On the God's Politics blog today:
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/11/patriotism-and-idolatry/

Patriotism and Idolatry

by Tim King 10-11-2010

"This meditation is part of a dialog on Patheos.com about the question, “So, when does patriotism pass over into idolatry?”

"Idolatry is often subtle. I’ve never walked into a Church to see the cross replaced with a golden calf. It’s not that blatant. Idolatry replaces God with anything that is less than God, even if that thing is pretty good."

Good stuff!!!

someone being interviewed on mpr just said something like this: "we [progressives] feed on hope while the tea party just feeds on fear." Right on.

This is quite possibly my all-time favroite webpage, EVER: What to do in an Emergency. Gets me every time.

Paraprosdokians - funny! It says "A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to re-frame or re-interpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists." Haha.

It appears that the last time I blogged was in December and for some reason I was annoyed with Obama...probably over the slow going health care reform stuff. But it passed and all that is over for now, but the bill wasn't as drastic as it would've been if I were in charge. I still have faith in Obama and really like him as a person and President, but I'm getting so fearful of what I'm hearing out there now regarding politics. I don't understand a lot about politics and American bureaucracy and our capitalist system...but I just feel a burden to use my vote, my voice, my heart to push for policy which will help the poor and marginalized. That's why the tea party freaks me out. Because I don't see Christians doing their job to help the poor so if we do cut gov't programs, who is going to help the poor? Do we want to see poverty double, triple, quadruple in the USA?? Because I fear that will happen if these tea party people take over. Honestly, I'd love it if we had "less government," but I've lost faith that Christians will do what God has called them to do to provide for and take care of the poor, alien, widow, and orphan, and so if we don't allow government to do these things than no one will do them and we condemn these people to suffer.

Jesus' heart was with the poor and marginalized; that's who he spent his time with when he was "evangelizing" - which if you read the actual stories, his evangelism looks a lot more like hanging out with people and eating with them and showing them compassion as opposed to the 'repent or ye be damned' definition of evangelism that lurks out there today. It wasn't conditional; it wasn't a "if you come and listen to my 'gospel sales pitch,' then i'll heal your leprosy or give you sight or feed all 5000 of you," he offered himself. He oozed compassion, wisdom, love for the Father, conviction, salvation. I think time with him in person and seeing all these things that he was would make you want to repent of sin. He was God. Wow. And we're to be like him. This means sacrificing yourself, carrying your cross daily, realizing God died for the sins of the whole world and there is nothing of this world that we can attain that means more than that. So what's the big deal if we pay more taxes? Will we be willing to spend time volunteering places or donating to people who help the poor? Will we be willing to make necessary changes in our lifestyles to be able to help "the lease of these?" God help me be willing and able to do just this, to life a life worthy of this calling we have received.

I was excited and encouraged by your life story and ideas to make positive social change - that's why I voted for you. I hate injustice, social inequality, greed, corruption, and war. I also believe you also hate those things. I didn't understand a month or so ago when people were questioning your deserving-ness of the Nobel prize. I heard your UN speech and found it inspiring. But I can't help but question what the heck you're doing now...sending more troops and proliferating war and occupation and the spread of the US empire seems inconsistent with the character I read about and admired in Dreams from my Father. I want to believe you are going to rise up and change the world - you certainly have the ability, but more war? Really? More military spending when we're facing the worse economy since the Great Depression? I won't say you've lost me quite yet...but you're losing me...cmon buddy.

"it happens all the time; you turn water into wine"

a simple line from a song by the Wedding. love that song and love that line. it made me think about the whole water into wine thing and it actually means something real to me now. yeah it was Jesus' first miracle and it was wine and he didn't have to and all that...but what really strikes me is how that water is us. me. water is plain, flavorless, kinda boring. wine is rich, exciting, and radically different than water. "if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation: the old is gone, the new has come." he turns his bland water into a new substance: wine.

yeah i know you need water to hydrate and dont need wine for survival...but lets not dwell on that in this case cos it wrecks my analogy. heh heh. this is more the artistic act of turning something bland into something beautiful which is what happens with salvation.

Random thought as I'm writing my midterm for my american race relations class: I wonder if some people are racist these days not out of hate for another race or out of a belief in eugenics or nicer looking skin colors...but rather out of laziness. Hate, fear, dislike, eugenicist thought, politics, prejudice, ignorance etc. have all been contributors to our history of racism and discrimination in the US, a history that had been legal, institutionalized, and socially accepted for over a century prior to the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement. To combat and correct this history takes time, effort, energy, and COMMITMENT. The advantages of white privilege are embedded in white American culture so deeply that it is the unspoken norm; the unmarked marker of status (as I believe Althusser argues). My thought is that I think laziness is the reason people choose to not fight against the racism that exists in our culture or the reason people want to just argue that "we are post race" and that institutional racism and disadvantages based on race do not exist. It is so much easier to accept the privileges that come along with whiteness; it is much MUCH harder to live aware of your privilege and the luxuries it affords you. It's easier to throw up our hands and accept that inequality is a huge issue which we can't change, and then walk out the door and continue to live a life to serve only ourselves as a result. Whether racism takes the form of hate or of ignorance, it is just as socially destructive...and sinful.

