America's Young Theologian

theology | On Theft, Abundance and the Poor

2009-12-23T16:12:00.003Z

There was a news story recently about a British priest that said that shoplifting by the poor is sometimes okay.

LONDON (AP) -- For a priest in northern England, the commandment that dictates "thou shalt not steal" isn't exactly written in stone.

The Rev. Tim Jones caused an uproar by telling his congregation that it is sometimes acceptable for desperate people to shoplift - as long as they do it at large national chain stores, rather than small, family businesses.

Jones' Robin Hood-like sermon drew rebukes Tuesday from fellow clergy, shop owners and police.

From his pulpit at the Church of St. Lawrence in York, about 220 miles (355 kilometers) north of London, Jones said in his sermon Sunday that shoplifting can be justified if a person in real need is not greedy and does not take more than he or she really needs to get by.

The remarks drew a summons from Archdeacon Richard Seed, who said on his Web site that the church rejects the view that shoplifting can be acceptable.

"The Church of England does not advise anyone to shoplift, or break the law in any way," he said.

"Father Tim Jones is raising important issues about the difficulties people face when benefits are not forthcoming, but shoplifting is not the way to overcome these difficulties. There are many organizations and charities working with people in need, and the Citizens' Advice Bureau is a good first place to call," Seed's statement said.

Eleanor Course, a spokeswoman for Seed, said the archdeacon wants to meet with Jones to discuss the "appropriateness" of his sermon.

"The point we are most concerned about is that shoplifting is simply not a blameless, victimless crime," she said. "We want to make clear that it simply doesn't help people. And the last thing a desperate person wants is to be caught for shoplifting, so we feel this advice is very unwise."

Jones told The Associated Press that he stands by his comments. He said he regretted only that the media is focusing on his view on shoplifting rather than the underlying problem he wanted to address.

While Jones' statement might seem foreign to our modern ears, I thought it was worth noting that we have voices in Christian tradition that would back Jones up.

For example, Thomas Aquinas asks, in the secunda secundæ of the Summa Theologica (q.66 a.5), whether theft is always a sin. The short answer is yes. But then (two articles later - a.7) he asks whether it is lawful to steal because of the stress of need. His answer:

Nevertheless, if the need be so manifest and urgent, that it is evident that the present need must be remedied by whatever means be at hand...then it is lawful for a man to sustain his own need by means of another's property, by taking it either openly or secretly: nor is this properly speaking theft or robbery.

You can read all of II.2.q.66.a.7, here. So, while Eleanor Course, Seed's spokeswoman, may be correct when she says "the last thing a desperate person wants is to be caught for shoplifting," there may also be the possibility that from the Church's perspective shoplifting out of need isn't even theft. Said differently, one may get arrested for shoplifting, but in the case of need might have nothing to confess.

For the rest of us, those with computers and few worries about food (unlike 35 million Americans who are food insecure), perhaps we need to hear Ambrose - whom Aquinas quotes - in relation to the purpose of our abundance:

"It is the hungry man's bread that you withhold, the naked man's cloak that you store away, the money that you bury in the earth is the price of the poor man's ransom and freedom."

Maybe Jones, in the end, has a point, maybe Aquinas is right, "in cases of need all things are common property." That's a radical notion but perhaps important to imagining a more just world.

Merry Christmas.

quote | West on Accountability

2009-12-18T14:35:00.002Z

"for me, the priority is a democratization of the state, which has to do with the substantive accountability and answerability of corporate elites and financial oligarchs, who are running amok in terms of might, status, and reshaping the nation, and much of the world, in their image. That’s very dangerous. It is very dangerous. It is as dangerous as kings and queens running amok in the 17th and 18th centuries—unaccountable elites." - Cornel West

Thanks to the editors at The Immanent Frame for posting this and DD for bringing it to my attention.

blogging | Home for Christmas

2009-12-14T07:56:00.002Z

I didn't spend Christmas last year with family, but with housemates and friends in NC. This year I'll be with my parents, but will be headed to NC for New Year's. I'll try to have a book give-a-way before the end of the year for my faithful readers.

