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My daughter, Tasha, the Harry Potter devotee, is concerned that I remind all readers of my blog that advanced orders for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince must be in by Saturday (at least for Borders in the United States).

For all those in the San Diego area, we plan to be at the Borders in Mission Valley throughout the evening of Friday, July 15th in anticipation of receiving our copies at 12:00 midnight and then read throughout the night. Among planned activities, Tasha is searching for someone to read via phone the first pages from earlier time zones -- kind of like the watch for Y2K! Please plan to come and join us!!!

Posted by johnwright at 9:09 PM | Comments (2)

We arrived home yesterday about 12:00 pm after 29 straight hours in the van (with small breaks). It was a wonderful trip. I lost track of the goings-on in Indianapolis while on the road. When I came back, Kevin Modesto, elder,church-member, friend, met me as I ran to campus to get some Inter-Library Loan books with news of the General Superintendency news. I've been chewing this over since then. Here's my nickel analysis, for what it's worth.

First, there is a trend to see the primary action of the Church of the Nazarene as local. Two persons rejected the General Superintendency -- one after election; one right before election. These two rejections of general church leadership came out of deeper commitments to local missions of each person for the church. The General Superintendency is seen as an administrative position "out of touch" of where the real work is going on, rather than a means of guarding the church's catholicity in mission. The travel, stress, and strain of the job, and its minimal actual authority make the General Superintendency an unattractive position. Additionally, any work done must be done as a council, not as an individual. Thus the ability to conduct any particular action is only moral and the power of appointment. Because various congregations and departments have come to be seens as "franchises" to be motivated by the corporate board, one can live with less hassles and pursue one's own mission as members of the franchises. In other words, the "growth" ideology put forth by the past Board of General Superintendents has undercut the importance of the office itself.

Second, the Church of the Nazarene has become sufficiently large that such elections are very difficult to implement. No one knows who really would be a good General Superintendent -- though pretty good ideas exist concerning who wouldn't serve well in the office. Although non-American members outnumber American members, the leaders in these areas are not networked geographically, linguistically, and culturally as are the United States members, particularly the members in the "red states". Thus, I believe that the assembly wanted to elect a non-American to the office, but were unable once the Brazilian pastor withdrew his name. No one knew anyone else. The numbers of ballots became very large and the deadline of the Assembly, flights home, etc, became very near. The Assembly's largest voting block returned to what they knew and whom they knew and were most like themselves -- white, middlewestern, heavy American religious-right leanings seeking to establish a white, Protestant Christendom model in the United States based upon "personal conversions" and "powerful experiences of the Spirit". By electing a woman they could believe that they had widened the church's diversity (and in a very limited sense, they are right), but not really face the problem of the limited perspective of the general leadership. By electing J. K. Warrick, they elected the second pastor from the same church -- Olathe College Church of the Nazarene -- that has been at the center of Nazarene identification with the religious right in the past 40 years. Warrick himself actively worked for an amendment to the Kansas Constitution about same-sex marriages, often quoted in papers with inflammatory speech about homosexuality that do not represent the more nuanced position of the church.

It is my impression, then, that the General Assembly elected two of the most revivalistic, non-catholic, religious right members of the church, deeply embedded in the American evangelical political project of an autonomous, privately moral Christian individual who makes "Christian choices" and a more generic public morality to be implemented by the nation-state in return for support of the agenda of that nation-state. What this means for the internationalization of the Church of the Nazarene is not promising. Most likely it means that we will continue to export "personal conversion experiences" via the Jesus film, no catechesis, and control of funding, decisions, and economics by an American-based business pragmaticism.

One final comment. It is interesting to compare the recent papal elections with these elections. Neither Warrick nor Gunter has a Masters degree from a Nazarene institution. Gunter's masters is in education, not theology. Neither one has any deep engagement with the Christian tradition, except in the very limited, culturally accomodated form that they have experienced within their evangelical subculture. Obviously, wisdom is not sought from the life of the church through the ages in the Church of the Nazarene, but in power of personality and ability to advocate an agenda from the position of power. One the other hand, Benedict XVI is a very learned man, and while conservative, conservative from within the Christian tradition, not conservative from within the American tradition. Thus, when Benedict speaks, he speaks from within a tradition that he can acknowledge, own, and re-iterate; the tradition that forms the leadership in the Church of the Nazarene is unacknowledged, supposedly subjective and "biblical", but in actuality, confined to a very tenuous locality of time and culture. In other words, the leadership reflects the same lack of catholicity that made the other two persons turn down the position, not accept it.

Unless a wider Christian perspective is soon formed in the leadership of the Church of the Nazarene, both geographically and throughout time, past and future, this ruled order will fragment into national bodies with basic congregational decisions.

Tomorrow I'll try and add some comments on the legislative decisions made by the assembly.

Posted by johnwright at 8:31 PM | Comments (6)

After a three hour hiatus at a rest area outside of Needles, Arizona, we made it home by noon today, only to find our internet service down. I'll get the timing better next week!

This week we need to look through the rest of Acts 3, Acts 3:11-26, Peter's second speech in Acts, this one after the healing of the lame man. A helpful approach may be to compare and contrast this sermon with that in Acts 2, both in terms of the occasion and its content.

The passage can be divided into

(1) v. 11-12: The occasion: What happens as a result of the man's healing? How does this provide Peter an "in" to address the audience? Who is the audience?

(2) vv. 13-18: An accusation: How does Peter speak to this group? Why? What is the healing of the man show in relationship to their previous actions?

(3) vv. 19-26: Call to Repentance: What does "repentance" and "conversion" entail here? What will be the results of their repentance, for them and for all things? Why must this repentance begin with them?

As you reflect together about this episode, what are you noticing about the beginnings of the church that you have been pulled into by the grace of God? What is repentance, conversion, and faith for you as well? What are the ways that we can be a "blessing" to all nations as well?

Enjoy the evenings! I'm looking foward to seeing everyone soon!

Posted by johnwright at 3:28 PM | Comments (1)

I've withdrawn to my room after the three days here in Indianapolis. The highlight of the day had to be meeting with our Mid-City folk after this afternoon's service -- the Zumwalts, Kelly Tirrill, Brian Becker, Cheryl LaRue. As I process today's services after the fact, I experience a certain melancholy. It seems that the Church of the Nazarene at the level of its highest leadership is "trying" -- in at least two different ways.

