tags: zork, georgew, bush, iraq

Blog Category:

Humor

Sweden gets it right

On 24 Jan, 2006 By mpm

In the five gazillion blog entries I will not catch up on, was this entry from Treehugger - a great environmental blog. It turns out, that Sweden's goal is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by the year 2020. Yay Sweden! If they can do it, we can do it. It takes conscious effort, a bit of money for research, and political will. None of which seems to be present in this country. I hope that perhaps Sweden's example will help. Unfortunately, my bet is that Sweden will be sitting pretty while we're living the end of oil nightmare.

technorati tags: energy, environment, oil, sweden

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William Shatner's Cabin, and where are Hector and Sunshine?

On 23 Jan, 2006 By mpm

I'm back from Baja, Mexico. It was a really great trip. The only complaint was that it was a lot colder than we expected - too cold and windy to swim, snorkle or kayak, and we had some really cold nights for sleeping. Otherwise, it was chock full of neat adventures, wonderful conversation, intersesting people, incredible desert landscape, and beautiful ocean views.

There were some funny spots. Here are two. The cabin we stayed in at this little, extremely funky, out of the way place called Camp Gecko. There will be more on Camp Gecko soon. But it turns out that the cabin we stayed in there is the cabin that William Shatner (yes, that William Shatner) stays in when he visits Bahia de los Angeles.

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

The second funny spot was this cactus thing we ran into, on the road to Camp Gecko, with tinsel, and a sign saying "Hector y Sunshine." We had a blast making up stories about Hector and Sunshine. Hard working bajacalifornian mechanic meets hippy dippy flower child escaping from the US in her beat up VW microbus, which breaks down ...\ {width="250" height="386"}\ Check my flickr page regularly for baja photos. It will take a while for me to upload and tag them, but they will be up.

technorati tags: baja, mexico, travel

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Uncategorized

Guerro Negro, Baja California Sur

On 17 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 4 Comments

I´m sitting in a small, cute cybercafe in the town of Guerro Negro, Baja. My friend and I just spent a wonderful day on the ocean, watching grey whales - very close. There will be pictures up on Flickr once I get back - we got some nice whale shots, and shots of some very interesting sights.

I'm at this moment struggling with a Spanish language keyboard, as we´ve been struggling with our muy broken Spanish for the last couple of days.

Our entrance into Mexico was anticlimactic, to say the least. I spent a great weekend in the San Bernadino Mountains, with good friends. It snowed - which I hadn't at all expected. I drove down to San Diego to pick up my traveling friend, who flew in from the east coast. The next day, we were prepared to wait in line to get into Mexico, given what we'd read - the Tijuana crossing is the busiest border crossing. But there was no line. Not only that - there was no person waiting to ask us all those crucial questions - like what we were carrying, how long we were going to stay, etc. We did see a rather long line of cars trying to get into the US. We'll see how that end of the equation goes on Sunday (when we re-enter the states.)

Tomorrow we head to Bahiá de los Angeles - on the Sea of Cortez side of the penninsula. I'm not exactly sure why, but I really enjoy this place, Baja. I´m not sure whether it's the desert landscape, the ocean, or what. But I've already decided I'll be back.

Blog Category:

Off to Mexico

On 12 Jan, 2006 By mpm

One of the things I'd hoped when I moved to California, is that I'd get to go to Mexico at least a couple of times. So, the first time is coming up now. I'm driving down to Southern California to stop in with some friends in the mountains, then picking another friend up at the San Diego airport, and then driving down about mid-way down the peninsula. I'm very much looking forward to it. No laptop, although I have been told my cell phone will work. But, that means likely not much (if any) blogging from Mexico. But I'll take lots of pictures, and post them at some point.

And I'm brushing up on my Spanish.

technorati tags: mexico, travel

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New Progressive Christian Resource

On 11 Jan, 2006 By mpm

As I've said before, I've nicknamed PSR "Progressive Christian Central." They are launching a new website in a couple of weeks, called Progressive Christian Witness. In their words it is

"an Internet-based initiative to strengthen progressive Christian voices in public discussion across America, especially in communities where the dominant voice is that of the religious right. Progressive voices proclaim the redemptive heritage of the Christian faith in a manner that is biblically and theologically responsible, ethically committed, and informed by current knowledge.\ \ [The Progressive Christian Witness]{style="font-style: italic;"} (PCW) presents a growing collection of resources that bring a progressive Christian perspective to significant issues in American life---for example, the authority of the Bible, gender and sexuality, government and economics, environmental stewardship, beginning and end of life ethical issues, and America's role in the world. PCW's Witness pages publish brief, theologically grounded articles on these topics."

