Monthly Archives: August 2005

The Gospel According To America by David Dark

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In the letter to the editor I shared with you a few days back–written to reply to a public call by a U.S. Senator to “nuke Mecca” and a local letter calling for even worse–I mentioned that I am annoyed by the often-made accusation that anti-war folk are unAmerican. I suppose the Hebrew prophets themselves were considered in similiar terms, but it still galls me. I love our land, and come from patriotic stock. So when these people start saying that it is unAmerican to be critical of public policy or our elected leaders, I just makes me want to go throw some tea in the harbor. What part of participatory democracy don’t these guys understand?
America does have a fabulous, haunted history, perplexed and perplexing, glorious and important with truly great ideas. Os Guinness routinely reminds me of these marvelous and brillantly birthed concepts, which were so utterly innovative when dreamed up by the Founders. (The recent best-seller by David McCullough, 1776 by the way, is on my summer list; big news in these parts is that he mentions York.)
A very, very moving read about our land that is out by a Hearts & Minds favorite is David Dark’s recent The Gospel According To America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted Idea (Westminister/John Knox) $14.95 You may know Dark from his exceptional and important Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons. One of the best in that genre, for sure.
Here is what the publisher website says about this new one:

This book is an effort in moral orientation,” the author begins, “an attempt to make sense of the times, and, if you like, a project in anger management. It is also a call to confession and a primer in American patriotism.” Under a broad pop-culture umbrella, using icons from music, literature, film, the media, and politics, David Dark hopes to provide fodder for lively conversation about what it means to be Christian and American in this “weird moment” in which we live. It is a moment when we are increasingly polarized along political and religious lines, a moment when we are too busy forming our response to listen to the one who is speaking. And yet we claim more than ever to be one nation, under God. What does all this mean? Dark shows us examples from America’s rich cultural history-from the writing of Faulkner and Melville to the music of Bob Dylan and R.E.M. to the social witness of Dorothy Day and Will Campbell-to help us understand how we might become our better selves. The end result, he hopes, will be a better understanding that “there is a reality more important, more lasting, and more infinite than the cultures to which we belong,” the reality of the kingdom of God.

On the back cover, Brian McLaren asks “Is this a young Wendell Berry among us?” Kurt Andersen, host of public radio’s Studio 360 says, “If I prayed, I would pray for all the David Darks—all the smart, funny, thoughtful, quirky, tough-minded, well-read, culturally-engaged Christians in America–to arise and speak up. ” I wonder if Andersen knows about all the Hearts & Minds readers out there?? Maybe if we bought this book, pondered it well, spread around the vision, continue to nuanced and appropriate social engagement of this sort, we could help shape the public face of Christianity in our time. This really is a well-written and thoughtful study. Highly recommended!

Nuclear Realism

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I got this from the regular Sojourners listserve that goes out, and I thought I’d share it, since I wrote about this the last two posts. This well spells out what we can do about this urgent matter. I promise to tell about a very exciting new book tomorrow. Read this first and pray hard for guidance.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and nuclear realism

by David Cortright

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This week, hundreds of children at the Yamazato Elementary School in Nagasaki gather for a ceremony, as they do every year, to commemorate the 1,300 students who were killed there when the atomic bomb fell on their city 60 years ago. As part of the ceremony, children pour water on a stone monument, symbolically quenching the thirst of the bomb’s victims and offering prayer for their souls.

Ceremonies are taking place all over the world this week to remember the more than 300,000 Japanese who died from the atomic bombings (95% of them civilians), and to reflect upon the enormous moral and political implications of those events.

They remind us that nuclear weapons cause indiscriminate mass annihilation. They are tools of terror. By their very nature they violate the moral principles of justice, discrimination, and proportionality. Nearly all major Christian churches, and many Jewish and Muslim bodies, have spoken out against nuclear weapons.

After declining at the end of the Cold War, the nuclear danger is increasing again – due to the risk of terrorists acquiring such weapons, the spread of nuclear capability to North Korea and beyond, and plans in the U.S. to develop new “bunker buster” weapons and resume nuclear production and testing.

Former Defense Secretary William J. Perry said last year, “I have never been more fearful of a nuclear detonation than now…. There is a greater than 50% probability of a nuclear strike against U.S. targets within a decade.”

To address these threats and reactivate the religious voice for disarmament, Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., former minister at Riverside Church in New York City and longtime peace and anti-nuclear activist, has issued an “Appeal to the Religious Communities of America.” In response, Sojourners and other groups are joining together to create a new Inter-Religious Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, which will build public awareness and support for concerted efforts to freeze, lockdown, and eliminate nuclear weapons.

The first challenge is to prevent the funding of the “bunker buster” bomb and halt the production of new nuclear weapons. The new bombs the Pentagon wants to build are dozens of times larger than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When exploded in the earth they would release vast quantities of lethal radioactive fallout. Congress will vote on appropriations for the bunker buster this fall. It is urgent that religious people take the lead in speaking publicly against such weapons and urging their elected representatives to vote no.

The more difficult long-term challenge is to build pressure for the further reduction and elimination of all nuclear weapons. The Inter-Religious Network will develop a campaign to demand that the governments of the United States and other nuclear powers develop detailed blueprints for how to eliminate nuclear weapons.

So-called realists claim that the advocates of nuclear abolition are utopians. On the contrary, the naive utopians are those who believe that governments can maintain nuclear weapons in perpetuity without their actual use, either by accident or design. As former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara has said, the indefinite combination of human fallibility and continued reliance on nuclear weapons will lead to catastrophe and the destruction of cities.

Nuclear abolition is realistic. Opinion polls show that two-thirds of the public agrees that “no nation should possess nuclear weapons.” Detailed plans for how to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons were developed in 1996 by the Canberra Commission, a prestigious group of former defense officials from the nuclear weapons states. The plans feature step-by-step reductions, accompanied by stringent monitoring and verification, and an international agreement outlawing nuclear weapons. Treaties against biological and chemical weapons already exist, and it is past time for a similar ban on nuclear weapons.

