Seven whole days

10:30:43 PM: Blogging: Live blogging the Republican response to SOTU http://bit.ly/9YM6Jg

10:30:50 PM: Watching Republican response. Looks like miniature US Capitol. Where is Mini Me?

10:33:20 PM: Good public policy should strengthen private sector’s ability to create new jobs. // You mean like overseas outsourcing?

10:33:51 PM: Has people in the background. No cool pearls like Pelosi was wearing.

10:34:36 PM: Limited role of government // Then how about NOT regulating who can marry whom?

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8:49:34 PM: Obama arriving at the Capitol building. Wonder if he had any traffic tie-ups to contend with?

8:49:44 PM: Blogging: Live blogging the State of the Union http://bit.ly/dnSO14

8:50:49 PM: Pelosi calling Joint Session to order. Not impressive. Maybe an Uncle Sam hat would help.

8:51:04 PM: She just had to shush someone who was trying to talk to her!

8:51:39 PM: It was Biden who tried to cut her off. Why am I not surprised?

8:53:29 PM: Lots of milling and talking as giant committee goes to fetch POTUS. Government bloat: it takes a giant committee to walk in with POTUS.

8:55:41 PM: Spouse says “Purple is the color of the evening”, adding, “Purple is good non-partisan color.”

8:56:30 PM: SCOTUS introduced. Applause. Wish I was there with a rotten tomato after this week’s travesty.

8:56:58 PM: Am kidding about the tomato. But I would seriously consider a Bronx cheer more appropriate.

8:58:05 PM: Mrs. Obama enters alone. With economic cuts, only enough for one escort committee?

9:03:23 PM: Michelle looks bored. Chatting it up with people around her. Still waiting for POTUS.

9:03:34 PM: Waiting for POTUS because of giant committee, probably.

9:07:53 PM: POTUS entering. #SOTU

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Forget CNN. Definitely ignore Fox. Get the skinny on big doings tonight right here on 7WD. I will be tweeting the opening Eucharist of the Trinity Institute tonight, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern. Archbishop Rowan Williams is celebrant, with Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi preaching. Right after the service, I’ll post a blog entry on the Trinity blog for the event. Look for more entries there tomorrow after each of the plenary addresses, late morning and late afternoon.

Then at 9 p.m. stay glued to your computers for non-stop, wall-to-wall, breathless, accurate, or possibly made-up coverage from the 7WD news team as President Barack Obama gives the State of the Union address. I’ll tweet during the speech, and I’m experimenting with live-blogging technology to see if I can get tweets to appear here as well.

If you didn’t know what tefillin are, this won’t apply to you directly, though it could apply to your friends. In a way, it applies to all of us. While this video is light-hearted (and even funny), it points to a serious problem. While we like to think of ourselves as multi-cultural in the US, we are shockingly mono-cultural. When confronted with words or actions that are unfamiliar, people too often assume hostility. That’s why merely reading an Arabic book can get you thrown off a plane. And it’s why you should watch this video, especially if you didn’t know about tefillin. If someone near you on a plane starts to freak out because a nearby passenger is praying, you’ll be able to calm the hyped up passenger. Here’s one more bit of motivation. Watching this video might help you learn the answer to this timeless question: “Are Cocoa Pebbles about to become a standard part of Jewish prayer rituals?”

Tip of the yarmulke to The Blingdom of God.

This year’s Trinity Institute is titled “Building an Ethical Economy”. There’s an impressive line-up of speakers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Kathryn Tanner (theology professor at the University of Chicago), and Sir Partha Dasgupta (economics professor at the University of Cambridge). I am very glad Trinity Church (Wall Street) is offering this conference to explore the intersection of faith and economics.

For months, I had been looking forward either to attending the Institute or to watching online. Imagine my delight when someone from Trinity asked me if would be one of two official bloggers for the event. You can find a link to the blog for the Trinity Institute here, though at the moment this post hits the interwebs, only my introductory material has been posted. The other blogger is Catherine L. Mann, professor of economics at Brandeis University.

Here’s a bit of what I said in my introduction — about why I think these matters are important to all of us.

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I wonder why, amidst all the fulmination about gay marriage and other violations of the Levitical code, more people haven’t hopped onto this bandwagon: God hates shrimp.

Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God’s law unto the heathens and the sodomites. We call upon all Christians to join the crusade against Long John Silver’s and Red Lobster. Yea, even Popeye’s shall be cleansed. The name of Bubba shall be anathema. We must stop the unbelievers from destroying the sanctity of our restaurants.

Amen. Visit the website to learn more, and then organize a protest. And, for the love of God, make sure you aren’t wearing any cotton-wool blends to the protest!

We have all seen the horrifying images coming out of Haiti after the recent earthquake there. If you want to put a face on it, have a look at the latest photographs from Haiti on the Big Picture blog. They are both beautiful and disturbing. The effect of these images has been varied. Some people have been inspired to make generous donations to organizations such as Episcopal Relief & Development. Others have been moved to pray fervently. And a few people, as a result of the shocking plight of Haitian people, are thinking about canceling their Caribbean cruises. Why, you ask?

It turns out that cruise ship operator Royal Caribbean International built a lavish enclave (safely walled off from the local populace) in northern Haiti. Set on part of Haiti’s beautiful coastline, Labadee offers cruise-goers pristine beaches, gourmet food, water sports, and shopping, all under the protection of armed guards. You can almost hear the passengers, “Oh, I’ve been to Haiti. I don’t know why people are always going on about the country. It’s magnificent!” And so it is, at least on the little utopian fortress they’ve seen.

Now there’s a new problem. Passengers cannot manage the cognitive dissonance created from five-star luxury so close to the squalor made worse by the earthquake. CNN reports one passenger saying, ‘”We kind of discussed it: How can you sit there and say, ‘Waiter, bring me a drink’ while I’m on a private beach … knowing that 100 miles away, people are dying.” News flash: BEFORE THE EARTHQUAKE, PEOPLE WERE STARVING IN HAITI.

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With the title of this post, 7WD joins in the grand tradition of overstated headlines in mainstream media. A couple of days ago, I wrote about how references to Bible passages were stamped on rifle scopes used by US military forces. Now it seems that Trijicon, the arms-supplier in question, has relented to growing international pressure (including, no doubt, this bastion of blogtastic blustering). The NY Times reports:

Bowing to Pentagon concerns and an international outcry, a Michigan arms company said Thursday that it would immediately stop embossing references to New Testament Scriptures on rifle sights it sells the military. The company, Trijicon Inc., has multimillion-dollar contracts with the Pentagon for advanced telescopic sights that are widely used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trijicon also said it would provide the Pentagon with 100 free kits to use for removing the lettering on existing weapons.

I’m glad Trijicon is doing the right thing. Really, they had no choice. In court cases, they would have lost, but more troublesome for them, public pressure would have pushed government officials to award contracts to other companies. In other words, Trijicon relented from what they previously defended to save their $660 million defense contract. Good, but not good enough.

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A couple of years ago, one of the big buzzwords for church leaders was “servant leadership”. It’s easy to say, but hard to do. Worse, it’s easy to pretend we are servant leaders, when we have merely adopted an air of false humility. Well, here’s an example of true servant leadership from Haiti. This is not about buzzwords, but about Christlike ministry.

Bishop Duracin of Port-au-Prince lost his home and his cathedral in the earthquake last week. Despite offers to evacuate the city, the bishop has chosen to stay with his people, living in a tent. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the story:

The image of a homeless bishop choosing to stay in a dangerous and devastated place to tend to his people is one that will abide in my heart for some time to come.  When a bishop is ordained in our church, part of the liturgy reminds the bishop-elect that “your joy will be to follow him who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  Through his faithfulness and sacrifice, Bishop Duracin is indeed following Jesus, the Good Shepherd who remains steadfastly with his flock even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

That’s an example for all of us. We should not turn away from suffering. Jesus does not call us to be comfortable, but to take up our cross and follow him.

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Ephraim Radner has offered an “An Unrealistic Proposal for the Sake of the Gospel” in the Living Church. He wants the Episcopal Church and dioceses to drop all litigation against those who are attempting to take church property with them as they leave the Episcopal Church. That would allow the departing people to drop their litigation too. Then Radner suggests that all parties give the amount they would have spent on litigation to rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

I also have an unrealistic proposal: STOP TRYING TO STEAL CHURCH PROPERTY. Radner’s proposal sounds nice at first glance, until you think it through. The litigation is precipitated by one simple fact: people leaving the Episcopal Church want to take what isn’t theirs. If no one were trying to take property, the litigation wouldn’t be necessary.

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The solemn collects of Good Friday include prayers for “those who in the name of Christ have persecuted others” that “God will open their hearts to the truth, and lead them to faith and obedience.” We like to tell ourselves that Christians killing in Christ’s name is a relic of the Middle Ages. Sadly, this continues right up to today, to the tune of $660 million in US military contracts.

ABC News reports that US Marines and Army solidiers in the Middle East are using rifle sights inscribed with references to Bible verses. This equipment has been supplied by Michigan-based Trijicon, who finds nothing wrong with the practice. When questioned about this issue — and obvious constitutional issues of church-state separation, among others — Trijicon marketing staff said there was no problem and the Bible verses “had always been there.” The company staff person blamed the controversy on uppity “non-Christians.”

Well, this priest in Christ’s Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is outraged. Where to begin? Let’s start with practical matters. It will (rightly) inflame Muslims to learn that US military forces are fighting a war with equipment that contains references  to the Bible, such as one to John 8:12 (“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”). How can we have any credibility when we say we are not fighting a new crusade, while our forces use equipment that is marked with verses about following Jesus?

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Yesterday morning I heard a fantastic sermon, preached by my colleague in ministry at Christ Church, the Rev’d Melody Shobe. I am incredibly fortunate to serve with such a gifted priest, who offered this sermon in the morning and then led us with powerful and faithful prayers at our afternoon prayer service for the people of Haiti and all those offering aid work.

If you have wondered about God’s part in the earthquake in Haiti, or how God might challenge people of faith to respond, go read this sermon. Here’s a bit to whet your appetite.

We talk about it, and analyze it and grieve over it. And then we try to make sense of it. It’s in our nature to try to come to grips with tragedies and make sense of them. But trying to make sense of the senseless can be problematic, especially when, like the prophet Isaiah says, you cannot keep silent. Because some of the people who cannot remain silent really should. They say terrible things about God causing this disaster, horrible things about judgment on the Haitian people because of “a pact with the devil.” These are the same kinds of damaging, disgusting things people said in the wake of the tsunami, 9-11, and Hurricane Katrina. Often, when people try to make sense of the senseless, they get it all wrong and just cause more grief and pain.

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