First, the Church is trying -- trying to be Christian in the most profound sense of the word in its witness and mission. The Apostles Creed was confessed in this morning service; the Lord's Supper was attempted to have been celebrated. Jim Bond's morning sermon was by far the most faithful of the weekend. He spoke from Matthew 16, Peter's confession, with its call to self-denial, that Dr. Bond linked with the cleansing of inward sin (not exactly his words) that is necessary in the Christian life. One profound phrase that he gave, that in some way summed up his message, "Holiness must begin with taking into account the hard words of Jesus." For the first time in the weekend, rather than "experience of the Spirit" being central for the life of the church -- a sort of existential experiential reorientation of empowerment, Dr. Bond held up the Christological center of the faith. Jim ended his sermon by speaking of a Christological-type of obedience witnessed amidst the church in Ethiopia, a persecuted church. As a token of the service, book marks were passed out with a chalice and bread and a towel. We will be bringing them home to Mid-City as a token of our solidarity with the Church of the Nazarene throughout the world.

Other points were interesting in the two services of the day. This morning's prayer asked for forgiveness and cleansing from any racism, as well as acknowledging the horrors of war, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq. While it was not acknowledged that the United States was the aggressor in these wars, the congregation was led to pray for peace. Finally, tonight it was announced that the Church of the Nazarene has officially opened in Iraq. After the service, I was able to get the card of the main person in charge of church planting there, so that we might directly get food and medicine to Iraq as a witness of God's kingdom amidst the atrocities being engaged within by the Iraqi resistance and the United States occupational army.

Yet the day also showed how "trying" the Church of the Nazarene is --it can be "trying" to maintain faithfulness to this church, despite its good intentions. First, the morning service was a suburban white mega-church service. There were only 4 people of color on the platform; it was entirely in English. The music was white, generic evangelical therapy with some 20th century hymns. I later found out that three of the persons of color were there at the request of Dr. Bond for the communion service -- to stand at the Table with seven others. Yet I heard that even this was controversial -- some leadership did not want any persons of color on the platform. Tonight's service was little better for signing the catholicity of the church in today's world. All was in English; only 2 on the platform were of color -- one who prayed whose native tongue was not in English. The sermon by Talmage Johnson was a long, long rendition of the white man's burden in which it was obvious, as my wife Kathy said, that those in the congregation were very glad to send people to those non-American parts of the world in order that people everywhere might be "saved", but that those seated around us wanted no personal contact with such people at all. The announcement of Iraq, in which it was acknowledge that "military action is not the solution, Jesus is not the solution", nonetheless seemed to be received by the congregation in a way that (and this is my subjective interpreation) seemed to say, Isn't it great that Iraq has opened to the Church of the Nazarene as its 150th country -- and never was the military occupation and destruction of the people explicitly tied to the United States. It almost seemed implied that this was the good result of the illegal invasion and occupation. It seemed that the Church leadership (with no one except people from North America on the committee for the services) is determined to keep the white, suburban, Anglo-American culture as central within what the church understands it witness to be.

Even in those things that were attempted to sustain the catholicity of the church's witness, the leadership has left catholicity so far behind that they don't have basic competency in the practices to signify the church's catholicity. The Apostle's Creed dropped out the "he descended into hell" phrase, and in its public recitation (although not in the written version), they dropped "catholic" out of "one, holy, catholic church". As much as I love and respect Jim Bond, whose witness inspires me, the Lord's Supper was not a legitimate sacrament. He paraphrased the call to the Table from the Manual, but offered no Eucharistic prayer -- no anamesis (remembrance), no words of institution (on the night our Lord was betrayed), no epiclesis (calling the Spirit to sanctify the elements and the congregation). Instead, he actually asked the congregation to break the horrible little wafers on the sealed juice cups to see their own self-denial in the breaking of these wafers. The Eucharistic remembrance of Jesus received an anthropological focus for our self-denial rather than a re-membering of the body of Christ in the world.

So the church leadership truly wants to be catholic Christian, but ultimately is entrapped within its American cultural commitments and does not have recourse to the underlying language to sustain the witness that it desires -- they have forgotten much in their rush to win the world for Jesus (who seems to be a very American Jesus). Rather than the body of Christ physically present in the world as a sign of God's present-and-to-come kingdom, the general Church of the Nazarene seems to want to peddle certain types of intense personal experience, initiated by skilled incubationists of experience. The great promise of the church is that it is trying to be Christian; its great bane, for which we must all repent for we are they, is its loss of memory of basic language and practices that this entails.

Yes, a trying day.

Tomorrow morning we get up and leave at 8:00 am to begin the trek home.

Posted by johnwright at 5:47 PM | Comments (3)

For those who might not know, the historical origins of Nazarene General Assemblies are found within an 18th century practice of John Wesley's methodists. Annual Conferences were held to have the lay preachers and class leaders and leadership of the whole Methodist movement meet together to review their teaching, attend to any organizational problems, and any disciplinary issues.

Such meetings had become part -- though I don't know the precise history -- of Christian monastic movements. I think that the Franciscans, for instance, developed such a practice. I believe that such meetings continue today among Christian "religious" -- those who live under monastic disciplines -- today within the church catholic.

Of course, no one here knows this historical connection. But the form of the meetings, the design established by our discipline, the Manual, make it that certain things happen. While attention often goes on concerning the formal events of the Assembly, the informal dynamics are probably more important.

Yesterday I just participated in these informal dynamics, very thankfully. One of the effects of living so intensely locally on the west coast has been that my previous "life" in the midwest and here in Indiana means that these long term relationships, though very formative for me, have no continual, daily form. It can tempt me to deny the personal contingency that my life is -- God's providence in enfolding my life in the church when I didn't even know what was going on.

So, there were many conversations, a couple planned, a couple unplanned. There are those who were once my students, no faithful disciples at seminary or in ministry. There were people, like Ed and Carmen Batemen from South Bend First Church. There was Ron and Shirley Lush -- my pastor in college, who counseled Kathy and I in preparation for ministry. There was Joe and Doris Moses, who took me on choir trips from my local congregation to various churches out east. There are friends who work hard for common ecclesial witnesses, such as Brian Postlewaite and Steve Green. I ran into Jerry and Margaret with whom I ministered in Winamac. I was deeply moved by their thanksgiving, a decade later, for some of my time with them, even things at the time that they did not understand that they now have found important. I don't like "schmoozing" -- it's very hard on me. But seeing these friends was very important.

