Have you ever met someone you disliked on first encounter, and then came to appreciate later? That is the case between Christopher Buckley (left) and me. Our acquaintance is virtual, that is, I met him initially on TV, where he was being interviewed by someone I can't remember. He struck me as being extremely cynical and embittered, and I chalked him up as a middle-aged spoiled rich boy, in part because he makes a comfortable living as a writer, and in part because he inherited his father's fortune. 
          His father was William Buckley, Jr., the best-known conservative intellectual of his day, and for many years the host of Firing Line. The elder Buckley came to prominance 55 years ago after publishing his first book, God and Man at Yale, a scathing critique of the decline of religiosity at that university. The elder Buckley was a devout and practising Christian (and and equally devout and active Republican) throughout his long life. He died last year at age 82. But throughout my own life I resented him because I could discern little relationship between his Christian faith and his opulent lifestyle. To me it seemed he utilized his Christianity to both justify and mask his political convictions; this always struck me as self-serving, to say the least. Of course, this is an exhibition of pure prejudice on my part, a prejudice I unconsiously directed toward his son, Christopher.
          But since that first encounter with Christopher Buckley on TV I have had other virtual meetings with him, most espectially in his recent memoir, Losing Mum and Pup. (Both his mother and father passed on within the space of a year.) This in turn has generated a more balanced view of him on my part and a certain appreciation, perhaps respect.
          In a similar way, a lot of Americans disdained the Scotish singer Susan Boyle when she first appeared on TV with frumpy hair and dowdy dress, only to discover that she had a wonderful voice. Unjustified prejudice -- usually directed at those who are somehow "different" than us -- seems to be endemic to human nature. We need to become self-aware of our own prejudices and conscientiously deal with them, for we live in a volatile and dangerous world where we cannot but daily interact with people who are different than us.

          Since everyone else is commenting on President Obama's first 100 days, I will add my two cents' worth; otherwise you'll be wondering why I ignored the occasion. Of course, everyone also knows that 100 days is something of a myth, without real significance. It's only a start. Still, it's fair to ask what kind of a start. From my point of view, it's a mixed start, mostly positive, but with some negatives as well.
          The economic recession with its associated credit crunch represents the first benchmark to consider. In my opinion, the President was right in expanding government stimuli and tying it to a long range program of reforming and renovating health care, education, energy,and infrastructure. I grew up during the Great Depression. Eighty years later we are still benefiting from similar moves President Roosevelt made at that time. I think Mr. Obama is right in calling the automotive industry to account, but generally speaking, I believe he has failed to do the same with Wall Street and the banking industry. Although I agree with his expansive budget and the greatly enlarged national debt it entails, I am doubtful that over four years -- or even eight -- the president will be able to pare it down to the level he projects.
          The other main benchmark to consider is international relations. I give the president high grades for revising the whole environment here, exchanging the imperialistic approach of the previous administration for a more collegial approach. America needs this. Nothing very concrete has ensued from this early on; nevertheless it is the right move. Obama should be credited also for reshaping the "war against terror" scenario, although it's much too early to know whether his focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan will produce the desire outcome. I am rather doubtful.
          Like many others, I have appreciated the calm and deliberative way Mr. Obama has gone about his business. He exudes confident leadership, at home and abroad. At the same time, he has not clearly demonstrated his ability to "change the way Washington works." From my perspective, his family life has  been a big positive, and for this Michelle Obama should be given a large measure of credit. Having an African-American family in the White House will not resolve racism in the United States, but it does make it easier to not only continuing racial divisions but also rapidly emerging problems related to other ethnic groups. The city in which I live, for example, has a clear and increasing Hispanic majority.

