Thomas Hill, Peacebuilding in Iraq on Religion For Life, March 22-26

Professor Thomas Hill is clinical assistant professor at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He is a peacebuilding practitioner and researcher with a decade of experience focusing on Iraq. Since 2003, he has made more than 20 visits to Iraq and has overseen the design, development, and implementation of a series of interrelated research and educational projects focused on the development of sustainable peace in Iraq. We discuss the crucial work of peacebuilding on Religion For Life. He speaks about his work on YouTube.



Listen via livestream...

Thursday, March 22nd at 8 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Sunday, March 25th, at noon on WEHC, 90.7.
Sunday, March 25th, at 2 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Monday, March 26th at 1 pm on WEHC, 90.7.
Via podcast beginning March 27th.

Tennessee Mountains Lose to Greed

This is not good news.  The senate (including my own senator, Rusty Crowe) did not step up and save our mountains from greed and short-sightedness.    The fight is not over.   The vote is delayed until April 2nd and in the meantime the house will consider a similar proposal.   It is time for all Tennesseans to contact our representatives.  This is from Dawn Coppock of LEAF:

Dear Caretakers for Creation,

After all your e-mails and calls for, “no decoys, no delays”, the TN Senate voted to delay a vote on the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act until April 2, instead of just passing the bill tonight. Likely, the opponents’ strategy is to kill the bill in the House committee before April 2 and avoid a vote on the substance of the bill altogether.

Those voting to delay were:

Senators Beavers, Bell, Campfield, Crowe, Faulk, Gresham, Johnson, Kelsey, Ketron, Massey, McNally, Norris, Overbey, Ramsey, Southerland, Summerville, Tracy, Watson and Yager.

Standing against delay were:

Senators Barnes, Berke, Burks, Finney, Ford, Harper, Haynes, Henry, Herron, Kyle, Marrero, Roberts, Stewart and Tate.

The hero of the day was our sponsor, Senator Eric Stewart. Senator Stewart gave a wonderful speech. If you missed it live, watch it on the video. (Go to the March 12, 2012, 5:00 session and then click on SB 577) We hope to get a copy of the text to post on TNLEAF.ORG in the next day or two.

E-mail Senator Stewart (sen.eric.stewart@capitol.tn.gov) and tell him how proud we are to have such an eloquent and passionate spokesperson.

Let’s stop and count our blessings:

1. A serious bill to end MTR reached the floor of a state legislature for the first time ever 
2. That bill was primarily drafted and championed by Christians
3. If it had gotten to a vote, the vote would have been too close to call 
4. An impassioned speech was made on the floor of the Tennessee State Senate giving voice to stewardship concerns and giving voice to the mountains 
5. We are not dead yet.

The primary focus for the next 2 weeks is the House Environment Committee. If you act fast you can send paper letters or notes. (But telephone calls and e-mails are also great.) Please continue your contacts, this time to the House Conservation & Environment Committee. You may find the committee information at:

• http://www.capitol.tn.gov/house/committees/conserv-env.html     or 
• http://tnleaf.org/legislative/the-bill-the-process-the-strategy/house-senate-committee-list-phone/
• Or you may copy and paste the House Committee emails listed here

Ask all the members of the committee to pass the "Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act." If we get it out of the House Committee, things don’t look to bad on the floor of the Tennessee House. It is still possible, and given the stakes, we must keep at it, so long as there is hope.
 
Thank you for your prayers. Please keep those up. Those advocating tonight have to begin in the House in the morning. While the vote was disappointing, the response from all of you lifted us up. It sure would be nice for us to sit in the House Committee waiting rooms tomorrow as your calls flood in.
 
With gratitude,
 
Dawn Coppock
Legislative Director, LEAF

The majority of our senators could not summon the courage and decency to prevent this:

Zeb Mountain, Tennessee

It appears they need a little more tender persuasion.

In the meantime, Carol Landis, of the Green Interfaith Network sent this:

I'm really excited to share some big news with you! We have invited the Senators and Representatives who serve NE Tennessee to join us at our March 18th meeting (Munsey United Methodist Church, 4-6 p.m.) to discuss their positions on SB 577, the TN Scenic Vistas Protection Act that will be heard before the full Senate on Monday afternoon! Because of our distinguished guests and the timeliness of the topic, we will not hold our usual business meeting on March 18th. 

We'll begin our discussion with our guests promptly at 4:00. So please come a little early to network, mingle, and munch before we begin.

