Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Shack

I still see occasional references to William Young’s self-published book The Shack (cf www.theshackbook.com, Windblown Media). I read it some time ago, after discovering Bill Young was also a Warner Pacific alumnus. While cleaning out paperwork last week, I recovered my notes, written at the time I read the book and here are some of my thoughts about it.

I found this book a compelling novel. I’ve never been one to stop and critique an author’s writing style, but this book has some superbly written passages in it, some better than others, of course. I found some paragraphs as tightly -packed and powerfully-worded as anything I’ve ever read. I enjoyed examining his writing style, and frankly admired flashes of his writing genius.

Mack, the main character, endures a devastating tragedy, the kind of trauma that any of us can rather readily identify with. In his utter devastation, and who of us has not felt such at one time or other--there really is no other word for it--in this black hole of life, Mack unwittingly, even unknowingly, encounters God in an old shack deep in the forest.

I have read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and I easily understood why some have dared to compare William Young’s “shack” to Bunyan’s allegory. This is allegory at its best. It is not for detailed and systematic theological interpretation. It is more than a metaphor, like a parable of Jesus; it has more than a single, general lesson. For thoughtful readers, who do not mind stretching the imagination a little, you will find it engaging.

Young offers a road map by which one can trace a winding path leading to experiencing the reality of an ever-present God. For me, it was a meaningful and refreshing path to a renewed awareness of that “Hound of Heaven” described by the English poet, Thompson.

Mack follows a trail of dispelling prejudice, misconception and misunderstanding, with which many a reader will readily identify. The reader who approaches The Shack with theology set in concrete may find some of Mack’s challenges threatening. Although I tend to be more of a rational person, I found the book filled with feeling and emotion. It gripped me.

Should you read it, I believe you will find it inspiring--right up to the very last paragraph--as I did, especially if you can occasionally let your imagination fly a little off the beaten path.
For what its worth from Warner’s World

Monday, March 23, 2009

Balance In Our Economy

“Rage at AIG Swells As Bonuses Go Out,” reports the Washington Post. President Barack Obama declares insurance giant American International Group is in financial straits because of "recklessness and greed." He intends to stop it, (Brady Dennis and David Cho, WP Staff Writers, March 17, 2009; Page A01).

This has resulted in a tidal wave of public outrage. "It's a mob effect," one senior executive said. "It's putting people's lives in danger." Politicians and the public demanded that AIG rescind payouts that rewarded recklessness and greed at a company being bailed out with $170 billion in taxpayer funds. Company officials contended the uproar scares away the very employees who understand AIG Financial Products' complex trades and who are trying to dismantle the division before it further endangers the world's economy.

There is much discussion among people right now and we need to be alert, act ethically, maintain moral and political balance for the common good. For example: “We’re spending money so that the government doesn’t put so many impediments in the way that we kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” Chamber of Commerce President told Lou Dobbs, (War On the Middle-class/Viking/2006/42).

Dobbs alleged, “We have allowed the elites to subvert the principles of free market and a democratic society, and establish the lie that the unfettered growth of our economic system is far more important than the preservation of our political system” (11).

What else does Newsman Dobbs report? Half of Americans make more than $44,000 and half less (16). Income increased for the median family by 18%; the top 1% increased up to 200%. Illustrating the point, NW Airlines increased Executive Compensation by $2.5 million while the company fought bankruptcy and slashed worker pay. Dobbs noted our greatest danger is internal--CEOs et al with millions in stock options, who have become rich on options based on company performance … and maintain at any cost.

Remember when George Bush repeated his mantra about “work Americans won’t do”? The truth is, we no longer honor honest work! Bobby is a plain, simple man, without letters or degrees. He is physically robust, an American mountain man of SE Kentucky--a family man, and deeply religious. Bobby is as honest as the day is long, a man of honor--a trash truck driver. He arises every morning at 1:00 a.m, and goes to work at 3:00. There are thousands of employed and unemployed Americans like Bobby, honest and honorable, while some of our biggest CEO increases--up to 200%-- are in Defense Contracts - getting rich by reason of “Just War”.

Remember when K-Mart filed for bankruptcy in 2002? CEO Chuck Conley got $9.5 million severance while laying off 22,000 without severance--similar story at Polaroid. I agree when Dobbs suggests we cannot be healthy while lobbyists influence our laws. In 1968 we had 62 registered Lobbyists, today 34,000. These include 2390 former public officials and 240 Congressmen. No wonder Dobbs concluded we have the best government money can buy--the culture of corruption--Bush, Abrahamoff et al.

