Living Liberally Praying Liberally Wilmington Chapter Blog

Tomorrow, Bellefonte Cafe, 804 Brandywine Blvd, Bellefonte, Delaware.

There is a map at the website.

http://livingliberally.org/praying/chapters/de/wilmington

I must admit that I have been lax in trying to publicize the meeting during the past month, though I did notice that some of the hangers I've distributed on local physical bulletin boards have been taken. Thanksgiving and all that, which I am sure affects everyone.

In any case, I'll be there.

In the meantime, here's some food for thought:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/falkenberg/6158553.html

Best wishes and, in deference to Bill "War on Christmas" O'Reilly, happy holidays.

I have been distracted by the holidays and other stuff and haven't done much to try to publicize this month's meeting, but I shall be at the Bellefonte Cafe tomorrow evening waiting to discussin anything vaguely political with anyone who shows up.

In the meantime, check out this link. The contents rendered me speechless.

Today my pastor chose to speak in honor of Veterans' Day; he attempted to explain the theory of "just war," a prickly topic if ever there was one.

Now, my older son serves in an elite unit, the 82nd Airborne. (He enlisted because, after over 200 resumes in the first George W. recession, the best job he could get was jerking coffee at Borders, and the student loans were breathing down his neck.)

After the sermon, when time came for the Pastoral Prayer and the pastor asked us for "joys and concerns" (it's a Methodist thing), I spoke up.

I don't usually speak up. I don't like having serving persons sing "Happy Birthday" to me in restaurants either.

But I had to speak up.

"The next time my son receives orders to step on an airplane, fly somewhere, and kill people, I want to know he's doing it for the right reasons."

We will be meeting at the Bellefonte Cafe, 804 Brandywine Blvd., Bellefonte, Del.

The election may be over, but the issues are hotter than ever.

I'll be the guy sitting by myself with the fedora on the table. Come keep me company and let's talk about what's happening.

Visit the Chapter website here:

http://livingliberally.org/praying/chapters/de/wilmington

Today, I made the rounds of the local supermarkets to put hangers advertising Thursday's meeting.

Only half of the half-dozen or so stores I visited had community boards. I remember when they were a standard feature at every large food market.

One even had a "no distribution of literature" notice (having suffered through the Hari Krishna years at airports, I can actually understand that impulse).

So I hung notices at several stores and prevailed on some small shopkeepers that I've known for years to do accept some hangers.

One of them told me that, in his capacity of helping the publicize community concerts, he's put flyers up in some locations only to have them taken down because they were not "personal" (that is, they were not advertisements for rooms to rent, landscaping services, "for sale" items, and the like), but rather "community."

We're going to keep organizing, a little bit at a time.

The election may be over, but politics goes on. And, given all the stuff that's happening right now, staying aware and learning about the issues becomes more and more important.

One of my favorite radio shows is Speaking of Faith. It almost always gives me serious stuff to think about.

Right now, it is running a series about religious feelings and the 2008 campaign. Here's the description of part one from the website:

The Religious Right has gotten a fair amount of coverage in recent years, while the political Left has rarely been represented with a religious sensibility. Our guest, a national correspondent for Time magazine is a political liberal and an Evangelical Christian who has been observing the Democratic Party's complex relationship with faith and the little-told story of its response to the rise of the Religious Right.

Here's the description of part two:

The second part of our examination of religious energies below the surface of the 2008 presidential campaign. Conservative columnist Rod Dreher is an outspoken critic of mainstream Republican economic and environmental ideas and the conduct of the Iraq war, but he voted for George W. Bush twice. We explore the little-known story of religiously influenced impulses within the conservative movement that diverge from the Religious Right.

Addendum, Later That Same Day:

I knew there was another fascinating show this week. This segment on Talk of the Nation:

In an effort to reconnect with his Jewish faith, Georgia-native Benyamin Cohen explored the Christianity across the "Bible Belt" of America. He documented his experiences in My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith.

Cohen has served as founder and editor of American Jewish Life magazine and Jewsweek online magazine. He is currently an editor at the Mother Nature Network.

The October meeting is coming up next week.

I've been somewhat preoccupied; my personal website crashed and it was a week and a half before I got it running again, since, along the way, I had to do, like, actual work. Then the family computer decided to give up the ghost and I spend today configuring it the way I like it.

Along the way, I listened to two podcasts that I will recommend to any one who is interested in the interplay between religion and public life.