          In a famous essay, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin divided Western thinkers into two classes: hedgehogs (photo) and foxes. Hedgehogs know just one thing; foxes know many things. Hedgehogs (e.g. Plato and Hegel) view the world through a single dominating lens and interpret everything through that lens. They tend to be narrowly focused and often tunnel-visioned. Foxes (e.g. Shakespeare, Goethe) Foxes are insatiably curious, viewing the world through multi-faceted lens and pursuing a variety of unrelated, even contradictory, objectives.
          In real life, while most of us are a combination of hedgehog and fox, one usually predominates over the other. I myself am interested in all kinds of things and my foxy reading, though the years, has ranged over disparate fields such as science, history, theology, art, international relations and economics. Most of my friends think of me as "liberal." But at bottom, I suspect I am a hedgehog, or a quasi-hedgehog, because for literally decades at a time I have focused single-mindedly on specific areas of action such as disciplemaking, social justice, the relationship between science and faith, and uncovering the essence of the Gospel.
          In the modern era of globalization it seems more advantageous to be a fox. For our contemporary world is full of surprises on a grand scale, surprises that require constant reevaluation of our assumptions, the ability to adapt to change, and the parallel ability to innovate new responses. The current swine flu "crisis" is an example of this. Hedgehogs would likely debate the issue at length, trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution, preferably global in dimension. Foxes, by contrast, get to work pragmatically at the local level, and experiment with a variety of responses, hoping to deter the potential pandemic, if not to erase it altogether. We see this kind of foxy response occuring in Mexico and the United States and in most other countries as well.
          Still, hedgehogs make their contributions. Who would deny the influence of Plato or Hegel on the evolution of Western societies? And I would like to think that I will be remembered by my friends less as a Renaissance man than as someone who made some solid contributions in a few important areas of life.

          Our family left Lebanon in 1966. The following year Professor Ken Bailey (left) arrived in Lebanon to teach at the Near East School of Theology (NEST), so I never got to know him personally, though we met once in later years. But some of the young men I had discipled in Lebanon are well acquainted with him, for he taught at NEST for more than two decades – a good part of this time during the civil war that was being waged in Lebanon. In all Dr. Bailey spent 40 years as a missionary scholar in Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Jerusalem. His specialty has been unraveling the cultural context of Jesus’ life and ministry. In his books he peels away obscurantist layers of Western interpretation to reveal Jesus in the light of his actual historical and cultural setting. Bailey’s latest book is Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. I have just finished reading it.         
          The book is a journey through the four Gospels, covering the stories relating to Jesus’ birth, his dramatic actions, his relationship with women, the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer and, finally, his parables. Bailey has developed unusual expertise in the older Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic translations of the New Testament (recall that Aramaic, not Hebrew, was the everyday language of Jesus). Thus he is able to show how modern Western interpretations of the Gospels differ significantly from the earlier Eastern versions -- versions that reflect more accurately the Middle Eastern culture in which Jesus ministered. Chapter 31, the Parable of the Pounds (Talents) is a case in point. In the process he introduces the modern reader to some wonderfully insightful ancient commentators, Abdullah ibn al-Tayyib of Baghdad, for example, as well as contemporary ones such as Matta al-Miskin of Cairo.         
           If you want to see Jesus afresh,I highly recommend the book. Bailey’s understanding of the atonement -- God-in-Christ's costly demonstration of unexpected love -- is near identical to mine. Both are based essentially on Jesus’ demonstration of God’s character, the demonstration in turn becoming God’s saving revelation to us, a la Pierre Abelard. However, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes ought not to be read through at one sitting, or even over a period of a few days. Like a glass of dry wine, it needs to be savored in sips. A reader needs time to absorb Bailey’s specialist approach, and time to reflect on just how counter-cultural Jesus was in his day – and, by contrast, how culturally syncretistic so much of our evangelical Christianity is today.

          Of course, I know it's shading into winter now for my friends in Australia and South Africa.  And in truth, here in Paterson we're not far into spring.  But we are experiencing extraordinary summer weather, a four-day stretch in which the temperatures are in the mid-80s, Fahrenheit, twenty degrees above normal.  I love it. Which reminds me that fairly often I am asked, in light of my global travels, which country I would choose to live in, if I had a choice.  My answer usually narrows down to Malaysia and Sri Lanka, two countries which hover around the Equator, but which also have cool highland regions to compliment their palm-lined beaches.
       Today the civil war that has been raging in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) for many years now appears to be approaching its climax, with the Buddhist majority decisively subduing the Hindu Tamil minority living in the northern part of the country, nearest India. The suffering currently endured by the Tamils is beyond description -- thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children trapped along the beaches with virtually no food and little medical facilities. During my traveling years I often flew from Chennai (formerly Madras) down to Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, and from there made my way to small village churches in the tea-growing uplands.  I feel sad when I think about the killings and devastation that has destroyed so many families -- Buddhist and Tamil alike -- in this beautiful country.

