He sent me this link, which includes an incredible segment of a lecture on the way we continue to marginalize anyone who is "other"...
Here's the second. It's even more shocking. You should watch them both...
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We Exoticize, and then Marginalize...
A friend of mine quickly added (via e-mail) to my last post: "don't forget to add RACIST" to the misogynistic and homophobic undertones of the "dudes" at Deadly Vipers.
Looking for "Manswers?" No thank you...
No message in this. Just the sort of slick, hip, homophobic, misogynistic garbage that passes for "Relevant" Christianity today.
From Deadly Viper on Vimeo.
Their actual website, and manifesto = horrifying.
Psalm 32:3 (my bones wasted away)
"When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long."
- Psalm 32:3
Last night I began a conversation that I should have had years ago. Like the psalmist, I had bottled up my feelings and allowed it to eat away at me and loved ones. In my heart, I wanted vengeance or justice too badly to seek resolution.
I'm not sure what the writer of Proverbs meant when he wrote, "Better is open rebuke than hidden love..." I don't know the context of that dichotomy. But open rebuke, offered in humility and personal confession (because we're all a mess) is powerful and cathartic.
This morning I woke up without a headache for the first time in months. I had forgotten what it felt like to wake up without pain.
When I think about this relational dynamic (forgive the anonymity) that has plagued and haunted me for so many years, I suddenly (today) don't feel the shortness of breath and tightening in my chest that comes with all-too-common anxiety attacks.
Psalm 51:6 reads, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place," and I realize how untruthful I have been with myself. I clung to my perceptions of justice to protect myself from twisting the knife that cuts to grace... if that makes sense. Transcendent grace can tear us apart when it goes deeper than our little personal graces are comfortable with. We celebrate God's grace until it defies our individual sense of justice.
"When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." When I kept silent, it was because I didn't want to forgive.
Forgiveness doesn't happen overnight, either. I've got a long road, and it will likely involve much greater understanding of my own complicit behaviors that contributed to sick, dysfunctional relationships. That, too, will twist this knife.
For today, though, I'm thankful for no headache.
- Psalm 32:3
Last night I began a conversation that I should have had years ago. Like the psalmist, I had bottled up my feelings and allowed it to eat away at me and loved ones. In my heart, I wanted vengeance or justice too badly to seek resolution.
I'm not sure what the writer of Proverbs meant when he wrote, "Better is open rebuke than hidden love..." I don't know the context of that dichotomy. But open rebuke, offered in humility and personal confession (because we're all a mess) is powerful and cathartic.
This morning I woke up without a headache for the first time in months. I had forgotten what it felt like to wake up without pain.
When I think about this relational dynamic (forgive the anonymity) that has plagued and haunted me for so many years, I suddenly (today) don't feel the shortness of breath and tightening in my chest that comes with all-too-common anxiety attacks.
Psalm 51:6 reads, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place," and I realize how untruthful I have been with myself. I clung to my perceptions of justice to protect myself from twisting the knife that cuts to grace... if that makes sense. Transcendent grace can tear us apart when it goes deeper than our little personal graces are comfortable with. We celebrate God's grace until it defies our individual sense of justice.
"When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." When I kept silent, it was because I didn't want to forgive.
Forgiveness doesn't happen overnight, either. I've got a long road, and it will likely involve much greater understanding of my own complicit behaviors that contributed to sick, dysfunctional relationships. That, too, will twist this knife.
For today, though, I'm thankful for no headache.
Naomi Wolf: The End of America
Just watched the documentary based on Naomi Wolf's book The End of America. Many of you will find little here that is surprising, but the film is powerful and disturbing. Wolf presents information that most of us are at least partly aware of in such a compelling way, it's worth watching even if you already have a clearly-developed opinion on the Bush Administration's practices and policies.
At best, I may be an inconsistent patriot of our nation-state, but I believe in freedom of speech and ideas, and freedom from oppression, and I'm at least aware enough to recognize America - at it's best - can be a protector of those freedoms.
Frankly, I had been of the mindset that "going after" the previous administration for its crimes was an unnecessary and potentially damaging endeavor. In part, I was concerned that it would be politically unfruitful for the Obama Administration, and thus not worth the effort. But I've been a fan of Naomi Wolf for some time, and she's got me on the bandwagon now...
10 STEPS THAT CLOSE AN OPEN SOCIETY
1. invoke an internal and external threat.
People who are afraid are willing to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.
2. establish secret (unaccountable) prisons where torture takes place.
In a secret system, the government does not have to provide any proof of wrongdoing by those it holds, so it can incarcerate anyone it wants.
3. develop a paramilitary force.
A private military force – under the exclusive direction of the “commander in chief” with no accountability to Congress, the courts, or the public – blurs the line between a civilian police force and a militarized police state.
