A terrible question stalks our land, even at this moment of promise and hope: Is there any principle left by which the United States can transcend the present bitterness and divisions over religion in public life and live up to the promise of the American experiment? Race was the older and, many thought, deeper of America’s problems, but today’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as well as Barack Obama’s election shows how far we have come. Religion in public life is the next challenge.

James Madison called America’s original settlement of this contentious issue the “true remedy,” and for a long time it was certainly the most nearly perfect solution the world has seen.

Today, however, controversies over religion in public life have become the holy war front of the wider culture wars, and the American settlement is going awry. Whether it’s the posting of the Ten Commandments in public places, faith-draped monuments to our war dead or even a government-church partnership ”” as with the faith-based initiatives ”” controversy invariably rears its head at the intersection of religion and public life.

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Less than half the money dedicated to highways, school construction and other infrastructure projects in a massive economic stimulus package unveiled by House Democrats is likely to be spent within the next two years, according to congressional budget analysts, meaning most of the spending would come too late to lift the nation out of recession.

A report by the Congressional Budget Office found that only about $136 billion of the $355 billion that House leaders want to allocate to infrastructure and other so-called discretionary programs would be spent by Oct. 1, 2010. The rest would come in future years, long after the CBO and other economists predict the recession will have ended.

The report does not analyze the entire $825 billion package assembled by House leaders and aides to President Obama. Parts of the legislation are scheduled to be considered today in the House Appropriations Committee. Other portions of the proposal — including $275 billion in tax cuts and nearly $200 billion for jobless benefits, health care for the poor and other entitlement programs — are expected to pour cash into the nation’s faltering economy much more quickly.

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Most clearly, yesterday’s activities confirmed that Obama’s presidency will mark a sharp break from that of George W. Bush. The new president did not hesitate to highlight their differences. Obama spoke of a change of course in the Iraq war and of the “false choice between our safety and our ideals.” Those last words were aimed at the previous administration’s positions on civil liberties and harsh interrogation techniques. Most striking, given Bush’s unpopularity abroad, was Obama’s declaration to a world watching intently and eagerly that “we are ready to lead again.”

Still, perhaps mindful that during his campaign he faced doubts about his readiness to lead in a time of war, Obama was careful to balance his pledge to use diplomacy and cooperation in dealing with the rest of the world with steely words of resolve. To those out to harm the country, he said: “Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

The confluence of events and Obama’s politics suggest that his presidency could bring a more momentous shift — from an era of conservative governance to one in which Washington assumes a more central role in the life of the country.

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He’s not only the first black president, but the good dad he wishes he’d had. She’s not just the first black first lady, but the good mom her good parents raised her to be. Just being themselves, the Obamas ”” a stable and mutually respectful couple, traditionally bourgeois in all the important ways ”” may inspire a more critical healing process than the ongoing one between American blacks and whites: namely, bridging the 45-year-old rift between black men and black women.

It is a great irony of American history that the passage of the longest-overdue social legislation ever written ”” the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act ”” coincided with the collapse in the general culture of the very institutions ”” religion and marriage ”” that sustained black dignity and self-respect throughout centuries of slavery and entrenched racism.

America’s resilient majority-white society was rocked, but not completely rolled, by the sexual revolution that erupted at the end of the civil rights era. But the social pillars of a psychologically fragile black community were toppled in that anti-establishment earthquake.

Read the whole piece.

Check it out.

On a morning of countless firsts in U.S. history, add this: Barack Obama’s inaugural speech is the first time a president has ever explicitly acknowledged not only “Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus” but non-believers as well.

“This inclusiveness is a signature moment in American inaugural history,” says David Domke, professor of communications at the University of Washington in Seattle, who has analyzed religious language in seven decades of inaugural and State of the Union addresses.

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The Inauguration of Barack Obama this week has been hailed by Church leaders in the UK.

The Church of England’s Committee for Minority Anglican Concerns hailed his election as a ”˜truly redemptive moment’ for the USA.

The group’s chair, the Rev Rose Hudson Wilkin, said: “The election last November of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the USA, culminating in his inauguration this week, is a most momentous occasion.

“His election was a truly redemptive moment and one of pride and aspiration for many people….”

