Sanuk D

I don't know what I'm doing here, I should be someplace else.

Part of the gift of living here in the land of the Suwaree is the opportunity to get to know people who are smarter, nicer, and better behaved than me.  Mallory McDuff is one of those people.  She is smart enough to have just written a book, Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God’s Earth.  She is nice enough to spend time talking with me about it, despite the fact that she has better things to do on a beautiful Friday afternoon at the start of Labor Day weekend.  She is so well behaved that she did not even balk at my attempts to record our conversation.

And this attempt is better than some previous, although I am aware that an investment in actual recording technology may be in order at some point.  The good news is that Mallory sounds good, and she is the one you want to listen to anyway.  The good sounding music is called “Freight Train” and it is by the Maybe Sometimes.  Check out the podcast and check out the book.  If so inspired, try becoming a natural saint.  We are in need.

On March 24, 1980, Oscar Romero stood at the altar of a small chapel in a Salvadoran hospital.  He raised his arms to elevate the Host in one of the most solemn parts of the Eucharistic liturgy.  As the unleavened bread was being mystically transformed to the body of Christ, Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, was shot in the back by government soldiers.  His blood mingled with the spilled wine on the white altar cloth.  Romero had been assassinated for speaking out against the brutal repression, torture and injustice of El Salvador’s government.  He was inspired by a growing movement in Latin America called “Liberation Theology.”

Romero, along with 8 Jesuits and many other priests and lay people, walked by faith into the sights of an oppressive regime’s guns despite the ambivalent attitude of the Catholic Church.  They have been an inspiration and challenge to me to consider how my life might serve in a small way to change the conditions of poverty.  So I was struck and disappointed to hear Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, on NPR this afternoon use the term “Liberation Theology” to broadly define what he understands to be the beliefs of those Christians in this country to whom he is opposed.  What bothers me is that I believe Dr. Land would ignore the history and tradition of this movement in order to re-coin the term as a code for “Religious Socialism.”  (Glenn Beck, at whose rally Dr. Land appeared, is very deliberate in making this leap.  That’s all I’m going to say about Glenn Beck.)

The most striking statement of Dr. Land’s interview was his statement, “I reject collective salvation as an oxymoron.”  What I find so remarkable is that Jesus, as a person steeped in the Judaic religious tradition, would not have ever entertained the idea that our salvation was anything but dependent on the life of our community.  Again and again Jesus gives examples through actions and stories that overturn the notion that individuals can save themselves by adherence to the law.  The law is the there to point us to a way in which we, together, can lift one another to salvation in love.  In the prayer of St. Francis, we also see a call to service at the cost of our own lives, that in dying to our own desires — perhaps even our own desire for salvation — that we are born into new life.

But what the hell do I know?  I’m neither a doctor nor the president of anything (although I did place a political ad in my High School yearbook: “Paid for by the Sanuk D for United States Senate Campaign.”  I still think that is cool.)  What I do know is that my condition is grim without other people and that my ability to connect with other people is grim without God.  If I am wrong, and Jehovah all mighty comes down and tells me that it is just me and him and none of you really matter, I’m asking to get off the train to Glory.  I’d rather be with you.

You know what, it is really none of my business.  Not that that has ever stopped me before, but in this case I thought it was the better part of valor to just leave the whole thing alone.  We are speaking, of course, about the Ground Zero Mosque (which is neither at Ground Zero nor is it really a mosque.)  When something gets to be the focus of so much emotion, I am not sure there is a way to have a rational discussion about what is going on.  So I keep my mouth shut.

Until they have to go and drag Bruce into it.  According to reports on NPR this morning, protesters rallying at the site yesterday were playing Toby Keith and Bruce Springsteen to show their patriotism.  In the background, “Born In the USA” was blaring through some speakers.  I find this not only a travesty of gigantic proportions in terms of the social justice record of Bruce Springsteen, I find it a dramatic misinterpretation of the song itself.

Basically, the theme of “Born in the USA” is that the country is ruining the life of a man who can’t understand why this is happening.  Despite it’s delivery in the recording made in 1982 and released in 1984, the chorus is less of a defiant cry than a wounded howl.  Besides which, Springsteen’s songs about 9/11, as heard on his album “The Rising” directly reference Islam and “The Prophet” as sources of redeeming strength.  So quit playing Bruce Springsteen songs at reactionary rallies.

And quit picking on the Muslims.  What they are trying to build is community.  The building is a community center with a pool and a basketball court.  It’s a YMMA.  Or maybe we are just calling these things Ys now.  I don’t know.  The point is that they want to provide a place for people in Lower Manhattan to come together to build up themselves and others physically and spiritually.  Their spiritual beliefs are based in Islam, the same religion of the 9/11 hijackers.  The YMCA has the same goals except with Christianity as it’s base.  Christianity was also the religion of Timothy McVeigh.  But he may have been agnostic.  Or a chemist.  Well, he was definitely an amateur chemist, but in terms of religion he was sometimes big on science.  But that’s a different discussion.  What I’m saying is that you can attach any religion to some pretty horrible people.  You can also trace most of them to some unbelievable transformations in communities.  The Muslims of Southern Manhattan are trying to do just that.  Protesters, please take your Toby Keith and go home.  Leave the Springsteen.

Do you believe in coincidences?  That’s sort of a metaphysical thing, huh?  Or maybe it is a more polite way of saying “Are you saved?”  I don’t know if people who ask that question are trying to get me to say “shibboleth” or not.  I also don’t know if there are coincidences or if everything is laid out according to some sort of divine plan.  Last night I might have told you that we are all simply going to hell in a handbasket.

There is not much more to say about last night’s (or more properly, this morning’s) drama that has not already been said on the Twitter.  I called the Sheriff because the kids across the street were carrying on and woke me up.  The deputies came out and, following a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth, carted away one and perhaps more people on various offenses related to the minimum legal drinking age.  I don’t really care to be on a crusade about underage drinking, I just want a full night’s sleep.

So, after a series of sleep deprived utterances this morning, I was all ready to let the subject drop.  You can imagine my surprise, however, when a friend on La Face posted the video below.  I think it speaks for itself as far as teh funny goes, but the fact that he posted it today, the day after my own little COPS drama, makes me believe that there may not be any coincidences.  This could definitively prove that God loves me and wants me to be happy, if not well rested.

EMBED-Woman Too Excited About Arrest On TV – Watch more free videos

I can be lazy for days. Weeks at a time even. There was one summer when I showed up to work for a month but did not really do anything. I know people who pull that off for years. Unfortunately there is enough Scot in me to make the guilt of such an experience unbearable over the long term.

In the short term, however, a little bit of lazy goes a long way. See, things are humming right along at the moment in a good way. Lotsa to do, and plenty if good vibes from the bossman. But I know that there is only so long that I can maintain a given pace, not to mention the increasing demands on my family. A little sabbath could go a long way.

That’s what makes me jealous of the Jews some days. They get their sabbath at the first part of the weekend and then get Sunday. Since most everyone else has Sunday shabbos, they get another quiet day too. Why do you think the New York Sunday Times is so big?

I’d love an excuse to not roll on Saturdays. Go to service Friday night. Take it easy Saturday and Sunday. Be back at it on Monday. That sounds pretty good. I’m not sure I’d ever get used to reading from right to left though.