Dorothy Day was almost a Methodist…

As strange as it may seem, Dorothy Day might have been a Methodist.  I just started reading The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the legendary Catholic Social Activist, and what has been surprising is about how often she talks about John Wesley and  her experience with the Methodist Church. 

Ultimatley, one of the most important Chrisitan figures of 20th century America began her faith journey by rejecting the Methodist church. 

…I had to choose the world to what I wanted to belong. I did not want to belong to the Epworth League which some of my classmates joined.   As a little child, the happy peace of the Methodists who lived next door to me appealed to me deeply.   Now, the same happiness seemed to be a disregard of the misery of the world (page 41).

I find this passage important for the future of the United Methodist Church.  The argument has been made and continues to be made that the Methodist Church is in decline because of its liberalism.  Though more of a hunch than a thesis, Dorothy Day’s epxerience tells us that something else is at play; the Methodist’s “disregard of the misery of the world.”

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Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

Congrats to President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Lets hope he ends up more like Martin Luther King than Henry Kissinger, who won it in 1973.

Kissinger won the award for arranging U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.  Good for him but Kissinger, as Richard Nixon’s main advisor, was responsible for the secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia and most likely behind the overthrow of Chile’s democratic government in 1974.

This is what Martin Luther King said in his Nobel Peace Prize speech:

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality….I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

Obama has walked a very fine line since getting involved in mainstream politics.  Not many former community organizers end up becoming the most powerful person on Earth. I I think that is a good thing.  I‘d rather have someone like Obama, trained on the streets of Chicago,  leading our military and our economy than a Wall Street type or a general.  He should know that military action does not produce a better and more safe world; and that our economic system has severe shortcomings.

If anyone has the chance to make Dr. King’s dream a reality–the dream he talks about in the Nobel speech–than Obama is our greatest hope.

We might not ever again have someone like Obama in the oval office; lets hope that he and we can forge a peaceful world that lines up with Dr. King and not Kissinger.

Filed under: Barack Obama, chicago, economy, environment, military , martin luther king, peace, Obama, chicago, community organizing, economy, military, Nobel peace prize, nobel, henry kissinger, chile, 1973, dream, King's nobel peace prize speech, miiitary, wall street

KO’d by Love! Thoughts on Do The Right Thing, 20 years later

1989 was a good year for movies, though I was 12 years old at the time and more interested in baseball cards than great film.  This summer we wiill celebrate the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and do the same for Michael Moore’s Roger and Me.

We will screen Do The Right Thing tonight at Earth House and show Roger and Me this fall. Anyway, here is a nice take on 1989 as a landmark year for film.

When comparing then and now, Spike Lee had this to say:

In 1989, you still had affordable housing in New York City,” he told us. Then his outlook became more positive. “The racial polarization you had, when this film was made, is not in the New York City I know today.

The biggest difference between ‘89 and ‘09 though is the politics.  The economy sucked in ‘89 and it really sucks in ‘09.   Both times, the economy had been wrecked by years of supply-side economics.  Though Jesse Jackson had run a transcendent presidential campaign in ‘84 and ‘88, the nation overwhelmingly voted for Reagan and Bush I.   Remarkably enough, a young Chicago lawyer/former community organizer named Barack Obama and another young Chicago laywer, Michelle Robinson, went on their first date that summer of 1989.  They saw Do The Right Thing.

Here in the summer of 2009, I am constantly reminded by the Martin Luther King qoute that “the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.”  It took way too long and it isn’t quite dead, but the “southern strategy” of winning elections by exploiting and inflaming white racism is mostly over.

And maybe it goes all the way back to Radio Raheem and Do The Right Thing.  Radio Raheem preaches a message of peace–or atleast blares it on his radio and shows it off in his knuckle rings, “…Hate K.O.ed by Love.”

Let me tell you the story of “Right Hand, Left Hand.” It’s a tale of good and evil. Hate: It was with this hand that Cane iced his brother. Love: These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: Static. One hand is always fighting the other hand; and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But, hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that’s right. Ooh, it’s the devastating right and Hate is hurt, he’s down. Left-Hand Hate K.O.ed by Love.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Earth House, New York, Thursday Night Film Festival, chicago, community, community organizing, economy, film, gentrification, movie reviews, progressive , 1989, 1989 film, 1989 films, 20th anniversary, Barack Obama, cain and abel, chicago, community organizing, Do The Right thing, Earth House, economics, economy, film, film reviews, genesis, George Bush, K.0.d by love, lockerbie central umc, martin luther king, michael moore, Michelle Obama, Michelle Robinson, moral arc of the universe is long, New York, race, racism, Radio Raheem, Roger and Me, ronald reagan, southern strategy, Spike Lee, supply side economics