New campaigns need new language. A key concept for the new campaign might be “nuclear lockdown.” The lockdown phrase has strong appeal. It has been tested in focus groups and public opinion polling, which show broad public support for energetic efforts to lockdown nuclear weapons so that terrorists do not acquire them.

The lockdown term implies robust, vigorous action. It embodies security and safety. It paints a mental picture of the physical steps that are necessary to eliminate nuclear weapons and materials. It provides a frame, to use George Lakoff’s term, for how to eliminate the danger from nuclear weapons.

The following would be our definition of the term:

“Preventing nuclear weapons and materials from falling into the hands of terrorists or tyrants is and must remain the top priority for U.S. and global security. Achieving this goal requires locking down and securing all nuclear weapons and materials on earth, through a rigorous international monitoring system and a universal ban on the development, production, testing, or use of such weapons.”

As Coffin says, “Only God has the authority to end all life on the planet. All we have is the power.” It is time to relinquish that power, to serve rather than usurp God by preserving life.

“Never again” is the plea that the children of Yamazato Elementary School offer every year in memory of the students who died there. It must be our plea too, as we remember the horrors of 60 years ago and recommit ourselves to eliminating that danger for this and future generations.

David Cortright, a Sojourners contributing writer and board member, is founder of the Win Without War coalition and president of the Fourth Freedom Forum.

Letter to the Editor

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I mentioned on August 6th that I had written an op-ed piece in our local paper. It was a response, as you will see, to a guy who wrote that if there is ever another terrorist bombing, we should nuke every city that has ever harbored a terrorist.
Likewise, a U.S. Senator has recently stated that if there is another attack, we should nuke Mecca. This is so outrageously provacative and unethical that even hawkish, conservative blogs and talk radio are condemning it.
Here is a link to the Viewpoint blog of my friend Dick Cleary-an avid supporter of the war–who has weighed in on the limits to war and the appropriate consideration of the death of civilans. He kindly suggests that we not judge too harshly the leaders in Truman’s circles who made the hard call to destroy Hiromshima; he offers a good bit of perspective, even if I think his concern about the innocent ought to be sounded with more outrage. Still, it is a thoughtful piece, and an indication of strong ethical thinking on the political right.
My piece, below, was featured in our local paper as a Hiroshima reflection, but do recall it was crafted in reply to one particular letter to the editor, so it bears that specificity. I hope it at least is enough to cause us to pause today, the 60th anniversary of Nagasaki. There, you may know, the steeple of the only cathedral in that country was the target. Nagasaki was the most Christianized city in Japan, the home of a large convent. Peaceful, missionary-minded nuns were the first to be incinerated.

Op-Ed Column
York Sunday News
With the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima upon us, we should hope to see renewed conversations about the ethics of nuclear weapons.
One such letter, by Mr. H. Darius Gray, however, left me annoyed, offended, and horrified.
I was annoyed that Mr. Gray simply gets his facts wrong. He says with great assurance that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved U.S. lives. This may be so, but we do not know. The Japanese had already agreed to surrender (if they could keep their Emperor) but we insisted upon unconditional surrender (a demand considered unethical by classic Ò just warÓ teaching, by the way.) Some of those involved suggested we unleash the atomic horror over the ocean to see if that, too, might lead to greater clarity in negotiations. My own father was poised in the South Pacific used to say that some guys then even thought that. There is no doubt that the Japanese were brutal; it simply is not a matter of historical fact how things might have played out differently without the incineration of those two cities. Helpful conversations about this need to admit that.
I was offended that Mr. Gray writes with such self-righteous passionÑhe is ÒsickenedÓ, he says, by what he calls anti-Americanism. He has no right to judge the patriotism of those of us who, out of a desire to honor the best instincts of our country, and, for some, our deepest religious convictions, oppose bombing civilians. To tar those of us who argue for a moratorium on nuclear weapons with such a brush is rude and inaccurate. He may think that all peacemakers hate our beloved land, but he is wrong.
One of the first, clear voices against nuclear war that I ever heard was from an impeccably patriotic civil servant who was somewhat of a mentor to meÑa Republican Senator, a military man who was on the first boatload of troops to go into Hiroshima days after the bombing. Mr. GrayÕs glib talk about being sickened by peaceniks would most likely not be so nasty if he had to look Senator Mark Hatfield in the eyes as he recalls being literally sickened by the horror of walking through that rubble. Few who have actually seen or touched the dead children of warfare are so eager to lightly advocate such thingsÉ
I was truly horrified, though, by seeing one of the vilest things I have read in this paper in recent memory. Mr. Gray says he works in the health care profession, and says he has three children. Surely in his medical work he offers kindness to decent folks—the frail elderly, handicapped kids, heroic young adults with chronic illness; would he wish them harm? I am sure that he would not. With his own children, I am sure he is tender. And yet, he says that if there is another terrorist attack we should nuke every town that harbored terrorists. Towns that are made up of kids, kids not that much different than our own.
Just wipe out the sick, the elderly, the decent, the children? That is called genocide, Mr. Gray, and is profoundly evil. To wipe out innocent civilians even if it can be known that their town leaders are in cahoots with terrorists is so illogical and uncaring, I wonder what kind of soul would say such a thing.
Imagine, if you will, that somebody in York ÒharboredÓ terrorists. Suppose, worse, that even the town fathers had something to do with it. Hard to imagine, here, I know, but in some town, somewhere in the world, just such a scenario is reality. And now look carefully at your dear children, Mr. Gray. Do you think your children deserve to die a horrible death because somebody you donÕt even know harbors terrorists that you donÕt believe in? Look at your wife, your children, your patients, your home, your history. Destroy it all because of something somebody else did, even if you are not responsible? Those of you who cheered his letter, are you willing to incinerate the innocent for the sake of revenge?
When things like this are spoken in public it is time to search our hearts. The years to come will be no doubt hard and foreign policy questions are admittedly complex. I pray that this bellicose attitudeÑkill the children, and be Ã’thrilledÓ of it—is not held by many in our good land. I pray that those who have spoken such wickedness would re-consider their attitudes and ask why we would ever, ever, justify intentionally, massively killing unarmed civilians, the sick, the frail, the elderly, the children. That is what has been proposed. It is on the table. It is what we did twice already. In the name of God, we must say, Ã’Never again.Ó It is never right to mass-murder children. Never. Never. Never. Never