This is a tremendous opportunity to hear our legislators' perspectives on the issue of mountaintop removal coal mining and for us to express your values as well. So I'm asking another personal favor:  would you please do everything you can to help boost attendance at this meeting? Please mention it to your other groups, offer to carpool, and/or "bring a friend (or 3)". 

We are praying that the original language of SB 577 will be restored and that it will be passed on to the House for further consideration on Monday afternoon. I've attached a "flyer" that I hope you will download, print, and post everywhere around our area.

Thanks for all you've done. I hope to see you (and some of your friends) on the 18th!

Peace.

c

Carol is my guest on Religion For Life this Thursday at 8 pm on WETS and again Sunday at 2 pm.

It is Showtime for our Mountains

Here is the latest from L.E.A.F. regarding SB 577, The Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act:

Monday, March 12, 2012
Action Alert I

Dear Caretakers of Creation,

SB 577 is before the Tennessee State Senate tonight at 5 CST, 6 EST. It appears the plan is to delay, increasing the chance that the whole Senate can avoid a vote altogether this year.  The opponents of the TN Scenic Vistas Protection Act do not want to vote because they know what you want them to do and they do not want to engender the courage to do it.

Right now the bill is gutted and one or more procedural votes are required to get to a vote on the real TSVPA to the floor. I expect the opponents to try to shut down discussion. The procedural wrangling will be hard to follow, but LEAF will action alert on Tuesday to explain what happened and what it means for the bill. Hopefully we will report passage of the real bill and how to engage on the House side.

Many people responded to our last alert with a willingness to pray during the session for wisdom and courage for your Senator and all the Senators, and for protection of the mountains. If you are willing to do that also, you can record that intent by responding to this email. Please include your name and the town where you live and the name of your Senator.

Here are the other action items:

• Call or email the Senators today.
  • You may find all the Senators' information at:
    http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/members/
    And you may find their e-mails in a copy/paste format at:
    http://tnleaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012-Senate.Email-addresses.pdf
     

The message is “Restore and Pass the TN Scenic Vistas Protection Act Tonight. No Decoys. No Delays.” You really don’t need to say any more than that.

• Watch the Senate Session live here.  We could be anywhere on the schedule, so I don’t know how long it will before SB 577 comes up.
• As you watch, continue to pray.

 
I cannot tell you how your love and prayers and our solidarity in purpose lifts us all and supports our spirits. Thank you,
 
Dawn Coppock,
Legislative Director, LEAF

Better Off Without Me--A Sermon

Better Off Without Me

John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

March 11th, 2012

Third Sunday in Lent

John 16:1-33 (Scholars' Version)

This section in John’s gospel is called The Farewell Discourse. In John, Jesus takes a long time to say goodbye. Over the course of the Winter we have been working our way through John. John was written about 60-70 years after the death of Jesus, sometime in the 90s. That is a best guess. John appears to be not an historical account of the life of Jesus, but a theological proclamation about Jesus. 

Jesus in John is more of a literary character than an historical person. Jesus is used by John to deal with problems in John’s time.

Jesus begins chapter 16 by saying,

“They are going to throw you out of their congregations. But the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering devotion to God. They are going to do these things because they never knew the Father or me. Yet I have told you all this so, when the time comes, you’ll recall that I told you about them.”

This is happening in John’s time. John writes his gospel by having Jesus predict the future which is John’s present. This is not uncommon. The book of Daniel is presented as a prophecy of the future. Yet scholars now realize that it was written in the time of the events it “predicts”.

Who is throwing them out of the congregations and according to John even killing them? It appears to be a sibling community. The Gospel of John is one side of a sibling rivalry between the community that eventually became the church and the community that eventually became modern Judaism. This is the most difficult aspect to read because we know of the legacy of antisemitism that has resulted. We have no idea how much to trust John. We are reading one side of the story.

John’s gospel is addressed to a community that sees itself under siege. Under siege from its sibling and under siege from what it calls the “world”. The gospel is written to comfort and encourage this community to hang in there and to discover peace in Jesus. Jesus is presented in John as the incarnation of the Word, the divine dabar that was with God from the beginning. Jesus knows everything. Nothing happens to him that he is not aware of happening. He knows where he is going. He knows where he is been. He knows what people are thinking. He and the Father are one. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is I Am. He is IT. He is the Man.

He has conquered the “world”. Hang with him and with the community that follows him and you will conquer the world too. One way to encourage a community is to remind the community of its founding story and to tell the community that the troubles it is experiencing have been anticipated by the founders themselves and will be overcome.