You heard it here first. Given the fact that PSR has some of the best people talking, thinking and writing about these issues, this will be a fabulous resource. Clearly they are interested in living up to my nickname.

On a similar note, a group of progressive seminarians got together late last year (so long ago), and we're possibly cooking up something interesting. At least, we've got a blog roll. Look to the bar on the right. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

technorati tags: progressive, christian, blogs

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What part of the separation of church and state don't you understand?

On 09 Jan, 2006 By mpm

For reasons that escape me right at the moment, a while ago, I signed up a anonymous yahoo account to a Family Research Council mailing list. I hardly ever read my mail from this account, but happened to this morning, and was greeted by an email with this quote:

As the Indiana House of Representatives opens its 2006 session tomorrow, the first question facing lawmakers is to pray or not to pray in the name of Jesus. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton reaffirmed his November ruling that praying in the name of Jesus violated the high court's concoction of the "separation of church and state." The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by the Indiana branch of the ACLU. Several House members, Republican and Democrat, have said that if they are given the chance to open tomorrow's session they will defy the judge's order and open the session in Christian prayer. The Indiana House Speaker, Rep. Brian C. Bosma (R), who is challenging the federal court ruling, has said the session will be opened in prayer but that he will seek to abide by the judge's ruling pending the outcome of the challenge. It is important to note that the members of the clergy who open these sessions of the various legislatures are not employees of the state and are not paid by the state.\

There are a number of fascinating tidbits in this little paragraph. First off, the phrase "high court's concoction of the 'separation of church and state'." Um, I thought that was in the constitution. And the part about the clergy who open the sessions aren't "paid by the state." No, they aren't, but they are [praying the statehouse]{style="font-weight: bold;"}! Silly, me, that seems to me to suggest official sanction of Christianity. I have come to realize that it is the belief in exclusivity (we have the real truth, and no one else's truths are worth consideration) that is the main problem behind all of this stuff. I have a post about exclusivity percolating. Anyway, they certainly manage to win the "people who are out of their minds" award for the week.

technorati tags: politics, religion, indiana

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Alito's confirmation hearings start on Monday

On 04 Jan, 2006 By mpm

The Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito start on Monday. The American Bar Association has given him its highest rating for his qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court - which really is unquestionable. People For the American Way have a great report on Alito - very in depth. Interestingly enough, the prevailing question instead of abortion it seems will be presidential power, which Alito, apparently, is quite in favor of increased presidential power. This, more than anything, because of the wiretapping scandal, will probably make a huge difference in whether he gets confirmed. There are quite a number of conservative republicans that have serious problems with what's happened.

technorati tags: supremecourt, alito, senate

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Quiz Junkie strikes again

On 04 Jan, 2006 By mpm

Here's a quiz I couldn't resist taking, and posting, especially given the result! Thanks to Gina:

[Siddhartha Gautama]{style="font-size: 1.4em;"}\ You two would probably really get along!

Founder of Buddhism "All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?"

\ \ \

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people | | your age and gender:]{#comparisonarea} | | | | > +--------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | | > | ---------------------------- | You scored higher than 66% | | | > | ------------------------------ | on Intuitive | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > | | | | | > | ---------------------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > +--------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | | > | ---------------------------- | You scored higher than 50% | | | > | ------------------------------ | on Structured | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > | | | | | > | ---------------------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > +--------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | | > | ---------------------------- | You scored higher than 88% | | | > | ------------------------------ | on Mildness | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > | | | | | > | ---------------------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > +--------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | | > | ---------------------------- | You scored higher than 5% | | | > | ------------------------------ | on Traditional | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > | | | | | > | ---------------------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ------------ ----------------- | | | | > | ------------------------------ | | | | > | ----------------------- | | | | > +--------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | | > | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Link: The Religion Founder You Resemble Test written by Stinkbot on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

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Isn't it ironic?

On 03 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

You may, or may not, be aware of the censorship that Mainland China uses to restrict the access of its citizens to internet content - primarily content that is politically questionable (like issues relating to Tibet, Falung Gong, Taiwan, etc).

It turns out that some US companies, Microsoft among them, has been involved in helping the Chinese block these sites, or in censoring Chinese Bloggers. So a US company, hosted on US soil, which the Chinese are free to block, if they wish, are taking the initiative to take down controversial Chinese bloggers.

