Fear and Relief

3 05 2011

This is an excerpt from Miroslav Volf’s post, ‘Fear and Relief‘ at the Christian Century:

As I listened to President Obama’s calmly triumphant announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed and “justice has been served”–and to the reports of celebrations in American streets–I tried to sort out my own responses to the surprising news. Throughout the morning, my inbox filled with e-mails from friends near and far. These reactions, unlike those of the U.S. government and most Americans, were more ambivalent.

A friend at Yale reminded me of Proverbs 24:17, Ezekiel 33:11 and Matthew 5:44, adding this:

After 9/11 I found it very hard to bring myself to pray for Usama bin Laden. But by God’s grace I did because Jesus said I must. And though I am tempted to rejoice today, I will not because Jesus said I must not.

A young Christian leader from the Middle East offered a view forged in a majority-Muslim country:

A huge opportunity now–after the death of bin Laden–is for Americans to intentionally free themselves fully from the domain of fear and those who manipulate it for their own agendas. Politicians will be looking for the next “enemy” to continue to distract you from being truly the “land of the free.” You are not free until you eliminate all your fear. Love drives out fear.

You can find the rest of the post here.


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Categories : Empire Remixed

I Never Laughed & Cried At the Same Time

2 05 2011

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

In advance of a full post reflecting on the death of Bin Laden, please take five minutes to listen & reflect. Today is a day for much prayer.


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Sundance, Obama and “Taking Chance”

21 01 2009

by Brian Walsh

 

So I’m at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah this week as a guest of the Windrider Forum from Fuller Theological Seminary. And I had the unique privilege of watching the Inauguration ceremonies with more than a 100 students and faculty from Fuller, Biola College and Taylor University. It was a moving experience that has left me with mixed and conflicting feelings, that perhaps mirror the conflict and confusion embedded in both this day and in President Obama’s speech.

 

I know and I appreciate that today is a day of hope. Today is a day of promises fulfilled. Today is a day that, for many Americans, begins to take away the shame and the embarrassment of the last eight years. I stood, without reservation, with everyone else in the room as Mr. Obama took the oath of office. and I put my hands together in applause.

 

And I appreciated the wisdom and the seriousness of Mr. Obama’s address. I heard him when he called America to humility and restraint. I appreciated his insistence that America can no longer consume more of the world’s resources than is just or fair. And he is right in saying that America has been a child and it is time to grow up. Read the rest of this entry »


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Set the Captives Free? Yes we can (through the cross)

12 11 2008

by Frederick Harrison

I’ve been gnawing on the Luke 7:17-35 passage over the last month. Especially verse 22.

John is in Herod’s dungeon wondering when Jesus will depose Herod and establish a Godly kingship on earth. He remembers the Isaiah 61 prophecy but doesn’t get the bigger picture.

John has in mind unfortunates like himself, jailed because those in authority don’t like what he is saying. “Brood of vipers!” indeed. We’ll throw him in the pit until he pays us a little more respect. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Frederick Harrison, Wine Before Breakfast

Getting on with the Work of the Kingdom

10 11 2008

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

While I was off on retreat in the Gatineaus over the course of the weekend, David Fitch published an excellent post calling the church to continued action and engagement, in that upside-down, kingdom-of God-kind of way.

Obama may have been elected, but that doesn’t mean we abdicate our own responsibility in seeing God’s kingdom come more fully to earth. Surely, while Obama’s election does signal change, and a potentially positive change at that, the church still needs to be the church, going about God’s business. Getting back to work this morning, I appreciate Fitch’s observations and his critique: Read the rest of this entry »


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Obama and Cyrus, A Meditation in the Garden

7 11 2008

This post was originally composed as an email from Henk Hart (Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, Institute for Christian Studies) in response to Brian Walsh’s musings in “Barack Obama: A Post-Imperial Presidency?” We liked them so much that we asked Professor Hart if he would allow us to reprint them here.

by Hendrik Hart

I think the real crux here is to have expectations that are both high and realistic. For Obama to break with empire may neither be necessary nor realistic if we use Isaiah’s figure of Cyrus as a model. He was emperor as well as servant. For me that opens perspectives that may have a real future.

For a good read on what Obama is up against I was impressed with Ronald Wright’s What is America? You will recall Wright as the author of the very insightful A Short History of Progress. This new book (out in August) has similar depths of insight. Obama’s written embrace of capitalism and his old fashioned patriotism make me think that his inaugural could well dash our hope if we grasp too high. But with Cyrus in the background I do have high hopes. Read the rest of this entry »


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Barack Obama: A Post-Imperial Presidency?

5 11 2008

by Brian Walsh

It is no overstatement to describe the presidency of George W. Bush as imperial in character. You don’t have to be a left wing ideologue to observe that the Pax Americana of the last eight years, the centralization of coercive power legitimated in a post 9/11 America, and the American exceptionalism that has laced the rhetoric of the White House is all the stock in trade of empire.

How else might we understand a war in Iraq justified by fear and deceit? How else might we interpret the unilateralism of an administration that was disdainful of the United Nations and withdrew from almost every important international treaty during its time in office? How else might we understand an ideological commitment to a neo-conservative economic agenda that allowed the market to come to the verge of collapse in a morass of greed and corruption? And how else might we interpret a commitment to an American vision of prosperity and affluence, that has willingly put the planet and the next generations up for sacrifice on the altar of global capitalism? Read the rest of this entry »


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Barack Obama, Meet Jeremiah

29 08 2008

by Brian Walsh

It would seem that this is not the time to rain on the parade of Barack Obama. I know that a lot of good folk, including a lot of good Christian folk, respond to Obama’s ascendancy to becoming the first African American candidate for President with deep joy. Yes, this is indeed a historical moment to savour and to rejoice in.

Yet … I’m uneasy. You see the language about the American dream that pervades Obama’s rhetoric is deeply problematic.

I mean, when he proclaimed in his speech at the Democratic convention, “I will restore our moral standing so that America is once more the last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future,” perhaps some people in the world are wondering, ‘what moral standing?’, ‘what freedom?’, ‘what peace?’, indeed, ‘what hope for whose future?’ Read the rest of this entry »


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Memory and Rebuilding in the Ruins of America

19 03 2008

by Brian Walsh

Five Years in Iraq and Holy Week. These two come together today. We are in the middle of Holy Week, walking that path of the cross with Jesus. And today marks five years of war in Iraq.

So I thought that I would share with you some words that I wrote for a chapel talk at Messiah College in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago. I had been speaking about Isaiah 58 and how the prophet not only dismisses any pious fasting that is devoid of justice in the attempt to rebuild life in the midst of the ruins of post-exile Jerusalem, but also how he offers the community deeper and more liberating memories for their reconstruction efforts.

You see, the fasting that was instituted after the exile was a fasting in mournful memory of the loss of the Temple and the Monarchy. Isaiah doesn’t think that these are memories worth keeping.

Look closely at Isaiah 58 and you will see that the prophet offers better and deeper memories to this community … memories of exodus, jubilee, creation and sabbath. In that context, I then said the following to the students of Messiah College:
Read the rest of this entry »


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