In this weeks Leadership Weekly email put out by Christianity Today an interesting tactic is being employed by many churches in their communities that will certainly do nothing to create a sense of goodwill or bring about any sort of partnership between the church and the communities they’re trying to reach and be a part of. Here’s the story:
It’s become known as “The Bush Doctrine.” In order to prevent another devastating terrorist attack like 9/11, President Bush announced that the United States would launch a preemptive strike against any credible threat. It doesn’t exactly jive with Jesus’ command in the Sermon on the Mount to “turn the other cheek,” but then again the United States Government isn’t pretending to be a church.
So what happens when a church decides to employ the Bush Doctrine by preemptively suing their local government for a zoning code the city hadn’t yet violated? This week Collin Hansen reports about the escalating tensions between churches and cities over land use. Municipalities are less welcoming to churches buying and building in their communities, because it takes land off their tax rolls. As a result, many are changing their zoning codes to severely restrict where churches may locate.
Some churches are responding with aggressive legal maneuvers of their own—including filing lawsuits before the cities even reject their land use applications. Do these strongarm tactics work? Are they right? And what is the impact on the church’s mission in the community afterward?
I must say that this is a rather destructive tactic, and one that will certainly engender more and more animosity against the church in the community. This certainly can’t be the sort of message Jesus was asking the church to convey…
Energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens has created a new campaign aimed at solving the energy crisis in the United States. I’ve seen his ads on tv for the past week or so talking about a new alternative for solving our dependency on foreign oil and I finally took the time to watch the video on his website. It’s pretty interesting and although doesn’t claim to be the solution, he does claim that it will reduce our dependency on foreign oil enough to buy us some time and solve the problem down the line.
I must say I am extremely intrigued, however I’m just not quite sure how it will be completely implemented in our oil-based economy…
Just saw the video for the song No Handlebars which has had me riveted for the past couple of months since first hearing it while in Florida.
The lyrics to this song are an absolutely brilliant portrayal of the humanistic bent that our culture continues to take on. Tracy and I have had several conversations about the song, it’s lyrics and its hidden as well as overt meaning. There are strong political overtones towards President Bush and the War in Iraq, there are strong overtones towards what we as man have accomplished and continue to push for (holocaust) in our dealings with each other as we leave our child-like innocence. But what I think is most fascinating is how this song shows exactly where we begin our arrogance–childhood.
Lyrics | No Handlebars | The Flobots
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it’s good to be
ALIVE
and I’m a famous rapper
even when the paths’re all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to “De Colores”
And “I’m Proud to be an American”
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone
Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it’s good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
All curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule
Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let’em all die in exasperation
Have’em all grilled leavin lacerations
Have’em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like’em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
and I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
and I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handle bars
No handlebars
Victor LeBeau, a retailing analyst who helped shape our economy after WWII said:
Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.
This quote certainly shed an enormous amount of light on this video by Radiohead “All I Need”
There are a ton of spiritual and moral implications surrounding this, and although I’m not sure exactly how it all fleshes out it is certainly something I am thinking though and questioning on a bigger scale.
(All of this thought was sparked by the Radiohead video and furthered by watching the video with Annie Leonard The Story of Stuff)
Yesterday I posted the “Yes we can!” music video, and of course there’s always a rebuttal from the other campaign which comes in the form of the “No we can’t!” Music Video featuring John McCain. However, I liked this one better… it’s so creative!
Obama is perhaps one of the greatest orators of our time harkening back to the inspirational politics of Bobby Kennedy, JFK, and Dr. King as he strives to create a movement of people desperate for something new, something profound, and something greater than can be found in a single individual. Obama carries on his shoulders the hope of a new generation and in that hope the promise of change, that together anything is possible. Yes we can.
Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt in order to relieve their hunger pangs. Yes, that’s right you read it correctly. Due to the massive famine, and the horrible economic situation of this third world country Haitians have resorted to making cookies out of the yellow dirt in the ground in order to maintain their survival. I was absolutely floored when I read this article and greatly saddened… it probably didn’t help much that I saw this article situated right above the Haitian dirt cookie article in my RSS feeds declaring that Tom Cruise would be the first to buy a $72,500 motorcycle. Talk about the disparity of economics.
I’ve been slowly reading my way through McLaren’s latest book Everything Must Change and check out some of the following statistics:
The United States spends $100 million per day to keep its [nuclear] weapons [of mass destruction] poised and ready for use in a preemptive strike
The US Military budget is larger than the next 25 nations combined. (In other words, the strongest 25 countries in the world would have to switch from being US allies to US enemies in order for the US to be confronted by a greater force.
In 2006 the budget showed that US military expenditures were 21 times larger than diplomacy and foreign aid combined.
These were rather startling statistics for me to take in, and honestly I never realized the amount of money that we spend to maintain this false feeling of security. Is it really necessary for us to spend so much? If we were to reallocate a percentage of those funds into development and diplomacy abroad and instead really, truly “go on the offensive” (to quote the republican party) and deal with the systemic roots of the issues of terrorism (economic disparity) what would we see as a result?In regards to our militaristic mindset and spending, McLaren states:
a mere 10 percent of the US military budget, if reinvested in foreign aid and development, could care for the basic needs of the entire world’s poor… one-half of 1 percent of the US military budget [if reinvested] would cut hunger in Africa in half by 2015.