The challenge for the community is that there is no more Jesus. He isn’t around. They are alone. They are scattered. They are grieving. The way John handles this is that he has Jesus tell them that they are not alone, but they have the advocate. After Jesus is resurrected and he is alone with the disciples he breathes on them and they receive the spirit, the advocate.

From John’s perspective, they are not alone. They have Spirit with them. While the community might think it would have been easier or better to be with Jesus, Jesus tells them,

“…you’ll be better off if I leave. You see, if I don’t leave, the advocate can’t come to you. But if I go, I’ll send the advocate to you.”

When read in community, the Gospel of John is a constant reminder that the advocate is with them, teaches them truth, gives them encouragement, and will enable them to conquer the world as Jesus conquered the world. It is not really a surprise that John ends up becoming the centerpiece in many respects of the Christian faith.

When you go through a struggle, it is comforting and encouraging to speak to someone who has been there and who was able to make it through and who can offer authentic and honest encouragement and hope from the inside.

The story is that the founder, Jesus, even though executed by the powers, by the world, from John’s perspective conquered the world. Even though the world persecutes and kills you, you still conquer. That is martyrdom talk. That is the gospel from a siege mentality. The New Testament as a whole comes from various communities that see themselves under siege.

When we see today contemporary American Christians who by the standards of the world are at the top pinnacle of wealth and power, yet see themselves as under attack or under siege, you can see from whence that attitude comes. It comes from the Bible. John’s gospel is about how to survive being a victim.

One of the challenges for contemporary people and for contemporary faith is to figure out how to read ourselves into these stories. When we listen to sermons or read the scriptures we read ourselves into the stories. We look for a place to hang our experience. When the literature is primarily victim literature, we can read our own present experience that way, even when we are not victims. That is not a healthy thing to do. It is not healthy for us or for others.

I could preach a sermon on this text that paints greedy coal companies as the “world”. The “world” is intent on destroying our mountains for its own profit. Jesus, the Victim Divine, is on our side and conquers the “world”. That would be true. But it wouldn’t be the whole truth. It is more complex and much more messy than that.

Truth be told, we are the “world” as much as victims of the “world”. I drive cars and I turn on the lights and I eat from the top of the food chain. I am one of the average North Americans who if the world consumed like me, we would need four planets of resources. I had my coffee this morning from McDonald’s and I don’t think it was fair trade. Somebody and probably a lot of somebodies is not getting theirs as I get mine.

That doesn’t mean I am going to stop talking about saving our mountains. By no means. But there is no way I can ever think of myself as righteous about this. I am not only a victim of the world. I am not merely hated by the world. I am also the world.

John has Jesus say to the disciples:

 “In the world you are going to face persecution.”

That was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth. As the history of the church has shown, and certainly in our own time, the disciples and followers of Jesus have persecuted others at least as much as they have been persecuted. We need to take care as we read and appropriate these texts that we are honest about them and ourselves.

In fact, I am wondering if we ought to use this victim literature sparingly. It appears that everyone claims to be a victim. Christians are victims. Muslims are victims. Jews are victims. Republicans are victims. Democrats are victims. We all claim persecution. Rarely do we see ourselves as persecutors.

Victim language tends to divide as it hides our own dark side. We are a mixed bunch with mixed motives. Much of the time what others experience as persecution was not intended as such by those accused of persecution. I am not saying that there is no such thing as persecution and that there are not victims of persecution. I am suggesting that this language be used sparingly, accurately, appropriately, and with the recognition that few of us have clean hands.

The Gospel of John was written to and for a community that saw itself as under siege. It is apocalyptic literature. That means there are two kinds of people in this world, light and dark, above and below, us and them, good and evil. You are good. You will conquer the evil. That is dangerous language. It is great for rousing up a crowd and for starting a holy war but it is not so good for the messy, complicated, humbling, and carefully engaging, long-term work of peacemaking and justice-making.

That is the kind of work we need on Earth today.

There are many problems and many conflicting ideas and agendas for solving them. These ideas and agendas are motivated often by fear and self-interest to be sure. But there is wisdom and love out there and within us as well.

Even as John’s gospel is written to a community under siege, it yet has wisdom and truth. I turn to John’s understanding of the advocate. This is the spirit who is with the community in the place of Jesus. The advocate is the spirit of truth. Jesus tells them that it is better for them if he goes so that the spirit of truth can come.

Why would that be better? Why is the spirit better than the real guy?

