More occupation shorts

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement-branded GMC SUV, left, and an ICE-branded Ford pickup are parked at the Capitol on Aug. 13. [Note the "DEFEND THE HOMELAND" tagline.] (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images via Washington Post; trimmed.)

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I'm sure you have more and better sources than this blog to keep up with the chronicle of malice, corruption, and ineptitude that is the USA's current presidential administration. But every once in a while, I want to note, for the record, how utterly bizarre it all is. And it's not just bizarre exhibitionism—you already know that real people are in constant danger, whether they are immigrants and children of immigrants, or targets of Russian guided bombs and drones, or in need of food, health care, shelter, and a safe environment. I'm not even counting those who had once experienced American care through USAID before being cut off by MAGA fiat.

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For me, today's trigger (not the most serious piece of news, but maybe the most ... spiritually symptomatic?) ... was this article in the Washington Post, concerning an urgent government purchase:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND,” according to a contractor’s social media post and records that describe the decked-out fleet as urgently needed in President Donald Trump’s stated mission to improve safety on the streets of the District.

Screenshot from a Homeland Security video on X.

As the article notes, these purchases and decoration orders are not being made through competitive bids. But what really triggered my "occupation" nerves was the following detail. In addition to the vehicles for use in D.C., some specific purchases were made to enhance the image of ICE for recruitment purposes. Here's a quote from the end of the article:

The vehicles the agency proposed purchasing include two Ford Raptors, two GMC Yukon AT4s and two Ford Mustang GTs. ICE wrote in the documents that the Mustangs were “an immediate request by the White House, on Thursday August 7, 2025.” The Mustangs — which are set to cost $121,450 — will aid in recruitment “by serving as a bold, high-performance symbol of innovation, strength and modern federal service,” the documents say.

It all reminded me of the connections Kristin Du Mez has been making for years. For example:

My own research on masculinity focuses on just one facet of the evangelical worldview—but a foundational one. In many ways, gender provides the glue that holds together their larger ideological framework. For years I’ve been tracing evangelicals’ embrace of increasingly militaristic constructions of masculinity, which go hand in hand with visions of the nation as vulnerable and in need of defense.

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Earlier this year, I wrote a couple of posts about the Christian movement that is animating much of MAGA leadership: Are we agents of Lucifer? and Enthusiasm and politics.

Given the depth of religious enthusiasm displayed by these apostles and prophets, I can't help wondering whether they pray for the people they're arresting, deporting, and rendering with wild abandon. I tried putting variously worded questions to Google, along the lines of "Do dominionists pray for the people they arrest?" " Do MAGA Christians pray for immigrants?" Google's AI provides the vaguest of answers, mostly "it depends," with no examples.

I used the specific name of Sean Feucht with one of these questions, and found his prayer for Los Angeles on Facebook, with a fascinating string of comments. One specific prayer struck me right away, but it wasn't Sean's:

We pray God that your mercy comes upon those suffering from massive deportation and family separation, even though they have done nothing deserving of deportation. May your grace touch the hearts of those encouraging hate against immigrants, and turn them into a loving and caring heart....

Google also told me that Feucht has worked on behalf of refugees in the past, so this evident militancy may be part of his more recent MAGA profile.

Signe Wilkinson.

In any case, "What does the Bible say about refugees and immigrants?" The Bible makes no distinction based on what documents the immigrant is holding, but just in case that is the issue, the awkward truth is that Congress has been resisting immigration reform and providing adequate judicial resources for immigrants and asylum seekers for years—not just under Trump.

(One specific border-crossing incident in the Bible fascinates me: the visit of the three wise men to the baby Jesus. See Matthew 2:1-12. They came from abroad to follow the star to Bethlehem, and then defied King Herod by returning home without reporting to him.)

Finally, our Christian MAGA politicians should take note that many (most?) of those being arrested, deported, or rendered may be their Christian brothers and sisters. N.B. When Christians abuse power and mistreat non-Christians, it is just as awful as mistreatment of Christians! Maybe worse, since its gleeful and gratuitous cruelty compromises the reputation of the Gospel. Be warned!

See John Woolman's Journal, page 128. (Click link to chapter XII in table of contents.)

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Under occupation

Occupation shorts

Occupation: Myrtle Wright's experience

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Christian refugees caught in the crosshairs of U.S. immigration policy.

Litigation Tracker. When I mentioned this resource back in February, it was tracking 37 cases against Trump administration actions. Now it's tracking 381.

Judge Fred Biery rules against the Texas Ten Commandments law. (A side note: why aren't these Christian activists campaigning for the Beatitudes? Is it their deep interfaith sensitivity?)

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Is there a religious resurgence among members of Gen Z? Data may actually show a growing divergence between men and women.

George Orwell's son writes about his parents' collaboration on Animal Farm, and on why they had a hard time finding a publisher. (Anna Funder's fascinating book Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life may add some less flattering details to the picture of Orwell as husband and collaborator.)

What a small church in North Carolina did with its real estate, to the possible benefit of affordable housing in its area.

Nancy Thomas remembers an extraordinary, even life-shaping, vision.

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Kid Ramos with two late greats, Henry Gray and Lynwood Slim.

Redeeming Germany? (partly a repost)

(c) University of Bern (2015); source.

Germany's political parties are busy assembling possible coalitions to take over the government, but one thing is certain: Chancellor Angela Merkel's time as a central figure of European politics is coming to an end.

In Germany, as in most of Western Europe, Christian politicians do not wear their faith on their sleeve. Merkel is not exactly an exception, but she is more willing than most of them to express a connection between faith and public practice.

And in one particular moment of time -- the refugee crisis of 2015 -- she did not take the despicable path too often pursued by publicly Christian politicians, linking faith with nationalism and cultural "purity." She went a very different direction, one with great political risks: she linked Christian faith with hospitality to refugees, regardless of their religion.

Since 2015, when I originally wrote the post that follows, we USA citizens have had our own literal come-to-Jesus experience with public Christianity. The results have not been pretty.

