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Should We Rebuild After Natural Disasters?

2013-05-21T22:48:13Z

To rebuild or not to rebuild?

As recovery slowly begins after deadly tornadoes flattened subdivisions in Moore, Okla., and tore through nearby areas, the complex question has come up again for the disaster-prone region that sits within Tornado Alley.

Moore, a 55,000-resident city south of Oklahoma City, is no stranger to destruction. A 1999 tornado that wreaked havoc upon Moore had winds topping 300 miles per hour, and it was slammed by smaller tornadoes in 1998, 2003 and 2010. But each time, like dozens of other American communities prone to natural disaster, it has rebuilt.

Disaster recovery and urban planning experts say the tendency to rebuild American cities that have experienced tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and flooding -- and are likely to see such trauma again -- can be attributed to a mixture of economics, politics, nationalism and spiritual views that often sets the U.S. apart from other nations.

"In the modern age, no major American city has been permanently abandoned after trauma and destruction," said Thomas Campanella, an associate professor of urban planning and design at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"There's a narrative of resilience, this notion of us being challenged and overcoming that to become stronger," said Campanella, who co-edited The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover From Disaster.

When fires nearly wiped out Boston in 1676 and Chicago in 1871, preachers described them as events sent by God to force residents to create bigger, better cities.

San Francisco today sits where a city was torn to pieces by an earthquake in 1906. In South Florida, Hurricane Andrew wiped out parts of the region in 1992, but signs of damage are nearly invisible today amid the crowded, rebuilt subdivisions. The same goes for the Texas Gulf Coast, which has repeatedly been hit by hurricanes.

Most recently, billions of dollars have been invested in restoring New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, while businesses and homes along the New York and New Jersey shores are continuing to reopen after Hurricane Sandy.

Some of the pressure to rebuild, and not relocate, is financial.

"A lot of it has to do with the economy and getting people back to work. Places like Moore are attached to metropolitan areas, and there are jobs and businesses to run. And then there is infrastructure. It's tragic to see houses torn apart and people suffering, but in the recovery process you look at the fact that streets are still there, and there is the underground infrastructure still there," said Eugenie Birch, a professor of urban planning at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Then there are also FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] regulations, if you get assistance for rebuilding, that only support building in certain kinds of ways in certain places," usually the same place as the disaster, noted Birch.

There's also a desire to return to normal as quickly as possible.

"You would think here is a rebuilding, here is an opportunity to get it right, to rebuild the right way and replace the city, but in fact that opposite usually occurs," said Campanella. "There is an inertia to get back to the way things were the day before. It can work against any visionary, bold planning."

But it doesn't always play out this way. Some communities have not rebuilt or have taken a much slower, more thoughtful route to recovery.

Consider Cordova, Ala. Hit head on by a tornado in 2011, the small town of 2,500 residents only began demolishing its downtown for serious rebuilding last month. Though city officials have blamed the delay on slow-to-come FEMA funds, it has allowed residents to work with urban planners from Auburn University on long-term recovery planning that could produce more resilient designs for destroyed areas.

Some disasters are deemed simply too difficult or expensive to clean up. When the federal government discovered in 1983 that floodwaters had spread dangerous levels of dioxin across Times Beach, Mo., it evicted residents and bought out their property for $32 billion. The former city is now a state park. A similar situation occurred in Gilman, Colo., a small town whose residents were sent packing by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1984 when flooding caused dangerous chemicals to spread from a former coal mine.

But to find bigger cities that have been abandoned after disaster, one has to look outside the U.S. In 2008, an earthquake in Beichuan, China, killed more than 50,000 people. Officials responded by moving residents to a nearby county and declaring that the city would not be rebuilt. Epecuen, a lakeside resort town in Argentina that at its height held 20,000 residents, was abandoned in 1985 after the dam broke and it was flooded. The waters only recently receded.

Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning and design at Harvard, points out the pull between private property rights and societal concerns in disaster recovery. "On one hand, people want to build wherever they have property and land, and that includes rebuilding on the same plot after a disaster," he said. "On the other hand, post-disaster we come to expect and want government assistance," which raises issues of good public policy.

"We are not a society that says, 'You've made your bed, now sleep in it.' We help people," said Kayden. "But we have to find a comfortable medium that allows people to live where they desire while offering protection and building with the future in mind."

French Far Right Reacts To Essayist's Suicide At Notre Dame

2013-05-21T22:32:04Z

Dominique Venner committed suicide on Tuesday in front of the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The death of the 78-year-old essayist and historian sparked numerous reactions from French nationalists.

Several executives and members of the country's far-right National Front party took to Twitter to praise Venner. Directly referencing Venner's last blog post, National Front party leader Marine Le Pen called the writer's act an "eminently political" gesture destined to "awaken the people of France."

"All our respect to Dominique Venner whose last gesture, an eminently political one, attempted to awaken the people of France. MLP"

Tout notre respect à Dominique Venner dont le dernier geste, éminemment politique, aura été de tenter de réveiller le peuple de France. MLP
-- Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) 21 mai 2013

In a blog post published on the same day as his suicide, Venner talked about "new gestures, spectacular and symbolic ones, to rattle lethargies, to shake anaesthetised consciences and awaken the memory of our origins."

Louis Aliot, vice-president of the National Front and Marine Le Pen's partner, also paid his respects, calling Venner an "intransigent and courageous defender of our civilisation's values."

"My emotional thoughts go out to the tragic disappearance of D.Venner, intransigent and courageous defender of our civilisation's values."

Pensée émue pour la disparition tragique de D.Venner, défenseur intransigeant et courageux des valeurs de notre civilisation.
-- Louis Aliot (@louis_aliot) 21 mai 2013

Bruno Gollnisch, another figure of the National Front, saw Venner's suicide as a "protest against the decadence of our society." Gollnisch argued that Venner "experienced" the approval of the law on gay marriage "as it should have been experienced, as a promotion of decadence and a defacement of marriage."