I think it is the difference between having an external authority who gives you all the answers and having an internal moral compass. It is the difference between relying on your parents for deciding where to go and what to do and growing up and making your own decisions. It is the difference between relying on an authority figure such as a teacher or preacher for the answers and for seeking answers yourself.

The famous Zen koan says, 

“If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.”

The point is that if you see the Buddha you have externalized enlightenment whereas true enlightenment is within. Killing the Buddha is a metaphorical way of realizing that you are the Buddha.

In a similar but not exact way, the spirit or the advocate is the Christ within. Not just within in a personal sense, but among in an interpersonal sense. The wisdom, the spirit of truth, is among and within all of us. This spirit of truth is within all of humanity, in fact, within all of Earth’s life. That is the recognition that we are moving toward.

My critique, if I can be so bold as to critique holy scripture, is that the spirit, the advocate, is within those we regard as persecutors as well, or the “world”.

We are not simply good or evil, light or dark, above or below. We are a massive mess of mixed motives.

Our salvation is in recognizing that truth and bringing everyone, including those who have been without voice to the table. This spirit of truth is at work all over in many places. As Buddhist Joanna Macy assures us, the truth is in all beings.

Joanna Macy speaks of the work of the spirit as “The Great Turning”:

“A revolution is underway because people are realizing that our needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge, the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning. It is happening now.”

We are part of an exciting time.

As tempting as it might be to see ourselves as under siege, or see ourselves as being persecuted by the forces of darkness, it is likely more wise, to recognize that the spirit of truth is larger than us and is found in unexpected places and is at work in our enemies as much as in our friends.

Amen.

Carol Landis and the Green Interfaith Network on Religion For Life, March 15-19

On the next Religion For Life, I speak with Dr. Carol Landis, the president of the board of directors of the Green Interfaith Network. The Green Interfaith Network (GINI) seeks to "build a network of cool congregations" in our area.

Our Vision is to be a model for green faith communities in the Southern Appalachians and to become a spiritual voice for environmental sustainability in the Northeast TN and Southwest VA region.

Carol will be talking about the work of the Green Interfaith Network including its advocacy for Tennessee's mountains.

Listen via livestream...

Thursday, March 15th at 8 pm on WETS, 89.5.

Sunday, March 18th, at noon on WEHC, 90.7.

Sunday, March 18th, at 2 pm on WETS, 89.5.

Monday, March 19th at 1 pm on WEHC, 90.7.

Via podcast beginning March 20th.

Let the Mystery Be: A Sermon

Let the Mystery Be

John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

March 4, 2012

Second Sunday of Lent

John 11:1-57 (Scholars' Version)

The story of Lazarus is a curious one.

I have been fascinated by this story since I was a little kid.

There is all this business of Jesus delaying so he can make a big show. Of course, there are Martha’s famous words when Jesus commands that the stone be rolled away after Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.

The King James puts its best.  

“Lord! By this time, he stinketh.”

Jesus shouting at the top of his lungs:  

“Lazarus, come out!” 

The corpse of Lazarus rumbles and bumbles, and out he staggers, wrapped like a mummy.

Jesus says: “Unbind him and let him go!”

John’s gospel tells the stories in a big way. Jesus just doesn’t cure a person from blindness, but a person born blind. He doesn’t just raise a child from death who has recently died, but he raises a guy who has been entombed for four days. He doesn’t just make a little bit of wine from water, but enough for several parties and better wine than the host served first. When Jesus goes to his execution, unlike the synoptic gospels, who have someone carry the cross for him, in John, Jesus carries his own cross. Jesus isn’t the adopted son of God at his baptism, or even his birth as in the other gospels. In John, Jesus is the pre-existent Word in the beginning with God. No one messes with John’s Jesus unless he allows them to do so. He is kind of like Chuck Norris. Jesus doesn’t even need to pray. He just prays for the benefit of others who hear. Abraham? Ha! Before Abraham, I AM. That is John’s Jesus.

John’s story leaves many unanswered questions. Such as, what happened to Lazarus? I thought it might have been interesting to ask Lazarus what it was like to be dead. Did his soul go somewhere then come back? Did he see the light? Did he have a spirit guide? Did he go to Hades or to Heaven? Did he hover over his body? Or was he simply without consciousness then have it back again? Was he the same guy when he came back? Were his memories intact? Was he happy coming back? Did he stinketh?

None of that is interesting to John. We never hear of or from stinky Lazarus again.