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Hiroshima & Nagasaki

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Years ago, I developed some inner compulsion (Holy Spirited-leading?) to pray for peace on August 6th and 9th, in a manner that might honor the horrific history of those tragic anniverseries. There are more stories to tell, perhaps, about ways we’ve witnessed to Christ’s Kingship even over what some consider one of the defining moments of the 20th century—the annihilation of civilian populations using nuclear technologies. Along with others, we have agitated against the spiraling of increasing arms expenditures as a way to express our convictions about Christ’s call upon us and the Biblical mandate to make a prophetic witness against corporate evil. The on-going arms race of the second half of the twentieth century and the proliferation of atomic weaponery (not to mention the other sorts of modernized, high-tech ways to destroy) have been a concern for many folks, including many who are not pacifists. Nearly anyone with half a heart would lament the incineration of whole cities and the deaths of so many families. For one of many websites (with lots of good links) that can give helpful resources and information, click here.
I have often noted books over the years about realistic peacemaking and conflict resolution. There are basic resources for those new to that issue and there are very scholarly books which also explore this principle for diplomacy. I could note some if anybody is interested. A good starting point, though, is to get a more general vision of international relations and foreign policy. For instance, I have commended other places the newest Jim Skillen book, from the Center for Public Justice, who applies a sort of contemporary Kuyperian worldview framework to his exploration of international affairs–see, With or Against the World: America’s Role Among the Nations (Rowman & Littlefield) $24.95. There are others that are more specifically about international peace-building, but I think this is a wise and very helpful contribution about American’s role in the world and gets us thinking in broad and serious ways about international justice.
But, today is August 6th. I wanted to write something reflective about the horror of The Bomb, and ponder why there is not a cultural movement about this, the way there was in the 70’s and 80’s.
But I am exhausted, and my promise to God to allow the Spirit to mold my heart on this day, prayed so many years ago, is weakly held tonight. I did start the day at a conference on faith and science where we are selling books* where I heard a friend tell of his many years working, as he put it before his conference colleagues, as an engineer who was “an atomic bomb-maker.” As he told it, his conscience developed and his thinking about his craft matured and he felt that to be reformationally busy with the work of his hands, he needed to find a new job. (He is now even writing a book about the peril and promise of modern technology and how to think faithfully about such things.) Maybe that is the best Hiroshima Day tribute out there: one more repentant heart, willing to take and stand, pay the price, re-think and live a new way.
Spiritually-attuned writers have enriched my life over the years, and in May I wrote at the website a lengthy piece on the recent trend in spirituality and contemplative piety (here). Two writers that have helped shaped that interest in our lifetime are Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwan. Interestingly, on this 60th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both have new books out about resistance to the arms race that had been surpressed in earlier years.
Peace in the Post-Christian Era by Thomas Merton (Orbis) $16.00 This is a long-with-held manuscript, long known “underground” among religious peace activists. Merton influenced the Catholic left and the faith-based resistance to Viet Nam from his monastery–the Pope, then, silenced him in the early 60’s and he would write in The Catholic Worker under a fake name. Still, he is well-known as one who was moved deeply by the real suffering and iconic nature of Hiroshima (do you know his long poem about that, The Original Child Bomb?) This newly released collection is a profound warning and a testament on war and peace.
Peacework: Prayer-Resistance-Community Henri Nouwen (Orbis) $16.00 This beautifully little hardback is a set of articles and talks Nouwen gave in the early 80’s, I believe, for religious peace protestors and others who felt called to even commit civil disobedience to, like the Old Testament prophets, dramatize the call to end the idolatry of weaponry and come to some sort of spiritual awareness of the unmitigated evil in planning to commit mass murder. With folks like Billy Graham saying such things in the late 70’s, and nearly every major denomination weighing in on the dangers of nuclear proliferation, one wouldn’t think that, in those years, Nouwen’s gentle call to deeply spiritual resistance would be that controversial or unexpected. Still, he sensed that he ought not publishsome of these and withheld the manuscript for years. (Parts of it appeared in the volume edited by John Dear, The Road to Peace so it isn’t all brand new.) I am happy it has now seen the light of day, in this format; it seems right for me to share such a wise and tender book on this most important day in the modern world. Work for peace, pray for peace. These little reflections don’t answer the big political questions about statecraft and international terrorism and such, but they may help form our hearts to care about the right kind of concerns.

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I will have an op-ed piece in the local paper tomorrow. Between the science conference and the visits to the hospital, I will try to post it for your sabbath reading. Do take a look, as it is a passionate, brief response to a guy who wrote a letter-to-the-editor saying we should nuke every town that harbors terrorists. Heaven help us.

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I swiped this from a blogger (Daily Kos, who I know nothing about) who got these links from another guy. They are well worth checking out.

  • Go here for the Wikipedia entry on the bombings.

  • Go here for information on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 over the objections of the U.S. and China.

  • Go here for information and background on John Hersey’s Hiroshima, which is just as stark and compelling as it was on that August, 1946 day when it first appeared as a whole-issue article in The New Yorker.

  • And finally, go to your local independent bookstore and get your own copy of Hiroshima. It should be in every thinking, feeling person’s library.