Fifty years ago Corporate America’s taxes were 1/3 of our federal revenue and only 1/8th now, while the Middle Class pay roughly half of all Federal Taxes. Citizens for Tax Justice found the largest 275 US Corporations dropped 1/5th over the past 3 years, 21.4 in 2001 to 17.3 in 2003. They reported pretax of near $1.1 trillion but paid only $557 billion. Bank of America, for one, has some 50 tax havens abroad.

Yet, CEO Raymond of Exxon Mobile told Congress, “We’re all in this together all over the world.” His 13-year compensation as chair & CEO equaled $l44,573 per day, with these additional benefits: retirement package of approximately $400 million + stock options, pension, personal and home security, $1 million consulting contract, use of corporate jet + other perks (Dobbs, pp 25-26).

This amounts to corporate welfare, whether the company makes money or not. CEOs were paid over the past 5 years an aggregate of $865 million in compensation (including AT&T, BellSouth, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Lucent, Merck, Pfizer, Safeway, Time Warner, Verizon & Wal-mart) while shareholders lost $640 billion.

Should a CEO be paid as much as the market will bear? If so, how about those who earn it for him or her? It reminds me of Mark Green’s quote of Woodie Guthrie: “Through this world I’ve rambled, I’ve met lots of funny men. Some rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen” (Green/Losing Our Democracy/106).
From Warner’s World

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Honor God

According to A study of compensation levels in 2007, the average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies was 344 times higher than the average worker's wage, and that the top 50 investment fund managers took home 19,000 times -- yes, that's with three zeroes -- as much as typical workers earned.

I have no problem with a capitalistic system that allows people to acquire wealth and for entrepreneurs to reap a justifiable profit from their investments of time and energy. I have serious questions, however, about the moral and practical implications of such levels of inequality. E. J. Dionne reminds us that capitalism worked extremely well during the three decades following World War II, without such radical inequities.

When those inequalities soar over the horizon the system soon runs into trouble; that was what happened at the end of the 1920s, when inequality reached levels similar to today's.

With the unleashing of the current populist fury, the Obama administration appears to have two choices: fight the public, or use the public's outrage to move the country in a better direction (without being threatened as a BIG spender or being called a socialist).

When greed drives the financial market, society becomes dysfunctional. Such greed as we see currently, denies the principle of “we the people” and disallows that “all men are created equal.“ At a time when we should avoid wasting time on wedge issues, we are too busy fighting political wars.

What has been turned loose is an “unfettered greed” that moves from the political arena to the moral, ethical and religious realm. The inequities we practice today deny two of the most fundamental laws in human relations, both found in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not steal . . . You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:15, 17).

If you would honor God, declared the ancient Prophet, be fair to your workers, undo their chains and free those unfairly imprisoned, free those unfairly treated and stop their hard labor, share your food with the hungry and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes. Stop using cruel words and pointing your finger at others; free those who are hungry, and supply the needs of the troubled (Isaiah 58:3-4, 6-7, 9, NCV).

A major theme of the ministry of Jesus was the Kingdom of God--God’s authority. “May your kingdom come,” He taught us to pray, “and what you want be done here on earth as it is in heaven.” During this Lenten season, leading to Easter, the abundant inequities that surround us should compel us to pray “Forgive us our sins” (Matthew 6:10-12).
From Warner’s World

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Defining Deviancy Downward

My WVA friend Bill Ellis, heard Tim Lee speak at a Hurricane, WVA Church. Lee, a Marine lost both legs when he stepped on a land mine in Vietnam. Bill listened to Lee’s tremendous voice, saw his strong upper body, and felt the conviction with which Lee spoke. This battle-tested Marine quoted from the Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk, who prayed for the salvation of God's people. Surrounded by evil he cried out, "O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!" (Habakkuk 3:2).

"No political party is going to revive America," Lee warned. He said, "The biggest concern I have for America are the judges who have said for years we do not need God" (Read about Lee at: www.timlee.org).

The problem goes deeper than personal persuasions about the judicial system. The Washington Post predicts deteriorating economic conditions will cause our federal deficit to soar beyond $1.8 trillion this year. That will leave us wallowing in a sea of red ink deeper than anyone previously estimated (March 20, 2009 U.S. Federal Deficit Soars Past Previous Estimates).

AIG merely illustrates the current problem. It goes beyond the Banking and Housing industries. Congress called AIG Arrogance, Ignorance, and Greed. How about Avarice, Idolatry, and Guilty? Wall Street, Corporate America, and Politico’s inside and outside the Beltway have been in cahoots far too long--further back than Enron, or George W. Bush.

We have become a nation that cares more about personal pleasure than responsible politics. We pursue making money more than practicing morality. CEOs will give you a credit card knowing you are not responsible. Sellers use lust, greed and avarice of every degree to secure your purchase. Buyers want more than they currently have--needed or otherwise, and will go to any lengths for satisfaction.

The enemy is us--lack of integrity. Thomas Merton suggested “a cardinal American virtue, ‘ambition,’ promotes a cardinal American vice, ‘deviant behavior.’” This deviant behavior reflects in many areas of our lives. For example: an area advertiser breaks into regularly scheduled programming to telecast their presidential speech that declares their President’s STIMULUS PROGRAM.

He insults my intelligence, offends my humor, and I delete him--regularly. Under no circumstance would I buy a window from his firm. He illustrates life lived by deceit, illusion, and appeal to devious behavior. It forms the tip of an iceberg that invades my personal space, from which I cannot escape. And, “truth in advertising” remains a useless law.

Do you question our downward deviant behavior? David Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture, and The Moral Center, quotes Robert Merton (Social Theory and Social Structure): “If Americans are exceptionally resistant to social control, and therefore vulnerable to criminal temptations--it is because they live in a society that enshrines the unfettered pursuit of individual material success above all other values.”

Many writers document our downward deviancy, from the White House to Main Street. David Foster believes “cultured Christianity’s Jesus is no more the real Jesus than the velvet Elvis you buy in a gas station parking lot is the king of rock and roll. It may make you feel fuzzy for awhile, but it won’t change your life, free your soul, calm your fears, or save the world from utter and compete self-annihilation” (A Renegade’s Guide To God/ NY/Faith Words/30).

Stephen Carter quotes conservative theologian, Richard Neuhaus, when he writes, “It is not a Marxist but a biblical insight that a society is judged along its fault lines, that we are judged by our relationships to the vulnerable, to the marginal, to those whom many view as expendable” (Carter/Civility, Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy/285).

I love this ancient Franciscan Blessing:
May God bless you with the discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may wish for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done” (Foster/A Renegades Guide to God/2006/167).

Let us, once again, follow the real Jesus, who taught and practiced loving God supremely and loving one’s neighbor as himself. We have yet to give that Jesus a serious audience, but it could set us free from the bondage of our deviant behavior.
That's all for now from Warner"s World

Monday, March 9, 2009

FROM REFORMATION PUBLISHERS

It has been an interesting 3 weeks_deep in Floyd County KY. The weekend saw the mid 70s and sunshine I pined for in MI. I kept Steve going while he survived flu and cold _ then Martha _ then I caught a cold. We're all up and going and doing well in this lovely pre-spring weather today and anticipating more.

Of the writing of books there is no end, wrote the wiseman of Ecclesiastes. Certainly it true. Aspiring writers of all kinds come through Reformation Publishers and Williams Printing ... new Church of God writers ... reprints of Chog classics ...and others. The work is never ending and Steve's work never ends. Balancing the hats of the publisher, the preacher-pastor, the husband and father is a never-ending task, and my young friend Steve does well to hang on.

I pray for him (and Martha). Yesterday I preached at morning worship as Steve and Martha travelled to Peebles, Ohio to install Pastor Harold Keaton. The Keatons' moved to Ohio from Kentucky after rehabilitating from a tough time in their ministerial journey. Steve is hopeful for them and the church here wishes them well.

The times are tough. Recession is rampant. People need jobs. People are hurting. Seldom have we faced an opportunity to make as much difference as we can today. It costs little to smile. It costs little more to give someone a positive word of hope. Christians, of all people, have a hope to share - of - strength for today ... and ... hope for tomorrow.

Seldom has the world been more in need of love, friendship, forgiveness, and wholesome relationships. The Christian has the fortifying of divine companionship, the sense of worth of being created in the image and likeness of God, and the promise of tomorrow's eternal hope.

We do not face a world of fixed options where some are predetermined to happiness and health and some others to whatever else is available. We live in a world ruled by a loving God who is full of grace and hope and love, and who is ever inter-acting with his created - as we respond to him. Jesus pictured the Heavenly Father as a lonely father looking out the door and over the hill, looking for a wayward son we call the prodigal (the waster). Even as we waste our lives, God longs for us with a divine love that is full of grace, mercy, and compassion, and awaits (only) our return home.

Give HIM a chance to kill the fatted calf, and bring out a new wardrobe, with a ring on your finger. Try Him! You may be surprised, but you could also be pleased. You couldn't be more wrong than that tragic Terrorist that blows up himself or herself for some sensual superpleasures in a warped vision of heaven. And you just might be right.

In the meantime, many others are finding peace and joy, meaningful self fulfillment, and a growing sense of community in God's world. It was Jesus who said Where 2 or 3 of my followers are, there I will be, and I find they such clusters are here n there and everywhere.

From deep in SE KY, this is Warner's World