Three particular good conversations were with Randie and Shirley Timpe. Randie was one of the two primary professor that I had in college -- taught me social psychology and my suspicion and therapeutic, Freudian psychology. Randie is now Provost at my alma mater, Mount Vernon Nazarene College. I peppered him with a 100 questions about MVNC and learned different academic administrative structures and what differences it may have. On the whole, MVNC faculty have very little to final say in the shaping of the university.

I had a joyous hour conversation with Ron Benefiel. Ron continues to work faithfully and well as President of the Seminary. We talked about the long term witness of the Church of the Nazarene. Our analyses match very nicely, and I look forward to continuing to work with Ron in solidarity into the future. Very interesting was a NTS based theological forum, in which a theologian from Madagascar talked about the economics of the Church of the Nazarene in Africa -- Kelly Tirril needs to get a hold of the paper and the connection for her MA thesis.

Finally, I met with Rev. Bob Gray and his wife Ardis, and my youth minister growing up, Jerry Duff. Jerry was and is very important to me -- and very good man, although he seems to want to divide the world into the terms of American conservatives and liberals, and seems to think that the neo-conservative world order is divinely inspired. Bob Gray was pastor during some of the most formative commitments to Christ that I made as a teenager. Yet what was most interesting is that Bob Gray and Jerry had worked hard and opened up the Church of the Nazarene on La Dominique, and are well known there. I spoke with him about our 15 Haitian refugees in La Dominique. I was able to later that night, give them Brutus Rolin's email address. If nothing else, I think that they can get some immediate housing for them on the island as we work through the international/national settings. It was a very profound witness to how the church is local and catholic at the same time. There was a meeting this morning of Bob with the La Dominique delegates (2 of them) and a missionary from the island. Let's pray that we can work together to help these friends be recognized and be able to move to a situation where they can have peace and security necessary for human flourishing.

I am very humbled because what I really see here is an extended network of friendship in Christ within the body of Christ, that exceeds the geographic and chronological limitations. It is very bodily -- and thus experienced in gathering. These lines provide webs of witness that sustain the witness of the church in the world through time. Intimes such of this, I can only be thankful that God, by God's mercy, has pulled me into this network, sometimes against my will and choices. Not many learned, not many have status in the eyes of the world, but amidst foiable, idiosyncratic human beings, made in the image of God, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified by the Spirit, they are gifts that have been given me by the Triune God.

Posted by johnwright at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

Last night I attended the NYI service at the Nazarene General Assembly in Indianapolis. Four years ago this was the best service in the Assembly, as the NYI had internalized the internationalization of the Church, and thus, de-centered it from its American political and cultural colonial existence to the church's Christological center. Last night, however, the General Church "took back" some of the service. Thus, the service was really two in one. I think that it is important to understand the promise of the church and where we must faithfully go, and why it is going to be difficult for it to get there.

The service was advertised as the "NYI service". It began with recognition of all those under 35 -- applause, applause, but then with a wonderful reading from Scripture. The leadership knows it must hang on to its youth -- this is promising.

Then,however, a full orchestra began playing and a group of 30 well-dressed white middle aged people came out to lead in mid-western congregational music. The quality was very good -- Disneyland would have welcomed them. Then the NYI took over. A video clip spoke about an international youth work-n-witness trip to Ecuador -- in various languages, highlighting persons from throughout the world. Then a band broke out singing new praise music, including the anthem we often use for our Eucharistic service, "One Body, One Spirit". This was followed by a prayer by the head of the NYI (a British woman), then the Scripture reading (in Spanish) followed by an offering prayer in Spanish. The NYI service was basically over, and holiness camp meeting preaching was about to begin.

The transition was a bit bizarre. There was a steel drum band from Africa (never really introduced) who played the offertory. Fascinatingly, they played "The Hallelujah Chorus". The congregation followed European custom and stood during it. Post-colonial scholarship would call this a wonderful example of "hybridity" -- the colonial culture using some indigenous forms to play to the colonizing culture on its own terms.

The sermon was from General Superintendent Jim Diehl. His text was Isa 6:1-8. He preached a typical holiness camp meeting sermon -- in essenced, what the youth/church needed was an experience of the fire of the Holy Spirit to come upon them for cleansing and empowerment for service. Of course, it was given a therapeutic spin as a movement from negativity in engaging in social criticism (Isaiah before Isaiah 6) to a positive attitude for hope (Isaiah after Isaiah 6). But the most important thing was: personal experience of the Spirit!

Yet . . . . if I may speculate, there was something else going on in the sermon. I don't have a transcript, but I set up and noticed when Dr. Diehl said something like "the church does not receive the Spirit; individuals do." The major tone of the sermon was what a would call a "holiness solipism" -- rather than Gzus N Me; it was "Spirit N Me" -- we are were to the romantic bedrock of the Holiness movement where the church is only important as the mediator of the individual experience of the Spirit. William James would have been quite happy.

But there was an aggressiveness to Diehl's sermon that I, and at least one other person, thought may have been reactionary againt the Guatamela theological conference a few years back. I was not there, but from what I heard from various channels, the church as holy, what was held as "social holiness" was held up in opposition to the individualistic, personal doctrine of holiness that the Church of the Nazarene has historically embraced. This caused quite a bit of friction at the conference -- if reports were correct, even to a group of younger theologians withdrawing from the last worship service in order to write some sort of statement.

If this was the backdrop, Diehl was trying to bring the "NYI" back in line, and thus, more radically individualizing the holiness message than even the holiness movement historically has done. He ended the sermon with a story which basically told how the church is unnecessary -- an individual from Kosovo had gotten individually converted and then individually converted 100 more with the church or a pastor even present. Of course, the conversion happened out of the witness of the church in re-building housing that the United States and NATO had destroyed in the war, and of course, the group have become a church as they had banded together in bible study (if baptized, not by the Spirit, but by water). Yet that was not Diehl's spin. It was an individual helping another individual "get saved" by the "fiery experience of the Holy Spirit." Holiness solipsism."

Here is the issue for the future: a Western individualized colonial existence for the transformation of indigenous cultures into theologically sanctioned individual producers or consumers or discovering the catholicity of the church in solidarity with each other by the Father's gift of the Son through the Spirit. The NYI get it; it is, however, being opposed by those who set policy for the general organization. Yet we must never confuse the church for its administrative hierarchy, but always discover its center in Christ, the sacraments, and the faithful who live out the Kingdom through the works of mercy, and thus, are transformed by the Spirit into saints.