          "A Culture Soaked in Blood." That's how Bob Herbert, left, describes our society.  And the facts bear him out. Nearly 17,000 Americans are murdered every year, more than two-thirds of them shot to death. This includes 3,000-plus children. This truly insane violence is accelerated by the easy availability of guns -- 283 million privately owned firearms, approaching one gun for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. Herbert, who is about my wife's age, is a long-time, twice-a-week columnist for the New York Times.  He, along with Paul Krugman and David Brooks, are the regular columnists I read most frequently. Then there are those who are shot but don't die: more than 65,000.  Not surprisingly, the medical costs of teating gunshot wounds in the U.S. is estimated at well more than $2 billion annually.
          Those of you who read this blog know that I comment often on violence, for I consider to be the defining mark of our times.  Not just domestic violence, and individuals run amok, but the never-ending series of national wars and ethnic cleansings between and wthin nations. And the arms sales that makes them possible -- America being the largest seller of arms to other nations. Herbert maintains, and I agree, that Americans are as blasé as can be about this relentless slaughter, this willful refusal to acknowledge the scope of the horror and do something definitive about it.

         Night TV host Jay Leno checked himself into a hospital yesterday with an undisclosed complaint. I didn't go to the hospital, but I had an uncomfortable night myself, with a badly upset stomach and flem I couldn't get out of my throat.  Signs of old age, I guess.
     On another subject, we have been trying to gradually replace our incadescent light bulbs with compact fluoresents, the envioronmentally friendly kind. The old-fashioned bulbs use five to ten times more energy than the newer ones. The project is going rather slowly, not only because the new bulbs are more expensive, but the light they emit seems noticeably weaker -- I need strong light for reading -- they don't accomodate dimmer switches, they contain mercury, etc. So as of now we have replaced only about a third of the incandescent bulbs in our home. You would be surprised -- or perhaps you wouldn't -- at how many light bulbs are in a home.
         

          My wife, Georgia, grew up in Bedford County, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge foothills. The town of Bedford, population only 3,200, is said to have lost more men per capita on D-Day than any other town in America. They were the "Bedford Boys," members of Company A of the 116th Infantry. A decade ago Congress created a National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. The photo shows troops storming Omaha Beach that day. (Full disclosure: I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and joined the Army Air Corps not long after D-Day.) All this World War II slaughter came back to mind this morning as I read of the death of Lieutenant Ray Nance, the sole surviving Bedford Boy. In one of his last interviews Nance said, "I never really got over it, and I'm not sure I ever will." After the war, Nance farmed tobacco for a while, then spent the rest of his career as a rural letter carrier.

          South Africa's 50 million people -- or at least a good portion of them -- go to the polls today to elect a new president. I get most of my information about internal South African politics from Annemie Bosch, widow of the premier missiologist of the latter part of the 20th century. He died in an auto accident in the mid-1990s.  She maintains a steady email correspondence with her many friends around the world.  Annemie is an enthusiastic supporter of Dr. Mvume Dandala (photo), a Methodist Bishop who leads COPE (Congress of the People), and who is certain to lose. For despite its mediocre record over the past 15 years, the African National Congress, which led the fight for liberation from apartheid, is still the most popular party amongst South Africa's black majority. Despite his impending defeat, Dandala writes:
          "This is to thank you for all your love, care and prayers. We have officially closed the campaign season now. We are waiting for the people to pass their verdict tomorrow. For me personally it has been an eye-opener to see how our people are bereft of hope, almost accepting as ordained their lot in poverty under corrupt rule. The spark in their eyes at the prospect of an alternative is something that will stay with us. We realise that our work has to be a long haul, in a sense a long term investment in our democracy. Whatever happens tomorrow, I believe that the landscape of South African politics has been altered for the best, irrevocably I hope. We are committed to offering South Africans the worthy government that they deserve and to build COPE into a party that the SAcan people will be proud of for generations."

          My friends -- particularly in places like Colorado Springs, where anything vaguely leftist is anathema -- kid me about my loyalty to the New York Times. But it is without doubt the best newspaper in the U.S., and far superior to anything I can find on TV in keeping me abreast at what is going on in the world. Yesterday it was announced that the NY Times had won five 2009 Pulitzer Prizes: for international reporting, for breaking news, for investigative reporting, for art/literary criticism, and for feature photography.  Since 1917, The Times has now won 101 Pulitzer Prizes, far more than any other newspaper in America. The prizes were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a journalist and publisher, and administered by Columbia University.
          Writing in the New York Times today, Tara Parker-Pope reports that last year researchers at the University of Virginia took a group of students to the base of a steep hill and fitted them with weighted backpacks before asking them to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some students were grouped with friends; others were placed alone.  The studnets who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared. As I journey through the late years of my life, facing the mystery of death, I have verified this experiment personally. Most of my best friends are not close by in Paterson, but scattered far and wide around the world. I find this makes no difference in the value of the friendships, thanks largely to the Internet.

