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

The Church of Good TV

I listened to a few Speaking of Faith podcasts today and was particularly moved by “TV and parables of our time.”

Diane Winston appreciates good television, studies it, and brings many of its creators into her religion and media classes at the University of Southern California. In what some have called a renaissance in television drama, we examine how TV is helping us tell our story and work through great confusions in contemporary life.

Thanks to HBO, we are living in a golden age of television.  There are tons of good shows that are redefining the medium; shows that are “helping us tell our story and work through great confusions.”

One point Winston made was that some of these great dramas are taking on characteristics of church.  People gather once a week, watch and discuss.  To take the point a bit further, these shows are  probably church for most younger folks who have long ago stopped going to a church.

And can you blame them?  Rarely have I encountered a church that “tells our story” and helps us “work through confusions.”  We normally just get simple, canned answers to the confusion of 21st century life and most churches hide from the great controversies of our day.

True Blood might have more to say and say it more powerfully about religion, poverty, love, violence,  sex, culture,  family, racism, than a standard, long winded  and trite sermon.  The opening credits of True Blood are even interesting.  The artists behind the credits wanted to show how  “‘religious fanaticism’ and ’sexual energy” could corrupt humans and make them animalistic.’”

Or do any churches do a better job than The Wire when it comes to thinking  and telling the story of our decaying urban areas?

When it comes to the bible, senior producer, Mitch Hanley, for Speaking of Faith, writes:

As someone who finds the Bible in desperate need of an editor, I wonder if I would find the biblical stories more compelling if they had spaceships and cool sound effects and thrilling scores. Would I find the messages more relevant? I don’t know.

I don’t think the bible needs an editor but it does need better producers.  The stories of the bible are great stories, we just normally tell them lamely and without art or context.

Filed under: Christians, bible, church, community, documentary, economy, environment, film, film review , theology, church, media, religion, bible, The Wire, True Blood, good tv, golden age of tv, golden age of television, HBO, Speaking of faith, Krista Tippett, USC, University of Southern California, Diane Winston, religion and media, telivsion, telivision, religious fanticism, sexual energy, animalistic, urban, urban areas, spaceships, science fiction, relevancy, producers

Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action

Screening This Thursday

August 6, 2009

Earth House

237 N. East Street

Indianapolis, IN 46204

7:00 PM $5, Indiana Premiere!

Sponsored by Journey’s Fire

Fueled by the belief that “another world is possible,” Fierce Light is a compelling, global journey into the world of spirit in action, an exploration of what Martin Luther King called “Love in Action,” and Gandhi called “Soul Force”; what Ripper is calling “Fierce Light.”

Acclaimed filmmaker Velcrow Ripper takes an insightful look at change motivated by love, featuring interviews with spiritual activists Thich Nhat Hanh, Desmond Tutu, Daryl Hannah, Julia Butterfly Hill, and more.

Filed under: Earth House, Indiana, Indianapolis, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, Thursday Night Film Festival, documentary, emergent church, environment, film , Indianapolis, martin luther king, Earth House, film, Ghandi, Fierce Light, screening, When Spirit Meets Action, Spiritual Activism, soul force, Velcrow Ripper, Julia Butterfly Hill, Daryl Hannah, Love In Action, Indiana Premiere, premiere, journey's fire