In the First Testament and in twenty-first century Western spirituality, the image of life as a journey is prominent, but the image has quite different significance in the two contexts. Western spirituality emphasizes that each of us is on our individual journey. Further, the journey is largely one we are undertaking inside our heads (our hearts or spirits, we may prefer to say). The emphasis of First Testament spirituality (taken up by the New Testament) is that Yhwh has laid out a moral path or track before Israel within whose parameters we are all to walk. This walk does involve the mind or heart or spirit, but it more obviously involves the feet (and hands and mouth), because a walk is something visible and outward. Letting our thinking develop in ways that are authentic to us is not enough, though it is also not enough to be outwardly walking Yhwh\u2019s way but inwardly or privately worshiping other gods or plotting trouble for people. The question is whether we are letting our lives develop in ways that correspond to where Yhwh points. What counts is not the distinctive journey that I make as an individual, finding out who I am and making my distinctive personal contribution to the achievement of Yhwh\u2019s purpose; indeed, looking for my own way is likely to mean finding it is the way to death rather than the way to life (Prov 14:12; 16:2, 9, 25; 21:2; Is 66:3; Jer 21:8). What counts is whether I am walking in Yhwh\u2019s way with other people who are also committed to that way. We walk after or follow Yhwh like an army following its king as it advances to battle and\/or follows the standards with the divine symbols that symbolize the divine presence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You can see the first<\/a> (\u201cIsrael\u2019s Gospel\u201d) and second<\/a> (\u201cIsrael\u2019s Faith\u201d) volumes at Amazon.\u00a0 The third volume is scheduled for November, and it is subtitled \u201cIsrael\u2019s Life.\u201d<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 RUN FOR THE BORDER.\u00a0 While President Obama says that the reformed health care insurance should not cover those who are here illegally, he also told<\/a> the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute that this is all the more reason to legalize them (video here<\/a>).\u00a0 Also, the new health insurance regime will cover all of those who are here legally, whether or not they are citizens.\u00a0 I agree with the first point; we do need to find some way to bring those who are here illegally into the system so that they can both contribute to and receive from our social programs.\u00a0 As mentioned in earlier posts, the flow of illegal immigration has slowed recently, but I suspect that a large portion of the population is not going to be happy to give legal status or social services until they are confident that we have got control over our borders.\u00a0 A not-insignificant amount of people are understandably upset about the effects of illegal immigration on their local labor markets, about the added strain on our social safety nets and state budgets, and about the perception that politicians on both sides of the aisle are more than happy to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration as long as it helps them politically.\u00a0 We can allow many, many people from Mexico and South America to enter America legally and become citizens in full even as we strive to control our border.\u00a0 These are not mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 WHITHER PRINCIPLES?\u00a0 The Massachusetts House of Representatives gave preliminary approval<\/a> (one more vote is required) to a bill that would allow Governor Deval Patrick to appoint a successor to the senatorial seat of Ted Kennedy.\u00a0 After it has passed the House, it will head to the Senate.\u00a0 In the one-party-rule of Massachusetts, there is really no question whether this power will be granted.\u00a0 There is only a question of what they will get in return from national figures, like President Obama himself, who are counting on them to do it.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing Obama and other national Democratic celebrities will be spending a little more time in Massachusetts next year campaigning for candidates for the midterms.<\/p>\n
Machiavelli is alive and well in Massachusetts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n What\u2019s more entertaining still is hearing the Massachusetts politicians trying to portray their action as something principled.\u00a0 After all, it was only five years ago that Democrats passed a bill taking this exact same power away <\/em>from the Governor because they were afraid Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican to Senator Kerry\u2019s seat if the latter were elected President.\u00a0 There is no principle here, but a very specific purpose: putting a 60th Democrat in the Senate in order to be able to overcome a Republican filibuster on health care.\u00a0 They can\u2019t wait the five months until the special election is held, because they can\u2019t let the health care issue (even though the non-tax aspects of the bill would not take effect until 2013) languish and continue to suffer attack after attack.<\/p>\n