http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/08/scripture-and-history-remind-us-that-we-are-all-immigrants/

This comment will be quick and without a lot of thought/analysis behind it, just a general wondering I've been having lately...I don't get why so called christians protest legalizing gay marriage. What difference does it make if it is lawful or not? Our highest law is God's law then it does not matter if something is legal or not - we will choose to not do it because we're ruled by God's law and not the government. "Everything is permissible, but is it beneficial?" So why put so much energy in to preventing a law to pass to allow this or that, laws are worldly. I respect the government and all don't get me wrong, but simply making something legal or illegal does not get to the root of the issue does it? It does not change hearts!

interesting insights from this weeks sojo mail:
"The invisible hand let go of some things, like the common good. The idea that policies which benefit the wealthiest will eventually benefit everyone has proven false. " "The growing inequality in America over decades is a sin of biblical proportions." Jim Wallis. Jim states he believes Obama's budget proposal is good since its main focus is on health care, climate change, and education. "I believe it is time to stop helping the undeserving rich, under the now demonstrably false assertion that this will then benefit the rest of us. When the top 1 percent of the country now get 20 percent of its income, control 33 percent of its wealth, and pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than their receptionists do (as Warren Buffet has pointed out)—something has gone terribly wrong in America. The new Obama budget is the first and dramatic step to fix all that, and turn the nation in a different direction."
agreed - the inequality has been OUT OF CONTROL (or rather neglected to be controlled) and I sure hope Wallis is right with Obama's plans.

a life spent in retreat to an isolated chamber
a life spent in dependence upon false comfort
a mind that begs to rest in omnipotence but cannot seem to trust
the flesh urges to use what is fleeting, whatever it deems it must

a life spent under covers, layers of tucked away shame
a life spent doing whatever the moment deems it may
a heart that desires things greater than the flesh
a body which stives, strains, moans, cannot find rest

don't ya hate it when you're convinced you just met your future husband and then find out a few days later he's married has kids and is like ten years older than you AND is going to be teaching a course you're taking?? hahahaha. gosh. funny stuff. aw well.

would i be at the U as a Soc major if i'd have really searched my heart? did I ask and wait rightly in asking for God to speak and lead? or am I so sorta estranged to myself that I still can't state one job, career, or field I feel called to?

should i be scolding myself for this? begging for God to call me to social work or teaching or culinary school and just put myself in more school accordingly...i hate that idea right now. i want so desperately to finish in a year and get a job and MOVE OUT and get married and have kids. that's what i want and i want a job that i'm good at and will enjoy and correspond to my passions.

i think my view about this is very patrick dodson-y merged with my dad's experience/teaching to me.

i want a job where i have the opportunity to show compassion to others. to be a leader for others. to have responsibilities that i enjoy fulfilling. where i am intellectually challenged and can challenge others to think critically about the place we all are in. a non-white majority environment. a not super stressful and controlling boss with corporate standards and pressure to be perfect all the time. one that provides an opportunity to help the poor. one where i can be challenged to be creative and encourage others to think outside the box, their limited scope of the world, and challenge them to care about the WORLD, not just themselves.

Psalm 48:14: For this God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide even to the end.

Well, that's good news.

my head hurts. i hate how much politics and government influences life and worldview. perhaps i am a little nieve about how i'm going to have to live in this world - but eveyrthing just sees so messed up and crazy and i wish i could just move...but i know that wouldn't make life easier. maybe just go to heaven...that'd be alright. i just want to cry my eyes out when i think of assimilating into this twisted consumer driven self seeking nation. what am i talking about though - i assimilate daily and i'll just be getting "the man" to pay me instead of giving all my money to "the man." it's just horrible to learn about all this coruption the pursuit of wealth has had on our culture but feeling powerless to change it...so now it's as a chist following individual, how much should i fight and how much do i have to compromise in order to pursue my passions in life?

i jsut want to mix everthing all up and i wish i could turn this culture upside down like Jesus did. i want my education inspiring me but not forcing me to think only their way. perhaps i did not give enough thought to what school i should go to. therefore, my goal should be to think objectively and compassionately, not just critically. i think i have become so cynical and critical of everything. is being rich always a sin, is the death penalty always wrong...maybe, i dunno. but the way Lisa has taught us to "always critique the place we are in" has made me bitterly critical. so let's morph this life goal: Always critique the place I am in while always thinking compassionately about my neighbor.