          The lush island of Trinidad, which lies off the north coast of South America, reminds me of Malaysia, where our family lived during the 1970s.  It was here that President Obama surprised everyone by reaching out and shaking hands with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, setting off a storm of criticism from the likes of South Carolina's Senator Lindsey Graham. Personally, I'm weary of this kind of carping. I have no idea how Mr. Obama will fare in the long run, but I am very happy to see him taking diplomatic initiatives even with America's erstwhile enemies. It's a style change that Christians and other people of good will can appreciate, though how much substantive change it will achieve is hard to estimate. At the very least, it is worth the effort and, contrary to Graham and Company, does not imperil America's security at all.

            I don’t watch MTV – it’s for 16 to 24 years olds – but I like to know what’s going on in it, precisely because it’s the mirror for the newest generation of young adults. So I read with interest a report about a new show on MTV, “The Buried Life.” This show has four friends setting off across the country in an R.V. with a video camera in tow, and with the aim of fulfilling their lists of 100 Things to Do Before I Die. “With plenty of high jinks and adolescent humor,” it seems like a typical MTV production, except for the fact that at each stop the group helps deserving locals fulfill their own wishes. As the reporter noted, this is MTV in the era of Obama – a show with a veneer of positive social messages. I don’t know how long this will last, but for the time being, and in the wake of MTV’s usual celebration of “wealth, celebrity, and the vapid excesses of you, it appears to be a welcome shift. Or perhaps this is merely an 80-year-old's own vapid speculating.

           Andrew Rice, whose book about a Uganda murder trial is entitled The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forgive,has written a fascinating article in the current New York Times Magazine. It’s about a fast-growing missionary movement originating in Nigeria and making impressive inroads here in the United States as well as many other countries of the world. The vision of the Redeemed Christian Church of God is to become an African-based global church. It’s center is in Redemption City, 30 miles north of Lagos, Nigeria. Its U.S. branch is headquartered in a small town in Hunt County, Texas where they are constructing an assembly hall that will seat 20,000 people. Bishop Bart Pierce, a white Pentecostal minister from Baltimore, believes that “the African is the midwife for the next great move of God in America.
          Rice reports that “all the Americans I met who had gravitated to the Redeemed Church described their motivations similarly: they were searching for something that they felt was missing from this society, a feverish engagement with the worship of God.”  Said one new convert, “I saw a congregation of people who really enjoyed praise. I didn’t see any shyness about dancing for Jesus.” Said another, “They have brought those miracles that we read about in the Bible, that we know Jesus performed. This is what really drew me and a lot of the Americans.”So it is that missionaries from Europe and America, who brought Christianity to Africa, are now seeing Africans return the favor.

          We had an interesting family adventure yesterday. During the previous night a young squirrel, playing around on our rooftop, had fallen down the chimney into our fireplace, which fortunately was not alight. He couldn’t get out, and Georgia was unwilling to open the fireplace screen for fear he would be running all through the house, his sharp claws and teeth chewing everything up. We called the city’s animal department, but they informed us they no longer respond to such calls. They warned us that bringing in a professional service to extricate the squirrel would be exorbitantly expensive. But, they assured us, squirrels hate ammonia, so “spray some ammonia in the fireplace and the squirrel will quickly climb back up the chimney.”         
          This we did, twice. No luck. The poor squirrel doubtless suffered from the fumes, but was too young and too weak to make it back up the chimney. Out of optons, we prayed, asking God to give us an idea how to free the squirrel without our being bitten or the squirrel starving to death. Later in the afternoon God answered the prayer. We thought to open the living room’s French doors, which lead to our back yard, and see whether instinct would motivate it to skip the house tour and scamper directly to the outside world. This is what happened. Now we see it rooting in the ground underneath one of our trees that must be its home.

