-
Tali Lowenthal: ‘Can Sin Be Forgiven?’
Dr. Tali Loewenthal was born in Haifa and directs the Chabad Research Unit, lectures in the University College on Jewish Spirituality, and he has authored “Communicating the Infinite, the emergence of the Habad School” and many scholarly and popular articles. Here’s his reflection on Moses in the cleft of the rock, titled “At The Highest Level.” I found in it deep wisdom for Lent.
“Can sin be forgiven? Can it be erased? Can it even be transformed into good? In the book of Exodus we read about the events relating to the making of the Golden Calf. This was an unfortunate transgression in which large numbers of Jews took part, combining idolatry, immorality and murder. Wisely, the women in the community kept away and so did the Levites.
After this mass betrayal of G-d and His teachings, Moses had to plead with G-d in order to prevent the Jewish people from being destroyed. For forty days he pleaded, alone on Mount Sinai, and was finally successful. G-d would bring the Jewish people to the Promised Land, and the broken Tablets of the Law would be replaced.
The interesting thing about this revelation, is that it comes in the form of a prayer At this moment we are introduced to another aspect of Moses: the person who seeks the deepest level of contact with G-d. He asks: “Show me Your Glory.” Moses wanted to reach the closest intimation of G-dliness possible for a human being.
G-d answered that He will put Moses in the crevice of the rock and grant him a vision of something of the Divine Glory. However, not everything can be revealed, for “man cannot see Me and live.”
Then comes the promised revelation. This is one of the most remarkable moments in the life of Moses and in the entire Torah. The interesting thing about this revelation of G-d, is that it comes in the form of a prayer. G-d teaches a prayer to Moses, a prayer which we recite in the synagogue. It is called the “Thirteen Attributes of Mercy”:
-
State Dept’s Latest Wrong-Headed Analysis of Keystone XL Pipeline
Today, the State Department issued its next draft of the supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) assessing the northern route of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. Officially, the State Department does not make any recommendations on whether the pipeline should be approved or denied. But the summation language is all to the positive — making it clear that the State Department still doesn’t understand global warming and its disastrous consequences.
I’m sure the scientists, p0licy analysts, and environmentalists among us will soon sort out and explain the hundreds of pages released by the State Department today. But until then, here’s the part I found most significant: “The life-cycle carbon footprint, for transportation fuels produced in U.S. refineries, would increase if the project were approved.”
(From Appendix W, Life Cycle GHG Emissions Compared, March 2013, p 65-66)
Please note that this information is buried way way way deep in the documents. The general summary by the State Department is favorable toward industry and the pipeline, though there are some conclusions drawn that I think are not supportable.
For example, the State Department assessment is that if the Keystone XL is not approved, there is very little chance that this will stop or significantly slow TransCanada’s mining project. The State Department is basing this assessment on information from the industry, particularly the American Petroleum Institute.
However, it is not taking into account the civil resistance along the pipeline routes in both the US and Canada that is effectively blocking or slowing construction. It also doesn’t reflect what two of Canada’s largest banks, TD Economics and CIBC, have recently said that without added capacity, “Canada’s oil industry is facing a serious challenge to its long-term growth” and that “Canada needs pipe — and lots of it — to avoid the opportunity cost of stranding over a million barrels a day of potential crude oil growth.”
There is also a climate change section included in this assessment that would be laughable if it weren’t so painful. Section 4.14, Climate Change Impacts on the Proposed Project, profiles the effect of climate change on TransCanada’s bottom dollar. For example, the report looks at how increased heavy rain and flooding in areas along the pipeline route may increase TransCanada’s maintenance costs due to erosion, pipe damage, etc.
Additionally, the third-party assessor hired by TransCanada to provide an environmental and cultural impact report on the pipeline route relies on an acoustical engineer for greenhouse gas analysis.
In a Jan. 15 letter to President Obama, 18 top U.S. climate scientists urged him to reject the Keystone XL pipeline:
Eighteen months ago some of us wrote you about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, explaining why in our opinion its construction ran counter to both national and planetary interests. Nothing that has happened since has changed that evaluation; indeed, the year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is.
We hope, as scientists, that you will demonstrate the seriousness of your climate convictions by refusing to permit Keystone XL; to do otherwise would be to undermine your legacy.
The Obama Administrations has promised action on climate change but if it is approved, the administration would be actively supporting and encouraging the growth of an industry that has demonstrably serious effects on climate. Once this draft SEIS has been published by the EPA, the public will have 45 days to comment on the document. (Direct comments to: keystonecomments at state.gov.)
