Relative Integrity - Or, Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Russia's wrong, I'm not questioning that. The prospect of the bear reawakening is one that should give the world pause.

But if ever there was a example of the impact of words and actions, this is it.

And it bespeaks a powerful lesson that carries with it a truth that is at once personal and public, relational and geo-political, and ultimately spiritual - one's moral authority to effect clarity and a change in perspective and behavior is muted by one's actions if they are direct conflict

I'm just sayin' - - -

"Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised." Tolstoy

For the latest on our story, let's turn now to the news broadcast of record, "The Daily Show:"

In Other Words

I don't know if Jon Stewart wrote it, or his staff did, but this is -
Complete - devastasting - brilliant satire.
I'd say it's PG-13

No End In Sight

Now, lest you think this is another Michael Moore film (oh, see "Sicko," it'll make you sick) - it's not. As we get closer and closer to the threshold that makes this war truly on a par with Vietnam, which is to say that we go from 4,000 Americans dead to 40,000 - to say nothing of Iraqis whose numbers of causalities are incalculable, before we decide we just need to stop and get out - you know like 10 years from now, there are voices of dissent speaking up to say, "for the love of God, please stop."

Amazingly enough, these are voices of those who've been a part of the beginnings of the story. I find it extraordinarily American, and while it enrages me, strangely, it gives me hope.

Welcome to the Party, Pal

To all those war hawks now reaching the conclusion that something dramatic needs to happen in Iraq, like getting us out of there - I just have one thing to say-

Where the hell you been?

While you continued to play politics, scores and scores more of our sons and daughters have been maimed or killed in action. And don't forget, you were among those calling everyone else who pleaded for a different strategy those cowards who "cut and run."

It has been said that to argue against the war was to show lack of support for the troops.

I say, to knowingly perpetuate engagement in a conflict we started, and one we cannot win, one that has devolved into a civil war - for reasons that defy logic, the counsel of military commanders, who, either retired early to voice their concern, or were forced out because they wouldn't tote the party line - there's your lack of support for those who are bound by oath, duty and honor.

It is among the most egregious abuses of authority we are ever likely to see.

Now, for God's sake, let's get out of Iraq, now, and try to reclaim some of the honor we have lost.

KO - Special Comment on Iraq Funding Resolution

Haven't posted anything from KO in awhile - but this one can't be ignored.


Give it a look and the let debate begin -

War in Perpetuity

Either we'll succeed, or we won't succeed. And the definition of success as I described is sectarian violence down. Success is not, no violence. There are parts of our own country that have got a certain level of violence to it. But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives. And that's what we're trying to achieve. President George W. Bush

Say What?

I truly don't know where to start with this one.

There are many issues running here.

But the thought that continues in me is that just when I think we can't slide any further down the slippery slope that this war has brought us, I find that I'm wrong.

The cynical side of me (which I freely admit too often dominates my thinking) can easily lead me to the darker places of the soul. Could it be that, in part, a perpetual war keeps the war industrial machine fed and maintains an oil supply issue that will always keep the price per barrel high enough, for long enough, that we no longer think that what we're paying at the pump is too high?

To be sure, on a global scale, what we pay isn't too high - but when $3.00/gallon feels o.k., guess who benefits? And guess who is harmed?

And, if my cynicism carries a bit further down the road, that this administration is, without dispute, in bed with those who benefit from such a scenario, is, I'm sure, only coincidence.

But there's another side to this quote that I can't get past.

"..success is a level of violence in which people feel comfortable living their daily lives."

Nothing reveals the heart more than this.

The day we accept any level of violence is the day we are no longer working for the coming of the Realm of God in it's fullness.

And as long as there is a level of violence we're o.k. with, wars with continue, violence in this country will persist, and the makers of such tools will get richer.

So, rhetoric once again masks larger agendas, only now, it's so absurd, it's as if they're not even trying any more because they know that we know it's a bunch of crap, and we can't do anything about it.

Through my eyes, it's just that simple.

Some Random Rants

…Let me let you in on a little secret. My ushers like to send me notes in the offering plate. When the crowd is especially good (and it’s been great), on the top of the plate that I receive when singing the doxology I get “the count.” And when the crowd's down, the card's nowhere to be found.

I try not to make a big deal out of it. Any preacher who says that he or she does not care how many people are in worship on any given Sunday is a liar. So, on April 8, Easter Sunday, I knew it was good. Even without the hyperbolic preacher count, I couldn’t have guessed how good. The card read 293.

Now for those of you from mega churches, you feel free to scoff at that, make light of it, go ahead. For those of us who have long believed that God was about to do a new thing with the remnant of Saint John’s, it is confirmation that God is doing something remarkable with us – may we be response-able to where that calling takes us.

+++++++

…Four years this week I was in Jackson, Tennessee, with my band, Glad River, recording a CD we would call PEACE. All the dynamics at play in getting the band together, to record again - the intensity of the experience, done in five days bordered on grueling. In between takes, or when one of us had laid down our track and we had a brief moment to veg out, we were transfixed on the television. Our country was at war, and Baghdad had fallen. Even then I never doubted our capacity to run roughshod over whatever army Iraq had. My worry then, as reflected in my writings at the time was that we would have trouble winning the peace. It’s not that I’m super smart on such things, it was just a feeling.

