[Dialogue] appreciation and a request
KroegerD at aol.com
KroegerD at aol.com
Thu Sep 14 17:22:51 EST 2006
Ken I got this from the archives at
_http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/2006-September/002939
.html_
(http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/2006-September/002939.html)
Every posting is there in perpetuity
All the best. You and I did something together once long ago.
Grace and Peace
Dick Kroeger
[Dialogue] The symbol of Ground Zero. A metaphor for the mess we are in!
KroegerD at aol.com _KroegerD at aol.com _
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he%20mess%20we
are%20in!&In-Reply-To=)
Tue Sep 12 17:23:03 EST 2006
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____________________________________
This Hole in the Ground
By Keith Olbermann
MSNBC Countdown
Monday 11 September 2006
Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after
the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and
was yet to happen, as a reporter.
All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of
thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and -
as
I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul - two
more in the Towers.
And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen
and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our
ancestors.
I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall
be, personal.
And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft,"or have
"forgotten" the lessons of what happened here is at best a grasping,
opportunistic,
dilettante and at worst, an idiot whether he is a commentator, or a Vice
President, or a President.
However, of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could
have forecast - of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the
others that unfolded only in our minds - none of us could have predicted
this.
Five years later this space is still empty.
Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.
Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance
that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.
Five years later this country's wound is still open.
Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.
Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.
It is beyond shameful.
At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial - barely four months after the
last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field - Mr. Lincoln said,
"we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far
above
our poor power to add or detract."
Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.
Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their
reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can
not hallow
this ground." So we won't.
Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle
to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on
irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off
columnists to
write how good a job they're doing instead of doing any job at all.
Five years later, Mr. Bush, we are still fighting the terrorists on these
streets. And look carefully, sir, on these 16 empty acres. The terrorists
are
clearly, still winning.
And, in a crime against every victim here and every patriotic sentiment you
mouthed but did not enact, you have done nothing about it.
And there is something worse still than this vast gaping hole in this city,
and in the fabric of our nation. There is its symbolism of the promise
unfulfilled, the urgent oath, reduced to lazy execution.
The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and
painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the
country.
The government, the President in particular, was given every possible
measure
of support.
Those who did not belong to his party - tabled that.
Those who doubted the mechanics of his election - ignored that.
Those who wondered of his qualifications - forgot that.
History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be
taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by
those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political
advantage.
Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American
first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media.
Nor did the people.
The President - and those around him - did that.
They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them,
"bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have
to follow, or be
branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually
confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words
yesterday,
"validate the strategy of the terrorists."
They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant
going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who
we
now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much
as we did.
The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on
the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is "lying by
implication."
The impolite phrase is "impeachable offense."
Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume
responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space, and to this,
the
current, curdled, version of our beloved country.
Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and
fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears
the
full brunt of the blame for 9/11.
Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he
has seemed not even to be the man most responsible for anything in his own
administration.
Yet what is happening this very night?
A mini-series, created, influenced - possibly financed by - the most radical
and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into
our homes.
The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced
lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry
story
blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and
impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option.
How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity
and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after
monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear
into
the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you - or those around you -
ever "spin" 9/11?
Just as the terrorists have succeeded - are still succeeding - as long as
there is no memorial and no construction here at Ground Zero.
So, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this
government uses 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans.
This is an odd point to cite a television program, especially one from March
of 1960. But as Disney's continuing sell-out of the truth (and this country)
suggests, even television programs can be powerful things.
And long ago, a series called "The Twilight Zone" broadcast a riveting
episode entitled "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street."
In brief: a meteor sparks rumors of an invasion by extra-terrestrials
disguised as humans. The electricity goes out. A neighbor pleads for calm.
Suddenly
his car - and only his car - starts. Someone suggests he must be the alien.
Then another man's lights go on. As charges and suspicion and panic overtake
the street, guns are inevitably produced. An "alien" is shot - but he turns
out to be just another neighbor, returning from going for help. The camera
pulls back to a near-by hill, where two extra-terrestrials are seen
manipulating
a small device that can jam electricity. The veteran tells his novice that
there's no need to actually attack, that you just turn off a few of the
human
machines and then, "they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and
it's themselves."
And then, in perhaps his finest piece of writing, Rod Serling sums it up
with words of remarkable prescience, given where we find ourselves tonight:
"The
tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and
fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices,
to be
found only in the minds of men.
"For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a
thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -
for the
children, and the children yet unborn."
When those who dissent are told time and time again - as we will be, if not
tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus - that
he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow
un-American ... When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have
"forgotten the lessons of 9/11" ... look into this empty space behind me and
the
bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell
me:
Who has left this hole in the ground?
We have not forgotten, Mr. President.
You have.
May this country forgive you.
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In a message dated 9/14/2006 1:50:04 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
klbarley at earthlink.net writes:
Dear Richard
I'm sure you don't know me from Adam but I am on your list and receive your
regular email for which I am always grateful.
My wife and I were member of the Order in the 60s and early 70s when the
Ecumenical Institute was located on the West Side of Chicago. We were fortunate
to be part of the first religious house in Kuala Lumpur and have always found
RS I to be the foundation for a new understanding of Christianity. I am now
retired (a former Presbyterian pastor) while my wife just recently stepped
down from a role as V-P of educational research and evaluation with an outfit
called McRel.
At any rate I always look forward to Spong essays which you regularly
forward and to the occasional articles that you forward via email. In particular I
was overwhelmed by Keith Olbermann's article "This Hole in the Ground."
Therein lies my request. I inadvertently erased it from computer before I had a
chance to forward to a number of people who I know. If you still have it, could
you send it to me again. I promise to be more careful with it.
I have also note that you seem to be active in the MN chapter of the Network
of Spiritual Progressives. I was fortunate to attend both meetings in
Berkeley and Washington. We are currently organizing a chapter here in Denver - in
fact our first meeting is tonight. There is already a chapter in Boulder. To
my way of thinking it is the most important movement being formed in the
U.S. and has given me renewed energy and commitment to effect change in this
grand old nation before it is too late.
Again, thanks for including Zoe and me in your weekly communications.
Ken and Zoe
Ken and Zoe Barley
_klbarley at earthlink.net_ (mailto:klbarley at earthlink.net)
----- Original Message -----
From: (mailto:KroegerD at aol.com)
To: _nspmn at googlegroups.com_ (mailto:nspmn at googlegroups.com)
Cc: _Dialogue at wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:Dialogue at wedgeblade.net) ;
_MICAH6-8 at topica.com_ (mailto:MICAH6-8 at topica.com)
Sent: 9/13/2006 5:42:50 PM
Subject: [Dialogue] Spong on Crosswalk and healthcare
September 13, 2006
Crosswalk America Arrives in Washington, DC
It began on April 16, 2006, following a sunrise service in Phoenix, Arizona.
It ended on September 3, 2006, at a celebration in the Foundry United
Methodist Church in Washington, DC. Between those two dates, more than five million
steps were taken, at least three pairs of shoes per person were worn out,
over 2,500 miles were registered and 12 states were crossed. These fascinating
facts constituted just a few of the dimensions of the journey undertaken and
completed by a group of people, who called themselves "Crosswalk America."
The purpose of their walk was to lift up another face of Christianity that is
quite different from the Christianity seen in the media today. They walked to
publicize something they called the 'Phoenix Affirmations' that involve these
principles:
* Christians must have an openness to other faiths
* Christians must care for the earth and its ecosystem
* Christians must value artistic expression in all its forms
* Christians must welcome and include all persons
* Christians must oppose the co-mingling of Church and State
* Christians must seek peace and end systemic poverty
* Christian must promote the values of rest and recreation, prayer and
reflection
* Christians must embrace both faith and science
It was the hope of this group, who certainly put their bodies where their
mouths were, to raise in the national awareness the presence of the progressive
Christian movement throughout America. They were tired of having the
Christian faith, to which each walker was deeply committed, constantly identified
with the negativity of the anti-abortion movement and the anger of the
anti-homosexual stance employed by so many who use the name Christian. They wanted
to demonstrate that those who are committed to Christ would not set the
citizens of this land against each other over differing religious beliefs and
practices. Their desire was to turn the present course of Christianity in America
away from its divisive pro-war, anti-female, anti-gay public face, where
those who disagree are relegated to an emotional status somewhere between being
excommunicated and burned at the stake, to a religion identified with the
words 'love' and 'inclusion.' In every community entered across this nation,
these walkers went to the local churches, identified themselves and shared their
message. They worshiped in all kinds of settings, deliberately including the
most fundamentalist. One was called 'The Jesus Baptist Church' in
Springerville, Texas, that stated publicly their belief in the inerrancy of the Bible
and the sinfulness of homosexuality, but they also worshiped in a Metropolitan
Community Church in New Mexico, that was organized just for homosexual people
who had been forced out of their churches by religious and biblical
prejudice. One town that was not eager to entertain the walkers had only very
conservative churches, yet they found a welcome in that town from a group of people
who, tired of the religious atmosphere in their own community, had formed a
"House Church" that met every Sunday. In the Texas town of Bovina, less than
30 miles from the town of Hereford, the names of which indicate the dominance
of the cattle industry in Texas, they discovered that their stance on
inclusiveness was not nearly so offensive to the locals as the fact that three of
the walkers were vegetarians!
They received the apology from the mayor of Clovis, New Mexico, a town that
advertises itself as the "most welcoming community in America," because the
head of the ministerial alliance refused even to meet with the walkers much
less to provide them with any hospitality. The mayor challenged the clergy
there and insisted that the welcome of Clovis did extend to progressive
Christians.
They were picketed at two services in St. Louis, Missouri, where they had
been invited to share their story with two congregations. One was the Episcopal
Cathedral in the heart of the city; the other was the Metropolitan Community
Church in the suburbs. Interestingly enough, while the picketers carried a
number of religious placards, the majority of their signs were
anti-abortion/pro-life. Since the MCC congregation is made up entirely of homosexual
persons, it represented the first time in the history of that denomination that they
had been the target of anti-abortion picketers. Abortion is not frequently
part of the life experience of gay people!
They were interviewed by the local press and appeared on local radio all
along their route. One memorable interview occurred in Farwell, Texas, on a
station known as "Jesus Radio." They went expecting to be attacked for not being
fundamentalists but they found themselves embraced by the owner. "So what if
we don't agree on every issue," he said, "You're out walking for Jesus and
loving people!" This man could separate the wheat from the chaff. He admitted
he would probably get a lot of criticism from his listeners for having this
group on the show but, he said, "I will tell them that they are to run their
churches and I will run this radio station!"
The Crosswalk America idea was born in the mind of Eric Elnes, a United
Church of Christ/Congregationalist minister in Scottsdale, Arizona and an
emerging national leader. A learned man with a PhD in Biblical Studies from
Princeton, he had long chafed at the rising tide of fundamentalism in America. While
on a retreat in Oregon, he wondered how people might respond if he planned a
walk across America in the name of a progressive, scholarly and inclusive
Christianity. When he returned to Arizona, he shared his idea with a few friends
and found it excited all who heard about it. One person in particular who
resonated with this dream was Rebecca Glenn, who had once been the moderator of
Dr. Elnes' church. She was a very successful, high-ranking vice president in
the information industry. Her husband was the head of an insurance company.
She said that all her life she had been looking for some way to act out what
she believed about Christianity and this possibility captured her imaginat
ion. She resigned her job to be part of it. Dr. Elnes and Rebecca Glenn became
co-presidents of what they named Crosswalk America and the dream began to move
toward reality. Rebecca Glenn's daughter Katrina also joined the walk and
Rebecca's mother and father, Ray and Donna Gentry, drove the van that
accompanied the walkers, carrying luggage and supplies and being available to
transport any walker to safety should sickness or accident strike. Others on the
march had equally exciting backgrounds. One man named Mark walked from Oregon to
Phoenix just to hook up with the walkers before completing the Phoenix to
Washington DC journey. Another named Merrill heard about it in nearby Phoenix
and immediately joined the effort. "I've never been good at talking," he said,
"but I am good at walking, so I'll let my feet talk for me."
Last April, I wrote a column about this walk before it began. That column
can be found _here_ (http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/week184story1_prev.asp)
. I followed their progress across America on the Internet with great
interest and was delighted to accept their invitation to be the keynote speaker at
their final celebration in Washington, DC.
Quite characteristically, the Foundry United Methodist Church, one of the
District of Columbia's outstanding congregations, that has claimed among its
members both Bill and Hilary Clinton, as well as Robert and Elizabeth Dole, and
whose former pastor, Philip Wogaman was a well known and highly respected
national religious leader, invited this group to hold the celebratory service
in their sanctuary. To get a feel for the spirit of the event, my wife
Christine and I joined the walkers on the last two days of their pilgrimage from
Maryland into Washington. The walk on Saturday, September 2, was a bit less than
10 miles, but tropical storm Ernesto had passed through that area the
previous night so we walked in a steady, misty drizzle and stepped over branches
and leaves that had been ripped off trees by the wind. We worshiped the next
Sunday morning at the Silver Spring Congregational Church and then, with
perhaps 200 people, many from the Washington area, we walked from Meridian Park the
final mile to 16th and P where we held a news conference on the steps of
Foundry Church. The celebratory service began at 4:00 p.m. and ended at 6:30
p.m. It was as if something precious was being held tightly and no one wanted to
let it go.
I listened as we walked those final two days to the life-changing stories of
the walkers. A cameraman named Chris, who joined them to produce a
documentary, told me of his distaste for Christians as he had experienced them in the
past, but what it had meant for him to be embraced by this group as a
non-believer. Another walker, named Meighan, who had left her job with the Seattle
Symphony to join the walk said she had found her voice on this walk and now
could talk about what Jesus meant to her without sounding like those religious
people whose "Jesus talk" repelled her. She also found a new vocation into
which she is now quickly moving.
Eric Elnes is completing a book on this experience that will be out from
Jossey-Bass Publishing Company in about six months. Another religious voice,
this one of tolerance and compassion, is now in the American religious
conversation. Will the image of Christianity in America be changed by this wild
imaginative act? Only time will tell. However, if nothing else happens except that
a group of people found in Christianity in the year 2006 the power to
motivate them to walk across America, to bear witness to what Christianity can be,
it will be enough for me. For that means that this venerable faith tradition,
to which I am so deeply committed, still has within its ranks those who can
reform it and renew it to live in another century. I rejoice in that.
John Shelby Spong
Note: Those who want more information on Crosswalk America may find it at
www.crosswalkamerica.org. You may also correspond with its leadership by
writing Eric Elnes or Rebecca Glenn at: Crosswalk America, 4425 N. Granite Reef
Road, Scottsdale, Arizona, 85251. A congratulatory card or letter from you would
mean a great deal to them.
John Shelby Spong
_Note from the Editor: Bishop Spong's new book is available now at
bookstores everywhere and by clicking here!_
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060762055/agoramedia-20)
Question and Answer
With John Shelby Spong
Dwight Oxley, via the Internet, writes:
Dr. Cato in his excellent essay several months ago, suggested that
Christians should take a position on the morally appropriate allocation of medical
resources in the event of a flu pandemic. I believe that the likely allocation
pattern can be easily deduced from current public policy on health care: most
resources will go to the elderly through the Medicare program and the
children will be left out. This is misguided and immoral: children and the parents
who provided for them should receive the highest priority. Medicare recipients
like myself (age 69) are grateful for the Medicare benefit, but the future
of our society does not depend much on 69 year-olds. It depends very much on
those who are now children. Even in the "best of times" (i.e. no flu pandemic)
millions of children go without routine immunizations because their parents
are poor, but too "rich" for Medicaid. I propose that the children, rich and
poor alike, have what Dr. Cato calls ".the most value to (society)." I am a
member of a small Episcopal parish in Kansas and I have already written my
Congressional delegation about my views. You seem to suggest that we should do
more to influence (i.e. change) public policy. But how?
Dear Dwight,
I hope your letter in this column helps. Thank you for your response. We do
spend as a nation more than 90 cents out of every healthcare dollar on the
last year of a person's life. Most of this is spent on the elderly, but
children who are born with defects and cannot be saved despite numerous procedures
are also in that number as well as accident victims but who die in a year from
complications. In our free society, we must decide how to allocate the money
raised through taxes to allow for the greatest good. If we choose to do so,
I suspect that we, as a nation, have enough resources to provide health care
for all people unless we face a cataclysmic disaster. There is a political
question as to whether we will or not. If the world's population continues to
expand at the present rates, all social systems will be overrun and a disaster
is guaranteed.
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