Archive for the 'epilogei/choice' Category

no/yes on prop 8

Published on November 11, 2008 in alethia/truth, dikastis/justice, epilogei/choice, koinonia/community, politik/politics and zoe/life. 8 Comments

I often think and write about the existential dichotomy of light and darkness, but it is rare to come across an issue that is so publicly polarized as the issue of Prop 8 here in California. (If you’re not familiar, Prop 8 was an amendment that we just voted on to re-deny the rights of gay couples to be legally married. I say “re-deny” because we just granted the right a few months ago.)

A couple weekends ago, Allison and I went with our good friends Jon & Shan to Yucaipa to pick apples, drink cider, and eat those freakin’ brilliant little donuts. As we were driving back through town, we came to what looked to be a main intersection and saw groups of people gathered on two corners, diagonally opposing each other. On one side we had a group of rowdy peoples with “YES ON PROP 8″ signs and on the other side, of course, the equally rambunctious “NO ON PROP 8″ folks. (On the other corner was a guy in a Little Caesar suit, but we didn’t ask which way he was voting.)

It was quite a sight: people equally passionate about complete opposite stances of the same issue.

And the “Pizza Pizza!” guy. Hm. (I do love that crazy bread.)

I recognize that this was (and IS) a big deal for a lot of people. But I can’t help but wonder if sometimes we let the fact that “we are doing what we think is right” stop us from really thinking about what we’re doing.

Despite your feelings on the issue, if you’re reading this, I hope you’ll put your preconceived ideas aside for 6 minutes and 29 seconds, and watch Olbermann’s video.

I found it incredibly meaningful to witness the passion of this newsman; to take a sizable chunk out of his limited airtime to make an appeal on behalf of love… well, no matter what you believe, you gotta respect that.

(Full transcript of his speech is here.)

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rob bell wants to save christians

Published on November 8, 2008 in alethia/truth, allagei/change, dikastis/justice, ecclesia/church, epilogei/choice, glossa/language, koinonia/community, theos/God and zoe/life. 2 Comments

One of my favorite people, Mr. Rob Bell, has a new book out, written with a friend of his named Don Golden. It’s called “Jesus Wants To Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile.”

What’s it about?

Glad you asked… here’s how it describes itself:

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building.

Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.

This is a book about those two numbers.

Well, then. You certainly have my attention.

RELEVANT recently did an interview with Rob about the book; here are a few of my favorite excerpts from that conversation:

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In your book you say, “To preserve prosperity at the expense of the powerless is to miss the heart of God.” In what ways do you believe the church in America has “preserved prosperity” at others’ expense?

I think it’s wise to avoid generalities such as “the church” because whenever I hear people make sweeping generalizations about “the church” I always think “yes, but I know lots of churches where they are compassionate, where they are intellectually honest, etc…”Perhaps one obvious question a church can ask herself is “What percentage of our budget is spent on us and what is spent on others?

The Church has missed the heart of God by speaking out against abortion while keeping silent about war. Both are forms of violence used to preserve prosperity. Abortion is prenatal war against the powerless child. War is postnatal abortion that destroys innocent life. The kingdom is life for the fetus and life for the civilian. The church embodies this life in a world of expedient and preemptive killing.

How can churches aid in subverting the myth of redemptive violence?

At a personal level, gossip and slander and divisive language is evil to the core. It causes stress fractures in us, our churches, and our culture that destroy any sort of common good. On the larger, national level, “question war.” The Roman Empire had this phrase “peace through victory” that is simply not true. Yet people still use it today. Jesus taught a third way—not passive acceptance because “that’s just how things are,” and not violent revenge, but a third way. Where are the experts in third way? Where are those Christians so thoroughly versed in third way that world leaders call them in when things get dodgy to give courageous, innovative, creative, freedom-loving (!) counsel on how not to resort to the same old guns and bombs.

As the title of the book suggests, Jesus Wants To Save Christians. In your opinion, what are the biggest things we need saving from?

Boredom. Which is really despair in its non-caffeinated form. And boxes. Where we live in fear and where we put those who unsettle us.

You describe the plan of God for the church to be a gift to the world. Many people today would say that the church is anything but. What are some crucial changes that our churches need to make to become a Eucharist that is broken and poured out for the world?

1. Master the art of doubt. Faith needs it to survive.

2. Surrender the compulsive need to constantly remind people that according to your worldview you’re going to heaven forever when you die and they’re going to burn in hell forever.

