"Happy Are Those Who Dash Their Babies Against the Rock"

The blogosphere and right wing media are full of dire warnings of the inherent bloodlust of Islam. “Islam is the enemy!” these sites scream; not a misguided minority within the religion but the religion itself (check out renewamerica.com and associated links as an example).  When President Obama suggests that extreme Jihadists pervert Islam such opponents label him a dupe of stealth jihad or a traitor.

These voices will often cite the origins of Mohammed as a ‘war lord’, the violent expansion of Islam from his death to 750 CE, religious wars through the ages and the atrocities occurring now in the name of Islam by the fanatical few.  All these voices eventually will quote specific verses from the Koran, the holy book of Islam, which justify violence against “the infidel” or non-Muslims.  Such pundits would suggest that today’s 1.2 billion Muslims in the world are out to convert or kill you because of what is written in their holy book.

If the Muslim agenda as predicated by their scripture were to convert all non-believers or kill them, why in nations where they are a majority (currently 47) haven't they done so or aren't doing so now?

We should never dismiss the serious civil and religious oppression experienced in some of these same nations; neither should we dismiss violence committed against non-Muslim minorities during significant historic periods or that is occurring today (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Iran).  Communal violence continues to break out between religions also fueled by other factors than religion such as ethnic, economic and political conflict (India, Bosnia, Kosovo, Nigeria).

Yet non-Muslim visitors to Saudi Arabia or Yemen are not required to convert or die.  Although far from perfect, practical levels of coexistence with non-Muslims are found in such Muslim majority nations as Indonesia, Sierra Leon, Jordan and Turkey.    To suggest that all Muslims intend to impose their religion, if necessary by force, denies observation and ignores the diversity of theological opinion and interpretation of the Koran.  Islam is as diverse in practice and expression as the Protestant community in Christianity.

To assert a monolithic obedience to the shared writings of the Koran, in particular those texts which call for violence against non-Muslims, suggests that the adherents of a religion believe in and practice each and every word found in their sacred texts. 

Christians certainly don't.  We interpret, contextualize or ignore such texts as:

Happy are those who dash their babies against the rock!  (Psalm 137:9)

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ’Put your sword on your side, each of you!  Go back and forth from gate to gate through the camp, and each of your kill your brother, your friend and your neighbor’…and so you have brought a blessing on yourselves this day…(Exodus 32:27,29)

Prepare war…beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears… (Joel 3:9-10)

Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him. But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him keep alive for yourselves.  (Numbers 31:17-18)

….when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them.  Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.  (Deuteronomy 7:2)

But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and slaughter them in my presence…  (Luke 19:27)

It is not uncommon for followers of any religion with a sacred book to self-select verses of their sacred texts, often lifted out of context such as the above, to justify one’s point of view.  The Koran specifically forbids murder, violence against women and children, violence against innocents, suicide, the mutilation of the bodies of enemies in war and the killing of fellow Muslims.   Jihadist extremists will site a variety of verses in the Koran justifying violence against “the infidel” and ignore other verses in direct contradiction. 

Within recent history Muslim to Muslim violence far exceeds that perpetuated upon non-Muslim.  In his Pulitzer prize winning book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage 2006) Lawrence Wright describes the doctrine of "takfir" or “excommunication” developed by post World War II extremists in Egypt which categorizes behavior, ideology or dogma that negates one's status as a Muslim.  This doctrine justifies the true believer's taking of “excommunicated” life, including the collateral lives of associated innocents, which is in direct contradiction to the teaching of the Koran.  Wright suggests that such violent self-justification has raised the concerns of even the most conservative of Muslims and is held by only a tiny segment of the Islamic world.

Sacred texts can be twisted and turned to fit any agenda and have been throughout history in all religions with a sacred book.  It is not easy to hold in tension sacred writings in direct conflict with each other but that is what the faithful are often called to do.

How do faithful Jews makes sense of Psalm 145 when verse 8 reads, “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he had made” while verse 20 of the same Psalm reads “….but all the wicked he will destroy.”?

How does the Christian reconcile the crucifixion scene in the gospel of Matthew when the two bandits crucified at his right and left scorn and taunt Jesus along with the crowd (27:44) while at the same scene in the gospel of Luke one of the bandits mocks Jesus while the other confesses faith in him as the Son of God (Luke 23:42)?

Such sacred text quandaries are dealt with by study and interpretation, a very subjective process!  Approaching the text with assumptions seeking a justification it is guaranteed that an interpreter will find verses to fit their purpose.  It is evident that extremist Muslims have done this as a basis for the contemporary Jihadist movement.

