Bits and Pieces - Feb 22 2008

Ah, to revive an old feature...some bits and gleanings from my reading and media digestion:

Out of the gate....From the Speaking of Faith website: Reflections of a British Muslim Extremist. This chilling interview shows us a bit of what civilized society is up against in muslim extremists. This former extremist talks about how seemingly normal people are recruited and radicalized, he explains how moderate Muslims (and they do exist) are the first ones threatened by radical Islam. And here's a gripping quote on his thoughts on the "war on terror":

...but it must be said that al-Qaeda is just a name. It's really a mind-set
that we must be tackling, literalist, rejectionist, Islamist worldview. And not
necessarily al-Qaeda as an organization because that can become defunct, but
those ideas still remain. So it's not a war on terror as the American government
has gone out of its way to suggest, but it's actually a battle of ideas. (emphasis mine.....see the earlier post on Winning the War by Being Better for a Russ cross reference)

Rounding the curb is this article from Forbes on Long Distance Marraiges...apparently 3.8 million people in america are living apart from their spouses in a different city (admittedly, many of these are due to soldiers serving overseas; however there are still millions who live apart for professional reasons). The article talks about various technological solutions such as the "Hug Shirt" the "Kiss Phone" and others.

On the stretch...this article from the Economist about the persecution of Christians in India. Turning the back corner is a related article about religious freedoms (or the relative lack thereof) in Egypt.

And finally crossing the finish line for this installment of Bits and Pieces...Liz Bowater's broadside against Open Theism ....well thought out, forceful, and right on.

Happy Reading faithful readers....

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Rotary President Wilfrid Wilkinson -- business is about more than profits

We had a big shebang at Rotary today...the International President, Wilfrid Wilkinson, came to speak at our club.

You may think of Rotary as the martini soaked gathering of local power-brokers, or perhaps envision it as a phantasm begging us to remember the glories of a society of "voluntary associations". Perhaps you think Rotary is something just old-fashoned that needs to be retired.

At first blush, Wilkinson doesn't help the image. He looks every bit the part of elderly, reserved patriarch. But then he speaks. And he speaks from his heart about the work of Rotary around the world.

Today he spoke of meeting with the Secretery General of the United Nations to present him with an award. The Secretery General, Ban Ki-Moon, says "The UN should be giving Rotary an award of honor" After all, Rotary had been in the business of promoting international peace and co-operation for decades before the UN came into existence. Rotary has been on the frontlines of improving health and human welfare around the world. (And I might add that ...Rotary is a volunteer organization existing off the free will offerings of members and friends...rather than a semi-governmental organization existing on the taxes of people across the globe)

Today he spoke of his experience in Pakistan in 2002, working in a refugee camp just 2 miles from the Afghan border...he personally administered Polio vaccines to children in the camp and saw how Rotary was providing aid and shelter to refugees from the Taliban. He spoke of Rotary's receipt of a $100 million dollar grant from the Gates Foundation to finish off the work of eradication of Polio.

But what caught my attention most was when he spoke as a businessman... a successful accountant who founded his own firm and thrived in it. He reminded us that the bottom line isn't really the bottom line. "In an age of corporate scandal, ethics seems antique. In Rotary, it's how we live. Profit can never be the sole motive of business. Focusing solely on the bottom line is a recipie for disaster"

Wilkinson attributes his business success to the Rotary tenets: "Is it the truth; Is it fair to all concerned; Will it build goodwill and better friendships; Will it be beneficial to all concerned." (echoes of "love your neighbor as yourself" resound in my ears). Simply put, the accountant encourages business people to look to the interests of employees, customers, the community.

