all truth is God's truth: Maher on Profit

Because medicine is now for-profit we have things like "recision," where insurance companies hire people to figure out ways to deny you coverage when you get sick, even though you've been paying into your plan for years.

When did the profit motive become the only reason to do anything? When did that become the new patriotism? Ask not what you could do for your country, ask what's in it for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

If conservatives get to call universal health care "socialized medicine," I get to call private health care "soulless vampires making money off human pain." The problem with President Obama's health care plan isn't socialism, it's capitalism.

And if medicine is for profit, and war, and the news, and the penal system, my question is: what's wrong with firemen? Why don't they charge? They must be commies. Oh my God! That explains the red trucks! -Bill Maher, The Huffington Post, retrieved July 23, 2009

In an article entitled "New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit," Comedian Bill Maher tackles one of the United States' greatest sacred cows. It's an entertaining read in which he poignantly identifies how captured we are as a people by our own markets. His best line; "The problem with President Obama's health care plan isn't socialism, it's capitalism." It is not very often people are this clear and honest about how deeply we are governed by profit. You'll have to decide for yourself what to think about his partisanship (he claims he hates both sides), but there is a truth laid bare in the article that should catch our attention, particularly as Christians claiming to know the ever giving presence of God.

thinking theologically: church leadership

Preparing the way, as a style of managing Christian organizations, turns ambivalence into creative tension. There is no avoiding the tension between the present age and the kingdom of God that is coming into the present.-Miniding God's Business, p.58

How to think theologically about leading a church is difficult, and Anderson has been of immense help. In his book, Minding God's Business, he lays out some considerations that ground leadership practices in theological reflection more robust than most of the average "Next Generation Leadership!" books churned out. The tension of "what next?", -the difficulty of planning and anticipating the future while responsibly stewarding the present, often creates a paralysis in organizations. Groups want to move forward, but not lose their hard won identity. Anderson's ambivalence captures the paralysis that creeps in and makes it easier for churches to simply spin their wheels in place. He proposes a different model of leadership that, "prepares the way," by looking where God has been at work in the past and finding the signs there that point to his continued work in the future. It is a theological explanation of a good visioning process. It is helpful because it assumes a movement forward; the possibility of something new breaking in, in a manner that honors the historical presence of God within the organization. This also highlights the provisional nature of the organization as a response to God's work.

With this move, Anderson creates a kind of eschatalogical hermeneutic of the organization which takes seriously the historical presence of God in a people. To me, this is very challenging and exposes how deeply I assume the world is all there is, how I assume God operates parallel to it, apart from it. It is a much more serious and real way to understand a church or organization, that locates it within God's redemptive history but avoids baptizing everything an organization does as central to God's work in the world. I want to draw a connection here to Torrance's descriptions of what God was doing in Israel, incarnating and culminating in Christ but I need to understand the Church's role in that better as well as the ethical implications the idea of "preparing the way" leadership has, but I need to think it through more carefully. Here's the meat of the Anderson's passage for you:

The problem with ambivalence is that it is destructive to the creative relation between imagination and planning. Ambivalence fears promise as much as it distrusts planning. Where the will of God is caught in ambivalence, it either tends to be capricious (if there are discretionary funds available!) or cowardly. The thrust of our argument is that promises and plans are creatively related and can and ought to work together.

When preparing the way becomes the style of management for christian organizations, discernment is linked with discretion in such a way that the planning process begins with an evaluation of the present in terms of containing a sign of what is to come. The will of God is neither identified with "hunches" nor with projections of the past into the future. The will of God is that which must be discerned in the creative tension between what is and what is to come. Minding God's Business, p.59

profound theological insight #432

Do not reach into a garbage disposal to retrieve things until it has come to a complete stop. It turns out you can bruise your fingers pretty easily. I learned the hard way today..