However, we also cannot play personal holiness off over against social holiness. These cannot be opposed to each other: Paul said "You (pl) are the body of Christ and individually members of it". To move to an abstract ecclesial holiness, even a sacramental ecclesial holiness, that does not form and produce holy persons (ie, saints) only shifts the problem to the other side of the spectrum. To oppose the public/social/political with the private/personal/individual presupposes a political liberalism that the church most reject. Indeed, we have to expand our notion of catholicity from contemporary solidarity within the Eucharistic practice of the church to one that also embraces the past and future saints as well.

More later today on my experiences yesterday. I'm off to a meeting!

Posted by johnwright at 8:33 AM | Comments (1)

We've arrived at the outskirts of Indianapolis. We're meeting my parents this morning for breakfast, and then, crashing downtown Indianapolis to see what's going on at the International General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene.

Three quick observations on the trip down from Chicago:

(1) The highlight had to be seeing the car with the license plate GZUS N ME. First, one recognizes that good old American individualism is still very prevalent in the heartland and given a Christian baptism. Second, the culture here is not as secular as the west coast. The reports of Christendom's demise are highly exaggerated. Of course, as in any Christendom, the church has been highly colonialized by culture. But one senses the difference between the "left coast" and here. It is an interesting issue: is complete secularity (an act of the human imagination) better for the witness of the church than a colonialized Christendom situation? At least in a secular situation, we can know who our enemies are to love them. The passive-aggressive attacks on the church within a Christianized liberal nation-state are so much more subtle. Yet blatant secularity is so hostile and dismissive of the church's witness and intellectual heritage.

(2) Road construction of the highways continues on the highways between Chicago and Northwest Indiana. I swear that these same highways where undergoing construction over 20 years ago when I would travel occasionally to Chicago from Notre Dame, and 16 years ago when I pastored and made hospital calls in Chicago from my small steel town parish. It is like penal reform -- constantly on-going, never done. I'm not sure the significance of this, except that the Northwest Indiana area has undergone economic hard times with the evaporation of the steel industry, and became an area where minorities became a majority throughout this time.

(3) We traveled within about 5 miles of my first pastoral assignment, the town we lived in when Carl, my long-suffering, neglected son, was born. I had a little wave of nostalgia, remembering the profundity of the experience -- Mr. Flanagan dying of the brain tumor, the transient couple with children with ring-worm, Otis Peach's sudden death by heart attack; Dirk's struggle with social security disability and Carol's struggle with Dirk; the woman whose husband held the gun to her head and threatened to kill her; the woman whose ex-husband raped her, and then sued her for custody of the child who resulted from the encounter while refusing child support. The long hours of work, traveling to Notre Dame and St. Mary's to teach, finish the dissertation. Baptizing Sean.

The church there is no more. I was a "church-growth god," moving from 13 in attendance to 43 in a space of a year. But after we moved on, eventually the church was not able to sustain its witness. The pastor who followed me is still a friend, and though young at the time, did a good job -- better than the congregation knew. But eventually a pastor came with weird teaching and poor administration and pastoral care. The church, always fragile, imploded. I've lost track of the people in the intensity of subsequent life, except for the cards from Mary Flanagan, a saint if ever there was one.

Posted by johnwright at 6:03 AM | Comments (1)

Yesterday was a good day. For lunch we have Chicago Stuffed Pizza, from Giordano's!!! Last night a 2-year old birthday party for Kathy's nephew, Danny. Wonderful Italian beef, with hot peppers! During the party, I had the joy of holding four-day old AJ, and getting him back asleep while his mom and dad worked with a pinada that Tasha had made.

This morning, I got up and met my friend Rodney Clapp at a Border's. Rodney has become a good friend over the years. While he's not writing anything right now, his latest book will soon be coming out in paperback.

We talked together about the unholy alliance of evangelicals with the Straussian post-modern neo-conversatives, like Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney, et al. As we talked it occured to me that it was not merely that evangelicals liked their access to power, even a Nietzchean will-to-power, but that the key is a common centrality of the human will as mediating reality to both. For the Nietzchean neo-cons, the will creates reality; for the evangelicals, the human will is a conduit for the divine will. Both manifest themselves in power -- the neo-cons, the power of the nation-state; evangelical, the power of God that overrides other power. While the Nietzcheans no doubt privately see the evangelicals as pawns for their agenda, the evangelicals see the United States as a pawn of the divine agenda -- a manifestation of the divine power. Thus, though they are rabidly opposed to each other, they nonetheless think the other is being duped by their own agenda. In the process the world suffers under an aggressive imperialism to control world oil supplies, given divine sanction. Scott Ritter reported yesterday that the United States has begun military activity IN Iran already in Aljazeera. The Washington Post today said that the Pentagon has hired a private firm to collect data on all high school and college students. How do you spell d-r-a-f-t? How about "c-o-n-s-c-i-e-n-t-i-o-u-s o-b-j-e-c-t-i-o-n?

I suggested that Rodney write a book on the subject -- no one better that I can think of! We then discussed other projects for the future.

In the future I want to blog more on voluntarism, and understanding God's power as distinct from God's nature, God's Being separate from God's Triunity.

Posted by johnwright at 12:35 PM | Comments (1)

For this weeks Bible story, the passage makes for great drama, especially when acted out by experienced, professional actors. So turn your groups into repetory theatres, and have a good time! I'm sure that you can find someone sufficiently "lame" among you! Pay particular attention to the social dynamics of poverty, sickness, and health that come together here.

Please don't think that I have any special points for you "to get". These are just ideas to help focus discussion. Trust the Spirit to inspire you to find your place in the story.

Cast:
Narrator:
The Lame Man:
The Carriers of the Lame Man:
People passing through the Gate of the Temple:
Peter:
John:
People milling the Temple Area:

After acting out the story, several questions arise. Don't feel confined by these?

What is the significance of this taking place at a Gate called "Beautiful"? Both before and after the healing?

What role did the carriers of the lame man play?

What does it tell you that Peter and John had no silver and gold? Is this a bad thing or a good thing?

What is the role of Jesus in this passage?

How does the ex-lame man respond?

Why are people amazed? What has happened between the difference between the man and the people?

How has life changed for the lame man? What is now possible for him?

How does this story relate to the activities of Jesus? What is happening amidst the Spirit-renewed Israel represented in John and Peter? What does this suggest about the continuing mission of the church (and of course, the individuals that form the church as they themselves are formed by the Spirit).

Posted by johnwright at 8:53 AM | Comments (1)

We've successfully made it to Chicago where we have crashed with Kathy's sister, Ruby. We are in the house with four adolescents and one new born (four days old), 2 preschoolers, and three grandparents -- 14 of us in all.

My favorite part of the trip out was where I wore my "I'm blogging this" t-shirt for the first 1700 miles of the trip. As we passed through rural areas, the looks that I received from people trying to figure out what it meant was, as they say on the credit card commercial, 'priceless.'

We're thankful for safety, and, for the most part, for us all remaining civil with each other through the 2100 miles. We slept in the van on Sunday night (Monday morning) at about 8000 feet in the Rockies. Carl, my long-suffering neglected son, did not destroy any persons or property while he drove for us, although he did learn that wind can blow a van around driving north of Las Vegas.

It was interesting reading the 'local histories' at rest areas in Colorado and Nebraska about the European-based civilization defeating the native Americans, and the way that it conficts with the underlying myth that the west was "empty" until it was "civilized" by Europeans.

Tomorrow I plan to get together with Rodney Clapp, editor of Brazos Press, here in Chicago. We missed greatly gathering with our congregation Sunday -- we haven't heard anything yet about the day.

As it is said, "That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average."

Posted by johnwright at 8:42 AM | Comments (3)

I turned 46 today -- it's interesting sliding downhill towards 50. Aging is interesting. I don't feel any older, on one hand; on the other hand, I have a whole lot more experience and my body sure isn't the same one that once ran a 2:26:52 marathon.

We're getting ready to jump in a rented van and begin a road trip to Chicago. Kathy's sister just had a baby. We're stopping by there on the way to the General Assembly of the International Church of the Nazarene.

It's been a quiet day. I finished year three of the Harry Potter saga in preparation for the release of the new volume on July 16 (midnight, Borders in Mission Valley -- be there). We grilled brats (the sausage kind, not my children), and ate peach pie.

Early in the morning the multicongregational pastors met and talked over some plans. Pastor Anthony of the French congregation gave me an email from the 15 Haitian refugees in La Dominique. Yesterday I talked with the immigration lawyer from Catholic Charities (thanks to a wonderful lead by Tiana Reinhardt, famous from ericisrad.com). The lawyer told me point blank that he hasn't seen a Haitian granted political assylum in the United States for years. The odds are very small that the US government would let them in now, especially seeing that they are not in Haiti, but a third "country".

Meanwhile, the email spoke of the physical abuse the Haitians are facing in La Dominique. One was beaten so much that he urinated blood. Next week we have some more leads to chase down -- the Organization of American States is one.

If one notices, in matters of "citizenship", the contemporary liberal-nation state is not "inclusive" at all -- inclusion is an inner-virtue within a nation-state, but exclusion is the rule outside. The Bush regime-led coup of Haiti, I am convinced, was to put "order" at the top of the Haitian government to avoid any possible disruptions in Florida state politics, and the crucial dimensions it plays in the current monopoly of power in the United States. Meanwhile, people die; more are treated as non-persons.

So, after centuries of pillaging Haiti for colonial purposes, leaving it in an economic, environmental, political, and cultural nightmare, the Western nation-state has no room in the inn. But we do. And we will keep working as the weak, trying to live in solidarity with our brothers in La Dominique. Among other things, I have shoe sizes and we probably need to see if we can get shoes and other goods and food to our friends to sustain them until we find assure their safety so that they might flourish as God intended.

It is humbling, planning to jump in a van in the morning, crossing the continent, knowing that 15 human beings are in hiding in a resort island, treated as "non-wanted" by the principalities and powers in the world.

Posted by johnwright at 9:32 PM | Comments (5)

I'm in my office tonight. I just finished revising a manuscript of a book that I've been working on for about ten years. I have an article proposal to send to Germany, and then, I've completed most my early summer responsibilities.

To celebrate, I think that I'll post my sermon from last Sunday, lest anyone is out there! Maybe I need to write more inflamatory stuff to get more responses.

Exod 19:2-8a
Matthew 9:35-10:15

Introduction: God has called us together in mission. In Exodus God sends Moses to Pharaoh to “let my people go”. God, in faithfulness to God’s promises to Abraham, delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, from the house of bondage. But that delivery was not merely for Israel’s sake; it was for mission – to be a witness in the world, a blessing to all people, through obedience to God, to be a “priestly kingdom, a holy people.” What does that look like for us, today? God has delivered us from the slavery of the world around us through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. I hope you know how abnormal you are, and how beautiful that abnormality is. That is not to say we don’t have our failures, our sin, our struggles to live faithful individually and as a people.

But The Father has pulled us together in the Son by the Spirit for mission, to be that holy people, a kingdom of priests. Sometimes we’ve tried to image ourselves as a way station for pilgrims. God gathers various “sojourners” to us, we who ourselves are sojourners, and here we commit together to care for the needs of the saints and to provide hospitality for strangers on the Way. We emphasize engaging in the acts of mercy, it’s necessity to experience the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit within to sanctify us holy – as individuals and as a people.
You know that it’s a lot of work running a way station. You know that you can’t live a “normal life” according to the world. For instance, Larry is very ill. Dave has been amazing in his care, but, honestly, it looks like the coming months we’re going to learn how to die with Larry. We need to find some way of protecting him, carrying for him, learning from him, calling him to baptism, suffering with him. Honestly, that’s work, not real pleasant work, and it’s going to hurt emotionally. Then, of course, we can complicate things around here from within. We can squabble about things not central to who we are, or how is the best way to do certain things. We can get hurt feelings, or feel ignored or isolated because we can hurt feelings and ignore and isolate each other. Or maybe we just get hurt because we do. When it happens, it hurts mission; it hurts our witness. It kind of drains from the intense energy it takes just to keep the way-station running.
But I wonder if the way-station image, as descriptive as it is and as beautiful a connection to our heritage as Christians, is adequate for us in light of today’s Gospel reading. I wonder if it’s too stable, solid, fixed, localized to understand our mission. I don’t think we need to reject it, but even as we live as a kingdom of priests, a holy people, I wonder if we need to put into our imagery, this story from the Gospel of Matthew today, as we look to living our mission together to be this blessing to the peoples.
1. The story begins with a description of the activities of Jesus – look at him go!
A. Jesus appears as a transient with a purpose! Jesus teaches, tells that the kingdom of God has come – the good news that God has begun to bring about the restoration of Israel; God has begun to gather Israel to make them whom they are supposed to be. Jesus teaches that God is doing something new in him – and then shows it in his healings. Jesus speaks of the good news about the kingdom where the poor are blessed, the hungry, fed; those who mourn are comforted; where enemies are loved; where eyes are not taken for eyes, but evil is overcome by good. That’s good news! And Jesus is teaching it, and calling those in the villages into this new reality. He is the entry point for this kingdom – he does not announce a freedom like democracy; he announces the freedom of life under a true king!
B. Why? The people were harassed and helpless. Like sheep without a shepherd. What made them helpless and harassed? Sin. Of yeah, their sin, their personal sin. Rebellion against God seen in the depths of character that led to rivalries, conflicts, meanness, inability to live in harmony with others, habits that just stopped them from being able to flourish. The sin of others as well, seen in the way they were treated, the poverty that they endured from others hoarding land, collecting goods that left them little, if any, to live upon. Sin because they had put under the rule of an unjust kingdom. From the sin of this false kingdom, internalized in the bodies, they felt the harassment; they had been made to experience that they were helpless. God did not create human beings in God’s image to lived harassed and helpless – Jesus looked on these with compassion, devoting his life to the kingdom that God has sent him to begin.
C. Jesus comes on the scene as an activist royalty – he speaks and acts to show the goodness of the kingdom that has drawn near!