Those kinds of questions always get you in trouble in Sunday School. Just stick to the script. I used to ask a lot of troubling questions. I learned fairly early that my preachers and teachers were pretty grave about the Bible. It wasn’t a book to enjoy, really, it was a book to believe.

I preach on the Bible about as much as any other preacher. I don’t preach on it as if it were a book to believe. I don’t find most of it particularly believable, at least in the way that we were supposed to believe it. For instance, that this story is about something that happened. I look at it and I see some kind of literary imagination at work, or perhaps on oral story put in writing. The author may be having fun with us.

I don’t find this story credible, but I do find it enjoyable. I don’t think that is a bad way to read the gospels or the Bible for that matter. I think we should at least have as much fun as the authors had. I think we tend to regard these stories far too gravely and more gravely than the authors intended us to regard them.

To put it bluntly, our serious, belief-oriented readings stinketh. We need to hear the command to come out and to be unbound. My irreverence is not intended to be a dismissal of these stories. It is intended to prod (myself mostly) out of a too serious, belief-oriented, reading. If this story seems funny and weird, then go with it. There may be something to that.

When I suggest that Jesus in the Gospel of John is a more of a fictional character than an historical figure, and that John is using his creative imagination in creating this story, it isn’t that I am saying throw out the gospel.

When I learn that these Appalachian mountains are 500 million years old and formed by natural processes such as continental crashes as opposed to being created 6,000 years ago by God, that doesn’t make them less sacred. I find that natural explanation far more interesting, actually.

When I admire a painting or hear a beautiful song, it doesn’t make either less admirable or less beautiful because human beings were the painters and the singers as opposed to angels.

I can be inspired and intrigued by Hamlet’s soliloquy even though I know that Hamlet was a creation of Shakespeare. It is easier of course with Hamlet as opposed to Jesus because there was no church that claimed Hamlet was the second person of the Trinity. Hamlet is thus unbound from the strictures of church dogma.

This is one of the changes that has been underway for some time. The Bible is beginning to be seen as a human product and as a classic of Western literature. It no longer belongs to the church. It can be read, interpreted, enjoyed, and criticized as a literary product. When it is unbound from church restrictions, it can be an inspiration to our creativity.

This is true for other so-called holy books, such as the Qur’an or the Bhagavad Gita. Those who want to have control of those books and their interpretation may not like this freedom, but it doesn’t matter. Those books do not belong to them. They belong to all of us. The field is wide open. The stone to the tomb has been rolled away.

“Come out!”

This freedom allows us to read again these texts with a new perspective.

That freedom has to do with reading, enjoying, and savoring these stories and the life questions they raise with curiosity, unbounded curiosity, as opposed to indoctrination. We can have a conversation with the author. We can resist the author. We can embrace the author.

In this story, Jesus says to Martha,

“Your brother will be raised.”

Martha responds, 

“I know he’ll be raised—in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus said to her, 

“I am the resurrection and the life; those who believe in me, even if they die, will live, but everyone who is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Throughout the Gospel of John, the reader is often at a loss of how literal to take the character of Jesus when he makes these pronouncements. This story is odd in the fact that Martha seems to have the doctrine correct. That is even traditional Christian doctrine, resurrection on the last day. Yet apparently, that isn’t right.

For John has Jesus say that anyone “who is alive and believes will never die.” That is odd. He can’t literally mean that. Or does he? Is “die” a metaphor for something? Does he just mean those who believe will go to heaven when they die? What would the difference between that and what she originally said? Does “believe” and thus “never die” mean quality of life?

What does that have to do with Lazarus? The zombie thing? The corpse that stinketh coming back to life is just kind of creepy. Are we still to assume that Lazarus is still alive somewhere? Or did he die again or just go to heaven?

I am sure there are preachers who will give you the answers.

I think answers are boring. They turn us into believers (or non-believers) rather than curious seekers.

What happens after death?

I don’t know. Do you know?

I personally have not met anyone or read anyone ever who has convinced me that they actually know anything about life after death. I have met people who believe and who seem certain and are concerned that I believe correctly (or at least that I lead the sheep correctly). I simply don’t find them convincing.

I especially don’t find people convincing who claim (and all religions and spiritualties seem to do this) that there are certain practices or beliefs you have to do in this life to get the best action on the other side. I am not convinced. I am not convinced they know what is on the other side and I am skeptical that I have to jump through beliefs or practices to get there.

Someone posted on Facebook a phrase that made me snicker. It said,

“I am going to hell in every religion.”

That is probably true for me.

In the worry over life after death, I will let that mystery be.

However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun to think or talk about.

