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December 31, 2007
UPDATE + Home in Geneva....shortly
Laura and I just returned to GVA. We are starting to wake up from naps in time to think about having a quiet new year's evening together. I am so very much looking forward to talking to friends we've missed while being away. Meanwhile, I leave on Wednesday for Oxford and on Monday for a staff retreat till the 10th.
I've missed this space but am looking forward to being re-connected to things out here in the blogosphere. By way of an update since my last post: Brian, my friend, died about three hours after my post. My great grandmother is out of the hospital and home. And my grandmother did remember both Laura and I. Granted, she thought it was July, nevertheless, it was good to see her and to spend some time on the golf course with my 78 year old grandfather. Yes, he still kicks my butt!
Must also comment that on our way out of Atlanta, we got the chance to see Josh and Anna Brown. We've been friends out here for a while. We've ichatted, we've interacted on matters of life and faith and ecetera, but this was the first time we met face to face. It was like being with good old friends. Not to mention, Josh has a wii. And maybe he will confirm i am a wii natural. Bowling. Golf...what fun!
glad to be back. stories to come. happy new year! Especially if you are a rat.
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 03:47 PM | Comments (3)
December 20, 2007
alive and traveling and in via...
Unexpectedly, Laura and I have made a trip to the US. We knew it was coming for the last couple of weeks, but now we are here. Atlanta. Birmingham. Oklahoma City. Tuscaloosa.
I don't usually talk in detail about my 'personal' life on this blog for several reasons; however, I am going to briefly now. If you don't want to read it, move on. If you are willing to allow me for just a few brief moments to share some things of more personal processing, then join me by reading on.
1. My grandmother- One of the most health conscious people I know. She worked as a dietician for patients in a mental hospital, drank milk every night, and made more than sure we all knew what we ought to be eating or not. When things like red bull and energy drinks came out, she let us know about their benefits and detriments. She took me to no less than three Billy G crusades and when i was making some really silly mistakes as a teenager, she took me off to Florida for some manual labor and clearing of my head. She just beat breast cancer, but now has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She is in 'moderate' stage i think.
2. My childhood friend- Brian and I were buds. We built forts together. We picked on our brothers together. We tormented the neighbors together. We rode quads together. This week my friend Brian entered into the final stages of the fight of his life. At the age of 29, with a wife and two kids, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Yeah, he had had it for years, but the doctors missed it. They called all the symptoms 'the result of a good man working too hard without enough vacation!' Brian was just sick. In the next couple of days they suspect Brian will die bodily. He remains in good spirits and well, has been telling stories about our childhood as if he forgot I still have to live on. All the secrets are out there...and thats ok. Laughter is good for the soul, but it doesn't make it any better.
3. My great-grandmother- Banny, as they call her, is a piece of genuine history. She has lived on the farm all her life. She is been around for almost 100 years and though she is in the hospital with bleeding that people can't seem to find the source. She of course, just wants to go back to the farm. In around 1986 when her husband died, they talked about putting her in an assisted living place. She refused, and she still refuses! She has her dogs, her cats, her birds, her chickens. And for now, she still has her health.
Transition in life is tricky. Sometimes you transition, sometimes its the others; however, all of life is transition. At one point I thought, 'well this is just a season of transition and then it will be over.' Then another transition came along and I thought..'oh another transition, I know how to handle this.' Then it ends, and out of no where, another one or a different kind begins..and I think..'hmmm is this just Geneva?, Or is all of life really just a transition?'
For now, that is where I will rest and have to rest. All of life is transition and the key is knowing how to find your peace and stability in the swirling tide of events that happen all the time. It's weird to have these three key people occupying this transitional space in my heart, mind, and life at this point. In some way they all shaped me or were/are part of the stories i have told and will continue to tell.
i'm sure i'll process more on this in the next few months and weeks. Heck, I'm sure there will be something of this at the heart of lots of posts over the course of a lifetime. After all, if we don't process transition, it just happens to us and shapes us and then....takes us.
travel light. love well. laugh more.
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 03:26 PM | Comments (3)
December 16, 2007
The Adopted God- Ryan Dueck
Ryan Dueck has posted this post to his blog. I wanted to post it in its entirety here.
The Adopted God
December 14, 2007
I’ve been reading John Swinton’s Raging with Compassion off and on for the last couple of weeks, and have appreciated his challenge to move past the logical problem of evil in order to focus on active resistance of evil. Swinton is less interested in a series of disembodied arguments about evil than he is in reflecting on how evil can be resisted and transformed within the life and practices of the Christian community - how we can live faithfully in the midst of an ambiguous world where unanswered questions remain as we wait God’s redemption of the whole of creation.
One of the practical ways that we can do this Swinton mentions is in creating a “culture of adoption” - a culture where hospitality is graciously extended to the unwelcome and unwanted as a reflection of the very heart of a gospel which welcomes all into God’s family (Rom. 8:15-17). The good news of the gospel is that God has entered a world of pain and disharmony and provided a way of reconciling it to himself:
This graceful movement is not based on what we can or cannot do, nor is it based on what we may or may not be able to achieve. It is simply a movement of loving acceptance embodied in the work and person of Jesus. In the incarnation, God is with us, affirming that it’s good that we exist; it’s good that we are in the world! Adoption is a key aspect of our salvation.