          New York City is the greatest city in the world in our time, and the Roman Catholic Church is the glue that holds the city together -- so says former NYC mayor Ed Koch, himself a Jew. The big news in the metro area yesterday was the installation, with great pomp and ceremony, of a new Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, who will doubtless be dubbed a Cardinal in the very near future. Participating in the ceremony were representatives of not only a variety of Protestant leaders, but also Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and other religious dignitaries -- though not Jews, who are still celebrating Passover.
          The presence of leaders of the world's major religions highlights the role of religion in society generally. I am currently taking a course entitled Introduction to the Study of Religion, taught by Dr. Charles Jones of the Catholic University of America. The purpose of the course is to elaborate how professional scholars from a variety of academic fields -- sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, phenomenology, etc. -- approach the study of religion. I'm finding it very interesting, although for me it dramatizes the problem people like me have in distinguishing and articulating the difference between religion in general and the Gospel in particular.  On the one hand, religion is simply one of the building blocks of society, along with family, government, commerce, art, and so on. And it's probably true that religion, more than the other building blocks I mentioned, is the glue that binds communities, forming the base for a given culture. On the other hand, religion has a very personal dimension, and it is at this point that it strikes most people as "good news" or not. For Christians, the good news is that God has a loving purpose for each and every individual that can lead to abundant living this side of the grave and eternal life in a new heaven and new earth on the far side.

          One of my former (and excellent) administrative assistants has been teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in a communist country for a number of years now. Recently he assigned one of his classes an essay, to be entitled “Why I Exist.” One of his students, the class troublemaker, unexpectedly revealed his inner feelings. “I’ll never be able to answer this question by myself,” he wrote. “I don’t know why I exist. My parents gave birth to me. After that I grew up attending school. What I did most was for myself. After I went to university I became a volunteer and started to serve society. I don’t know why I exist since I I don’t know what I live for – the society, my family, or only myself.” He concluded, “It’s miserable, and I can’t find an answer.” My ESL friend looks forward to having lunch with this young man and pointing him to Jesus.

          It was back in 1964 that I first visited Mogadishu, Somalia's capital city.  I was flying from Nairobi to Beirut by way of Mombassa, Mogadishu, Djibouti, Aden and Amman.  At that time Mogadishu was a sleepy little town; today it is a large city with streets laid out like a checkerboard, and with a population of more than a million.  I was reminded of that earlier trip this morning when I read about our local congressman, Donald Payne, who had been meeting with Somali officials.  He was about to take off from the airport, which runs right along the sea front, when his plane was showered with mortar fire.  Fortunately it was erratic and inneffective and he made it away safely.
          On another subject, I am puzzled by the Obama administration's stance on prisoners of war.  The administration is appealing a court ruling that would require the government to show cause (habeas corpus) for holding certain prisoners at Baghram air force base in Afghanistan. Not those who have been captured on the battlefields Afghanistan, but those who have been caught in other parts of the world and transferred to Baghram. The reason this puzzles me is because President Obama has made a very big thing about closing down the prison at Guatanamo where prisoners have been held without benefit of habeas corpus for years on end. Why would he want to repeat this maltreatment at Baghram?  And what would keep the U.S. government from simply transferring prisoners from Guatanamo to Baghram? There seems to be some serious inconsistencies here.

          I experience some misgivings about the American hostage rescue story that dominated the news here last night.  Of course, it is wonderful that he was rescued. But three pirates were killed in the process. Not that that bothers most Americans, but it bothers me.  Some newspapers had reported that a couple of days earlier negotiators had met with Somali tribal elders, and that the elders had suggested a mutual exchange: give us the pirates and we will give you the hostage; no ransom payment would be required.  Apparently the U.S. government would not agree, and consequently, a deal in which all lives would have been spared ended with killings.
          I'm at the age where members of my generation are dying virtually every week.  This week I note two. One is a long-time friend and colleague, Larry Cardwell, who passed on a week ago.  He is shown here with his wife, Marie, who has also gone to be with her Lord. During the 1960s the Cardwells and Scotts colabored side by side as missionaries in Lebanon. They were always enthusiastic supporters of my own ministry there, as I was of theirs. 
          Stanley Jaki also died last week. Readers of this blog know that I try hard to intertwine secular science and Christian faith. Jaki was an expert in this and I learned much from him in my younger years. He held two doctorates: one in physics and the other in theology. Since 1965 he had been teaching at Seton Hall University, just down the road from Paterson. 