Gollnisch added that "it wasn't his only fight, he also protested against the programmed disappearance of the French people, the progressive substitution with other populations."

Julien Rochedy, the president of the National Front youth group tweeted:

"It's with immense sadness that I hear about Dominique Venner's suicide. He will be reunited with the heroes from the Iliad he loved so much."

C'est avec une immense tristesse que j'apprends le suicide de Dominique Venner. Il va rejoindre les héros de l'Iliade qu'il aimait tant.
-- Julien Rochedy (@JLRochedy) 21 mai 2013

According to some members of the National Front, Venner was considered as a potential candidate to head the party when it was founded in 1972.

Honorary president Jean-Marie Le Pen commented on the suicide to the AFP by comparing it to the death of Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, a writer who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII and who committed suicide in 1945. "An intellectual suicide, which testifies with death," declared the founder of the National Front.

On Tuesday night, thousands of far-right militants gathered in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, carrying torches and national flags. According to Le HuffPost, an unidentified speaker said: "We ignored the deep causes of his gesture. We are here to pay tribute to his last fight (...) He always defended France, beautiful, strong and proud of itself."

This piece has been translated from French and originally appeared on HuffPost France.

Therapy Dogs Who Helped Newtown, Boston Heal Oklahoma-Bound

2013-05-21T21:33:56Z

Just as they had following previous tragedies in Newtown, Conn. and Boston, a crew of Chicago-area therapy dogs are now heading to Moore, Okla. to help comfort victims of the devastating tornadoes that touched down Monday.

Ten dogs from Addison, Ill.-based Lutheran Church Charities' K-9 Comfort Ministry began their 12-hour drive to Moore just after noon on Tuesday, according to Fox Chicago. The golden retrievers are reportedly being driven straight through and were expected to arrive Tuesday evening.

Lutheran Church Charities staff and volunteers pray before their comfort dogs depart for Oklahoma on Tuesday in Addison, Ill. (via Facebook)

The dogs received an invitation from Pastor Muenchow at Messiah Lutheran Church in Oklahoma City, according to a Razoo.com page raising funds to help cover the dogs' travel expenses. As of late Tuesday afternoon, the page had raised over $5,100 toward the church's efforts.

(Follow live updates from Oklahoma. How to help.)

Tim Hetzner, the president of Lutheran Church Charities, previously told HuffPost the dogs "help people as they process all the emotions they go through in any type of crisis."

And though the dogs' stay in Oklahoma will be temporary, their impact will continue beyond their visit. According to Fox, each of the dogs has their own business card and Facebook profile, allowing victims to keep in touch.

Stephen R. Haynes: Denying Church Rights To Women And Gays Is Just Like Race-Based Discrimination, Right?

2013-05-21T21:07:07Z

In the six months since the publication of "The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation" (Oxford, 2012), I have had the pleasure of discussing the book in a number of venues, including schools, churches and book clubs. People are genuinely fascinated by the episodes of nonviolent direct action popularly known as "kneel-ins," which between 1960 and 1965 were employed by young people seeking to integrate white churches in the South. A major claim of "The Last Segregated Hour" is that, despite the many creative explanations for excluding African-Americans and their white accomplices, spokespersons for segregated churches were engaged in a racist exercise of white power designed to prevent "race mixing" in one of the last places white people could confidently call their own.

Increasingly, my presentation of the kneel-in phenomenon has led readers of "The Last Segregated Hour" to consider contemporary analogies. Some have drawn parallels between excluded blacks in the 1960s and women and homosexuals who seek recognition as full members of their churches today. Naturally, those who have left congregations that neither ordain women nor allow them to exercise authority over men view kneel-in participants through the lens of their own experience of exclusion. Likewise, those engaged in the struggle to get mainline denominations to welcome gays and acknowledge their calls to ordained ministry relate to the stories of outsiders whom conservative Christians once fought to keep out of their pews.

Recently, as I prepared to discuss "The Last Segregated Hour" with a group of adults at my church, I decided I would address the analogy question when it arose, as I knew it would. What did I think, someone wanted to know: Aren't women and gays victims of exclusive interpretations of Christianity in the same way some blacks were in the 1960s? Aren't these really just three versions of the same story, with sexism or homophobia replacing racism as exemplar of the closed mind?

The question was asked, as it turned out, by someone who had every right to ask it -- a former member of the congregation at the center of "The Last Segregated Hour." Not only does this woman see her own exclusion from church leadership mirrored in the experiences of students who were banned from worship at the church in 1964, some of her unpleasant encounters around gender have been with churchmen who were on the wrong side of the kneel-in crisis 50 years ago. She expressed the parallels with eloquence, and I offered my own view, although I'm afraid it may have disappointed her.

For honesty compelled me to point out a fundamental dissymmetry between white Christians' refusal to admit African Americans to their churches in the 1960s and the practices of contemporary denominations that deny ordination to women and gays. The dissymmetry is to be found in the role played by the Bible in each case. Put simply, although white Christians tried desperately to find a solid biblical basis for segregation -- in the church or society generally -- they could not. With a single notable exception (the story of Jesus clearing the Temple of those who would defile sacred space with impious motives), Christians in mainline churches whose racial exclusivity was challenged by kneel-ins searched in vain for a biblical warrant for segregation of the races. This fact is particularly notable given how assiduously white Christians had applied the Bible in pro-slavery arguments during the middle decades of the 19th century.

Due to their failure to find a pro-segregation equivalent of the "curse of Ham," white Christians in the 1950s and '60s who wished to keep blacks out of their congregations adopted arguments that were neither biblical nor theological. Rather, they relied upon the desire to maintain tradition, the presence of long-established "Negro churches," and the purportedly un-spiritual motives of black visitors. In hindsight, it is easy to see that these arguments were poor veils for the racism that lay just beneath their surface. Had they contained any serious biblical component, in fact, this racism might have been harder to detect and white Christians' resistance to integration may have endured much longer.

Things are significantly different in churches today that deny full rights, as it were, to women and homosexuals. Undoubtedly, these positions are tied up to some extent with the sexism and homophobia that characterize the wider culture. But they are also supported by biblical texts that, on the surface at least, appear to teach that women should submit to men and that homosexual practices, if not homosexuals themselves, are fundamentally sinful. The biblical passages to which conservative Christians appeal on these issues can be -- and are -- interpreted differently in churches that do not limit leadership on the basis of gender or sexual orientation. But even those convinced that conservatives do not interpret the Bible correctly in these cases must concede that they do so consistently. Most of them, that is, apply to these passages the same principles of interpretation that guide their reading of other parts of the Bible.

Personally, I am convinced by those biblical interpreters who argue that the proof-texts for female submission and homosexual sinfulness are descriptive rather than prescriptive -- that is, they tell us more about the culture from which they emerged than about the eternal will of God. But the biblical dimensions of the arguments that underlie traditional positions on women and gays suggest that conservatives' minds will be changed -- if they can be changed -- not by charges that they are intolerant sexists and homophobes hiding behind scriptural proof texts, but that they have failed in their self-proclaimed mission of applying biblical truth to contemporary culture.

Tom Krattenmaker: When Will Boy Scouts Accept The Non-Religious?

2013-05-21T21:00:59Z

Depending on what happens at the Boy Scouts' national meeting this month, gay Scouts might soon be accepted into the venerable organization. Even then, there will remain a large and growing group of Americans still barred by the Boy Scouts.

When will the Boy Scouts accept the non-religious?

The Boy Scouts of America recognizes an impressive range of religious affiliations that qualify one as "reverent" and, thus, eligible to participate. Two dozen varieties of Christianity get the nod, plus Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Bahai'ism and more. However, the non-religious are not welcome, and that poses a problem the Boy Scouts should address in addition to the sexual orientation question drawing so much attention.

Undergirding the Boy Scouts' ban is the dubious premise that people cannot be moral without religious belief. It's an assumption that non-believers are wisely challenging as the public face of atheism moves away from angry anti-religious diatribes, typified by the late Christopher Hitchens, toward a positive expression of non-belief summed up by the pithy phrase "good without God."

Can atheists be good Scouts? Neil Polzin's story suggests a resounding "yes." Polzin, now 29, contributed to a successful life-and-death rescue operation during a Boy Scouts backpacking trip when he was 13. He later became an Eagle Scout and an aquatics program director as an adult. In 2009, as he tells it, a rival who wanted his job made an issue of the fact that Polzin is an atheist. Hoping to clear the air, Polzin notified his regional council of his atheism -- and was unceremoniously booted.

One would think that his long track record would have proved his skill and moral worthiness by that point. But all the years of good Scouting and service were erased by a single dreaded word: atheist.

Margaret Downey, president of the Freethought Society (and the mother of a young man who was barred from the Scouts as a boy), is leveraging the new focus on Boy Scout inclusion policies to prompt a fresh look at its ban on atheists. Downey welcomes the new momentum for inclusion of gay Scouts. Even so, she asks, why no consideration of non-believing boys, too?

"There is no question that people can be good without a god belief," Downey says. The Boy Scouts offer a great program, she adds, "yet their bigoted membership policies are harmful."

Welcoming non-believers might seem a difficult bridge to cross for the Boy Scouts and traditionalists who defend current membership requirements. Wouldn't acceptance of atheists force revisions to the Boy Scout Oath, which pledges duty to God and country? Why should a private, voluntary organization have to do that, particularly when most Scout troops are chartered by churches?

These and other obstacles can be navigated through nuance, common sense and mutual respect. Let the churches that charter Scout troops adopt the attitude that churches usually adopt when it comes to non-believers: Welcome them in the hope of having a positive influence on them. Require atheist Scouts to respect the religion of their fellow Scouts, leaders and sponsors, with the assurance that their non-belief will be respected in kind. And, as Downey suggests, an additional "o" can go a long way; let the atheist Scout pledge his devotion to "good" rather than "God."

Ultimately, it would be self-defeating for the Boy Scouts to forfeit the chance to spread Scouting skills and values among the population of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or otherwise not religious. More and more youths are growing up in non-religious homes. Why would the organization squander the opportunity to serve and influence these boys?

Yes, as a private association, the Boy Scouts have a right to decide for themselves who's in and who's out. But just because they can exclude atheists doesn't mean they should.

"There are millions of young, secular Americans committed to civic duty, community service and personal improvement," says August Brunsman, executive director of the Secular Student Alliance. "They're looking to serve their country alongside their religious friends, and it's long past time for the Boy Scouts to wake up and let these admirable young men serve."

It's the right thing to do. And here's the bonus: Once the Boy Scouts open up to non-believers, they're going to discover they have a lot to contribute -- just as they've been contributing all along.

This article originally appeared in USA Today on May 12, 2013.

WATCH: American Jailed In North Korea Spoke Of 'Collapsing' Country's 'Walls'

2013-05-21T20:58:46Z

A 44-year-old American citizen, jailed last year in North Korea accused of seeking to topple the government, said in 2009 that he wished to "collapse" the "walls" separating North Korea from the rest of the world and that he had asked U.S. churches to send members to worship in the hermetic communist nation.

According to a recently unearthed video, Kenneth Bae, who was sentenced to 15 years hard labor by a North Korean court in April, gave a sermon in 2009 at a Korean-American church in St. Louis, Mo., during which he said he wanted to bring hundreds of Christians into North Korea to pray.

"We are going to send 300 people to pray in [the North Korean city of] Rason. ... I'm now touring churches in the U.S., asking them to send 10 people per church to worship for one week," Bae said, per a translation of the speech provided by NK News.

Bae also spoke of using prayer to "collapse" the walls of the notoriously reclusive nation.

"Just as God made people enter Jericho and collapse it without force, I hope the wall between [North Korea and the world] will collapse soon, through just our praying and worship in Rason," Bae preached, according to the NK News translation.

Bae also described an incident in North Korea where he got a crowd of 30 North Koreans to chant "God is Great" while he and his missionary team sang songs and played guitar.

Although North Korea claims to guarantee freedom of religion, the country has reportedly doled out harsh punishments to people accused of spreading religious beliefs.

According to The Washington Post, the North Korean government leveled three main charges against Bae after his arrest in early November: 1) smuggling a documentary into the reclusive country; 2) "infiltrating" 250 students into the city of Rason for subversive purposes, and 3) plotting a coup called "Operation Jericho," designed to bring the downfall of the government.

Bae was arrested while attempting to enter Rason with five other people. Pyongyang says Bae entered the country illegally, and according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, North Korean officials claim they found a computer disk that may have contained sensitive information.

According to the Associated Press, Bae's friends said the jailed American made frequent trips to North Korea both to lead tours and to feed orphans.

While the other six Americans detained in North Korea since 2009 have been released before serving their full sentences, Pyongyang appears to be taking a tough stance with Bae: Earlier this month, North Korea's state-run news agency declared the regime had no plans to invite any American officials to Pyongyang to discuss Bae's release, saying he is "not a political bargaining chip" for negotiations with Washington.

Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto: Majesty And Tragedy In Oklahoma

2013-05-21T20:35:59Z

In churches around the world, Psalm 8's resounding praise of God will be read this Sunday. "O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Women and men will confess that these are the words of God. But we will do so with grief, with deep questions about God and the world God has crafted and continues to sustain.

As we have learned anew in the last few hours, tornadoes are indiscriminate terrors.

In the spring of 1999, I was a freshman at Oklahoma Baptist University. The tornado sirens wailed and called us all to the basement of my dorm. Due to the recklessness of youth along with the absence of windows and cell phones, we were little aware that dangerous clouds were surrounding us. We laughed and joked. My fraternity's pet iguana kept us entertained. We were spared, but some of our neighbors were not so fortunate. On Monday afternoon, many of these same places experienced anew the ferocity of a storm that can appear almost without warning.

A few days later that spring a group of us drove into Oklahoma City. We saw firsthand the perfect path of destruction a tornado can carve into the ground. The lines the vortex left in its wake were tragically ordered, perfectly straight. On one side of this invisible demarcation, utter destruction; on the other side the storm was a mere disruption. A thin line separated the fortunate from the grieving.

Much the same was true on Monday once again, the tragedy only heightened by the destruction of the security of an elementary school. Can we still read Psalm 8 in the light of all this?

"O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens." And from those heavens descended a deadly cloud.

"Out of the mouths of babes and infants..." The children of Plaza Towers Elementary?

"What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" Indeed that is the question that troubles the heart of the faithful in times like these.

Can we still praise God? If so, how do we start? Can we possibly understand what happened in Moore, Oklahoma?

Don't trust anyone who claims to comprehend the meaning of this storm. Don't trust anyone who points with absolute certainty to a single cause for this storm. Don't trust anyone who treats a tornado as anything but indiscriminate and cruel. These tragedies are not punishments or object lessons. Such natural forces do not reach their conclusion with a pat moral or a simple "they lived happily ever after."

Instead of seeking unavailing answers, we turn to one another. My collegiate alma mater has responded admirably to these tragedies, opening the doors of my former dorm to shelter some of us once again from the ravages of a storm. The outpouring of support is already tangible. The faithful have and will respond not with easy answers but with a word of hope and a helpful hand.

As we have learned anew in the last few hours, tornadoes are indiscriminate terrors, but they cannot match the reservoirs of compassion we tap in moments like these.

Instead of seeking unavailing answers, we start where the psalmist started. We start with a deep-seated, persistent hope that God is trustworthy and true, that God is worthy of our praise. We would be sorely mistaken to chalk up the psalmist's words to mere naivete, to count the poetry of Psalm 8 among the saccharine sentences of a greeting card, to deem praise of God the outgrowth of an easy life. The wisdom of the Psalms are hard-won. They exhibit not just the heights of fortune but the depths of despair. Alongside words of praise, the Psalms lament, they pray, they cry out, they rejoice, they rage and, yes, they praise. Psalm 8 stands alongside a collection of other songs representing the vast expanse of human emotion and faith. We cannot understand Psalm 8 unless we read with it the 23rd and the 137th, the 22nd and the 30th. In our lament and praise this week, we stand in the long shadow of the Psalms and generations of faithful people who have treasured their wisdom.

Psalm 8 moves from the highest heavens down to the earth. At every point, humans praise God's holy name. The psalmist continues to reflect on the luminous bodies that populate the skies, causing him to wonder why God is concerned with us, mere specks of dust, while these great bodies grace the farther reaches of space.

And yet God is concerned. In fact, God has granted us a share in God's glory and a share in God's dominion over the world. We may be mere specks in the universe, but we are specks imbued with God's love. We may stand at the mercy of winds and rain, but we find shelter in God's care. It is thus more than appropriate for the psalm to begin and close in the same way: "O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" For the same reason, it is more than appropriate for us to begin and end this week uttering the very same words.

The vast expanse of emotion and faith we feel in the wake of this tragedy will be welcomed in our churches this week or wherever we gather to help the hurting. All our questions and doubts will be welcomed in a psalm that declares God's goodness. All our hope will be welcomed by a God who mourns alongside us, a God who creates but never deserts us, who is enthroned high above but always at our side.

Editor's Note: ON Scripture - The Bible is a series of Christian scripture commentaries produced in collaboration with Odyssey Networks. Each week pastors from around the country will approach the lectionary text of the week through the lens of current events, providing a religious voice that is both pastoral and prophetic.

WATCH: 'Unite The Beards' Connects Hipsters And Hasids

2013-05-21T20:06:04Z

By Meredith Hoffman

WILLIAMSBURG -- A new campaign aims to bring hipsters and Hasids together by pointing out one thing they have in common: beards.

"Unite the Beards" is the Hasidic group Chabad of North Brooklyn's latest campaign to teach local residents about their more devout neighbors. With a new video, "Unite the Beards" flyers posted up and down Bedford Avenue and a rabbi-led forum Tuesday night, the group strives for a "bridge between the two" communities, organizers said.

"There was a need to promote awareness of Hasidic lifestyles," said Leah Lein, a Chabad member who noted that the event was open to both men and women. "It's open to everyone and it should be interesting."

In the video, a series of bearded "hipsters" describe their impressions of the Hasidic community and their hopes of erasing any tensions.

"I feel at home in this Hasidic culture in Williamsburg because as you can see I have this wonderful beard," one man said, "and all of my brothers also have wonderful beards."

Another bearded man echoed Chabad's goal in the video, saying, "Let's unite the beards together and bring peace and harmony!"

Unite the Beards' forum is at 8 p.m. Tuesday on 132 N. 5th St.

Crime May Affect Popular Tourist Attraction

2013-05-21T19:58:50Z

Of all places to not obey the Ten Commandments, the Vatican's Sistine Chapel may be the worst. Yet a scourge of petty thieves is ignoring "thou shalt not steal," turning the hallowed 15th century chapel into a monumental place for small crime.

According to The Telegraph, tourists gazing upward in wonder at Michelangelo's painted ceiling are easy work for the light fingers of pickpockets.

"It is very hard to control so many people and there are not enough guards," explained one tour guide, Federica D'Orazio, to the Telegraph. "In my opinion there are just too many people – I don't think the authorities should let in so many."

Indeed, the problem is bad enough that some Vatican guides are considering a strike, calling for an increase in security at the chapel and a reduction in the number of visitors allowed in each day. Nearly 30,000 tourists pass through the chapel on a daily basis, the Daily Mail notes, leading some to call the man-made wonder more of a frenzy than a spiritual journey.

One tourist on Trip Advisor noted the experience was "significantly cheapened by how packed the area was... I was waiting for a cattle prod to poke me but it never came."

Another wrote: "Until the Vatican can figure out some sort of crowd control I would strongly suggest avoiding this. It was impossible to enjoy the experience with so much pushing and shoving; tour groups jockeying for position."

Due to its small population, the Vatican often ranks extremely high in terms of per capita crime. A 2007 investigation by Der Spiegel, a German newspaper, concluded the Vatican's per-capita crime was the highest in the world at the time, with an estimated 90 percent of perpetrators hopping the border back into Italy and going unpunished.

Should Vatican guides follow through with the strike, it would be the second time in as many months a major European travel destination has been crippled by pickpockets. In early April, guards and other officials at The Louvre in Paris went on strike to protest the petty crime, leading to a shutdown of the museum.

Zach J. Hoag: A False Gospel Of Reconciliation

2013-05-21T19:57:48Z

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5)

I begin with this passage for one reason: I believe in the "ministry of reconciliation."

And I want to frame everything that follows here in the gospel that truly reconciles. I have no interest in contradicting that gospel. I have no interest in abandoning it. I aim to give my life to experiencing and sharing in that very same message.

But here's the thing: There's a false gospel on the loose in the evangelical church.

And it is nothing less than a diabolical doctrine that comes clothed in a bright, angelic, counterfeit message of "reconciliation." It is a word entrenched in institutional power and amplified by hierarchies reaching up into the halls of religious academia and pressing deep into the world of prestigious publishing. Far from a message that subverts the empire of selfish power and control by reweaving justice and peace, this gospel is one that glorifies the way of empire, often calling it "God" and claiming to be his ambassadors. Then, when injustice strikes, instead of healing there is worse abusing; instead of honesty and advocacy, complicity.

And the ministers still mouthing "reconciliation."

It's an old, old story really, but it is playing out with new people in new ways. I've written before about the current lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries and how it represents a rapidly approaching counseling cliff for the evangelical church at large -- a cliff especially perilous when conservative churches deal with matters of abuse. Well, last week, more allegations were filed against SGM, and they are horrific. And, as of now, the major evangelical institutions that are closely connected to SGM -- namely, The Gospel Coalition (where C.J. Mahaney, a defendant in the suit and founding leader of the SGM movement, is a council member) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (major supporter/ally of C.J. and SGM, with President Al Mohler as close friend and staunch defender of C.J.) -- have not issued anything in the way of cautionary or even concerned statements regarding the man or the movement (that I am aware of). There has been total silence about a celebrity preacher and an organization that is now literally inundated with accusations of sexually and physically abusing children and conspiring to cover it all up over many years. Nor have any/many connected big-name individual leaders, themselves also institutionally powerful, come out with words of warning or grieving. Instead, powerful men like John Piper have made gestures of support in the midst of C.J. and SGM's legal troubles.

The silence is deafening.

Just like it was when priest after bishop after archbishop in the Catholic Church were convicted and exposed having maintained silence and conspiracy and complicity all the way until the court's verdict finally came down. And just like it is even afterwards, as Vatican supporters try to minimize the atrocities committed, citing statistics and percentages and "we're doing pretty good, considerings." Because that's how it goes with power. That's just the way empire does things.

Hey, here's an idea. Where's the guy that's willing to lose his job by coming out with some STRONG statements of alarm, warning, grief and mourning, at the sheer wretchedness of these allegations? Where's the guy who doesn't care if the leg bone's connected to the thigh bone from whence his big publishing deal cometh and decides to tear the freaking tarp off of this twisted metal wreck of a system that halts and hesitates to even empathize with these victims and weep with those who weep at the first sign of their weeping (not to mention their months of legal case-building)? I mean, we all know how this ends, right? WE ALL KNOW HOW THIS ENDS.

But this is the way the false gospel works, and it's an old, old story. This false gospel starts with a false god -- a god who is anger. Yes, the god of this SGM movement was said to be just that -- gracious -- but the seedy backdrop behind this notion of grace is a god of sadistic and irrational rage. C.J.'s famous quip that we are all doing "better than we deserve" is grounded in the idea of a god of such cruelty that no matter what injustice we may have suffered in life -- or perpetrated -- all is better than what we really deserve, which is unending conscious torture at the hands of a concentration camp commander christ. So don't complain! Stop being depressed! And if, by some miracle of miniscule probability, you have been chosen for eternal life by the sovereignly electing mind of this raging god (a matter, of course, to be discerned by your SGM elders), then no matter what happens to you post-regeneration, you REALLY have no reason to whine!

The most grotesque allegations to come out of this lawsuit have to do with the culture of "gospel-centered reconciliation" in this movement, where victims of abuse -- often children -- were simply told to "forgive" and "reconcile" with their adult church member/leader abusers. I mean, it's better than you deserve, right? So get over it. And smack dab in the center of this demonic-gospel culture were leaders who rise to levels of immense influence over their cruelly "humbled" people, all the while claiming to be humble themselves. These guys held the keys out of unspeakable eternal hells, and that gave them unspeakable power. Yet because the hell inside of some of them was almost as bad as anything postmortem, they perpetrated their patriarchal darkness upon innocent little ones, and then helped each other keep the concealing tarp firmly intact.*

And this false gospel of reconciliation doesn't stop here. It is not only reserved for churches fraught with sex abuse scandals. It rears its ugly head in all kinds of conservative evangelical circles, taking the similar shape of pain-denying theologies that counsel victims to get over it and get back together with those who harmed them. The gospel is about reconciliation, right? So if your spouse hits you, forgive them and reconcile. And if your kids are starving because of a father's gambling, get some counseling from an elder and make it work, honey. And if some friends cheated you in business, or a church member is spreading vicious lies about you, or a family member won't stop manipulating you into situations of terrible emotional pain, hey, it's better than you deserve because you're a hellbound sinner too, so just reconcile with them because that's what grace means (i.e., subjecting yourself to present pains presumably less than the eternal pain of conscious torment in hellfire).

This is all BS.

And it's BS because it twists the truth of the ministry of reconciliation into something that perpetuates the abuse of power instead of subversively stopping it.

See, in a very present and real sense, right now, God is at work to reconcile and restore the entire cosmos to shalom, to peace and justice and wholeness:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1)

This cosmic dimension of true gospel reconciliation takes precedence over all interpersonal situations of wrongdoing, conflict, or abuse. The goal toward which the resurrected Jesus is working in the world right now is not some imaginary peace where people "reconcile" in name only while the abuse is never stopped and the wrong never righted. No, this is instead a total bending of the violent and unjust world back toward God's shalom, until it is completely put to rights on the final day.

Thus, any ministry of reconciliation that does not, as a matter of first importance, advocate for the innocent and safeguard the physical and emotional protection, not exposure, of the people entrusted to the church, is no ministry of reconciliation at all.

Because reconciliation is right.

Reconciliation bends things back to to justice and peace.

And reconciliation, rightly lived as part of God's cosmic work to restore all things, always subverts the empire of unjust power and control. It messes with thrones and powers and rulers and authorities. It takes them to task.

And forgiveness, which is the fundamental heart-level releasing of those who have done us wrong to the capable hand of God, hoping and praying for their redemption, refusing to live in bitterness and resentment (even in the midst of our righteous anger), endeavoring to love even our enemies, does not require a faux interpersonal reconciliation that merely opens us back up to the dangerous abuses of power that caused so much pain in the first place.

Because that's not what God is up to in the world. He is angry over abuses like these, to be sure, but that is precisely because he is not that sadistic, irrational being who is callous to all earthly pain in contrast to the eternal pain he intends to inflict upon the non-elect (and of which all are deserving). God is not anger.

God is love.

And that love is what any and every victim of injustice truly deserves.

* * *

What do you think about this case, and about this issue? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

*And remember, though I am responding strongly to the allegations as they have been presented -- and I believe everyone should react strongly to them -- they are not yet legal facts. We do not wait for a verdict before we speak out or empathize with the victims (because that is injustice in and of itself), but we respect due process before passing the final verdict ourselves.

Update: Friday's civil suit hearing (May 17) has run into a severe statute of limitations setback. Read more here. It appears that some of the plaintiffs' allegations may still be admissible, and a criminal trial may be forthcoming. Regardless, the court of common sense will cast a strong verdict in light of the evidence, and the truth will shine, no matter what. Let's just hope that the abusers and complicit institutions and leaders are all held accountable.

Aryeh Ben David: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Parenting: Missteps On The Path Of Spiritual Growth

2013-05-21T19:30:50Z

I wish someone had told me that it is OK for a father to say "I'm sorry" to his children.

Especially before I lost my temper with my 14-year-old son.

I very rarely get angry. But for some unknown reason to me, I just lost it on a Friday afternoon with Amichai. And over a completely ridiculous issue at that. One of my sparkling parental moments.

It was Friday just before Shabbat and we were leaving to eat at the home of friends. Amichai came down the steps wearing sneakers. I said to him, "Amichai, you can't wear sneakers on Shabbat. Put on your Shabbat shoes."

Amichai said, "But these are so much more comfortable to walk in."

I replied, "Shabbat shoes, and quickly, it's almost sundown."

Well, Amichai started to dawdle and dillydally and take tiny steps to change. Maybe they were his small steps of self-assertion and independence, but they completely infuriated me. And I lost it. I raised my voice. I yelled at him. I could feel the color of my face changing and my blood boiling. I felt like a monster and must have looked incredibly frightening to him.

Amichai took off, out the front door and sat outside on a bench at a park nearby.

OMG. I knew I had behaved like an idiot. I went outside, paused for a moment, and then sat down next to him.

In my mind the question exploded: "What do I say now? Do I apologize for losing my temper?" I completely love this boy and know that I was wrong, but does a father apologize to a son?

I just didn't know. My father had never apologized to me. I am certain that my grandfather had never apologized to my father. He wasn't the "I'm sorry" kind of guy.

Was there some wise tradition of not apologizing that I was supposed to know? Is it assumed that parents do not apologize to their kids? Does it shatter some holy hierarchy?

When I was a small boy there was a TV show called "Father knows best." I sure needed that now.

I sat on the bench next to Amichai, in silence. Eternities passing by as my internal debate over whether to apologize gained no clarity.

I felt like a failure of a father. To apologize or not to apologize? How could I be so clueless?!

Finally, without clarity or intention, the voice within me just burst out, "Amichai, I'm a terrible father for getting angry at you. You are a wonderful kid and who cares about the shoes anyway. Wear whatever you want."

Long pause.

Finally Amichai said, "You know Abba, when my friends get together to rag on their parents, I say that when I grow up I want to be just like you."

I learned a lot from Amichai that day, and I learned a lot about myself.

There is no tradition or wisdom that supersedes authentic soulful honesty. Spirituality is revealed in humility and honesty. God gave us an inner voice to listen to, an inner GPS. Our inner truth is the voice of our soul talking. I was fortunate that on that day, somehow, mine just came out.

The bond between us grew much deeper while sitting on that bench. Still, I wish that someone had told me that it doesn't break the orbit of the planet for a parent to say "I'm sorry."

It would have saved me a few silent eternities.

Paul Stoller: The Social Life of Music -- in Mali

2013-05-21T19:09:01Z

The recent silencing of music in Mali, once a wondrous place of musical vibrancy and creativity, carries social and political implications far beyond the borders of that remote country in West Africa. It appears the music scene in Northern Mali, the birthplace of Ali Farka Toure's "African Blues," has been effectively shut down.

When Islamic militants took over large swaths of northern Mali they forced the local inhabitants, who tend to follow moderate Sufi approaches to Islam, to accept a reactionary Taliban version of The Prophet's religion. When they occupied Timbuktu, they destroyed the shrines of Sufi saints and attempted with partial success to destroy the priceless medieval manuscripts of Timbuktu's famed libraries.

Morality patrols enforced proper dress codes and monitored what people ate. Spies reported "seditious" or "sacrilegious comments. The militants also banned music.

According to Sujatha Fernandes, writing in the May 19 editiion of the New York Times,

The armed militants sent death threats to local musicians; many were forced into exile. Live music venues were shut down, and militants set fire to guitars and drum kits. The world famous Festival in the Desert was moved to Burkina Faso, and then postponed because of the security threat.

While French and Malian forces largely swept the militants from Timbuktu and other northern towns earlier this year, the region is a still a battleground. Cultural venues remain shuttered. Even more musicians in the north are leaving the country because they fear vengeful acts by the Malian Army, whom they accuse of discriminating against northern peoples. The music has not returned to what it once was.

As an anthropologist who has spent more than 30 years living among and thinking about the peoples and cultures of Sahelian West Africa, the death of music in Mali is a terrible cultural loss. As Fernandes suggests, music is the force that establishes and reinforces social relations among Sahelian peoples. Aside from playing musical instruments, usually the kora (the African harp) or the ngoni or mollo (the Sahelian lute) the griot appears at rituals like weddings to chant family genealogies or sing the versus of long cultural epics that recount the heroic glories of the past. As such, griots and their music not only link past to present, but also build bridges to the future, for their most fundamental charge is to make sure that cultural memories are not forgotten.

In the same New York Times piece, Fernandes made a powerful point:

One thing that the events in Mali have taught us is that music matters. And the potential loss of music as a means of social bonding, as a voice of conscience and as a mode of storytelling is not just a threat in an African country where Islamic militants made music a punishable offense. We would do well to appreciate music's power, wherever we live.

Music is a pulse, an energy that wordlessly transports us back to the past, makes us sensuously aware of the present and compels us to think about the future. As in other art forms -- literature, sculpture, painting, and performance -- music slips into the deep recesses of our being. Sometimes it moves us. Wherever it is performed, music enhances our humanity and enriches our social lives

Why would anyone want to ban music, literature, sculpture, painting or performance? The power of the arts has always been a threat to powerful elites. Plato sought to expel the artist from his Republic, for the artist threatened to steer people toward the emotions of the heart rather than the logic of the head. In the 13th century, conservative Muslim clerics, who followed a strict interpretation of Sharia Law, condemned Konya's whirling dervishes whose spiritual approach to Islam challenged the reigning Islamic orthodoxies of the time. The same scenario, of course, is being played out in Mali and other Sahelian West African nations.

The conflict between narrow-minded orthodoxy and open-minded creativity, of course, is ever-present in the politically charged cultural discourse of U.S. politics. In the name of religious or market orthodoxy, conservative politicians have cut funding for the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In their view artists and scholars often produce works that are wasteful, morally questionable, or downright offensive. Such work in the arts also raises questions that powerfully challenge a political orthodoxy that is based upon fictive principles. Republican Governors are attempting to dumb-down their public universities -- by cutting the social sciences and humanities -- to create what amounts to technical training centers that will supply local industry with skilled "follow-the-rules" workers. Congressional Republicans now want to second-guess the funding decisions of the National Science Foundation on projects about which they have little or no expertise.

When orthodoxy is used to declare war on music, the arts, the humanities and the social sciences, we undermine the foundation of our society and diminish our humanity.

In the absence of provocative art, music, and science, we deplete our souls and are forced to live in a place, like contemporary Mali, in which platitudes have sapped our imaginations, a place in which hope dissipates into the dry air.

The power of orthodoxy is great, but so is the force of the arts to contest it with new thoughts and innovations. The results of this fundamental conflict will shape the quality of our lives in the future.

Pot DUI Bill Attracts A Lawsuit

2013-05-21T18:20:51Z

A northern Colorado man is planning to file a lawsuit against the state's new controversial pot DUI bill as it waits for the governor's signature next week.

According to a report by The Associated Press, Nunn, Colo. resident Brandon Baker plans to file a lawsuit in Denver federal court Tuesday. Baker argues that he uses marijuana for religious reasons and that the THC-blood limit for motorists is too low.

THC is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that produces the "high" sensation users experience.

After failing six times in the past three years, the state legislature just passed House Bill 13-1325 placing a 5 nanogram limit on THC blood levels. Under the bill, any driver with a THC blood content higher than that limit would be considered too stoned to drive and could be ticketed similarly to a person who was considered too drunk to drive.

This year's bill however does allow room for people to rebut the charge that they are too impaired to drive.

A marijuana Q&A published Tuesday by The Brookings Institution points out that both Colorado and Washington appear to have adopted the same DUI policy when it comes to marijuana. However Colorado's Amendment 64 mandates that the state's Department of Revenue adopt all regulations July 1, a full seven months ahead of when Washington regulations are scheduled to go into effect.

Chelsea Clinton's New Role At NYU Is Not So New

2013-05-21T18:08:35Z

Chelsea Clinton has taken on a new role at New York University -- or has she?

As The New York Post reported Tuesday, the former first daughter "has quietly taken on a big new job" as a co-founder and co-chair of NYU's Of Many Institute for multifaith leadership.

However, Clinton's "new" role may have stemmed from her current position as assistant vice provost to the university -- a job she took in 2010. The university has kept Clinton's new title relatively under wraps, but it seems the 33-year-old's role as a leader of the Of Many Institute has been in the works for more than a year.

"Among other tasks at NYU, she has helped to craft a strategy to recruit the best students and faculty members from around the world. She is also developing an interfaith project to bring together Jewish and Muslim students," Ian Wilhelm surmised about Clinton's position in a February 2012 story in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

As Of Many notes on its website, the creation of the newly minted institute stems from President Barack Obama's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge. Launched in 2011, the campaign urges universities and colleges to create interfaith services and introduce events to bridge the gap between students of various religious traditions.

In a Q&A with Time in September, Clinton explained that she first took a job at NYU to fund her doctoral studies. Though she eventually transferred to Oxford University, where she is currently pursuing her doctorate, at the time, Clinton also hinted at her hopes for NYU's multifaith future.

"And I hope that my colleagues and friends at NYU will really have built a platform around multifaith education and multifaith leadership," Clinton told the magazine, responding to a question about her five-year plan.

It may come as no surprise that Clinton has developed a leadership position for herself at NYU, based on her involvement with the university in recent years.

Clinton is set to address members of the class of 2013 at a commencement ceremony for NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service this week.

This Man Recruits Homeless To Serve Hungry

2013-05-21T17:30:32Z

Every Sunday morning, about 40 volunteers serve up heaping plates of scrambled eggs and fruit to the hungry at a church in Rhode Island. This particular group of helpers knows what the recipients really need -- a warm meal, a kind smile, some encouragement -- because these particular volunteers recognize their struggles. They’re all homeless.

"Early on we realized that people want to be useful," Scott Budnick, the founder of the unique meal program, told the Christian Science Monitor. "A lot of times, the person from the street knows our process better than the outside volunteer. It puts them in the leadership role."

A little over a year ago, Budnick teamed up with a friend to start the Sunday Morning Friendship Breakfast, a free weekly meal that’s open to anyone, and caters to about 200 people at the United Methodist Church in Providence, R.I., according to the Christian Science Monitor. Inviting the homeless to get involved in cooking and serving alongside other volunteers has helped empower people in need. Budnick hopes the program will also spawn support groups for the homeless.

While recruiting homeless people to serve each other food is somewhat of a novel concept, it’s not unusual to see people on the streets eager to give back.

Ed Denst, a former Marine who’s been homeless in Los Angeles for 23 years, collects whatever change he can for the poor and donates it to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Council, CBS LA reported. He recently gave $250 to the organization, which provides food, shelter and clothing to people in need.

“[It] makes me feel very good,” Denst told CBS.

And Dennis Mahurin didn’t let his homeless status keep him from helping others.

When the Illinois man won a $50,000 lottery, he could’ve funneled all of the money into moving out of his tent and investing in other upgrades, CINewsNow.com reported last month. But he decided to stay put in his community and allocate some money to help his friends.

"With all the other homeless people around here, I've made up my mind,” Mahurin told the news outlet. “I'm gonna give them each $100."