The Spectrum Blog

Art: Summer Conferences & Workshops

By Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson

This summer, why not delve into an exploration of art and spirituality at one of these conferences or workshops?

The Glen Workshop
"God of the Desert: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" through the Prism of Art
July 29 – August 5, 2007
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Sponsored by Image journal, the Glen Workshop is part arts festival, part intensive workshop. This year's theme is "God of the Desert." The workshop aims to discuss what art and literature can contribute to the issue of continuing tensions among the three Abrahamic faith traditions.

More information

Trinity Arts Conference
"For All the Saints"
June 7 – June 10, 2007
University of Dallas, Texas

The 11th annual Trinity Arts Conference is a multidisciplinary conference on faith, art and integrity. Workshops in visual art, writing, songwriting, and cinema will explore the artistic heroes of the faith--past and present.

More information

Albion Summer School of Art
40th Year Celebration with Vernon Nye
June 17 - 29, 2007
Albion, California

Vernon Nye will once again participate in the summer painting workshop at PUC's Albion Field Station, located on the Mendocino coast. The workshop is open to beginners and advanced students. All classes are held outdoors, weather-permitting.

More information

Adventist Forum Conference
"Adventism in the Present Tense: Pondering Our Pasts, Plotting Our Futures"
September 28 – 30, 2007
Santa Rosa, California

Don't miss this year's Adventist Forum conference, which will feature Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, authors of Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream. Attendees of the conference will also have the chance to see "The Red Books: Our Search for Ellen White," an original play that premiered at Pacific Union College.

More information

Chuck Scriven, lex talionis, and All in the Family

By Alexander Carpenter

Commenting on this week's Sabbath School Lesson, Charles Scriven continues the conversation over biblical authority with seminary professors, Roy Gane and Richard Davidson. Scriven writes:

In an e-mail, Davidson suggested that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount makes no advance on the moral standard, familiar from the Pentateuch, of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.2 Although Jesus appears to contrast his own vision with that of the so-called lex talionis, the Sermon, Davidson said, does not call us "to a higher ethical standard. The same call for personal love for one’s enemies Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount" can be found "throughout" the Old Testament.3

Davidson wants the Bible’s authority to be flat across all its bits and pieces, so he has to show that Jesus does not disagree with what you find elsewhere in the book. And it is true, certainly, that the Old Testament expresses the ideals of love for the stranger and reconciliation with the enemy. It is also true that Jesus himself was a lover of the Hebrew Bible. But the suggestion that the Old Testament gives voice "throughout" to the ideal of enemy love is, to say the least, debatable.

To take the severest counterexample, you can find in Scripture calls to…genocide, calls as unmitigated as they are horrific.4 This fact is one reason why the most influential scholars agree that Jesus’ reading of the Old Testament takes Jewish moral thought in a distinctive direction. Even if some disagree, the consensus on this is as wide as the sea.

Of course you should read the rest in context here. And feel free to comment.

In addition, since this conversation over the proper Christian use of violence has appeared several times on this blog (Israel and Palestine and Lebanon and Iraq and Darfur) I had to smile while watching this famous episode from All in the Family.

It always surprises me when hawkish people find protecting family or others incompatible with a prophetic Christian tradition of peace-making. Garnishing this argument WWII, Viet Nam, Iraq, and Darfur get lumped in together with little nuance. In fact, John Yoder numbers 21 faith-inspired versions of pacifism in his pamphlet Nevertheless (1971). Here's a great blogger, Sub Ratione Dei, who has been reading through it and posting summaries and comments. Enjoy the show. Even All in the Family notes that ethics often stems from how one reads the Testaments.
 

Sabbath Meditations

By Julie Smith

Rest can be defined as both a noun and a verb.  Interesting.  You can think of getting a good rest, in which case you are describing a state of inactivity or repose.  You can actively place your rest on something like hope and trust.  The word Sabbath means, “to rest”.  It is a day of resting.  Rest can be active or inactive--a state of being--or an act of placing your trust in something or upon someone.  Sabbath can be a religious holiday or a tradition.  Or it can be a day to enter a state of rest, a state of trusting, and a day of relationship.

The idea of Sabbath came from the Genesis account of creation where God “rested” from His work of creating and decided to create a day of rest.  It sounds like God actively rested on the day He made for completing His creation.  Sabbath is both a noun and a verb.  A day for entering into repose, a completion of the week, a ceasing of activity, and a day for seeking relationship and for putting your trust in God.

I’m glad God decided to create a rest.  If the Creator had not created a day for ceasing in my week, I would go on until I fell over from exhaustion because I don’t seem to have the sense to stop.  I would of course stop now and then, but probably not every week for 24 hours.

The idea of a weekly Sabbath really seems like a luxury when there is so much to do.  The Sabbath to me is evidence that we live in an abundant universe.  God evidently felt that there was so much time, that one day a week to rest was just right and that we would still have plenty of time to get everything else done. 

If you don’t really believe this, however, it doesn’t do much good to try and squeeze some rest out of a day when you spend the whole time worrying about all that you have to do.  If you can’t truly enter into the idea of rest, you might as well go ahead and work on your “to do” list because you’re not going to get any resting done anyway.