Back to 2015 ...

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Redeeming Germany?

One reason I have such a visceral dislike of racism and antisemitism is that I grew up with that poison. My German mother believed that she was born into the master race, and that others' inferiority was obvious.

(Her special brand of racism had an unusual asterisk: having been born and raised in Japan, she freely admitted that the Japanese were, if anything, perhaps slightly superior to Germans.)

When my mother left Germany to live and study in Chicago, she did not leave behind this master-race mentality. I can tell you first-hand what it was like to grow up in this family micro-culture, in which any neighbor who didn't match her Teutonic ideal was dismissed. In this way I experienced some attenuated version of the mentality that seduced a whole modern nation into total war and premeditated mass murder on an industrial scale.

Maybe this explains why I'm so moved by German chancellor Angela Merkel's persistent and intelligent defense of her refugee policy, even as some pundits point out the political risks involved. Today the BBC quoted her telling an interviewer, "I'm proud that we are receiving refugees in a friendly and open manner. I don't want to compete to be the country which does best at scaring off refugees." I can't help wondering what my mother would say to that.

What's even more remarkable to me, especially in view of the too-frequent American correlation of conservative Christianity with anti-immigrant views, is (as the BBC article points out) her associating generous refugee policies with Christian faith. In defending her policies, for example, "she claims she's simply exemplifying the Christian values of the CDU" -- referring to the political party she leads, the Christian Democratic Union.

Although her party has no religious restrictions on membership, its intellectual DNA has strong connections with both Catholic and Protestant social ethics, some of whose proponents were in the anti-Nazi resistance or in prison during Hitler's reign. Merkel herself grew up in a Christian family in a politically hostile context, communist-run and USSR-dominated East Germany, where her father was a pastor.

Almost all prominent politicians in Europe are far more reticent to emphasize faith in their public behavior than their American counterparts, and Merkel is usually no different. But refugee and immigration controversies seem to have struck a nerve with her. I found her comments at her European Parliament caucus, as reported by Politico, fascinating and inspiring ... and even redemptive. Quoting the article,

In the party meeting, Merkel was especially tough on European countries that have portrayed the acceptance of refugees as a threat to religion. "When someone says: 'This is not my Europe, I won't accept Muslims...' Then I have to say, this is not negotiable."

European leaders, she said, would lose their credibility if they distinguished between Muslim and Christian refugees. "Who are we to defend Christians around the world if we say we won't accept a Muslim or a mosque in our country. That won't do."

Given my own childhood memories, maybe you can understand the healing effect of hearing such sentiments in a German accent.

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Another instance of Merkel's linkage of immigration and faith happened about a month ago [that is, in September 2015] in Switzerland, where she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern. Her comments on the refugee crisis were widely reported in the English-language press (example). According to McClatchy's Matthew Schofield, "During a news conference Thursday in Bern, Switzerland, Merkel said it was both an honour and a moral obligation for Germany to take in 'die Fluechtlinge,' the refugees."

However, most English-language reporters seem to have ignored her comments on Muslim immigration and Europe's Christian heritage. I found several references in Russian-language news sites. Drawing in part on a Polish source, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic diocese of Novosibirsk headed an article on Merkel's news conference in Bern by quoting her: "You don't want the Islamization of Europe? Go to church!"

She went on to explain, "I would like to see more people who dare to say 'I am a Christian,' who are brave enough to enter into dialogue," noting that she also supports the guarantee of religious liberty in Germany.

[The University's own coverage of the event quoted Merkel in the question-and-answer period following her acceptance speech:

With regard to the question as to how Europe can be protected against Islamisation, Merkel emphasised: “Fear is not a good adviser. It is better that we should have the courage to once again deal more strongly with our own Christian roots.”]

I find it refreshing (in the American context as well) to hear Christians challenged to go deeper into their own faith, and prepare for honest dialogue, rather than be corrupted by fear, identity politics, and searches for enemies. I think that is a reasonable interpretation of Merkel's words; I hope, but can't be sure, that this was the motivation for publishing her words here in Russia, where Islamophobia is also a sad reality.

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Merkel, "Faith in God makes many political decisions easier."

Fast-forwarding to the present (somewhat reluctantly) ...

Heather Cox Richardson, "If this is not a hair-on-fire, screaming emergency, what is?" Robert Kagan's diagnosis and warning.

Nick Turse on our forever wars and the memorial-worthy names we'll never know. (Hint: they're not Americans.)

Christians and dementia: At the University of the West of Scotland, PhD student Tamara Horsburgh is researching "the impact of holding the Christian theologies of hope and suffering, when one is first diagnosed with dementia." She would like to conduct interviews with people "who have been newly diagnosed with dementia (the past 6 months or so), hold their faith closely, and would feel empowered by the opportunity to discuss how they feel about their diagnosis and their faith." Contact Tamara at Maragal16@outlook.com for more details ... and please pass along this invitation.

John Shelby Spong was not my favorite theologian, but I've been interested to read the responses of Quakers and others to his recent death. Here's an appreciation of sorts from getreligion.com: Death of a post-theist shepherd.

Becky Ankeny: Jesus our mother.

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Diunna Greenleaf and Kid Andersen at the Greaseland Studios:

Advent shorts

Vladimir, Russia, December 2016. (From the vault of special memories.)

December 2016, Elektrostal. (Same vault.)

Survey update: I've received sixteen responses to my survey on building a trustworthy church. On the one hand, that's too few to do much quantitative analysis (but that won't stop me, eventually!). On the other hand, the open-end answers and other comments are incredibly helpful. If you are one of the respondents, I'm extremely grateful.

Someone suggested that I add "anger" to the list of emotions in question 8(h). That was a real omission! -- especially since Judy is writing a book on anger. Thanks very much for the suggestion. It will get added immediately, at the risk of slightly warping the data, since it should have been there from the start. But with a universe of sixteen responses so far, the effect won't be devastating.

