intersections

It's Really All About God

My dear friend, Samir Selmanovic, has just published his first book entitled, It's Really All About God (buy on Amazon) and what a way to start. This is not a review...that will be coming soon. But I will tell you that this is a radical, peaceful vision of the force for good that religion can and should be in the world, told through the intimate, personal lenses of someone who hase expereinced so much of the good and bad of religion.

There is a review at the Spectrum website by my friend, Brenton Reading. You can read that here.

The blurb I wrote for inside the front cover says this:

“Samir has written a book that reads like an extended poem; an ode to life. Where others see only the darkness and destructiveness of religion, Samir sees beauty and hope. Where others see only competition and violence, Samir sees synergy and life. And his vision is no simple syncretism; a blending of all religions into one inoffensive ‘smoothie’ of goodness and light. This book is a celebration of postmodern ‘otherness’ of the first order. It will inspire you, frustrate you, maybe even anger you. Samir will not answer all your questions or tell you exactly what to do next. But if you’ve ever felt that nagging deep in your soul that God is lurking just beneath the surface in places you have least expected, you need to read this book!”

I will write a review here after I get a chance to read it again.

Please go buy this book and read it. In the meantime, check out this short video of Samir talking about his book.

Video: Prayer Rally for Healthcare Reform

This is a video of our health care rally, held on Tuesday, August 11, in Hollywood. Congresswoman Diane Watson and Congressman Xavier Becerra were in attendance and spoke eloquently and powerfully of their support for comprehensive reform that would put health care within reach for our families.

This rally was led by LA Voice clergy, Father Mike Mandala, Father Jaime Edwards-Acton, Rev. Liz Munoz, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rev. Byron Smith, Sr. and myself.

LA Voice on the cover of the LA Times

PICO: Economic Recovery Summit in Washington, D.C.

Last week I participated in the Faith and Families Economic Recovery Summit along with nearly 300 other leaders from PICO affiliates around the country. I traveled to Washington, DC with our executive director, one organizer and two other leaders from LA Voice.

The PICO National Network is made up of 53 affiliate organizations in 17 states around the country, representing over 1 million American families. Our national work achieved a major victory when, on February 4, President Obama signed the expanded S-CHIP legislation into law, effectly opening the way to provide heath care coverage to 4.1 million additional children (read more).

Now the PICO Network is turning their attention to two primary issues at the national level: universal health coverage and an end to unnecessary home foreclosures. Below are several videos that will give you a little taste of what our week was like.

Click here to read a report of this most recent PICO event in Washington, DC.

Pray for Baha'i Prisoners of Conscience

On Wednesday night I had the privilege of representing the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Interreligious Council (IRC), along with 4 other IRC members at a special prayer gathering at the Los Angeles Baha'i Center. The purpose of this gathering was to raise awareness about and pray for the seven leaders of the Baha'i Faith in Iran (pictured above). These individuals have been held in prison for 9 months without being charged and without access to legal council. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Laureate, is serving as legal council for the accused but she has not been allow access to her clients.

Just last week they were finally charged with "espionage for Israel, insulting sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic." The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in their February 13 report, "The accusation of "spying" against these five men and two women is contrived, and has been used as a pretext to persecute Baha'is for more than three quarters of a century."

In my brief comments to the large crowd that assembled at the Los Angeles Baha'i Center I read an excerpt from an Official Statement of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists entitled, "Religious Minorities and Religious Freedom: A Statement of Commitment and Concern"

Throughout history religious minorities have often been subject to discrimination and outright persecution. Today religious intolerance and prejudice are again on the rise. Notwithstanding the affirmation of the freedom of everyone to hold and disseminate religious views and to change one's religion--an affirmation sustained in the United Nations instruments and documents comprising an "International Bill of Rights"--many countries deny this right to their citizens....

In support of Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments, and in harmony with its beliefs and its history, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is fully committed to promote, defend, and protect religious freedom for everyone, everywhere. To that end, we will continue to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Commission and other international agencies and religious organizations to encourage every nation to implement the fundamental right of religious freedom. In addition, we will continue to promote dialogue and better understanding between governmental authorities and people who belong to religious minorities.

I was proud to stand with my colleague, Randy Dobbs, in support of his community at this time of crisis and to know that my religious community, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has a rich tradition of religious liberty. After the jump you can read an incredible Baha'i prayer that was read at the service.

Please consider taking some action on behalf of these Baha'i in Iran who are being held unjustly and face execution if convicted.

Click here to learn how you can help and please spread the word!

Calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Southern Israel

I have been privileged to be a part of the Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative for the past year or so. Recently the group met to discuss our response to the violence that is destroying the lives of thousands of people in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip. These are difficult conversations. Imagine religious leaders from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities in the Los Angeles area talking face-to-face about this. The conversation got intense at times, but was always repectful because of the relationships that have been forged over the years. We are not playing at the edges of interfaith conversation. This is really work!

Below is a portion of the statement we drafted that was released at a press conference this morning. I am honored to be a signor.