-
Timothy Shriver: ‘The Next Pope Should Be a Mystic’
An excellent reflection on the sede vacante, the vacant seat of St. Peter.
Mother Teresa’s feet and sandals. A reminder to the next pope. “There’s no need to rehash the recent disastrous track record of the all-male Roman Catholic hierarchy. The sordid abuse of children by priests, the sinister coverups, the callous treatment of nuns, the deaf ear turned toward Catholics who happen to be gay or divorced — it’s all on the front page. The Catholic Church is hemorrhaging moral authority.
What’s much more devastating is that it is losing believers, too. If you can’t trust the messengers, why trust the message? It is not too much to say that the crisis in the church is contributing to a crisis of faith in the Gospel itself.
This is a crisis not of management nor of theology. This is a crisis of the spirit. But before the church can address its great moral collapse, it will have to recover its spiritual bearings. The next pope should be a mystic.
A mystic? Absolutely! Contrary to popular perception, a mystic is not a magician or a crystal-ball-gazer. A mystic is rather a person who has had an experience of God’s love so unmistakable that it changes him or her forever, imparting a confidence that cannot be shaken, a humility that cannot be doubted, a freedom that exudes love and gentleness and authenticity. A mystic knows from experience, not books, that we are each beautiful beyond our understanding, loved beyond our capacity to love, united beyond our perceptions of difference and division.” —Timothy Shriver is the chairman of Special Olympics.
Read the whole column.
-
Caryll Houselander: ‘Christ Was A Poet’
by Vivian Maier “The Child Christ lives on from generation to generation in the poets, very often the frailest of [mortals], but [mortals] whose frailty is redeemed by a child’s unworldliness, by a child’s delight in loveliness, by the spirit of wonder.
Christ was a poet, and all through his life the Child remains perfect in him. It was the poet, the unworldly poet, who was king of the invisible kingdom; the priests and rulers could not understand that. The poets understand it, and they, too, are kings of the invisible kingdom, vassal kings of the Lord of Love, and their crowns are crowns of thorns indeed.”–Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God
-
Tar Sands Blockade and John 15
As President Obama winds down two American war fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, what will he do about the war at home? Watch this 50-minute video to better understand the nonviolent war being waged by Americans in Texas and Oklahoma against a foreign company which has hired a private army to protect its corporate interests.
From a Christian perspective, the moral war against the Keystone XL pipeline and bitumen tar mining has already been won, as our evangelicals brethren would say, in “the Lordship of Jesus Christ.” The Tar Sands Blockade and the nonviolent war being waged to defend God’s land and people is what the real “new evangelism” looks like: chaining oneself to corporate bulldozers, living in tree sits for months on end to protect the forest, living in a concrete pipe to shut down the construction zone, walking through burn zones to protect property lines, being dragged away by “off-duty police” hired as private security.
Isn’t this what Jesus talked about when he said, “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends” (John 15:13)? I think it is.
Here’s more about the film and filmmaker:
-
Tertullian: ‘Then Art of Prayer’
St. Seraphim and the Bear “[Prayer’s] only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look up to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion. The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross and give voice to what seems to be a prayer.
What more need be said on this duty of prayer? Even the Lord himself prayed. To him be honor and power for ever and ever. Amen.” — Tertullian (3rd century), from “On Prayer” (Chapter 29)
-
Walter Brueggemann: Empire vs Neighborhood
Our friends over at Work of the People have a short interview with Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann on the relationship of liberating neighborhoods within the context of empire. Much of what I wrote in Who Killed Donte Manning? explores this same theme. The video is about 4 minutes.
-
Lent: This Weeping Buddha
This weeping Buddha is my companion in Lent.
He sits at the foot of the cross above my desk.
For all his strength, he is bound.
For all his worldliness, he is alone.
And he weeps …It is Lent.
-
Keystone Pipeline Will Be Stopped By A Miracle
200 Christians and other faiths gather at pre-rally prayer service. People of Faith are in the ‘miracle business’
An estimated 200 people of faith gathered in Washington, D.C., on Sunday morning in preparation for the Forward on Climate Rally on the National Mall. The brief prayer service preceded the larger rally of an estimated 40,000 people urging President Barack Obama to take action against climate change and to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Mirele Goldsmith of Jews Against Hydrofracking reminded the gathering of faithful that in Jewish teaching “if something is right it is kosher and if it is wrong it is not kosher.” Climate change, she said, is “not kosher.” Opening the Alberta tar sands to exploitation is “not kosher.” She offered a traditional Jewish blessing to be said when one encounters natural wonders.