I will keep the survey open for a couple more weeks, and will recirculate the invitation to respond to it. The full explanation is at last week's blog post, and the bare, undecorated survey is at maurers.org/survey. I'd be grateful for reposts far and wide, including among people who aren't involved with organized religion.

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Advent: Along with many other non-liturgical Protestants, I don't usually keep a clear separation between the anticipatory, meditative season of Advent and the Christmas holiday. Seven years ago I wrote a blog post concerning the important things I learned from others about Advent, and why we Friends do things a bit differently, and I repeated that post a year later in 2012.

2012 -- that was about halfway through our years in Russia, where we celebrated Christmas in a far quieter way that we normally do here in the USA. The New Year holiday took on the responsibilities for holiday hoopla, providing a sort of cultural buffer for a quieter, arguably more spiritually-centered celebration of Christmas on January 7. (Granted, the commercialism lingered -- Christmas music continued to be played in all the big stores right up through the second weekend of the new year.) This rhythm gave me a greater appreciation for that aspect of the Advent season that involves meditation on the impending Incarnation of God.

This year, I have mixed feelings about Advent and Christmas. It was a lot of fun to see all those old Christmas tree ornaments and garlands, in storage for the years we were in Russia, back on display on our full-sized Christmas tree. I'm enjoying the music and lights and symbols of the season very much.

I'm also missing our Russian life intensely. We were lucky to be in the midst of people who really knew how to celebrate. I confess that I even miss the snow.

But that isn't all. I feel as if the times we're living in demand a more sober approach. In the 2012 post, I quoted Jeff Dunn as saying, "I need Advent to tell me why Jesus had to die, and that he was born as a baby in order that he could grow to be a man who would be executed as a criminal." I'm probably taking Dunn's words somewhat out of his own theological context (he was focusing on our need for personal atonement), but one implication jumps out at me: God's intervention in history was and is unavoidably political.

Yes, Dunn is right -- if I think I have no need of a Savior, then I have no need of Christmas. But together we live in (and support) a system that also falls far short. This very Advent, the Holy Family's migration, their search for shelter and safety, is strangely and wickedly reflected in the trials of migrants at our own southern border. That's a situation that really merits a season of deep reflection. How can we celebrate the Incarnation when we seem to have lost the center of the Story? Jesus and his family were not symbols, not ornaments, not doctrines, not metaphors, not ethereal fables to make us feel good. They were refugees.

(via Facebook)  

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The world said goodbye to an unusual hero this week: Liudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva. Here is Meduza's obituary.

The Nobel Prize site's coverage of the 2018 Peace Prize includes the lectures (and their transcripts) of both winners.

Virgin Galactic's space ship Unity reaches the edge of space today, finally!

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Since I'm in a nostalgic mood ...

Children in the hands of an angry politician

Sign at today's "Families Belong Together" rally.

Today's debates about separating children from parents at the U.S. border reminded me of a particularly sad moment of our time in Russia. In December 2012, Russians were debating a proposed ban on American adoptions of Russian orphans. This ban was supposedly a righteous slap in the USA's face in return for the hated Magnitsky Act.

Some of the most passionate opponents of the proposed adoption ban were outraged that political considerations would trump children's welfare. See my blog post, "Don't sign this bill," for some samples of their arguments. In following the family-separation debate in the USA, it was this aspect -- putting children at risk for the morally dubious sake of political messaging ("a tough deterrent," in John Kelly's words) -- that felt so painfully familiar to me after living through those awful Russian debates. Despite my usual resistance to comparing countries on some kind of a moral scale, I truly had felt that the USA would never do something remotely comparable.

The current outrage over border separations does not lend itself to nuances. Neither did the Russian debate. Setting the Magnitsky connection aside for a moment, there truly had been abuses of Russian orphans in the USA. In one case, a Quaker pastor sexually abused an adopted girl. The case that may have inflamed Russian anger the most involved Dima Yakovlev, an adopted child who died after being left in a car in nearly 90-degree weather for nine hours. Another notorious case involved a boy sent back unaccompanied to Russia by his adopted mother, with a note: "I no longer wish to parent this child." Some of the more serious and systemic criticisms of foreign adoptions of Russians were summarized in this post from Global Voices. These arguments and scandals need to be weighed against the tens of thousands of apparently routine adoptions.

The American border situation is also more complex than the slogans we carried today at Eugene's "Families Belong Together" demonstration. For example, it's interesting to consider some of the details in Jeff Sessions's speech at Fort Wayne, which the Department of Justice Web site entitled "Attorney General Sessions Addresses Recent Criticisms of Zero Tolerance By Church Leaders." Among other statistics, Sessions cites these:

... [I]n 2009, the Department of Homeland Security reviewed more than 5,000 initial asylum screenings. By 2016, only seven years later, that number had increased to 94,000. The number of these aliens placed in immigration court proceedings went from fewer than 4,000 to more than 73,000 by 2016—nearly a 19-fold increase.

If these statistics are true, this increase in scale is a genuine problem. I would totally agree that such a major increase merits a worthy response. What is NOT a worthy response, given the human stakes involved, is the shortcut rhetoric of Sessions's next sentence: "This cannot continue."

Exactly what cannot continue? Why can't it continue? The whole tenor of this speech is that a permissive Obama regime essentially invited a flood of fake refugees and asylum seekers, but Sessions does not respect either those "aliens" or his audience enough to persuade us that the dramatic increases are all based on fraud. Nor does he offer such alternatives as opening more processing locations (I'd bet they would be a lot cheaper than a full-on wall), increasing the role of nonprofits and church organizations, improved services at U.S. consulates in the originating countries, and so on. No, we are supposed to be so alarmed by the increase that we suspend our critical faculties.

To be fair to the Justice Department, it is the Congress that  has failed repeatedly to enact immigration reform, forcing the executive branch to cope with the resulting confusion and logjams, and making the whole system incredibly vulnerable to alarmist politicians, even as farmers and other employers beg for more workers. But there is no emergency at the border, nor will there ever be one, that requires treating families with cruelty. That is a policy choice, and no biblical admonition from Sessions to obey the authorities "because God has ordained them for the purpose of order" can cover this wicked and disorderly reality.