          Among Christians worldwide, Easter is a rare name for the day commemorating Jesus' resurrecton from the dead.  Most Christians around the world use a word related to the Hebrew word denoting the Passover. A few national churches use the word which in their language means Resurrection. But in Anglo-German lands "easter" comes from an old word for the month of April, and is said to be the name of an ancient German goddess.  There is more syncretism in Christianity than we commonly admit.
          This morning the local church of which Georgia and I are members held a  sunrise service atop nearby Garrett Mountain, then descended for breakfast at El Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd), a Hispanic church.  Then came the two regular worship services of the day.  Georgia helped prepare breakfast and sang in the choir.  I did not attend any of these events.  I have an inbred distaste for rituals and try to avoid them where possible.  In addition, Easter services are always overcrowded with people who come to church only once a year.  For me, that transforms what might have been significant worship into a shallow experience.
          Nevertheless the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is important to me. It is a miracle and therefore a mystery. But I appropriate it as the fulfillment of God's promise to ultimately renew all things in the universe, including especially the species Homo sapiens, all humans who have ever lived or ever will live. And the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in our world assures me that this renewal has already commenced.
    

         

          That's what Greek Orthodox Christians call this day because, as the Apostles' Creed says, on this day, after his burial, Jesus "descended into hell," that is, into the abode of the dead. Or, as the Apostle Peter has it, Jesus "made a proclamation to the spirits in prison" (I Peter 3:18).  Jesus' announcement was that all human beings had now been liberated from the captivity of Satan. The early Christians interpreted this "descent into hell" literally, and on this basis they elaborated that understanding of the Cross that focuses on spiritual liberation.  Modern "liberation theologies" reflect this early belief.
          The 16th century reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin, and the contemporary theologian Jurgen Moltmann, interpret Jesus' descent into hell not literally but figuratively. On the Cross Jesus experienced the hell of God-forsakenness.  He was, in the words of the Apostle Paul, "made sin" for us.  So now, when I experience my own "hell on earth" -- whether because of my own sins or because of the sins of others against me -- I know that Jesus is with me as a fellow-sufferer. More than that, and speaking for all of us, I believe that Jesus has gathered up each of our hells and conquered them.  Now united with Jesus, we are assured of eternal life, both in this world and the world to come. This frees me from self-preoccupation and motivates me to live for others.

          I won't be attending any Good Friday services today, but I will be spending some time reflecting on the spiritual significance of Jesus' crucifixion. The first thing I think of is that at the mundane level, it has little meaning.  Crucifixion was the common mode of criminal execution in Jesus' day. Two others were crucified alongside Jesus that day. No material reason is needed to explain Jesus' death apart from the obvious proclivity of human beings, particularly those in power, to resolve societal tensions by scapegoating and violence.
          But the spiritual significance of Jesus' execution has reverberated for two thousand years and counting. How so? I believe that Jesus embodied the pain and suffering that even the best of men and women experience in an imperfect world. In so doing, he revealed God's commitment to the human race as a whole -- Emmanuel: God with us. And "if God be for us, who can be against us?" The glorious destiny of Homo sapiens is assured. For me, this has become a central feature of the "good news." 
          More than that, I see that at Calvary God revealed his commitment to me as an individual. When Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; they don't realize what they are doing," the Father did just that. Nothing prevents me now from completely trusting my Creator and Redeemer. Furthermore, nothing now inhibits me from being reconciled to my neighbor, whether that be the family next door, the citizens of Iran or North Korea, or even al-Qaeda. Both Jew and Gentile were complicit in Jesus' death, and both were forgiven. 
          I am emotionally moved and highly motivated by the conviction that, in the words of the Apostle Paul, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself," and that in turn I have been "entrusted with the ministry of reconcilation."  What better way to spend my senior years than pursuing this ministry?       

