What 10 would you choose?

Jonathan Romain, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian proposes the following as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS he will try to follow for 2009:

1. You shall not complain about a tragedy in the news without doing something about it (be it sending a donation, writing a letter of protest or whatever else is helpful).

2. You shall play your role in protecting the environment by cutting back on waste, recycling materials and other measures, even if they involve effort or inconvenience.

3. You shall not look the other way when you hear someone cry out in the street, but either give help yourself or alert others to that need.

4. You shall regard giving to charity as an essential everyday activity and budget for it in your weekly expenditure.

5. You shall enjoy life as much as possible, although without doing so at the expense of someone else.

6. You shall seek to fulfill your own potential, so that each year is a new year and not a repetition of the previous one.

7. You shall not hurt other people with malicious gossip or betraying confidences.

8. You shall not protect wrongdoers, whether they be at work or in the family, but shall expose misdeeds.

9. You shall not give up on a task because it is enormous but start the work and make your contribution to it.

10. You shall see part of yourself in all whom you meet and recognise both the failings and the abilities that you share.

Were you given the opportunity to write a Top Ten List of Do's and Don't's for yourself, what would they be? Would a new personal list make a greater impact on your life than the Ten Words from Exodus 20?

Auld Lang Syne

The end of a year typically brings out lists - top books, top movies, top news items, etc. There are even lists of the best lists making the rounds.

Among the lists that I always like to see are the ones that detail the top religious stories of the year. Time Magazine has one, for instance, but you can find others. Some pitch the story in the other direction; on BeliefNet, for example, the Progressive Revival lists the 10 Worst Religious Stories for 2008.

Then, you can find those media outlets who try to cast ahead and make predictions about 2009. No, I am not referring to the National Enquirer here. In the Washington Post ON FAITH section is a series of essays about what to expect from religion and things religious in the coming year.

With all of that, if you made a list of the top religious stories of 2008, what would you include? If you contemplated the impact or force of religion in the new year, what do you anticipate?

I would love to have reader's responses for either of these categories, but, if you choose not to respond, Happy New Year anyway.

Religion items in the SLC Tribune

Usually, it is as I am looking at diverse news sources that something catches my eye for inclusion in this blog. Today, I was struck by the items in the hometown newspaper. (Well, actually, there are two hometown papers - The SLC Tribune [describing itself as "Utah's Independent Voice since 1871] and the Deseret News).

** Massacre at a Catholic Church in the Congo with both the government forces and the rebel armies accusing each other of perpetrating the atrocity.
Church folks are frequent pawns in territorial conflicts as one side or another try to prove something. Wouldn't it be wonderful if churches could be considered "off-limits" in such territorial conflicts?

** Teen sexual abstinence pledges - which are predominantly religiously based - do not reduce the number of teens who become sexually active. Teens who make such pledges, though, engage in riskier sex, that is they are less likely to use condoms or other birth control methods. This is based on a new definitive study from Janet Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
I hope this finally convinces the US Government, local school boards, parents, ministers, and churches that the best way to reduce unwanted teen pregnancies is through a comprehensive sex education program that includes the message of abstinence and proper instruction in birth control methods. Unfortunately now, with the Freedom of Conscience ruling pushed through HHS by the Bush White House, pharmacists can honor their own religious preferences and refuse to provide any birth control methods to anyone, even if prescribed by a doctor. I wonder who thought that would help the situation?

** A Catholic man in Maine who is an outspoken critic of the way the Roman Catholic Church has dealt with the sexual abuse scandal has been threatened by Bishop Malone with losing the right to participate fully in the sacraments of the church if the man persists.
I do not know what the man has done to annoy the Bishop, but doesn't this seem to be an abuse of ecclesiastical power to tell someone that God's presence and grace will be withheld from them for protesting? I am glad that I do not have that power in the Congregational Church.

** It has been interesting to me for a number of years to see how various religious groups put aside religious differences in order to achieve a common goal. I speak here most prominently of campaigns to limit marriage to one man and one woman, campaigns to deny rights and benefits to homosexual couples, campaigns to limit abortion, and campaigns to promote abstinence-only sex education in public schools. This was seen most recently and publicly in the joining together of the LDS Church and the conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family in the California blitz on Prop 8. Perhaps now, that alliance is beginning to show cracks. As a result of pressure from other, more (?) conservative Christian groups, FotF has pulled an on-line interview with Glenn Beck, conservative talkshow superstar, from its website because he is a convert to the LDS Church. Quoting from the article, the FotF spokesperson said, "While Glenn's social views are compatible with many Christian views, his beliefs in Mormonism are not. Clearly, Mormonism is a cult."
Does this qualify as a "love 'em and leave 'em" policy after they - whichever they you may name - are no longer useful?

What do you think, good reader? Do you pay attention to the religion and culture items in your own newspaper?

Israel and Gaza

Much of the international news is filled with the stories of the Israeli attacks on Hamas in Gaza. The US papers, in general, give at least tacit support to the Israeli government for defending their nation against the rocket attacks that have been launched against Israel from Gaza.

Certainly, any nation has a right to self-defense. In the attacks, however, many Palestinian citizens, innocents in this situation, have also been killed. As I condemn the attacks on Israeli citizens by suicide bombers, I also condemn Israeli attacks that kill Palestinian citizens.

In the media coverage, the voices of Israeli citizens who may not approve of the attacks are largely lost. On the Progressive Revival blog site on BeliefNet is this posting from Rabbi Arthur Shaskow of the Shalom Center:

Today the starkest choice of values and visions of the future was laid before the Jewish people throughout the world.

On the one hand, Jews throughout the world were reading in synagogue the Prophetic vision of Zechariah, no stranger to exile and humiliation, writing from the midst of the Babylonian Captivity 2500 years ago and looking forward to the rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the relighting of its Menorah --- both of which had been destroyed by Babylonian militarism.

This rebuilding and relighting, Zechariah proclaimed, must be achieved not by mobilizing might and power against Babylonia but by drawing on the Infinite Spirit, God's power. A vision reinforced by the Rabbis who chose the passage to be read on the holy day that might easily fall into a celebration of the military might and power of the Maccabees.

On the other hand --- on the very same day!! -- at least 225 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombs in one more attempt to quell by might and power the use of violence (on a much smaller scale) by Hamas, in what Hamas sees as itself a retaliation against the Israeli blockade and semi-starvation of the people of Gaza.

There is plenty to bewail and plenty to examine in the details of this crossroads-moment in the history between our two Families of Abraham. Tonight (Saturday night) I cannot gather the strength to do this -- having just, after a pleasant Shabbat of synagogue and family dreidling, discovered this crushing news. We will look more deeeply together into these choices, in the next several days.

But what I can do now is simply ask us all to face the choices, to experience the deadly vertigo of choice between these choices.

A hard but necessary moment to send you the blessings of shalom, salaam, peace. --- Arthur

May we all pray for peace for all people in the Middle East.