As an adoptive parent, my ears obviously perk up when I come across paragraphs such as this. They perked up even more a few paragraphs later, as Swinton discussed the implications of the manner in which God chose to implement his plan of salvation. Much of the emphasis on the story of Jesus’ birth is centered on the figure of Mary and the supernatural conception of the Christ child. However Swinton directs our attention to Joseph - the father of a son with whom he had no biological connection. There is precious little biblical material to go on here (Mat. 13:55-56 contains a brief reference), but it seems likely that Joseph must have, in some sense “adopted” Jesus and raised him alongside the “natural” children that he and Mary would later have. This seems rather obvious when given a moment’s thought, but the implications are intriguing:
[T]he God whom we worship is an adopted God! Adoption was the mode of parenting that God used upon entering the human condition. Adoption was the first mode of parenting that God used to initiate the new kingdom and the new humanity… The act of adoption mirrors and embodies a primary redemptive action of God.
I had never thought of Jesus as “adopted” before reading this passage. I am much more accustomed to thinking of God the Father graciously adopting his wayward children, granting them unmerited status of heirs, etc., but it had never occurred to me to think of Jesus - God Incarnate - as an adopted child. The more I thought about it, however, the more it seemed to fit pretty well with God’s modus operandi - using the small and the lowly things of the world, redeeming the world “from below” rather than “from above.”
When Naomi and I decided to adopt we saw it as a miniature act of redemption - of redeeming a negative situation both for us (infertility) and for a young woman who for whatever reason was unable to keep her child (we were still thinking in singular terms at this time!). It’s interesting to wonder, during this the sixth Christmas season we have shared with our children, if God didn’t have more in mind with the nature of Jesus’ birth than a demonstration of the miraculous. Perhaps the nature of the family in which Jesus was raised was also meant to communicate the redemptive hospitality that ought to characterize all human relationships - the hospitality that the “adopted” Jesus would later extend to Samaritans, tax-collectors, prostitutes, and all other manner of “undesirables” as he demonstrated what it looked like for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I suspect that I’m going to be viewing the nativity scenes I come across differently this Christmas season. I’ll probably continue to appreciate the wonder of God entering the human condition through a teenage virgin, but I’ll probably be tempted to think ahead in the story a little as well - ahead to the “adopted God” who comes to redeem and transform us in unexpected ways."
thanks Ryan...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:27 AM | Comments (2)
Rob Bell as 'Hippier-Than-Thou-Pastor'
This Time magazine calls Rob Bell 'Hippier-Than-Thou-Pastor'. I have posted the article in its entirety below.
While i like much of what Rob has done, I am not so sure he is really 'hippier than thou'. He is a great communicator, but his books read like he speaks. If you've never heard rob speak, and you try to read his books, you will miss the incantation. Aside from the fact that he refused to converse with the podcast i affiliate with (Nick and Josh [and josh & ariah]), he is doing great things with his community in Michigan and around the world.
enjoy the read...
jc
The Hipper-Than-Thou Pastor
Thursday, Dec. 06, 2007 By DAVID VAN BIEMA/GRANDVILLE
Rob Bell is striding toward the sanctuary of his Grandville, Mich., church, the barely improved husk of a former shopping mall, when he runs into one of his favorite congregants. They immediately address a topic close to both their hearts. "Man!" says Bell. "Can I hear it? Can I hear the demo?" The congregant, an affable young part-time musician named Joel, who dresses like a long-lost Ramone, mumbles bashfully, "I can burn you one." "Great!" exclaims Bell, whose geeky-hip glasses, black pants, black shirt and polyester white belt make their own statement. "Hey, man," he adds, "I saw the Arctic Monkeys." This is cool, Joel agrees. That itch scratched, Bell, whom the Chicago Sun-Times has called an heir to Billy Graham, heads off to give a sermon on parenting that starts with a soccer-dad riff and ends with a recording of Bruce Springsteen talking about the Virgin Mary.
Evangelicalism worries chronically about its youth. Polling by the evangelically oriented Barna research group shows that at least half of regular churchgoers ages 16 to 29 think their church is too judgmental, too political and too negative about homosexuality. Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow describes today's young adults as spiritual "tinkerers."
Bell, 37, is guilty of none of the negatives. He is largely apolitical, thinks that only those with gay friends are positioned to judge homosexuality--and he tinkers marvelously. At 28, he founded a megachurch that threw out the conventional sermon-and-worship service and instantly drew thousands of attendees. He has sold hundreds of thousands of books with titles like Velvet Elvis and Sex God that find the sacred in the profane. And he has created a form of video message he calls Nooma (phonetic Greek for spirit or breath) that may make him to YouTube what Graham was to the arena. "He could be one of the most important 21st century Christian leaders," says Bible professor and evangelical blogger Ben Witherington. He and several other thinkers feel that in a "post-Christian America," whose basic assumptions are increasingly secular, the faith needs someone who can defend its tenets in the argot of the day. Bell does this effortlessly. The question now is whether he can sell his approach to the rest of Evangelicalism or whether, as Christianity Today editor Andy Crouch puts it, he will "remain more of a singular rock star in the church world."