          This blog is somewhat gratuitous, since I wrote on the same subject a year or so ago.  But recent events prompt another word or two.  Earlier this week a state legislature (Vermont) legalized same-sex marriage. This was significant because previous efforts to do so in places like Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut had been initiated by the courts, not by state legislatures.  On "Larry King Live," two nights in a row this week, promiment evangelical pastors Rick Warren and Joel Osteen decried Vermont's action and expressed themselves strongly in favor of the concept that marriage must be defined as "one man and one woman." Both pastors claimed that this is a biblical concept.
          Personally, I favor legalizing same-sex marriage. Why?  Because I believe marriage is one of the basic building blocks of a stable society, especially when it comes to the rearing of children. Consequently I tend to favor anything that strengthens marriage as an institution.  It is true that the Bible portrays marriage as between opposite sexes -- but it does not, contrary to Warren and Osteen, limit it to one man and one woman.  Marriage is less of a theological issue than a cultural issue. Old Testament polygamy in godly families is a case in point. In opposing divorce, Jesus pointed to Adam and Eve (one man and one woman), but acknowledged that Moses -- presumably with God's permission -- allowed otherwise. 
          Jesus said this was because of "the hardness of your hearts," a reference to the reality of personal sin.  But sin is a reality in the lives of heteosexuals as much as homosexuals. This is why the advocates of same-sex marriage focus not on sin but on civil rights, and rightly so, in my opinion.
          Contrary to advocates of same-sex marriage, I doubt that very many states here in the United States are ever going to legalize same-sex marriage -- a dozen would be the likely maximum.  So is a reasonable compromise available? Reasonable compromises are the bread and butter of pluralistic societies.  My suggestion would be to guarantee same-sex couples the same civil rights, in every detail, that heterosexual couples have, including the right to a religious ceremony, but give it a different label than "marriage."  Call it "union" or something similar.  Most same-sex marriage advocates, as of now, would reject that solution -- but what compromise are they offering?
         
         
                  

         


          In the Jewish tradition, a holiday begins at sunset, so observing Jews will begin to celebrate Passover this evening. But this morning some Jews, at least here in the New York metro area, observed another intriguing occasion.  Jews believe that only once every 28 years does the sun return to the exact position it occupied at the fourth day of creation.  That would be 5769 years ago, according to the Hebrew calendar.  So observant Jews greeted this morning with the Birkat Hachamah, the Blessing of the Sun. Participants are instructed to look at the sun only once, to emphasize the fact that they are worshipping the Creator, not the creation. Today's worshippers gathered at 7:00 a.m. at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Manhattan. The previous celebration was in 1981, and the next one is scheduled for 2038.  As writer Joyce Cohen notes, a long-lived Jew can expect to observe this occasion three times in his or her lifetime, so Jews appreciate the fact that the celebration reflects the intergenerational passage of life.

          I took this photo back in the spring of 1953 while I was chaperoning a group of students on a trip to Turkey.  The photo is of the tomb, in the capital city of Ankara, of Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. Note how dressed up we were, all white shirts and ties.  After Ankara we flew to Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) for sightseeing: the Golden Horn, Prince islands, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque.  As it so happens, visiting the Blue Mosque is on President Obama's schedule today.
          As a Christian who has lived in two predominantly Muslim countries -- Lebanon and Malaysia -- I am pleased with the President's trip to Turkey, and especially happy about his deliberate outreach to Muslims.  Actually, Turkey is not a Muslim state.  It is a secular democracy, and has been so since Ataturk's revolution in the 1920s. An unexpected recent outcome of Turkish democracy was the electoral victory of an Islamic party.  This has caused considerable tension with the nation's military elite, but it does reflect a growing religiosity in Turkey, one that has been latent all these years.
           As I wrote yesterday, the curse of our century is violence.  "The United States is not at war with Islam," Obama told the Turkish parliament, "nor will it ever be."  This was the right message to send. American Christians must take it to heart.

          I'm in a sour mood this morning.  Disgusted over the American addiction to firearms.  Every day this past week one after another disgruntled man with a gun has killed not one but as many as a baker's dozen at a time.  In a nursing home, an immigration center, a mobile home -- you name it.  I know that those of my good Christian readers who live in the Midwest and in the South, where the right to buy and fire guns is almost an article of faith, will protest my outrage.  Guns are not the problem, they say. Guns don't kill people; people kill people.  That's not true, however.  People with guns kill people. Nowhere in the world do ordinary citizens harbor firearms at the rate Americans do.  It's insane.
          My mood is somewhat softened by reports that President Obama is on a campaign to reduce and possibly eliminate nuclear weapons, and the materials to produce such weapons, worldwide, beginning with the USA and Russia.  This will annoy war hawks such as Cheney and Rumsfeld, but it's a wise move on Obama's part anyway.  The great danger, as he has said, is not the threat of a nuclear war, but the prospect of individual nuclear weapons, on sale in the black market, getting into the hands of terrorists or other rogues.  Violence, whether at the individual level or national level, is the great evil of our time.