He put me in mind of the Economist's recent report on the trend of Corporate Social Responsibility. It seems it has become quite fashonable for companies to tout their "committment to Social Responsibility" ... the problem is that when companies fail to live out their statements. The Economist concludes of Corporate Social Responsibility: "done badly, it is often just a figleaf and can be positively harmful. Done well, though, it is not some separate activity that companies do on the side, a corner of corporate life reserved for virtue: it is just good business. "

Simply put, these ideals are more than veneer to tack on...they are meant to be integral to the core of a business. That's the kind of life Wilkinson has lived. Not martini-powerbrokering...simply living a life of service above self.

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell

Disney Trip -- Christian imagery embedded in EPCOT

So we just returned from our trip to the mouse...the big mouse (Disney World that is). Lots to post on (and I will endeavor to ramp up my posting volume again, faithful readers).

Today, I just wanted to share some photos. It seems that even with the secular utopian ideals presented at EPCOT, there were still glimpses of the gospel available. Take for instance this lovely painted egg that I found in the German pavillion...nestled in amongst eggs painted with various Disney characters was this one truly beautiful work. Also in the center of the german pavillion is a fountain topped with a statue of St. George slaying the dragon. Admittedly, St. George is a medeival legend, but it is a legend that greatly influenced Christendom and chivalry.





Moving on from Germany to Italy, we found all kinds of Christian imagery...from the angel statue to the statue of an archangel high upon the pillar, to the images of the winged lion (the traditional symbol of Mark the evangelist).






















Finally, we came to the American pavillion, where the fife and drum corps came marched forth with a some inspiring music. At the tail end, the corps leader led all the crowd in the Pledge of Allegance, followed by inviting the crowd to join him in singing "God bless America". Admittedly, this was generic...no specifically Christian reference here. Even so, it was a very nice experience.


Finally, inside the Spaceship Earth ride, we still see Michaelangelo painting the creation scene from the Sistene Chapel ceiling.

All told, it's minor. Not much to speak of. It's simply a head nod in the direction to the spiritual heritage of these various lands. Even so, I find it pleasant and sweet to see that even at EPCOT, Christ is honored. More to come later.....

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Bodies:The Exhibition ... trying to think through this thing

I confess, the idea of going to see Bodies: The Exhibition creeps me out. This is, after all, an exhibit of real human bodies, cut open and displayed for all to see. For that reason alone, I've made the personal decision not to go. We all must know our limits, after all....

I keep thinking about that episode from Tales from the Crypt (Hey, I had to have some downtime in college...and Star Trek wasn't on 24/7). It's the one where Mimi Rogers plays an aging model named Helen who longs to hit the big time. Her roommate gets an invite to a certain beauty pageant, with a note "guaranteeing" that she'll win. In her jealous rage, Helen slips her roommate some sleeping pills so she'll oversleep on the day of the pagent...and accidently gives her too many (thus offing the roommate). When Helen arrives to take her place, she meets a beautiful contestant who is likely to be the real winner; not wanting to take chances, Helen offs the contestant as well...and she goes on to win the contest. Now, here's the Tales from the Crypt twisteroo....the contest was for Miss Autopsy. And so the closing scene shows a now deceased Helen, in gown and tiara, pinned to a giant rotating disc, and her body dissected like some 8th grade formaldehyde soaked frog.

Yeah....that's the mental image that stuck with me. See why I'm creeped out?

Beyond the macabre factor, this exhibt has stirred up some passionate discussion here in Cincy. Thus, I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth.

The controversey centers on two issues: human rights and the dignity of the human body.

Human Rights
The bodies used in the exhibit were obtained from the Chinese government, and all the dissection performed at the Dalian University in Laoning, China. The promotial literature from Premier Exhibitions (a publicly traded exhibition company) reassures that the bodies were obtained legally and that the individuals had died natural deaths. However they were unclaimed bodies...meaning that no next of kin had been there to take the remains of the deceased.

The main concern is that we have no way of knowing the origin of these corpses...China is not well known for their human rights record. From the Amnesty International 2007 report on China:

The death penalty continued to be used extensively to punish around 68 crimes, including economic and non-violent crimes. Based on public reports, AI estimated that at least 1,010 people were executed and 2,790 sentenced to death during 2006, although the true figures were believed to be much higher.