I am having fun now with the idea of the multi-verse, the possibility of an infinite number of universes.  That sounds fun.  Maybe I will experience consciousness in one of them.  Who knows?

Mostly I am just amazed when I allow myself to be aware that I am actually here.

I think when Jesus has that conversation with Martha that Martha is anxious. She has her beliefs "right", but they aren’t that comforting. Jesus says,

“…everyone who is alive and believes (or trusts which is a better word) in me will never die…”

He is saying in effect, 

“Don’t worry about it so much.”

John’s Jesus is the authoritative Word from the beginning. He knows everything. He can do anything. He is the Chuck Norris Jesus. You know those Chuck Norris jokes. Like this one:

“The universe isn’t expanding. It is just running away from Chuck Norris.”

That Jesus, is telling Martha, I am the guy with the answers. Trust me. Don’t trust your religious doctrine. Trust that whatever happens, alive or dead, it is OK.

This is what I take away.

There is a great deal of anxiety about our lives. Certainly. The contingencies of life are challenging and there is suffering to be sure. One of the goals of religious institutions ought to be to help people negotiate and come to terms with the contingencies of life. They do that.

Sometimes, however, they can add needless suffering. I see people

 anxious that they are good enough,

worried that they will believe the wrong things,

or convinced that they believe the right things,

concerned that God will reject them or has rejected them.

Much of that comes because they have been brow-beaten by some form of religion. The answer from these spiritual abusers has been,

“No you are not good enough and you are going to hell unless you believe X, Y, and Z and do A, B, and C.”

I keep thinking to myself that that cannot be the main narrative out there. I keep naively optimistic that people are not that religiously abusive. But, then I run into reality. That spiritual abuse and its effects are rampant.

The abuse is based on something that no one can possibly know.

How can anyone know anything about God or about what happens (if anything) when we die? The most anyone can do is make guesses. Your guess is as good as any preacher’s.

Let the mystery be.

I think that the author of John’s gospel was in his own quirky way trying to get that message across. He creates this character, Jesus, as the Word with God from the beginning of time to come down to Earth and to give the answers.

The first miracle that the Creator the Universe performs when he comes down to Earth in human form is turn water into wine. He is the life of the wedding party. That should say something about how John wants us to approach the mystery of life.

He has Jesus say, in effect:

“I have been there. I have been everywhere. I and the Father are One. Chuck Norris runs away from me.”

The answer to life’s perplexing questions is,

“Trust.”

Trust.

If John’s Jesus is the personification of Reality, I hear Reality say:

"Chill out. 

Come out! 

Be unbound! 

I am life. 

Enjoy it. 

Whatever happens after you are dead, it is OK too. 

How can it not be OK? 

In the meantime, 

I am the party and I am in charge."

Amen.

Tennessee Legislators: Do the Right Thing

Thanks to the Johnson City Press for printing my letter Sunday:

Mountaintop mining

There is a grave injustice in our land. Its name is mountaintop removal strip mining. Five hundred mountains have had their tops blown off and the rubble disposed into streams. Forests are destroyed. Habitats are destroyed. Streams are polluted. Human lives are ruined.

It leaves devastation and poverty in its wake as well as fat profits for coal companies. It is coming to Tennessee unless our legislators act now.

This is not a jobs vs. environment issue. This destructive mining practice has reduced the number of mining jobs. This is not an economy vs. the environment issue. Our economy thrives on the natural beauty of our mountains and the industries that benefit from them such as tourism, hunting, and fishing. Some of the poorest counties in our nation are those with mountaintop removal strip mining. Mountaintop removal benefits the profits of outside coal companies. That’s it.

This is not merely an environmental issue. This is a moral issue. This is an issue of right and wrong regarding our descendants and stewardship of creation. This current generation has no right to destroy these mountains for short-term gain and for profit. Blowing off the tops of our mountains is not economically viable. It is not energy sustainable. It is not environmentally responsible. Mountaintop removal strip mining destroys lives, habitats, homes and leaves your grandchildren and mine with desolation.

The majority of Tennesseans do not want our mountaintops destroyed for coal. I call on our senators and representatives each to examine his or her moral compass.

You know this is wrong. Do the right thing.

THE REV. JOHN SHUCK

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton

Big Coal Buys Out Control of Vista Act

Here is an excellent opinion piece by Robert Houk of the Johnson City Press in today's Press, Big Coal Has Bought Out Control of Vista Act.

A popular mantra among many Republicans has been, “Drill, baby, drill!” Now we are hearing: “Blast, baby, blast!”

