Circuit Writer

My column for the March 27 – April 02, 2011 edition of The Tahlequah Christian.

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Ok, I’ve been flirting with this idea and trying to ignore it for a couple of weeks now, but after I followed a “this day in history” link, I realized that it must be a sign that I could no longer avoid the topic. This day in history (Tuesday, March 29), 38 years ago, the final U.S. troops withdrew from South Vietnam, effectively ending the Vietnam War for us as a nation. This long, bloody, and incredibly unpopular war continue reading…

My column for the October 10 – October 23 edition of The Tahlequah Christian.

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This previous Sunday I preached on the topic of a “new covenant” in Israel and Palestine – a covenant of peace and coexistence where sisters and brothers in the Abrahamic faith traditions come to terms with one another on ways to share the so-called “Holy Lands” and learn to live together. But I also presented the challenge that this covenant was for us as well, even halfway across the world here in Oklahoma – that we are called to be sowers of the seeds of peace and justice. And I perhaps left us with the tantalizing question: what can we do to help create peace right here in our own neighborhoods? I’d like to share with you an excerpt from an article posted online at the Disciples News Service:

A diverse coalition of national and local faith organizations, Fighting Poverty with Faith (FPWF) continue reading…

Here’s the Global Ministries mission bulletin insert for September 2010.  You can read the original article here.

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For I am sure that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38, 39

The Palestinian Christian community, with roots dating back to earliest Christianity, now numbers less than two percent of the population in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  But the community prominently offers a non-violent witness for justice and peace.  Last December in Bethlehem, Palestinian Christians launched “A Moment of Truth.”  They called it a “Kairos” document, the word in early Greek meaning “opportunity” or critical moment in time, and meant to allude to the crucial South African Kairos document which in 1985 prompted debate about Apartheid worldwide.  The Kairos document states that “… Love is seeing the face of God in every human being. Every person is my brother or my sister. However, seeing the face of God in everyone does not mean accepting evil or aggression on their part. Rather, this love seeks to correct the evil and stop the aggression.” continue reading…

Here’s the Global Ministries mission bulletin insert for August 2010.  You can read the original article here.

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By God’s great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…I Peter 1: 3b

I recently flew to East Timor for a week of teaching a group of lay preachers who were being prepared to administer the sacraments and provide pastoral care to the many tiny groups of Protestant Christians scattered throughout the mountains of East Timor.  The Protestant Church of East Timor (IPTL) grew a good deal during the Indonesian occupation due to the presence and money of Indonesian protestants, but is now left with an unsustainable structure, empty churches in some areas and Christians, but no churches in others.  They are in a long process of death and resurrection, and Global Ministries has been one of their most faithful partners in the struggle. continue reading…

My column for The Tahlequah Christian for the weeks of July 18 -  July 31.

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I came across a fascinating article in The Disciples’ Advocate, a publication of Disciples Home Missions. The headline article for the summer edition is entitled “Considering Peace,” and is writted by Rev. Craig Watts, a member of the Executive Committee of the Disciples Peace Fellowship. It caught my attention from the first sentence: “Outside of the historic ‘peace churches,’ no American religious tradition has a richer peace heritage than the Disciples of Christ.” This piqued my interest enough to want to share some of the highlights with you. continue reading…

My column for The Tahlequah Christian for the weeks of May 9 – 22.

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I was moved to do a little looking online and discovered that Mother’s Day has changed quite a bit over the years. While we gather to honor the mothers in our lives now, it originally started out as a gathering of mothers from both sides of the Civil War to mourn the loss of their sons in battle and affirm together their opposition to war. One of the earliest supporters of this original holiday was Julia Ward Howe (of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” fame), and she wrote this “Mother’s Day Proclamation” that I’d like to share with you.

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: continue reading…

Another late post, this is my column for The Tahlequah Christian dated 12/08/09.

Last Sunday afternoon, I attended the NSU Singers’ performance of “A Concert of Lessons and Carols.” If you were unable to make it to this concert, you really missed out on a treat. In my opinion, this was the best selection of choral music for the program since I began my ministry here in Tahlequah five concerts ago in 2005. It was a truly impressive performance!

However, I was equally struck by the “lessons” portion of the program. This collection of nine scripture selections provides the framework in which the carols are performed. With readings from Genesis to Isaiah to the Gospels, these lessons reflect the classical doctrine of the developing Christian faith: the fall of Adam, Original Sin, and redemption through Christ, the New Adam. Keep in mind, both this theology and the lessons framework likely come from medieval times and don’t really reflect the 200-year old theological tradition of the Disciples. However, I often find it quite amazing how much power these older doctrines hold in determining how we think today.

Stating that, it’s a real source of frustration for me. Part of the problem with the “original sin” tradition is the violence within that theology. Human free will leads to disobedience, which invites Divine violence – the curse, expulsion from the garden, the end of a supposedly “carefree” life. Then, the solution to the problem of the fall into sin is the violent execution of the one whom we worship every Sunday morning. (Did you see “Passion of the Christ”? A very violent rendition of the cross.)

So I’m left to ask – what of the Jesus who spoke of peace? What of the Jesus who never acted in violence during his lifetime? (Ok, so there’s the temple story in John 2:13-22 where he does have a whip of many cords.) What of the Jesus who opposed a system that perpetuated violence? Our theologies (mine included) often have many instances of “violent love” bound into them in order to make meaning in our lives. I wonder what it would take to replace all of those instances with a more “peaceful love.”

I admit that I don’t necessarily have an answer to this question, but I’m joyful and grateful to be a part of a church community where people take their faith journeys seriously through careful and prayerful study and fellowship. Even though I may not have the answers, I look forward to working them out in community with you as we journey together.

Seeking to live out the peace of Jesus,

Clint

“The 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month…”

Ninety-one years ago today the echoes of the guns of August finally faded into silence.  The parties of what at the time was known as “the war to end all wars” laid down their arms and began negotiating the peace.  World War I had come to a close. (Of course, this didn’t mark an end to fighting – the Ottoman Empire disintegrated into civil war and wouldn’t reemerge as the Republic of Turkey for almost five years.)

Today we observe this date as Veteran’s Day, a national holiday to honor all of those who have lived and died in the service of the U.S. military.  Given our current crisis, this observance is perhaps more important than ever.  I think we may have exceeded Winston’s Churchill’s imagination of military sacrifice when he famously said, “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”  The burden of our military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan teeters dangerously on the less-than-Atlas-sized shoulders of our all-volunteer military.  While this disproportionately small segment of U.S. society* fights our wars, the majority of us continue to rally around the cause of conflict with virtually no ownership.  How many of us have family members in the military?  In combat zones?  What is our personal investment in these conflicts?

I fear that our disregard for the face of this holiday has allowed the deeper meaning of Veterans Day to remain obscured.  Prior to becoming Veterans Day in 1954, this date was celebrated as Armistice Day, marking the cease fire that ended World War I.  Buried within the deep of the Veterans Day tradition, there is not only an honoring of  those who have served, but a remembrance of the terrible cost of war.  A concurrent resolution passed by Congress in on June 4, 1926 reminds us of this price and encourages us to observe this date in the totality of its meaning (with thanks to the Veterans Administration, emphasis is mine):

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

To put it simply, Armistice Day was originally conceived as a day to celebrate the end of the fighting and to honor the cause of peace.

I fear we live in an age where much of the power of the original Armistice Day holiday has been lost; a power of which we are in dire need.  We are politically dominated by the symbol of 9/11, a rallying cry to war uninhibited by any understanding of the deeper causes of resentment and hatred for our neo-imperial foreign policy.  For those of us seeking to make a difference in our national life, it’s time to claim the symbol of 11/11: a call for peace grounded in the hope for a more cooperative community of nations, yet tempered in the sober reality of the destructive war whose end it commemorates.

Until we recognize that the cost of our callousness is truly greater than we can afford to bear, we will continue to live in fear instead of hope.  Defining our orientation in terms of the devastating attack of September 11^th only reinforces our national paranoia.  Redefining our direction in terms of an admittedly uneasy armistice and peace could allow us to begin the process of international reconciliation that will truly be required to ensure not only our national security but international security as well.  The time has come for those of who support the cause of peace to reject the fear of 9/11 and claim anew the hope of 11/11.

*Which also happens to be disproportionately overrepresented by African Americans and is rapidly rising in Latino/a representation – See Government Accounting Office Report GAO-05-952)

Cross posted at the Xenia Institute.

This article is a re-imagination of the article I originally published in my congregational newsletter, The Tahlequah Christian.  You can read the original article here.

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