3. Celebrate the good and the true and the beautiful wherever and whenever you find it regardless of the label it wears or the person it comes from or the place you found it. All things are yours.

4. Remember that the tax collectors and prostitutes loved to feast with Jesus and the religious establishment gossiped about him and dissected his teachings and questioned his commitment to orthodoxy and eventually had him killed. There’s a lesson for us there.

Post your thoughts below, or read the full interview here.

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pianos and prep time

Published on November 2, 2008 in aegesia/leadership, alethia/truth, allagei/change, epilogei/choice, koinonia/community and zoe/life. 0 Comments

Wanted to share an idea that has been rolling around in my head.

This might seem like common sense: the amount of talent in an individual (or group) is inversely proportional to the amount of preparation they need to create something excellent in their particular field of talent.

Simply put, the more natural ability you have to play the piano, the less you have to practice to get good.

Like I said; pretty common sense.

If this is logical, then the reverse would be equally true: the less talent you have (or a group has) at doing a particular activity, the more time it takes to present an acceptable product in that field.

Also fairly widely accepted. If you are bad at math, it takes you longer to do the homework.

As I parenthetically mentioned above, this fact can also be extrapolated to groups of people, and even further out to organizations as a whole.

This is where much of a company’s “culture” comes from. Where the natural proclivity of the leadership lies, therein you will find the ethos that trickles down and over time becomes engrained into the very fabric of that culture.

Apple, Inc. is innovative, tight-lipped, can be a bit bully-ish, and has a high appreciation for aesthetics — much like what I’ve heard about Mr. Steve Jobs.

The Virgin Group is daring, eclectic but a bit scattered, experimental, and adventurous — much like its founder, Sir Richard Branson.

These things are not coincidences.

The nonprofit I work with is, as a whole, almost unthinkably bad at two things (likely two heads of the same beast): organization and communication. These two things have plagued the staff and community for quite awhile now, and IMHO, even occasionally stymied our ability to welcome new people into the family.

Now, to be fair, it should be said that we are extremely good at being real, unscripted, highly adaptable, and organic.

But if the two facts I started with are true, why is it that we spend the LEAST amount of our time on organization and communication? Isn’t that just exacerbating our problem? The answer is that we are not intentionally making things worse, we are simply doing what comes naturally to us: as a group, we are very good at being chaotic and raw, so that’s what we do.

As you probably know, I am a huge proponent of strengths-based leadership, and focusing on what you are good at is definitely not a bad thing — unless you are ignoring your weaknesses. If our lack of organization and communication is truly keeping people from being engaged, then we have a problem.

Strengths-based philosophy does NOT mean ignoring weaknesses. It means managing them.

If we want to get better, it seems to me we have two possible responses.

1) We stop ignoring our weaknesses and spend more time “practicing.” Even if you don’t have much natural ability at playing the piano, there’s no question that if you practice 8 hours a day, you WILL get better… if only a little.

2) We stop ignoring our weaknesses and find somebody to do the things we’re bad at for us.

Also, what if your job REQUIRES you to play the piano, even if it’s just a little? Well, then if you want to keep doing your job, you better damn well practice.

I imagine that in our situation, we will need a mixture of these two solutions. There’s no way around it: leadership of any kind requires some amount of communication and organization. We simply can’t get around it. So, we better start practicing, and we better find some people to help us pick up the slack.

Strengths-based leadership requires leaders to have an accurate picture of reality; it demands that we stop ignoring what is common sense. Some of these truths may seem harsh, but maintaining an inaccurate, Pollyanna-ish paradigm won’t help anyone. It won’t help you, and it won’t help your followers.

Where is your organization weak? Where is your leadership weak? Do you need to spend some time with the piano or hire a session player? Maybe both?

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winning the oil endgame

Published on October 20, 2008 in alethia/truth, allagei/change, epilogei/choice, oikonomika/economics, politik/politics and zoe/life. 6 Comments

Armory Lovins is a cofounder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and in this 20 minute talk somehow manages to make our dependence on oil seem like a second grade math problem in terms of easy solvability.

Hey, Somebody in Washington — hire this guy!

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one of these people will be president

Published on October 19, 2008 in alethia/truth, allagei/change, epilogei/choice and politik/politics. 2 Comments

It’s no big secret that I think this fall’s choices are flimsy at best, and downright irresponsible at worse. But the other day I had what could probably be considered a fairly elementary realization…

One of these people — Barack Obama or John McCain — will be President of the United States of America.