If you would like to support this blog, there are a couple ways to do so:

1. The micro-gift. You can click on the Donate button and drop a couple dollars in the cup (via PayPal).

2. Advertising (to the right). If you're buying a plane ticket, consider clicking on my Expedia link to do so. Or, try joining eMusic - right now their free trial offer will net you 35 songs (instead of the normal 25) and donate $6 to my site...all for free. You must click on my links for these to benefit me.

Lots of Love.

poem | For Those Blessed Enough to Have a Fireplace

2009-12-14T07:19:00.002Z

I'm in Illinois for the winter months and though I seem a month behind on sharing this, I will anyway. Last time I took this book off a shelf was 2005. I was in Germany that summer.

November

The Snow
began slowly,
a soft and easy
sprinkling

of flakes, then clouds of flakes
in the baskets of the wind
and the branches
of the trees--

oh, so pretty.
We walked
through the growing stillness,
as the flakes

prickled the path,
then covered it,
then deepened
as in curds and drifts,

as the wind grew stronger,
shaping its work
less delicately,
talking greater steps

over the hills
and through the trees
until, finally,
we were cold,

and far from home.
We turned
and followed our long shadows back
to the house,

stamped our feet,
went inside, and shut the door.
Through the window
we could see

how far away it was to the gates of April.
Let the fire now
put on its red hat
and sing to us.

--Mary Oliver

The line "how far away it was to the gates of April" expresses many of feelings of late, perhaps that is the feeling of Advent...waiting.

quote | On Saying Yes

2009-12-03T19:55:00.004Z

Thanks to DM for pointing me to this from Dave Eggers:

What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips's new album is ravishing and I've listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.

That seems right. For me at least, saying yes does not mean being okay with everything, but going out of your way to find what is good and to be vulnerable and vocal enough to love a piece of music, a film, a book, a person.

As a related aside, I've had numerous conversations over the last six months about maturing and its relation to being a hipster or indie music/scene kid. Once you're fine with saying, 'yeah, I'm a hipster' or admitting that Urban Outfitters is no different than the Gap, then I think you're nearing a space where you can legitimately say yes. I enjoyed Paste Magazine's diagram of the Evolution of the Hipster.

quote | Wounds, Time, and the Spirit

2009-11-06T23:42:00.002Z

Packed into this quote you'll find my long-term pneumatological motivations, my concern to allow weakness whisper its theological words and to not bracket emotions when it comes to theological knowledge, and my political preferencing of prophetic listening over prophetic speech:

"...yet to embrace one's suffering...to endure, to go into the wild territories of discomfort and sit amidst one's fears, one's loneliness, requires a different temporality that also involves being sensitive to murmurs in the world, murmurs in our bodies. Listening to the wind that scatters leaves and finds its way through our protective layers is necessary for sanctification. We never learn to listen alone."

humor | Priest Shortage - The Onion

2009-10-30T20:05:00.002Z

I got a good chuckle out of this:

"I was a little intimidated on my first day because I had no idea what I was supposed to do during communion," said Nelson, referring to the transubstantiation of the Holy Eucharist, a miracle he is expected to perform at each mass in order to transform earthly bread and wine into the Most Precious Body and Blood of Christ. "But basically I just have to pour some watered-down cabernet into the gold cup, wave my arms around, say some stuff about God, and give each person in line one of those wafer things."

Read the 'article,' here.

Happy weekend.

music | A Mix Tape...Ahem...Playlist For A Friend

2009-08-05T08:38:00.005Z

eMusic, which I love, sent out an email asking me to rejoin them as a customer after taking a couple months off and offered me some free music. So I downloaded a bunch of new music (see list below) and put together this mix for a friend. Thought you might want to listen.

The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl
Spoon - Got Nuffin EP
St. Vincent - Actor
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Frightened Rabbit - Sing the Greys
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
& a bunch of songs off the SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: THE COVERS! album (hence the Magnetic Fields and Arcade Fire covers in the playlist above).