1 Corinthian recommendations

So I'm wondering what your recommendations for a Corinthian Commentary are (1st, primarily). I know the standard mentions, -I do enjoy Fitzmeyer's contribution to the Anchor series, but I am wondering what else is out there, especially regarding theological commentaries. I have Barth's Resurrection of the Dead in mind.

parousia of the absurd

Whew.
I'm back. Hope all is well, sorry for my blog-ligence. I've been a bit out of breath lately; weddings, meetings, new jobs, schools and root canals. I have not had much time for reflection or reading, leading me to a deep suspicion about the blogs I enjoy...must be desk jobs....Been talking to a lot of "hard" atheists though. I wonder sometimes about how to give a good answer without appealing to the standard rationalist arguments. How can anything be proved to people who believe in a system that will not allow for the matter in question? One wonders what kind of conversation Josh McDowell and Thomas would have. Or at least I do. But right before I start railing against the evils of modernity and its proponents, it strikes me that the rain falls on the good and the bad, and the following scene springs to mind. It's not as good as this guy's (a plug for my favorite dramatist), but it was an important exercise to expand my theological imagination.

Scene 2: Man wakes up in a garden, amongst the hedges, with no name tag. He notices someone standing, watching him.

"Well hello there."
"Thomas? Doubting Thomas?"
"Yes, seems that's all anyone remembers, but no worry. Who might you be?"
"Josh McDowell."
"No you're not!"
"Wha..uuh. Yes I am, I.."
(laughing) "Just kidding... I see it on your name tag."
"Oh, I get it. Funny. Is everyone like that here?"
"No, some are American."
(J confused)
"Don't worry, you've got plenty of time to catch on."
"This place is amazing. I can't believe I was right."
"So you weren't sure?"
"Well, I mean, it seemed reasonable, but who could have.. just look at this!"
"'Yep."
"What do we do now?"
"All kinds of things."
"Like what?"
"Well, we are in front of the greatest library imaginable. Just remodeled: they 'fiche'd Barth and deleted the blog records. Top stuff. Happens every morning."
"There's a library here!?"
"Oh, it's the best. Pub in the middle. Finest IPA this side of, well anywhere. And the cakes in the urinals - pure delight. -Taste like figs."
"You're kidding."
"Prove it!"
(dawning smile, looks at the library) "Wow. I wrote a book once."
"Oh I know. A couple of them."
"You read them?!"
"Great stuff. We laughed all night."
"Well I had hoped it would be convincing; help people get here, y'know?"
"Of course, of course. And I know He loves the effort. Top stuff, really."
"That bad, huh?"
"Don't let it trouble you - you'll get nothing but kind words and appreciation up here."
"Well they must look a little thin now. I suppose I better start over. How do I get a card? Do I need a card?"
(waves hand)"Nonsense. There's time enough later. We've got tonight's banquet to get to! Everyone will be there."
"But I'd really like to know the Truth, find the ultimate proof once and for all. See all the things I missed?"
"Dear boy, what kind of library do you think it is?"
"The Library of Ultimate Truth?"
"Ultimate truth? Good God! (Cheers erupt from the hedges) This is a library of humor, my friend"
"Huh?.."
"..It's all delightfully funny up here. If you want the Truth, hurry and wash up. He'll be there tonight."
"Well, it certainly isn't what I thought it would be."
"Never is. Trust me. I wrote a book about it."
"Really?"
"No."
"All those tightly constrained arguments I labored over. A little loose now, I guess?"
"That's the Spirit!"
"I spent an awful lot of time on all that writing..."
"..To great effect! There are some people waiting to thank you, too. Should we be off now?
"But it was wrong."
"Yes, yes. -Isn't it always? But it's close enough when you're as creative as He is. Wrong doesn't mean much on this side of right. Cephas, that blowhard, bawked and clucked like an angry hen to convince me "He is risen." When that didn't work, he reasoned and cajoled for all he was worth."
"But you didn't believe him?"
"Nope - all Greek to me. Do you know he tried to prove his sanity by jumping up and down shouting, "as sure as the ground beneath our feet!" Funny then; funny now! I should have just listened to the ladies all along. Remember that."
"And then you touched Him."
"No, no. (smiles) I'm afraid that's a bit of a misunderstanding, too. He touched me. That's how it has always worked. He touched me. And now here we are up here together, you and I, both a little touched..."