The National People's Congress passed a law reinstating a final review of all death penalty cases by the Supreme People's Court from 2007. Commentators believed this would lead to a reduction in miscarriages of justice and use of the death penalty.

Executions by lethal injection rose, facilitating the extraction of organs from executed prisoners, a lucrative business. In November a deputy minister announced that the majority of transplanted organs came from executed prisoners. In July new regulations banned the buying and selling of organs and required written consent from donors for organ removal.

• Xu Shuangfu, the leader of an unofficial Protestant group called "Three Grades of Servants", was executed along with 11 others in November after being convicted of murdering 20 members of another group, "Eastern Lightning", in 2003-4. Xu Shuangfu reportedly claimed that he had confessed under torture during police interrogation and that the torture had included beatings with heavy chains and sticks, electric shocks to the toes, fingers and genitals and forced injection of hot pepper, gasoline and ginger into the nose. Both the first instance and appeal courts reportedly refused to allow his lawyers to introduce these allegations as evidence in his defence.

While the Amnesty Report does mention some laudible progress, they still report chilling statistics....over 1000 executions.....an industry of organ harvesting from executed prisoners. Given the Chinese government's reputation for transparency and honesty, the reassurances regarding the Bodies Exhibition amount to squat. (see this New York Times Article going into greater depths on the "body harvesting" industry in China)

We're working through Isaiah right now on Sundays...the themes of justice come out clear in the first few chapters "Your hands ar efull of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." (1:16-17)...these challenges should lead us to examine our own society. But, since it is an American company staging these exhibitions and going to China and bringing them here to profit from ticket sales to us, then suddenly the problem of injustices in China don't seem so far away anymore.

Of course, the good that might come of this is attention for China's gross human rights violations. According to Voice of the Martyrs, China has jailed more Christian prisoners of conscience than any other country in the world. As the Beijing Olympics draws closer, we have an opportunity to offer more scrutiny to the operations of the Chinese government and to encourage them that it is indeed good business to be a more just society.

Dignity of the Human Body
The Local Catholic Bishop issued a statement that Catholic schools shouldn't be organizing trips to this exhibit, though the choice to attend was certainly in the hands of the parents. A primary concern is how the exhibit dehumanizes the human body. The idea is that such an exhibit treats us like lumps of meat...fit for taxidermy or fit for consumption, just like the Bass fish on our wall. And there's certainly a sense to this....though this is an educational event, it is also a showbiz spectacle put together to make money. Nothing wrong with making money, but when you treat human remains as yet another commodity that has to be factored into supply costs, then we seem to have crossed a line.

This even more so when we read about the next plans from the Dr. Gunther von Hagens, who pioneered this type of exhibition. Germany's Der Spiegel reports that he is offering private individuals the opportunities to purchase sliced cross sections of human remains:

Until now, he has only sold cross-sections, where plastinated organs are clearly visible, to universities as teaching materials. But now private individuals will be able to buy slices of corpses too. Von Hagens' assistant Nadine Diwersi told the newspaper: "We are able to quickly produce large quantities with high quality and for a good price."

A cross-section down the length of the body will cost €12,000 ($17,800), while a cross-section across the body will be priced at €250, or €1,600 for a 16-slice set. A typical corpse can produce eight vertical cross-sections or 230 horizontal cross-sections.

Honestly, that is way over the top. It's beyond the scope of the exhibition, but it seems to be a natural kind of merchandising of the concept.

However, there is a contrary perspective. I can very easily see how such an exhibit would lead us to cry out with David "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers' womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Ps 139:13-14). This could well be an opportunity for us to gape in awe and wonder at the complexity, the lovliness, the simply amazing workings of the human body...and to praise God for his design.