There are many in this state who don’t want to see the tops of their mountains blown off to get to a little bit of coal. Unfortunately, they are not represented in the state General Assembly.

The issue came up again last week when a bill that was originally written to expressly prohibit mountaintop coal removal in Tennessee was amended and passed in the state Senate’s Energy and Environment Committee to allow for the opposite. Sponsors of the amendment to Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act say their measure adopts the U.S. Department of Interior’s definition of mountaintop removal.

Now really, what could be wrong with that? After all, opponents of the mountaintop coal removal ban have long argued that Tennessee law already forbids the practice. This harmless little amendment to a bill that the mining industry has held up in committee for years just further codifies what is already in the law.

Don’t be fooled by the clever semantics that are being used to distract from the real purpose of the amendment. The truth is the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Act has been hijacked by Big Coal to allow mining companies to blast off the tops of mountains in Tennessee.

One local environmentalist told me last week the amendment would allow mining companies to remove mountaintops as long as ‘they pile the rubble back on to re-form the original contours.”

This is a practice known in the industry as cross ridge mining, and as long as valley fill is not involved then it is not classified as “mountaintop removal.”

Whatever you want to call it, the end results are the same. Dawn Coppock, the legislative director for LEAF (Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship), said the amended bill repeats a federal law on what coal companies can do with “overburden,” which she calls a “sad industry pseudonym” for what is left of a mountain after it is blasted apart.

If the amended Tennessee Scenic Vistas act becomes law, environmentalists fear the measure will spell doom for ridgelines in Claiborne, Campbell and Anderson counties, where 98 percent of all coal in Tennessee is mined.

“The bill, as amended, says that there is no mountain top removal so long as the coal industry molds the rubble into the ‘approximate original contour,’ ” Coppock said. “The Northern Cumberland Plateau is not known for ‘approximate original mountains.’ It is known for some of the oldest and most beautiful mountains on this earth, molded not by engineers and bulldozers, but by the hands of God himself.”

Not surprisingly, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey praised the amendment as a sensible compromise that protects Tennessee’s mountains while allowing mining companies to continue to do business in this state.

“After years of controversy on this issue, I believe we have finally reached a point that all honest stakeholders in this process can be proud of,” said Ramsey, who has collected more than $195,000 in campaign contributions from coal companies in recent years.

Not so fast. Some of those “stakeholders” say Ramsey is not being honest when he says all interested parties have had an equal place at the negotiation table. They say the coal mining industry has clearly purchased a seat at the head of the table.

Meanwhile, environmental groups weren’t allowed anywhere near the bargaining table.

“He (Ramsey) appears to be is calling the advocates of protecting our ridgelines, like LEAF, dishonest,” Coppock said. “This is ironic in light of the circumstances.”

Coppock said LEAF and other organizations will continue to oppose any efforts to allow mountaintop coal removal in Tennessee. She said the group’s efforts to ban the practice “is not a shell game or semantics.”

The bill is expected to move through the General Assembly with ease, now that it has been buoyed by the pro-mining industry amendment.

This is no longer a bill to protect Tennessee’s precious vistas and watersheds from molestation and contamination. It’s now about jobs and profits. As Ramsey famously told a TV reporter in Nashville a few years ago, “Profits are not a bad word.”

But despite all the talk of the coal mining jobs that would be protected by the amended Tennessee Scenic Vistas Act (which is estimated to number 400 at this time), I’ve not heard a single word regarding what the bill’s passage will cost Tennessee in regard to lost tourism dollars. Torn up mountains are not exactly conducive for growing the state’s emerging eco-tourism industry.

Robert Houk is Opinion page editor for the Johnson City Press. He can be reached at rhouk [at] johnsoncitypress.com 

Carol Delaney: Abraham On Trial on Religion For Life

Cultural anthropologist, Dr. Carol Delaney, talks about her book, Abraham On Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth, on the next Religion For Life. Dr. Delaney explores the roots of patriarchy by asking the question, what gave Abraham the right to sacrifice (murder) Isaac? What is the legacy of this myth on the way we regard children today?





Listen via livestream...

Thursday, March 8th at 8 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Sunday, March 11th, at noon on WEHC, 90.7.
Sunday, March 11th, at 2 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Monday, March 12th at 1 pm on WEHC, 90.7.
Via podcast beginning March 13th.

"Tennessee Is Better Than Blowing the Tops Off Its Mountains"

The title of this post is from a prayer delivered before the Tennessee Senate opened this morning by Presbyterian Minister, Rev. Michael McGloughlin.  Watch and listen here.