Amen.
*We have a largebook display set up at the conference of the ASA (The American Scientific Affiliation) which is a broadly evangelical group of scientists and engineers. It is hosted this year at near-by Messiah College and one of our staff and I are working there along with volunteer extraordinare, Scott Calgaro. Thanks to Scott, sponsor, motivator and techie-nerd helper for my blogging efforts who is sitting there even now, allowing me to post this blog and say hello to my family. Thanks to to Jeff Rioux and Derek Melleby for lending hands setting up. I will most likely report about that good event next week, after we lug the boxes back and let the dust settle…

new Donald Miller: Through Painted Deserts

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I just got back from the hospital–an experience I wrote briefly and poorly about in a reply to a comment from the last posting (if anybody cares about such things.) I am tired and choked up, fuzzy and unsure. Yet, this is my life–I am with my dying father-in-law and come back to the house, which is in the same building as the bookstore, and I can’t help myself. Gotta see what came in today. After 23 years, the big UPS boxes and smaller padded envelopes from the mail person, still feel a bit like Christmas.
So I have to tell ya: today was a winner. Some good stuff, brand new and nifty, stacked up all over the place. Keep checking back here as I might tell you about some.
One, though, needs blogged about here and now, late as it may be. Telling you about this may be helpful to you and it will surely lift my spirits.
Through Painted Deserts: Light, God and Beauty on the Open Road by Donald Miller, is the long-awaited re-issue of his first book. For those who don’t know, Donald Miller is the hipster, evangelical counterpart to Anne Lamott and writes (usually) like a dream. Funny, a bit jaded, stream-of-consciousness, dripping with post-modern irony, and then not, clever, clever and then plain as day. Honest. Really, really enjoyable, and pretty insightful, too, for being 20-something. His books Blue Like Jazz (and the better, next one, Searching for God Knows What) have got the biggest buzz sort of thing going we’ve seen in years and years. Everywhere we go we hear people talking. Sometimes, people even buy them from us. And then they come back and buy more.
As well they should. I swear we were among the first to cheer for his first pretty good book–parts were truly great–that we so enjoyed. It was called Prayer and the Art of Volkswagon Maintenance and we reviewed it at our monthly book review column, back before we were ever on line. (In those days, the review was in a lovely little newsletter published mostly for the staff of the Coalition for Christian Outreach, a campus ministry outfit around Pittsburgh.) Oddly, few really knew that the title was a play on the classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance so they didn’t get the pun from the git-go. And, Miller was post-moderny Gen X before evangelical-dum knew there was such a thing.
My friend Terry Glaspy is a genius reader and writer who works for a, shall we say, less than scholarly publishing house, known for cheesy gift books and bad romances. Terry gets some fine writers on board with this low-end company and has steadily made them a better house. I am glad for his fidelity there and when he called me, years ago, and said they had secured the manuscript for a guy smart enough to riff on ZatAofMM I took his word for it. I read it early, wrote about it with gusto and, despite the couple I sold to CCO staff, it went out of print. Terry, as is sometimes the case, broke a great author, and a bigger publisher–Thomas Nelson–made him famous. (He doesn’t really seem like a Word-Nelson author to me, either, but that is another story…)
Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What really are finely written, memoiristic ruminations, and a joy to behold. This brand new edition of Prayer and the Art... with its new title, is considerably re-written, expanded, revised. And the cover is a stunner. It really looks like the kind of book you ought to have laying around, if you know anybody under, like, 30. It is going to be a bohemian, Christian classic. And that isn’t a bad thing. It really is about him driving around and praying for his too-often breaking down VW van. If you want to check him out, go to www.Bluelikejazz.com or www.theburnsidewriterscollective.com. But please motor back here and order ’em from us.
Through Painted Deserts: Light, God and Beauty on the Open Road Donald Miller (Nelson) $13.99