God didn’t create Sabbath as some legal requirement for our salvation.  Sabbath was created for our restoration and enjoyment.  If we find no enjoyment in resting, then we probably have some other issues that we need to work on first before we can enjoy the idea of not being busy.  Some things that come to mind for me is the belief that I’m not good enough.  If I don’t think I deserve some time off because I’m too busy trying to please God, then I will have a hard time resting.

If I view life through the lens of scarcity, then I will have a hard time affording a whole day for re-creating.  If I don’t see myself as worth that time, I will probably turn the day into something that is filled with requirements and restrictions and supports my idea of scarcity.  If I don’t view my salvation as complete then I will try and observe the day out of some arbitrary effort to please a God that I view as rigid and cold and relentless in His fastidiousness to detail.

The Sabbath that is a blessing to me is the one that I enter into just as I enter into my relationship with God.  I enter the Sabbath as a state of repose.  I enter it by placing my trust in God as the Creator of All, the Restorer of All, and the Hope of All.  What I do or don’t do on the Sabbath is not as important as what is in my heart.  Joy, peace, hope, and love are the perfect ingredients for having a good day of rest.  Mix these with generous portions of the Spirit pour them all out and share them with everyone in your life and you will have a beautiful Sabbath rest.  Shabbat Shalom!

Friday Randomness

By Johnny A. Ramirez and Alexander Carpenter

What's on your mind?  Johnny is still working on the media part of Darfur Diaries  for tomorrow night on Apple Keynote and Alex hosted an event on evangelicals and the environment at the GTU this week.  The former wouldn't mind if you nagged him about his boring tasks while the latter has been wrapped up in blinding theoria all week.  Smarting up, Johnny is very impressed with the accolades LLU Bio-Ethics alum Brian Brock has earned.

We both really like this random thing Chelle thought up.

Alex informs Johnny that he just now emptied the compost at his intentional community in Berkeley. Johnny just now took the dishes from breakfast down to the kitchen.  Oatmeal, toast and coffee.

Post away! What are you doing this weekend?

Adventist Blog Potluck

By Johnny A. Ramirez and Alexander Carpenter

Southern Adventist University student Beyond Belief: Progressive Christianity tackles homosexuality and Adventist community. He writes:

I believe that Seventh-day Adventists have been called to be a peculiar people. A people who display the love of Christ for all of humanity and who proclaim the dignity of all of God's children, GLBT persons included. It is therefore the duty of Adventists (for as it is written, "to whom much is given, much is required," and much has been given to the Adventist Church to lead Christendom in Christ-like love. When professed Christians, such as Pat Robertson, speak with biblical authority and divine appointment and say such things as, "When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved in Adolph Hitler were Satanists. Many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together," we must rebuke it as hate-speech and unchristian ranting.

Such language is the same kind that empowered those who killed Matthew Shepard, the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, the "ethnic cleansings" in Bosnia, the Holocaust, apartheid, slavery, the oppression of women, and religious fanatics. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, writes that, "It is unfair for homosexuals to be rejected by society. We cannot place them on the same level as criminals." I concur with that opinion whole-heartedly. When we sanction any one group to be separated and able to be hated we do ourselves a great harm regardless if we are a part of that ostracized group. John 4:8 reads, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

The Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians just met at Oakwood College and several historian/bloggers have interesting things to say.

Hobbes' Place stopped off on the and spent quality time looking through the 60 reel Millerite and Early Adventist microfilm collection at the Library of Congress. He posted a great 36 slide show on William Miller. A must watch!

Adventist Historian notes a new book by Gilbert A. Valentine on the White Estate.

Johnny's Cache spotlights an initiative to end sex-trafficking.

Polished Mirror writes on contemplation and spiritual practice.

In a similar mood, Signs & Wonders watches a sunrise and muses: "Many evangelism series are far too fast & furious with the information shared. "Well, Jesus is coming soon and we must warn everyone" they say. Perhaps He IS at the door, but He referred to Himself as being "gentle, lowly and humble in spirit". Do the tactics reflect the Savior we claim to represent??"

And always talking about changing tactics, Re-inventing the Adventist Wheel (celebrating their anniversary) notes the similarities between Don Imus and Seung Hui Cho.

Not just talking about change, but putting his life where his mouth is check out FAITH HOUSE, Manhattan. Wait, has Samir gone mad?

Here's Monte Sahlin on urban church planting.

Need a good sermon? Here's Sherman Cox II preaching it: God is still speaking.

Speaking of straight talk, The Wheeler Spin has video of John McCain calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops. . .from Somalia. Circa 1993, it's surreal to hear the arguments that he gives, including him saying: that it's "baloney" that American should suffer in prestige by immediate withdrawal. McCain even notes that Reagan's withdrawal of troops after the Beirut  bombing was the right thing to do.

La Sierra honors student Zulema Ibarra posts on Different Media Perspectives.

 

Darfur: we have options, they don't

By Alexander Carpenter

To raise awareness of this four-year conflict, actor, director and activist George Clooney traveled to Sudan and Chad with his father, journalist Nick Clooney.