We all know this is simply an act of political opportunism.\u00a0 I just wish they would admit it.\u00a0 The tactic so far (Robert DeLeo, Speaker of the House, employs this tactic in the article cited) has been to say: We just want to make sure that Massachusetts has a voice on health care and other issues.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 This has nothing to do with the fact that they\u2019re Democrats, by the way; the Republicans would do the same thing in the analogous situation.\u00a0 It just speaks to the absence of principle in our political sphere.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 LEFT\/RIGHT, OR BLACK\/WHITE?\u00a0 The debate continues over whether the fierce opposition we have seen at tea party protests and health-care town halls is racially motivated.\u00a0 Of course there are racists and morons on both sides of the aisle.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t see racism at the heart of this opposition.\u00a0 The anger toward Reid, Pelosi and people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd is just as intense, if not more intense, than the anger toward President Obama.\u00a0 Obama still has a higher support rating amongst whites than John Kerry did in the 2004 election.<\/p>\n
I will have a column on this shortly.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0 WORST DAD OF THE YEAR AWARD goes to Jose Alfredo Ajpacaja-Ajiatraz, who punished<\/a> his daughter (for stealing, though it doesn\u2019t matter) first by beating her and then by shaving her hair off<\/em>.\u00a0 At least, the daughter says that he beat her.\u00a0 He denies it.\u00a0 But the fact that he shaved her head\u2026well, let\u2019s just say it lends credence to the claim that he\u2019s enough of a jerk to beat his daughter.<\/p>\n
6.\u00a0 GREEN CONDOMS.\u00a0 According to the medical journal called The Lancet<\/em>, there are<\/a> 200 million women around the world who want contraceptives but do not have access to them \u2014 and this results in 75 million unintended pregnancies per year.\u00a0 There are two separate issues when it comes to contraceptives: promoting contraceptives for children and young adults who are having sex, and promoting contraceptives for married couples who cannot afford them.\u00a0 I understand why most Christians have mixed feelings about the first: on the one hand you hope that a child will use a condom if he\/she does have sex, but on the other hand you worry about promoting a culture of promiscuity.\u00a0 However, even those who object to giving condoms to children \u2014 unless they are persuaded by the Catholic argument against contraception \u2014 should be all in favor of promoting condoms for married women who cannot afford contraception \u2014 and should expect that this will result in fewer abortions, and will slow out-of-control population growth in developing countries.<\/p>\n
7.\u00a0 PARANOIA TIME.\u00a0 A watch<\/a> that used GPS technology to show you where your child is, within 10 feet.\u00a0 Wise security in an unsafe time?\u00a0 Or the paranoia of helicopter parents?\u00a0 You decide.\u00a0 As one commenter notes, however, this could be great for those who have parents with Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0 What other uses might there be?\u00a0 The watch can be programmed to send you a message if your child strays out of a particular area, and it tells you if it\u2019s been taken off.\u00a0 A way to make sure your kid goesn\u2019t go to Makeout Point?<\/p>\n
Morda Helol in all his glory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 8.\u00a0 JEDI FRIGHT.\u00a0 Morda Helol, known to non-Jedi as Daniel Jones, was recently expelled from a Tesco store in Wales when he would not remove his Jedi hood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them it was a requirement of my religion but they just sniggered and ordered me to leave,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI walked past a Muslim lady in a veil. Surely the same rules should apply to everyone.\u201d\u00a0 The handbook of the UK Jedi Church, founded by film nut Daniel last year, states: \u201cJedis must wear a hood up in any public place of a large audience.\u201d\u00a0 But a Tesco spokesman countered that Obi-Wan, Luke and Yoda all went about hoodless \u201cwithout going to the Dark Side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel added: \u201cI\u2019ll advise worshippers to boycott Tesco if it happens again. They will feel the Force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Religious persecution.\u00a0 Pure and simple.<\/p>\n
9.\u00a0 BIPOLAR POLICY.\u00a0 The Poles and Czechs feel<\/a> betrayed, as though they\u2019ve been sold out in order to appease Russia.\u00a0 Suddenly they\u2019re not sure whether we will protect them from Russian domination.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame them.\u00a0 We\u2019ve done a great deal to draw the former Soviet States into the twenty-first century as capitalist democracies, and they\u2019ve done reasonably well.\u00a0 Given what I know right now, I\u2019m not in favor of the deal\/plan Obama has made.\u00a0 It\u2019s never a good sign when Vladimir Putin is leading<\/a> the applause.\u00a0 But I\u2019m holding out hope that we will indeed form another strategic partnership with them, and will indeed strengthen our missile defenses.\u00a0 That requires me to trust Obama, which I\u2019m finding it increasingly difficult to do.\u00a0 But I\u2019m trying.\u00a0 As Politico reports, even Democrats are asking<\/a>: what exactly are we getting in return from Russia?\u00a0 Obama better have an answer \u2014 and a good one.<\/p>\n