The Russian prohibition of American adoptions gave a chilling insight into the souls of Russian power politicians. Now it's our turn.

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"Families Belong Together" demonstration earlier today.

Eugene's 3-term former mayor Kitty Piercy speaks.

In that Fort Wayne speech, Jeff Sessions acknowledges his religious critics. He says, "I have given the idea of immigration much thought and have considered the arguments of our Church leaders. I do not believe scripture or church history or reason condemns a secular nation state for having reasonable immigration laws." Notice the complete disconnection between the two sentences. Church leaders, including some usually associated with the evangelical right wing, are not condemning a secular state or its "reasonable" immigration laws, they are taking very specific aim at the Justice Department's enforcement practices.

Have you sensed an unusually high public resonance with this issue? I wonder what it would take for Jeff Sessions or Donald Trump to wake up to the possibility, however unlikely it might seem to them, that for once they have completely misjudged the spirit of the times.

In any case, whether or not they ever catch on, it is more important than ever "not to become weary in doing good" (Galatians 6:9) . As Dahlia Lithwick says, "It's all too much, and we still have to care."

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Vox.com's summary of the family separation controversy.

Perpetual war watch: A rising generation of Americans has never known peace.

Ilya Budraitskis on 1968: a revolution too early to judge.

It has been cultural distinctions, amplified by the microdosed spirit of 1968, that have enabled today’s European right-wing populists to attack multiculturalism and political correctness on behalf of the common people, for these notions now stand for nothing except justification of the status quo, thus causing growing dissatisfaction at the grassroots.

Once found innocent, historian Yuri Dmitriev is ordered to be retried.

Heidi Haverkamp: Church is the perfect place to cry. (Someday I will write my own post on the "gift of tears," and how I learned to embrace this gift by reading Catherine de Hueck Doherty's book Poustinia.)

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This isn't the first time I've ended with an Otis Spann video. I learned about him when I was a teenager, hiding my blues addiction from my parents. Sadly, I got to know his music only a short time before he died. Never had a chance to see him live, even though I lived in Chicago.

Unvarnished Quakerism (comments needed)

This is the second Thursday in a row when I've felt completely floored by something coming out of the U.S. White House. I'll save my few comments for the link section below.

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Our Quaker church, Eugene Friends Church, has been remodeling its Web site. We'd like to add a section of basic information about Friends, and I was asked to draft something for discussion for that purpose.

Several other Friends meetings and churches have put together Web-based resources for similar purposes, but I thought I'd try to start from scratch. If you know of a site that you particularly like, please let me know in the comments -- at the very least we might link to it.

I especially welcome comments on the draft I've pasted in below. Just to set some context, here are the principles I tried to observe:

• minimum of Quakerese
• undefensive about diversity while reflecting the strong Christian commitment of our church
• low-key tone
• not assuming the reader is an intellectual; friendly to diverse temperaments
• not repeating points already well made on the site
• not pretending to be encyclopedic (but what crucial elements have I left out?)
• reasonably up-front about our ideals without pretending we're perfect

In addition to missing topics, how could this presentation be improved? Don't worry, it won't be published without local testing as well! I'd really love to hear from people who are not Friends already, who don't have an emotional investment in our typical ways of describing ourselves.

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Here's the draft so far:

Exploring the world of Friends

Are "Friends" and "Quakers" the same thing?

Yes. The term "Quakers" started out 350 years ago as a nickname for Friends -- at first it was a sarcastic tag, then Friends adopted it and have used it ever since. Historical background (scroll down to section VIII).

Are Friends Christian?

Yes. Friends began as a reform movement among British Protestants in the mid-1600's. We rejected the established churches' ceremonialism, enmeshment with government, and reliance on priests as intermediaries, and proclaimed that "Christ has come to teach his people himself." Historical background.

OK, but are all Friends Christian?

There's nobody at the top of the Friends movement to enforce theological conformity. As with all non-authoritarian religious movements, we have our liberals and our fundamentalists, and everything in between. Eugene Friends come from the evangelical Christian community of Quakers; we're decidedly Christian, enjoy exploring what that means for ourselves and our community, and are not manic about imposing exact definitions. More context.

What roles do Quaker women have in leadership?

Leadership is based on spiritual gifts, not social categories. From the very beginning of the Quaker movement, women have participated in leadership, including the role of minister. In past times, this principle of total equality was not honored as diligently as we'd like, but today it's our intention to maintain and practice this central teaching of Friends. Historical/biblical background.

You say "there's nobody at the top" -- so who provides leadership for a Quaker congregation?

We envision the Friends church as people who have gathered together with Jesus at the center. We are learning what it means as individuals, families, and church to live with Jesus at the center, and helping each other to learn how to live this way. Pastors help us by coordinating our work, teaching and preaching, and providing ways for the church to be open to the wider community. Elders keep a watch on the emerging gifts of the people, work with the pastor to see what pastoral care and encouragement the people need, and help set priorities for the growth of the church. The presiding and recording clerks serve the church by chairing the meetings for business (where the church as an organization is governed) and recording the decisions. More context.

Among Friends, what's the difference between a "minister" and a "pastor"?

We Friends are not much for rigid distinctions! In general, we don't distinguish between "laity" and "clergy," so in a sense, we are all ministers. Most Friends churches have one or more pastors, who have particular responsibilities to coordinate worship services, arrange for pastoral care, and represent the church in the wider community. (Specific responsibilities are determined by individual Friends churches.) Friends whose spiritual gifts are reflected in various forms of public ministry may become recognized by their churches as "recorded ministers." More context. Even more context.

Where does the Bible fit in?

The Bible has a central role in our discipleship and discernment. Most Friends agree with early Quaker theologian Robert Barclay that the Bible is "the only fit outward judge of controversies among Christians; and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary unto their testimony may therefore justly be rejected as false." In general, Friends cherish and study the Bible but do not indulge in hot controversies over literal interpretation. Historical background.

