I'm blogging on beliefnet ... here's my first post.
It's called "Who's Going to Win?"
I leave Sunday for an important gathering in Connecticut bringing together Christian and Muslim leaders.
Then I head out to Wyoming where I'll be gathering with a group of theologians who share in the spiritual practice of fly fishing. I won't have internet access there, so I'll probably be pretty blog-silent this week.
For friends in the Maryland area, I'm speaking at Cedar Ridge on August 10 ...
Here are some posts about my time at Lambeth ...
First from the official Lambeth website:
http://www.lambethconference.org/daily/index.cfm/2008/7/22
Here's a Christian Today interview:
Here's a roundup from Tall Skinny Kiwi:
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2008/07/brian-mclaren-a.html
And not to miss - Stephen Colbert's usual deep, thoughtful, fair-and-balanced coverage here:
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=177674
What a tremendous honor and pleasure it's been to speak on the subject of evangelism at the Lambeth Conference being held here in Canterbury, England.
I know that most people think the "news story" here is about divisive controversies over sexuality, but my sense is that the real news story is very different. There is a humble spirit here, a loving atmosphere, a deep spirituality centered in Bible study, worship, and prayer, and a strong desire to move beyond internal-institutional matters to substantive mission in our needy world.
In every conversation and gathering I've participated in, the spirit has been kind and holy and positive. That sort of good news doesn't attract the media the way a salacious or pugilistic story does ... It will be interesting to see whether the press reports what is actually happening here, or if they need to rewrite the narrative to fit the shape of war-tales they are more accustomed to telling.
My sense is that the quiet, prayerful, and humble patience of Archbishop Rowan Williams is leading the way to better days for the Anglican Communion. It feels like the bishops gathered here are turning a corner together. I feel that I'm witnessing the emergence of something good, beautiful, true, and blessed ... Hearts here are sincerely open to the Spirit of God.
Thanks for all who prayed for me regarding my plenary session here tonight. Everything went well, and I look forward to my next two days here.
My friend Simon helped create this beautiful, moving video - just over two minutes long.
I've been posting quite a bit lately because I've had an unusually long stretch of time at home and at my desk. That stretch comes to an end tomorrow as I head over to England. Upon returning to the US, I'll be in Wyoming for about a week and blissfully disconnected from technology. So ... hopefully I've left enough to keep faithful readers occupied while I get some time away.
If I can send a brief post from England, I will ... We'll see! But blog-posting frequency will decrease for a few weeks at least.
Enjoy summer ... it passes quickly!
I like winning, but I’ve done a lot of losing in my life, especially when it comes to voting. I’ve got a pretty good track record of picking losers.
But recent history tells us that picking winners in presidential elections has its own dangers.
What happens if the presidential candidate you prefer wins this fall?
For those of you who missed our Everything Must Change Tour (or want to recommend it to a friend), we'll be doing one more event November 1.
For more information, go to the deepshift.org site ... here.
Many of you know I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the Matthew 25 Network. Here's a letter I wrote that's on their new website ... the site is worth checking out!
I'll be speaking at Messiah College for Preaching Peace August 12-14 ...
Then at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids 16-18 August ...
Then at Greenbelt in England 21-24 August ...
Come say hi!
My friends in the Episcopal church here in Maryland are putting on the Gardens and Grace Conference in several weeks ...
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore, Maryland
September 28 – October 1, 2008
This national Conference is for clergy and lay leaders, students and parents, gardeners and seekers, to educate, inspire, and motivate participants to embrace environmental stewardship, social justice, sustainable living, and a creative, centered spirituality and take action to make positive changes in their lives and communities.
I'll be speaking and encourage you to be part of this interesting event on a truly important subject.
Near the end of Everything Must Change, I wrote ...
If we disbelieve the dominant framing story and instead believe Jesus' good news of the kingdom of God, we will suddenly find ourselves making new personal decisions - not because we have to, as a duty, but because we want to...
Then I listed a number of examples, beginning with the way we pray, but not stopping there:
We will also buy differently. For example, when faced with a choice between an inexpensive pair of pants produced by a corporation that exploits workers (whom we now see to be our neighbors), we will choose a more expensive pair produced by a corporation that treats workers fairly. Maybe we'll own fewer pairs of pants, but we'll feel better wearing them.... We will vote differently, drive differently, invest differently, eat differently, volunteer differently, treat our neighbors differently, and so much more.
When I speak to large groups about the message of the book, I often ask people to do a little exercise. I have people check the tag sewn in the collar of one another's shirts and then call out where the shirt was made. Typically, in a group of 400 people, there will be 30 to 40 different nations shouted out. We then talk about what it means to see the people in these nations as our neighbors. We consider how we are connected to them by the shirts on our backs. We realize that our small buying decisions affect their daily lives. (For more on this important subject, check out the good work of Trade as One.)
Keeping that in mind helps US citizens like myself to put our voting in perspective. Voting is not the only decision that counts - in a sense, every dollar we spend is a ballot that endorses one company over another. Every time we choose to greet a stranger or smile or show kindness to another, we are voting for friendliness and warmth in the world. Every time we fail to do so, we vote for coldness and alienation.
Here's a link to a 1:30 video about the "bridge to nowhere" photo (over the Choluteca River in Honduras) shot by Vince Muci and available for download at offthemap.com ...
My book Secret Message of Jesus is on sale at amazon.com for $5.49. That's pretty cheap!
And amazon.com is selling my New Kind of Christian trilogy for $10.17 each ...