Both Nick and George Clooney plan to attend a "Rally to Stop Genocide" organized by the Save Darfur Coalition on Sunday, April 30 in Washington, D.C. The assembly plans to call on the international community to help end the turmoil plaguing the African region.

Here's a great discussion from the non-partisan Brookings Institution on the idea of the "responsibility to protect." What's particularly interesting is the release of new global poll data that shows that people, even in China, agree that the international community must act. I know that it is a lot of talking, but some of the questions that have been raised in the comments section in the last post are addressed here by experts.

Global Days for Darfur

By Alexander Carpenter

As you know time is running out for the people of Darfur.

Four years of genocidal violence has left over 400,000 dead, 2.5 million innocent civilians displaced, and 4 million men, women, and children completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

For Adventists with especially tender memories of Rwanda, our community should be clear and strong on pressuring our government to pressure the international community to stop supporting the genocidal Sudanese government.

Over at God's Politics, Adam Taylor titles his Friday Darfur post: For God’s Sake, Save Darfur! End the Politics of Delay. And he lists growing numbers of folks of faith who are acting out, "273 events in 175 cities and 42 states (and D.C.) across the country, as well as events in 20 countries."

Loma Linda University religion prof Julius Nam and Claremont grad student Trisha Famisaran are both promoting  the Loma Linda University Church film and conversation: Darfur Diaries.

"The Save Darfur Coalition is a non-profit organization and advocacy group dedicated to ending the genocide in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. It is a coalition of over 160 faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organizations designed to raise public awareness and to mobilize an effective united response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of some two million people in Darfur."

According to their wikipedia entry:

The Save Darfur Coalition began on July 14, 2004 when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Jewish World Service organized a Darfur Emergency Summit at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan featuring Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel. Mr. Wiesel inspired the group with his impassioned remarks about the suffering being inflicted on Darfurians: "How can I hope to move people from indifference if I remain indifferent to the plight of others? I cannot stand idly by or all my endeavors will be unworthy."

You've got to check out Johnny Ramirez's flash graphic for Global Days for Darfur.

If you want to do something with your church, here's Sojourners' Global Days for Darfur toolkit as well as other resources.

But there are one thing that we can do as active members, not just thinking typists, in the Spectrum Adventist community.

Donate directly to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency Darfur/Sudan fund. I volunteered for a year for ADRA Bangladesh and saw first hand that even a little bit of support creates an exponential difference in human life. 

Art: Interview with Greg Constantine

By Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson

Greg Constantine is an emeritus research professor and artist in residence at Andrews University, where he taught art for forty-two years. He has exhibited his art across the U.S. and in Europe, and his art has previously appeared on the cover of Spectrum. Born in Ontario, Canada, Constantine received his Bachelor of Arts from Andrews University in 1960 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University in 1968.

Through his career, Constantine has explored unusual techniques and perspectives. His early work includes a series of paintings made by "squeezing paint tubes in horizontal lines directly on the canvas to create large television images" and what he calls "slices of art," or paintings that combine famous artworks." Constantine has also experimented with juxtaposing or integrating faces and buildings, trios of faces in profile, and more recently, "tilted images" and "stretched images," which toy with the perspective in famous paintings.

"King Tut Trio," © Greg Constantine, acrylic on canvas and wood, 34" x 48" x5"

I caught up with the artist recently (via email) to ask him about his creations:

SF-J: How would you describe your artwork? What are you exploring in your artwork?

Constantine: My artwork has, for the last 32 years, involved transforming pre-existing images taken from art history—not just changing them, but creating something else. This is not an entirely new idea. Artists from Rembrandt to Picasso and on have incorporated other artists' visual images into their own work.

I may have gone a step further in making art about the artists themselves in my artist licenses of 1981 and my three books of drawings depicting three well-known artists visiting three American cities (Vincent van Gogh Visits New York, Leonardo Visits Los Angeles, Picasso Visits Chicago). Although I am a painter of acrylics, these four concepts were rendered in other mediums (oil ink or acrylic on styrene, and the drawings were conte crayon on paper.

I have pretty much pursued novel ideas, as they present themselves, in an impulsive way--although I cannot allow too many other ideas to intrude while I am attempting to explore and realize a concept to its logical conclusion. I've always seemed to have many more ideas than time to pursue them.

SF-J: What are your influences, artistic and otherwise?

Constantine: Much of my output has started with well-known masterpieces and their attendant museum quality frames. I suppose because I have taught art history and also been involved with the contemporary art scene, my life can be defined by this as well as teaching studio art for 43 years. I am also an avid golfer and have a patent on an object that I created as well as about a dozen paintings concerning the history of golf.

SF-J: You’ve taught art for many years and have even been called an “evangelist for art.” As a professor, what do you hope to convey to your students?

Constantine: I retired from teaching in May [2006], but not from painting! I may be found in my studio 5 days a week and I really feel great that I don't have to prepare for classes any more. I never thought that was a burden, but this is even better. I hope I have been an influence to my students to be original (in spite of my own art seeming to borrow from the masters), and also to have integrity and being honest to oneself with healthy self-criticism, and perhaps most importantly, to pursue ideas and look for “connections” amongst existing concepts.