Bell comes of faithful stock: his parents met at Wheaton College, known as the Evangelical Harvard. But his first ambition was to be David Letterman. ("The birth of irony," he jokes. "The Betamax was a portal to another world.") Next came rock. As a student at Wheaton, he fronted a band that seemed poised to break nationally. When it didn't, he attended Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and apprenticed at a megachurch before founding Mars Hill just outside Grand Rapids. The town is notoriously well churched, but Bell saw an untapped audience: some were his music fans, others Christians left cold by traditional services. "A hundred people a day were calling and saying, 'Dude! Give us the real thing.' I was like, If someone could speak to these people in their mother tongue, they'd be here in droves." Fifteen hundred people, alerted by word of mouth, came that first Sunday. Nine years later, Mars Hill tallies 11,000 weekly.
Watching Bell there, I found it easy to see his appeal to the young. He delivers stand-up-style monologues, not three-point sermons. Comic riffs alternate with seemingly naive questions--Letterman crossed with NPR'S Ira Glass--until Bell tightens the rhetorical noose and produces tears or thoughtful silence. His stagecraft is legendary. To illustrate a passage from Leviticus on sacrifice, Bell brought on a live goat, which he released--underlining Jesus' role as the last and greatest sin offering--intoning, "The goat has left the building."
In 2002, Bell went to video. Attempting a sermon for a standard 21-min. TV slot, he and three friends came up with just 10 strong minutes. These morphed into the Nooma--a 12-min., high-end short melding Bell's spoken narrative and a seemingly unrelated visual into a compelling homily. The format is unique in the world of Evangelicalism or, really, anywhere. If the father of a young child can watch Rain, a divine-love parable featuring Bell and his son during a storm, and not fight tears, he is Christopher Hitchens. The 18 Nooma DVDs have sold 1.2 million units.
They epitomize Bell's trademark combination of deep cultural savviness and deeper piety. Unlike others currently posing fundamental questions, notes Crouch, Bell will "come out on the other side with something to proclaim." Thus Bell derides a "score card" approach to sin. Rather, he maintains that once you've converted, "you're loved, you're accepted, you're forgiven, you're in." But he leavens the joy of this personal salvation with the message that being "in" means understanding poverty as the Saviour did: Mars Hill is aggressively socially active.
Bell is experimenting with becoming a national brand. He has just ended his second national bus tour in two years. Backstage recently in Manhattan, he acknowledged that the exertions aimed at "large crowds and good book sales can be at odds with" the creativity he associates with "the Eucharist, the breaking yourself open and pouring yourself out." Fans hope that as with the Nooma he can find a way to reconcile two seemingly disparate story lines."
peace and grace to all hippies this season...amen
Posted by joshuacase at 07:39 AM | Comments (4)
December 15, 2007
I probably shouldn't post this!
I probably should not post this video. However, if you liked laughing at Ms. Teen USA's answer about maps, then you will really enjoy this one. Especially if you happen to find yourself living in Europe, or are a European. Or, if you watched American Idol Season 5 and were annoyed by Kellie Pickler.
Jeez....Are you smarter than a 11 year old?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 05:07 PM | Comments (4)
Seriously good conversations...
Here are a few SGCs from this week from around the globe. Thoughts on advent, personal development, religion, and yes, extinction! Enjoy.
Nicholas Fiedler's 'Extinction is the equivalent of eternal damnation for animals'
Life Hacker's 'Know (and avoid) Your Schedule Wreckers'
Paul Mayer's 'Womb with a view: the endings and beginnings of eternal life?'
Jason Clark's 'Institutional Imagination'
Michael Krahn's 'Thomas Merton And The Search For True Self'
If you are looking for something to listen to other than the most recent Nick & Josh Podcast, then head over to 'Coffee Cup Apologetics' for their recent conversation on 'Do we do apologetics with people who really dislike Christianity?' You may not agree with what they say, but we shouldn't always just expose ourselves to things we merely agree with.
Would you recommend any other good conversations from this week for us to check out?
peace...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:19 AM | Comments (2)
December 14, 2007
St. John of the Cross
Today is the day of St. John of the Cross. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia and from the blog Alan Creech.
Wiki writes:
St. John of the Cross is considered one of the foremost poets in the Spanish language. Although his complete poems add up to less than 2500 verses, two of them—the Spiritual Canticle and Dark Night of the Soul are widely considered to be among the best poems ever written in Spanish, both for their formal stylistic point of view and their rich symbolism and imagery.
The Spiritual Canticle is an eclogue in which the bride (representing the soul) searches for the bridegroom (representing Jesus Christ), and is anxious at having lost him; both are filled with joy upon reuniting. It can be seen as a free-form Spanish version of the Song of songs at a time when translations of the Bible into the vernacular were forbidden.
Dark Night of the Soul (from which the spiritual term Dark Night of the Soul takes its name) narrates the journey of the soul from her bodily home to her union with God. It happens during the night, which represents the hardships and difficulties she meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas. Canadian world music artist Loreena McKennitt composed the music for and recorded a "song" version of the poem on her 1994 album The Mask and Mirror.
St. John also wrote three treatises on mystical theology, two of them concerning the two poems above, and supposedly explaining the meaning of the poems verse by verse and even word by word. He actually proves unable to follow this scheme and writes freely on the subject he is treating at each time.
The third work, Ascent of Mount Carmel is a more systematic study of the ascetical endeavour of a soul looking for perfect union, God, and the mystical events happening along the way. These, together with his Dichos de Amor y de Paz, or "Sayings of Love and Peace," and St. Teresa's writings, are the most important mystical works in Spanish, and have deeply influenced later spiritual writers all around the world. Among these can be named T. S. Eliot, Thérèse de Lisieux, Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), and Thomas Merton. John has also influenced philosophers (Jacques Maritain), theologians (Hans Urs von Balthasar), and pacifists (Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, and Philip Berrigan). He is also mentioned in Allen Ginsberg's groundbreaking poem "Howl."