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The basic problem with Bishop Gene Robinson is not that he is openly and actively homosexual. The real problem is that he does not believe Christianity is a universal faith, nor does he believe that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures have a universal message. Why do I say that? Well, because of some things he said that are quoted in The New York Times. In an article about his being chosen to give a public prayer at the time of the inauguration (not at the inaugural ceremony itself), he said that he had been reading former inaugural prayers and was “horrified” at how “aggressively Christian” they are. He says that his prayer at the time of the inauguration will not be a Christian prayer at all, “and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that.” He said he might offer a prayer to the “God of our many understandings” (using AA language)….

….for a Bishop of the Christian Church to say (aggressively) that he is shocked by Christian prayers offered at past inaugurations and that he will not offer a Christian prayer suggests that he does not really believe that the Christian gospel is truly universal (I do not use that wimpy word “inclusive”).

Read it all. It is about Christology and universal truth claims indeed. And Gene Robinson is just one of many TEC leaders who illustrate this central problem–KSH.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Youngsters are shunning books and outdoor games to spend up to six hours a day in front of a screen, a survey has revealed.

Children as young as five are turning their bedrooms into multi-media ‘hubs’ with TVs, computers, games consoles, MP3 players and mobile phones all within easy reach.

The trend triggered warnings that the next generation will struggle to compete in the adult world because they lack reading and writing skills.

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President Bush is leaving office amid the worst recession in 25 years, and naturally his economic policies are getting the blame. But before we move on to the era of Obamanomics, it’s important to understand what really happened during the Bush years — not least so we don’t repeat the same mistakes….

By pushing all of this excess credit into the economy, the Fed created a housing and mortgage mania that Wall Street was only too happy to be part of. Yes, many on the Street abandoned their normal risk standards. But they were goaded by an enormous subsidy for debt. Wall Street did get “drunk” but Washington had set up the open bar.

For that matter, most everyone else was also drinking the free booze: from homebuyers who put nothing down for a loan, to a White House that bragged about record home ownership, to the Democrats who promoted and protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Those two companies helped turbocharge the mania by using a taxpayer subsidy to attract trillions of dollars of foreign capital into U.S. housing.) No one wanted the party to end, though sooner or later it had to….

This history is crucial to understand, both for the Democrats who now assume the levers of power and for Republicans who will want to return to power some day. Mr. Bush and his team did many things right after inheriting one bubble. They were ruined by monetary excess that created a second, more dangerous credit mania. They forgot one of the main lessons of Reaganomics, which is the importance of stable money.

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The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska is suing the rector and lay leaders of a breakaway parish, St. Barnabas. Diocesan officials want the Rev. Robert Scheiblhofer and company to leave the historic church at 129 N. 40th St. and the rectory next door, now that the parish has rejected the authority of the Episcopal Church. The diocese contends it is the rightful owner of the property under church rules and state law.

Scheiblhofer and other parish leaders say they aren’t going anywhere. They contend that the property has always belonged to the parish, that it still does and that the diocese has no claim to it.

The diocese has asked the Douglas County District Court to resolve the dispute. An attorney for Scheiblhofer and St. Barnabas’ vestry, or governing body, is seeking to have the suit thrown out. The first hearing in the case is set for Wednesday.

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“Through you, may God bless America in a way that we are a blessing to the whole world,” one of the first speakers, Pastor Joel Hunter, told Obama.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, a senior pastor from Houston, used Scripture to offer the incoming president four lessons for his administration. “In time of crisis, good men must stand up,” Jakes said. “God always sends the best men into the worst times.” He also told the worshipers, “This is not a time for politeness or correctness; this is a time for people to confront issues and bring about change. . . . You cannot enjoy the light without enduring the heat.”

Looking directly at Obama, Jakes said, “The problems are mighty and the solutions are not simple, and everywhere you turn there will be a critic waiting to attack every decision that you make. But you are all fired up, sir, and you are ready to go. And this nation goes with you. God goes with you.”

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In his inaugural invocation Tuesday, evangelical Pastor Rick Warren delivered a message of unity that pleased some of his most vocal critics in the gay and lesbian community.