Yesterday in committee, The Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act was passed as amended.  The amendment destroyed the intent of the act just as coal companies are intent on destroying Tennessee's signature mountains.    The amendment would allow coal companies to blow off the tops of mountains as long as they try to put them back together again.

Sorry.  No way.   Tennesseans do not want you outsiders blowing up our mountains.  Period.

This is coming to Tennessee unless legislation is passed to prevent it:

Read more about yesterday's action from Appalachian Voices. 

While we are terribly disappointed by the mockery of the legislative process made by Senator Bell, the fact is that the bill could have died in Committee today, or it could have moved to the floor. We now have a chance to go to the floor of the Tennessee State Senate and have a conversation about mountaintop removal, while trying to add some meaningful language back into this bill. 

This critical conversation continues, and we need to make sure all Tennesseans step up the pressure and contact their state Senators to let them know that they want to protect our mountaintops in the state of Tennessee by adding meaningful, powerful language back to the bill that will protect our mountaintops and our Appalachian citizens.

 I just received this from LEAF:

LEAF is very disappointed with SB 577 as amended by the Senate Energy and Environment committee on Feb. 29, 2012.


The sponsor, Mike Bell, and the Lt. Governor both say the amended bill simply codifies current practice. Current practice includes blasting off Tennessee's ridgelines. For five years, citizens of this state have asked the legislature just to put a buffer zone around the highest elevation ridgelines. Now they have passed a bill which they admit does not change the status quo, and call that a "point all honest stakeholders can be proud of." The bill was not discussed or shared in advance of the committee meeting with any stakeholder other than industry. Industry does seem to be proud of the bill as now written.


As to the substance of the bill:


LEAF must take exception with the claim that SB 577, as amended by the Bell Amendment #0137872, is a ban on mountain top removal.


LEAF's request to stop mountain top removal, is not a shell game or semantics. We mean, do not let coal companies blow the top off mountains to get the coal out. LEAF is not working for a bill like the current amendment that relates to what happens after the mountain is blown up. We are concerned with the only time that matters for Tennessee’s virgin mountains, before the permit is issued.


The bill voted out of committee repeats federal law on what coal companies do with “overburden,” a sad industry pseudonym for the little pieces the mountain becomes after it has been blasted apart. LEAF is not working for a bill about where to put the little pieces. LEAF seeks and will continue to seek protection of the natural ridgelines.


The bill, as amended, says that there is no mountain top removal so long as the coal industry molds the rubble into the “Approximate Original Contour.” The Northern Cumberland Plateau is not known for “Approximate Original Mountains.” It is known for some of the oldest and most beautiful mountains on this earth, molded not by engineers and bulldozers, but by the hands of God himself.


If a state has no mountain top removal, it has no need to reaffirm federal law regarding molding rubble. On the floor, LEAF calls on the Senate to redeem this weak deception by voting for the bill as proposed by the sponsor, the bill that requires the coal companies to leave the original ridgelines on Tennessee’s mountains.

I am happy my denomination is stepping up.  This is from the PC(USA) Washington Office:

As part of our prophetic witness, we take a stand against the injustice of mountaintop removal coal mining and the devastating impacts it has on Creation and local communities' health and livelihoods.


Over the past 20 years, mountaintop removal mining has left thousands of communities in extreme poverty, destroyed 14 million acres of forest and 2,000 miles of headwater streams, and leveled 501 mountains.


Mountaintop removal puts nearby communities at risk from: mudslides, flooding, loss of crops, and increased levels of birth defects, respiratory disease, and cancer.

I have been told that Stated Clerk (and Tennessean, Rev. Gradye Parsons) will write an op-ed for the Nashville Tennessean that hopefully the paper will print. 

In the meantime, it is critical to contact your Tennessee Senator before March 8th when it could go before the senate.   Tell her or him to restore the original language of the bill and protect the original ridgelines of Tennessee's mountains.  SB 577.

For inspiration, last Sunday following worship members of my congregation sent a total of 119 handwritten leetters to key people on the committee.  Please send a letter to your senator. 

Locally:

Senator Rusty Crowe

301 6th Ave North

8 Legislative Plaza

Nashville, TN 37243

sen.rusty.crowe@capitol.tn.gov

615-741-2468

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey

301 6th Ave North

1 Legislative Plaza

Nashville, TN 37243

lt.gov.ron.ramsey@capitol.tn.gov

615-741-4524.