SF-J: During your years as art professor, how did you divide/balance your time between teaching and creating art?

Constantine: Many times I was asked, “Where do you find time to make all this stuff?” Well, I couldn't FIND the time. I had to MAKE time! That entails saying no to some things that want to intrude. Even so, I didn't skip committees either.

SF-J: What kind of physical space do you create in, and what is your creative process like?

Constantine: Andrews University has been good to me—I retired as an emeritus research professor and artist in residence—and I have been provided with a wonderful studio and office. I have a difficult time explaining my creative process. I suppose I’m not aware of the non-self conscious methodology, which has been my modus operandi.

SF-J: How would you describe the state of visual art in Adventism, in Christianity?

Constantine: I cannot pretend to be informed about the state of visual art in Adventism. I know I had to just go out there (into the art world) and try to see if my work “cut it.” I decided to start at the top (New York), and if that didn't work out, I'd try Plan B. I don't know what Plan B would have been, because I had immediate acceptance to Plan A. I've had support within the church as well, both from the institution and the membership interested in my art.

SF-J: Do you believe art can or ought to bring about social change?

Constantine: My art has never been about social issues.

SF-J: Do you consider yourself a Christian artist?

Constantine: I consider myself an artist who happens to be an Adventist Christian (or the other way around). I have created works, which could be considered to have overt spiritual implications (e.g., Jesus of New York—another book of drawings that I can't seem to get published).

SF-J: What are you currently working on? Any plans to publish more books?

Constantine: I am currently working on a series of paintings which involve violating the traditional “picture plane.” You'll have to refer to my website to get an idea of these "tilted paintings.” I still show my work regularly in New York at OK Harris Works of Art. I've been with them since 1983. I'm also putting together a book of my artist licenses, which I hope gets published. I've also submitted a book idea about the origins of golf (Scottish shepherds and all that).

 
"Vincent Paints Coney Island on a Sunday Afternoon," © Greg Constantine, 44 " x 65"

View Greg Constantine's websites: www.gconstantine.com and
www.shepherdstick.com

Is there an artist you'd like to see interviewed on this blog? Leave us a comment and let us know.

VIDEO: Apocalypse How?

By Alexander Carpenter

The Daily Show mixes a Revelation seminar and global warming - a little apocalyptic humor in honor of Earth Day.

Resources for greening Adventism

By Alexander Carpenter

As mentioned in yesterday's post, here's some resources for Adventists who are interested to doing something about global warming: in devotional life, home, congregation, community, and government.

Five things to think and pray about: 

1. Essential, although a bit dated, here's the official Seventh-day Adventist Church statement to industrialized countries.

2. Here's lots of scripture showing that caring for creation comes with taking the Judeo-Christian tradition and the example of Christ seriously.

3. The Center for American Progress released this helpful statement on the IPCC report and Congress' recent sub-committee hearing on global warming.

4. Whenever you hear nay-sayers on climate change, check out Real Climate, run by real climatologists with good laymen discussions mixed with peer-reviewed work.

5. Adventist missionary Jared Wright has a great blog: http://adventist-environmental-advocacy.blogspot.com

Five things to do: 

(Here's just one practical thing that we can do to make a difference in each sphere of influence.)

Home
Replace ordinary light bulbs with energy efficient alternatives According to efficiency experts, one of the simplest ways to reduce your CO2 emissions is by replacing ordinary incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent bulbs, which provide the same amount of light but use a fraction of the electricity as normal bulbs. According to the nonprofit group Environmental Defense (http://www.fightglobalwarming.org), if every household replaced three 60-watt incandescent light bulbs with these bulbs, it would be the equivalent of removing 3.5 million cars from the road.

Work
Tune up, replace or share your car Hybrid cars are becoming popular choices, but still comprise a small part of the U.S. vehicle fleet. If you're not ready for a new car or truck, you can make sure your current one operates more efficiently by keeping it properly tuned. You can also reduce emissions by carpooling whenever possible or taking public transportation if it's available.

Church
Interfaith Power and Light is a great organization and as far as I know at least two Adventist churches have signed their Congregation Covenant. IPL provides a lot of support for local churches that want to save money on energy while learning more about conservation. I know some of these folks personally and they are stand up folks! And they like working with Adventists.

Local Community
Frequent your nearest farmers market. Buy local, slow, and organic. It supports small family farms, it's healthier for your family, and it's really fun. The government has a site where you can click on a map and look through a list of certified farmers markets in your state.

National Community
Learn about and support great organizations like Restoring Eden that get Christian college students active on national policy. And vote for candidates with hot ratings from the League of Conservation Voters.

It's Friday: What's on your mind?

By Alexander Carpenter

What is this? Suddenly there's Adventist news everywhere. . .

[Big hat tip to the queen of Adventist randomness, Chelle Webster, who pointed this out] Sligo Church Pastor Terry Johnsson of White House Honor Guard fame, dances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. What would Joe Crews say?

As Chelle noted, in the NBC comments section there are some of his members telling people that he preaches better than he dances. I wonder if that is also true about Pastor Greg. . .?

Anyway, what's on your mind?

Our seminarian on the seminary attack

And by now you may have heard about the seminarian at Andrews University who attacked evangelism professor Russell Burrill.

As WNDU notes, 28-year-old Romana Baciu beat an Andrews University seminary professor, and later attacked a police officer. Monday, seminarian Baciu reportedly locked the door of Professor Russell Burrill's office and began beating him, all the while yelling "repent."

For some perspective here's Pastor Trevan Osborn, recent Andrews University Seminary graduate and evangelism corespondent for the Spectrum Blog.

By Trevan Osborn

On the same day the Virginia Tech shootings occurred, a bizarre event took place in the Seminary at Andrews University. A Seminary student locked himself in an office with Russell Burrill, Director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute, and choked and beat him in an apparent murder attempt. Luckily, other office staff eventually came to the rescue and the student has been arrested and charged with attempted murder. Dr. Burrill had minor injuries although he is obviously quite shaken by the whole experience. For more details see one report from the South Bend Tribune and a rumor-heavy blog post.

I hesitate to analyze this situation, particularly considering how little good has resulted from the news networks and their punditry regarding the Virginia Tech shootings. However, since I just finished my 2 ½ years this last December, I do feel like I can provide some perspective.

Dr. Burrill is a hard-nose, straight forward guy but he is also very fair and willing to dialogue. He gets along really well with the students and is probably one of the most liked Seminary professors around. Reports indicate that the student was on cocaine which had a part in this and it probably could have been any professor who was attacked. Honestly, my initial reaction was a big, "HUH?" followed by a few chuckles. Before you think I'm a total jerk for laughing at the situation, let me explain why.

The initial "Huh," was quickly replaced by a whole assortment of reasons why it's not unbelievable. In fact, it almost makes sense which is why I had to chuckle. Seminarians have a less than stellar reputation at Andrews, which is justified. Seminarians have developed a reputation with the local police as notorious wife-beaters with frequent domestic violence spats in the married student housing on campus. The single Seminarians are notorious for preying on the undergrad girls and sleeping around with naïve victims. Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of Seminarians are good people, but there simply are way too many stories to not view it as a serious crisis.

The stress is real. A full class load for MDiv students is 6-7 classes a Semester which is a heavy burden to bear. Many students, including the one who attacked Burrill, are from overseas which means English is their second or even third language. The weather is severe in the Winter with the few days (actually hours) of sunlight causing mass pandemonium because we are so happy just to experience the bright of day.

The greatest stressor is one all ministers face of not being able to authentically reveal who we are to others. We are afraid of admitting our doubts. Afraid of admitting that we struggle with the same sins we preach against every week. Afraid of not living up to the exceedingly high expectations the church members place on us. Unfortunately, the Seminary has not been able to create a safe environment where we are able to work through the issues we all face.

Am I justifying what Baciu  did? No. Do I understand some of the stressors that caused it? Yes.

Trevan Osborn pastors the Patterson Avenue and Far West End Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Richmond,Virgina.

BREAKING: 3ABN and Amazing Facts to join forces

By Alexander Carpenter

3:37 PM

According to Bonnie Ensminger, secretary to Doug Batchelor, Amazing Facts and Three Angels Broadcasting Network will be "uniting."

Doug Batchelor, the president of Amazing Facts and senior minister at the Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church has flown to the studios of 3ABN, Inc of Thompsonville, Illinois and will join with current 3ABN president/speaker Danny Shelton in a live announcement at 8:00 PM CDT today.

Sources, including Save3ABN.com, suggest that organizational change will include Doug Batchelor assuming the presidency of 3ABN although questions remain about the continued role of Danny Shelton in the TV ministry he started in 1986.

UPDATE: Here's the official press release.

6:00 PM PDT: Watch the announcement on 3ABN LIVE.

The corporation and our environment

By Alexander Carpenter

Sunday is Earth Day.  Lately we've had some good discussions about science, creation and how reasonable people integrate skepticism and evidence. It's pretty clear that all bodies of climatologists and the major international consortia agree that human transportation, industry, and energy production warm our earth's temperature. I know that some readers of this blog are pretty convinced by the evidence, some don't care and some - I'm smiling at you Bob - disagree with the IPCC. If people want to debate the evidence that's fine, although I'd suggest that the burden of proof is on the climate change doubters since there is a lot of easy-to-read, peer-reviewed evidence available online. Just poking holes is not a debate. Unlike some theologies, scientific theories are testable without claiming all the answers.

One of the reasons that doubts continue is that energy and industrial corporations have spent millions through the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and some of the most prominent lobbying firms. Last summer in DC I hung out with a friend who graduated from an Adventist college who works for one of the firms, Berman & Co, recently featured on 60 Minutes. I talked with the mostly recent college grads who worked there. Their jobs include planting op-eds and quotes in newspaper articles around the country raising questions about green technology, drinking and driving, animal cruelty, workers rights, second hand smoke, and climate change. As they pointed out, their job is to create doubt about the messengers and the evidence.

Of course, all corporations are not evil, but the the bottom line is their bottom line. Money matters most. Thus change that cares for creation has not seemed good for their business as usual. But that is changing, especially out here in Silicon Valley. I just listened to a panel discussion sponsored by Google among major venture capitalists who say that green energy and sustainable-living are the profit wave of the future. We see this with Toyota quickly passing Detroit in profits due to their hybrid foresight. Tomorrow I'll post some ideas on why climate change matters to people of faith - anyone preaching on ecology on Sabbath? - but here's a well-regarded documentary, based on legal scholar Joel Bakan's book The Corporation, on how corporations create demand and fuel human consumption habits that corrupt creation.

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

By Alexander Carpenter

The Columbia Union Conference released this information, April 17, 2007.

I know the many of you are wondering if  there's an Adventist connection to the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I  have heard from two people in the region---Jeanie Allen from Potomac Conference and Lynette Wood who teaches at the university---and they both shared great information. We'll keep you posted if we learn more. In the meantime, our president Dave Weigley has asked that we keep all the families affected by this tragedy in prayer.

TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH
by Jeanie Allen, communication assistant, Potomac Conference

Many of you have been following today’s tragedy unfolding at Virginia Tech (VT), located in Blackburg, Va, where a gunman killed 33 people, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. At this point, we do not know of any Seventh-day Adventist student or faculty casualties.

Known Seventh-day Adventist students attending VT and accounted for include: Jason Dean (New Market, VA), Jessica McNeilus (New Market, VA), Steven Thomas (Manassas, VA), Paul Munilla (Rocky Mount, VA), and Sylvia Grove (Radford, VA). Don Wood, instructor in the Communication Department, and his wife, Lynette Wood, Assistant Professor of Accounting & Information System at Virginia Tech and members of the Radford Church are also safe.

Tom McNeilus, Shenandoah Valley Academy science and math instructor, is very thankful his daughter is safe. Jessica, an engineering student at VT, should have been in Norris Hall this morning but her professor cancelled class last evening, which very well may have saved her life.

This afternoon , the Virginia Tech Adventist Christian Fellowship, a student organization officially recognized by the university and led by Sylvia Grove, will hold a “Time of Prayer” at VT beginning at 1:00 pm at the gazebo by the duck pond. Pastor Daniel Royo (Radford church) will lead out in this prayer vigil.

Royo reports that he’s heard there are maybe 200 Adventist students currently attending Virginia Tech, but  knows only a small percentage. Royo hopes to meet more members at the prayer vigil, but wishes it could be under different circumstances. Please keep the families of those struck today with tragedy and loss in your prayers.

For more information on the Virginia Tech Adventist Christian Fellowship or if you know an Adventist attending Virginia Tech, visit their website at: http://www.friends.org.vt.edu

Of course let's remember everyone involved in our prayers and if you know a student at Virginia Tech or elsewhere, feel free to talk to them as well.

Adventist All-Star Trading Cards

By Alexander Carpenter

All right, all right. I know that awesome Julius Nam posted this video over at Progressive Adventism and so I didn't want to duplicate content, but people keep sending it to me and it is pretty funny. . .because being an Adventist does ROCK with wham! Thus, here you go. . .ladies and gentleman from the Florida Hospital Church. . .Adventist All-Star Trading Cards.

JFK on the separation of church/state

By Alexander Carpenter

One of the political positions that I'm particularly proud of as an Adventist is our advocacy for the separation of church and state around the world. Here is video of John F. Kennedy's famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on the issue of religion in public life (1960).

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President  -- should he be Catholic -- how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

Here's an archive page with the whole audio and text of the speech.

It's Friday: What are your random thoughts?

By Alexander Carpenter

Word to the wise: don't get caught collecting wood tomorrow. . . Numbers 15: 32-36

How was your week?  Any special Sabbath plans? Anyone still not done with their taxes? What's on your mind?

Blessed are the peacemakers

By Alexander Carpenter

A low level discussion about the proper Adventist response to war has emerged at the MLK: Speak for the weak and Chomsky posts.

Already "liberal socialist" has been trotted out as both an epithet and a badge of honor. I'd like to break open the debate about the proper Christian response to war. And since it's tax season, let's talk about the money.

Spectrum community member Arlyn asks: "how then shall we act? How to be peaceful in a new paradigm of terrorism? How to defend our civilians without killing others? . . .I need to hear real answers too, Jesus' way for governments to proceed in a sinful world. How can America die on it's cross? unpack this please."

While there exist many approaches to arguing that war is counterproductive and immoral I've chosen to kick off the discussion by looking at the material cause for war. These discussions can get bogged down in so many ways and so I want to emphasize what lies behind the rhetoric. Johnny kicked us off helpfully with former GOP president and five star general Eisenhower warning in 1961 about the growing military-industrial complex.

While everyone agrees that war is evil, often the debate in Christian circles centers on the definition of just war. The argument gets trotted out that at least WWII was moral because the Allies were defeating the Axis. But this short circuits the logic of moral action and neglects the history of Christian fetishization of power that aided in Hitler's rise. There's a great book called Theologians Under Hilter (1987) and now a documentary of the same name (2005) "that introduces the viewer to three of the greatest Christian scholars of the twentieth century: Paul Althaus, Emanuel Hirsch, and Gerhard Kittel, men who were also outspoken supporters of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party."

A review in Religion and Ethics Daily notes:

One of the documentary'€™s strengths is its presentation of the Deutsche Christenor German Christian movement that came to prominence in the 1920s. It championed a radical, nationalist agenda that merged church and state to the point of draping a swastika on the church altar. . . .Doris Bergen of Notre Dame University. . .points out how the Deutsche Christen movement thought the church had become too feminized and sought to portray the institution as young and virile."

Here it's essential to note two classic moral compromises that lead to fascism. Equating patriotism with religion and supporting gender inequality in institutions. Frankly, one of the best things humans can do for peace is support more pacifist women in power.

While this little YouTube video editorializes a bit much about the Nazi collusion of the Lutherans (note the misunderstanding about the Confessing Church), it's essential to note that the majority of the Protestant, Catholic, and yes Adventist leadership stayed silent during the rise of the National Socialist party and failed to object to Hitler's creation of a military-industrial complex for war. Here's a little rule of thumb, the more pro security a candidate the more likely the nation will go to war unnecessarily. And it will be called self-defense. One of the biggest misunderstandings about just war theory is what actually is just. I'm sure that if someone asks, Ron, who is a scholar on the topic, will shed some light.

Here I'll get back to discussing belli causi.

Fact: the number one drive for war is increased profit. It's not humanitarian; it's not self-defense; it is an outgrowth of the the military-industrial complex which threatens our spiritual well-being and frays the very fabric our our society, according to Eisenhower.

Now let's take an example: the Iraq war that a majority of Americans supported. The Iraq war has turned out to be surprisingly expensive. You and I have already spent $500 billion on it with another $100 billion supplemental awaiting Bush's decision this month. The 2008 budget for the first time will include Iraq war money. Thus far, this entire war has been funded outside the budget. In caring for the 25,000 wounded Americans and continued reconstruction costs, the total is currently projected around 1,000,000,000,000. To put that in perspective - in inflation adjusted dollars, WWII cost 2 trillion. And we got three dictators, and faster.

As Eisenhower states: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. . .we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Therefore, while the Iraq war is only one example it is not the exception, but is the future of conflict. In Korea we had to draw down troops and Viet Nam and we eventually will in Iraq. That's three wars without victory. Then why do we fight? Certainly there are geopolitical reasons, but let's not miss that history lesson of modern wars in which people die while military contractors increase profits.   We now have in place a war machine on which millions of Americans depend for their livelihood. Over 41 percent of our taxed money goes to the defense department. According to the Stockholm International Peace Institute, "The USA is responsible for 48 per cent of the world total [military spending], distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with 4-5 per cent each."

This a graph on our next US community budget. The Bush administration has proposed over $650 billion for the Pentagon, compare that to$32 billion on education. The X in the graph above is the amount of money that disappears into old weapons systems and nuclear stockpiles. That said, it's essential not to mix our moral arguments about war. Since the sixties, the moral clarity that Christians should oppose war has been hijacked by the corporate interests who depend on the military-industrial complex to survive. Thus, what causes war? One of the major factors is the collusion between private corporations and military spending creates war to make money. War is not self-defense. Self-defense is creating the moral climate that resists bellicosity and limits the kind of corporate and military meddling in other countries that creates terrified ideologies that attack back. International institutions and peace provides lasting national security, not wars on socialism, on drugs, on Iraq/terrorism. Of course the comment section may turn into a place where people toss around hypotheticals, do you support this or that? But first we need to address the root causes for war. It is not national defense or democracy - it is profit. If Adventists can understand and short-circuit this Ouroboros of military and industry feeding each other our church just might recreate a culture of conscientious objection. And actually save souls - not just win them.   

Over at the Center for American Progress, Scott Lilly writes:

"As a young soldier in the early 1970s, I prayed every morning that I would not come down on orders€ for Vietnam and would not be placed in a position where I would have to shoot at people who posed no plausible threat to me or my country. I was extremely angry and frustrated with the President and Congress for not putting an end to a mindless conflict that was disrupting my life, causing the deaths of so many innocent people, and wasting resources so desperately needed for real problems facing our society at home.

But I was almost as frustrated by the mindless antics of many opposing the war who did little more than harden the resolve of the war supporters and dissuade those who might otherwise have become war opponents. They provided a perfect foil for Richard Nixon, who had run out of explanations to justify the continuation of the conflict. Nixon turned the debate over the war€ into a debate over the war movement€ a bait-and-switch that helped him rally support even among people who had growing reservations about what they witnessed each night on television. 

To this day, I think those who insisted on injecting arguments about drugs, sex, personal hygiene, and respect for law into the debate over Viet Nam prolonged the war (perhaps by years) and, as a consequence, contributed to the deaths of hundreds and possibly thousands of my fellow soldiers. That is a lesson that anyone engaged in a struggle to build a coalition large enough and strong enough to change national policy should remember."

Suddenly being respectable meant supporting unnecessary killing and a crook. Let's not let that happen again. . . We can have conversations about social issues - since those choices are linked - but first we need to establish our moral clarity on war. You do.  As Adventists. As followers of Jesus. Our tradition is conscientious objection, but we have neglected to take that seriously. In reclaiming our witness for peace, every Adventist in every country can use his or her power to stand, vote, write, talk, pray, create, preach, work - a global witness that we object to war.

In memory of Kurt Vonnegut

By Alexander Carpenter

I first read Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano to save myself from a lackluster second semester in college. By my senior year I taught Cat's Cradle to Andrews University honors students. God bless you Mr. Vonnegut (11/11/1922 - 04/11/2007).

Here's a few of my favorite hits:

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.

I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.

People don't come to church for preachments, of course, but to daydream about God.

I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead.

If what Jesus said was good, what can it matter if he was God or not?

If it weren’t for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn’t want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake.

Some jerk infected the Internet with an outright lie. It shows how easy it is to do and how credulous people are.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.

I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, "Please— a little less love, and a little more common decency."

Let us devote to unselfishness the frenzy we once gave gold and underpants.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Beyond good and evil?

By Alexander Carpenter

Update: How does the Stanford Prison experiment and Abu Ghraib inform the way that Christians should talk about evil? Does sin explain evil behavior? From astute read T. Joe Willey PhD (who I just noticed in the intro to The Creationists, stayed up with Ron Numbers that fateful late night). Anyway, Dr. Willey sent over a link to yesterday's eSkeptic review of Stanford psychiatry emeritus Philip Zimbardo's new book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil:

The central metaphor of The Lucifer Effect is “no bad apples, only bad barrels.” That is, situations and systems, not individuals, transform behavior and personality. In exhaustive detail, including a day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour, description of the psychological decline of student volunteers and those conducting the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo details countless shameful examples of human behavior, from the alleged banality of Adolph Eichmann to the brutal Rwandan and Nanking rapes, ultimately ending with the offenses performed by our very own forces in Abu Ghraib.

[snip]

Who among us has not surprised and shamed himself with acts of minor cruelty, or fails to recall the social hierarchy of his own primary and secondary school experience? The Lucifer Effect presents data that is far from inconceivable or unconvincing, and readers who remain doubtful of the extremes of human behavior after reading it must be determined to submerge their capacity for reason in the sands of denial.

As we know evil and good Adventists existed right next to each other in 1994 Rwanda. What separated those aided the genocide and those who acted heroically were not separated by doctrine - but by action. But as we know, different contexts or barrels call for difference acts - thus, how should Adventism make good barrels? In the past we've worked to keep folks, especially the young out of the world while making sure that doctrine stays firm, clearly attention to the barrel and the apple. In light of Rwanda and Abu Ghraid, what needs tweaking so that Adventists stand out as good fruit.

 

Art: Upcoming Exhibits

By Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson

If you live in Northern California or will be passing through in the next few months, I recommend two upcoming exhibits featuring Adventist artists Thomas Morphis and Vernon Nye:

Constructions
Jenny Honnert Abell, Marya Korgstad, and Thomas Morphis
April 22 - July 1, 2007
Artists' Talk: Wednesday, May 2, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Berkeley Art Center
1275 Walnut Street, Berkely CA 94709
(510) 644-6893

Thomas Morphis, professor of art at Pacific Union College and several-time cover artist for Spectrum, joins Bay Area artists Jenny Honnert Abell and Marya Korgstad in an exhibit at the Berkeley Art Center. "The physical and psychological processes of assembly are explored in Constructions, an exhibition of collages, found objects and installations.... The artists, selected from the Fall 2006 Members' Showcase finalists, gather disparate materials including architectural features, magazine clippings, fabric, and twigs to create works that convey experiences of memory, loss, whimsy, and regret." (Source: Berkeley Art Center)

And, just in case you missed it, here's my interview with Morphis from last October.

Celebrating 90: New Work, Vernon Nye
April 21 - May 13, 2007
Rasmusssen Art Gallery, Pacific Union College
Opening reception April 21, 1:00 - 5:00 pm
More info: (707) 965-7362

Longtime watercolorist and retired PUC professor Vernon Nye exhibits new work at Pacific Union College. "Vernon Nye has contributed greatly to California watercolor painting and was one of the key artists to emerge on the West Coast during the Post World War II era," according to California & American Art.

Nye studied art with Eliot O'Hara, Roy Mason, Ted Kautzky and Harry Anderson. He began his art career by as a book illustrator for the Review and Herald Publishing Association. Later, he moved to Northern California and became chairman of the art department at Pacific Union College. He also taught watercolor classes on the Mendocino Coast. In addition, Nye created posters for the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Defense and held the position of staff illustrator for the Federal Civil Defense Department. Last year, the classroom in Pacific Union College's Rasmussen Art Gallery was dedicated as the "Vernon Nye Lecture Hall." Nye is now retired, but he continues to paint and exhibit his work in California galleries.