Yet even as the founder of Orange County’s Saddleback Church appeared to mollify those who have fought with him over gay marriage, he raised other eyebrows by invoking Jesus’ name and concluding with the Lord’s Prayer — both distinctly Christian practices on a day that has typically been characterized by more general expressions of “civil religion.”

“I don’t think he acquitted himself very well,” said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Columbia University who considers Warren a friend. “To lead the nation in saying the Lord’s Prayer, which is so particularly Christian, was a mistake.”

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Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office today as the nation’s 44th president — and the nation’s first black chief executive — and told Americans shaken by economic despair and war that shared sacrifice would be required to draw the nation back to prosperity and peace.

“Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed,” Obama declared in a ringing inaugural address. “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.”

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Asked about the kind of job he wanted, an applicant at our tax management company stated, “I seek full authority but limited responsibility.”

–Mike Wilkerson in the February 2009 Reader’s Digest, page 53

The wheat and potato fields of this kibbutz, or communal farm, in southern Israel stretch right up to the Gaza border fence. In almost surreal proximity on the other side rise the apartment buildings, water towers and minarets of the Palestinian village of Abasan.

Israel’s deadly offensive against Hamas in Gaza had ended on Sunday, with both sides having unilaterally declared a cease-fire. Yet there was little sense of triumph here in the days after, more a nagging feeling of something missed or incomplete.

Elad Katzir, a potato farmer, was nervous as he drove through the lush fields, agreeing to stop the car only behind clumps of trees or bushes as cover in case of sniper fire. By one thicket, nestled among wild flowers, was a memorial to a soldier who was shot dead here while on patrol seven years ago.

“I do not feel any victory,” said Mr. Katzir. “I still do not feel safe.”

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(UCC News) I have a confession to make. A couple of years ago after being invited year after year to preach somewhere on the Sunday before the Martin Luther King Holiday, I promised myself that I was going to stop accepting invitations to preach on anywhere on the MLK holiday weekend. I understand the importance of this observance, but I felt that it was hard to not to come off as predictable or to strike just the right tone or to really inspire and celebrate. Every time I spoke on this particular Sunday, I ended up feeling pretty inadequate, and I told myself quite frankly who needs that? After all, my role as Associate General Minister is primarily an administrative role. I was not called to this position because of my great preaching abilities.Hardly! I was called to be an administrator and that is the place and role that I am most comfortable with. So, could someone PLEASE explain to me how I ended up in a pulpit again on the Sunday before the MLK Holiday and not just any MLK holiday, but THE one that is the day before this country inaugurates the first African-American President! Talk about a loaded Sunday. I agreed to be here long ago, before anyone knew what the historical importance of his particular Sunday would be. And so the last couple of weeks, I have been asking myself what I could possibly say this morning that might be the least bit original and even slightly inspiring or that would do justice to the occasion. The symbolic nature of what awaits us this week is certainly powerful enough without words from me.
But I also realized that even though anything I say won’t add or hopefully detract from the power of the of week, it may be important for “regular folks” like all of us to take some time to think about and take in the meaning of this week in a way that is more reflective than the sound bites, pictures and political analysis that we’re going to experience over the next several days. I acknowledge that I don’t know what everyone’s political perspective is, and that really isn’t the point here this morning because we will all share this moment in time. And so, I invite you to bear with me and listen in on some of what I have been thinking about the days ahead and what it’s like for me to stand between memory and hope.

Given the context, I’ve been thinking a lot about memory and memories and realizing that memory is a strange thing. I was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1953, a year before the Brown vs., the Board of Education decision that said that separate educational facilities for blacks and whites were inherently unequal. So I never experienced the schools in a time where separate but equal was legal. I never lived in places where I even saw signs that said colored only or whites only. I’ve never been denied the right to vote as an African American or as a woman; I never had to literally sit in the back of the bus and I have never been denied service in a restaurant or hotel because I am African American. Yes, like many African Americans or maybe most, I have experienced the more subtle forms of racism and discrimination, but I never experienced the overt and horrendous indignities that are part of our nations’ history with African Americans. But curiously, even though I didn’t personally live through these experiences, they are in many ways part of who I am. My grandparents lived in Mississippi and Oklahoma and they and my parents did experience many horrendous indignities. Even though you and I were not personally there, we know about the Little Rock Nine and how they bravely integrated Central High School despite the physical danger and threats to keep them out. Many of us remember seeing Bull Conner and hoses and dogs on our TV sets and we remember the pledges of many that south would never be integrated. Even though we may not have personally experienced or participated in anything even remotely like the harshest and ugliest things we know that are part of the history of African Americans in this country, it is part of our collective history, our national memory if you will and just as I have been shaped by those experiences and memories, my guess is that in some ways you have as well. Memories are powerful, they live on and in some ways we are grateful for that. We want to hold on our memories”¦at least the good ones. We want to remember precious times past with loved ones who are now gone, we want to hold on to those memories of our child’s first birthday or of their first step or of their graduation from kindergarten or high school, we want to hold on to the memory of that first big promotion or that first kiss. While our memories don’t make us who we are, our memories are in some way the collective embodiment of who we are and are reflective of our personal journey and stories.

But we don’t quite know what to do with the collective painful and difficult memories do we? We generally want to just get beyond them, forget them, sweep them under the rug, and get over it. And I totally get that. Who wants to hang on to things that hurt? Who really wants to
live in the past? So the thing about memories,
especially the difficult ones is to find the right venue for them, too ask the right questions about them, to be conscious of how they have shaped us, in good ways and perhaps not so good ways and to know when they are helping us or when they are holding us back. And perhaps at some point maybe we get to a place where those painful memories don’t have quite the same power and they are more informative than they are impactful. The pain of Martin Luther King’s death has receded some, but MLK Day is at least in part about memory. It’s about remembering the man, remembering his work, remembering not only his dream but the dream of so many others as well.
Dreams of freedom from oppression, dreams of equal treatment of all people regardless of the color of ones skin, dreams that the American Dream might be attainable for all, and dreams that we might indeed judge either other by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin. Remembering the legacy of Martin Luther King is important , and I don’t think this memory is one we walk away from. But I also hope that Martin Luther King Day is about not only remembering the dream, but recommitting ourselves to help that dream live in tangible ways. I confess that one reason that I have never really felt totally comfortable celebrating Martin Luther King Day is because it has felt like we recite the I Have a Dream speech one day and then go about business as usual the next. It has always seemed too easy, too automatic. I am not suggesting that we all have to live every day totally consumed by all that is wrong with the world, by all the injustices that have yet to be righted, by what we have not yet achieved. But I wonder especially on MLK Day if I am doing all that I can to make the world a better place. I sometimes wonder what my little corner of the world be like if I more fully lived the commitment that Martin Luther King had to justice, not just for African Americans, but for all people. How much would I have to redefine my priorities, what difference would a renewed commitment make? In some ways, only remembering Martin Luther King is a hallow honor. I think that doing something to help further his dream is what the day calls for. A day of service as the President Elect has called for? Maybe that’s it, but something that indeed engages us actively in keeping the dream alive.

And so tomorrow, we will honor Martin Luther King Jr; looking back on his life. And then on Tuesday, we will look forward to the future and inaugurate the first African-American President in our history; Martin Luther King, representing memory of the civil rights struggle and Barack Obama embodying the dream. Even many who didn’t vote for Barack Obama agree that he is a very compelling figure. He has been able to galvanize millions to hope and dream and imagine in ways that we have not seen in this country for many years. All of that is so important, but the sense in the country that we are embarking on something new, the sense of hope that he as nurtured in this country, the sense of pride that we are moving beyond something is as much about the past as it is about the future, it’s
as much about memory as it is about hope. We
look back at slavery, at the civil rights struggle, at the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and we feel that just maybe we are poised for something new. But the reason our hope is so great is because our memories are still so clear.

I have no illusions, I assume that as an African American you expect to hear something like this from me this morning. But this week and this moment is not just about us as African Americans, it is about all Americans and I suggest that it is as important for white Americans as it is for me. I can’t know completely how this feels for many of you, but I imagine that because of our collective history, you also feel like we are turning a page that you yearn for. Not that the whole book is finished by any means. On Wednesday morning, there will still be racial misunderstandings and prejudice and all the problems that exist today, but there will have been a shift, an important change, a statement being made about who you are and who we are as a country that moves us further down the road in a
new way. We hope for new ways of being one
nation under God, we hope for new ways of valuing each person for who they are and the gifts that God has given them. I imagine that many of my Euro American sisters and brothers like you, also feel a renewed sense of pride in who we are as Americans.

