Seven Deadly Social Sins

I am listening to the election results from the primaries that came in this morning. Kentucky and Pennsylvania had some startling elections. Arlen Specter was defeated in Pennsylvania and Ron Paul was elected against the Republican machine and Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. Pundits are saying that the American people are angry and you don’t have to be a member of the tea party to realize that between the meltdown on Wall Street, heavy criticism of health care legislation and the gigantic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico you can become a bit disillusioned. I ran across the following quote from Mohandas Gandhi who while a Christian had a profound respect for Jesus and his teachings. In fact he knew Christian scripture so well that he was fond of quoting words of Christ frequently to friends. At times people even thought he was a Christian.

While this is fairly simple every line suggests that there is an important ingredient that is needed for success in every area from politics to worship.

Seven Deadly Social Sins

Politics without principle

Wealth without work

Commerce without morality

Pleasure without conscience

Education without character

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice.

~Gandhi

Mothers Day

From time to time you are forced to look at various aspects of your life along with the people in it. As we approach Mother’s Day, I am reminded of my own mother’s death a little more than a year ago. It is hard to believe that she is gone because she was such a looming personality in my life. Where would we be without our parents? It is an interesting thought.

Today I ran across an article in the New York Times with the title, “Actors Son Gets Five Years on Drug Charges.” The actors son is Cameron Douglas, son of Michael Douglas and his ex-wife Diandra Douglas who has been sentenced to five years in prison for distributing large quantities of Methanphetamines, Cocaine and Heroine. He had been an unemployed addict with a five time a day Heroine habit.

There are many to take the blame for this. The article said that his life was one of loneliness in which his parents were often absent or feuding. He turned to drugs at age 13. Some of us could think that he had taken a great life of money and celebrity and blown it. At age 31, you can’t really blame your parents for your problems. At some point you have to take responsibility for them yourself.

What I did find interesting was Michael Douglas who said that he cherished his weekly visits with his son at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. Maybe Michael Douglas should have had more visits with his son a lot earlier. Who knows?

All I know is that I am glad that I was able to see my mother every day. Time may not have always been quality time but without it, I really wonder what would have happened to me. So I just want to raise my glass to all those mothers who tuck their kids in at night, read them stories, teach Sunday school, get everyone up and moving for church and are constantly a taxi service driving their children from ball games to music lessons to school plays. Here’s to you mom. Thanks for everything.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

(Mark 10:13-14)

Sometimes when you have done something for many years, such as receive the Eucharist or say the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed, its meaning can be taken for granted - buried somewhere in your “belief box” which lies dormant in the back of your brain. But then, there is an awakening that can take place in situations of trauma, when you find yourself reaching for comfort and assurance, or in moments of great joy, when you see two people looking into each other’s eyes and say, “For better, for worse.” It can also take place when you look into the eyes of a young child who is preparing for his or her first holy communion. Questions come at you in new and fresh ways that you remember you once asked yourself. You also see the anticipation in their hearts and the sincerity that can inspire, along with the awe and wonder that can get knocked out of you by the time people call you an adult.

As I met for six weeks with a bunch of ten year olds I was reminded how new and fresh the world is and how awe and wonder are still a part of the “MO.” It is too bad so much gets knocked out of us by the time we are ready to have children. There is a quote that Jesus says You Must Become Like A Little Child To Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven. May our inner child not diminish, as we grow older.

Are we our own worst enemies…..

It doesn’t take long as a Pastor to begin to realize there are people in your congregation who are no different than people in the world--they have gifts, talents and opportunity but they are hiding in the pew or in their homes. They just don’t come forward. Someone else will take care of this for me. Someone else will make sure that the church keeps going, someone else will serve on the school board, in the community and vote the way I want them to. It is always someone else. So when I came across this quote by a pastor I somehow was able to relate.

This poem is ascribed to the German pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892–1984), who protested Hitler's anti-semite measures in person to the fuehrer, was eventually arrested, and then imprisoned for eight years at Sachsenhausen and Dachau (1937–1945).

First they came for the Communists,

- but I was not a communist so I did not speak out.


Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists,

- but I was neither, so I did not speak out.


Then they came for the Jews,

- but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.


And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies.

The things that make for Peace

"If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." Luke 19:42

In recent news articles we are seeing some audacious things being done by the Netanyahu Government that ignores U.S. wishes that they cease building settlements in East Jerusalem. Israel continues under Netanyahu to make a land grab of territories that belong to the Palestinians. Israel has had a history of just ignoring the tepid request of our government and other governments around the world that have asked it to cease building settlements especially in places like East Jerusalem.  

