Deal?

"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."
- Pres. George Bush

I'll make you a deal, Mr. President. On behalf of all American citizens whose first language was not English - we'll promise to only sing the National Anthem in English if you promise to only preach Biblical scripture in Aramaic and ancient Greek.

There's a warm breezing blowing the stars around...

I spent this weekend in Oklahoma – I know I was in Oklahoma because as soon as I stepped off the plane, I saw an advert for a car which read “Bigger, shinier and wrapped in more leather than your favorite belt buckle.” Ah, Oklahoma – as much as I love to tease you, you are still home and I feel more comfortable with you than anywhere else in the world.

But that’s not the point of this entry. Because I was in Oklahoma, I didn’t go to a star watching party on Saturday – but four of my friends did, including Sarah. Now this reminds me of a story which is far too good not to tell, despite the fact that it ends up being quite embarrassing for me.

Without delving into too much detail, I have dated…well, let’s just say I have dated ‘a few’ women in my life. Any budding relationship will either blossom or die in the phase just after ‘introduction’ and just before ‘smooching’ – the wooing phase (yes – I just used the word ‘wooing’). There are many ways to woo, and we wooers generally choose a few favorites and stick to them.

On more than one occasion, I have found myself walking outside at night with a particular young lady and, resorting to one of my standard methods, I have begun pointing out constellations. I don’t know if it is because it makes me look smart of if starlight has some sort of drug in it – all I know is you point up at the sky, rattle off some Greek mythology, and the next thing you know, smoochie-time. So through the years, many a young lady has been taken by my ability to point out the Big Dipper, the North Star, Orion’s belt, the Little Dipper, etc, and these evenings have generally ended well for both of us.

Now – fast forward to graduate school. I was pursuing a girl we’ll call V, and found myself walking back to the dormitory with V and Sarah. Being the shameless flirt that I am, I began pointing out constellations with Sarah right there. V was very impressed, cuddled up to me, and listened intently as I guided her gaze across a beautiful northern California sky. I showed her how to find the North Star using the big Dipper as a guide, then how to find Orion’s belt along with his sword and bow, and then I pointed out the Little Dipper. V was putty in my hands when Sarah, who had certainly been rolling her eyes and shaking her head the whole time interjected – “THAT’S NOT THE LITTLE DIPPER – THOSE ARE THE SEVEN SISTERS!”

*SNAP*

Just like that, the spell was broken. V was no longer impressed, I was no longer headed for smoochdom, and Sarah – well I can’t say that I’ve ever seen her happier!

“Yes it is!” – I thought maybe I could find some pathway back into the zone.

“No it isn’t! THAT’S the Little Dipper” said Sarah and she pointed to another clump of stars which looked like…well, like a Little Dipper.

I bet you can finish the story from here. I went home alone - so did V and Sarah. However, I went home with my tail between my legs, V went home thinking "what a dork" and Sarah laughed all the way back to her apartment.

That night, I looked up the Little Dipper on-line. Not surprisingly, Sarah was right. As I fell asleep that night, I couldn't help but think of all the girls spread around the world who are convinced of an astronomical error!

Special Prayer Request

File this one under 'you have got to be kidding me':

As most of you know, I am a volunteer escort for Planned Parenthood. I spend a few Saturdays a month escorting clientele from their cars, past the protestors, to the clinic. It is a very rewarding experience, although a difficult way to start a day – being taunted and chastised by an angry mob. I have been called everything under the sun and believe it or not, I feel no ill-will towards the protestors. As I’ve said before, they are standing up for what they believe in the same way that I am. To them, yelling profanities at someone they don’t know in the hopes they won’t show up the following Saturday is an act of kindness in the end. I wonder if I might feel the same way were I on the other side of the fence.

But I’m not – I am squarely on this side – the side that believes that while abortion is an evil, it is a lesser evil than forcing a woman to endure an unwanted pregnancy.

