THE NEW DIALOGUE

Have you ever eaten lunch with a prophet? It’s different than what you would expect. Once you get past the long hair, the locusts, and the camel hair jacket, the utter lack of BS is what draws you in and keeps your attention.

I had the chance to share table with a prophet yesterday. After delivering a lecture to over 400 people at Drury University, bestselling author, Jim Wallis—sans wild hair and bullshit—ate chicken and rice with me…and about 30 others. Wallis was in town to promote his book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, and to declare a message he has been proclaiming for over thirty years as editor of Sojourners magazine and the founder of Call to Renewal. His message was this: “The monologue of the religious Right is over. The new dialogue has begun.”

What’s so important about this guy that he is showing up on The Daily Show, Hannity & Colmes, and PBS? Why is Bono chatting with him; and why are Al Mohler, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell debating him on talk radio and cable television? Why do the Clintons hang with him; and why do President Bush and Prime Minister Blair consult him on matters of war and poverty? And, most of all, why is Barak Obama having breakfast with this guy next Tuesday?

Perhaps because he is the most important figure in religion and politics at this particular moment in history. What about Benedict XVI and Abu Musab Zarqawi, I hear you asking? Okay, the most important religious figure in the United States. What about Dobson and Falwell? Okay, within the confines of non-theocratic, progressive, evangelical, American I-don’t-want-to-build-an-angry-empire type Christianity, this is the guy.

Why is he traveling around the country like a rock star, with auditoriums and bookstores filling to standing-room only? Because he is saying what so many lack the courage to say. And the truth he speaks to power isn’t part of the polarizing cliches we see in everyday politics and religion. Wallis isn’t claiming the end of the world or threatening liberal judges; he seeks to reclaim the faith that has been hijacked by the religious Right and neglected by the secular Left.

He challenges the Right for claiming ownership of God and setting a public agenda that rarely extends beyond abortion and gay marriage. He points out that since the Bible refers to the poor over 3,000 times, perhaps we ought to make poverty and social justice our number one concern. He asks, “Since when did having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-America only?”

In fact when Dobson and his minions held their Justice Sunday rally last week, where they claimed that Democrats are “against people of faith,” Wallis headed up a counter rally where he pointed that even when Martin Luther King, Jr. chastised the errant clergy his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, he challenged them, but he never questioned their faith.

Admittedly he is easier on the Left. He seems to be more in line with most liberal policies; but in reference to Democratic secularists (like Howard Dean) that are uncomfortable with religion, he says, “We need leaders who at least know that the book of Job is in the Old Testament.” Rather than abandon religion, Wallis argues that the Left should lean in to it.

What he is describing is a prophetic faith that could counter the empire-building religion of the Right. Like Cornel West, Wallis warns against the rhetoric of “Pax Americana.” And, where are the churches? Many of them are lining up to crown the emperor.

Clearly, most churches today are “non-prophet” organizations. Their agenda is set for them by leaders who don’t own Bibles, or clearly haven’t read them in a long time.

There’s more to say, but I am only halfway through the book.

I suppose what I like best about Wallis is his dual commitment to critique and dialogue. What we usually get from social changers is bitter critique followed by self-righteous monologue, or a call to cooperative dialogue that is so anemic it fails to call the power structure to task. He is not afraid to call out the Pharisees and lay some woes on their ass (see Matthew 23); but he cautions against self-righteousness or the cynicism of despair. We have to proceed with hope and commitment to real solutions.

He is not afraid to say, “James Dobson is a theocrat.” But he doesn’t just beat his chest and make SpongeBob jokes. He provides layer upon layer of real solutions for the immorality in our culture that do not include demonizing and directing our collective hate toward a group of people because of their sexual identity.

He is fond of saying, “Churches can’t just keep pulling bodies out of the river. At some point, we need to go upstream to stop whoever is throwing them in.”

Like Wallis, I’m tired of the politics of blame and fear. I’m ready for a politics of hope.

So, yesterday’s lunch was a prophetable experience for me. I don’t have much respect for those (including myself) who smugly condemn the status quo, while doing very little about it. It’s easy for us to beat on a governor for cutting Medicaid, or a president for privileging the rich; but what action are we taking?

Wallis says, “Discussion is not enough. We can’t just sit around in our comfortable homes and pontificate about the condition of the world. We need to be in relationship with the poor.”

Come on, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

SHOWDOWN AT THE R-12 CORRAL

The schoolmarm delivered some shots (scroll down about 4 paragraphs). But in the end, the school board had the bigger gun. They decided to close Shady Dell at the end of next year.

I'm having a hard time posting this today, because I am in a temporary state of rage about the cowardly display of ignorance I witnessed in our elected officials. They had delayed the decision until this week so they could solicit feedback from the public. They got feedback (and then some), which they proceeded to completely disregard. Everyone I spoke to - that was present - talked about the heightened emotions they could sense in the room. One friend said he could almost feel prayers being offered up around him. One precious mother spoke of her six kids getting a real chance in this life because of the love and attention they got in that little school.

It wasn't all blush and tears, there were some solid arguments made. Most of them came from my lovely wife. She nailed it; and her reasoning went unanswered. How the hell are you supposed to respond to that? You are asked to come and share your views. You share them with clarity and verve. Then you watch pompous morons just decide to do what they had wanted to do all along. Is that the best we've got? Is that the way democracy works? Don't you have an obligation to provide a justification for your decisions? When we reach adulthood I think more should be expected of us than, "I'm right because I think so."

The Shady Dell community is an economically disadvantaged group. There are no highly educated folks in the group. Yet they organized and put together an impressive campaign to save their school. And this is what they (and their kids) learn about democracy. Most of them probably don't participate in public affairs much, because they feel disenfranchised. This experience sure isn't going to inspire confidence in the process.

For readers in New York and China (believe or not, there are some...okay, one in NY and one in China) who don't care about schoolyard politics in our little hamlet, this is not unlike the feeling of helplessness I had when our president sent us to war with little more justification than "This is what I think we should do." It was maddening to me then, and, even though the consequences there were far greater than the closing of a neighborhood school, it is equally maddening to me now.

I know I'm being juvenile about it - I'm only now coming down from my wild haymaker-throwing fist fit - but it's that passion that makes me so adorable. I would never be good at public policymaking. It seems that to do that job well, one must abandon compassion and good sense.

Thanks for the solidarity, reachers.

STAND AND DELIVER

Does this woman look dangerous? 

Normally she's not. But somebody made her angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry.

Actually, you would; she's pretty wonderful (and beautiful), even when she's pissed.

This is my wife. She spends her days doing angels' work: She teaches disadvantaged kids to read. The space I occupy in the world is insignificant in comparison.

She recently discovered that there was a plan to close her small neighborhood school.


Shady Dell Elementary 

Consistent with our contemporary ethos, small is synonymous with failure. Clearly, if we can just consolidate schools into large impersonal warehouses, we can do away with all this silly talk of community-building, and get about the business of Leaving No Child A Dime...er, I mean Behind. Besides, it's a poor neighborhood; no one will speak up in opposition.

Not so fast, mister. I guess somebody forgot to consider the reading teacher with the ice-cold can of whoop-ass in her hand. She is a reluctant hero. She doesn't fancy herself a speaker or an activist, but tonight she is going before the school board to stand and deliver. They have awakened the dragon. Woe unto them.

I laid down some close air support to soften the target, but she will lead the ground assault.

Bring it, girlfriend.

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

I’m working on a speech I am supposed to give in a week or so. The audience is a large group of high school students and their families; and the occasion is an academic honors ceremony. I have decided to speak on the topic of supermodels. Why not? Who doesn’t love supermodels? I mean, what’s not to like? Consider the following wisdom from some of today’s top models.

"I love the confidence that makeup gives me." (Tyra Banks)

"I would rather exercise than read a newspaper." (Kim Alexis)

"Everyone should have enough money to get plastic surgery." (Beverly Johnson)

"I can do anything you want me to do so long as I don't have to speak." (Linda Evangelista)

"When I model I pretty much go blank. You can't think too much or it doesn't work." (Paulina Porizkova)

I am not going to limit my comments to the women actually posing for cameras. I am exploring the need we have to identify a model for everything (business success, healthy relationships, hard bodies, academic achievement, worship styles, writing, etc.). It’s as though we are all searching for the Secret Keys to the Seven Habits of Purpose-Driven Bodies for Life.

Obviously, models can be useful. I’m following the Handy Dandy Guide to Smart-Ass Blogging at this very moment. Is it useful? You be the judge.

But what I really want to talk about is monkeys. Supermodels and monkeys in the same post (yippee).


Duke University neurobiologists recently conducted an experiment with a group of rhesus macaque monkeys. They deprived the monkeys of their favorite drink, then offered them the choice of looking at pictures of “celebrity” (high-status) monkeys, or having a drink of Juicy Juice.

VS.

The seduction of celebrity was stronger than dehydration. Even celebrity monkeys chose to look at other celebrities rather than slake their thirst. But when they were shown pictures of common monkeys that don’t swing as high on the vine, all of them opted for a little sip-sip.



The conclusions suggest that we, like monkeys, have a primitive urge to observe the members of our tribe who have risen to positions of power and attention. We may not even like them, but something about them fascinates us. For instance, I think Jerry Falwell is a punk. There is virtually nothing about him that I could imagine wanting to emulate. But I have this sick fascination with him, every time he shows his face in public.

Perhaps by watching those of high status we are learning how to move on up to the eastside, finally getting our piece of the sky. But even if we arrive at the top, we continue to monitor our peers: always afraid someone’s going to take a slice of our pie.



What are we so afraid of? Is this in our DNA? Do we have to chase models? Have we followed the blueprint, the script, the directions for so long that we’ve lost any sense of who we are? Have we created gods that fit into our PDAs? Are we sitting at the closed door, when there’s a perfectly good window overhead? Have we enjoyed going with the flow for so long that we’ve forgotten that dead things go downstream?

One could argue that history is made by the outlaws who don’t follow models. How do we respond to that?

In the Duke study, all the male monkeys also gave up drinks to look at pictures of female monkeys’ hindquarters. Some might use that as a neurobiological justification for porn. I think I’ll leave that discussion to someone else.

For now, I have to go. There’s something on TV about Michael Jackson and McCauley Culkin. Wait, I’m thirsty. What to do. What to do.