How to best bring Liberty to Captives…

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As you know, I have written passionately about my own journey as a follower of Christ and how that has led me to embrace many causes and concerns about social justice, peacemaking, racial justice and the like. In July, at my monthly book review column, I commented on books by Ron Sider and other important resources for those who want to respond to GodÕs call to be agents of ChristÕs justice. It tells some of the “Hearts & Minds story” and suggests some important books, so please check it out if you haven’t by clicking here.
I recently read two articles in last week’s New York Times Sunday Magazine which I promptly wrote to a dear, dear friend about. He is a Biblically faithful and very wise leader of those who desire to make a difference in the world and the fruit of his ministry can be seen in folks taking up challenging and important work all over the world, inspired by this guy’s mentoring care.
I wanted my friend to read these two pieces—one a wrong-headed but important critique of agencies like International Justice Mission which works to rescue children out of sexual slavery and the other a brief reflection on an aid worker in Haiti who was kidnapped and robbed. For those of us who care about these things, and who involve ourselves (or try to get others involved) these are the kind of things that come up.
So: no big book reviews today, but it is worth logging in to the Times on line (for free) to read these brief pieces.
Here is an expanded version of some of what I wrote to my friend:
…Anyway, I wanted to tell you about a piece I read in the New York Times Sunday Magazine last Sunday, which offered some interesting critiques of the work of our friends at the International Justice Mission (IMJ) and other rescue groups. Rosemary Barbero, who works out of Cambodia, a woman whose work the story explores, organizes prostitutes and garment workers and thinks that the rescue efforts (except when applied to children, as IJM most-often does) may make matters worse.
You know that I/we have long talked about and worked for the reform of institutions and, when it comes up with younger students, they wonder if all institutions can be restored in normative ways. What does it mean to bring GodÕs principles into every kind of social organization or cultural pattern? Can every institution be reclaimed in a Godly fashion? What about advertising, Hollywood, giant corporations, the military? Yes, yes, we say (well, at least I do!) Sometimes, though, there are some organizations (organized crime) or cultural patterns that simply cannot be reformed. Prostitution, for instance, is so thoroughly wrong that we must say that it cannot be “redeemed” but only eliminated. (It is, as all sin, though, a serious distortion of a creational goodÑsexual activity is not of itself wrong, of course. But an institution that traffics in such an obviously evil distortion of GodÕs intentions cannot be reformed. It must be resisted.) So I would imagine that we would agree with efforts to link foreign aid programs to anti-prostitution measures, as the Bush administration has done. (The fascinating story that I mentioned starts off by noting that the government of Brazil recently rejected $40 million in American AIDS financing because of restrictions the U.S. would have imposed on groups that work with prostitutes.)
So, in this article, Ms Barbero, an aid worker and experienced human rights activist, says, (through secular lenses that do not have a Biblical view on these things, of course) that after being ÒrescuedÓ women are then consigned to violence and the indignity of sweatshops, which she maintains is a worse option. She opposes these uniform efforts to link foreign aid to shutting down brothels, and suggests that organizing prostitutes is a step in the right direction of self-determination and safety, etc. She wonders if some highly-publicized rescues are self-serving, with the agenda of the rescue group more important than the actual lives of the actual people they are trying to help. It is a case she doesnÕt exactly document in any detail, but the charge made me think; at the very least it was another voice in the complex matter of creating movements for social transformation. Reading Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger or being active in Bread for the World sure does take us a long way into the world of global justice, but it never got to the details of this! We sure do have a lot to learn!
I gag at Ms BarberoÕs assumptions about some of this, of course, but still think it is a critique we need to hear and respond to. (And I am sure Gary Haugen or the staff of IJM is well equipped from a Christian worldview to thoroughly do so; perhaps he should write a piece in to the Times.) We should think about her critique, though. Is severe economic exploitation ever worse than sexual exploitation? Are safer brothels better than unsafe ones? And how does the economics of poverty create a climate for womenÕs opting to be involved in such sad matters? [And, if you read my book review column in July you may note that I commented on a great new book, Travels of a T-Shirt that suggests “sweat shops” are not as bad, given the options, as we sometimes make them out to be, especially for women. I would be interested in BarberoÕs reply; in Travels… the author suggests that in China, many garment factory workers use their first paychecks to pay off the guy who had previously paid a dowry that would have consigned the women to an arranged marriage. Working in the factory, it is argued, is a step up the ladder, away from the injustices of the traditional village.]
So, for the record, I do not agree with the woman interviewed in this anti-rescue story, but since I know you sometimes mention this topic in your public speaking, and have been helpful to Gary H at key moments in the formation of IJM (do you recall that you had him call me when he was still at the State Department; I still feel honored to have had that simple conversation) and that your heart has had you follow these human rights struggles, I thought you may want to see this important little story, hear of this woman’s “on the ground” alternative plan, and wonder how to be Biblically faithful and structurally wise in efforts to build systems that can truly help. I am sure the staff at IJM have heard this criticism before, but to see IJM mentioned in the New York Times Magazine in this rather off-handed way which implies they aren’t really helping as much as they think they are was shocking. It is worth reading. The Question of Rescue by Matt Steinglass (7-24-05.)

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By the way, in the same New York Times Sunday Magazine issue last week (7-31-05) there was a very, very moving story of a woman who has worked in Haiti much of her adult life, in a family planning non-profit. She was kidnapped, nearly killed, robbed by desperate men and she told of her ordeal, her anguish and yet her understanding of conditions that have created such despair and anger.
She writes,

The strange thing was that I knew the men who were doing this. I donÕt mean that I knew them personally, but I knew all about them. IÕm a medical anthropologist, and I went to Haiti to help solve the public health problems resulting from too many people in too little space. I believed that family planning would help. I spent 10 years living and working with the masses in Cite Soleil—a harsh, urban landfill in Port-au-PrinceÉIn many ways, I had watched the gunmen grow upÉ

The rest of the piece is riveting and you should read it for yourself. She hopes to return again someday, but for now, she says, must give her “Haiti eyes” a rest.
For those of us who challenge people to go into this kind of work, we ourselves must be aware of the serious consequences of the options we commend. I know you know, but since we both have friends in Haiti, this well written piece, again, seemed important to share. It just took my breath away and I had to share it with somebody…thanks for caring. Read the piece, Haiti Eyes by M. Catherine Maternowska (7-24-05.)

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For those that donÕt know, IJM really is an incredibly important group, working out of a thorough and thoughtful Christian worldview, on human rights abuses on the ground, marshalling legal reform and citizen action to document and rescue those victimized by sexual and economic slavery, human trafficking and human rights abuses. Founded by Gary Haugen, his first book gave the vision and is highly recommended for small group study, adult, or teen education or for anyone wanting to understand how Christians can respond to overwhelming social injustice. See The Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World by Gary Haugen (with a forward by John Stott) (IVP) $13.00. There is also a youth kit with videos and such, and an adult-oriented video as well. Excellent.
His next book, which more dramatically documented one of the rescues they accomplishedÑsaving kids from a awful existence as sexual slaves in ThailandÑis told powerfully in Terrify No More (Word) $21.99. I reviewed it at our monthly column at the website in February, weeks after it was released and featured on national TV. Read that review here.

Rainbows for a Fallen World

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Although I blogged a bit about it already, I need to tell you here that a twenty-five plus year old book which is a personal favorite has been re-issued. We are told that it is hard to find, so we are very, very pleased to announce that we have stacks of them. If you’re the silly type, get out the party hats; if you’re more debonair, raise a fine glass of chablis. Blue-collar guys can shout hee-haw. And all of us can whisper a prayer of gratitude, giving thanks to God for this good moment.