A few Saturdays ago, there was a lull in arrivals and I found myself standing next to one of the protestors from the Houston Coalition for Life. We were far away from the protestors whom I have learned to identify as the particularly harassing ones and from watching this individual, I had a notion she was a bit more likely to talk to me rather than at me. I took a chance and asked her a question:

“Do you think that if I were to ask you a question, we might have a debate without any shouting or name calling?”

She responded quickly, “Yes – of course” - so I continued. “One of the things about which you speak most often is the alternatives to abortion. Every Saturday when I come here, I see dozens of people who are obviously very passionate about this issue taking time out of their days to stand here and make it clear that they disagree with what goes on behind those doors. My question is this – wouldn’t it be more effective to take that energy, that passion, that time and channel it towards working to make these alternatives more readily available? Instead of sitting here and protesting Planned Parenthood, you could be working at an adoption facility or a crisis pregnancy center which doesn’t perform abortions.”

Her response was simple and honest – “I do volunteer at those places – I come here to make sure that people know they exist.”

From there, we engaged in a beautiful debate. It was calm, educational and completely void of aggression. I would be lying if I said that it was all fruitful – much of it was spent convincing her that she didn’t need to waste time throwing emotional arguments at me. “I know abortion is a horrible thing” I kept reminding her, “we can stop with the tear-jerking sound-bites.” I wanted to show her that I and the other volunteers aren’t monsters – in fact, we aren’t so different from those on the other side of the fence.

Before long, four of her friends joined us in our discussion. As we leaned up against the walls of the clinic and discussed, the barriers between us quickly collapsed – we moved closer to one another, our demeanor changed – we were no longer enemies – we were equals, colleagues – perhaps even friends. It was one of the most rewarding hours of my life. What began as five people coming together to battle ended with an exchange of e-mail addresses and a promise to continue this discussion over lunch someday.

Now, with this in mind, imagine my surprise and slight annoyance when the volunteer coordinator of Planned Parenthood sent me this except from the Houston Coalition for Life newsletter:

SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST
Please shower your prayers upon a Planned Parenthood worker who seems to be on the brink of conversion. During a time when there was a very large prayer presence at the Planned Parenthood abortion mill, a worker began a meaningful dialogue with a prayer warrior and seems to be having a change of heart!

"We want Christian men in there."

Yesterday, NPR asked people at the Sugarland community center for their reaction to Tom Delay’s announcement that he would soon resign from Congress. First, the Delay supporter, Ann Wilson, responded:

“I was devastated when I heard the news last night…I am not happy, I don’t know who these ‘also-runners’ are that [now] have to be voted on, but you can bet your boots that I’m going to investigate and see. We want Christian Men in there.”

…then the dissenting opinion from Ellen Frank:

“Three cheers. I think the kind of politics that Mr. Delay represents is antithetical to a democratic way of life. The winner take all mentality, the hammer people to the ground, the building up the lobbyist as a fourth branch of government. This is just something that has gotten totally out of control and I think he, although not the originator necessarily, I think he has certainly contributed tremendously to the development of that kind of mentality.”

I have come to believe that there are three levels of awareness. The first is the notion that your opinion is not only the correct one, but the only correct one. The second is the recognition that opposing opinions have validity, and would perhaps even make sense in someone else’s shoes. The third is the realization that not only is your opinion not the correct answer, but that there is no correct answer; that future generations will mock a great many opinions held by the majority of today’s civilization in the same way that we mock those held by generations past; that to think we know all the answers is to prove that you know none.

Listening to these two interviewees, I can’t help but notice the great divide in awareness between them.

God on both sides

Wonderful article published in the New York Times

The Abortion-Rights Side Invokes God, Too

By NEELA BANERJEE

In any given week, if you walked into one of Washington's big corporate hotels early in the morning, you would find a community of the faithful, quite often conservative Christians, rallying the troops, offering solace and denouncing the opposition at a prayer breakfast.