Those who argue that Islam is an intentionally violent religion by citing only those verses of the Koran justifying that point of view are practicing this same self-selection. 

Recent military gains in Iraq and Afghanistan have been based in part on US and NATO troops providing security for the civilian populations of villages and cities from the intimidation of militant groups.  If “Islam is the enemy”…if all Muslims understand that they are charged by their Koran to convert or kill non-Muslims…why do we need to protect civilian Muslim populations from extremist Jihadists?  Unless of course ordinary folk, even in Iraq or Afghanistan, do not in fact share the same agenda, ideology or theology.

1.2 billion Muslims are not out to kill you.  Some of them are and they must be stopped of course.  Thank God we have men and women who are willing to do that. 

But to suggest that there is a global conspiracy by all Muslims to conquer the world by conversion or death by citing a selection of verses from the Koran only justifies an irrational fear.  A fear that fuels prejudice, suspicion and could lead to the oppression of law abiding Muslim citizens who have long rejected such a twisting of their faith.

Defining this conflict as a religious war is exactly what the Jihadist extremists want.

If we as a nation where to conclude that in fact “Islam is the enemy” we only have to look back to 1942 and what we did with Japanese American citizens to imagine  what we would begin to do with Muslim Americans.   And if we allow our paranoia to dictate our actions,” al-Qaeda won’t have to do a thing to destroy America.  We will have done it to ourselves.”  (Wright)

Under the Tree

Christmas began when my grandparents arrived.  Whether it was Indiana, New Jersey or California....all states in which I grew up as a kid.....and whether I was five or fifteen.....the arrival of Elmer and Loretta marked the real beginning of Christmas.

            It wasn't the presents they brought with them.  Grandma and Grandpa had lived a modest life; my grandfather selling hardware in New York City.  They lived in a rented apartment across the river in Northern New Jersey.  They weren't poor.  But it wasn't the things they brought with them that got us excited.

            My Grandmother Loretta was a reserved woman, quite proper.  When my brother Paul and I would get into a fight yelling "shut up" at each other, she would correct our manners saying "...don't say 'shut up' say 'be quiet'"    She was not a 'sit in the lap and cuddle' kind of grandmother.   Paul and I would take turns opening and dipping a tea bag into her cup of tea.   That was how we shared affection for Grandma Loretta.

            My Grandfather Elmer was the boisterous, extraverted energy of the family at the holidays.   He was hearing impaired and had one false eye due to injuries from World War II.   He was full of jokes and stories about his life.   He was the kind of person that could sit down at a bus stop full of strangers and leave five minutes later with a friend (kind of like my beloved Bonnie!).   Grandpa would play games, check out our toys and really pay attention to us kids.  

            What I remember most about their holiday stays with us was the laughter.   My Mom and Dad loved them dearly and so enjoyed their company.  Meal time was the sharing of good and special foods and laughter, lots of laughter.

            As I look back I can’t remember many of the presents I received as a child over the years but I will never forget my grandparents at Christmas time.

            It’s not what’s under the tree that makes Christmas morning. 

It’s the love shared around it that makes all the difference.

Speaking in Tongues

Speaking of Tongues

[Following a walk at Rancho San Antonio Regional Park on a Saturday morning….]

Urdu

Hindi

Tamil

Ethiopian

Eritrean

Somali

Russian

Chinese, multi dialects

Korean

Japanese

English, multi accents

Spanish

Israeli

German

Blue jay

Hummingbird

Sparrow

Magpie

Rooster

So many other tongues this set of ears can’t discern.

The sounds of the path herald that which we call have in common:

Life

Community

A journey

Place

Do those with earphones/buds drown out the cacophony to avoid, to retreat into their space or simply choose to fill their listening with music of their own?

One-way-or-the-other their technological isolation is loud and clear.

Beauty

Aristotle speaks of beauty as one of the essential truths.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder to be sure, a very subjective interpretation of a person, place or thing, event or experience.   Whether it be the elongated ear lobe of the Borneo head hunter or the multi-colored tattoo of the North American college student….the cave painting of a Neanderthal or a da Vinci statue….a ballet or a breakdance…..humans seek out, create and interpret beauty as they understand it.   Beauty informs and inspires.  Cultural patterns of beauty bind communities together from the stained glass windows of a cathedral to the majesty of the memorials of the Mall in Washington DC.  Beauty empowers our own creativity and passion.  As subjective and capricious it might be, beauty is an essential human value.