4. surveil ordinary citizens
People who believe they are being watched are less likely to voice opposition. To scare a population into silence, the government need only monitor the activities of a few to make everyone fear that they are being surveilled. Every closed society keeps a “list” of so-called opponents it tracks.
5. infiltrate citizen’s groups
Spies in activist groups put psychological pressure on genuine activists by undermining their trust in one another. They may also disrupt legal activities, undermining the effectiveness of group efforts.
6. detain and release ordinary citizens
Detention intimidates or psychologically damages those arrested and also lets everyone know that anyone could be labeled an “enemy combatant” and “disappeared.”
7. target key individuals
People are less likely to speak out when those who are highly visible, like journalists, scholars, artists, or celebrities, are intimidated or have the livelihoods threatened. Targeting those who are especially visible makes it less likely that people will speak out and robs society of leaders and others who might inspire opposition.
8. restrict the press
The public is less likely to fi nd out about government wrongdoing if the government can threaten to prosecute anyone who publishes or broadcasts reports that are critical of the government.
9. recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason
People who protest can be charged with terrorism or treason when laws criminalize or limit free speech rather than protect it.
10. subvert the rule of law
The disappearance of checks and balances makes it easier to declare martial law, especially if the judiciary continues to exercise authority over individuals but has no authority over the Executive branch.
The End Of America - Trailer from IndiePix on Vimeo.
“My sense of alarm comes from the clear lessons from history
that, once certain checks and balances are destroyed, and once
certain institutions have been intimidated, the pressures that
can turn an open society into a closed one turn into direct
assaults; at that point events tend to occur very rapidly, and
a point comes at which there is no turning back to
the way it used to be.”
- Naomi Wolf
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Ebert: On Festering Anger
Yup, I'm really enjoying Roger Ebert.
In this post, he talks about the dangers of growing, seething social anger on the fringes of the conservative right.
What are we to make of the recent suggestion on the "respected" right-wing site NewsMax, later withdrawn, that "it might not be such a bad thing" if the U. S. military rose up and overthrew Obama in a coup? That sort of talk belongs on a password-protected neo-Nazi or Klan site, not in a place where ostensibly intelligent people look for information. Where were the editors? What did they think? If they're "conservatives," do they support the overthrow of our government by a coup?
I don't really think so. But I believe they will stoop to almost anything to fan the flames of their cause. And they have created a timidity in the mainstream Republican party, afraid to alienate a "base" it should be ashamed of. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, he is said to have observed that with one signature he had lost his Democrats the South. It took moral courage to sign that bill. He did indeed lose the Southern racists, who were to its shame embraced by the GOP -- a poisoned pill, it is becoming obvious...
Ebert: On Healthcare...
I recently discovered Roger Ebert's blog, and have been enjoying it immensely...
Here's his treatise on Health Care Reform.
Here's his treatise on Health Care Reform.
Gang Rape
Some of my online readers don't believe in evil. And I respect that belief, though I can't comprehend it. It's idealistic (as am I). But I've seen too much to allow myself to keep believing that people function merely in ignorance, but not in true evil.
Police: As many as 20 present at gang rape outside school dance
"This just gets worse and worse the more you dig into it," Lt. Mark Gagan said. "It was like a horror movie after looking at the evidence. I can't believe not one person felt compelled to help her."
You can call it ignorance, but brutality and dehumanization at this level are troubling reminders that social and cultural evolution are often facades propped up by habit and fear rather than genuine progress ("progress..." ah, what is that?).
We have not progressed so much as we (I) would like to think. Third World atrocities mirror our own potential for darkness, rather than reflecting some obscure premodern "other." The wars of the 20th (and 21st) Century demonstrate our capacity to continually devolve in the midst of technogical improvement.
Does the news media play up this sort of exceptional behavior? Absolutely. But I'm concerned that it's "exceptional" only because of the power and complexity imbued into our contemporary social systems. Take away structure, and what sort animal are we?
France: on Scientology
Is this good or bad for religious people, and religion, in general?
Paris, France (CNN) -- A French court's verdict against the Church of Scientology amounts to a "modern Inquisition" and threatens freedom of religion in France, a senior Scientologist said Tuesday...A three-judge panel at the Correctional Court in Paris convicted the church and six of its members of organized fraud, but stopped short of banning the church, as prosecutors had asked...
Maybe more religious sects and individual churches (and other so-called "non-profits") should be fined for their bad behavior. Maybe a lot of people have been fed a lot of false advertising for a long time. Sure, religion relies on intangibles like "hope" and "faith" so I wouldn't advocate holding them accountable for those. But promises of healing and/or material wealth and benefits? Even certain intangibles… I remember something about the selling of indulgences… a slippery slope? Am I just asking for persecution (another painfully-obvious manifestation of my White Guilt?) or should morally-conscious people advocate for justice and sensibility, even when it condemns their own temples?
Religion gets tenuous when it enters the business sales. And that convicts an awful lot of us.
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