Creech muses:
"One of the more valuable things that has stuck with me for a long time that I read was a comparison of the process of spiritual growth and maturity to that of a Mother weening her young child from her breast - how she put bitter herbs there and stopped carrying the child, putting him down to begin to walk on his own little feet. This is a difficult but necessary process we all have to go through at some point in order to become spiritually mature adults.
Here's a selection of a selection from today's Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours - not the most pleasant thoughts these, but definitely some truth to it that we need to understand:
"We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.
For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ: In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The soul cannot enter into these treasures, nor attain them, unless it first crosses into and enters the thicket of suffering, enduring interior and exterior labors, and unless it first receives from God very many blessings in the intellect and in the senses, and has undergone long spiritual training.
Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross."
–From a spiritual Canticle by St. John of the Cross
The thicket of the cross - that'll undo you right there. Not without God's Grace, though, or we would certainly be destroyed by it. We should certainly know that our destruction is not God's intention for us. This cross, these crosses, are only for our re-creation. St. John, ora pro nobis."
go barefoot...stand for justice...think jesuit!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2007
This Sunday: God is a baby!!!
This Sunday, Shema community's 'God is a baby' at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.
Here is a teaser video for this week's gathering:
join us...wont' you?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 06:03 PM
December 11, 2007
Thank You Mr. Gore.
Al Gore, as described by the Washington Post, 'accepts Nobel Prize with call for bold action.'
Thank you Mr. Gore.
Act today...as you are able...in your context!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote:
"The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomenon of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity, and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood whether we want it to or not. Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast all our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance."
How about this for a less than spiritual, nonetheless cult-ish dance for the ages? Thanks Napoleon:
dance...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:14 AM | Comments (1)
December 09, 2007
Forest Ethics' "Naughty and Nice" List of Treekillers
Forest Ethics' "Naughty and Nice" List of Treekillers
by Llyod Alter
Toronto
Posted to tree-hugger.com
"It is only the 7th and we are tired of Christmas references. Now Forest Ethics has released its "naughty and nice" list with Sears coming in dead last."In the nearly five years that we've been working to transform the environmental practices of the catalog industry, we have seen impressive results," said Ginger Cassady of ForestEthics, adding that "Leaders like LL Bean and Victoria's Secret prove that there is no reason why laggards like Sears cannot meet an environmentally sensible standard."
From the press release:
Whereas only three companies--including Dell and Williams-Sonoma--achieved satisfactory scores in the 2005 scorecard, this year's scorecard shows an emerging trend toward more sustainable practices, with the nine companies on Santa's "nice list" now matching the nine on the "naughty list."
Among the highlights:
* Naughty. With the release of its 188-page Wishbook catalog following a 13-year hiatus, Sears is growing more destructive to Endangered Forests at a time when forests, freshwater sources, and wildlife are most threatened. Sears gets a big lump of coal for its non-efforts this year, having done little to indicate that its 20th Century mindset will be reset for a 21st Century era of sustainable business.
* Nice! Patagonia has crafted a paper policy that backs up their reputation for savvy sustainability. They earn a caribou for each of the four criteria evaluated, which is fitting given what these policies will do for caribou whose Canadian Boreal habitat continues to be damaged by companies that don't make the grade. "
hehe..
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 06:39 PM | Comments (1)
December 08, 2007
TOMORROW= God is a Drifter: Join us!
This Sunday, Shema at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.
Here is a teaser video for tomorrow's gathering as we reflect on the drifting narratives within Christianity and our lives. We all have them!
hoping you can join this expression of our community in Geneva....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 03:00 PM
Seriously good conversations...
Here are a few SGCs from this week from around the globe. Thoughts on advent, politics, religion, and yes, family! Enjoy.
Jason Clark's 'Is there any 'giveness' to church anymore?'
Mike Clawson's 'Contextualization and Isolation: Then and Now'
Greg Boyd's 'Promiscuity and Terrorism'
Nicholas Fiedler's 'Advent for Agnostics'
Mike Todd's 'Too Close for Comfort'
Meghan Premo-Hopkins' 'Drinking makes me puke, cussing makes me studder...'
Becky Garrison's 'What Would Jesus Buy?'
Also, this week I would like to highlight Amahoro. Many of you will have heard of them and the gathering that they had last year in Uganda, but Amahoro is much much more than just a gathering. Check them out here, and do your best to get involved if you feel so moved. Here is a look at the new site! It looks great.
blog on...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)
What Would Jesus Buy & When the president talks to God
In response to this post, my friend Andy put a link to this video. In case you missed it. Here you go. Make sure you turn up the volume!!!!!
laugh!
jc
I was also recommended this song from Andy. Thanks man. A Poem entitled, 'When the President Talks to God'. Thanks...
Posted by joshuacase at 01:16 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2007
Christmas Lists, Malls, and all that junk..
It's starting. I am getting asked by family members and friends that famous question that always comes this time of the year. Yeah, you know it: 'what do you want for christmas?'