Isn’t there something askew here? If we were to reduce our military budget by 10% and reinvest in foreign aid and development, our military would still not only be the strongest in the world but we probably wouldn’t need them to go and fight in wars that were created by us, due to our foreign policies, against people we’ve sold our weapons to (53.4% of the worlds weapons were created and sold by the US).
Is it no wonder other countries (and terrorists) despise us and are trying to destroy us? Could it be that they see the destruction of America as the great economic equalizer? Could America’s destruction really bring about economic equality and leave the people in Haiti to leave their dirt cookies by the wayside and the regain the ability to eat real food?I’m not sure… but one thing that I see is that we spend way to much on defense, and not nearly enough on the offense. It’s time to be offensive as a country and destroy poverty in our midst… then we might actually see a bright horizon coming in the future not just for the US but for the world and we will finally move out of our true poverty as a country—a poverty of moral conviction for the least of these.
Every so often (albeit rarely) I’m struck with what can only be considered “creative genius”, this would be one of those times.
The other day while in the shower (some of the best thinking moments of the day) I was thinking how odd it was that an Islamic country (Pakistan) had a female world leader (Bhutto) before the U.S. My thoughts immediately shifted to the fact that the U.S. could indeed have a female president with Hilary Clinton possibly winning the election.
(Now here’s where the creative genius part comes into play…)
I started thinking of the fact that when Bill Clinton was in office in the 90’s the name mash-up became very popular. Today we have Brangelina, Bennifer, etc, etc… but in the 90’s Bill and Hilary were known as Billary. So, I began to wonder what their name mash-up would be if Hilary were president and that’s when it struck me… you’d just flip Hilary’s name in front and Bill’s name in the back and what would you get?
Hilbilly.
How funny is that?! We could go from a cowboy as president (G.W) to a Hilbilly as president… and it’s even more fitting that they hail from Arkansas where Bill was Governor…
A lot of campaigns should be paying me some royalties for this one… especially if it catches on!
pink sings her song ‘dear mr. president’ live at wembley stadium…
(ht: smulo)
what are your thoughts on this? is it the height of hypocrisy—especially the line about ‘hard work’ coming from a celebrity? does it go too far or does it fall too short?
i was immediately reminded of the dixie chicks and their entire ordeal for saying they were ashamed that the president was from their home state of texas… is this video worse than that?
The United Nations has calculated that for $35-40 billion per year, basic social services could be provided to all the poorest people on the planet. This includes both primary schooling and basic health care and nutrition.
this quote has stuck with me since i first read it in a report over 2 years ago, and it doesn’t seem like such an insurmountable amount to take care of the poorest of the poor and help them get out of their impoverished state… but for some reason our global village cannot seem to come together on this worldwide epidemic that takes the lives of countless men, women and children each and every year whle leaving many others widowed or orphaned in its wake.
but what can be done?
if the global village took this challenge seriously, this could be something that is taken care of in very short order and extreme poverty could literally be wiped out never to be seen again. the only requirement is that each government around the world take a slice of this $40 billion challenge each and every year into their budget to be distributed to the UN to deal with this epidemic. all it requires is unity in our global village… honestly, if you look at the problem, it’s not money that is the issue, it’s unity.
the united states could very easily give $17 billion to the challenge by discontinuing NASA ($17 billion is the budget for 2007 rising to $19 billion by 2012). if you could tell me what we have accomplished by going into space that has made the world a better place to live then maybe we can find a more worthless amount of money spent by our government to save people’s lives. $17 billion is nearly 50% of the entire amount needed… how much could the UK give, or France, or Germany, or China, or Russia, or Japan? If the US gave $10 billion, then those other countries would only need to find $5 billion in their budgets to tackle this problem… money is not the issue, unity is.
it’s sad that our bickering between nations is causing the death of countless people each and every day (or 1 person every 3 seconds). if we could only look past our differences to come together and tackle this challenge, then maybe we could see just how ridiculous we have been. i’m tired of wars over oil and power. i’m tired of national tensions rising between countries over nuclear arms and missle defense systems. i’m tired of the culture of hatred we live in.
if only we could put down our weapons of war in favor of the towel of service…
i know that governement will never be the answer to this problem and so i wonder… where is and has the church been in all of this? imagine if the church could overcome the problem of unity and completely come together as the bride of Christ to tackle this challenge… imagine what would be said of the Kingdom and of Jesus because they took Jesus’ words at face value and began to do something on a grand scale. yet once again we know that money is not the problem, unity is.
//*update: or we could just stop the war and in 3 months have enough money for the year to stop poverty: war costing $12billion/month
“If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” ~ Ann Coulter
this is absolutely ridiculous… yet her fame and popularity with the right will only continue to grow. strangely enough if you read between the lines she is actually supporting terrorism with her wish of a terrorist assassination plot. and she’s the mouthpiece of the right?
why can’t we stop all this stupidity in our country and instead work together? where are the calls for unity from the left and the right? i think we’re too concerned with power grabs to care about unity… because there’s just too much money to be made with division. even john edwards himself is attempting to raise $5 million in order to “fight back… and beat back the vicious tide [of the right wing].”
this quote has stuck with me since i first read it in a report over 2 years ago, and it doesn’t seem like such an insurmountable amount to take care of the poorest of the poor and help them get out of their impoverished state… but for some reason our global village cannot seem to come together on this worldwide epidemic that takes the lives of countless men, women and children each and every year whle leaving many others widowed or orphaned in its wake.