While visiting the de Young museum’s Post Impressionist exhibition in San Francisco the other day I was over whelmed in a beautiful moment.   Standing in awe of Vincent Van Gough’s “Starry Night” with audio guide earphones on, the art director’s voice describing the work was backed with a recording of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune”.  Following her words, the recording went on for a couple of minutes until this classical masterpiece concluded.

Out of the blue I found myself in tears.  I was stunned.  I couldn’t move.

It wasn’t a cognitive realization.  I wasn’t thinking about Van Gough’s life and intent as represented in this painting of a starry sky above the Sienn in Paris.  I wasn’t thinking about Debussy as his passion to find peace with nature while enduring such a troubled life.  In fact, I wasn’t thinking at all.  For a transcendent moment I was lifted out of myself; words fail me here. 

How is it that some paint on canvas or some recorded musical notes, both 120 years old, can do this?  Of course, they aren’t ‘doing’ a thing.   It is what I the interpreter bring to the moment that opens such a door.   I am sure thousands of others had stood at the same place that day and listened to the same music and had a variety of their own experiences…or not. 

Yet for me at the moment, for whatever reason or unconscious agenda, I encountered something greater than myself within myself, something very human and very real.   Beauty.

Now that I have time to reflect I can put all sorts of words to this moment.  Creative transcendence is what I understand as a God moment; one would expect a preacher to say such things!  And yet I don’t want to make too much of it other than to celebrate a moment of beauty.

In so doing it gives me a hunger to experience more!

All They Understand

Following a successful breakup of an al-Qaeda cell in Albania by the CIA, on August 6, 2001, Mohammed al-Zawahiri, second in command of al-Qaeda to Osama bin Laden, wrote a veiled threat in the London newspaper Al Hayat in reference to their planned attacks on the American homeland;

“We are interested in briefly telling the Americans that their message has been received and that the response, which we hope they will read carefully, is being prepared, because, with God’s help, we will write it in a language that they understand.”  (Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Vintage, 2006, pp. 305-306)

What was it that we were supposed to “understand”?   Was al-Qaeda suggesting that the violence of 9/11 would defeat or intimidate the United States of America?  Were we to “understand” the power of revenge for their perceived retribution to violence against their notion of the Islamic world?

Contrast this to the assertion made in David Limbaugh’s # 1 bestselling book Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of  President Barack Obama (Regnery Press, 2010) that President Obama’s order to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and end the CIA’s program of secret prisons and rendition was ”appeasing” the enemy and threatening the security of the United States.   Limbaugh writes of the terrorists, “The only thing they understand is strength.”

What are our enemies supposed to “understand” about the American use of vengeance and retribution?

We’ve heard this language many times before.

During the Vietnam War it was suggested that we could bomb the Communists to the peace table and submission because “the only thing they understand is strength”.  It is estimated that the United States killed 2 million South East Asians during that decade of conflict.   The North Vietnamese won the war none-the-less.  What was it about our strength they did not “understand”?

Hitler unleashed a blitz of bombing on England and the city of London early in World War II convinced that such terror would force Britain to capitulate.  In spite of over 43,000 deaths it did just the opposite, galvanizing Allied resistance to Germany and the eventual destruction of the Third Reich.    Their ‘finest hour’ in Churchill’s words came because they refused to “understand strength”.

In an interview at NATO headquarters, asked if measures used successfully in Iraq would be applicable in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus said “As I said in Iraq when I was the commander there: you don't end an industrial-strength insurgency by killing or capturing all the bad guys.  You have to kill, capture -- or turn -- the bad guys. And that means reintegration and reconciliation." (NPR 09.14.10)   Petraeus was the architect of the strategy that helped to create the Sunni Awaking movement and the Sons of Iraq program that paid tribal leaders and insurgents to govern and secure there own areas against outside terrorist forces.   This strategy has led to a decrease in violence against US forces, an increase in Iraqi political self-sufficiency and an official end to US combat operations there.   Petraeus suggested it was not easy to cooperate with “those with our blood on their hands” but that it was the best means to bring resolution and progress.

Is General Petraeus an “appeaser” because he found a way within the cultural traditions of his Iraqi enemy to “buy off” and redirect their efforts rather than try to kill them all?  In the NPR interview the General insisted that military action was essential but that it was not the only means necessary for peace.  Is such reason weakness?