2. Yet Jesus is only one; the harvest is great. In response, Jesus gathers the twelve to extend his mission.
A. The harvest is great! The harvest means that the crops are done; the grain is ripe; the fruit matured. Laborers don’t produce the harvest; they gather that which is ready. Jesus sees the crowds, knows that they are harassed and helpless. He prays for presence amidst that which is there so that it might be gathered for its use and redistribution.
B. He then appoints the twelve – even the one who betrayed him. Why? The twelve go as the renewed Israel. They go as those who witness to the kingdom. They go as a visible, mobile, embodied presence that this kingdom that Jesus is not a cute idea, but a positive reality for human life in this world and eternal life is the age to come. They go to invite others to come along, join the adventure, become part of the renewal of Israel for the sake of the world!
C. Jesus gathers the twelve as laborers into the harvest.

3. But laborers can’t hang around in the warehouse! Jesus sends the twelve to proclaim the kingdom, not for personal gain or status, but to spread the peace of God!
A. Jesus sends the disciples with particular instructions. He doesn’t send them out as a sideshow, a group to niche market to sell his product after connecting in another way. Jesus sends them out to proclaim the kingdom come near, to participate in the activities of that kingdom. He sends them to Israel, to the Jews, calling them to participate as the people that God has called them to be!
B. Jesus sends them to live the kingdom in their going. They do not go with coercion, with might, with arms, with violence, with impressive riches, with status – they go with what is necessary for life and peace, to share life and peace with those to whom they go. They are to go without pretense, with poverty. They don’t go to coerce, to nag, to bother, to harass; they go to bring peace. Jesus doesn’t allow them to separate the means from the content of their going – they are going to recruit into the kingdom; therefore, they must go in accordance with what the kingdom is about.
C. Jesus doesn’t send the twelve to add to the harassed and helplessness of the people – they go to bring the kingdom of peace – not merely an individual, psychological peace – but peace – the conditions necessary for human beings to flourish.

4. Okay, now. The message is clear -- Let’s go gather the harvest!
A. We live in a world where folk are harassed and helpless. In the paper this week, a report was recorded that 38% of African American, 37% of Hispanic/Latino persons in California live with what is called “food anxiety” -- fear of not having food to eat. Look at the lives of those 20 and 30 around us. There’s this gulf – those who think that they can make it on the society terms who suffer harassment so that they won’t be helpless, and those that just check out, dulling the nothingness of life with alcohol, drugs, gratuitous sex, mindless leisure activities. Walk to a mall and look around; go to the DMV and stay there for about 30 minutes; hang outside the courts; watch the goings on a a club.

B. The kingdom has come near – go! The harvest is great – laborers are needed. No, I’m not talking about more people working in the nursery and children and with Bread of Life – although that wouldn’t hurt us at all. I’m talking about the harassed and the helpless. I’m talking about those whom you rub shoulders with who need to be brought into the kingdom through baptism. I’m talking about those whose own sin just compounds that sin that they are victims of. Friends, we have good news!!!! God has graciously messed up our lives so that we are not helpless any more in light of the harassment that the world gives. God has sent the Son to bring us to into the kingdom! We need to share the good news with others! Go!
C. But remember, going is not to raise your status. We go to bring peace. One does not do it because one “needs” to for personal affirmation or for financial gain. One does not go with coercion, psychological or political, to get recognition. We can’t separate the means from the ends in the kingdom, friends. The kingdom is peaceable, for it is participation in the Triune God who is Peace, who is Harmony. The kingdom is mutuality, it is pulling us together so that we might not be harassed – it is not a new means of harassment.
D. Let’s go, friends. The harvest is great!

Conclusion: I guess that the vision of this place is a pilgrim way-station, that actively seeks out the harassed and the helpless, those without a king, to bring them, in faith, to this Table so that they can participate in the body and blood of Jesus to be made the body of Christ in the world. You see, that body was harassed, but not helpless, but brought forth the fullness of human flourishing, salvation, in the kingdom. Before we go, friends. Come. Come, participate in God here. Find food, nourishment for our journey.

Posted by johnwright at 8:23 PM | Comments (0)

We thought that we'd look at the whole of Acts 2 tonight in order to catch the full narrative flow and implications. This gives some definite advantages, but also does not allow us to spend time on specificities.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Pentecost has been read in the evangelical tradition, one that has spread worldwide, as a manifestation of divine power in the Spirit. We see in the Pentecost narrative, from this perspective, the overwhelming power of God to overcome humanity according to God's will. The Spirit is a "divine force" in relationship to humanity that Pentecost "democratizes" for everyone. It is seen as a repeatable event in which you too may experience the ecstatic power of the Force (oops, I mean, the Spirit).

Yet we have been reading this narrative as placing ourselves within the story of God's restoration of Israel through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. What we see in Pentecost is the outpouring of the Spirit upon all of Israel, gathered together in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost.

Let's divide the passage into five sections:

(1) vv. 1-4: Who is "they"? How do "they" relate to "us", the members of the body of Christ gathered to read and talk about this text?

