The Bible's First, Foremost And Final Focus

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." 

- Stephen Covey

After a lifetime of reflecting on the narrative of scripture, I've concluded that its main theme is that of God's love for enemies. In other words, God's ultimate purpose, hinted at in the Bible's beginning but becoming abundantly clear in its conclusion, is that of restoring what is broken in creation and reconciling all that has become divided and alienated.

God's story begins with the shalom we call Eden, centers on the cross-based, enemy-loving life and resurrection of Jesus, and ends with a new heavens and a restored earth. In Christ, God comes to bring an end to all of the enmity that exists between us and our Creator and between us and our fellow creatures. All alienation is over.

I used to wonder about the meaning of the phrase in Psalm 23, "You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies". Why not in the presence of my friends? Does God simply invite our enemies so they can look on with envy as we good people enjoy a table spread with abundance?

No, God is inviting us to a Eucharist in which former enemies are being transformed into friends of God and friends with one another.

Here's one of my favorite examples of this main theme, found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians (3:14-18), in which he addresses the foremost enmity of his time:  

For Christ is our living peace. He has made a unity of the conflicting elements of Jew and Gentile by breaking down the barrier which lay between us. By his sacrifice he removed the hostility of the Law, with all its commandments and rules, and made in himself out of the two, Jew and Gentile, one new humanity, thus producing peace. For he reconciled both to God by the sacrifice of one body on the cross, and by this act made utterly irrelevant the antagonism between them. Then he came and told both you who were far from God and us who were near that the war was over. And it is through him that both of us now can approach the Father in the one Spirit.  

 - J.B. Phillips translation

This is God's dream. I want to make it mine, and pray that every congregation of believers becomes a living demonstration of divided, broken and alienated human beings becoming one, truly a foretaste of great things to come.

My Latest Civics Experiment: 8 Simple Questions, 6 Statewide Candidates, 3 Honest Tries = Zero Acknowledgments or Responses

Sic Semper Captivis?

As a long time advocate for prisoners in the Commonwealth, I decided I'd try emailing the following questions to candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor and Commonwealths Attorney. I realize the list might have been overly long, and that I should have probably limited my inquiry to two or three items, but here's what I sent out August 11, expecting a lot of simple Yes answers:

• Do you support initiatives like that of Governor McDonnell's Task Force on Alternative Sentencing for Nonviolent Offenders?

• Do you support ongoing funding for re-entry and rehabilitation programs like the Harrisonburg Diversion Center, Gemeinschaft Home (Rockingham County) and Piedmont House (Albemarle County)?

• Would you support legislation banning the use of the restraint chair and the isolated padded cell for mentally ill and suicidally depressed inmates in our jails?

• Would you support a continued moratorium on new prison construction in favor of alternatives to incarceration like GPS monitoring technology for appropriate pretrial and post trial cases involving nonviolent offenders who could work to support their families and pay their court costs and fines?

• Do you support recent proposals to restore voting rights to rehabilitated offenders?

• Do you support greater utilization of Virginia’s Geriatric Parole Statute (Code § 53.1-40.01) as a way of reducing the growing cost of health care for aging inmates who no longer pose any danger to society?

• Do you favor reinstating parole in Virginia and offering reduced time for inmates who utilize every opportunity to rehabilitate themselves in prison and prepare for effective reentry?

• Would you support all inmates being supplied with the ID they need to be able to apply for jobs, driver's licenses, etc., upon release?

Here are the responses so far to that original email:

Candidates for Governor

Ken Cuccinelli  http://www.cuccinelli.com/contact-us   0 

Terry McAuliffe  http://action.terrymcauliffe.com/page/s/contact-us  0

Candidates for Lieutenant Governor
Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr. http://www.jacksonforlg.com/contact  0 
Ralph Northam  http://www.northamforlg.com/contact  0

Candidates for Attorney General
Mark Obenshain  http://markobenshain.com/contact-mark  0
Mark R. Herring adam@herringforag.com  0

After two weeks, I followed up with a first-class letter with the same questions, dated August 28, and with the following responses:

Ken Cuccinelli   0 

Terry McAuliffe   0

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr.  0 
Ralph Northam   0

Mark Obenshain   0
Mark R. Herring   0

After two more weeks (August 13), I decided to try a phone call. Since the Democratic candidates listed no phone number on their websites, I followed up with them with another email contact, resulting in the following responses:

Ken Cuccinelli:  Staffer who answered the phone apologized and said they would check this out, but I have yet to hear anything.

Terry McAuliffe:  0  

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr.:  Staff member asked me to resend the email, and sincerely promised to give this top priority. Still no response so far.
Ralph Northam  0

Mark Obenshain:  Staff member said they don't have time to respond to "surveys" but would get back to me with some kind of response soon. Have yet to hear anything.
Mark R. Herring  0

Again, in all fairness, I should have limited the number of questions I asked. And apparently I should have realized that each of these candidates (and their campaign staffs) have more urgent priorities--like trying to persuade citizens like me to vote for them.

Or should I just consider this a case of "three strikes and you're out"?

Greater Inequality Than in Mexico?

"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 

The Apostle Paul, II Corinthians 8:13

According to the Huffington Post, economic disparity in the U.S. now exceeds that of many of our Central and South American neighbors.

Economist Tyler Cowen, in his new book, Average Is Over, predicts we'll be facing more of the same--or worse, with an ever increasing number of the very wealthy exerting ever more political and economic power in America while an even larger percentage will be living at or near the poverty level. An increasingly global, technological society, he says, favors those with bright ideas and superior computer skills, folks who will inevitably rise to the top while the rest of us will have to get used to living on less, no matter how hard we work.

This represents a major shift from even 40 or 50 years ago, one he predicts will result in present retirees mostly holding on to their benefits but young people benefiting from a smaller and smaller share of the nation's wealth. A current example is that of many inner city schools (like Philadelphia) opening up this fall without guidance counselors, athletic programs or music or art classes, in spite of an economy that is producing more wealth than ever.

Is this something we must accept as inevitable? I hope not, although it wasn't encouraging to have Congress vote last week to cut $40 million from the Food Stamp Program while leaving intact many of the generous farm subsidies that often benefit corporate farmers--when the two have normally been a part of the same legislative package. At the same time, no one is seeing any cuts in Congressional pay, in spite of the sequester.

Some politicians who identify themselves as Christians claim the only way the poor should be helped is by voluntary contributions. To use tax dollars to help them is “theft” and “using other people’s money,” they argue. Oddly, they don’t seem to think that using tax dollars for crop subsidies, energy subsidies, surveillance apparatus or weapons systems constitute theft. The hypocrisy is clear. - See more at: http://www.redletterchristians.org/hating-poor-loving-jesus/#sthash.sCrFmZdR.dpuf

Some politicians who identify themselves as Christians claim the only way the poor should be helped is by voluntary contributions. To use tax dollars to help them is “theft” and “using other people’s money,” they argue. Oddly, they don’t seem to think that using tax dollars for crop subsidies, energy subsidies, surveillance apparatus or weapons systems constitute theft. The hypocrisy is clear. - See more at: http://www.redletterchristians.org/hating-poor-loving-jesus/#sthash.ZAfNVvnD.dpuf

Some politicians who identify themselves as Christians claim the only way the poor should be helped is by voluntary contributions. To use tax dollars to help them is “theft” and “using other people’s money,” they argue. Yet they seem to have no problem with using tax dollars for crop subsidies, energy subsidies or weapons systems.

Meanwhile, according  to the Tax Policy Center, nearly 1.2 million taxpayers in the top 1% of the wealthiest people in the U.S. will owe no income tax at all in 2013, thanks in large part to tax breaks that help them reduce their tax liability to zero.

Here are two of their key findings:

• Corporate tax breaks will total $108 billion in FY2013 – more than 1.5 times what the U.S. government spends on education funding. Between 2007 and 2013, the revenue lost from U.S. corporations deferring taxes on income earned abroad rose 200%, going from $14 billion to $42 billion.
• All tax breaks for individuals will exceed $1 trillion this year, with about 17% of the biggest individual tax breaks going to the top 1% of earners. In fact, many individual tax breaks disproportionately benefit wealthy households.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

We're All Conservatives (We're Also All Liberals)

We're all guilty of applying, and misapplying, labels that add to the polarization and mistrust that are so pervasive these days.

Take the labels "conservative" and "liberal". They can have such diverse meanings depending on the contexts and persons applying them.

Truth is, I have yet to meet "liberals" who are not decidedly conservative in some ways and around some issues. We're all "old order" when it comes to certain changes creeping into our congregations or communities. There are so many things we'd much rather keep just the way they are, thank you.

And that's not bad. Every family, every faith community, every nation needs people invested in preserving the best of their traditions, who insist that not everything new is necessarily better.

On the other hand, those same "conservatives", around some issues, see themselves as innovators and as progressives--"liberals" if you please. Ask your parents and other people you grew up with if you have preserved and prized everything you were ever taught.

Not that this is all bad, of course. Without some change, societies and organizations, including religious ones, would become stagnant and stale.

But none of us is totally one or the other extreme on all issues. The line between liberal/conservative polarities goes right through each one of us.

Which is as it should be. So why not stop making generalizations and creating caricatures of each other? We are all far more complex and more interesting than that.

As an example, just as the stereotype of political liberalism (above) is irrational, it would be equally unfair to describe political conservatives as "the miserly who elect the heartless to refuse help to the truly needy."

Meanwhile, just call me a conservative liberal, or a liberal conservative. Much like you, I'm a blend of both.

Or better yet, just call me Harvey. And let's take time to listen to each other.

Radio Interview on Mental Health Services for Inmates

Virginia Public Radio website

The following is from a five part series on "Crisis in Correctional Care" by Sandy Hausman, reporter for WVTF, Radio IQ and a group of stations known as Virginia Public Radio. The segment for which she interviewed me is on mental health services, but the series also addresses the aging of our inmate population, the practice of contracting with private companies for medical services and other concerns.

Thirty-one-year-old James Harvey was recently released from the Coffeewood Correctional Center near Culpeper:

“ Y’know I’ve seen guys that went in there and couldn’t handle the stress of being locked up.  They’ve put in a sick call to see a psychiatrist or something like that, and it takes them 30-45 days, and the next thing you know they’re hanging themselves in a cell.  I had two friends – one when he first came in, he told them that he was depressed and he’s had thoughts of suicide before and they put him in the holding area, and then they come back a couple of hours later, and he’s hung himself.  And then one guy that asked to see the psychiatrist – he thought he needed medication, and they put it off for 30-45 days, and they ended up finding him in his cell.”

Other troubled inmates end up in what some describe as solitary confinement. The state of Virginia prefers the term segregation, since inmates are allowed to speak with visitors, but State Delegate Patrick Hope, who recently toured Virginia’s Supermax prison Red Onion, says that’s a small distinction.

“They can speak to visitors in segregation, but the fact is very few people can take the time to visit Red Onion.  It’s the southwest corner of the state.  It’s a six hour drive to Richmond, a seven hour drive from Arlington, and nine hours from Virginia Beach.”

The state also points out that prisoners in segregation usually get one hour a day in a small, outdoor cage for so-called recreation.  But ACLU attorney Hope Amezquita says that, too, is solitary.

“You have no physical contact with anybody. We often hear from prisoners who write to us who say the only physical contact with another person is when they’re being shackled to be brought to the shower.  In Virginia they’re permitted to have three showers a week, five hours of rec time a week, and that’s it. “

Inmates can get out of segregation by taking part in special programs and consistently demonstrating pro-social skills, but Amezquita says people with mental illness can’t always do that.

And in county or city jails, the situation may be even worse.  Harvey Yoder is a Mennonite minister and family counselor who often visits the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Jail.  There, suicidally depressed inmates may be placed in an isolated padded cell.

“A person is stripped of their clothing, given only a paper gown to wear, and the cell itself has nothing in it whatsoever.  No mattress or anything.  It’s void of any kind of visual stimulation, any kind of human contact, and your food is just given through a slot in the door, without any utensils to eat it with, and  there’s a grate in the floor that has to be used for a commode.  It’s just abominable.”

And, he says, those who pose a physical threat to themselves or others can be put in a restraining chair – their arms, legs and torsos strapped down for hours.  Often the chair is used to control prisoners deemed to be at risk for suicide.

“The jail is operated by a sheriff who is elected, of course, as all sheriffs are in Virginia, and one bad case of something terrible happening – someone hanging themselves, killing themselves in jail – just really tarnishes the image of the jail, so they take all kinds of precautions .”

Yoder and other mental health professionals have offered to counsel inmates at no charge if the local sheriff agrees to stop using these methods, and Delegate Hope says the state has been providing more programs to help prisoners cope with mental illness and anger.

"They’ve maybe committed an assault on a correctional officer, and a lot of those assaults have been because of a mental illness.  Maybe they’re bi-polar or schizophrenic, and so if you start to treat the underlying problem, then you can solve a lot of these behavior problems.  States like Mississippi and Maine have lowered their  inmates in segregation by 70 and 80%.”

He says some inmates are so violent that short-term solitary confinement is the only way to assure safety for staff and other prisoners, but for the future protection of Virginia citizens, Hope thinks we need to find better long-term approaches, because isolation is damaging to mental health and could make people more dangerous.  

“About 90% of all the prisoners in Virginia will one day get free, and so I think how we treat them in our jails is very important for when they get out into the community on the outside, and when you put someone in segregation, someone in isolation for long periods of time, they become seriously mentally, and I worry about their next victim, I worry about their next crime.  That’s why the public should be outraged about the way we’ve been treating people in segregation to this point.”

He believes the use of solitary confinement is a violation of the nation’s 8th Constitutional Amendment, prohibiting the use of cruel and unusual punishment, so courts could – eventually – put an end to this practice.  In our next report, we’ll look at the fastest growing segment of Virginia’s prison population – people over 60.  Their healthcare costs are far higher than the average, and the courts have required prisons to provide adequate care.  That reality could force Virginia to consider granting parole to elderly inmates, but many of them have no place to go.

I’m Sandy Hausman.

Check this link for audio and print versions of the series, and this for more of my posts on criminal justice issues.

Guestpoet: A Thrown Stone is a Drone

Huffington Post photo

The following was presented by Mark Johnson, outgoing executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, at a protest at the Hancock Air Force Drone Training and Operational Base at Syracuse in April. I post it here with his blessing:

The stone is a drone

The sling launcher taking aim

David demonstrates to Goliath

The advantage of nimbleness

The leverage of trajectory

The advantage of resistance.

But David’s triumph is a lesson,

Not a victory; his new power

Will corrupt and abuse,

Uriah sent to battle, lust’s ruse,

His psalms will be Lamentations.

The arrow is a drone

Pulled first to launch with a bow

Of bent ash and strung gut,

Then cocked into multiples of force

The cross bow and its bolt

Metal piercing jackets

Armor no more

The silent slicing of death

Slips into the innocent as smoothly

As into the shielded soldier’s

One unprotected gore.

Every thing won with war

Must be repurchased with labor

That turns swords into plow shares

That harnesses gun powder and gasoline

To the horses of production

Of health and hearth at home.

The bullet is a drone

Everything won by war is lost.

The rocket is a drone

The only thing won by war is enmity.

This truth is a drone

Everything won by war

Must be repurchased by humility.

All the psalms of all the kings

The prophecies of vengeance

Warn us again and again

There is no hiding from truth.

The fruits of the battle will be blood

But the end of the struggle will be justice

And when it comes it will not be death

It will be life and will be sung

As love finding its way

At last to the heart

Fists opened and

Raised in welcome.

The simple truth is this

We have to want the change we see

And we have to work at it every day

When the sun rises we must start running.

We are exactly where we need to be

Doing exactly what we need to do.

This is important and this is right

To be here to say no to drones

No to war. There is no way to peace

Peace is the way and that is love.

Dismantle the instruments of war

Destroy the bombs and their deliveries

Walk with the enemy, the stranger, another mile

Until he, until she, is a stranger no more,

Until we understand that we are one

At sea in the sun boat, aboard spaceship earth

Willing to give everything we have

To secure its beauty, live into its worth.

We will not be reapers of vengeance

Or we will know the wrath of that evil;

We will not be predators of innocents

Or we will be rendered without limbs or hope.

Hear our voices, feel our feet

Fill the air, shake the street,

No to drones, no to war

We are where we belong

This is our song.

Mark C. Johnson
April 28, 2013

Mark's blog can be found at this link.

Here's one of Doug Hendren's recent anti-war songs.

Seven Habits of Effective Conflict-Managing Congregations

Williamsburg Retreat Center

I was blessed with the opportunity to lead a congregational retreat with members of Richmond's First Mennonite Church this past weekend on the theme of "Unity and Spirituality." Together we reflected on  some of the following good "habits" of congregations that are able to embrace conflict as normal and as actually offering potential for growth:

1. They Celebrate a Healthy Sense of Personal and Congregational Empowerment (I Corinthians 1:1-9, 18-31, 2:1-16)
Each member is encouraged to grow in personal power and gifting. 
How do we effectively experience and use "power" in our church?

2. They Recognize Differences as Normal, but Rule Out Divisiveness as Unacceptable (I Corinthians 1:10-17, 3:1-20)
Unity in diversity is seen as both possible and desirable.   
What makes church families such fertile settings for divisions and conflicts?

3. They Celebrate a Sense of Spiritual and Emotional Abundance Rather Than Scarcity (I Corinthians 3:21-4:1-21)
Members receive plenty of recognition, validation and respect (feel valued), and feel able to influence outcomes (feel they have a say). Thus there is less need for getting back or for retaliating in anger and frustration--or for withdrawing, giving up or retreating in hurt and helplessness.
What happens when people feel their basic needs for love and influence aren’t being met?

4. They Are Capable of Repairing Relationships With Troubled Members (I Corinthians 5-6)
Problems are seen as normal and as opportunities for the congregation to responsibly and redemptively engage each other when they occur.
How can we learn to more effectively address our problems rather than either attacking (or simply avoiding) each other?

5. They Balance Concerns for Individual Freedom With Support for the Community’s Basic Values and Beliefs (I Corinthians 7-12)
Those with a more robust conscience on disputable matters show respect and regard for those with more sensitive consciences.
What are some of the debatable matters facing our congregation?
   
6. They Demonstrate A High Level of Respect, Patience and Care for Each Other Other (I Corinthians 13)
Believers demonstrate a commitment to carrying out God’s will, but always in God’s way, in the spirit of Christ-like, agape love. They keep their respect for others high, their expectations moderate, and their anxiety low.
How can we foster growth toward this level of maturity?

7. They Practice Orderliness and Respectful Listening in Their Church Gatherings (I Corinthians 14?)
They don’t come to church meetings with closed minds, but with the commitment to carefully listen and learn from others, encouraging the free expression of everyone’s gifts and insights. After listening well, they discuss and discern the Spirit’s leading in reaching needed consensus, persevering at this for as long as it takes.
Is following “Robert’s Rules of Order” always the best way to do church business?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Check this link for more posts on church unity, including the September 12, 2012, piece on 1) why "conservatives" and "liberals" need each other, 2) how congregations can benefit by hearing from both, and 3) how each of us is decidedly "liberal" on some issues and definitely "conservative" on others.