I also got a new audiobook for free: Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. Now I have a bunch to listen to as I walk around Durham. If you're looking for a free audiobook, click below, and let me recommend Cornel West's Democracy Matters, read by the man himself.

Happy Listening!
(and let me know if you like the mix)

[America's Young Theologian][Music]

action | Silence Is Support

2009-07-21T20:40:00.002Z

Please read the full article from Wired.com:

"Doctors don’t hand out antibiotics as preventive measures, to be popped like vitamin C, because that would accelerate the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Having a few tough bugs survive in a patient who needed the drug is an inevitable downside, but cultivating those bugs in millions of already-healthy people is foolish.

...

"Last year, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that 'the present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and presents an unacceptable level of risk to public health.' Five of their 24 recommendations — including the top two — involved antibiotic use in farm animals. The Pew Commission was composed of national experts, not marginal activists. Other advocates of cutting back on farm antibiotics include the World Health Association, American Medical Association, American Public Health Association and the American Association of Pediatrics."

But that’s not how it works on industrial U.S. farms, where antibiotics are routinely added to animal feed in order to encourage growth and prevent infections exacerbated by overcrowding and stress. About 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to healthy farm animals."

See also: NYTimes.com

Granted, our factory farming of animals in deplorable conditions makes it understandable why companies would want to dope all their animals. Allowing them this irresponsible antibiotic protection is also a vote for the status quo of industrial animal production which is an environmental and food safety issue far beyond the medical implications of disease resistance.

From the NYTimes article:

"The farm lobby’s opposition makes its passage unlikely, but advocates are hoping to include the measure in the legislation to revamp the health care system."

Make up for the money imbalance by flexing your communication. Spend a minute and go to:

Tell Congress: Keep Antibiotics Working!

quote | Hauerwas On Hauerwas

2009-06-15T02:25:00.003Z

Currently, I'm working on a review (with a friend) of a book that came out late in 2007, written by friends (of mine and each other). The book is Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary, written by Stanley Hauerwas and Romand Coles. I met Professor Hauerwas for the first time in 2002 when, as an incoming student to Duke University's divinity school, I was sent by my advisor to his office with the instruction that I had to take Hauerwas' seminar on virtue ethics. At the time, neither did I know much about Hauerwas nor did I forsee the influence he would have on my thinking, my reading lists and my choice of interlocutors. While in Aberdeen, Scotland, I started corresponding with Professor Coles as I considered switching my Ph.D. from theology to political theory. During that time, I read many of the chapters of this book as they were emailed back and forth between Coles and Hauerwas. Later, back at Duke University, I'd take a seminar on Kant taught by Coles.

I guess I love the book because it offers what is so often lacking in academic texts, pictures of the engagement that goes on between scholars (and friends). Obviously, knowing the two of them adds to my enjoyment, but I think it nice to see the two working on understanding and learning from their shared commitments and differences. The inclusion of letters between the two helps, something which one usually gains access to only after a scholar's death. So, until we get the review finished, here's a few lines from one of Hauerwas' letters which I think are worth hearing again:

In an odd way you and I are haunted in quite similar ways. You claim that you are haunted by John Yoder, but John would not have wanted you to be haunted by John Yoder. He would have wanted you to have been haunted by Jesus. And remember the Jesus he would have wanted to haunt you was the Jesus who has been raised from the dead. The only difference between us is that I try to put my body in positions in which I cannot avoid being hauted by that Jesus. This mean I go to church. Indeed going to church is one of the most exciting things I do.

That I go to church does not mean I think that Jesus is only to be found there. It just means that he has promised to show up there in a manner that can help us discern how he shows up in other places. Thus, my claim that the first task of the church is not to make the world more just but to make the world the world, is not meant to restrict God's care of us to the church. Rather, it is a way to remind us that whatever we mean by politics, justice, or democracy will be determined by how we have learned to celebrate, that is, to worship. (CDRO, 105)

Though not the newest book, I heartily recommend it.