(2) vv. 5-12: Who gathers are the crowd to hear "them"? What draws this group together? Where are they from? What is happening as a result of the gift of the Spirit upon "them"?

(3) vv. 14-36: What is the underlying story of Peter to the crowd? Who is his sermon about? What is it exactly that Peter says that Jesus has done (don't miss v. 33!). Who is the Spirit the Spirit of and to whom does the Spirit witness?

(4) vv. 37-40: What is the response of the crowd and what does Peter tell them to do? Why?

(5) vv. 41-47: What is the result of the gift of the Spirit given at Pentecost? What is happening to Israel? What is the relationship between the gift of the Spirit and the life of those who believe in the resurrected Jesus?

Now, after this, what does the gift of the Spirit empower? Is the Spirit a divine force, a blind manifestation of God's unchecked, sovereign will? What is it to "live in the Spirit" today?

Enjoy your discussion!! You might want to talk about gathering food for the hungry, especially those in our congregations, our neighborhood, and those trying to sustain life by custodial care of buildings who might not have enough food right now as a result of the refusal of the owners of their company to pay wages and benefits that allow one to sustain a good life here.

Posted by johnwright at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

When I watch television news, the only news I watch is the Daily Show. Fake news is more truthful than real news, so it seems these days.

Kathy is afraid that I am "obsessed" by war. Maybe I am. I try not to spend too much time, but my friend, Simon Harak, SJ, has deeply involved me in his efforts to save the people of Iraq for over fifteen years now. If nothing else, it is out of loyalty to him and friendship and admiration that I watch. Simon, whom I met in Greek class at Notre Dame, has given of himself heroically to stop the slaughter of innocents in Iraq. It is a shame that we live in a world where such activity is seen as being "against war", rather than for peaceableness. It shows that we live in a world where violence is seen as the real, from which peace is an aberration.

Of course, Christians believe otherwise, though it is often hard to tell from our history. Christians believe that God IS peace, in the mutual love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, that is God. For Christians it is not "against" anything to speak truthfully, for truthful speech is what we are called to in order to reflect the Peaceableness that is God.

So far, I have not ranted as much as I would have liked about such things as the war in Iraq, the use of depleted uranium weapons, the torture policy of the United States, the destruction of Fallujah, the United States use of internationally banned chemical weapons, such as a napalm-like bomb that has been acknowledged to have been used by the US military, and of which Fallujah medical authorities testify (not to mention the gruesome pictures). I have not argued against the war crimes entailed in all of these (such as the attack on the hospital to begin the second devastation on Fallujah), nor how students have told me friends are trained at Camp Pendleton to execute any person in a room in urban battle as a combatant, and then to hear how the marine in the NBC video of the execution of a wounded Iraqi was acquitted because he was following approved procedure -- but no one higher up is held accountable.

Today, however, I found on uruknet.info a piece that is very important. It lists a "path of war" timetable. It shows very clearly that any talk of WMD was merely a ruse for an aggressive, colonial conquest of Iraq by the Bush administration. It shows that there is no way that the invasion of Iraq could be called "just", and that it is buried in groups from the '90s who later became key players in the Bush administration. The interesting thing is that the analysis has to come from a "marginal" group, when all the data they use is very public and mainstream. All they've done is connect the dots. It is very disturbing.

To see the whole thing, go to http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m12568.

Once one sees this, one can understand why it was so important that the Board of General Superintendent's withdrew the invitation to President Bush not to address the General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene. It also shows that indeed, the Board of GS's is correct to say that Bush has espoused a "consistent moral agenda". Yet consistent does not make Christian.

Posted by johnwright at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

Those who are obsessive about checking my blog will recognize that I had a post on a petition to the General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene to not invite the President of the United States to address the General Assembly, especially during its communion service. I deleted this post earlier today.

I can now report that last evening, before the petition was circulated, the Board of General Superintendents declined to offer an invitation to the President of the United States to address the General Assembly. For this I give thanks to God for the faithfulness of the Board of General Superintendents, and especially, the catholic/international witness of the Church of the Nazarene.

I do not know all the process, but I do know that the Bush administration initiated the attempt to address the assembly. It is my understanding that the President's political adviser wanted to coat tail of the Church of the Nazarene's compassionate ministries, and approached the General Superintendents two weeks ago. Approval was given to allow the President to "greet" the Assembly.

I spoke with Dr. Paul Cunningham after the District Assembly on Friday. He was extremely gracious, warm, and listened well. I was the first one to speak to him of the rumor, which he confirmed in broad details. He made clear, however, that nothing was finalized at the time, but that he thought that a Presidential visit might give needed publicity to the Church of the Nazarene. Again, he graciously listened to my concerns about being drawn into partisan politics, the controversial nature of the publicity received, Bush's role in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the implications for the international Church of the Nazarene.

Dr. Cunningham did convince me that it was legitimate for the President to offer "greetings" as the head of state of the country in which the Assembly was to be held. Yet as things unfolded yesterday, it seemed to me (on unconfirmed sources) that the Bush administration wanted much more than to give greetings -- they wanted a significant time slot during the morning Eucharistic service, the main gathering of the Church. Dr. Cunningham was unaware of the nature of the request when he spoke to me, as he had been out of Kansas City for ten days.

If I may interpret on what little I know, it seems that the Communion service on that Sunday morning, required by the Manual to take place before the business sessions of the Assembly meets, was recognized by the General Superintendents as too significant to risk cooptation. The Body and Blood of Christ, forming the Body of Christ, prevented other bodies, even the body of the most powerful nation-state of the world, from taking over the agenda of God's people. This is a marveleous and wonderful witness to the love of God in the provision of God's people in the Eucharistic Feast.

William Cavanaugh in Torture and Eucharist talks about the Eucharist as politics. It is tremendously ironic -- but insightful -- that what the Eucharistic practice of the Roman Catholic Church in Chile, esconced in a Constantinian relationship, a "new Christendom" with the Pinochet Regime, could not immediately achieve, the Eucharistic practice of the Church of the Nazarene, locally often so woefully problematic, was able to sustain. Of course, this might be credited as well to the analysis and writings of Cavanaugh.

Yet this night, I am amazed, astounded, thankful for the leadership of the Church of the Nazarene, the wisdom embedded in its Manual, the faithful witness of friends and brothers and sisters that I don't even know, that the Spirit of God that still can perform the most marvelous surprises! Wow . . . who would have thunk that the little ol' Church of the Nazarene would have the spiritual vitality to recognize the world as the world!

Posted by johnwright at 10:00 AM | Comments (7)

I'm a bit late with some comments for our Bible Studies. I apologize, but had a wonderful time with Kathy celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary yesterday. It was very good to get away and remember the past and look forward to the future together without computers, telephones, teaching and church responsibilities to handle.

This week we continue reading Acts 1. Verses 12-26 continue the story after the ascension of Jesus -- the continuation of the mission of Jesus in light of Jesus' absence before the giving of the Holy Spirit. It is this absence of Jesus and the Spirit that makes this passage so interesting. Maybe this angle can help us find ourselves in the story.

Of course, the "absence" of Jesus and the Spirit within the narrative comes from the perspective of the narrator and the character -- not in reality. In reality, God is never absent from God's creation -- or creation would not be!! Yet to human perception in this passage, God is not present in Christ or the Spirit. God's revelation in the resurrection of Jesus and the Spirit is beyond the ability of human perception here. The disciples can only look to the past and to the future. Perhaps such an experience is not forward to the group as you gather. Can you think of times when one could look to the past of the resurrection of Jesus and future to the giving of the Spirit for sustenance? What was the response of the person and/or group? What sort of practices became determinative of this time?

We can divide the passage again into two different units: vv. 12-14 and vv. 15-26.

(1) Vv. 12-14: Notice that they return to the "upper room." Read Luke 22:7-23. Why not change rooms? Why also pull into their presence there the women and family of Jesus? In the absence of Jesus, what is the significance of the location? Finally, what did they do there? Why is it significant that they do this in "one accord"? What is the lesson for the "between times" that we can live?

(2) Vv. 15-26. This section can be divided into three submovements: vv. 13-17; vv. 18-20; vv. 21-26. The Judas story is enclosed within and interrupts the story of chosing a disciple to replace him. First, why is it important to replace Judas in this time of absence? Second, what are the "qualifications" for the replacement? What do these qualifications tell you about the significance of adding another member to replace Judas? Third, how do they decide who will join the eleven to make the twelve? What is significant about this two stepped system? Finally, this seems like a strange activity in the midst of Jesus' and the Spirit's "absence". Read in light of this "absence", what does this tell you about their reponse to this absence? Why does it follow vv. 12-14 rather than proceed?

Thanks again for your understanding about the lateness of this. I hope that it is useful. Any comments or discussion are welcome to take place here as well!

Posted by johnwright at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

I finished re-reading volume one of the Harry Potter series this morning. I'm not sure if I'll make it through all five before the new one comes out, but I'm going to try so that I can read the new volume with a slight percentage of the insight that my daughter Tasha possesses when it comes out (midnight, July 16th). As I read the beginning of the book, I was delighted with the figure of Dudley Dursley. Rowling does an excellent example of narrating how sin becomes natural. It reminds me so much of how the war in Iraq became started so that "war" just seems natural today. But war is sin -- it is the absence of peace and harmony, the absence of life. War is not "in God" because God, as Father, Son, and Spirit, IS Peace, Harmony, Life, Love -- analogically speaking!

The novel begins at the Dursley household. As part of Mr. and Mrs. Dursley's description, the second paragraph concludes: "The Dursley's had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere." We soon find out what type of people the Dursley's are in "their opinions." The morning before Harry joins the family, "Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. . . At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcsae, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. 'Little tyke,' chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive."

In the ten years that separate chapter 1 and 2, not much has changed for the Dursley's with Harry's joining them. It is Dudley's birthday: "The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents" (p. 19).

Dudley counts his presents. "'Thirty-six,' he said, looking up at his mother and father. 'That's two less than last year.' . . . Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?" . . . Uncle Vernon chuckled. 'Little tyke wants his money worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!' He ruffled Dudley's hair."

Dudley is obviously being malformed because his parent's "opinion" that there is no finer boy than him anywhere is based on an attachment to their son that does not truthfully reflect Dudley's character. His behavior becomes seen as "natural", even admirable, because the parent's love, in itself commendable, is separated from what is really good and true. Without knowing the truth -- Dudley is a horrible, spoiled, violent, greedy, overbearing, boorish child -- his parents reinforce all this characteristics in the name of their attachment. Dudley's sin cannot be seen by the parents, living within a narrative world where Dudley is the finest boy in the world. Dudley's sinful lack of goodness becomes seen as natural. This protects the parents commitment to Dudley, a commitment simulating love but not really love, because their "unconditional" commitment to him separates them from what really is good for Dudley.

In the alternative press, news is currently dribbling out that the Bush administration doubled bombing within the no-fly zones in Iraq, themselves illegally imposed by Great Britain and the United States, starting in July of 2002. The war actually began then, even though permission from Congress to start the war would not be given for months. Through official channels, throughout this time the public talk was that war could be averted if Hussein complied with the UN Arms inspectors (which, of course, in retrospect, everyone now knows that he had complied).

Because of information given to me by my friend, Simon Harak, SJ, I had known of the increased bombings then, but this information now takes on new significance in light of the Downey Street memo. These bombing where not in reaction to any threat from the Iraqi government, but were an attempt to lure the Baathist government into retaliation that would justify an attack by the United States. Of course, people died. Two channels flowed -- one the public statements by the Bush government; the other the reality on the ground in Iraq.

When the war began, it was meant to seem 'natural.' The US populace chuckled, "little tyke" and said, "he just wants to get his money worth, just like us." The commitment to a fictious entity called "the United States" became separated from what was good and true, just as the Ba'athist commitment to a fictional entity called "Iraq" had also become separated from what was good and true. The mindless cycle of violence that seems so 'natural' has based in the webs of deceit on all sides. Attachments had arisen that had been corrupted, malformed. The result, just like Dudley, a malformed people unable to see their own real character continues -- and sin marches on by what it is not.

Of course, although most of us do not declare war based on attachments separate from what is true and good, we are all the same way. All of our perceptions, judgments, character, knowledge are embedded in our attachments. That is why all our attachments must be ordered continually in repentance in desire for God, in whom all Truth and Goodness converge in Harmony and Peace. With our attachments ordered from God, we then may have our eyes cleared to see truthfully, so that our commitments, our attachments, might lead us to see what is really natural, rather than the sinful lack that surrounds us. That way, maybe we won't raise new Dudley's, or war-making regimes within the United States.

Posted by johnwright at 10:34 AM | Comments (1)