Weird question isn't it? Weird to me that it has become such a fixed one in the rhythm of our lives. Like going to a good liturgical church where you say the peace to one another. If you've gone there long enough, you expect and get accustomed to hearing, 'peace be with you' without really reflecting on what the words actually mean. That you are actually praying that the peace of God would be with that wandering friend or foe or relative no matter what instability exists in their lives at that very moment. That even as you say it, they would sense it. (as a side note: anyone noticed how 'saying the peace' was replaced by a 'greet your neighbor' time in most non-liturgical communities? Was peace too much?)
I have to be honest though, I am a consumer and I have the excuse (thanks mr chapman). I like getting presents and I receive and share love often times by gifting things to people. So answering the question isn't really an issue. The issue for me is similar to the ones that many bloggers (jason, paul, josh, more!) have been asking for a long time: what is this consumer culture doing to the church? What has the question, 'what do you want' done to our way of being community together? How have people's response to this very innocent question shaped them in every aspect of life?
Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to make consumers, or even consumerism the devil. I am not ready to go that far; however, something weird is happening. The commodification of faith is everywhere. You can buy rosaries in the accessories section of H & M. You can buy statues of the Buddha in most home deco shops. You can even get crosses in just about every shape, color, and gold that you want. And why? Because religion has become a melange. It has become a buffet where people can come along and snack a bit of this and choose a bit of that and get fat on eating one too many crab triangles. Something is going on!
I do not know what the answer is. Afterall, one of the central unifying aspects of the Christian community is consumption. Consumption via rememberance at the Eucharist. But the Eucharist, like most things when just consumed, does little to transform. No, consumers think little about what they are consuming, and more about how they feel with their consumption. Was it satisfying? Does it look good on me? Who else is buying this product? Is this the best deal for my money?
Again, don't get me wrong, this isn't a plea for the unilateral separation of or removal of religion from the public sphere. Not the discussion I am trying to have. I am a friend of most pluralists. But, my question is: are they pluralistic because they need/want to have a very diverse belief/thought system or, did that first someone who asked the question 'what do you want for christmas' set off a domino-train that we are still feeling to this day? Again, I am not sure I know the answer...but I hate it when Christmas becomes about me.
Here is video I have enjoyed from the first time i heard the song. You ask me what i want this year, here's a taste. And I am not refering to a goo goo dolls cd! Listen:
what do you want for christmas?
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 09:48 AM | Comments (3)
December 06, 2007
Obama and King: A Call to Serve Justice
A segment from one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time. Reminiscent of Dr. King, but set today. You may not be able to vote in the american elections, but you can hope for those who get elected. If you are like me, this is the kind of person I want leading the way to a different tomorrow.
This is a call to serve. This is a call for justice.
Not that I need to, but i have also attached the video of Dr. King's famous, "I have a dream" speech. If you have never heard it, now is your chance. If you have never listened to the whole speech, do. It is one of the greatest speeches ever spoken in context. It is a call for change. It is a call for justice. You will be inspired!
And by the way, what is your dream?
dream on...and be the change of things!!!!
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 11:37 AM | Comments (5)
December 05, 2007
Greg Boyd's Promiscuity & Terrorism
Hello bloggerites,
If you just recently joined my blog, you probably think I’m a man obsessed with sex. I’m actually not. I just happen to be working on a chapter on this topic for a book (Revolting Beauty) so it's on my mind.
As I mentioned a few blogs ago, our culture is steeped in a recreational view of sex. While God intended sex to be enjoyed between married couples alone, our culture has over the last three decades come to view it as a morally neutral activity that can and should be enjoyed however and whenever one wants. This cheapened view of sex is having destructive social and spiritual consequences.
For example, in 1960 just over five percent of children were born to unmarried mothers. In 2005 thirty seven percent were born to unwed mothers. This is a major contributor to the poverty in America as well as the alarming crime and violence rates in our culture, especially among young people. One in five Americans now has a STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection). Forty three percent of all marriages now end in divorce. And, ironically, the percentage of people struggling with sexual dysfunction is on the rise, especially for married people. One main reason for this is that porn deadens one’s appetite for real-life sex and introduces an inhibiting pressure to perform like a porn star in the bedroom.
The sexual revolution, it seems, is backfiring.
There are many other destructive consequences of our promiscuity as well, though they're less obvious. I would argue, for example, that our recreational view of sex contributes to the high frequency of depression of our nation. Nine percent of Americans are clinically depressed -- the most (by far) of any nation studied.
There's another non-obvious harmful consequence of our promiscuity I'd like to talk about in a bit more detail, for it shows how interconnected things are (and how we often overlook these connections). To put it bluntly, I'm convinced there's a direct connection between our promiscuity and terrorism. I know this probably sounds insane, but hear me out.
Radical Islamic groups notice that America has a drastic morally corroding effect on every country it influences. This is undeniable. Our brand of capitalism is inextricably bound up with sexually explicit advertising, which they abhor. And we are by far the main exporter of sexually explicit entertainment around the globe.
Consequently, these groups associate the “freedom”America stands for and now claims it wants to export to the rest of the world with its debauchery. And they understandably want to stop this at all costs. So, in the name of Allah, they have declared war on “the great Satan.” (Of course, they also have many other reasons for identifying America as "Satan" as well -- but our promiscuity is one of the major ones).
The majority of Americans can’t fathom why the terrorist groups hate us so much. Since we know we’re "so good," as George Bush stated several years back, most Americans conclude that radical Muslims who hate us must simply be evil. (How we love self-serving black and white categories!)