Avoid Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, I recommend:

film | Something To Watch, Something I Missed

2009-06-08T09:20:00.003Z

I'm not sure how, but apparently Scott Hicks' documentary on Philip Glass flew beneath my radar for the last couple years. Definitely add Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (2007) to your NetFlix queue...

film | The Soloist

2009-05-25T15:39:00.005Z

American audiences are served certain cinematic plots with such regularity and predictability that we know what to expect when we see them coming. There’s the sports film in which the over-the-hill athlete gets one more chance for glory. There’s the underdog team that overcomes obstacles and makes it to the big dance. So, when the main character in the The Soloist meets a homeless man who happens to be to be an extremely talented cellist, the film has all the material it needs to become a cliché. Thankfully, The Soloist avoids many of the easy mistakes that it could have made.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Steve Lopez, a LA Times columnist who stumbles across a homeless man (Nathaniel Ayers played by Jamie Foxx) playing a violin next to the statue of Beethoven in Pershing Square. Their conversation, which includes the detail that Nathaniel attended Julliard, gives Lopez his column for the week, a human interest story about a talent lost in society’s cracks. Through the film Lopez tries to help Nathaniel, bringing him a cello, finding an instructor, an apartment, all while an unlikely and challenging friendship develops between the two. The friendship is challenged not only by Nathaniel’s schizophrenia, but also by the conditions within which the relationship began. Downey’s character initially is open to doing the small things he can do for Nathaniel because Nathaniel is his story. If one went back to Aristotle’s description of friendship, this would be a friendship of use. Lopez relates to Nathaniel because he gets something else from it, a story rather than simply being involved in Nathaniel’s story. The character of the relationship and the vulnerability Lopez expresses changes over the course of the film. In dealing with Nathaniel’s mental illness, Lopez initially looks for a fix. He wants a diagnosis so that some results, some improvement can be had. He asks at one point in the film, “How do help somebody if you don’t know what they have?” That is the question of the film and answer forces the film to part from our expectations.

The film does not end as a typical uplifting Hollywood drama might and at times it seems unsure of itself. It has both its gritty and maudlin modes. Some will criticize the film on these grounds, as unclear about its intentions, but they might just be the movie’s gift. Sure, a deeper exploration of mental illness can be had, but our expectations are upset by the film just as Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, which recurs in the film, upset expectations in its day. Compare, for example, the light-hearted theme from one of Mozart’s earliest operas, Bastien and Bastienne, with the first subject of Beethoven’s piece and one finds an utterly identical progression except for Beethoven’s ominous deviation from the tonic. The film provides a similar deviation. It asks: Can you be a friend to someone if they are either a means to end, in this case a newspaper column, or a project to be fixed? Can you solve social ills from afar or without personal transformation? Downey’s character must be transformed if a true friendship is to be formed and we see him struggling to be vulnerable to Nathaniel. Again, thankfully, this film doesn’t end with Nathaniel playing at Carnegie Hall; thankfully because friendship, which always learns to flourish by attending to and accepting the special needs and qualities we each possess, is a more salutary end than easily measured results. Director Joe Wright gives us a film anchored by solid performances by both Downey and Foxx that may leave some audiences unsure of its intentions, which although a vice, is perhaps also a virtue of the film. Denying easy notions of success and as a conversation starter about homelessness, mental illness, and friendship, The Soloist succeeds. I'm not sure I'd send you to theaters to see it (and I don't think it is still in theaters), but you could do worse than adding it to your Netflix queue.

quote | Augustine on America

2009-04-29T04:42:00.002Z

"...is it reasonable, is it sensible, to boast of the extent and grandeur of empire, when you cannot show that men lived in happiness, as they passed their lives amid the horrors of war, amid the shedding of men's blood--whether the blood of enemies or fellow citizens--under the shadow of fear and amid the terror of ruthless ambition?"

-Augustine City of God 4.3 (Bettenson, 138).

update | A Month Really?

2009-04-19T00:08:00.002Z

Has it really been a month since I've posted anything? Wow. A lot has been going on which needs to be filled in. I'll just have to remedy that once the weekend is over. In the meantime, I added a new song of the week. Happy listening.

tv | HBO Shows Death On A Factory Farm

2009-03-16T14:21:00.003Z

Tonight (Monday, March 16 at 10PM/9C), HBO will air DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM, a documentary film about the Humane Farming Association’s (HFA) landmark investigation into the mistreatment of animals at the notorious Wiles Farm hog factory in Ohio. Directors Tom Simon and Sarah Teale (HBO’s DEALING DOGS) tell the story of an HFA investigator who goes undercover at the hog farm in order to bring the abuses to light. The evidence HFA gathers leads to a rare prosecution and trial for animal cruelty - and a verdict that surprises nearly everyone.

I encourage you to tune in to HBO on March 16 to watch DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM - and spread the word to your family and friends as well. It’s a great opportunity for the general public to see what happens on factory farms throughout the nation. You can also check out the Humane Farming Association.

Check out the film if you have HBO, or find someone that does.

When I bring up something like this, I fear some might want to roll their eyes, somehow communicating that I sound like a liberal who has lost all touch with his agrarian roots. For what it's worth, I'm not a vegetarian. I do eat meat. However, I am ultimately convinced not only that we eat too much meat (see here), but also I am convinced that how we treat (and even kill and eat) animals is a significant moral issue insofar as how one interacts with what our faith has taught us to call creation ultimately impacts both our own humanity and whether we are honoring our Creator. Further, I am convinced that factory farming is a significant labor issue. Asking others to interact with parts of creation in a manner that asks them to casually disregard the destruction of that creation, can only have a detrimental impact on that person. This cannot be overlooked if we are to care for our neighbor. As Christians, the shared portion of our Scriptures begin with God's creation and pronouncement that God's creation was good. The second creation account in the second chapter of the book of Genesis portrays God in agrarian terms, planting, irrigating, and tending a garden. Humanity is brought into this action of tending, assuming both the role of dominion (as seen in chapter one) and caretaker. Rule and responsibility, humanity cannot have one without the other. Even if we assume that eating animals will be part of our lives, how we care for these animals, how we ask farm workers to interact with them, and how land is potentially denigrated by the factory farming of animals are all moral concerns. Christians cannot merely chuckle and say they taste good.

Yes, I'm asking you to watch television tonight...

life | Happy Monday

2009-02-23T10:26:00.002Z

It's 5:25am. I've been at the library since 9pm. I'm doing that a lot lately, hence the lack of blog posts. I was happy with the Oscars last night. Benjamin Button didn't win any major awards! Yay...it didn't deserve to win anything except what it did win. I was happy for Slumdog's success; even if I thought The Reader was a superior film, I knew it wouldn't win.

I'm listening to music while I write and for the life of me, I can't get into Anthony and the Johnsons. With the exception of a few songs it just makes me want to yell, "oh, shut up." Too slow for me. Here's a song I've listened to about 10x this evening...happy listening, happy Monday.

The Twist - Frightened Rabbit

film | Mendes' Revolutionary Road

2009-01-18T20:39:00.003Z

I have one word for Sam Mendes' film Revolutionary Road: stunning. It's that good. It's that - I'm not sure what to say - stark, honest, nuanced, blistering.

Mendes takes us back to the 'burbs. It has been two films (Jarhead, Road to Perdition) since Mendes' directorial Oscar for American Beauty. American Beauty was, in a way, a movie about bullshit. The characters weren't bad, but enmeshed in bullshit which disconnected them from actual desires. Harry Frankfurt has argued that bullshit is more detrimental than lying, for at least the liar has some connection to the truth. Whereas American Beauty began with an established family firmly enmeshed in a bullshit existence, Revolutionary Road starts with a young couple who is trying to avoid transforming into the family in American Beauty. American Beauty has a comedic element insofar as Lester Burnham can laugh at and play with the absurdity surrounding him at the bottom of the well. Revolutionary Road has a greater sense of both gravity, as we watch a couple as they attempt not to fall down the well, and reality insofar as bullshit is not yet their governing paradigm.