Most recently, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton objected to these settlements suggesting that it undermines U.S. creditably as a U.S. Peace Maker in the region. On the other hand, no one can sanction Palestinian violence, which also does not make for peace. The constant building of settlements on the West Bank is not something that makes for peace either. It can only make for frustration, anger and add more fuel to the argument that Israel is only interested in making peace on their terms.

Finally, I agree with columnist Tom Friedman who said that Joe Biden should have turned around and gone home instead of putting up with the humiliation he suffered by coming to Israel at the same time as they announced the building of new settlements.

I hope that the Obama Administration remains vigilant in their effort to find a true peace in that region. We can only pray that they will do, “ the things that make for peace.”

Who Was the Greatest Generation?

I am a baby boomer and I have always been proud of it. However, as time goes by I am feeling the next generation biting at my heels. I am sure that history is going to judge us as they have judged generations from the past. I am reminded of all this because of Tom Brokaw’s (one of my favorite newscasters) recent interest in my generation. Brokaw in the past has argued that the greatest generation was the one that fought World War II, lived through the great depression, rebuilt America and sacrificed by living without. They grew up in circumstances that required enormous sacrifice only to leave their children entitlements that we take for granted. 

I suppose that is true but the greatest generation also opposed working women-the notion that husbands belong at work and wives belong at home was the rule. They were part of the generation that supported discrimination and was against inter-racial marriage. They forced their kids to revolt against them as the Vietnam War took thousands of American lives and our cities burned upon the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

On the other hand, when I look at boomer’s I think of Woodstock and a generation that has not sacrificed very much. It is my generation in which our mothers had to tell us, “Finish your meal because kids are starving in China.” I doubt that ever happened in the generation before me.

The boomer generation was a generation in which all of us went to college. We are most education generation in history and probably the most addicted to drugs of all kinds. Our generation brought the world Bill Clinton, only the second President to be impeached in history and George W. Bush the only President who couldn’t put two sentences together. We may not have lived through a great depression but last year we nearly started one.

I suppose at the end when we boomer’s have climbed to the top of the mountain chasing the Michelob Light slogan, “Who says you can’t have it all?”, will discover upon reaching the summit a McDonald’s. Or, in the words of Peggy Lee, “Is that all there is?”

Do We Really Want Peace in the Middle East?

I’ve been to Israel several times and have always enjoyed being there. It is like no other place in the world. This year I once again went with my friends and with a question that my friend Tim wanted to know. His questions centered around whether Israelis and Palestinians saw hope for peace in that region of the world because of our new President Barak Obama. We asked Taxi drivers, waitresses and guides who we ran into along with shop keepers what they thought of the possibilities for peace under the new administration. The overwhelming response was one of cynicism and doubt. They have seen no change and anticipate that he too will be stuck like past Predisents in the muck and meyer of intransigence of extremists who have no interest in peace.  

I was saddened this morning to read that our Vice President Joe Biden who was visiting the region to promote peace was slapped in the face by the announcement that Israel’s is intending to build more settlements in disputed areas of East Jerusalem. To me, that was a clear message to everyone that the current government of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t really want peace but it is all about a land grab.

The fate of Jewish settlements is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. With peace talks dead locked why is it that Israel under Netanyahu continues to ignore the things that could make for peace?
APRIL 2010

Do We Really Want Peace in the Middle East?

I’ve been to Israel several times and have always enjoyed being there. It is like no other place in the world. This year I once again went with my friends and with a question that my friend Tim wanted to know. His questions centered around whether Israelis and Palestinians saw hope for peace in that region of the world because of our new President Barak Obama. We asked Taxi drivers, waitresses and guides who we ran into along with shop keepers what they thought of the possibilities for peace under the new administration. The overwhelming response was one of cynicism and doubt. They have seen no change and anticipate that he too will be stuck like past Predisents in the muck and meyer of intransigence of extremists who have no interest in peace.

I was saddened this morning to read that our Vice President Joe Biden who was visiting the region to promote peace was slapped in the face by the announcement that Israel’s is intending to build more settlements in disputed areas of East Jerusalem. To me, that was a clear message to everyone that the current government of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t really want peace but it is all about a land grab.

The fate of Jewish settlements is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. With peace talks dead locked why is it that Israel under Netanyahu continues to ignore the things that could make for peace?