Wish list

Car trouble, Christmas events and end of semester work have all conspired to keep me from blogging regularly this week. However, one of my new year's resolutions is that I will continue to blog even after the end of my Public Theology class. I have secured my name as a new domain and once I can figure out how to move content there, I will be operating under a new blog address.

My final op-ed is soon to be ready as well, and I will post it here once I've completed final editing. As I noted earlier, it is about torture, a topic that continues to find its way into our news cycles, as well it should. Given all the scandals of this administration, it is time that the public retain a focus on something as critical to our country's future as this subject.

I am also thankful that John McCain continues to speak out on this subject. It would be easier for his political fortunes for him to join the double-speak bandwagon with some of his Republican presidential contenders, but he continues to argue against torture with compelling personal testimony.

As we move toward Christmas, I marvel at how we can dissociate ourselves from these larger national issues and allow ourselves to be consumed by the consumer process. At this time of the year, Christians should be drawn to the drama of the child that was coming to bring unimagined change to the world, rather than be blinded by the glitz of the season. It is my prayer that we disengage from the consumer culture so that we can turn our attention fully to trying to live in the way we were shown by the one who came as the Prince of Peace.

Shop 'til you drop

I hate to go to shopping malls, so any excuse not to go is good enough for me, even at Christmas time. The recent shooting spree at the mall in Omaha provides just such an excuse. There will no doubt be copycat actions because shooting people while they are Christmas shopping makes for good news copy. If you want to get noticed, now’s the time to grab your guns. It gives “shop 'til you drop” a whole new meaning.

OK. I realize my macabre sensibilities won’t go over well with some, so let’s look at this situation another way.

Immediately after this event, callers to a radio show proclaimed that mall doors should be outfitted with metal detectors. But then a later caller asked; what about the parking lots? If someone wanted to take out a lot of people at once, that would be a fine place, too. Heck, I’ve had moments where having a gun to deal with a parking space thief could have felt really right! OK, so why don’t we have searches of cars/persons as they arrive to a mall?

Obviously all these “fixes” lead to the absurd. There is no place that is perfectly safe. As in so many situations, then, the better question would be to return to the source, that is, to the reason why someone felt his only recourse was to shoot and kill others.

Hope is the antidote to the hopelessness that leads people to such desperate actions. We must be able to imagine a world where no one would feel so isolated that he/she had no other way to deal with pain but to hurt others. Just like the shooter at Virginia Tech, it is clear this young man had problems, but there was no one close enough to reach him, no one to hold out a hopeful hand to him.

When I look at scripture, and see what Jesus did for/with others, it seems clear that in so many cases he was, in essence, defusing people with love. His willingness to hear people’s needs and help them turn their lives around no doubt took away so much anger carried by those with physical or emotional difficulties, or those who had been marginalized by society. They were then able to face the world empowered by hope. He taught a way where love could overcome hate and peace overcome violence, whereas the reverse has never been and will never be possible.

(De)Merit badges

A recent news article announced that the Boy Scouts would no longer be able to lease a Philadelphia building for $1/year because they discriminate against gay scouts. The city has a non-discrimination clause that says taxpayer monies cannot subsidize groups that discriminate, and the building once used by the Scouts rents for considerably more than $1/year!

Some will complain that the Scouts, as a private organization, should be able to set their own membership policies, and I agree. However, if they want to discriminate, they shouldn’t complain at having to follow the same rules as any other organization when it comes to things like renting space, using public buildings, etc. Often what the Scouts do is say that their focus is so positive that everyone should give them a break; they are making opportunities available for young boys and thereby fulfilling a public good.

Here’s one big problem with the above argument; it’s like saying that if underprivileged young white boys are served by being giving educational/leadership opportunities, it’s OK that the organization discriminates against boys of other races. I can’t imagine that point of view being accepted by municipalities as a reason for allowing the group to use taxpayer facilities at no/reduced costs.

I have a young friend who was on his way to an Eagle Scout award until it became known that he was gay. In his subsequent research on the subject, he learned some very important points. First, the United States is the only western-world scouting organization that discriminates based on sexual orientation or religious affiliation (or lack thereof), having rather recently constructed membership policies based on "biblical values." Secondly, most countries around the world do not segregate scouts by sex. Finally, the Girl Scouts here in the US do not discriminate based on orientation. When one puts those facts together, a new picture emerges; the discriminatory policies are based on some misguided notion of what it means to be a proper male in our culture. Those who lead the BSA seem to be afraid of both gay boys in particular and girls in general. Their notion of masculinity must be protected.

Jesus showed by his actions that he did not follow his culture’s strictures on interactions between males and females. Women were prominent in his life as supporters and, following his death, as leaders among those who continued to carry his teachings into the world. So if the BSA wants to discriminate, let them find another rationale for their actions rather than misusing Christian scripture.

The passion of Mel?

Last week, I watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ for the first time. Upon its initial release, I had refused to see it. A colleague watched it as part of a panel of clergy recruited by our local paper, and his report was that it was the most violent film he had ever seen. He’s right; The Passion makes Scarface look like a bedtime story.

So many things troubled me about the movie in addition to the excessive violence. As has been noted by reviewers, Mel lays the blame for Jesus’ crucifixion at the feet of the Jewish authorities, a scapegoating tactic that does not follow scripture. But there’s also not-so-subtle scapegoating of women.

The movie focuses on the last hours of Jesus’ life, and opens in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is praying. Circling around him is a Satan figure who might have been intended to present ambiguous gender, but who is smooth skinned as opposed to every other character in the scene having thick beards. Later in the movie, this figure cradles a baby in what seemed to me to be a reversal of a Madonna and child, a scene that latter occurs when Jesus’ body is cradled by Mary at the foot of the cross.

Mel purported to strictly follow scripture in telling this story, but any cursory reading of scripture demonstrates that he took many liberties. This is the story of Mel’s idea of Jesus, a super-macho figure able to withstand 20 minutes of flesh-ripping beatings. Hmmm...almost sounds like the plotline of a Lethal Weapon movie. One has to wonder if Mel doesn’t understand himself as a Christ-like figure, being persecuted by the detractors of his movie.