Fresh Air had an interview with Bill Maher and Larry Charles about their new movie, Religilous. You can see the trailer here (YouTube). From the website:

If you're familiar with the work of political satirist Bill Maher, you probably know that he thinks religion has done way more harm than good in the world.

Maher is best known as the host of the HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher;Charles' credits include Borat (which he directed) and the TV programs Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Follow the link to the website to listen to or download the podcast.

And on Talk of the Nation,

In this installment of the This American Moment series, Eboo Patel, director of the Interfaith Youth Core, discusses his efforts to promote religious pluralism among young people. Patel believes that this type of mutual respect and understanding is the "big idea of our time."

Follow the link to the website to listen to or download the podcast.

We met last night at the Bellefonte Cafe (you can get the menu here--PDF).

This was much more successful than the first meeting in August, which turned out not to a meeting. Rather, it was an hour of my surfing the web on my cell phone.

(It was my own doing. I got caught in the backwash of a personal crisis of someone close to me and failed to do any publicity to speak of.)

Through a roundabout road, there was a small story about Praying Liberally in the local paper on Saturday (no, I haven't had the time to dig up the link yet, but it's on my to-do list.)

This time there were three of us. I started out by babbling for about ten minutes on how I got here (you can read the story at this link). I was quite nervous, especially since last month's fiasco, and I tend to babble when I'm nervous.

Then the others briefly spoke about why they were there. We all come from different religious backgrounds and are all at different places in our development.

And from that came a really good conversation, primarily focused on US politics, about what the heck is going on in the country and the world. By concensus, we closed with short prayers (the cafe has a private lounge that we retreated to for that).

And what I find particularly gratifying is that all three persons said they would be back.

It's a start. A small one, but definitely a start.

When I got home, I was so fired up I stayed and watched the end of the ball game, then watched M*A*S*H. reruns for two hours. I'm paying the price for that today.

****************

It just occurred to me: I should print up business cards with the relevant Living Liberally links on them.

A good friend of mine, one who has recently given me strength in a time of crisis, sent me this essay.

It was written by a young pastor named Greg Coates who is currently serving at an inner city church in a not very good neighborhood in a large midwestern city. It was not written for publication--it was written to express his feelings. Mr. Coates has kindly given me permission to post it.

My friend first met Mr. Coates as a youngster in his--my friend's--Sunday School Class.

There's really nothing to add to what Mr. Coates has to say.

Where the Hell is the Church?

Wed 11:01pm

The seven year old boy three doors down just slashed his wrists. Fortunately they found him before he bled to death. He was mad because social services were going to take him and his seven brothers and sisters away from their drug addicted mommy. We fed all the kids cookies, but, Oh God, they need more than that.

Mrs. E came to me crying last Monday. She's afraid that her embittered next door neighbor will seek revenge on her family for having reported him to the police for beating his wife every night. The man is now out of jail and knows who turned him in. She's already been assaulted once (in front of our church while waiting in the food pantry line) and is afraid he'll burn down her house like he did to those other buildings. She asks for prayer 'cause she thinks her brother will soon be killed.

The bastard child S. bears the insults of even the old ladies in the church for being an illegitimate girl and having a "no good" boyfriend. She embarrassed to even say hello to me, a pastor.

E. missed prayer meeting today. I hope it's not because he has relapsed.

Mr. R came over the other day and asked for some food. We gladly took some to him, but I had to turn him down when he wanted cash as well. The poor guy was so high he could hardly keep his eyes on me. I'm not sure if I'd ever seen a high person before, but it's a pathetic sight. Such slavery.

Meanwhile, all the good Christians are out in the suburbs enjoying their lattes from Starbucks and picking out a new plasma-screen HDTV for their second living room. The thought must never occur to them that hell is only a few miles away in the direction of downtown and that God needs warriors to go fight some battles.

Where the hell is the church? And why isn't it here in hell where it should be? The seven year old and Mrs. E and bastard S. and Mr. E and Mr. R need a little bit of Jesus, but there isn't much to go around. 'Cause for some reason the church has left this neighborhood and set up shop elsewhere. I'm sitting here on 12th Street and I feel alone. And I'm mad at the church for not being here for my seven year old friend.

Where the hell are you, church?

As advertised, the September me 7:00 p. m. at the Bellefonte Cafe. I've had a chance to make some contacts in the intervening weeks and am confident of a better turn out than at the first meeting.

These things do tend to start small. But we're going to keep at it.

And it only takes a few persons to have a good conversation, and, frankly, that's what it's about: good conversations. Really nothing more and nothing less.