ahhhhh i cannot stand sarah palin. i cannot and will not align myself with a politial party but i will be voting for obama. i am sitting watching this VP debate and its like every time sarah palin opens her mouth she is expressing how much she is an idolator of nationalism - she worships America and all the operations of neoliberalism. "country comes first." she just said that. our best interests. getting us all rich. i mean biden is also just said we should be the best nation in the world. he's been saying what their ticket is saying is best for building up America too, but the republicans are just so crazy inbedded in capitalism and the rhetoric is all trying to make it sound like "i don't want to raise ANYONE's taxes" so that the rich people are included in the anyone. no. their taxes need to be raised to help out the poor people they oppressed. the deregulation of economic practice is why so many are poor and got shoved out of their homes and jobs!

iraq is not our country. why have we made it our job to instill their government? it's not ours. we can't even govern ourselves, why are we instilling a new infrastructure there?? we're building their country - who gave us the authority to do that? we went in and got the bad guy out, ok fine. but why are we their forceably adopted mother when the people could figure out how the want to do it given their culture and traditions? why can't we look to leaders among the people and hand them the reigns...because we like America being in power and having control of the world, right?

from what i am hearing, the republican ticket for this election is selfish. i'm not thinking about me and how i'm gonna survive, i know i'll get by. the republicans are thinking about catering towards the middle class so they can still have their dreams of upward mobility and getting rich. they don't want to help the people on the bottom that the deregulation of business in the 90's forced there. they want America to be wealthy, powerful, neoliberal, prosperous, the best, an easy life, you name it. it makes me sick. I worship God, not the United States. I put him first, not my country. That's why lets be a little less concerned about how we're gonna keep going and think about how those who have it worse than we do can get up and moving.

why am i not sleeping right now? i wanted to go to sleep almost 2 hours ago and i cannot. i am not tired. but i am also bored and cannot relax. tv isnt doin it. snacks didn't do it. book didn't do it. music didn't do it. perhaps i am insomnia-ing because my mind is a lil wrapped up and confused about the rick warren broadcast and having no idea who to vote for now and fearing ppl will yell at me because i truthfully am now leaning towards McCain when i was so faithfully supporting Obama before...i mean I voted for Obama at the caucuses for pete's sake. But i dunno...when we think long term McCain seems dedicated to fighting injustices in other countries and ensuring our freedom and protection here in the US as well. His morality and ethics most closly align with the biblical worldview where Obama just seems like he wants to please everyone and not ruffle feathers. This seems more post modern to me. In the rick warren interviews, Obama stammered and seemed nervous cos he knew he needed to give the "right" answer in order to win over the evangelical voters but McCain seemed more at ease and gave straight answers. I enjoyed his bluntness even though I didn't agree with every word he said. So yeah i dunno. i don't have to decide tonight but it's some food for thought i suppose.

Oprah is on talking about prowlers and intuition/fear or something. There's a weight loss infomercial on, Hollywood Insider, someone waiving a Bible around, some make money infomercial, a lame talkshow, the antique roadshow, and a blind date show. Quality tv at 1:30am. I want to sleep. Pooo.

i respect respectful men. men who sincerely listen to God and choose to follow God. there are so many who don't or who say they do but choose the truth's they like and ignore others or who just go in it half heartedly or quarter heartedly. a man who loves God loves others. a man who loves God cares less about satisfying his own personal desires and more about the legacy he will leave.

(i respect great Godly women as well, but this is what's on my heart right now)

this scene is bomb. shows both girl power and justice. yes.

i feel i've perhaps misunderstood or just not given enough thought to john 1:1-3ish and now that i'm thinking about it...its seems somewhat duh a little but not...not that i have it all right or anything but this is what is goin through my mind...

so anyway "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I'm working on my camp stuff right now which has a lot to do with studying the Bible and using the Word as your cornerstone (foundation for building your life upon). the Word here in John 1:1 capital W, as Matthew Henry explained it in his commentary, is "as our words explain our minds to others, so was the Son of God sent in order to reveal his Father's mind to the world."

So the word here is not just the Bible. The Word is Jesus. The Bible is not a member of the trinity so the Bible itself is not God like Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God. The Bible is like God's voice. Our voices speak to reveal what is on our minds. So the Bible is like God's mind. The Bible is God's tool. The Bible leads us to our savior but it is not itself our savior...? I think it's more complex than that since the Bible does contain the very words of Jesus...

It's so spiritual that I think that's as good of an understanding we can get in our language and humanity. I know the Bible is more to God. It is a weapon. It is a divine gift. It is how God speaks. It is a treasure. It's one of the best gifts he could give. But, Jesus speaks specifically about the gift of the Holy Spirit (which without I would not be able to write a word of this). The Holy Spirit itself is God, a member of the trinity. When we accept Christ we have the eternal omnipotent God living inside us. That is the best gift he could give. God inside our very human selves.