May I suggest that Kingdom people should not be so puzzled, so black and white, or so self-righteous.
America is not the “holy city set up on a hill,” as our traditional American mythology would have us believe. (See R. Hughes, Myths Americans Live By for a good exposition of this and other popular American myths). As a nation, we have become completely decadent and have, to a certain degree, brought this diabolic aggression on ourselves.
This doesn’t in any way condone the violence or tactics of these Islamic groups. Their hatred and violence is demonic. But so is the perversion of our culture. And in this light we need to expose the self-serving, simplistic fabrication that we are simply “good” and they are simply “evil.” The truth is, we’re both evil!
And all this simply demonstrates one more way in which the promiscuity of our culture is harming us.
As people who have pledged our life to imitating Jesus, we are called to revolt against this promiscuity. But unlike the revolt of the Islamist, we must always remember that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12). Our warfare is not against people, but on behalf of people – including those who are morally decadent as well as the Muslim extremist.
Both Hugh Hefner and Osama Bin Laden are unwitting pawns of the Powers who need rescuing.
We thus “do not wage war as the world does,” nor do we fight with “the weapons of the world” (2 Cor. 10:3-4). We do not fight with hatred and violence. We rather are called to fight this battle by humbly manifesting the beauty of God’s design for sexuality as we purge ourselves of the promiscuity that pervades our culture -- and as we love our enemies.
Be free,
Greg
Posted by joshuacase at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
10 Years to Change...OR ELSE!
10 years to change our ways, warns UN report
By Mark Tran
Guardian Unlimited
The world has less than a decade to change course to avoid irreversible ecological catastrophe, the UN warned today (27 November).
The stark warning from the UN's Human Development report came just ahead of next month's climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto protocol.
In a repeat of previous warnings from scientific panels, the 400-page report said that simply ignoring climate change would lead to unprecedented reversal in human development in our lifetime, and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren.
The report, commissioned by the UN Development Programme, said climate change would hit the least-developed countries the hardest.
"The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem," the report says.
"Looking to the future, no country - however wealthy or powerful - will be immune to the impact of global warming."
The panel says the greatest financial responsibility lies with the US and the other well-developed countries most responsible for the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, mainly from the use of coal, oil and other fossil fuels.
As the world's richest countries bear the greatest responsibility, the UN Development Programme called on them to bear the largest burden in cutting emissions and in providing financial aid to the poor.
Developed countries, the UN said, should cut emissions by at least 30% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. Developing nations should cut emissions by 20% by the year 2050.
The UN said the world must spend 1.6% of global economic output each year until 2030 to stabilise carbon levels and to limit a rise in global temperature to 2C to avoid the catastrophic impact of climate change.
Without the money, the panel said, a warmer world "could stall and then reverse human development" in the countries where 2.6 billion people live on $2 (96p) a day or less.
The consequences include women and young girls having to walk further to collect water in the Horn of Africa, people erecting bamboo flood shelters on stilts in the Ganges delta, and others planting mangroves to protect themselves against storm surges in the Mekong delta.
"The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act," the UN report said. "What is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity and collective interest."
thanks for reading...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:32 AM
December 04, 2007
Shema this Sunday- God is a Drifter
This Sunday, Shema at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.
Here is a teaser video for this week's gathering:
hoping you can join this expression of our community in Geneva....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:22 PM
Tuesday is for Thomas
From The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals edited by Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo published for the Merton Legacy Trust by HarperSanFrancisco.
Responding to God's Call
November 28, 1941
The one thing that appalls me is my own helplessness and stupidity: a helplessness and stupidity that come from a complete and total and uncompromising self-reliance that to the world appears to be a virtue in me and a great source of strength! What a lie and what a crazy deception that is -- to be self-reliant is to be strong and smart; to be self-reliant will get you through all your problems without too much difficulty or anguish.
Ever since I was sixteen traveling all over Europe, some of it on foot by myself (always by preference alone), I have developed this terrific sense of geography, this habit of self-analysis, this knack of getting along with strangers and chance acquaintances -- this complete independence and self-dependence, which turns out to be now not a strength but, in my big problem, a terrific weakness.
My instinct, when I have been faced by any such problem, has always been to go off and walk restlessly somewhere by myself until the problem turns itself over and over so many times that I get sick of it. Maybe a solution comes out later. Maybe the problem is not terribly tough -- but this time it is a tough one.
At least I went first to the chapel -- as I did when the Baroness asked me to come to Harlem. Last spring, I walked with the vocation problem in the woods. Two years ago -- 1939 -- I walked with the same problem, vocation to the priesthood, on the chicken dock in Greenwich Village.
In the chapel my heart was pounding so fast I couldn't even see straight, and I could hardly make the words of the prayers. All I could think was that it was very bad to be that disturbed. Eventually I calmed down and prayed. Then the idea it would be a good notion to see Father Philotheus gradually crystallized out.
I left the chapel. I went first not to his room but to mine. Then said a couple more prayers. Looked at a book about the Trappists, all the time knowing I was being a fool: I had no reason for standing around. (When my heart had pounded so fast in the chapel, I was saying to myself: "You are crazy: wait! wait! wait!")
When I got downstairs I went into the hall of the monastery and took two steps toward his door and rushed back out and walked up and down with ten conflicting ideas in my head -- first, that I was being a fool -- as disorganized as the French army was by the German fifth columns -- second, that waiting was not relevant because it just protracted this confusion -- third, that waiting was prudent -- etc.
The next time I go in, I nearly get to his door, but then it is almost as if I were physically pushed away from it. The idea that pushed me away was "This is absurd! This huge big problem in this small, familiar room, thrown like a bomb in the middle of some routine piece of philosophical manuscript he is reading ... disturb him ... etc." I rushed out again.
Finally I walked across the campus and back. When I got back he was out of his room -- I could see the light was out.
So then the first impulse was to say, "Now, see, let it all go for a few more days."
So I pray to St. Theresa in the grove.
While I am praying to her, the question becomes clear: all I want to know is, do I have a chance to be a priest after all? I don't want him to argue for or against the Trappists. I know I want to be Trappist. I remember the terrific sense of holiness and peace I got when I first stepped inside Gethsemani, something more certain and more terrific than had ever hit me anywhere else and that stayed with me until I got mixed up about the vocation at the end of the week in that terrible impasse: I want to be a priest -- but I am told there is an impediment. Therefore the desire is just an emotional luxury: I am kidding myself.
While I am praying to Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, it is like hearing the bells in the tower ringing for Matins in the middle of the night. I walk through the grove saying she will help me to be her Trappist -- Theresa's Trappist -- at Gethsemani.
I come back. No light in Father Philotheus's room. He is in the recreation room. I get him from there without any great fuss. I tell him my questions.
Instantly he says that in his opinion there is no canonical impediment in my case. He advises the thing that was so obvious I hadn't thought of it: go to Gethsemani as soon as the Christmas vacation begins and tell the whole story to the Abbot. (I thought of writing. He said that would be bad.)
He also advises me to be very careful about deciding to be a Trappist. What about my vocation to be a writer?
That has absolutely no meaning any more as soon as he has said what he has said.
So I run upstairs bursting with "Te Deum laudamus -- Te Dominum confitemur -- Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur ..." Then to the chapel and prayers and prayers and prayers.
I can't go to bed, and when I do I can't go to sleep.
I go through the grove again -- my head full of a big double-talk mixture of Te Deum and good-bye to everything I don't want.
In bed: suddenly I am amazed -- in four weeks, with God's grace, I may be sleeping on a board, and there will be no more future -- not in the world, not in geography, not in travel, not in change, not in variety, conversations, new work, new problems in writing, new friends, none of that: only a far better progress, all interior and quiet!!! If God only would grant it! If it were only His will!
As to all this self-analysis on paper -- it isn't important either. If the twenty other things I have to say are important, I will find a chance to say them. That I waited this long to ask Father Philotheus this question about the vocation and to open the question again did no harm. All the waiting I have done, and possibly must still do, is all quite important and significant.
I earnestly pray to give myself entirely to God according to His will and no longer get in the way with my own stupid will -- only He can help me out of my own clumsiness.
--------
respond...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:51 AM | Comments (2)
December 03, 2007
Climate Conference Begins today!!!
UN Kicks Off Bali Climate Conference
By JOSEPH COLEMAN –
"BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Faced with melting polar ice caps and worsening droughts, climate experts at a massive U.N. conference Monday urged quick action toward a new international pact stemming an increasingly destructive rise in world temperatures.
A key goal of the two-week conference, which opened with delegates from nearly 190 countries in attendance, will be to draw a skeptical United States into an agreement to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases.
While the U.S. delegation declared it would not be a "roadblock" to a new agreement, Washington remains opposed to steps many other countries support, such as mandatory emissions cuts by rich nations and a target for limiting the rise in global temperatures.
The American position suffered a blow Monday when the new Australian prime minister signed papers to ratify the Kyoto Protocol climate pact. The move leaves the U.S. — the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases — as the sole industrial power not to have joined.
Conference leaders urged delegates to move quickly to combat climate change.
"The eyes of the world are upon you. There is a huge responsibility for Bali to deliver," said Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the conference. "The world now expects a quantum leap forward."
The conference kicked off amid growing global momentum for dramatic action to stop rising temperatures that scientists say could lead to swamping of coastal areas and islands by higher oceans, the wiping out of species, economic havoc and a spike in natural disasters such as storms, fires and droughts.
The Bali meeting will be the first major conference of its kind since former Vice President Al Gore — due to arrive next week — and a U.N. scientific council won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for their environmental work.
The immediate aim will be to launch negotiations toward a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012, and set an agenda for the talks and a deadline. The U.N. says such an agreement should be concluded by 2009 in order to have a system in place in time."
Read more below..but stay up on this one. It could prove to be the straw that breaks the camel's...back.
greener today than yesterday...and that's a good thing...
jc
Among the most contentious issues ahead will be whether emission cuts should be mandatory or voluntary. Also to be tackled will be to what extent up-and-coming economies like China and India will have to rein in their skyrocketing emissions, and how to help the world's poorest countries adapt to a worsening climate.
The American delegation was clearly on the defensive in Bali, presenting a statement detailing the ways the U.S. is fighting global warming without submitting to mandatory emissions targets.
"We're not here to be a roadblock," insisted Harlan L. Watson, the senior U.S. climate negotiator. "We're committed to a successful conclusion, and we're going to work very constructively to make that happen."
Confronted with the scientific reports of the past year, the Bush administration has signaled a willingness to play a larger role in the negotiations, and U.N. officials agree they must craft a post-Kyoto framework that Washington will go along with.
Australia abandoned the anti-Kyoto alliance with the U.S. on Monday, when new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed the paperwork to ratify the pact. Delegates in Bali erupted in applause when Australia's delegate, Howard Bamsey, told the plenary that Canberra was jumping on board.
Environmentalists at the conference cited what they saw as growing international momentum for tougher safeguards against global warming. Even critics of the Bush administration pointed out that many individual states, such as California, were on the forefront of cutting emissions.
"Despite the failure of the current president to take serious action on global warming, the political landscape in the United States is shifting dramatically in favor of mandatory limits on global warming pollution," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, citing upcoming action in the U.S. Congress.
Trying to fend off charges that America is not doing enough, Bush said last week a final Energy Department report showed U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, declined by 1.5 percent last year while the economy grew.
Posted by joshuacase at 06:04 PM
Advent Conspiracy
In honor of the beginning of the Advent season, I'd like to highlight a group called Advent Conspiracy. 'Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption.'
I haven't done any work with this group before, but I think they are definately on to something. I have also been reading, per Jason Clark, Consuming Relgion by Vincent J. Miller. It is quite the read and is consistent with some of what the AC (advent conspirators) suggest, namely that we:
START CONSPIRING ::
1. Commit
Sign up your organization to join the Advent Conspiracy!
2. Communicate the Vision
Worship More, Spend Less, Give More and Love All
3. Educate Yourselves
Teach your people about materialism, the local and global needs and what the meaning of Christmas is all about.
4. Get Creative
Discover together how to live in a more relational and meaningful way.
5. Identify who you will Love
Choose the key people groups and clean water projects that you will assist.
6. Celebrate the Birth of Christ
Take an offering that will go to the groups you have identified. Redistribute the offering money to the groups you have chosen ~ no money comes through Advent Conspiracy.
7. Share your Story
Tell us what God did, so we can learn and grow and share it with others.
Here is video that is quite powerful that AC put together:
worship more. spend less. give more. love all.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 02:36 PM | Comments (2)
December 02, 2007
Funny...
Nicholas highlighted this one...but it was bizarre, and about Alabama, so I had to show it.
dang dog....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:22 AM
December 01, 2007
World AIDS Day 2007
(HT: IUSY)
International statistics
Last Updated: November 2007
People living with HIV
33.2 million people worldwide
30.8 million adults
15.4 million women
2.5 million children under 15
New HIV cases in 2007
2.5 million total new cases
2.1 million adults
420,000 children under 15
AIDS deaths in 2007
2.1 million total deaths
1.7 million adults
330,000 children under 15
HIV by Region 2007
Sub-Saharan Africa
22.5 million adults and children living with HIV
1.7 million adults and children newly infected with HIV
5 % adult prevalence
1.6 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS
South and South-East Asia
4 million adults and children living with HIV
340,000 million adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.3% adult prevalence
270,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
East Asia
800,000 adults and children living with HIV
92,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.1% adult prevalence
32,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
1.6 million adults and children living with HIV
150,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.9% adult prevalence
55,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Caribbean
230,000 adults and children living with HIV
17,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
1.0% adult prevalence
11,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Latin America
1.6 million adults and children living with HIV
100,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.5% adult prevalence
58,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
North America
1.3 million adults and children living with HIV
46,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.6% adult prevalence
21,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Western and Central Europe
760,000 adults and children living with HIV
31,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.3% adult prevalence
12,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Middle East and North Africa
380,000 adults and children living with HIV
35,000 adults and children newly infected
0.3% adult prevalence
25,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Oceania
75,000 adults and children living with HIV
14,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.4% adult prevalence
1,200 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
-------------------
You don't have to be or know a person who is HIV positive for these facts to make you sick. AIDS is a global pandemic and as people of this age we must do something about it.
Yesterday I suggested a couple of things we could do to get our heads around AIDS in our communities. In hindsight, maybe our heads are the problem. Maybe, less than knowing the issues, we need to know the people. Maybe, less than facts, we need hearts of compassion. Maybe, more than the out of giving, we need to discover the art of caring.
AIDS hasn't happened emerged in a vaccum. Societies, people, global economies, health structures, and religions have all aided and encouraged its spread through the last century. No one is innocent.
Watch this story about a group in Kenya working within a community of AIDS victims. Combining care, practical health, and important medicine, this group is seeing change happen. It's not the only story out there, but it is one.
commit to care and be changed!
joshua
Geneva, Switzerland
1 December 2007
Posted by joshuacase at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
The Return of SGCs...
That's right, there are just too many seriously good conversations happening these days for me not to bring back the 'SGCs'. The last one happened in August, and after a three month sabbatical, they are back.
I hope you enjoy these from this week. Good conversations..seriously good!
Adventures in Mercy's 'Defining Salvation (A Four Year Old's Crisis)'
Ryan Dueck's 'Put Your Bibles Away?'
Leslie Treece's 'I'm Okay With It'
Greg Boyd's 'Why Sex is a Big Deal'
Josh Brown's 'The Consumptive Church: The Context For My Starting Point'
For those of you who prefer to listening/watching, here is one to listen:
via Prodigal Kiwi of Revd Canon Lucy Winkett
enjoy, engage, enlighten.
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 08:57 AM | Comments (1)