Interestingly, this seems to be exactly what the Cincinnati Museum Center wants us to ponder, for they have on their website an article by Josh Brahm of Georgia Right to Life. Brahm comments on one section of the exhibit that shows fetal development (from the preserved remains of miscarried children). You can see that a 10 week old fetus is really and truly a little child with little fingers and a little beating heart. This isn't some lump of protoplasm that can be readily disposed of because it is inconvenient. At 10 weeks, what is in the womb is clearly a child. Brahm comments on some of the Notes left at the customary "tell us what you think" notebook that is at the end of every special museum exhibit now:

"A strong case for the anti-abortion position.”
“I know life begins at conception.”
“…I don’t understand how someone could have an abortion after seeing all the embryos.”
“…I’m convinced that life begins far earlier than our society believes.”
“I really liked the part about the babies.” ~A young girl
“We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
“I don’t know how you could not believe in God after seeing this exhibit.”
“I was fascinated with the fetuses – I did not know they were so well formed even at
seven weeks – who could ever abort a child?”
“There is no way I’m going to have an abortion…” ~A 12-year-old girl

Perhaps it's not so dehumanizing after all. Maybe, just maybe, this might be a teaching opportunity to help people wonder about the human body and our responsibility to care for it (the exhibit also shows a smoker's lung and a healthy lung). And that wondering may lead us ever more to praise our Father in heaven, and to seek forgiveness through our Redeemer Jesus Christ for the way we disregard God's wonderful creation.

Even so.....I'm still creeped out.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Related topics:
Amnesty International calls for end to executions in China
Wikipedia article on Bodies: The Exhibition (useful for the links to articles covering the controversies)
Georgia Right To Life homepage.
Premier Exhibitions homepage (they brought us Titanic: the Artifacts, as well as the Bodies exhibition)
The Oak Leaves blog post on the new plan to sell slices of plasticized humans to private individuals.

Russ note...it's interesting that a quick search on the great evangelical leaders' websites reveals no commentary on this kind of thing whatsoever...I looked to Al Mohler, Chuck Colson, and Focus on the Family. Nothing.

Speaking of Faith

So...this Christmas, I received an I-pod as my big gift! Not only does this mean that I've finally entered 2005 (even though it is 2008), but also that I can download all those interesting radio shows that I've been meaning to listen to, but never get around to. After all...sitting at the computer late at night listening to a downloaded show just isn't fun. Yet with the I-pod, I get to listen while I hit the treadmill (maybe this will be a double bonus ... I might actually exercise more).

While tinkering with my new toy, I downloaded the Public Radio show Speaking of Faith. I've heard promotional spots for the show, and I've long been interested, but because timing has an awful lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance, I haven't had the chance to listen to it. Yet now I miss out no more. I can enjoy all the backlog of shows on my I-pod (please pardon a neophyte's enthusiasm).

And the show is unlike anything I've heard other than on the Mars Hill audio. Host Krista Tippett isn't all that interested in reporting on faith. Reporting on faith can be an exercise in dabbling in power and politics....for these are the stories that attract attention. Reporting on faith can strip your faith away for a time (see this article about the LA Times reporter who lost his faith).

Tippett is interested rather in talking intelligently about faith. She interviews interesting guests who are doing under-the-radar work...and she talks to them about the role that faith plays in their work. I listened to the interview with Douglas Johnston, whose International Center for Religion and Diplomacy is striving to accomplish diplomatic ends by working through religious groups and organizations -- and on that I was hooked.

Note that the show is pluralistic in nature....guests come from any number of traditions. The point is not to sharpen swords against each other, but rather to listen and speak of experiences of faith. Guests can speak from conviction and experience, rather than from the debate playbook of trying to score points. So don't expect a distinctly Christian, much less explicitly evangelical, perspective. However the series is refreshing because, unlike much media, it takes faith seriously, and not as an object of tabloid journalism. Well worth a listen.



Soli Deo Gloria

Russell

A New Era?

This morning's op-ed page gave two lovely columns indicating that we have entered a new era.