Alycia Ashburn, climate change organizer for the Christian social justice group Sojourners, offered a rousing roll call of the groups present for the prayer service in sub-freezing temperatures with a 20 mph wind, including co-sponsor Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVA), Catholic Workers, Franciscan Action Network, The Shalom Center, Christians for the Mountains, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, Green Faith, Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Karuna Buddhist Vihara, Kids vs Global Warming, Maryknoll, and Green Hevra.
Sojourners’ Rose Berger fired up the group by saying, “Some people claim it will take a miracle to turn the oil companies around. Some people say it will take a miracle to reverse climate change. It’s a good thing we are people in the miracle business. We understand the mechanics of miracles and we are going to make it happen. As people of faith, we are the leaven, the yeast of this movement. We are the catalyst. Let’s move forward on climate in the wonder-working power of the Spirit.”
As the interreligious, multi-faith rally marched down the National Mall toward the Washington Monument, they joined forces with Unitarian Universalists and Jews for Peace as they all moved into the main body of the demonstration. On stage the Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus and Methodist environmentalist Bill McKibben stirred up the crowd by preaching “By God, we are going to stop this [Keystone XL] pipeline and get this country to take action on climate change.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post identified Mirele Goldsmith as with Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, which is now known as Interfaith Power & Light (MD.DC.NoVA).
See more coverage here:
http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2013/02/17/1926493/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/business/energy-environment/obamas-keystone-pipeline-decision-risks-new-problems-either-way.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-17/thousands-protest-keystone-pipeline-in-washington-march.html -
When ExxonMobil Gags American Dissent
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson (©Mannie Garcia/ Greenpeace) Sunday’s Forward on Climate rally may be the largest climate justice rally in U.S. history. And why not? Isn’t it in everyone’s self interest to reverse global warming and get our planet back to a healthy temperature equivalent of our 98.6F?
Apparently not.
Last week The Other 98%, Oil Change International, and Environmental Action (all pro-human life groups for restoring climate health) put their heads together and crowdfunded a satirical Public Service Announcement to air on FOX during President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Didn’t see it? Missed the 30 seconds of climate sanity on prime time television? So did everyone. A few hours before airtime, Exxon threatened Comcast with a “cease and desist” order.
According to reports, the ad was scheduled to air Tuesday in Houston, Texas, and Denver, Colo. But a senior vice president of Universal McCann, global media lackeys for Exxon Mobil, sent an email to Comcast, which provides programming in those areas.
“Please let this serve as an official cease & desist notification that claims made by Oil Change International that their claims in any spot that ‘ExxonMobil Hates Your Children‘ is false and unsubstantiated,” the email stated. ” ExxonMobil fully expects the spot in question to be pulled down immediately,” the email continued. “Any delay in executing this cease & desist will be viewed as willful defamation and slander of the Exxon Mobil Corporation and will result in aggressive action.” At last count the ad has been viewed over 195,000 times on YouTube. I swear, you can’t make this stuff up.
Why do the most powerful people in the world always have the most sensitive egos? Why? Because of organizing rule #273: “If you think something is too small to matter, you’ve obviously never been in a tent with a mosquito.” And because of the Margaret Mead codicil: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
At tomorrow’s rally on the National Mall, there also will be “Light Brigade” counter-protestors, who are members of an anti-Christian, Libertarian, for-profit company called the Center for Industrial Progress (CIP) and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). (Their founder was proudly trained at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California.)As a for-profit company, CIP and CFACT don’t have to reveal their financials, but they are part of the ground troops hired by the oil and gas industry – and funded by the Koch brothers – to disrupt conversation on climate change.
As long as there is no coherent public conversation on climate change then there can be no public consensus. As long as there is no public consensus, there can be public pressure to remove oil industry subsidies.
As long as American tax payers subsidize oil companies, we won’t seriously invest in renewable energy and a low-carbon energy future. And that, my friends, is in Exxon et al’s best interest.
So tomorrow, we are having a country-wide town hall meeting on the National Mall at noon. We’ll talk about reversing global warming, how to get the boot of the oil and gas industry off our necks and off our land, the need for jobs, living wages, strong labor union, protecting tribal lands, the Keystone XL, John Kerry, and renewable energy.
We’ll have the conversation that Exxon tried to silence; the conversation that President Obama wants to have but can’t (because of the boot). We’ll have that conversation because we’re Americans, dammit, that’s what we do.
Rose Marie Berger, author of Who Killed Donte Manning?, is a Catholic peace activist and a Sojourners associate editor.
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Rose Marie Berger 