So you might be forgiven for thinking that such a group was in attendance on Friday in a ballroom of the Washington Hilton. People wearing clerical collars and small crucifixes were wedged at tables laden with muffins, bowing their heads in prayer. Seminarians were welcomed. Scripture was cited. But the name of the sponsor cast everything in a new light: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

To its critics, Planned Parenthood is the godless super-merchant of abortion. To its supporters, it is the dependably secular defender of abortion rights. But at this breakfast, God was everywhere, easily invoked by believers of various stripes.

''We are here this morning because, through our collective efforts, we are agents in bringing our fragile world ever closer to the promise of redemption,'' Rabbi Dennis S. Ross, director of Concerned Clergy for Choice, told the audience. ''As clergy from an array of denominations, we say yes to the call before us. Please join me in prayer: We praise you, God, ruler of time and space, for challenging us to bring healing and comfort to your world.''

''Amen,'' the audience responded.

The Interfaith Prayer Breakfast has been part of Planned Parenthood's annual convention for four years. Most ministers and rabbis at the breakfast have known the group far longer.

Margaret Sanger, founder of the organization that became Planned Parenthood, drew clergy members in the early 20th century by relating the suffering of women who endured successive pregnancies that ravaged their health and sought illegal abortions in their desperation, said the Rev. Thomas R. Davis of the United Church of Christ, in his book ''Sacred Work, Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances.''

In the 1930's, Jewish and mainline Protestant groups began to voice their support for birth control. In 1962, a Maryland clergy coalition successfully pressed the state to permit the disbursal of contraception. In the late 1960's, some 2,000 ministers and rabbis across the country banded together to give women information about abortion providers and to lobby for the repeal of anti-abortion laws.

''The clergy could open that door because the clergy had a certain moral authority,'' said Mr. Davis, who is chairman of Planned Parenthood's clergy advisory board but whose book is not sponsored by the group. ''They balanced the moral authority of the critics.''

As the scrape of silverware quieted at the breakfast, the Rev. W. Stewart MacColl told the audience how a Presbyterian church in Houston that he had led and several others had worked with Planned Parenthood to start a family planning center. Protesters visited his church. Yet his 900 parishioners drove through picket lines every week to attend services. One Sunday, he and his wife, Jane, took refreshments to the protesters out of respect for their understanding of faith, he said.

Mr. MacColl said a parishioner called him the next day to comment: ''That's all very well for you to say, but you don't drive to church with a 4-year-old in the back seat of your car and have to try to explain to him when a woman holds up a picture of a dead baby and screams through the window, 'Your church believes in killing babies.' ''

Mr. MacColl said of the abortion protester: ''She would, I suspect, count herself a lover of life, a lover of the unborn, a lover of God. And yet she spoke in harshness, hatred and frightened a little child.''

Mr. MacColl quoted the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: '' 'Sometimes the worst evil is done by good people who do not know that they are not good.' ''

The crowd murmured its assent.

Then Mr. MacColl challenged them. ''The trouble is, I find myself reflected in that woman,'' he said. ''Because I can get trapped in self-righteousness and paint those who oppose me in dark colors they do not deserve. Is that, at times, true of you, as well?''

This time, people were silent.

It is not lost on Mr. Davis how the passion of the Christian right in its effort to abolish abortion and curtail access to birth control now mirrors the efforts of clergy members 40 years ago to do the opposite.

''They're a religious tradition, too, and they are moved by Scripture,'' he said, although the Bible says nothing explicit about abortion. ''When we understood the suffering in these kinds of situations that women were in, we understood that for reasons of justice, we had to act. We're doing it for theological and Biblical reasons.''

A perception may exist that the denominations supporting abortion rights are outnumbered and out-shouted by their more conservative brethren. But that worried Mr. Davis little, he said, for he and other like-minded clergy members were in the minority in the 1960's, too.

Still, some clergy members could barely contain their outrage. ''The more we are able to cultivate the capacity in every person -- women and men -- to make informed ethical judgments both in ourselves and our society, the more we are coming into relationship with the transcendent, with God,'' said the Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president of Chicago Theological Seminary.

''Human existence as a materialistic quest for power and dominance, a crass manipulation of fear and intolerance for political gain, drives us apart both from one another and from God,'' she said. ''For what does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?''