“We have inherited a big house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.

– Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Lecture 1964

As Christians, Jews, and Muslims, heirs to the great legacy of Abraham, we affirm that all human beings are created in the image of God. We do not discriminate when violence is directed against innocents or when rage, fear and recrimination disturb the quiet of our streets.

As a multireligious community concerned about the security of Israel and the Palestinians, we join with those who seek not only an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire but also a commitment to find new avenues of reconciliation rooted in our shared values of healing, justice, and mercy.

Let us be clear about our immediate priority: the dire human suffering in Gaza and southern Israel must be brought to a swift end.

Read the whole thing here.

Israel and Gaza, part 2

With the ground invasion that began just after the end of the Sabbath (Jan 3), the situation in Gaza is worsening (see video after the jump).

Here are a few more links that will help to inform you about the crisis that is unfolding in Israel and Gaza. My first post on this issue is here.

Parents Circle - Families Forum (official statement)
You might recall that a few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting Robi Damelin, who is Israeli, and Ali Abu Awwad, who is Palestinian. They both work with PCFF. You can also learn about their work from the documentary Encounter Point or Speaking of Faith episode, "No More Taking Sides." In fact, this interview, between Krista Tippett, Robi and Ali should be REQUIRED listening right now.

Once again the South is caught in the carnage of war, creating a new wave of families to join the dreadful club of bereavement.  Hundreds of dead and wounded.  These people will never be the same, not only physically, but also trauma will leave its ugly mark.

 

The Parents Circle - Families  Forum for peace an reconciliation is convinced that:

1. The solution to the conflict will not come from violence, but rather from dialog and negotiation.
2. Only a true and durable peace will be the cure for the pains of our two societies, and end bereavement which is the consequence of war.
3. Reconciliation between the two peoples is the only guarantee for a lasting peace.
4. Reconciliation is possible,  we prove this in the daily work of the Parents Circle - Families Forum, and we offer our work as an example to all with the motto: "If we can, everybody can".

New Israel Fund
Members of the NIF family...have placed an ad in Haaretz with the headline: “Civilians are Not Cannon Fodder. Not in Gaza. Not in Sderot.” The ad lists the number of dead and wounded in Gaza and Israel.

Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Check out their action alert here.

J Street
J Street is the political art of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement." (from the website - read more).
Check out their action campaign here.

Muslim Public Affairs Council
I have many dear friends from the interfaith work at MPAC. I think their statement is very important, from the Muslim side of things (here).

If the video fails to load, click here.

2008 in Review

There is so much I could say about 2008. It has been, by far, the biggest growth year in terms of the Hollywood Church. And I don't mean primarily numbers (though the church grew by 20% this year). More people found faith, more connected to Christian community as something healthy and life-giving who never thought that would happen for them. We have more leaders in the church this year than last year. We've also had our setbacks: our mural project got stuck in the city-wide legal problems surrounding public art murals (it's a long story). We've had key people move out of town and some hit hard by financial and other life challenges. But I would say that overall, our life in the city as witnesses to God's reign is stronger than a year ago. More on this later, perhaps.

Our children are in a new school that is working out much better for them. We are all VERY pleased that Sophie started Kindergarten and Zoe is now in 3rd grade at Franklin Elementary.

In addition to this here are some other highlights of our year...

Travel

Obviously, the traveling Elysabeth and I have been privileged to do has been probably the #1 highlight of our year. In addition to traveling to Moscow (here, here and here) and St. Petersburg in October and Israel (here and here) in December, I went to

• Washington, D.C. in January for research meetings about PICOs ongoing work around health care reform.
• Princeton, NJ in June for the Envision '08 conference. (Also here).
• Orlando, FL in September for the annual Spectrum/Adventist Forums Conference.
• Columbus, OH in October for the Innovation Conference.

Community Beautification Grant
The Hollywood Adventist Church received a $10,000 Community Beautification Grant from the City of Los Angeles to paint an art mural on the wall of our church that faces the freeway. (More here and here).

Interfaith work
2008 was the year I got deeply involved in interfaith work. Some of the highlights of this was participating in the Memorial Day Interfaith Service at All Saints in Pasadena, meeting Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad from the Parents Circle Families Form and being elected Treasurer of the Interreligious Council of Southern California (website).

Community Organizing with LA Voice/PICO
We have had another amazing year partnering with LA Voice in local community organizing, mostly around the crisis of affordable housing in Los Angeles. My participation in the national work really dwindled this year as I had so many other travel commitments, but I'm looking forward to getting back involved in early 2009.

Adventists Against Prop 8
I am so proud of the work our little group did in speaking out, as Christians, for the rights of gays and lesbians in California (website). This is a fight we temporarily lost, but our work united many good people who have either left the Adventist Church, have been on the fringes of the church, or who just never imagined that anyone in the church would stand for religious liberty and human rights in the way that we attempted to do. I am also very grateful to the leaders of the local Conferences and the Pacific Union who worked with us to allow a different voice to be heard in this debate. I'm glad my church can tolerate diverse viewpoints.

And of course, for me, one of the greatest highlights of the year was...

the election of Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States

BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2008

I've read a lot of books this year, as usual, but I really haven't read that many good ones. I'm not sure what that means. And I can't tell you how many I've started but never finished. Here are the cream of the crop from what I read this year, in no particular order. As usual, these are not books that necessarily came out in 2008 (though some are).

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson

The Fidelity of Betrayal, by Peter Rollins

Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Joan Chittister, OSB

Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright

Evangelism After Christendom, Bryan Stone

Here's to a healthy and joyful New Year!

Headed to Israel

 

On Tuesday, Elysabeth and I will be joining a few others from the Southern California Conference on a trip to Israel. This is billed as a "familiarization tour." We'll be visiting all the classic sites that are important to Christians. There is so much about Israel and the Palestinian territories that I want to explore, but I figure this is a basic introduction. And my wife and I get to travel together, so that's awesome.

I'll be Tweeting our trip, so if you want to follow our short updates, click here. You can subscribe to the RSS feed or join and discover the wonderful world of Twitter.

Keep us in your prayers as we travel. We have a 14+ hour flight direct from LAX to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, December 2. We return on December 9, so it's a short trip. Elysabeth's mom will be staying with our girls, so pray for them too! Ha!

Talking with Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad

Yesterday I had the incredible privilege to sit with two modern-day heroes, Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad (pictured above). Robi's son, David, was killed by a Palestinian sniper. Ali's brother was shot by an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint at the edge of his village in the occupied Palestinian territories. They are featured in the 2006 documentary, Encounter Point, which tells the story of the Parents Circle-Families Forum, where they are active leaders.

Before the meeting started I approached Robi and extended my hand. She greeted me warmly and said, "I'm Robi." I said something like, "Yes I recognize you," which seemed to surprise her (I'm not sure why. She's become quite famous). She asked me who I was and what Seventh-day Adventists were. After an awkward and stumbling explanation she smiled and said words I'll never forget, "I don't care what religion you are as long at it makes you into a human being." This seems exactly right to me. But I also realize that this is not an uncomplicated statement. Many would be quick to point out that it is naive in it's liberal idealism. This remark from Robi was juxtaposed against my recent reading of Carl Raschke's latest book, GloboChrist. I read more than half the book when it first came out at the beginning of the summer and then put it down for a variety of reasons. I just finished it a few minutes before heading over to Stephen S. Wise Temple for this meeting. Still ringing in my ears were these works of Raschke:

The only way Christianity can hope to succeed against Islam in today's global context is to put aside the secularist project altogether.... Christianity today must become far more radial than it has ever imagined (114).

Though we do not need to conceive of a Christian jihad, mainly because it would be instantly misconstrued, Augustine's point is something of which Christians need to remind themselves. The fulfillment of the Great Commission will not be without struggle. The struggle is ultimately a spiritual one, but it is real, it is contemporary, and it will become more intense as the years wear on. Through dialogue, Muslims and Christians may come come to agree on common points of their mutual Abrahamic faiths, but the differences will always outweigh the similarities. The differences make the difference. Islam is founded on an absolutely objectivist revelation that we either accept or reject. Christianity is founded on a revelation in the person of Jesus, to whom we give the whole of our life and being.... We are engaged not so much in a struggle for the doctrinal truth of our faith as in a struggle to manifest the presence of Christ in what we know as the radical relationality that is at the heart of our commitment to the One who gave his life for each of us and for others (115).

In these statements, and in the next chapter, Raschke depicts an inevitable "collision of eschatologies." I am troubled by these things. Why does Christianity have to succeed AGAINST Islam? Why must religion be a zero-sum game? I am not suggesting a relativism in which every belief and every practice is equally valid. There are genuine problems with both the Christian Bible and the Qur'an. But Raschke himself admits that the Mahdist tradition upon which much of militant Islamism is based is not even a part of the Qur'an.

As I sat with Robi and Ali in a small, intimate setting with 20 other religious leaders from Jewish, Christian, Muslim and B'ahai faiths, talking about religious and political conflict, and as I thought about Robi's definition of good religion as that which makes you into a human being, I wondered again about the value of our various exclusive truth claims. Must the other "lose" in order for me to "win?" Why do we persist in talking about our faith in terms of winning and losing?

Toward the end of our time together Ali said, "It's so easy to be right. Everyone is right. What is difficult is to be honest." The Parents Circle believes that honesty and conversation is the way to peace in their war torn country. Even for me, their honesty was shocking and refreshing.

Huge thanks to my friend, Rabbi Ron Stern, for making this possible and hosting this conversation at his congregation, Stephen S. Wise Temple.

MORE:

• I first heard of Robi and Ali and the Parents Circle from the amazing radio show, Speaking of Faith, with Krista Tippett. You can hear that remarkable interview for yourself and read more about their story here. THIS IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO TO UNDERSTAND THEIR STORY!
• Check out the website for the documentary, Encounter Point, and watch the trailer. The doc is available on Netflix.com.