You might ask why would an American company, in the land of the free, home of the brave, help to censor content for the Chinese? In fact, if American companies stopped helping the Chinese, it would be quite likely that the Chinese would be unable to continue their practices - or at least it would be much more difficult.

The answer is, unfortunately quite obvious. China is a huge market, with huge potential. Anger them by not helping to censor their citizens, and you probably will lose that market. This is the ultimate in irony: market forces of capitalism helping to maintain a communist dictatorship.

And why should we care? In a capitalist system, making a profit is the only goal that matters. Democracy, freedom of speech, the pursuit of happiness, the greater good, the planet's health - are all secondary. You know which side most corporations will be on, when the rubber has to meet the road.

technorati tags: china, censorship, blogging, capitalism, communism, dictatorship, microsoft

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NSA Thing

On 02 Jan, 2006 By mpm With 1 Comments

I've been percolating a post on this whole internal US spying story for a while now, and I think it's time to just get it out of my head, and onto this blog.\ \ First off, I think it's one of those stories that's kinda easy to ignore, for some reason. I've not been especially captivated by it, and I've noticed in my varied conversation with friends, that it's not a common topic. Part of this is because, well, YAWN, it's not like we didn't know it's happened before. It's kinda like deja-vu all over again. Cointelpro, version 2.0.

But there are a couple of little tidbits that are important to discuss here. First off, there's the way in which Bush has been willing to act as if breaking the law didn't matter. The ways in which he and his supporters drag out 9/11, and "we're at war" to justify whatever it is they are doing. If we now add up what Bush & co has done in the name of 9/11, it begins to scare me. Here's the list:

invade Afghanistan
spy on Americans
round up and incarcerate people simply because they are suspicous
keep people imprisoned for years without trial or charge
torture prisoners, and subject them to abuse and humiliation
invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, based on false intelligence
shovel billions of dollars to the mercinary-industrial complex

I think if we'd seen this list 6 years ago, right when Clinton was being impeached for lying about a blow job, and told that the sitting president hasn't been impeached, we'd not even begin to believe it.

The second piece of this is technical. Remember that thing, called "Total Information Awareness" or TIA? It was a plan, put forth by John Poindexter (remember him?) to basically allow the US government, through technology, to monitor email and phone calls. Congress cut the funding for that program, amidst public outcry. But those kinds of efforts didn't die, and, in the end, it was technology like that proposed by TIA that is at the heart of this issue. Here's a quote from a great article on Ars Technica about this:

It is entirely possible that the NSA technology at issue here is some kind of high-volume, automated voice recognition and pattern matching system. Now, I don't at all believe that all international calls are or could be monitored with such a system, or anything like that. Rather, the NSA could very easily narrow down the amount of phone traffic that they'd have to a relatively small fraction of international calls with some smart filtering. First, they'd only monitor calls where one end of the connection is in a country of interest. Then, they'd only need the ability to do a roving random sample of a few seconds from each call in that already greatly narrowed pool of calls. As Zimmermann describes above, you monitor a few seconds of some fraction of the calls looking for "hits," and then you move on to another fraction. If a particular call generates a hit, then you zero in on it for further real-time analysis and possible human interception. All the calls can be recorded, cached, and further examined later for items that may have been overlooked in the real-time analysis.

Also, because of new technology, and the way calls and emails are routed, and increasingly voice traffic is carried over internet protocols, it will get easier and easier to do massive surviellance on US citizens.

technorati tags: nsa, spying, wiretap, scandal

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Rights and Responsibilities

On 02 Jan, 2006 By mpm

I remember always kind of bristling at that language - when you have rights, you have responsibilities. I think I thought it was too constraining, or something. I've come to realize that we should talk a lot more about the responsibilities that come with the rights we have.

We have a responsibility to use our right to vote, to vote.
Because we have a right to hire people, so that we can make money off of their labor, we have the responsibility to pay them a living wage.
We have a right to spend our money, and a responsibility to the earth in the way we spend it.
We have a right to freedom of speech, and a responsibility to use it in a way that harms no one.
We have a right to worship in any way we wish, and a responsibility to respect everyone else's right to worship, or not, in their own way.

We have been given these rights, and keeping them is a responsibility. We're on the slippery slope to losing them, possibly permanently. We can't take them for granted anymore. Time to wake up.

technorati tags: community, rights

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