10.\u00a0 IS THE ONE\u2019S FOREIGN POLICY WORKING?\u00a0 Iran promises<\/a> that Israel will not last much longer.\u00a0 Blazing words for a country that\u2019s under extreme pressure for developing nuclear weaponry.\u00a0 I don\u2019t so much mind when he dismisses the Holocaust as a lie.\u00a0 Anyone who has not been raised under the mental domination of a psycho-theocratic regime knows that is false, and anyone who is <\/em>in such a regime will believe it anyway.\u00a0 I mind that Ahmadinejad continues to provoke us, throw out deals back in our faces and tell us that he intends to destroy Israel \u2014 and we refuse to believe him and continue to think that he\u2019ll be reasonable and friendly if we\u2019re just nice enough to him.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it works that way.\u00a0 Obama needs something to show for his foreign policy changes, and he needs it soon.\u00a0 He\u2019s quickly losing credibility and quickly coming to look like a weak-willed appeaser.\u00a0 He needs to show me that this can work, because so far I\u2019m not seeing it.<\/p>\n
Oddly, Joe Klein thanks <\/a>Ahmadinejad for having enlightened ancestors such as Cyrus, king of Persia who allowed the Israelites to return home (mentioned in Isaiah among other places.\u00a0 I see no connection between Cyrus and Ahmadinejad.<\/p>\n
11.\u00a0 JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY.\u00a0 Time <\/em>has done something of a hit job<\/a> on Glenn Beck, using for its cover a year-old picture from Jill Greenberg, who admits <\/a>that she intentionally made him look back.\u00a0 Greenberg is the one who intentionally made John McCain look bad for The Atlantic<\/em> (so much that they refused to pay her once they learned the truth).\u00a0 She is spiteful and childish.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a Glenn Beck fan, but he makes a good point that it\u2019s rather hypocritical to criticize Beck for trading on people\u2019s fears when that\u2019s precisely what magazines like Time <\/em>do with all their stories of impending disasters.\u00a0 The Right cultivates and trades on fears of the Left, and the Left does the same of the right.\u00a0 It\u2019s a rotten game.<\/p>\n
12.\u00a0 BIG GOVERNMENT: BIG MISTAKE?\u00a0 A cogent explanation<\/a> of the argument against big government.<\/p>\n
13.\u00a0 PRIVATE EYES.\u00a0 The ACLU defends<\/a> its decision to follow CIA agents to their homes, take photos of them, and share them with alleged terrorists in Gitmo.\u00a0 I guess they only believe in privacy in certain situations.<\/p>\n
14.\u00a0 FIGURE OF SPEECH.\u00a0 The Big Speech doesn\u2019t seem to have turned the tide.\u00a0 Disapproval of Obama\u2019s reform has not reached it\u2019s highest point, at 56 to 43 percent.\u00a0 Obama will appear<\/a> in five televised interviews this Sunday.\u00a0 Will All Obama, All the Time get the bill passed?\u00a0 Branding<\/a> opponents as racist nuts doesn\u2019t seem likely to work, either.\u00a0 Where is the elevated, deliberate discourse we need?\u00a0 Can the church provide it?\u00a0 More<\/a> information that is missing or twisted in the debate.<\/p>\n
15.\u00a0 TODAY\u2019S TWO-SIDES.\u00a0 A twofer.<\/p>\n
First, from the Left, Kai Wright<\/a> claims that Jimmy Carter was correct that race underlies the Obama opposition.\u00a0 Eugene Robinson<\/a> concurs.\u00a0 From the Right, David Brooks<\/a> says no, it\u2019s not about race.\u00a0 And Jonah Goldberg<\/a> condemns the use of this \u201ctackle box full of race bait.\u201d\u00a0 This is an important issue.\u00a0 Read them all.<\/p>\n
Second, from the Right, David Kramer<\/a> at WashPo argues that placating Russia won\u2019t work.\u00a0 Robert Farley<\/a>, however, calls it \u201ca victory for a sane foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
16.\u00a0 Finally, COLUMN(S) OF THE DAY.\u00a0 Since today\u2019s Friday, I\u2019ll give one for the Righties and one for the Lefties.\u00a0 For the Righties, Charles Krauthammer<\/a> on the question of whether Obama lies.\u00a0 For the Lefties, David Gibson<\/a> arguing that the Left has closed the \u2018God God.\u2019<\/p>\n
I will not be posting a Report tomorrow.\u00a0 Have a good weekend!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1.\u00a0 THE FIRST TESTAMENT.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in better understanding the Old Testament, that strange collection of books and poems and prophecies, filled with stories of wily characters like Jacob, swift-running old men like Elijah and whip-smart women like Esther, then you should be interested in John Goldingay\u2019s three-volume series, a \u201ctruly magnum magnum opus.\u201d\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1321,98,536,539,553,427,219,591,592,624,645,310,690,703,705,730,772],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-barney-frank","tag-condoms","tag-contraception","tag-deval-patrick","tag-environment-2","tag-harry-reid","tag-health-care","tag-health-care-reform","tag-jedi","tag-machiavelli","tag-obama","tag-pelosi","tag-race-2","tag-racism","tag-star-wars","tag-worst-dad-ever"],"yoast_head":"\n
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