Do I have to be a pacifist to be a Friend?

Through the centuries, almost every official body of Friends has taught that we are to reject war and has encouraged conscientious objection to military service. However, we can't claim that all Friends have always observed this teaching. As with all Friends teachings, it would be important for you to study the Friends doctrine of nonviolence and its biblical context before you decide whether or not you can agree 100%. You don't have to consider this alone; pastors and elders stand ready to help you think through whether this or any other feature of Friends faith and practice is a real impediment to your wholehearted participation with Friends. Historical expression.

What are the "testimonies"?

"Testimonies" is Quaker language for the ethical principles and practices of Christian discipleship that we hold dear. It's an important part of what we've learned about living with Jesus at the center. 

• We choose leaders based on their spiritual gifts, not social status or other irrelevant criteria
  
• we make decisions together as a praying community; each member has a voice, and decisions require substantial unity
  
• we live simply, avoiding waste, luxury, and vanity
  
• we uphold nonviolence in our personal lives and as citizens
  
• all people are made in the image and likeness of God; we oppose discrimination of any kind.

These principles are listed in various ways by different Friends churches, but almost all such lists include features very similar to this summary. Example.

Where can I find out more about Friends?

Eugene residents and visitors: please come visit us in our natural habitat (Sunday worship) or contact us to meet our pastor or an elder or to borrow from our library.
There are many online resources to learn more about the Friends movement. The QuakerSpeak videos are one such resource. For example:

• What is a Friends Church?
  
• How George Fox Fit Seven Bible References into a Single Sentence
  
• What is the Difference between "Programmed" and "Unprogrammed" Quaker Worship?
  
• The Top Ten Reasons I Am a Quaker

Each QuakerSpeak video has discussion questions and a transcript. Not every member of Eugene Friends Church would agree with every nuance of these videos. As you have probably already noticed, we Friends don't put much effort into pretending we're all alike.

Friends World Committee for Consultation is an organization that keeps Friends all over the world in touch with each other. Browse the links for the regional sections of FWCC in Europe and the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and Asia and the West Pacific.

Ready to plunge into some foundational Quaker writings? Here are some links to get you started:

Robert Barclay, Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678)
Margaret Fell, Six Epistles; Women's Speaking Justified
George Fox, Selected Epistles; Journal, vol. 1; Journal, vol. 2

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How Norwegians seem to feel about Donald
Trump's comparison of immigrants' homelands.
Source.  

Around midafternoon I opened my browser to Twitter, and was surprised to see Norway on the very top of the "trending" list, having reached 115,000 mentions. Naturally, being Norwegian-born, I was curious, but my curiosity soon turned to shock. I was soon directed to this explanation:

Trump derides protection for immigrants from 'shithole' countries

Since there are more Norwegian-Americans than there are Norwegians, having come here from the old country by the boatload back when Norway was an impoverished country, I could not find any possible way to interpret this bizarre commentary other than toxic ignorance and racism.

Equally distressing was another much-tweeted analysis that said White House staffers were not concerned about the backlash from Trump's comment -- it will play well with his base.

This, dear evangelicals, is our "dream President."

Among the many sarcastic and vitriolic responses to Trump's idiocy (often pointing out why Norwegians might not now be flocking to the USA), there was a breath of sanity from James Martin, SJ, editor at large with America. He said,

"Why are we having all these people from sh#*hole countries come here?"
1) They are our brothers and sisters in need.
2) They are often fleeing war, violence or famine.
3) There are children among them.
4) It's the right thing to do.
5) That's who we are.

Shortly afterwards, he added:

"Why are we having all these people from sh#*hole countries come here?" Part 2
6) If you're Jewish or Christian, for these reasons: https://t.co/O1tmhwKy08

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 12, 2018

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The other evangelicals. ("There are more of them than you think.")

Martin Marty begins a new year of commentary.

My denominational-bureaucrat nerves were creatively jangled by Christy Thomas, writing on why the United Methodist Church might need a barbarian like Donald Trump.

Restoring perspective: Scientists are rethinking the very nature of space and time. (Thanks to 3QuarksDaily for the link.)

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Just in time to help me recover a bit from s#*holes, a newer version of Buddy Guy's autobiographical song, "Skin Deep."

Better the devil you know (?)

Five Trump stories

Four Trump stories

Of all the would-be U.S. presidential nominees and their campaigns, Donald Trump's seems to be the only one that needs no national advertising budget. Month after month, the mass media continue to assume that we want our daily fix. These two sites, CBS News and the Guardian, were simply the first two places I decided to check this evening to see whether the most recent provocations from the candidate had caused editors to rethink this addiction.

Now when a candidate seriously advocates policies that are unconstitutional, impractical, and incendiary, that does constitute news. Polling and surveys also constitute news, although it's questionable how much insight they give us into the final outcomes. (Also see this by Nate Silver.) But "Borat tells Jimmy Kimmel that Trump is not a real person"? "Trump attacked by a bald eagle"? "Actor Harrison Ford's take on Trump"?

My personal theory on this man's amazing popularity is that it is payback for all the ways traditional politicians are seen posturing and pandering, election cycle after election cycle. Trump's supporters, if I'm right (and I'm basing this on anecdotal evidence from a small sample), do not trust those smoother politicians, even the ones they mostly agree with. Trump rides his ego into the arena and delivers his non-nuanced, "trust me" pronouncements with no censors, spinmeisters, or focus groups in evidence. His audience, in turn, has a sense that what they see is what they get, rough bits and all -- in stark contrast with most of the other candidates and their recycled platitudes. The disapproval Trump gets from those other politicians is proof positive that he is right!

Last Monday, Trump's performance on the old USS Yorktown was an eye-opener. He was quoting himself defending the indefensible, namely his exclude-Muslims policy. He noted that it probably wasn't politically correct, "but ... I. Don't. Care." Trump's political base at this point is made up of the very people who resonate with that sentiment. They don't care, they're thrilled to have a champion who doesn't care, and our bashing Trump for his functional racism and fascism, or ridiculing him for his transcendent absurdity, doesn't get our politics back to where we want it.

