Yearly Archives: 2017

The Issue of our Day: Human Identity and Dignity

July 31st, 2017 |

Human identity and dignity is the central issue of our day. Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22 frame our design and destiny:

The image/likeness of the Triune God;

Stewards of Creation, cultivating the world and welcoming and next generation;
Male and Female equally human – and single or married – called to worship and work;
From the Garden to the New Jerusalem, God desires to dwell with us and for us to delight in Divine glory and offer the fruit of our creativity.

And this dignity and identity is sealed forever by our Immanuel, the With-Us-God, Jesus our Lord. His Incarnation, Life, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Return…are all as a fully human being who is God and would rather die than life without us.

Let’s be fully Pro-Life, from conception to coronation, caring for the vulnerable, cultivating capacity and cooperating for good.

What it means to be human – male and female- is the issue of our day.

 

 

 

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Positive Politics, Part 2

July 24th, 2017 |

Dear Republicans:
Will you make history or miss another moment and pass the problems forward?
Courage, humility and unselfish love compels action. Please begin negotiating and passing bipartisan legislation that benefits the most people possible.

You may never get the extreme Left to join you, but there are persons of conscience and common good that want to refine healthcare, improve infrastructure, secure our borders and transform immigration.

Please create budgets that move us toward debt reduction. If you care about efficiency and ethics, please transform systems so resources get to the people that need them. You were elected to create a new environment in Washington, D.C. Simplify tax laws, stop currying favor with lobbyists and making side deals.

We just endured 8 years of opaque contempt for dialogue. Please do not make the same mistakes. Forge friendships across every aisle.

Regardless of your distaste or support for the President, you have a moral obligation to bring legislation for signature. “Open covenants openly arrive at…” should be the norm, including laws the average person can read and understand. President Reagan and Speaker O/Neill negotiated. President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich were not friends, but came the closest to a balanced budget since 1967.

It just takes courage, humility and love for the American people.

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Positive Politics, Part 1

July 18th, 2017 |

Dear Democrats,
We need you as an inclusive, principled party, ready to debate and pass laws that benefit all Americans. Alas, your radical wing is obsessed with Trump and mandates that can never be funded.

You desperately need to recover the best of FDR-Truman-Kennedy-Humphrey if you are going to welcome many back in the fold.

Here are some tips:
Stop hating moderate to conservative Jews and Christians for their views on marriage and morality. If you welcome even more conservative Muslims, why exclude other principled religious adherents?

Demonstrate fiscal responsibility and bring a budget that leads toward less debt.
Agitation, protest and resistance are easy compared with governing. Clean out the corruption at the city and state level. Stop the class envy and offer economic policies that foster private-public partnerships. Be leaders of racial reconciliation, not the catalysts of more animosity.

Simplify the tax code, with special concern for those who are struggling. Hyper-progressive tax laws hurt the economy. Welcome pro-life social moderates back. End the campaign finance hypocrisy. You love “dark” money just as much as your opponents.

Welcome immigrants and create pathways to citizenship with reasonable security and the end of registering non-citizens.

Friends, we need civil debate and proximate justice.

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Wisdom for This Moment in History, Part 2

July 4th, 2017 |

Privilege. A reality. Will we use it for humble service or self-aggrandizement?
Lord, help me use every gift, opportunity and resource to honor you and promote others.

We cannot be “anything we want to be.”
But we can, by God’s grace, fulfill everything the Lord’s designed for us.

Theology is art and science, poetry and prose, ecstasy and ethics, affirmation and action.

Dear conservatives and progressives:
Make a friend different than yourself. Enlightenment will follow. Friendship and common goals can help us transcend our prejudices. May I continue shedding stereotypes and learn deep listening and mutual love.

When we ask someone in greeting, “How ya doin’?” Let’s listen for their answer.

Classism, racism, sexism…lose their power through friendship and shared vision.

Shalom is possible when a vision of flourishing overtakes hatred.

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Wisdom for This Moment in History, Part 1

June 27th, 2017 |

Even when it is not “well with my soul” it is still well with the Lord, who perseveres in his love and pursues us with holy determination.
Today, let’s release every internal barrier to flourishing: anger and nostalgia, regret and pride, rebellion and ignorance…and choose forgiveness and hope, humility and learning, pursuit of the Triune Lord and the good of others.
Transformation comes responsive decision at a time.

In a world quick to label everything a “…phobe” I confess a “phobe” I must wrestle with:
“Cogitophobe.”
Translated: fear of (real) thinking. This affliction is spreading as some try and silence all dissent that departs from their narratives. How about befriending people of diverse beliefs and cultures? Then any vestiges of our phobias will transform into mutual respect, genuine debate and, perhaps, principled ways of helping all flourish.

Dear anarchist, please share what your “there” looks like.
Dear traditionalist, please share how all people are included in your vision of “there.”
To all friends of conscience, let’s articulate a just and loving, safe and sustainable future.
It is hard work aiming for principled compromise and proximate justice.
Much easier to alienate, marginalize, yell epithets and delegitimize concerns of “enemies.”
Will you join me in a new era of civil dialogue?

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