tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post112804554925142117..comments2024-03-24T11:30:08.199-07:00Comments on Can you believe?: The original Johan Fredrik Maurer; and the ANSWER controversyJohan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1128624858187869362005-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:002005-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00Personally, I stayed away from the 9/24 march. Ea...Personally, I stayed away from the 9/24 march. Early in the war I attended one of these mass ANSWER-organized demonstrations and I was embarassed by it and decided not to go to such events anymore.<BR/><BR/>But I will admit that the numbers did impress the Washington media, which are mostly stanchly pro-war.<BR/><BR/>We in the faith community need to be better at expressing our faith as it relates to things such as wars.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1128586867674166152005-10-06T01:21:00.000-07:002005-10-06T01:21:00.000-07:00Paul -- thank you for the referral to your story o...Paul -- thank you for the referral to your story of that earlier demonstration. I'd meant earlier to add your site to my list; this kicked me over the edge.<BR/><BR/>I don't think the shoddiness of a demonstration negates its cautionary effect on the powers that be. Maybe they're just as afraid of elemental crowd chaos and general loss of legitimacy, as evidenced in inarticulate mass gatherings, as they are of tightly organized events where they know exactly who is in charge and have photos and dossiers on each one.<BR/><BR/>However, there is something to be said for the dignity and discipline of a genuine, pure expression of one heartfelt message. I loved being part of the Good Friday peace vigil on the Boston Common during the years I lived at Beacon Hill Friends House; that very visible event did have some of what you're speaking of.<BR/><BR/>In one of the big Portland demonstrations a couple of years ago, the informal ecumenical social-exorcism team that I was part of held a worship service on the sidewalk immediately in front of the Federal Building, as the other events took place in the park across the street, and the demonstrators paraded by us. Two of the ministers served communion, with some of Christ's blood spilled on the white tablecloth in remembrance of lives lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was moved by the sight of marchers breaking away from the very miscellaneous main events and coming to take spiritual nourishment from our table. (This despite the lack of a liturgical bone in my body.)<BR/>(<A HREF="http://static.flickr.com/12/18583404_49b6d55a18.jpg" REL="nofollow">Photo here</A>.)Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1128375851821120842005-10-03T14:44:00.000-07:002005-10-03T14:44:00.000-07:00Re participation in the demonstration, I often go ...Re participation in the demonstration, I often go to demonstrations out of duty, but usually come home embarassed at the shoddiness of the event, its lack of focus, discipline and coherent message. For rallying the convinced they may be OK, but for convincing the broader public, or even the political decisionmakers, I think they're usually impotent at best and counterproductive at worst. <BR/><BR/>I posted a story about another kind of mass demonstration that does exhibit the kind of Christian witness that we could make if only we took the time and effort to do so. <A>http://showerofblessings.blogspot.com/</A>Paul Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03483071863453025925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1128206979631575922005-10-01T15:49:00.000-07:002005-10-01T15:49:00.000-07:00More on Christianity and patriotism: I've just sta...More on Christianity and patriotism: I've just started reading a book by David Dark entitled <EM>The Gospel according to America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted Idea</EM>.<BR/><BR/>I knew this book was going to draw me in when I got to these paragraph before the book really even got started: <BR/><BR/>p. xii "Like many Americans, I find myself frightened by my own anger level and the fear that there isn't anything much anyone can do about it; that I'll keep being mad at so many people (some of whom I'll never actually meet) so much of the time. I worry that future generations might be even less capable of listening kindly to people with whom they disagree or of paying attention to a story of photographic image that invites them to view their world differently. I don't want them to inherit a militant ignorance that confuses anger for strength of character or the momentary silencing of somebody else with victory."<BR/><BR/>P. xiii "There is a call to embody a more comprehensive patriotism. Like discipleship, the practice of democracy is a widening of our capacities for moral awareness and an expnsion of our sphere of respect. If we have a steadily narrowing vision of people whom we're willing to accord respect or if the company we keep is slowly diminishing to include only the folks who've learned to pretend to agree with us, we can be assured that we're in danger of developing around ourselves a kind of death cult, a frightened, trigger-happy defensiveness that is neither godly nor, in the best sense, American."Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1128192004867593842005-10-01T11:40:00.000-07:002005-10-01T11:40:00.000-07:00Funny you should ask! Yesterday I just finished wr...Funny you should ask! Yesterday I just finished writing a review for <EM>Quaker Life</EM> of Ron Sider's new book, <EM>The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?</EM>. Although in this particular book he doesn't deal with nationalism, his thoughts are very pertinent. Among other things, Sider says that the North American evangelical community (Sider approvingly quotes John Stackhouse) lives in “perpetual adolescence.” Seriously inadequate concepts of salvation, conversion, and sin, and a consequent idolatry of individualism, have corrupted the evangelical witness.<BR/><BR/>It's much shorter than most of Sider's books, and is more like a provocative tract than a sober rehashing of all his previous theological work and Bible studies. Here's a sample: "“To say there is a crisis of disobedience in the evangelical world today is to dangerously understate the problem. Born-again Christians divorce at about the same rate as everyone else. Self-centered materialism is seducing evangelicals and rapidly destroying our earlier, slightly more generous giving. Only 6 percent of born-again Christians tithe. Born-again Christians justify and engage in sexual promiscuity (both premarital sex and adultery) at astonishing rates. Racism and perhaps physical abuse of wives seem to be worse in evangelical circles than elsewhere. This is scandalous behavior for people who claim to be born-again by the Holy Spirit and to enjoy the very presence of the Risen Lord in their lives.”<BR/><BR/>I get the feeling that this little book vents frustrations that have been building up for a while. There's a <EM>Christianity Today</EM> interview with Sider here: <A HREF="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/32.70.html" REL="nofollow">www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/32.70.html</A>.Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1128140740491501462005-09-30T21:25:00.000-07:002005-09-30T21:25:00.000-07:00Eight children in 12 years. Oh my. I give thanks t...Eight children in 12 years. Oh my. I give thanks to live in my generation.<BR/><BR/><I>As an evangelist, my biggest frustration not who is there, it is that so few evangelical Christians are visible among the demonstrators, witnessing enthusiastically for the Prince of Peace. I want to say to so many of the demonstrators, "Well, you're right, but do you know why?" Why don't more evangelists work this rich mission field?</I><BR/><BR/>So why don't they? Why do people get away with their idolatrous patriotism and call themselves Christians?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com