First, there was Kathleen Parker's column on an interesting initiative called "The Village Square" Here's an excerpt from the column:

The Village Square aims to remind citizens of "The Big Idea" for which our ancestors spilled their blood -- that Americans should be self-governing. The Web site, tothevillagesquare.org, explains that history in the context of today's political dialogue, which "wouldn't be tolerated between 5-year-olds at recess." "We've turned 'talking' over to professional polarizers on television who make seven-digit careers surfing this wave of hostility," reads the Web site. "They warp what were once perfectly useful ideas, when understood in moderation, into black-and-white caricatures of ideas, so oversimplified they become effectively useless in solving real problems. "These entrepreneurial yellers build for us such a fundamental misunderstanding of (and contempt for) people who think differently than we do, we've stopped bothering to listen to each other. ... We're spoon-fed slick (and expensive) commercials that sell us snake oil rather than provide the facts so basic to building the informed citizenry envisioned by our Founding Fathers."

....It's not quite a movement, but both Boren's initiative and the Katz/Joyner project suggest the stirrings of a necessary political backlash. Just as an unhappily married couple nevertheless manages to produce a lovely and beloved child, the ugly divorce of politics from the people may yet birth a very American revolution. If Washington won't lead the way, then Americans will simply lead themselves. Born-again Americans. Now there's a concept.

A quick visit to the Village Square website proved to be interesting. The general ethos espoused is that we should engage in the conversation, and disagree where conviction leads us to disagree. Indeed we should disagree with vigor, for such disagreement helps to sharpen our convictions, but we should disagree with civility, for such civility helps us remain a society. In their resource page, they have a number of articles about civil discourse....including George Washington's advice for engaging in political discourse with courtesy. Their blog demonstrates that a part of civil discourse is not just tone, but also fairness to what someone actually says (rather than cherry picking their words simply to prove a point -- see this example on the Pope's comments about global warming).

This strikes very much at the heart of my new interest in asking the question "What do We stand for?" -- instead of falling into the gap of whining and moaning about "them", let us more clearly define what it is that we stand for.

And thus we move to the second op ed in today's paper. David Brooks' column about the Two earthquakes that rumbled from Iowa. His contention is that both Obama and Huckabee are outsiders who built their campaigns on running against politics as usual. His analysis of Huckabee's victory is better than most of the other pundits (who think it was simply evangelical theo-conservatism that pushed Huck past Romney). Brooks sees that there's a new era on the horizon beyond the scorched-earth take no prisoners character assassination of the limbaugh/franken dichotomy.

The old alliances are fragmenting -- no longer are the libertarians and the social conservatives bound. No longer are the labor unionists and the social progressives necessarily linked. On top of this, The Fourth Turning, still rattles in my brain -- the idea that generational archetypes drive shifts in our culture - and that when a generation of prophets (read - boomers) assume the mantle of leadership, they drive the culture into an unravelling that leads to crisis. This crisis leads to a new alignment as the culture figures out how best to survive the crisis -- is our crisis terrorism? Environmental disaster? Shaky economy? Globalization? all the above? I don't know for sure, but it seems that the old cold war answers aren't cutting it, and now we're looking for new voices that will offer new solutions.

Will this be beneficial or harmful? We will only know in hindsight. In the meantime, now is the time to reclarify who we are and what we're about. A new era indeed.

Excelsior
Russell

Merry Christmas

I know blogging has been light these past few months...we'll see what the new year holds, until then, Merry Christmas from the Eagle and Child. And may you have a blessed new year.

The Courage of the Ordinary

A few years ago, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences published a report on grade inflation in American Universities. One of the startling examples from that report: 80% of all Harvard students graduate with honors; nor was Harvard alone in grade inflation. When this is the case, “with honors” becomes meaningless. (Princeton has instituted policies to reverse the trend – and I commend them for their courage in their stand).

Beyond the college silliness...a real feeling of entitlement. Some lay the blame at helicopter parenting (hovering over and intervening way too much in children's lives -- see this story on the mom who called her daughter's boss). Some commentators believe the whole generation born after 1980 is one that is self-absorbed and lazy. These critiques are over the top and unfair, but they do reflect a truth (for it does take a lot of truth to keep error afloat) that building self-esteem has been a running theme through the lives of these children, and many times that self-esteem came at the cost of recognizing true excellence.

Conservative pundits decry these trends with such frequency that it has become cliche (read the comments that follow upon this news story on Millenials). However, a semi-libertarian hearkening back to some imagined social darwinism isn't exactly an attractive alternative. If a deflation of excellence to trivia has lead us to a decadent arrogance, then a tough nosed determination to value nothing but excellence will lead us to a dystopian nightmare in which the clever, the strong, and the ruthless would have their way with us lesser mortals. Honoring excellence without honoring human dignity leads to tyranny; honoring human dignity without honoring excellence leads to decadence. Somehow, we need both.

For this reason, I believe in celebrating the courage of the ordinary. The courage of the ordinary is what George Bailey exhibits in It's a Wonderful Life - he passed up many opportunities for adventure and greatness because he was committed the people in his life. He lived what on the surface appeared to be a quite ordinary life ... he courageously stayed committed to family, friends, and his small place in the world. And then, in the moment of crisis, he was blessed to see what a great impact he indeed had. The film Peter Pan makes much the same point. As the children are talking with their mother about their father's outburst of temper, Mrs. Darling tries to explain their father's courage of the ordinary:

Mrs. Darling: There are many different kinds of bravery. There's the bravery of thinking of others before one's self. Now, your father has never brandished a sword nor... nor fired a pistol, thank heavens. But he has made many sacrifices for his family, and put away many dreams.

Michael: Where did he put them?

Mrs. Darling: He put them in a drawer. And sometimes, late at night, we take them out and admire them. But it gets harder and harder to close the drawer... and he does. And that is why he is brave.

The courage lies in sacrificing the luxury of charting our own course so that we might take care of others. This is different from a mindless conformity; the courage lies in the choice. The courage lies in being faced with the dizzying opportunity to run away with the circus, to abandon committments, to chuck it all and follow the Grateful Dead, to run off in search of ourselves ... whatever the siren call to extraordinary life might be...and voluntarily and willfully declining.

Those who have chosen adventure and those who have chosen the ordinary usually have a mutual disdain for each other. Emblematic of this disdain might be the turf wars between coyboys and farmers in the mythic old west. The third Pirates of the Caribbean carried something of this theme as well - the freewheeling and self defining pirates against the ordered and boring merchant class. I suggest that such mutual antipathy is unhelpful. We have a need both for adventurers and for the ordinary. For the adventurers open up new realms of human possibility - they test the limits of human capacity - whether physical or intellectual. But the ordinary provide the stability and the groundedness that make the adventurers' exploits possible. Astronauts don't blast off into space without a lot of ordinary workers who manufacture rockes. Pirates and exporers don't sail the seas without a lot of ordinary workers who build ships, twine rope, forge steel, and create nautical instruments.

I believe that God created each human life as having value. That does not mean that the value is expressed in the same way. Part of the glory that God has placed upon mankind lies in the very expanse of capacities that are given us. The way to honor the varying expressions of God's glory in mankind is not through a one-size-fits-all policy where all children get A's. It is not through diminishing the accomplishments of the great so that the rest of us don't feel bad. The right way is through honoring glory each in it's kind. The glory of Olympic athletes is different from that of Little League - the former we expect astounding feats of physical prowess and we glory in the exceptional feats on the field. In the latter, we expect lessons about teamwork, fair play, hard work, good sportsmanship and respectful competition - and we glory as the children learn these lessons. Therein is the difference in the courage of the Extraordinary versus the courage of the ordinary.

What think you? Is there something to this, or are they but windy words from a decidedly too ordinary commentator?

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell