Post-inaugural analysis; What next?

If you couldn't tell, I like thoughtful analysis. While I can't always reach that goal on my own, I feel confident in my sleuthing abilities to locate some from time to time.

This article belongs in that category. It's not always easy to sift through the white noise that we are fed--intentionally, I believe--designed to keep us confused and focused on unimportant matters.

With my focus given to my book for most of today, Weiner's article should provide you with some fodder to think about for a bit.

Faith reclamation project

We are living in a time when the specter of theocracy is looming on the horizon. This reality is closer to fruition than most of us care to think about. Much of our current political debate is clearly wrapped in the flag of Xian dominionism, which has roots across the fruited plain.

Last night, as I was driving home from a new writer’s group that I’m thinking of joining, I was listening to Air America and Janeane Garafalo/Sam Seder. They had as their guest, Jim Wallis, a self-professed evangelical. While Wallis uses the term, his practice of faith is much different than the anti-gay, anti-abortion, “sack cloth and ashes” practice of so-called evangelicals such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and others on the religious right.

Wallis is an interesting man in that many of his positions put him in a line of succession with some of the well-known clerics of the late 60’s, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and William Sloane Coffin. With an emphasis on a gospel that seeks to lift the downtrodden and marginalized, it makes attempts at mirroring the essential message of Jesus, which was love.

Whenever I hear someone such as Wallis speak, it makes me reflect back on my own spiritual journey that’s left me where I’m currently at—someone who calls himself a post-Xian primarily because there was no place for my theology within any type of organized vehicle of faith. I use the term because it at least leaves a door open for dialogue occasionally with someone who claims to believe in God or admits to being a follower of Jesus. If I were to tell them I’m an agnostic, it freaks them out too much and often prohibits any discussion of spiritual matters.

I’ve spent time in my journey along most points on the American Xian continuum of theology. I’ve had a foray into fundamentalism (even attended Bible college, believe it or not) where I got to see the Elmer Gantrys up close and personal—let me tell you, it ‘ain’t a pretty site! This experience so scarred me that I spent a good 15 years away from any semblance of spirituality. I came back and made an aborted (ironic choice of terms, don’t you think?) attempt at embracing a more “toned down” and “loving” version of American Xianity—labeled evangelicalism—only to find it very similar to the fundamentalism that was a part of my life in my early 20’s.

Theology, like philosophy, sociology and other modes of study interests me. There are actually branches of Xianity where the mind and the spirit aren’t at odds—granted, these places are hard to find and not in vogue much in Bush’s America, but can be found if one takes the time to seek them out. I find I enjoy reading “liberal” theologians such as Harvey Cox, Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Tillich and others because they never shut off the minds that they were given in their quests to find God. They also didn’t make a practice of telling others how to live, either.

Speaking of journeys, you’ll be able to find some guideposts of my own spiritual journey on the net if you have an inkling to see where I’ve been at times over the past few years. If you plug “Jim Baumer” and either “Strange Days” and “Being Church” into Yahoo or Google, it will bring up things I’ve written while attempting to find some spiritual place of rest along my quest for truth. It’s interesting (and a bit scary) that your writing will follow you along the electronic thruways of cyberspace.

One article that I found interesting about the whole fundamentalist dynamic involves Jay Bakker, the son of the infamous Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. It’s interesting in the sense that despite being burned by religion and spiritual charlatans, who happened to be his own parents, Bakker is trying to forge his own spiritual path. In doing so, I think he’s closer to the teachings of the gospels than his huckster parents were, as well as much that passes for Xianity in our current religious milieu.

I’ll end with this. One thing that Wallis said last night really stuck with me. He was talking about why he calls himself an “evangelical”, particularly in the context of how and by whom the word is currently being used. Wallis minced few words in saying that in his opinion, Xianity had been hijacked by people and politics for means that are not in the historic spirit of Christ. He mentioned that there is a spiritual tradition that hearkens back to people like Dorothy Day, King, Coffin and others, that has been stolen. Wallis said that it needed to be reclaimed and that is what he and his organization, Sojourners is trying to do. This tradition puts more credibility in feeding and clothing the poor and hungry than it does in draping flags over the American war machine. This tradition offers hope to poor women on welfare, rather than demonizing them and making them feel dirty and unwanted. It’s a tradition that would thunder loudly against a coronation that spends $40 million honoring a war criminal, when children are starving a block away. To that tradition, I offer a hearty “Amen”!

Taking time for a laugh

I wanted to put up a link to a site that will give you a good chuckle (and we all know we need to laugh a little to keep from cryin'). I heard it on Malloy's show last night.

Make sure you watch the SNL skit with Barbara/Jenna--it's an absolute hoot! Personally, I don't think there is a big difference from the comedy and the reality.

There's a second clip you also need to watch--it's from CNN and Wolf Blitzer is covering the inaugural procession down Pennsylvania Ave. Blitzer, in the studio, tosses the feed out to the parade route to a live reporter. The feed has problems, so you can't hear the reporter, but you do hear a protestor yelling, "Fuck Bush" periodically for about one minute, until Blitzer recognizes there is a problem and pulls it back to the studio. If you have a decent video player, you'll also notice the amount of protestors packed in at the beginning of the parade route.

Now that you've had some comic relief, then read this and you'll be brought back to reality. Russ Mokhiber and Robert Weissman have an article at CommonDreams.org in which Robert Kennedy, Jr. gives his impression of the Bush administration. Kennedy minces few words and uses the "F" word in relation to the administration's policies.

Here's Johnny!

Because we're a television/media saturated culture, so many non-talents and wannabes receive way more than their share of face time and adulation.

With the passing of Johnny Carson, an American icon is no more. Yet, because of the very medium he was so intrinsically a part of, his clips will live on for a long, long time.

Yesterday, I saw a couple of wonderfully touching pieces on Carson, including some hilarious clips with Ed McMahon, his trusted sidekick, as well as one with a very young George Carlin.

Carson was an original and there will never be another. Maybe that's a mark of greatness and legend--the inability to clone or recreate a sequel or sorry ripoff.

Here's a great interview with the master, from 2002.

Empty rhetoric

Here’s an item that tells me that politics trumps all else, including the long-term survival of our species.

My very own senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe, co-chairs the International Climate Change Task Force. From their report, this international group has laid out that we are close to the point of no return on environmental damage to the planet. The group, which also includes Senators McCain and Leiberman, is recommending wholesale emissions reductions as one part of a plan to stem the degradation to our ecosystem.

Interestingly, Snowe and McCain are Republicans who have done very little to “rock the boat” concerning George Bush’s well-documented lack of concern for all things environmental.

Where was Snowe while her president was engaging in over 150 separate actions designed to undermine environmental protections? The current administration continues to wage a historic assault on the environment, yet senators like Snowe and McCain continue on, loyal to a fault to a party that cares little for anything as insubstantial as the environment.

Personally, I am coming close to my saturation point on the amount of hypocrisy I can tolerate from the likes of senators like Snowe, McCain and Leiberman.

Snowe loves to be touted as a moderate Republican, but prudence dictates that the senator recognize the gravity of the situation and leave behind a party that cares little about most of her concerns, including the Kyoto Treaty and other policies designed to stem the downward environmental spiral we’re on.