Whether or not we take early polls seriously, Trump's continuing success is a scandal and a danger to the country. For that very reason it's time for all politicians to figure out how to rebuild trust with us. I think we know who Trump is, and his success is distressing to many of us, but do we know who those other candidates are, what they truly stand for, and who's paying their bills? Let's ask, and ask persistently.

No, I didn't open the Borat, Harrison Ford, or bald eagle stories.

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It took a Tucson church and 10,000 Arizonans to stop the deportation of Rosa Robles Loreto. (Thanks to Dawn L. Rubbert of Illinois Yearly Meeting for the link.)

William Schweiker tells us the main point he feels is missing from conversations about the San Bernardino attack.

The Guardian's live blog of the COP 21 conference in Paris as it nears its end.

Sarah Ruden on Bryan Doerries, his translations and staging of Greek tragedies, how they connect with today's war veterans, and the "narrow and utilitarian way we handle high culture in this country."

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Another version of "Nobody's Fault But Mine" ...



Carolyn Wonderland and Bonnie Raitt - "Ain't Nobody's Fault But Mine" from Road To Austin film from Gary Fortin on Vimeo.
[Text on Vimeo] Carolyn Wonderland delivers an epic rendition of the classic Blind Willie Johnson song "Ain't Nobody's Fault But Mine". Carolyn and Bonnie trade guitar licks in front of an all-star band led by Stephen Bruton and featuring the late Ian McLagan on keyboards. This is one of 37 once-in-a-lifetime performances from the film Road To Austin. To purchase a DVD copy of the film go to www.rtafilm.com

"We were strangers once, too."

E pluribus unum. Source.

Source: my first passport.

I had completely different plans for today's post, but then I was driving home this evening from Eugene Friends Church when I heard the U.S. president begin his speech on immigration policy. We reached our destination long before the speech ended, but I continued sitting in the parked car to the end of the speech, and for a while afterwards.

Obama's opponents have been sharpening their knives ever since elements of the plan announced tonight have started to appear. Of all the areas where they have fought him, the anger and invective directed at this specific initiative have been among the hardest for me to fathom. The previous president turned our national treasury from surplus to deficit, started two ruinous wars, weakened constitutional protections against invasions of privacy, and supported torture, with barely a peep from the same politicians who are now denouncing Obama's effort to address the USA's dysfunctional approach to immigration. Those same politicians could have supported bipartisan congressional action but abandoned the field from fear of the latest wave of xenophobes. (See this fascinating Politico.com account with its summary of the effect of Eric Cantor's primary election defeat.)

Tonight, Obama presented a very simple message: we cannot offer unlimited mass amnesty, nor are we realistically able to deport everyone who doesn't have the right papers. Neither approach is compatible with the rule of law or the nation's values. The present situation isn't defensible, either: millions of people are simply trapped in the shadows, subject to exploitation and the constant threat of families being ripped apart. In this climate of political intransigence on the part of those who have the legislative power to make things better, and (what Obama didn't say directly) the increasingly effective advocacy of immigration reformers, he had no choice but to offer a pragmatic way forward.

Above and beyond all the policy issues is the plain command of God, paraphrased by Obama from Exodus 23:9. "Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger -- we were strangers once, too. My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too." What really moved me was Obama's paraphrase of Exodus: "we" instead of "you." This is the element that has been disastrously missing from the toxic debate over immigration reform. As an immigrant to the USA, I had always assumed that "we Americans" included me, despite my foreign birth and my quota number. As a school child, even before I actually became a naturalized citizen, every school day I put my hand on my heart and with childish naivete recited the Pledge of Allegiance to "one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I know that the road to complete immigration reform will be long and hard. Sometimes the claims of justice and security will be hard to reconcile. But if everyone who cherishes the Bible would take Exodus seriously and look at the "stranger" as one of "us," and those complications as a challenge that "we" tackle together, refusing to give in to that old American tradition of nativist scare tactics, wouldn't we be a lot closer to the goal?

Or would we honestly prefer another five, ten, twenty years of limbo for the men, women, and children we refuse to include in that Exodus standard? Is that who we think we are?

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Seems like just yesterday ... Reedwood Friends Church's minute on immigration enforcement.

"Religion in Latin America: Widespread Change in a Historically Catholic Region." I was glad that this study referenced David Stoll's fascinating book from 24 years ago, Is Latin America Turning Protestant?

KKK vs Anonymous--ZDNet's summary of the recent clash.

I must lead a sheltered life. Oxford Dictionary's word of the year is a verb I'd never run into.

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I had been a U.S. citizen for all of three years when I fell in love with the blues. This musician, J.B. Hutto, was one of the reasons.

Sapsan shorts

Our first experience of the Sapsan high-speed train (photo credit vzapase.ru).

Where the Oka River meets the Volga River--view from the Nizhni Novgorod kremlin.

The pedestrian section of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya.

Bolshaya Pokrovskaya; we bought a cat from this vendor.

Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner lived in this building during their exile years.

Inside the entrance area for their apartment (now a museum).

The Sakharov/Bonner living room; the phone was added at the very end of their exile, so that Gorbachev could call.

Bedroom. Institutional furniture: the apartment was originally part of a guest facility for the nearby research center.

We just came back from a quick trip to Nizhni Novgorod--my first time in this city. Lots of impressions--here are just a few.

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I appreciated the Sapsan high-speed train, which cuts the normal train travel time between Moscow and Nizhni Novgorod almost in half. But, still, when we got off the Sapsan and transferred to a local train for our trip back to Elektrostal, I was surprised by my reaction. On the Sapsan, most of the passengers seemed to be alone; their interactions with others were often through their mobile phones. On the elektrichka, on the other hand, lots of passengers were engaged in animated conversations with people right next to them.

Of course, back on our local train, we also witnessed the usual evade-the-conductor procedures used by those passengers who were riding free. No such drama on the Sapsan.

