intersections

The Economist on Los Angeles

The most recent issue of The Economist has a short article entitled "Tackling the Hydra" about Los Angeles and urban design. It highlights the debate that is all too familiar to those of us in the coalition for affordable housing and sensible transportation design that takes more cars off the streets and puts more eyes and feet on the sidewalks.

Los Angeles has long epitomised car-oriented sprawl. As early as 1946 the historian Carey McWilliams judged it “a collection of suburbs in search of a city”. So rare are neighbourhoods where basic needs can be met without hopping into a car or bus that estate agents tout the few where they can as “walkable”. Urban planners elsewhere routinely invoke the city as an example of what to avoid.

Yeah, we know.... Do you have to rub it in?

Silencing Christians or protecting at risk people?

For the past two weeks I've been getting heavy email traffic from two different groups about H.R. 1592. H.R. 1592 is Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. The bill just passed the House of Representatives on Thursday by a margin of 237 to 180. You can read the actual text of the bill by clicking here (it's not long). This bill is basically an update to an older hate crimes bill passed in 1969 that has been protecting Americans for almost 40 years from crimes motivated by hatred for a person's race, color, religion, or national origin. This 2007 update includes the crimes motivated by hatred for person's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. In short, gender and sexual orientation are now covered under this new House bill. What could be so horrible about this?

Well, just ask the people at Traditional Values Coalition. They have been working hard to get this bill defeated, claiming that it will muzzle preachers of all religions from speaking their convictions regarding homosexuality. From what I can tell, the bill does nothing of the sort. It simply enables law enforcement to do a better job bring violent offenders to justice when the violence is carried out for reasons of hatred toward one of these minority groups.

The Human Rights Campaign has been working hard to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals from the infringement of their rights. They have been campaigning hard for the passage of this bill. It is an interesting debate and leaves me confused. I guess I'm surprised that Christians are advocating for hate. Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director, Andrea Lafferty, was quoted saying, "Though allegedly designed to help local law enforcement officials deal with violent hate crimes, this legislation actually creates two new federally-protected minority groups: “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” – both of which are undefined by the law." Actually, the law does define these categories, and, so what? So we protect two new minority groups! Isn't that good? Shouldn't Christians be in favor of protecting anyone at risk of violence?

If some of you who are more familiar with issues of religious liberty really think this law is a covert attempt to silence Christians, please enlighten me. But as it stands now, it seems that the Traditional Values Coalition is just one more right-wing organization spreading hate and bigotry in our already divided world. It's not the spirit of Jesus as far as I can tell.

Below is a short YouTube video featuring Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign. I think it sheds a lot of light on this issue.

News that Affect Our Ministry

Here are a couple of headlines I ran across yesterday and the implications they hold for ministry in our contemporary context are "deep and wide" (as we used to sing in Sabbath School). Here are the headlines with links to the full articles (which aren't long), followed by some of my reflections.

American's commute earlier and longer: study
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans are leaving home earlier to get work, fewer are walking, and more are driving alone, according to a study of commuting trends released on Monday.

For first time, unmarried households reign in US
WASHINGTON (AFP) - It is by no means dead, but for the first time, a new survey has shown that traditional marriage has ceased to be the preferred living arrangement in the majority of US households. (Thanks to Bill for this link)

Intersections

As the title of my blog indicates, I am fascinated by the intersection of things that modern life has typically preferred to keep separate, like church and culture, religion and politics, faith and public life. So, I am naturally attracted to news stories and other media that highlight these amazing intersections. I believe these interesections represent opportunities for Christians to be aware of the the way God's reign is breaking into our world and cooperate with God's Spirit. The following are a number of articles I have discovered recently or were brought to my attention by friends.

STAUBLOG: Facing the Giants of Bad Art & Bad Theology
Dick Staub on living "in a culture that loves art but not Jesus and in a Christian sub-culture dominated by a Christianity that loves Jesus, but not good art."

The Barna Update - Has Faith Greatly Transformed Your Life?
Here, well known Christian researcher, George Barna, asks Christians whether faith as transformed their lives. He makes some observations that probalby serve to solidify many people's assumptions about liberal vs. conservative Christians. But what does Barna mean by "greatly transformed?" How would Barna's observations stack up against those made by Ron Sider in The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience? (Kudos to John Anthony for pointing out this article).

Speaking of Faith on Deciphering the Da Vinci Code
This is a weekly radio program put out by American Public Media, self-dubbed, public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. You can subscribe to a free podcast. I have found this programm to be an amazing resource. This issue was a very thoughtful look at the issues behind the Da Vinci Code without obsessing about the novel/film directly.

God and Gays, from USA Today
A short piece on the recent struggles of some denominations to come to terms with the place of homosexuals in the church, especially the clergy. What of Adventist Churches that are explicitly welcoming? Can we even have an open conversation in our denomination about this? I have my doubts.

In Search of Public Space

At the end of my sermon entitled, A Community of God's Friends, I spoke about the loss of "public space" in society and the possiblity that the church could imagine itself as a the agent of that public space - public good. Brenton wrote a comment that challenged me to go deeper on what was, in that sermon, almost a throw away comment. So I also posted a comment in response to Brenton. This post is an attempt to go deeper.

The photo is of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles. In the foreground is the plaza of the Los Angeles Music Center, home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theater and more. It is a beautiful urban, public space.

Diversity on the March

A new study was released by The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program this week. This is a wealth of fascinating information about trends in diversity in the US. Some of the key findings are:

1. Hispanic and Asian populations are spreading out from their traditional metro centers into the suburban areas surrounds the largest metro areas and into the fastest growing metro areas like Las Vegas and Phoenix. The study noted that traditionally, immigrant minorities have tended to stay clustered in ports of entry (LA, NYC, Miami, etc) for reasons of friendship, family networks and social support, where as whites have not been "bound" by these considerations as well as facing nearly no barriers to integrating into destination communities. So, economics has spread white populations around more while immigrant minorities have stayed in metro areas in spite of economic hardships. This says a lot about the narrative shaping the white population in America.
2. 111 of the 361 metro areas in the US showed a decline in white population from 2000 to 2004 with the largest absolute losses  occuring in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is not slowing down either. What's driving this? Higher birth rates among minorities, continued immigration, and the distribution of the immigrant population through larger parts of the US.
3. If you live near Riverside, California, you should read the whole report. The forces shaping San Bernardino and Riverside counties are immense.

This is just a small part of this fascinating report. You can read a USA Today report on this report or get the whole thing. Also, a cool thing I found on the Brookings Institution website is something called Living Cities Datebook Series. They list 23 of the largest cities in America with a wealth of information! Check it out!