In too many instances in history the assertion of power alone has resulted not in defeat but in emboldening the determination and perseverance of those on the other end of conflict.  Centuries ago, the early Christian movement thrived under the terror of state sponsored persecutions.  The United States Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and ‘60s resulted in the legislation of Voting Rights and the end of official segregation in spite of lynching, bombings, assassinations and state sponsored intimidation.  The Iron Curtain of Soviet Communism fell without a shot being fired in 1990 after decades of the oppression and dictatorship of its “strength”.    

It is fear and anger that drive such a notion as “they only understand strength”.  Certainly we need to defend ourselves against those determined to harm us.  But whether the “they” are Native American ‘Indians’ in the 1870’s, or Japanese Imperial forces during WWII or Jihadist terrorists today, peace and security doesn’t just come when you’ve killed enough bad guys.    Our enemies understand many, many other things besides what we call “strength”.   We increase our options for success in conflict when we take the time to learn and listen what those other things might be. 

Grandma and the 3 Year Old

Well into her 90’s about all grandma can do is sit in a recliner all day long watching TV occasionally shuffling to the kitchen for a meal.   The family has provided for daily in-home care around the clock.  Yet there are occasions when the helpers call in sick or have a car break down.   Such was the case today and it couldn’t come at a worse time.

Dinner-time was late.   The kids were crabby, one with a slight fever.  Everyone had to pitch in to get the food on the table.  As soon as you opened the front door you could smell it.  Grandma had had an accident in her recliner and needed a full change of clothes and a wash.  

Son has been in this scenario way too many times.  The rest of the family lives quite a distance away and son has taken it upon himself to oversee his aging mother’s care.

Somewhere in the scheme of things children aren’t supposed to change their parent’s diapers or see them naked (Genesis, Leviticus) let alone wash them clean after a toilet accident.  Even when you don’t feel it, even when the tension is so great you can taste it in your mouth, compassion wins out in loving families.  And every now and then loving sons and daughters are some how able to marshal the patience to give their parents the dignity they deserve.

God’s love is best described by the Greek word ‘agape’ which can be defined as “love whose aim is the welfare of another” even at the cost to one’s self.  When we humans love in such a manner God is with us and we are with God.

After she was all cleaned up and joined the family at the head of the table for the make-shift dinner, the three year old with a fever came over to offer his great-grandmother a Kleenex for a runny nose and tenderly asked, “Are you sick Grandma?  Are you OK?” as he patted her on the hand.  She responded, “Thank you for the tissue, Honey, I am fine…”

And in heaven the angels sang for that little boy, for that loving son and his family and for that aged matriarch.  For all of our sophistication, traditions and confusions the only real way we can talk about divinity is to talk about love.  God is love.

Don't Trust the Needle!

“Don’t trust the needle!”

This admonition is significant for potters.

Although ceramic art and production can be found throughout history wherever on earth one finds clay (which is just about everywhere!) the Chinese were the first to bring it to perfection.   Ceramic functional ware can be found as early as 9,500 BCE in China. The Koreans brought their expertise to pottery after periods of slavery to the Chinese.  The Japanese added their own brilliance to the craft appropriating it when they enslaved Koreans.   But the roots of Asian ceramic arts supremacy belong to China.

Using wood and coal as their primary source of fuel, Chinese kilns reached temperatures well over 2,000 degrees (F).  This allowed the development of fine porcelain clays and extraordinary glaze techniques in their ceramic production.   Pottery masters were able to judge the kiln’s temperature and atmosphere after years of patient observance.  The color and ‘life’ of a kiln’s flame could tell ancient potters all they needed to know about the stages of firing pottery pieces that were so strong they can still be viewed in museums today.

Potters use a variety of tools now to judge temperature and atmosphere in a kiln.  Computers analyze sensors instantly adjusting fuel and air ratios for the correct results.  Pyrometric cones of material formulated to melt at exact temperatures are placed throughout modern kilns to judge temperature, some placed in triggering devices to turn off kilns when the desired temperature is reached.   Pyrometric instruments read interior kiln temperatures through long probes that are wired to external monitors such as needle or digital displays.

Such technology is very helpful to modern industrial and artistic ceramicists, to be sure.   Yet for the contemporary art potter too much dependence on technology is not a good thing.  In our ‘screen centric culture’ it is all too easy for a potter to be transfixed to the display screen read-out via needle or number and lose touch with the firing itself.