          An African-American Jewish rabbi is a rarity.  Such a one is  Capers Funnye, left, rabbi of the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago.  As interesting as that fact is, perhaps it is even more interesting that Rabbi Funnye is Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed (he is of her father's generation).
          Funnye was born in South Carolina.  According to Zev Chafets, a reporter who interviewed him at length recently, he abandoned Christianity while a student at Howard University, having come to see it as an alien religion imposed on blacks by white slave masters. As a general rule, the main Jewish sects in the U.S. -- Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed -- do not recognize black Jews as true Jews.  Rabbi Funnye has made it his life's mission to try to change this. He claims his persistent efforts at dialogue have mellowed him and that white Jews today are ready to talk and listen.
          Funnye is only moderately interested in politics per se.  He did not publicly endorse Barack Obama last year, prefering to relate to him as "family."

          I'm planning a month-long trip on Amtrak in May to visit my children and other relatives. So I perked up this morning when I read in the New York Times that Amtrak is sponsoring a National Train Day May 9th.  On that occasion, at the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, special honor will be paid to the few remaining  porters who personified rail travel to a previous generation.
          The Pullman Porters worked for the Pullman Company, which made the sleeper cars of those days. For decades, portering was one of two choice vocations available to African-Americans (the other was working for the Post Office). The Pullman Porters laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement by forming the first black labor union, led by A. Philip Randolph. A number of prominent black figures have Pullman porters in their lineage, according to reporter Jennifer Lee. These include the late Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, and the former mayor of San Franciso, Willie Brown.
          When I was growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, the city was a major rail center -- Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific and Burlington Northern were major employers -- and a few of the oldest retired porters still live in Omaha today. My father was a traffic manager and railyard foreman for the Missouri Pacific.

           Did you know that goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world? Mexico, India, Greece -- you name it -- goat is eaten everywhere, and is becoming more popular here in the metropolitan New York region. Goat meat is lower in fat than chicken, yet higher in protein than beef. Of course, being so lean, it tends to be a bit tough, but this handicap is solved simply by roasting it longer.
          The other day someone asked me the meaning of the word tendentious, which comes up fairly often in my writing.  It means biased, unbalanced, one-sided. That's the problem, for example, with the new book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, God is Back. The authors, one a Roman Catholic, the other an avowed atheist, assert that religion's power has continued to increase, ignoring the fact that here in the USA, for example, people are becoming less religious -- 20 percent failing to indicate a religious identity in a recent census. The authors maintain that religion is increasingly a matter of choice, ignoring the many women in Muslim societies who are forced to live by religious codes they no longer believe in. The authors claim that religion is compatible with moderation, when the excesses of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu fundamentalisms are evident daily in media reports.

         
          This past Monday President Obama signed a law creating the Great Falls National Historical Park here in Paterson, New Jersey.  The USA has 360 national parks already, but few are located in urban areas -- a point the late African-American historian John Hope Franklin (see my blog of March 29th) made repeatedly in arguing for the legislation. Franklin hoped that a national park in Paterson would resonate with members of minority groups that feel little or no connection with parks such as Yellowston, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.
          The Falls are 77 feet high and every day two billion gallons of water cascade down to the gorge below.  Peter Applebome, one of our local writers, notes that during the heyday of American industrialism, the Falls powered hundreds of Paterson mills that turned out cotton, sailcloth, hemp, paper, nails, steel and, especially, silk.  At one point Paterson was famed as the silk capital of the western hemisphere.  Paterson's mills also churned out locomotives, submarines, airplane engines and Colt revolvers.
          Few Americans realize that Paterson was America's first planned industrial city, founded by Alexander Hamilton soon after the War of Independence as a counterpoint to Thomas Jefferson's vision of an agrarian nation of freeholders.  Today America is less a manufacturing center (as the fall of General Motors and Chrysler demonstrate all too clearly) than a financial service center (as the contemporary Wall Street debacle demonstrates).

          I am sorry to learn that one of my favorite theologians died last week.  Kosuke Koyama was 79.  One of his early writings, Water Buffalo Theology, has become a classic.  Koyama was 15 and bombs still raining down on Tokyo in 1945 when he was baptized.  He became a missionary to Thailand, working in and around Chiang Mai.  It was in that setting that he tried to "contextualize" the gospel for Thai villagers.  As someone has said, Koyama tried to season the Aristotelian roots of Western theology with Buddhist salt. Among his other books are Mount Fuji and Mount Sinai, and Three Mile an Hour God. Reporter Doug Martin recalls that once, discussing death, Koyama reminded his listeners of the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.  "Looking into our eyes and heart, Jesus will say, 'You've had a difficult journey.  You must be tired and dirty.  Let me wash your feet.  The banquet's ready.'"