The film takes place in the 1950s, depicting a young couple who meet, marry and create a suburban life with all the trappings and a healthy sense of desperation. Frank and April Wheeler are the product of gifted performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. One can't help but think about Titanic. One can't help but think that love - whether a love like that portrayed in Titanic or otherwise - cannot bear the desire for salvation that people place on its shoulders. Fixing the Wheeler's problems also means upsetting a negotiated set of expectations, cultural and private. The couple demonstrates what happens when people are utterly unsatisfied with their lives and want the person they love to save them but realize that they cannot. The result: hate and love swirl together as one feels one's life hanging in the balance. If you've been there, these emotional performances will astound you with their nuance. It's not an easy movie to watch - it speaks too bluntly and with too much honesty and wades too deeply into the relational and structural contours of our human existence - but it is, in a word, stunning.

[America's Young Theologian][Film][Revolutionary Road]

film | Zwick's Defiance

2009-01-16T11:37:00.002Z

Since Christmas I've seen a lot of WWII films: Der Untergang, a great film about Hitler's last days, Valkyrie, The Great Escape, Saving Private Ryan, and Saints and Soldiers. The last one to add to the list is Edward Zwick's newly released film Defiance.

The film follows three Jewish brothers as they attempt to evade the Nazis occupying Poland. This sends them into the Belarussian forest, where they end up being joined by other escapees. One brother joins the Russian resistance fighters, one endeavors to build a livable village in the woods, and the youngest shares both impulses. What took place in actuality over the course of three years is condensed in the film to a period of nine months. It ends up feeling like one part Robin Hood but with more hiding, one part Schindler's List but with less encounter with actual Nazis, and perhaps one part Legends of the Fall. Generally, I think Zwick may have had a little more success with movies he has produced (I Am Sam, Shakespeare in Love, Traffic) than in his uneven work as a director (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Glory), but I'd put Defiance in the top third of Zwick's work (closer to Blood Diamond and Glory, than the utterly forgettable Courage Under Fire and The Siege). As in Blood Diamond, the actors pull their weight and anchor the film amidst some plot weaknesses. Still, the film ended up feeling a slightly flat. Roger Ebert suggests that the culprit might be a function of the lack of interface with the Germans which makes the film seem more a game of hide and seek when no one is counting. I definitely found the film watchable but not necessarily something about which I'm ecstatic. One could certainly do much worse, but one could also do better, e.g. Gran Torino, Milk, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire.

[America's Young Theologian][Film][Defiance]

life | This And That

2009-01-13T06:25:00.003Z

This is just a quick shoot from the hip post. Was sick last week. I spent two days in bed feeling pretty awful. I'm happy to say that I'm feeling better. My friend Kat brought over food and medicine and generally gets credit for being awesome.

While in bed I read a book, entitled The Alcoholic, that I got from one of my housemates for Christmas. Luke, you also get a gold star. It's a graphic novel written by Jonathan Ames and illustrated by Dean Haspiel that DC Comics released last fall. I found it really touching even if it is an unblinking look into a life somewhat crippled by sexual yearning, drugs, and, as the title suggests, alcohol. I'll let you read the NYTimes review, which starts with the delightful line "If ending up in a station wagon with a pudgy, dwarflike hag doesn’t make you want to quit drinking, what will?" You follow the main character through a process of wondering and answering how he ended up where he has. The struggles with sexual confusion, a lost childhood friend, a woman he can't seem to get over (which I thought was well-portrayed), and the gnawing knowledge that there is a better him are poignantly written and depicted. As long as you're not easily offended (and maybe if you are easily offended), I'd recommend it.

Since the whole Muxtape thing went down, I'm now using iMeem.com when I want to throw together a mix for the blog. I put up a new free track that will be on the new A.C. Newman album that comes out in a week. You can download it using the link above, which will take you to Matador's webpage and give you the opportunity to download a collection of tracks, or just go to A.C. Newman's page and download it there. Generally, I love anyone or anything with any connection to The New Pornographers, and can't wait for their frontman's second solo effort. Go Carl Go!

Was happy for the two best picture winners at the Golden Globes: Slumdog Millionaire (drama) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (comedy). Loved both.

Watched The Business of Being Born, which I'm convinced everyone should see. You can stream it on NetFlix, I think.

-- Oh, it's 2009, about time you subscribe to this blog. --

[America's Young Theologian][Music][Film][Birth]

theology | Why (On Jan 18-20th) It's Morally Superior To Be American Than Christian

2009-01-12T16:24:00.007Z

Stanley Hauerwas once wrote an essay that provocatively asked "Why Gays (as a Group) Are Morally Superior to Christians (as a Group)." In short, his piece argued that (at the time) homosexuals being banned from the military - a particular moral achievement for Hauerwas - was something that Christians had failed to achieve.

We all know that on January 20th at the inauguration of Barack Obama, Rick Warren, the conservative pastor and author from California, will offer the invocation. His selection caused consternation among progressive Christians and non-Christians alike because of his support for Prop 8 in California and comments that many see as equating incest and homosexuality. Today, it was announced that Gene Robinson, the first openly gay person to be ordained a bishop in the ECUSA, will participate in the first event attended by the president-elect on Jan 18th.

So, in the coming days, you'll have Warren and Robinson participating in a singular function to pray for a place called the United States of America. In the coming days, there will be this little glimmer of unity, something that has been lacking for a long time, but particularly evidenced in the recent schismatic formation of the Anglican Church in North America which separates itself from the ECUSA. It should be clear that church unity - that for which Jesus prayed - is a more important virtue than getting a stance on human sexuality right. It should be clear that lack of church unity, schism, is a greater sin than homosexuality could possibly be. Well, at least in the coming days, there will be this little glimmer of unity, Christians from these unnaturally divided camps together in a particular task. It's sad that being American brings these Christians together rather than being Christian...so much for family values.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics][Homosexuality]

news | Richard John Neuhaus Died, Thursday

2009-01-09T15:15:00.003Z

"The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, a theologian who transformed himself from a liberal Lutheran leader of the civil rights and antiwar struggles in the 1960s to a Roman Catholic beacon of the neoconservative movement of today, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 72 and lived in Manhattan." [NYT Obit]

I always respected even if I never agreed fully with Neuhaus; I am sadden by his passing and thankful for his life.

music | What I'm Listening To

2009-01-06T14:50:00.003Z

It's been a while since I've written about the music to which I'm listening, so I thought I'd throw together a playlist. Some is new, some is old. Happy listening.

View This Playlist On Imeem.com

[America's Young Theologian][Music]

poem | The Ripples Always Lakeside Roll

2009-01-05T14:19:00.005Z

It's a new week, a new year. It's Monday morning and a warm day in North Carolina. I was sorting some files on my laptop and came across a poem I wrote maybe five years ago and thought I'd share it. It's strange for me to encounter it now.

+ + +
The Ripples Always Lakeside Roll

part the willows branches
with your fingers, with your face,
brush a fern and denim scene
of a grace sometimes displaced

gleeful, muttering, furrowed, hushed,
the ripples always lakeside roll,
a shore knows only arms outstretched,
the water filling, making whole

breaking shores become banks
with water learns to play, to move,
to dance within a field together,
never every whole is new

--Daniel R. Morehead

film | Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire

2008-12-25T20:45:00.003Z

With a few caveats in place, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed Danny Boyle's latest film Slumdog Millionaire. The story follows Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" His life is unfolded through a series of flashbacks that show how his life experiences helped him answer the questions on the show. To be clear, its more about his life than the game show. Sure, it's a feel-good love story and you know how it will end, but these aren't problems or at least weren't for me.