In our recent wood firing at the Canyon Creek Ranch Pottery, the Pyrometric display registered one temperature while the Pyrometric cones below it were melting at a designated temperature 100 degrees more than the instrument’s ratings.  Fortunately our firing master checked both and found the discrepancy. If he hadn’t we could have fired that portion of the kiln so high as to run the glazes right off the pieces!  We yelled out together, ‘Don’t trust the needle!” even though the display we were using was digital!  We had learned this lesson many, many time previously in older kilns while using a needle display.

The greatest potters in history used experience, eyesight and intuition to calibrate their artistry with fire.  When we get too dependent on the display screen of our new technology we can forget that the process is all about paying attention to the process of transformation.

Do You Remember Baseball?

Do your remember your first Major League Baseball game?  There is something about the events of the San Francisco Giants winning their first World Series that pulls their fans back to the past.  Since November 1^st I’ve heard all sorts of stories about victories, frustrations, heroes and failures of the team and what that meant at the time.

While living in Fort Wayne, Indiana my father and a few of his buddies took their sons to Chicago to see the Giants play the Cubs.  I was only eight years old so my memory is rather hazy about that day. 

 It was August 20^th, 1960, a Saturday day game at Wrigley Field that began at 1:10pm.  We sat on the third base side just past the visitor’s dug out.  The Giants would lose the game 9-5.  With no men on and two outs, Orlando Cepada would hit a home run in the third inning against Chicago’s Moe Drabowski.  The Giant’s pitcher Sam Jones wouldn’t make it out of the fourth inning, giving up 6 runs. Willie May would go 0 for 3, but hit a sacrifice fly to get an RBI.  The game lasted 2 hours and 46 minutes. 

But I was only eight years old so my memory is a little hazy.

In the 1980’s and 90’s while living in Reno and Fresno our sons were young.  We would travel four hours each way on a Saturday to see a game a Candlestick.  The games would rarely have more than 15,000 in attendance.  Our boys insisted on getting there just as the doors opened so they could shag fly balls during bating practice and beg for autographs from the team.  We’d stay until the last out whether it meant freezing in the cold fog of a night game or getting back home at an ungodly hour before I would preach on Sunday.  Each boy would sit on either side of me.   One of my fondest memories is having arms around them both as we watched a game.

I tear up thinking about what such a victory means to the other devoted fans with which I share a life; my 86-year-old father or my dear friend with terminal cancer.   I think of my father-in-law, a San Francisco native dead now 3 years, or my best seminary buddy who died two years ago, with whom I went to many an Angles or Dodgers game (because we had no other choice in Southern California!).   I’d like to think that Don and Bob had the best seats in the house to watch the series up there in heaven!

A World Series victory will bring millions of dollars to the City, the Team and the Players, to be sure.  To the community of supporters, many of them life long, the value of such a title isn’t about dollars at all but the memories of laughter and tears, hopes and defeats shared with kindred spirits and those we love.

It’s about the memories.

It’s about the stories.

It’s amazing how the bitter pain of 1962, 1989 and 2002 just doesn’t seem so bad!

August 29, 2010 - New Camaldolese Hermitage, Big Sur, CA

The answer to the priest's excellent rhetorical question the other day came to me at 5:30am the next:
The deepest longing of my heart is to say something that matters.
To say something that makes a positive difference in a person's life or in the world is my deepest longing. It has been since I was a kid. This is God's calling in my life whether in public speaking, writing or art. I am always trying to say something that matters.

It is ironic that such clarity about speech should come in the middle of a silent retreat? Not really, I've been writing like mad. One of the places my mind drifts to during meditation is what pottery project I have next. I can't wait to preach again.

After six days of not speaking a word to another person, other than hymns or prayers chanted in worship, my first spoken encounter with another retreatant occurred this morning. In our tiny common kitchen, a fellow pilgrim whispered with some concern as she opened the refrigerator, "Are we out of butter?" I answered reflexively, "No, its right here..." and pointed to where she could find it. That's the longest conversation I have had in six days! I think we both felt a little sheepish about the exchange having been so very good at silence for so long and not wanting to disturb anyone else. But by God, we found the butter and when you're living on Spartan rations butter counts for a lot!
D. T. Niles the famous South Indian preacher once said, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find the bread." Speaking our truth in love may be one of the most significant ways we live out our faith, whether in our family relationships, at school or workplace, in the church or in the nation.
Surrounded by the noise of our society, bombarded with stimulus and distraction, a little silence every now and then can remind us of how important it is to speak our truth in love.