It's easy to be a critic--too easy

There is certainly a lot of room for criticism in our world. I am unhappy that civil marriage is not a civil right for same sex couples. I am unhappy with our country’s policies on trade and immigration. I am unhappy that “enemy combatants” are still being held at Guantanamo.
It would be easy to devote more of my time and energy to criticism. Part of the reason I don’t, is that it’s just too easy.
The 2004 tsunami killed more than 250,000 people in Indonesia alone. In responding to that tragedy, I asked where God was during that disaster. I then devoted several paragraphs to criticizing what I saw as the wrong answers, e.g. God punishing the wicked. But I devoted most of the time to my own answers to the difficult question of why do bad things happen to good people.
I can easily spend more than half of a sermon criticizing the answers of others . What’s difficult is coming up with answers that satisfy me. I have to discipline myself to focus more on my own answers instead of simply criticizing the answers of others.
We are living in a very uncivil and critical time. I think what we need is not more inspired criticism, emotionally satisfying though that may be. What we need are inspired answers, answers to the difficult questions that we are forced to answer by the circumstances of our times.
To paraphrase my colleague Earl Holt, what I am called to do when I deliver a sermon is to pose the questions that life asks of all of us, to answer them the best I can, and to encourage you to do the same. It doesn’t matter if our answers differ. What matters is that we do our best to answer the questions.

Hate filled speech and The Patriot Guard

Andy Sadowski is a member of the Rusty Chain Gang, the bicycling group that I most frequently rode with when I lived in Fort Worth. I miss them a lot and whenever I go home for a visit, I try and squeeze in a ride.
Andy and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. I suspect he may get all of his news from Rush (Limbaugh).
In 2005, shortly after we met, I tried to talk to him about politics. He warned me off. I said something to the effect of, “Oh, surely we can have a civil conversation about our political differences.” He looked me in the eye and said, “Trust me, we can’t.” I took him at his word. We do talk, but we avoid talking politics.
In addition to his bicycle, Andy rides a big motorcycle. One of the uses he puts it to is escorting funeral processions and services. The Patriot Guard Riders are motorcyclists who, with the consent of the affected family, help shield the funerals of military men and women from the disrespectful protesters of Westboro Baptist Church. Westboro Baptist Church members claim that the deaths of American troops are a result of God’s anger at tolerance of homosexuality. The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that under the 1st Amendment, their protest at funerals is protected speech.
The Guard place themselves between the Westboro church protesters and the funeral and block the protestors from view by holding up large American flags. If it seems appropriate they will drown out the protestors by singing patriotic songs or revving their engines.
I can easily imagine Andy, a vet himself, protecting the families of the fallen by standing against the protestors. It’s a good image. We may not be able to legally silence the ugly speech of the members of Westboro Baptist Church but with the help of men and women like Andy, we don’t necessarily have to see or hear them.

God did not make the honey bee as big as a horse

God did not make the honey bee as big as a horse.
Had he made it so big, the bee would be stinging people to death.
God does not elevate

People who would ridicule the unfortunate.
God does not give power to those who would be wicked to their fellowmen.
No one gains anything through being wicked.

So sing the Yoruba people of Nigeria in one of the songs from their religious tradition.

I’m glad that honey bees aren’t as big as horses. But I don’t believe God acts alone. If god is to be visible in the world, it will be through our actions. 

Some of us believe that depending on God to make things right is part of what has kept things wrong.

God has been replaced, for many of us, with other, non-theistic equivalents.  The notion of progress is one such equivalent.  Just as the people of ancient Israel had faith in God, so the people of the Enlightenment had faith in the power of education and reason and freedom to usher in a golden age.  But the descent of Germany, the most cultured and educated Western nation, into the evils of war and genocide in the 1930's has shaken our faith in the power of the Enlightenment.

Some would put their faith in the invisible hand of the market.  They believe that most of the social ills we are prone to would disappear if we only had enough jobs and the only way to create these jobs is by removing the burden of excessive regulation and taxes. In the best of faith, they tell us, “Trust in the market and we will grow our way out of injustice.”

I don’t believe in or hope for supernatural interventions by God.  But I also don’t believe in progress or the wisdom of the market’s vaunted invisible hand.  I do believe, nonetheless, that goodness will prevail.  I do believe that the wicked and the treacherous will suffer.  I believe that just as time heals all wounds, all heels are eventually wounded. I have confidence in the moral coherence of the world.  I believe that goodness cannot be forever mocked.  I believe that there is a moral order that will inevitably crush all tyrannies and punish all oppressors.

Yet, despite this belief, I often find it difficult to sustain my faith in the moral coherence of the world.  It often seems that the forces of hate and greed are winning and that they have always won.  It too often seems that might makes right, that brutality, intimidation, calculated self-interest and corruption have the upper hand in public life.

At such times, though, I need to remind myself that goodness and justice have prevailed and won against evil.   Or as the Unitarian minster Rev. Theodore Parker observed in 1853, "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one….But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”

Book recommendation

"Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History" by George Crile.

Charlie Wilson, a U.S. naval academy graduate and, more importantly, a congressman from East Texas, almost single-handedly managed to transform the CIA's covert support of the Afghan resistance to the 1979 Soviet invasion from a small operation designed to "bleed" the Soviet army into a full scale effort to kill as many Soviet troops as possible and force them to leave the country.

Crile, a former producer for CBS's "60 Minutes" first became involved through his role as a producer but then wrote the full story in this fascinating book. It's full of larger than life characters made even better by Crile's first-rate story telling. A 2007 movie based on the book was excellent and is worth watching just for Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of CIA agent Gust Avrakatos.

Wilson played the stereotypical bigger than life Texan for all it was worth. He is tall but likes to wear boots with elevated hells to boost his height further. His voice was loud and booming and, of course, he favored big belt buckles and even bigger hats.

He served for twenty-four years as a congressman representing conservative Lufkin, Texas despite a scandal involving showgirls, cocaine, and a hot tub in Vegas's Ceasar's Palace. He was an alcoholic and an inveterate womanizer. Somehow he managed to secure a seat on the House defense appropriations committee, despite the opposition of the Democratic leadership, and a seat on the House intelligence oversight committee. From this position of power, which he gained in part because of his steadfast support of Israel even though there were no Jews in his District, he managed to change the course of history.

It's a long book but I can honestly say I was never bored. I learned a lot about how the government works and even came out thinking less of Lt. Col. Oliver North than I had before I read the book, a not inconsiderable achievement.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in U.S. foreign policy, Pakistan, or great stories about unforgettable contemporary characters.

Purpose of this blog

I intend to use this blog to list and review books, movies, and radio and television programs that I think are worthy of mention. I also intend to use it to link to and comment on cultural and political issues and issues of faith.

I love to feed my head—with ideas. I regularly read the New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Economist. I like to watch Frontline, Nature, and The American Experience  on public television and occasionally Charlie Rose. I listen to NPR when I drive and routinely download Fresh Air, Radio Lab, and Atlantic Monthly podcasts. I also love to read and sometimes listen to books on tape when I’m riding my bike. I’m partial to history and current affairs. I always have a big stack of books and magazines on hand patiently waiting to be read and that list has grown even larger with my Kindle.


I'm sure other uses will occur to me over time but the above will do for a start.

-Craig Roshaven