It is easy to make negative comparisons between our boxy, militantly utilitarian local trains and the sleek equipment used in some other countries. But the suburban trains here are frequent, reasonably priced, and very reliable. On the gorgeous Sapsan, I felt like a guest--a tourist, really--but on the green elektrichka, I felt so very much at home.

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During our time in Nizhni Novgorod, we stayed in the Shcherbinki neighborhood, just a couple of bus stops from the exile home of Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1975) and his wife Elena Bonner. Andrei was sent to Nizhni Novgorod (then called Gorky) in 1980, as a consequence of his public protests against the invasion of Afghanistan. At first his wife was not included in the forced exile, but in 1984 she too was prohibited from leaving the city. In December 1986, the exile orders were lifted and they were permitted to return to Moscow.

Today, before leaving Nizhni Novgorod, our local contact Harley Wagler (scholar of Russian literature and instructor at the state university) took us to see the fascinating little museum that had been set up there shortly after Sakharov's death. I'm very grateful that he did; it was a very moving experience.

The museum actually occupies two apartments--the rooms occupied by Andrei and Elena, and the adjoining apartment. The Sakharov apartment was not actually private quarters; they had the use of two rooms and a kitchen in what was part of a small hotel for visitors to the research facility whose workers occupied the remainder of the building. In between the Sakharov bedroom and the kitchen was an office used by the hotel administrator, from which she could signal to the authorities when the exiled husband and wife were absent, so that their quarters could be searched.

Our museum guide added valuable commentary to the texts and captions of the museum exhibits. Among many other details, she described the daily hardships and indignities this couple endured--noting that they were not young and both had heart problems. The hardest thing of all, she said, was the cost to their morale of their complete isolation from the human rights community. There was no local human rights community; visits were impossible; practically all supportive letters were withheld (only abusive mail was allowed through); they had no telephone until the very end of their exile; and their radio reception at home was subject to jamming. This jamming also reduced the quality of TV reception for the whole building, which didn't improve their popularity among their neighbors.

After listing these hardships, our guide pointed out that their fame still gave them safeguards not available to the average Soviet dissident, whose incarceration in a camp or psychiatric hospital might never be known to the outside world. In the case of Andrei and Elena, the KGB could not simply get rid of them;  there would have been too much of a scandal. Of course, if these hardships resulted in a heart attack, that would have been very convenient.

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The Sakharov apartment had an oppressive feel to it--the guide mentioned that visitors often have that sensation, and we shared it. 

In my own life, I've never felt anything like the kind of social isolation that Andrei and Elena were subjected to for nearly seven years. But the time in my life when I felt most isolated did occur in Russia. It was in the year 1975, when I took some of the money I inherited from my mother's parents and traveled alone to the Soviet Union. I had just spent two months at Voice of Calvary in Mendenhall, Mississippi, where I'd been part of an intense interracial community experience, living together with volunteers from all over the USA and teaching young children during the day in a Christian version of Head Start.

The 1975 Johan

The 1975 Moscow

From that amazing cauldron of ideas and emotions, I went directly to Europe. I checked in with my grandparents in Oslo, but after that I was on my own. A ship to Newcastle, a train to Edinburgh, another train to London, and then I was off to the Soviet Union. I was a puzzle to the staff of the motel I found myself in, on the western edge of Moscow; they had almost no experience with a Western tourist traveling alone. Almost all such tourists came in groups. I knew nobody; I felt as if I was on the other side of the moon. Phone calls were prohibitively expensive and of course there was no Internet. After twelve days of overwhelming aloneness in Moscow, I took the train to Leningrad for another couple of days of isolation before getting on a plane for Stockholm and then Oslo.

It was not that I kept to myself while in Russia. I had lots of conversations, including some unforgettable exchanges with people at the Orthodox seminary and a church at Novodevichy convent. But I couldn't cancel out the ache of being so far away from anyone who knew me. If I found it hard to take two weeks of that, it's hard to imagine what nearly seven years must be like.

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One of the most interesting sights of our visit to Nizhni Novgorod looked so unpromising when we walked into the advertised address. It was a very nondescript office building with miscellaneous signs scattered about the shabby lobby advertising travel agencies and other businesses and organizations (including the local Soldiers' Mothers organization, promoting their current "I don't pay bribes" campaign). As we stood looking at the metal door to the stairs, we must have looked a bit uncertain, because we were asked somewhat sharply, "What do you want?" We knew we wanted the fourth floor, so up we climbed past all those other businesses, and on the fourth floor, passing through a plain metal door, we found ourselves in a world of wonder. Hundreds, probably thousands of extraordinary handmade items--spoons, locks, knives, bowls, jewelry, toys, costumes, trunks, window frames, an amazing outpouring of folk creativity, including a great representation from Old Believers' communities in the Nizhni Novgorod area. Over here--giant wooden architectural details; over here, delicate metal filigree. Looms and other tools to create extraordinary weavings. Biographical exhibits telling about the teachers, schools and workshops through which these crafts were preserved for our times. All well-organized and carefully labeled.

It's a rule in Russia: don't be deterred by inauspicious entryways! The official web site gives only a small idea of the exhibits; here's a private gallery. Be sure to visit!

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The World Conference of Friends has started. Follow the Conference on this Web page. Our Moscow Meeting is looking forward to hearing from our two Friends in attendance.

Melanie Fox at Friends Committee on National Legislation advises us to keep an eye on Arizona v U.S.

"Healthy short-term missions? Do it like Jesus."

"Mommy wars and the More-With-Less Cookbook." (The only cookbook I owned when I got married, and to tell the truth I only used a couple of the recipes in it, but I used them a lot! However, that's a bit beside the point of the article....)

Thanks to Judy Goldberger for the link to this: "The White Savior Industrial Complex." "If we are going to interfere in the lives of others, a little due diligence is a minimum requirement."

Don't have the time to get a PhD in Russian literature? Here's all you need to know, sort of.

Wondering why there's no 2012 Pulitzer for fiction? Apparently you're not alone. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice doesn't like what was happening to e-book prices.