I don’t exactly know what makes a bona fide “underground classic” but Rainbows for a Fallen World (Toronto Tuppence Press; $30.00) must be one, though: a classic; highly, highly regarded over time, considered seminal by people in the know, and yet not widely distributed. An underground classic? Like when some few of us loved the first novel of David James Duncan (The River Why, of course) or the Dimension Press early era of Brennan Manning (ooh, remember that reference in the liner notes of Cockburn’s Nothin’ But a Burning Light that cited “Shipwrecked at the Stable Door”?) Knowing Calvin Seerveld’s work is like that, like knowing a secret handshake, or having the decoder ring, but one you want to share. The eyes widen, the pulse quickens–you know Seerveld, too?—we ask, expectantly. I remember what thrill it was when a significant recording artist that we enjoyed found out we had a few of the last remaining copies of Rainbows.. and called us long-distance to order them. This is, indeed, an underground classic.

Fans of the underground classic may browbeat the uninitiated sometimes. (Me? Do that?) “You must read Cal Seerveld!” I’ve heard scores of smart artists say to their colleagues or fans. “You have to get Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves,” they insist as they name the chapter about which they are most fond. (The speech he gave at the Greenbelt festival in England isn’t a bad choice for my money.) Singer-song-writers or literary types, too, have been scolded by Seerveldistas for admitting to not having A Christian Critique of Art & Literature. If they are truly in the know, they explain about his 60’s era college chapel talks, still in print from a press in England, called Take Hold of God and Pull. (Of course if they are really in the know, they know that Hearts & Minds carries them all, and that my webpage columns archived from years ago, have reviewed or commented upon them often. But now I am being self-indulgent, something I suppose Seerveld would not approve of.)

Now that Eerdmans has released Seerveld’s re-working of Psalms for liturgical singing, Voicing God’s Psalms (Eerdmans; $24.00 w/ CD) and it has been advertised in mainline denominational magazines (like The Lutheran and The Christian Century), folks outside of the Christian arts community or the Dutch CRC circles in Canada, those that scraped and saved to support the radical Christian grad school where Seerveld taught, the Institute for Christian Studies, will come to know him. It is a perfect time to re-issue Rainbows for the Fallen World.

Rainbows for a Fallen World by Calvin Seeveld is a truly extra-ordinary book for several reasons.

First, there is the topic. In a sentence, Rainbows is about being imaginative. (Seerveld doesn’t, for good philosophical reasons which he explains, appreciate the more commonly used word “creative” which, he says, carries certain baggage that is unbecoming of a Christian worldview. I am sure he is right, but it makes hard to describe, since that is such common parlance.) He makes a great point, that just like play and exercise, for instance, are not just for professional athletes, so living out a Christ-honoring joyfulness that opens up the aesthetic dimension of life is a call for us all, not just for artists. God wants us, and the creation is ordered, to have us be “imaginative” and playfully suggestive, allusive–“creative.” Again, living with an awareness of economics, for instance, isn’t just for professional bankers, so, Seerveld explains, a sense of beauty and the aesthetic dimension in all of life, should be nurtured and developed and attended to as part of our walk with God. All of us, not just athletes should care about bodily health; all of us, not just bankers should care about finances; all of us, not just artists, should care about the joy of a mature aesthetic life. Makes sense, no?

There has been an outpouring in recent years (indeed, in recent months, as we shall see) of books about significant and good Christian involvement in the visual arts. We will cheer and hubba- hubba that too (see below.) But it is rare—rare!—to find anyone seriously calling on us all to live more artistically, to be obedient to God’s invitation to live with aesthetic awareness, to open up that allusive side of life. This is not just art appreciation for non-artists (a worthy enough project itself, I suppose.) It is, rather, a call to be living in response to creational norms–God’s righteous precepts structured into the very fabric of reality, the way things really are—such as nuance, creativity, suggestion, allusiveness, surprise, aesthetic, sport, musicality, humor, inventiveness, discovery, wonder, texture. Yes, we should care about “the arts” proper. Equally, God invites us into a world where we are priests in a colorful creation, where we attend to the joy of beauty all around us.

Edith Schaeffer helped many see this quite practically in her wonderful book, The Hidden Art of Homemaking (Tyndale; $10.99.) That is still a classic text in the L’Abri circles and we enjoy its commonplace wisdom. Seerveld here takes that nice notion and runs with it a city-block and a country-mile. (The only other book that truly approximates this arena of concern in a sustained way is the wonderful, and beautifully packaged Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring by Andi Ashworth (Shaw Press; $10.99.)

Secondly, Rainbows for a Fallen World is a wonderful book because it shows us that Christian scholarship can be helpful to ordinary folks—and Seerveld is an impeccable scholar, reading regularly in numerous languages, digging deep into the history of philosophy, struggling very hard with and against scholarly principalities and powers, working to “take every thought/theory captive” as the New Testament demands. He shows us that Christian scholarship bears fruit not only by making reforming contributions in the academy but also by undergirding and nurturing the very real lives of fellow saints. Seerveld often exclaims that Christian scholars give their work away to one and all–fellow academics, seekers, skeptics and the befuddled person in the pew. I believe his arcane and detailed work in the philosophy of aesthetics and the history of attitudes about creation and bodilyness and the human ability to imagine, construct, create and construe all bears good fruit in his serious academic journal articles and professorial work as well as in his more popular level stuff offered in books like Rainbows and Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves. Thanks be to God for scholars like Seerveld who also make their life (academic) hard work available just like this, for all of us.

Too many books exist, I think–many pretty good and some quite fine– telling pastors how to “equip the saints” by which they mean discovering gifts and talents for service in the church. Fine. How many books tell you, though, how to think Christianly about the world of images around us? How to faithfully consider fabric or color or tone; why to tell a good joke or how to more thoughtfully set your table? That link the appreciation of poetry with the reading of the Bible, and our daily fidelity? That remind us that media literacy and the art of enjoying film is part of our privilege as adopted children of God? How to run with joy in a manner that gives creativity and beauty (properly understood) their generous due in a life of wholistic discipleship? How often are we really equipped to resist the commercialization of everything (and the subsequent WalMarting of America) and to rather support local Christian artisans as a matter of Christian principle and as part of our discipleship? What books have told you that the Holy One disapproves of kitsch “art” or warn that cheap sentimentality isn’t healthy in romance novels? How many books or sermons on “Christian living” tell you that God cares about color?