I wrote the liner notes for that album for the band - without going to grab one of the several hundred copies of the cds that live my garage and copying word for word what I wrote, the gist of it lingers – “As we record this week our country is at war. We pray that our children will learn the lessons our actions teach and that they will resolve their disputes with something other than bombs and guns.”

I guess I’ll have to keep praying.

++++++++

…. Don Imus, a radio host who’s been around forever (and that may not be metaphorical), used profoundly offensive language on air when talking about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, college kids, who made a heck of a run in the Women’s NCAA tournament.

While his radio and television networks conspire to determine how much punishment to mete out while not losing the services of the cash cow this guy must be, and, having the appearance that they’re sensitive and tending to one of their problem children forcefully (while really only proffering a token appeasement of those folks who want him fired), the I-Man has been on the mea culpa trail to apologize for his lack of judgment (By the way, my grammar check tells me that the previous sentence is way too long – but I’m going to keep it anyway).

In response to an angry caller who was really nailing him, Imus employed that “you don’t know me” defense by saying that he is a good person who said a bad thing. He may be. I don’t know him.

God knows that more than a few things have come out of my mouth that shouldn't have. I'd like to think that my character is more than the sum total of what was emerged from my cake hole over the years.

But no differently than Newt Gringrich can say he’s not a hypocrite despite his affairs during the Clinton impeachment, you can’t say you’re good, or a hypocrite or not – I can’t really even say that I’m a Christian - my actions do that for me.

Despite what you say, what do your actions bespeak of who you are?

Leftovers and a Few Fresh Servings

Some scattered thoughts left over from '06, and comments on what has been an extraordinary first week in '07 -

• + How was my holiday? What holiday? With Kristy working full time, we only had a couple of days off, so I worked more during a time I usually take apart. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - the season just had a very different rhythm to it than my past Christmas seasons. I even preached on what is traditionally an "associate" Sunday. And it was really o.k.
  
• + Last week, on like the 4th day of Christmas, I'm picking up my middle child from his cousins' house in Collierville, where he basically lived for the whole his holiday break. He's 11, and the spittin' image of my brother, in more ways than I can count, and he says to me, "Dad, do you know what I want for Easter?" He didn't get to tell me - I think it was that "don't go there" stare I gave him back. And then it occurred to me - our children have always received gifts, and often in abundance, but we have not instilled in them the desire to give them. Note for '07, that's something I've got to work on.
• + When I was growing up, my Dad would never ask for anything during holiday time. And even now as an adult, I find he's still among the hardest of people to buy for. "Oh, I don't need anything, just your company." Now, when I was little, I used to think he's nuts because I had the Sears Wishbook dog-eared, cross-referenced, and strategically displayed on the table for any eyes desiring to know what their loving son wanted for Christmas. But I get it now. I've come to realize that the gift of time together, or even the quite of an afternoon is not a bad gift. Often it is a treasure in itself.
• + I've been asked if my opposition to the death penalty applies to Saddam Hussein. Yes - because you can kill someone, doesn't mean you should, even if the guy is bad, maybe especially if he is.
  
• + In the world of the bizarre - on the same day last week, the cable news network I watch covered three stories simultaneously - the execution of Saddam, the death of the 38th President of the United States, and the death of the Godfather of Soul. This may well be a sign of the apocalypse.
• + Or, maybe this is - our President, it appears, is going to send up thousands of more troops to Iraq against the counsel of his Generals, the Iraq Study Group, and a disgruntled American populous - who now see this FUBAR'd debacle for what it is. Oh, yes, I've got KO on this one - stand back and hold on to something -
  

• + As of yesterday, the second in line of succession to the Presidency is a woman. Who'd a thunk it?
• + My list of resolutions for '07 looks strangely familiar. Why is that? Oh, that's right, they're the one's for '06, '05, '04 . . . what's that quote about insanity? It's doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result. Maybe time for something different - please.
  

War Games

The following is an email exchange between Sarah and me.

I'm a big fan of hers.

She's a PK, like me, and when she was in Memphis she occupied a seat in the very back of the sanctuary. I could always count on a word from her, via email, to encourage and challenge me. I've always had a sense that she and I are resonant spirits.

Now that she's moved, our contact is only through email, and she still challenges me. We have a continuing e-dialogue on matters of physical health and spiritual health.

It is with her permission that I share our most recent exchange.

Hi Johnny!

This is totally off-topic, but I’m in a county in South Carolina that prepares the few, the proud, the Marines and my neighbor is a Marine fighter pilot and I’m a life-long Doonesbury fan and I’ve gotten sucked into the blogs in the Sandbox, which are somehow attached to Doonesbury.

Some things stand out from these blogs – we have absolutely no idea what they are doing every day.

This war is unlike any other. It is more like inner city gang warfare than an occupying country rebuilding another country. And the news does not paint the story. The president (of course) does not paint the story.