If I were in Tokyo on April 25, this is where I'd be.

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B.B. King gets playful with Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.

Pride

Choir concert ticket: "Sing, Slavic Soul!"

Last Sunday, Judy and I rode the subway a couple of times in central Moscow. On our way to Gorky Park metro station, I felt such tension in the subway car that I suggested we get off and wait for the next train. One thing that struck me was that non-ethnic-Russians were clustered together as if for safety. The second train we got on was not much better--there were two guys, for example, wearing full-face ski masks, with only their eyes showing, in a warm car. At one station, we saw a large crowd of football fans singing, but that's not unheard of--we thought little of it and eventually, after the Sunday meeting with Moscow Friends, got back to our starting point without incident.

Only after getting home did we hear about the events of the day before on Manezh Square, whose ripple effects we'd apparently been feeling. Yesterday, as rumors spread of a planned reaction from young people from the Caucasus, the police moved in force to clamp down on the area around Kiev Station, detaining from 800 to 1000 people (mostly ethnic Russians), and restricting movement into the subways and shopping centers. One daughter of an acquaintance of ours couldn't get home from her job there until about 2 a.m.

This evening, I found this sticker (right) pasted on the inside of our building's locked front door: "Whatever team you're a fan of, remember that before anything else you're a RUSSIAN." The link at the bottom goes to this nationalist Web site (English page). The site's commentaries on the recent events in Moscow don't blame the Caucasus people directly and are not full of racist invective; instead they blame the authorities for corruptly freeing the attackers who killed the Spartak fan Yegor Sviridov and in general for creating a situation in which, as they charge, ethnic minorities have more rights than ethnic Russians.

Another commentary on the site defends the vast majority of football fans from the hooligan stereotype that they charge has become typical for the mass media.

With all this swirling around us, last night we went down to the Kristall Cultural Center at the corner of Soviet and Karl Marx streets and enjoyed a truly magnificent evening of music. The Festive Patriarchal Men's Choir of St. Daniel's Monastery (Праздничный патриарший мужской хор Свято-Данилова монастыря) came to Elektrostal for the first time in its long history of touring the world. For about two hours we listened to extraordinary choral music--voices only. The first half was mainly spiritual songs, including music by such liturgical composers as Pavel Chesnokov, and spiritual poems in beautiful musical settings. Adjectives fail me--I was in heaven! Most of the second half of the evening consisted of popular folk songs performed with equal mastery, ending with "Silent Night" in three languages and two songs of blessing.

In one of today's classes, the first thing students wanted to know from us was how we felt about yesterday's concert. We openly shared our admiration and appreciation. Two of the students said more or less the following: "We had given up on Russia. We thought Russia had no future. Of course the physical country has a future--something will remain--but my hopes for the country were dim. The concert changed my mind. Where there is such beauty, there is strength." Many of the others agreed with these sentiments.

It didn't take long for students, unprompted, to make the connection between this beautiful strength and the events out on the streets of Moscow. "The trouble is," said one student (with apologies for my imperfect memory) "that those kids on the street don't know about this strength. They don't know what being Russian can really mean." We talked about why there were so few young people at the concert (other than students of our Institute). One young woman told how her friends thought she was crazy to go to something like this concert. It didn't fit their categories of what is and isn't interesting. Another thought that, because it was an Orthodox monastic choir, people worried that the audience would be in danger of being preached at. In fact, the young, engaging conductor of the choir gave a low-key, informative, and 100% delightful introduction to most of the pieces. He gave helpful spiritual background when it was appropriate, without a note of preachiness. He also introduced soloists--who were uniformly excellent, including possibly the best tenor we've ever heard. In short, the music itself carried the evening, spectacularly.

All of our students who'd been to the concert said that the first half was the better half. I confessed that I was torn--the whole evening had a unity that held me spellbound. As I told the students, when believers sing songs of praise, the Holy Spirit is present--and is a factor in people's experience of the music. But I said that this didn't mean the Spirit left when the second half began; the same believers were pouring their souls into that part of the evening, too.

Clearly, an evening of inspired music is not a sole and immediate cure for racism, ethnocentrism, and a defensive, aggressive nationalism. But it can be a wonderful start. Can the beauty and strength of Russia's cultural heritage become a part of the country's healing and resurgence, without being subverted by political agendas? I hope so! In the meantime, our students are talking with their skeptical friends about yesterday evening. I hope that the choir makes a return trip soon; let's see if we can encourage a broader cross-section of our city to attend.

A couple of sample songs from the Danilov Monastery choir:

Свете тихий (строчное)
Хвалите имя Господне (знам. в гарм. П.Чеснокова)

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Letter from Santo Domingo to all churches, from the recent conference of Peace Churches.

International microfinance top nonprofit ranking, thanks to Martin E. Marty.

Afghanistan items: One blogger's critique. And another what-others-must-do editorial, "On borrowed time." I do not understand this type of editorial at all. "Mr. Obama and his advisers--military and civilian--clearly have to do more to change the thinking in Islamabad." How can Americans make this change: by convincing the Pakistanis that we know better than they what is best for them? (Is this actually likely? Should Pakistani intelligence "cut ties" with people we don't like even though they must certainly deal with those people after we go? Does American intelligence itself maintain ties only with certified Boy Scouts?) Or perhaps we mean that Pakistanis should change their thinking simply because we know what's better for us? How persuasive is that? What's really disheartening about this editorial is that it proposes no solutions or ways forward that would not have already been pursued by the principals involved.

Here's my simplistic attempt to balance some of the negative political reporting from Russia. (And by the way, Russia did not invent football hooliganism!)

A sample from an intriguingly-titled book, Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture.

Would a Bible that included Martin Luther's canonical hesitations be one you'd "never find in a Christian bookstore"?

Justice and mission: theme of the latest issue of Redcliffe College's online mission journal. (Download individual articles or the whole issue.) My favorite article so far: "Inspiring churches to act on climate justice." (PDF.)

Power Vertical: "Whistle blowing blogger."

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Sheer sweet nostalgia: