A Thanksgiving Poem: "For the Silent and Small"

Here are some thoughtful words as a thanksgiving poem written this week by my friend and coworker, Kristan McKinne. Officially it is yet untitled but I am calling it "For the Silent and Small". Enjoy and give thanks.

In life's everday slow rise and fall,

awash in our ball of bright and shining sun

I find ways to give thanks for the silent and small.

When shadows tower so tall

that all glimpse of light is gone

from life's everyday, slow rise and fall - 

when it can seem after all

that the rush of comings and goings has won -

I still have to give thanks for the silent and small.

Thanks for the single smile that will crawl

across your face; that's enough in the long run

of that everyday, slow rise and fall.

And here, with you, in the silent lull

that settles after a long day done,

it's easy to give thanks for the silent and small.

To just consider the tiny moments that sprawl

through a life, vast and deep as the ocean,

adrift in the everyday slow rise and fall - 

I have to give thanks for the silent and small.

"Please Don't Label Me.." campaign

How do you feel about this?

For those of you of a religious affiliation or perhaps even another sort of world view or political pole, do you feel like children should be indoctrinated with their parent's beliefs? Sure, parents have a responsibility to raise their kids with morals and naturally they would want to pass along what has worked for them, but do they have to be tied to the same beliefs and rationals as the parents? Could the universal ethics stay with the underlying beliefs there as options among others? Is this possible? Are there universal ethics?

Today over at Friendly Atheist, there was a story on this new billboard campaign that is sponsered by, among others, The British Humanist Association. You can read about it here: http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/11/19/new-dont-label-me-billboard-campaign-in-the-uk/ and http://www.humanism.org.uk/billboards .

Thoughts?

WHERE I STAND [3]: Biblical "End Times"

Pax Romana

Yesterday, my friend Jonathan "Siggy" Sigmon posted a wonderfully balanced bit on Facebook commemorating service on Veterans' Day without praising the means of war and instead calling us all to peace. What follows Siggy appropriated from http://carrieanddanielle.com/honoring-peace-not-war-the-pacifists-dilemma-on-remembrance-day/:

" I will pause to pay tribute to those who have died in war. I will honor their commitment to their ideals, and grieve their losses. But the greatest honor I can offer them is to promise that I have learned from their experience and will do my best to work towards a new day when young men and women do not have to die as they did. We can and must work together to find peaceful ways to achieve a just and safe world. Only then can we truly say that they did not die in vain. Be a peace promoter."

I couldn't agree more.

From that came a number of comments and discussion

about the nature and supposed/possible necessity of war that I was involved in. One of them ended with with this:

"Kudos to you [name removed], that coming from a mother with 2 sons in the service, one serving in Afghanistan right now....and what do you do with the end times? in the scripture it says they will cry peace, peace and there will be none...."

I hadn't thought about bringing the Bible or possible "End Times" scenarios into the discussion but the more I think about it, the more our interpretations of both things could play rather strongly into our opinions of war and peace. That assumes that the Bible matters to one and in some way it usually does. So I decided to weigh in on her question whether it was rhetorical or not. This isn't a comprehensive opinion I am sharing nor is it in the format I normally do these Where I Stand blogs. Instead it is a conversation starter and an opportunity to share a few different perspectives that are normally ignored in mainstream media or church discussions on the Biblical End Times. I wrote:

"Hi [name removed].You have a good question. I'd like to give it a try.

People's interpretations of what we call the "End Times" texts in the Bible are pretty diverse. One good one, in my opinion, is that in Revelation John is mostly writing in code so he doesn't get killed about Rome and Caesar as Babylon. Rome brought "peace" through war and oppression, at least initially, but they framed it as true peace through reliefs on architecture, proclamations, and by actually providing infrastructure and stability to society. It was still peace through war and homogenization though. This period of time, which coincides with John's Revelation, was called the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace") and it lasted for roughly 200 years.

Just as today some people see Radical Islam or Western Society as the last great evil to overcome for God's rule to take over, in John's time Rome was ruling all the known world and was at the forefront of everyones consciousness. To them, there could be nothing greater and more evil.

Also, Jesus' disciples were trying to figure out why He had not yet returned to fully bring the Kingdom of God. Jesus had said "Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" (Matthew 16:28). So this Revelation of John's perhaps is towards explaining this return at "the end of the age" as had also been said.

Hopefully this provides some insight or at least another view. Thoughts folks?"

Watching: From Jesus To Christ

Our small group, which we host at 6:30pm every Monday night, started watching the PBS/Frontline documentary From Jesus To Christ tonight. For some reason the DVD player played the fourth part/hour first. Our DVD player also randomly played scenes out of order when we watched Doubt last month so I'll have to sort that out. If you plan on coming next week go ahead and watch the fourth hour online and we'll do the first hour next week.

Did I say to watch online? Yes. In fact you can watch all four hours of this great historical look at Jesus, the assembling of the four canonical gospels, and the rise of Christianity here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/. Just click on the "watch the full program" image. Feel free to comment here on the program or just stop by our group.

This documentary is recommended for anyone as long as you are comfortable with questioning your existing understanding of Jesus, Christianity, and what into making our perceptions what they are today concerning it all. You don't need to be a follower of Jesus or even at all religious to enjoy and gain something from it. Megan and I found it extremely valuable and opening when we first watched it a few years ago and we hope to absorb more this time around. Among the scholars interviewed throughout are such notables as John Dominic Crossan (Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography) and Elaine Pagels (The Gnostic Gospels).