As we watch and participate in the events of the next several days I hope we will all remember that Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of a new President is not just about politics and that’s why it’s so appropriate for persons in pulpits across this country to be reflecting on what this time means to so many. Remember, Martin Luther King Junior was a pastor, the role of the church and of Christians in the civil rights movement can’t be overlooked or forgotten.
The concerns that Martin Luther King was addressing back in the 60s were not just issues of society and culture, they were issues of justice. The same is true for many of the challenges that face this new administration. The call to respect and care for each other as sisters and brothers isn’t just a political or sociological statement. Remember the words of Jesus, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” The greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with all our hearts and minds, but the second one is like it, to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Concerns about racial equality, and poverty and homelessness and war and health care and the marginalization of the voiceless and powerless are moral issues, they are issues that people of faith must be engaged in. If this exciting moment in time is going to be anything other than a short lived, feel good moment, then all of us must be partners in bringing about the change we seek. And that includes those of us who are people of faith as well, we don’t have the luxury of sitting in church on Sundays and not taking our faith with us on Mondays. Our faith is like the touch tone or the chorus in a melody, it’s an essential part of our lives; not compartmentalized on Sundays only. All of us must be engaged in working together for the common good, all of us must remember that another world is possible, but it is possible only if we commit ourselves to making dreams live beyond one day, one week, one month or the first 100 days. There are people hurting and they need systemic change and in the United Church of Christ, we believe that our faith calls us out from Sunday into the challenges of everyday life.

Despite all of the excitement and anticipation of something new, we have to remember that Barack Obama is not the second coming, he is a man, and as other Presidents, he is fallible, he will disappoint us at times and none of us will agree with all of his decisions, actions and leadership. As the church, we must speak truth to power, regardless of who is in power, we can’t be seduced. There is that bumper sticker that says God is not Republican or a Democrat and that is true. Our role as the church and as Christians is to continue to raise our voices for more just systems, for eradication of poverty, for policies that don’t discriminate on the basis of race, gender, physical ability or sexual orientation, to encourage and support and pray for peace. And we are called to do this not because of a particular political perspective but because of our belief in a Stillspeaking God, who is a God of love and a God of justice.

You know when George called and asked me for a sermon title, I told him that I don’t really do sermon titles anymore because generally I end up trying to write a sermon to fit a sermon title that I gave rather than finding a title for a sermon I’ve written. He didn’t press me then but I later for some reason I sent him a title and you have heard me refer to it a couple of times, “Between Memory and Hope.” Sometimes I get a bit obsessive about the exact meaning of a word and so late last night, I went to dictionary.com and looked up the word “between.” It’s a common word, we use it all the time and so we are clear about its’ meaning aren’t we? The word between means the space separating two points or objects. like between Phoenix and Cleveland or the difference
between minus 9 degrees and 65 degrees. But
there was also a paragraph about the usage of the word between. That paragraph said that between should be used when there is a space between two entities. Between is used when the entities are considered as distinct. And that reminded me of why I don’t give sermon titles. There is no “between” memory and hope. I don’t think that there is a space between memory and hope. Our memories feed our hopes, our memories help define and shape our hopes; our hopes comes from experiencing what is and we to imagining what might be. Our real life experiences become our memories and often out of those memories we see another way, perhaps a better way and we hope for a new day. So yes, Martin Luther King, Junior and Barack Obama are two separate and distinct individuals separated in time and space.
But in some ways, the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., the work and dream of Martin Luther King helped nurture and support and feed and maybe even make possible the leadership of Barack Obama. In some very real ways, Barack Obama is able to be who he is because of Martin Luther King’s pursuit of a dream. And we are able to be who we are because we too have embraced that dream. Some of you may have seen or heard this as it was floating around the internet during the elections.

Rosa sat so Martin could march
Martin marched so Barack could run
Barack ran, so our children can fly.

Memory and hope”¦they meet this week, and we are grateful witness and participants.

–The Rev. Edith Guffey, associate General Minister, preached this sermon, “Between Memory and Hope” on Jan. 18, 2009, at Church of the Red Rocks UCC in Sedona, Arizona.