These blogs – written by some very eloquent and talented writers – make the war close and real in a way CNN and even the split second news of the internet does not. I am shaken to my core by the things they say.

Another thing that seems to recur in their blogs is complaints about the inadequacy of their uniforms – never would have thought about it. But they must wear uniforms at all times – but that leaves them freezing sometimes. One guy purchases his own Under Armour underwear because it protects him from the fires he has to work in – but they constantly get stolen in the laundry. Things I never would have thought of –

The biggest thing that has changed for me is that these writers could be me – they seem liberal, they are educated, they are thoughtful, they are whimsical. They aren’t the redneck or thug, uneducated, super right-wing, NRA we love George W crew I thought they were.

And the President is going to enjoy Christmas before he makes any new plans for Iraq? How is that possible? These are real people he’s leaving over there – without access to a good beer for Christmas, a tacky holiday sweatshirt, or even a Silent Night for reflection – and he’s going to get through the holidays before he does anything? How is that possible?
Peace.
Sarah
_________

Hey Sarah,

Per usual, you prick the stuff of my soul.

This one is easy. It's either one of three things.

One, W. believes he is the equivalent to the Old Testmament kings - that is, to be hand picked by God (which might actually be so since I'm fairly sure the voters didn't elect him, especially in 2000, and from what I've seen on the HBO documentary, "Hacking Democracy," he lost in '04, too), and that he need not have the mandate of the populus. Rather, he lives under the delusion that he has a Divine Mandate.

Two, this is the equivalent of a little boy playing with his army men (something I quite enjoyed as a boy, myself). But he's not playing with plastic army men, it's real, and he doesn't know how to end the game - except that he's too darned stubborn to quit.

Or Three, he's playing Stratego in real life, and stinks at it.

In an interview with ABC news, he's been quoted as stating that he "sleeps better than most people assume." Nothing could communicate the disconnect of a Commander in Chief out of touch with the real life issues on the ground more than that.

God help us all.
JJ

_____

On his ranch-throne, where he sleeps well, and will prepare to celebrate Christmas, I wonder if his well-protected motorcade will pass any day laborers and think of the day laborers lured to the car bomb or how close that bomb was to one of our stations where American men and women were getting ready to start their day? This war is so real and he is so disconnected from the reality of the majority of the world. He has never known anything but privilege. He never fought war, he never worked hard to get advancement, get into school, make the grade, etc. He never had to work himself out of his own messes. And I think that is why he is able to continue to play with plastic army men – we are all disposable for him, just like everything else in his life has been. So he can restrict what the soldiers wear, what they eat and drink, and let chance and zealots determine how many more of them will die, and tuck himself into bed at night able to believe that they’re all proud to be serving their president. We’ve let our military fall into a position that will be virtually impossible to come out of cleanly. I think it’s a combination of all three – he’s pre-ordained to be the president, proudly leading the country through this troubling time and this fight against terror, but he doesn’t know a thing about strategy, the American soldier, or the American people. His disconnect is so severe he doesn’t even recognize the hand melting the little plastic army men is his own.

Do you also get the feeling that some of the problems we’re having in Iraq stem from W. trying to prove to Senior that he can do what his daddy couldn’t? And now that Senior’s understanding of the fine line he walked in 1991 has been proven true, do you think W is being a stubborn teenager who refuses to admit that he was wrong? I read something recently about the Bush clan’s need for loyalty – but how W. broke from daddy in bringing Rumsfeld along for the ride and in going back to Iraq. Could his inability to change course be a grossly over-blown example of my dad and brother stubbornly arguing over the proper way to (fill in the blank)?

He makes my stomach hurt.

Sarah

____________

Mine too, girl - Mine too.

It Takes a Real Man to Say "I'm Lost."

October, 2006

More U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month than in any one month period over the previous two years.

Over 600,000 Iraqis have died in the war.

American Civil Liberties are now no longer at risk, they have been "legally" absconded through the "Military Commissions Act."

In a recent interview, the President said that Iraq could become like Vietnam - which means for him, I guess, that 55,000 more troops need to die, and God knows how many Iraqis, before we decide our mission is truly accomplished.

Of course, Vietnam comparisons really ought to be tough for George and Dick - They wouldn't know very much about that, would they?

Deferral in the face of personal involvement - they got that one cold.



As I lay awake in the wee hours this morning, it occurred to me that "stay the course" is just a geo-political way of never being able to say "I'm lost."

Having been in situations, more than once, when I was lost, and too damned proud to ask directions, whom did I get mad at?

My wife, of course -

who told me that I should just pull over and ask directions.

The problem with her "logic" is that it means I have to admit not only that I'm lost, but that I need the counsel of someone else to help get me out of the mess I've made for myself. A mess complicated even more by the fact that had I been honest about being lost many miles earlier, it wouldn't be so hard to get back where I need to be.

That makes sense, doesn't it?

But what do I do? Blame the person who points out the obvious with hope that we could get back on track.

Of course, I guess I'm taking my life into my own hands by confronting the guy who can declare me an "enemy combatant" and throw me into jail without charging me or giving me a chance to defend myself.

This is what we've come to?

For shame, America. For shame.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16.18