God cares. Seerveld helps us understand this. He has used his Biblically-trained heart/mind to do good and serious work, which he then offers as a gift for any takers. This give-the-full-gospel-away by living it out in concert with others whose lives are truly integrated from a Christian center is an important theme for Seerveld. He has worked hard over a lifetime as activist-scholar and has earned the right to be taken seriously. I hope that many will respect his efforts and seriously respond to his work.

Thirdly, Rainbows for a Fallen World is, in most places, jam packed with Bible. Bible, Bible, Bible. Of course in good Calvinist fashion, he turns the Bible as a miner’s light (Calvin’s 16th century image) which shines into the darkness, illuminating our jobs (we obviously ought not stare into the light, which is beyond dumb); he allows the Bible to illuminate–a light before our paths! For the Scriptural vision to illumine things, though, we do have to attend to the text–understand the world in light of Word, creation illuminated by Biblical truth. And so, Seerveld not only talks about creational norms and art and beauty and human responsibility to disclose the aesthetic dimension, he does this in light of Biblical texts. His opening mediation on Psalm 19 is worth the price of the book and I have read it dozens of times. Seerveld doesn’t just know a lot of Bible verses, he knows them deeply and how they fit together, forming a consistent and integrated whole.

Because Seerveld as a Christ-follower invites us to develop a Biblically-driven vision of song, dance, play, wonder, beauty, and the like, he necessarily goes to the creation itself. That is, after all, what the Bible says to do (see the aforementioned meditation on Psalm 19.) Seerveld beautifully and powerfully preaches what John 1 and Colossians 1 have so powerfully taught: that Christ’s Lordship plays out over all of creation, that Jesus is saving His fallen planet, that redemption is a restoration of creation and that therefore the rather ordinary stuff of Earth is the theatre of redemption. To appreciate any of God’s good world–in this case, the role of creativity and beauty, and the arts—we must study the Bible and be attentive to creational reality, distorted as it may be East of Eden. “This Is Our Father’s World” starts the old hymn and it is a core theme for Seerveld, a foundational conviction for work in the arts. I never understood the multi-varied dimensions of the doctrine of creation until I studied Rainbows. (An aside: I must mention again the new book I gave quick notice of a month or two ago: T.M. Moore’s very accessible study of Jonathan Edward’s view of creation, which allows Mr. Moore to call for a vigorous and Biblically orthodox responsibility for things such as stewardly, creation-care, daily work, politics, play, and, yes, the arts! See his Consider the Lilies: A Plea for Creational Theology published by Presbyterian & Reformed, $16.99.) Seerveld brings out this whole-life, creation-regained, reformational worldview stuff with as much pizzazz and energy as any writer of our time. He helps us understand the Bible and the Bible for life in God’s creation. Seerveld attention to the foundations of such a multi-faceted worldview, seeing faith as a way of life in the creation where the Kingdom is a-coming (as he sometimes puts it), is why there is also an anthology of diverse topics on which Seerveld has written; In The Fields of the Lord: A Calvin Seerveld Reader (Toronto Tuppence Press; $30.00) is a splendid introduction to his work on Biblical study, philosophy, education, labor, social action, worship renewal, liturgy and, of course, aesthetic theory and the arts. I reviewed that, too, several years ago; click HERE for that Hearts & Minds column from May of 2001

Lastly, I commend Rainbows because it is so unusually written. Nobody writes like Calvin Seerveld. For some, it will be an acquired taste. True to his vision, his words are often playful (other times deadly serious), his sentences are long, his grammar, at times, peculiar (at least for English speakers.) What fun! I love picking up a paragraph–sometimes just at random in the bathroom—and rolling it around on my brain. Or speaking it out loud, just to hear and feel the cadence. This is eccentric, passionate and mature writing. Book-lovers of all sorts will most likely concur: Seerveld’s got a way with words.

There is a fly in the ointment, though. A couple of the chapters are difficult. Alongside beautiful writing about how being more open to suggestion-rich, allusive creativity will help us, say, read the Bible better, or do education more wisely, is a chapter on–it had to happen, believe me—aesthetic theory. I recently told a young friend and Seerveld enthusiast that I tell people to skip that chapter and he looked at me as if I’d burped, or worse.

So, I won’t tell you to skip that chapter. (It’s chapter 4, if you must know.) The first two pages of that technical chapter tells you exactly what he’s doing, arguing philosophically for the fact that there is an aesthetic dimension to reality, something he shows, we know intuitively, regardless of what secular philosophers or neo-Gnostic Christians say. He humbly admits to being a bit of a trailblazer, trying to construe and think through and lay out the contours of a uniquely Christian reformed philosophy of aesthetics. There are only a small handful of other thinkers that are Biblically-driven and seriously philosophical these days who would be his equal, including his old friend Nicholas Wolterstorff (see Art in Action, another serious, scholarly work that is highly regarded) and one of Seerveld’s finest students, Lambert Zuidervaart, whose scholarly two-volume work on Cambridge University Press (Artistic Truth: Aesthetics, Discourse and Imaginative Disclosure) is being taken very seriously in the high-octane worlds of philosophical publishing, even at $75.00 (the second volume will come out in a year or so.) Jeremy Begbie’s very helpful book, Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts (T & T Clark; $49.95) has a major section exploring Cal’s work. Seerveld is foundational for understanding these other writers and, even that hard chapter, is fun, if one wants to dig deep.

