T3

Give Me a BREAK!

I wonder ... if you were a Citibank customer who fell on hard times, do you think they would offer to bail you out of your mess? Yet, they mismanage a huge corporation and then expect us to bail them out! There is something extremely wrong with what is going on economically today. whatever happened to economics for people, rather than economics for big, impersonal, irresponsible, arrogant, mismanaged corporations and their spoiled CEO's

World on Fire!

Amy Chua, Professor of Law at Yale University entitled her penetrating and critically acclaimed 2004 book, “World on Fire.” According to Chua, the world is currently facing a plethora of burning issues on a global scale as never before.

 As this is being written Wall Street has just experienced one of its most devastating blows in decades with the bankruptcy of 150-year old investment bank Lehman Brothers, a venerable Wall Street institution. The failure has resulted in the loss of more than 25,000 jobs worldwide, jeopardized the financial stability of tens of thousands of individuals, sent stock markets around the world reeling, including the Dow Jones which saw its sixth largest drop in history – 504 points in one day, obliterating over $700 billion in wealth. Yet, as the financial chaos compounds, its CEO, Richard Fuld, waltzed away with more than $60 million in compensation.  Global insurance giant, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and other global financial institutions teeter on the brink. The world is on fire!

Today in South Africa, more than a decade after the end of apartheid, a child is orphaned every 30 seconds as a result of the rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic. Though the world celebrated Mandela’s peaceful revolution, which brought an end to more than half a century of brutal apartheid rule, before he or his ANC could take office, the outgoing National Party had negotiated away the economic future of the country, making a Faustian bargain with the shock doctrine proponents of Chicago School style, unbridled, free market economics, leaving the new government responsible for transformation, but economically powerless to bring it about. Today, for the vast majority of black Africans, the economic present is worse than the apartheid past.  The world is on fire!

In spite of more than enough resources to adequately care for every person on the planet, two thirds of the world’s inhabitants are forced to eek out an existence on two dollars a day or less. In this world of plenty, 30,000 children die every day around the globe from a lack of clean drinking water, while we in America care more about keeping our golf courses green and our suburban yards flourishing.  The world is on fire!

We live in a tinderbox of global conflict on an unprecedented scale where the slightest spark could fuel a conflagration the likes of which the world has never seen. The global community is in desperate need of profound reconciliation that strikes at the roots of conflict, not merely pontificating superficial political platitudes and posturing. Israeli versus Palestinian, Sunni versus Shiite, North Korea verses South Korea, the terrorists against the West; China verses Taiwan, and an Iran ambitious for nuclear capabilities versus the rest of an anxious world. The world is on fire!

As America faces its worst financial crisis in decades and recovers from the aftermath of two horrific hurricanes, all in the shadow of the somber 9/11 remembrance ceremonies, the candidates for the highest office in the land call each other names and debate who’s lying about who, as they conduct one the most childish campaigns in recent political history. The campaign would almost be comedic if it weren’t being played out against the backdrop of a world on fire – a world in desperate need of serious solutions to staggering problems. Yet it seems we are still content to fiddle while Rome burns.

Four World Social Innovation Forum

The 13th century village of Romainmotier Switzerland was the site of the Four World Social Innovation Forum outside of Geneva

Prophet Pat

The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of "The 700 Club" that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January."If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8.He added specifics in Wednesday's show."There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest," he said. Unfortunately, this is the image most Americans and Europeans have of Evangelical Christians. No wonder people flock to Oprah when they perceive Christianity to be the other option. I am convinced that this is one of the dangers of "Christian" television. To keep your audience, there always has to be something new and sensational, so why not a special message from our loving God about impending doom and destruction ... just in time for May sweeps!

Join a Million Voices for Darfur

In Matthew 25:44-46 Jesus says, "Then they will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?' And he will answer, 'I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters you were refusing to help me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.

Send a postcard to President Bush to help give him the leverage he needs to lead in the face of this human tragedy and genocide. Send a Postcard Now!

Damned by Darfur

Though it is good to see the tragedy of Darfur finally in the national and international spotlight to some degree, I am wondering why it is celebrities like George Clooney (God bless him) who are at the forefront of this issue? Why is the Evangelical Church and its leaders virtually invisible when it comes to this issue? How many sermons were preached this last week in our pulpits in support of this past weekend's events planned to call attention to the genocide and put pressure on national and international leaders to DO something? Why are we as evangelical Christian leaders so passive and silent when it comes to such global tragedies? Imagine the impact if all of our evangelical churches in the Twin Cities (and the nation) had taken to the streets after our church services to stand in the gap for the Invisible Children and the gross injustices that are taking place in Sudan. I am afraid that by our silence we are being damned by Darfur. What are your thoughts? Why do you think our evangelical churches remain silent in the face of this tragedy and what can we do to shame the church into action?

Check out the Invisible Children

Rethinking Wealth

Check it Out! Christianity in a Consumer Culture

For those living in a capitalist context, wealth, profit, advantage and power are understood, in a general sense, almost exclusively as material and, in a more specific sense, as economic. But clearly there is a form of wealth that is not rooted in money, property, or any other physical asset. Similarly, there are advantages in life that extend beyond the economic realm and there are forms of power that are not rooted in the world of financial wealth. 
    In the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, one of the wealthiest men in history, wrote, “Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness! …So what is the advantage of wealth – except perhaps to see it run through your fingers!”  Moreover, Solomon writes, “There is another serious problem I have seen in the world. Riches are sometimes hoarded to the harm of the saver … People who live only for wealth come to the end of their lives as naked and empty-handed as the day they were born.”  Solomon seems to be saying here that material wealth, in itself, is not capable of providing human beings with the happiness and inner peace that they ultimately value and seek. Something (spiritual capital) must exist beyond or beneath material wealth that imbues it with the power to grant happiness to its possessor. Solomon contends that people who seek material capital alone, apart from such spiritual capital live their lives under a cloud – frustrated, discouraged, and angry. Any thoughts? Let me encourage you to attend what should be an intellectually stimulating and life-changing event: Conference on Christian Consumerism

"Christian?" Christian Bashers

As a result of my recent encounter with Mr. Brannon Howse, I have become sickened by those who claim to be self-appointed protectors of "orthodoxy" and "true" Christianity and who do so by literarily bashing other believers void of all love. What possible scriptural defense can one claim for bashing and maligning other believers when they have never even been concerned enough to pursue meaningful conversation with those they attack? This is the same form of religious and ideological fundamentalism that is at the root of terrorism throughout the world. People so blinded by their "rightness" that it in their minds legitimates any activity necessary to defeat the infidels. Of course this is just my opinion. God help us all.

Brannon House Response

Here is the latest response from Brannon Howse. In spite of saying he would correct the article, he has not. And when asked to do so by me once again, this was his response. I was wrong, I guess he is a spiritual insurgent afterall ... just dropping his literary bombs then running for cover.

Sam,
I don't think I am wrong...Have you read the latest version? I think I have been more than fair.
I don't think there is really anything to dialogue on...I think we have to agree to disagree.
Trying to say the word mystic or mysticism is comparable to the Biblical word "mystery" is just not reasonable and without reason there can be no positive dialogue.
I think you guys just need to move on and not push me on this anymore or I may decide to write a few more articles about some of the other things I have read in Erwin's book.

So, just leave well enough alone and do your thing....

Still Waiting for Corrections and Retraction

My last post indicated that things seemed to be moving toward satisfactory resolution in my (and Bethel's) disagreements regarding numerous distortions and blatant mistakes of fact made by Mr. Howse in an article he had written about Bethel. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for appropriate corrections to be made and I am left wondering why my response to his original article has not been posted to his website as have others since mine. Bethel has issued a press release on the matter; to read it go to my website at: www.samrima.com and click on the Discussion Board.