There was a lot I liked about the film. First, it's an offering unlike Boyle's other films (Sunshine, Millions, 28 Days Later..., The Beach, Trainspotting). The muted color pallet of Sunshine has turned into vibrant India, even if tough neighborhoods (Trainspotting) and the whimsy of childhood (Millions) have shown up before in his work. I also appreciated that it portrayed some facets of slum life which I'd guess many fail to realize take place. So, although heartbreaking, I'm glad that what is on the whole a fun film, didn't need to avoid topics like the intentional maiming of children to increase what they can procure from begging. In short, thankfully, it has more grit than a Hollywood romantic film that blithely throws around words like destiny. Lastly, I found it charming, well-paced, and curiously powerful for a film that has a plot anchor that should but doesn't inevitably dash the film against the rocks of credibility. It's a lovely film that I highly recommend. See it if you haven't. [The trailer doesn't do it justice.]

Oh, and I also saw the film Seven Pounds that stars Will Smith. Skip it.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Film][Slumdog]

theology | Meditation On Matthew 5.7

2008-12-20T17:47:00.003Z

"How honored are those who
treat others with compassion,
because they will find compassion."

+ + +
To reiterate a previously made point about my translation of the beatitudes, I'm using "How honored" because I think the beatitudes in Matthew are working off of (yet inverting) the normative cultural conceptions of honor/shame. Compassion is my translation of the term which most often gets translated as merciful/mercy. Those in the tradition who viewed the beatitudes as cumulative - each building on the former beatitude - are quick to note that justice and mercy are placed together. "Justice and mercy are so united, that the one ought to be mingled with the other; justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice, profusion."

To be honest, I (and perhaps it's safe to say 'we') am more inclined to honor the strong, the solid, the stalwart, the secure. To be compassionate, to treat others with mercy or compassion, is to be vulnerable, porous, taking another's burden as one's own. It requires seeing; it requires being present. [It is interesting to note that die Barmherzigen the German for "the merciful" as found in the above photo can also describe a ministering angel or messanger.] The vulnerability of compassion is not what most characterizes my daily existence, favoring as I do strength and independence. However, to operate from a place of strength is commonly to adopt the position of the giver of gifts and to shy away from being a recipient. Further, it shies away from acknowledging my many needs and those who consistently let my life continue through their gifts. Even if we lived in a wholly just world, a world where justice reigned supreme, this would be insufficient and worse than it first sounds if it didn't include compassion. Perhaps those who rightfully call for social justice should remember also that justice without compassion or mercy is cruelty, that justice needs gentle hands.

Like so many of the beatitudes, it is not my first inclination to honor those who treat others with compassion, those who are vulnerable and who are impacted by the pains of others, even if I find such beautiful. Too often my charity can also be thus, giving resources from a distance, holding benefits (which do in fact benefit, don't get me wrong) that can be just another party to attend. Whether a TV show like Oprah's Big Give or an end of the year charitable donation, compassion can end up emasculated - more of a contest or transaction than something involving vulnerability. This is not to say that some good isn't done. But what is the honor that comes from treating others with compassion? Finding compassion.

This is to say that the more determinatively we allow the burdens of those around us (and I think it important to say that the world as such cannot be our 'neighbor') to be our own, the more compassionately (which is to say that justice cannot be our only dictum) we treat the people in our lives, the more we are opened to the other with their needs, the more our needs, our deficiencies, our burdens seem capable of being embraced or suffered without taking on the character of something that problematizes our existence. In short, it allows for growth, for healing. I'm reminded of the fourth century Cappadocian fathers, in particular Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, and of the Gospel according to Matthew. For Gregory of Nyssa, Christ healed the effects of the Fall as he healed the sick in his earthly ministry - by touching. For Gregory of Nazianzus, "what was not assumed [by Jesus] was not healed." Then, there are the words of Jesus from later in Matthew's gospel: "Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden."

The compassionate often find compassion and the prospect of healing. Through Jesus - whose work was justice and compassion - our honor is that we might be considered members of God's family. Jesus, our physician, does not heal from an uninvolved distance. This is the wonder of Christmas.

+ + +
[The photo comes from a small chapel in Gegenbach, Germany which graphically depicts the various beatitudes from Matthew. The chapel was a stopping point for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.]

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics][Compassion][Matt 5]