I mean, I’m not saying that my heart won’t still be voting for Ron Paul. But in case you haven’t made up your mind about who you’re voting for, I’d ask you to take a look at this (I gotta be honest, it tipped me over the edge):

If you’d prefer to download the podcast and watch it at your leisure, click here.

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miss the vp debate?

Published on October 8, 2008 in asteio/fun, epilogei/choice, oikonomika/economics and politik/politics. 0 Comments

Here’s everything you need to know (give it a second to load):

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big bailout #2

Published on September 24, 2008 in allagei/change, epilogei/choice, oikonomika/economics and politik/politics. 5 Comments

A few messages from Ron Paul on the economy, and Bush’s latest bailout plan.

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Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.

The events of the past week are no exception.

The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress’ throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! “This is welfare for the rich,” he said. “This is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters.”

That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we’re being told it’s unavoidable.

The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!

• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.

• Financial institutions are “designated as financial agents of the Government.” This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.

• Then there’s this: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.

There goes your country.

Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this “sadly necessary.” Sad, yes. Necessary? Don’t make me laugh.

Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we’re supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they’re not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.

Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we’ll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.

The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?

When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?

Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.

In liberty,
Ron Paul

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thoughts on oil addiction

Published on September 19, 2008 in alethia/truth, allagei/change, epilogei/choice, oikonomika/economics, politik/politics and zoe/life. 4 Comments

Now that gas prices are “coming down” (yes, we feel just GREAT about $3.75/gallon… what!?) I don’t sense the same urgency in the American populace to fix this problem that existed when it was $5. Of course, this placation was expected by most and predicted by many, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is still a problem out there that was never solved. And it’s not fixed now, just because we are back to ignoring it.

I fear we are addicted to foreign oil, and maybe just oil in general.

But in the words of the immutable LeVar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it! Please check out some or all of the links below.

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T. Boone Pickens, the founder and chairman of BP Capital Management (which manages over $4 billion in energy-oriented investment funds) has created the Pickens Plan, which aims to develop clean energy solutions.

Here’s a great article from one of my favorite contemporary revolutionaries, Dr. Ron Paul: Big Government Responsible For High Gas Prices

Newt Gingrich has also thrown his thoughts into this discussion, and although I’m not convinced that more drilling will be a long-term solution, it does seem like a reasonable band-aid, considering our current economic challenges.

If you’re a reader, you know I’m a big fan of Chris Martenson; he’s a very level-headed proponent of financial literacy. Check out his very important explanation of what “peak oil” really is — apparently, I had no idea! (This video may take a moment to load.)

In my quest for the truth, I came across a documentary called A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. This film is so obviously targeted towards proving its premise — namely, that there will be an oil crash — that it’s earned a bit of skepticism from me (as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it is increasingly hard to decipher truth from propaganda). Nonetheless, it is very interesting and quite well-made.

(The only free version I could find online has subtitles of some language I don’t know, which isn’t saying much as I barely have a handle on English.)

There’s also an interesting intersection of the “climate crisis” with our oil addiction. Check out WE:

There’s no question this is a complex issue with many moving parts, but I think we all know that it won’t be solved by ignoring it. And it most likely won’t be solved by the fatcat baby boomers who actually have the power to help, as they have proven time and time again that they are more than happy to leave their problems to us when they leave this world. (I’ll go into more detail on that issue some other day.)

I know I’m not really offering many — if any — real solutions in this post, but I figure awareness is a good start!

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are you registered to vote? (who knows!?)

Published on September 14, 2008 in allagei/change, epilogei/choice and politik/politics. 2 Comments

Now, I am not endorsing Obama (not that any of you particularly care), but I have been wanting someone to create this website for YEARS, so kudos.

To use their verbiage, it’s a one-stop site to check your registration status, register to vote, look up early-vote information for your state, apply to vote absentee, or even find your polling place.

(Now if we could only teach McCain how to spell I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T…)

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i kissed a girl, went to hell

Published on September 9, 2008 in alethia/truth, dikastis/justice, ecclesia/church, epilogei/choice, koinonia/community and zoe/life. 6 Comments

Yes, this is an actual church sign.

Church Turns Pop Lyrics Into A Bit Of Brimstone

Makes you really wonder why people don’t like christians, right?

You know, I appreciate that there are a lot of folks out there who think they’ve got it all figured out and that the bible is “black and white” on this issue, but you know what? Until you have a close friend who is gay, I wish you’d all just shut the hell up.

Amen.

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