Let me be succinct. Rainbows for a Fallen World, happily now available again, is an underground classic. I want it to be less underground. I think it is important because (a) it is about a side of discipleship that we rarely hear about, the call to live an aesthetically-rich life, colorful and open to God’s beautiful world, and (b) it is rooted in solid, hard-earned scholarship, written by one of the great Christian thinkers in North America, and (c) it is thoroughly, seriously, and provocatively Biblical, and (d) it is well, well-written, delightfully pushing the very limits of prose, making it a joy and creative experience just to read.. Oh, and there is that challenging chapter 4. For some, that may be the most important, even if some of us just skim it. A text that does any one of these may be a book that is well-worth having and working with; that Rainbows is just such a rich text makes it one of the grandest titles of which we know. We are happy to celebrate its re-release.

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I have gone on at length about Seerveld, but what’s a guy to do when he loves a book like this? Underground classic that it is, I had to tell you a lot about it.

So, now, I feel like I ought not presume upon too much more of your time to explore in detail about the other marvelous new books on the arts that we now have it stock. So I will limit our telling to four. (If you need an annotated listing of several of our favorite most basic books which explore the arts from a Christian perspective, please see the section on our website marked “Books by Vocation” by clicking here.)

Please know of our amazement and full appreciation of these marvelous new titles:

The Next Generation: Contemporary Expressions of Faith Patrician Pongracz and Wayne Roosa (Eerdmans) $60.00 This is the stunning and very comprehensive book that coincided with the opening of the new MOBIA museum in New York city. The Museum of Biblical Art is a new, edgy museum in SoHo which is showcasing art about faith, Biblically-influenced art, and works that fit the general theme of modern art & the Bible. It is significantly supported by the American Bible Society and its directors include CIVA’s Sandra Bowden. It is arranged by artist, with art pieces wonderfully reproduced showing examples of the likes of diverse artists, diverse artists, but also evangelical artists such as well-known CIVA greats, Albert Pedulla, Makoto Fujimura, Edward Knippers, Kathy Hettinga, Tyrus Clutter, Bruce Herman, Christine and Donald Forsthe et al; happily it shows an array of other brilliant artists that are new to me. This goodly, hardback collection is thrilling, with two lengthy essays included.

A Broken Beauty edited by Theodore Prescott (Eerdmans; $35.00) This stellar coffee table book is compiled by Messiah College professor and excellent contemporary artist, Ted Prescott. Here, he has compiled serious academic essays about the arts and illustrated them with breathtaking ancient, classic and modern pieces, pieces that portray the human person. The theme, as the title suggests, is not just generally about the relationship of art and Christian faith, but how human embodiedness and deep brokenness exists amidst fragments of beauty. As William Dyrness says in a back jacket blurb, “A Broken Beauty represents a milestone in the discussion of Christian art”¦(it) may help us recover our own humanity.”

Mako Fujimura writes of it, “it is a dialogue of hope suffused with the knowledge and angst of the twentieth century that now affect the dialogue of visual arts in the twenty-fist century. Its ambition and scope, its theological depth and breadth of expression leave me with wonderment and delight.” We are proud to know Ted and to commend this well-produced oversized book.

Over at my blog last month, after spending en evening with friends Leslie and Ned Bustard, who help run Square Halo books, I wrote this about my first glance at two more great new art books which they are publishing. Listen in as a recall:

Last evening, we actually got to pick up and hold the brand new collection that they designed for CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) entitled Faith + Vision: Twenty-five Years of Christians in the Visual Arts Compiled by Sandra Bowden (Square Halo Books; $49.99) It is a spectacularly glorious example of contemporary artists and (taa-daaa) they were kind enough to use a blurb by me on the back (I had seen all the advance page proofs and text before.) The book deserves a more lengthy evaluation, but for now, here is what I wrote about it upon first seeing it:

Nicholas Wolterstorff reflects in his important introduction upon the double alienation felt by many of the artists whose work graces this gorgeous book and it is a tough testimony that should be read by church folk everywhere; what damage we have done to hinder the artists amongst us, what a mediocre ethos we have too often created which discourages those with gifts of brooding allusiveness, creative imaginativity or colorful joy. But his pondering is only part of the story: herein is documented in word and image, the pages of this book record the glorious work of an organization dedicated to supporting the Christian artist. CIVA is a wonderful association and this book shows off the God-blessed glory of their members’ work in extraordinary fashion. Thank God for the gentle steadfastness of CIVA, for those who compiled this excellent book, and for Square Halo who publishes manna like this.

Joyfully and significantly, Square Halo also produced a collected volume of the important work of Sandra Bowden (herself a notable leader in CIVA and a wonderful art collector and artists.) Not only does The Art of Sandra Bowden (Square Halo Books; $49.99) showcase beautiful reproductions of Sandra’s fine work, it has criticism and essays and tributes to her by some thoughtful essayists (like the very sharp NY critic, James Romaine.) This is a beautiful, beautiful book and to see it, too, while trying to sip white wine with Ned and Leslie and keep an eye on our passel of young daughters, was nearly overwhelming. Maybe like you, I will have to save my nickels and dimes and buy these as soon as I can. In the meantime, they will soon grace the shelves of Hearts & Minds. We want to support Square Halo and get their good books into stores, reviewed, and bought and given as gifts. Know anybody that cares about God’s glory being seen in a respectable renewal of faith-based modern art? Their earlier books, too, can be seen by visiting their website— www.squarehalobooks.com.

Well, my enthusiasm has not waned, and we trust that our customers and friends understand that our promotion of these books is done for the sake of God’s reputation in the world–may Christ receive glory!—and for the betterment of our broken and sad world—may these allusive bits of color and suggestion provide healing and hope for you and your neighbors. And, may it remind you, dear reader who has endured my sincerity long enough, that the arts matter, of Seerveld’s radical insight about all of life having an aesthetic dimension, and, in deed, that God so loved the world”