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Fajita

Check out my friend Fajita's blog. Chris Gonzalez (aka Fajita) is a man in transition to a new job in Minnesota, his old stomping grounds, and he's been hanging out at Solomon's Porch. He's a very honest, authentic voice and he has been sharing his writing with me over the years both publicly in Wineskins/Fajita and behind the scenes, and I appreciate him as a fellow journeyman with Christ who wants to share that in faithful writing. He has a flair for metaphor and can turn a phrase like a potter spins a pot, and before you know it something emerges that's beautiful. Thanks, Fajita, for what you do and who you are, and I wish you well in your new life and work in Minnesooooota.

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The Parent Trap by Rick Reilly

This is another great Rick Reilly piece. My favorite two magazines are Sports Illustrated and Wineskins. You ought to be subscribed to both (less the swimming suit issue, and I'm not talking about Wineskins swimming suit issue). You'll need to be a subscriber to read this article in full online but here's the first few lines.

I went out to get my paper this morning and found my neighbor Dalton instead.

He was slumped on my stoop, looking as though he'd slept under a marching band. His eyes sported five-pound bags, his right hand was bandaged and bloody, and his face was sunk like a bad soufflé.

"My God!" I said. "What happened to you? You look like a 20-car funeral!"

"Youth lacrosse happened to me," he grumbled. "The Competitive Elite Lacrosse League. My little Ashley made one of those 'travel teams.' Pray it never happens to you, dude."

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Jesus and Politics (Part 2):Granola Republicans and Conservative Democrats

In the last calendar year I've read two books that have injected me with new hope in the political debate in the United States--at least where Christian participation in politics is concerned.

I had become thoroughly soured to the way the Republican party had co-opted Christian faith for sake of a political agenda. And millions of Christians are again, thanks to books such as these and increasing dialogue, learning to critique and properly differentiate between political party, nation, and Christian faith. When we assume God, country, and political party are all one in the same, we ought to take a close look at which one of those is really driving the Humvee. I'm not a pacifist, so you'll not see me quoting Yoder and Hauerwas and the like often, and I have great respect for our military and friends in conflicts past and present, but I don't have to agree that the current administration has made good decisions in foreign policy and use of military might. I voted against George W. Bush precisely because his foreign policy likely has past presidents rolling in their graves: pre-emptive strikes, which has never been U.S. foreign policy before now, forced democratization of countries, unilateral action in the world without building significant base of allies.

So when people like my friend I spoke about in the last post speaks of the prophets as necessarily predicting recent events in Israel/Lebanon and then speaks glowingly of our foreign policy, I believe this allows politics to co-opt our faith and misuses prophecies in Scripture. Prophets spoke truth to the powers: Israel, Egypt, Babylon (Iraq), Assyria, Persia (Iran), Tyre (Lebanon), Sidon (Syria) and so forth . . . and if they spoke today, do you think the prophets would be standing by the violence or pronouncing judgment upon the United States? We ought not assume that our position is one that is immune to the prophets speaking against us.

Let me list the two books I mentioned (and one more) that have given me hope that Christians can be pro-life and not have to be pro-war or pro-capital punishment, that Republicans can care about the environment and want to slow consumerism. We can embrace a whole ethic of life, we can search Scripture and our own faith, and we don't have to choose between blue and red options that have been crammed down our throats by political ambitions of both Republican and Democratic parties.

God's Politics by Jim Wallis is about taking back the Christian faith from political powers that have co-opted a constituency for its own political ends and brings back the biblical prophetic call to the powers that be to change and see morality as standing against poverty, war, capital punishment, unjust treatment, in addition to pro-life and pro-marriage, which have become the only moral issues some seem to engage with but much because that's what has been used to polarize the political debate.

Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher is a refreshing book that gives me hope that converatives can truly be conservative of the earth, family, and our cities and natural resources. The title suggests--by crunchy--that a Republican can be, in the mocking words of one of my former co-workers in Houston, "tree huggers." Well, I happen to be a tree hugger. I don't sit in them much but my friend Mark Moore and I once bought a tree from Moses Kirya, my good Ugandan friend, so he wouldn't cut it down. I planted thirty trees on my thirtieth birthday. That was a few years ago! Need to get ready for forty!

Jesus and Politics by Alan Storkey "examines the politics of Jesus, reading out from the life and work of Jesus instead of reading into the New Testament with a preconceived agenda. With this work, Storkey presents a thorough narrative reading of the Gospels, moving into issues of political philosophy, principle, and practice. Unlike other authors who focus on political themes, Storkey provides a significant, unique contribution by focusing on politics itself."--from book description