Even my newest book, in hardcover, Finding Our Way Again, is just over $12.
Just in case you're interested in picking up a copy for a friend or whatever ...
I was just interviewed by a gifted journalist this morning about faith and politics. It made me think about the difference between a good interview and a not-so-good one. So much has to do with the interviewer's own curiosity ... and ability to challenge the interviewee to think (not just respond on auto-pilot).
I did a podcast interview a few months back with Tripp and Chad, who are inherently curious and fun to talk with ... you can listen to it here.
Many of you know about the big pieces of my heart that have been claimed by Africa, Latin America, and Asia in recent years.
Here's an update from Amahoro-Africa.org ...
Here's an update from La Red del Camino ... there's a button that links you to an English version of the site if you don't speak Spanish.
I was thrilled, during a visit from Tricia Yeoh last week, to learn of this website from Malaysia called ROH ...
These networks represent real signs of hope ...
I'm not sure I'll ever get a more encouraging review than this one, posted by my almost-an-atheist friend Helen ...
If you're in the DC-Baltimore area, you're welcome to join a few friends for coffee, etc., at Daily Grind in Fulton, MD, from 8 to 9:30 a.m tomorrow, July 14.
There's no agenda - some folks might bring some questions from my books, topics to discuss, issues they're facing - we'll just sit around a table and enjoy good coffee and good company.
More info here ...
I just watched this live video of my friend Tracy Howe performing "Love and Justice" in Denver ...
This is exactly how I envisioned the song sounding when I wrote it: rough, raucous, joyful. Great work, Tracy and friends!
If you're interested in downloading the song or the CD, you can do so here ...
My friend Don Miller is riding across the US by bicycle with some friends to raise money and awareness for Blood:Water Mission.
The group started in Los Angeles on June 6th and is expected to complete the trip here in Washington D.C. on July 27th.
You can click here to download a press release describing the ride and why Don is participating. Also, here is a link where Don is blogging about his daily experiences.
Here's a video where he explains the project ...
(If you're offended by "hell" in the video title, try considering it an act of irony ...)
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
... and then read chapter 16 of The Secret Message of Jesus
My friend and co-conspirator Denise Van Eck passed on this beautiful quote from Henri Nouwen today.
A New World Is Yet to Come
Henri Nouwen
You are Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, so long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe you have a role to play in the realization of the new kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian you keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.
I know that most people think only in terms of the product of the election. Only one question matters: Who won?
But I think the process of the election is tremendously important to. It raises an even more important question: What are we becoming?
For example, if someone wins through dirty tricks, we have become a dirtier nation in the process. If someone wins through dishonest or superficial arguments, we have become a less honest and shallow nation in the process. If someone manipulates us with unrealistic promises, we have become a more gullible nation in the process. If someone wins through vicious rhetoric or fear tactics, we become a more divided and frightened nation.
A friend sent me an email this morning which suggested one of the more positive possibilities in this process. He and his wife are enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama in this election, and they have been shocked by the negative responses they've received from some relatives and friends at church. Among the responses that have saddened them most have been overt and covert expressions of racism.
After an uncomfortable conversation with a family member that turned into a good dialgoue about race, my friend's wife sent this email to her relative (shared with permission):
I've been thinking...and since it's 4.30am and i can't sleep, thought i'd write...re: "why does God make different races?", your question on the beach.
Continue reading Faith, Politics, and Voting ... Part 3, Process and Product...
To vote or not to vote?
Some folks I've talked to are not going to vote in the 2008 elections. Some are disillusioned. Some don't like either candidate enough to vote. For some, not voting is an act of protest against the whole system, which they believe is hopelessly corrupt. Some believe that their citizenship in God's kingdom means they shouldn't become involved in "earthly" citizenship.
While I respect my friends who aren't going to vote - especially those who have prayerfully thought the decision through from multiple vantage points - I will vote in this election for several reasons.
All of us who choose to vote must base our vote on something.
For some people, it's party. They're Democrats or Republicans and from election to election, they support whomever the party serves up. For others, it's a litmus test issue - abortion, homosexuality, war, whatever. For others, it's fear or hope or some other "gut level" appeal - whoever scares or inspires them the most gets their vote. And for still others, it's a "group thing" - they belong to a group (a race, a religion, an interest group, trade union, a social class, or whatever) that issues a statement on which candidate is most attractive to their group, and that's who wins their vote.
For many of us, none of these factors are satisfying.
Recently I needed to set the record straight about an AP article that had a misstatement about my relation to the Barack Obama campaign.
This week, a CNN story had a similar statement that requires some clarification:
Brian McLaren, a former pastor who spent 24 years in the pulpit and is now an informal adviser to the Obama campaign, believes that a significant portion of evangelical voters are ready to break from their traditional home in the the Republican Party and take a new leap of faith with Obama.
A few friends contacted me and said they were afraid the article gave the impression that I left a 24-year pastorate in order to become an Obama advisor, which isn't true. I left the pastorate in January 2006 - long before the campaign began - in order to devote more time to writing, travel, and networking. If I am an advisor to the campaign at all, it is very informally - probably nothing more than the fact that at least one campaign staffer has read some of my books.
The article accurately reflects my belief that increasing numbers of evangelical voters have become increasingly alienated from the Religious Right and are moving toward Senator Obama. I'm certainly one of them. While I was never a fan of the Religious Right, for many years I sat on the sidelines and didn't speak out publicly that the leaders of the Religious Right didn't speak for me. Looking back, I'm ashamed of my inaction and I believe my silence unintentionally empowered "the powers that be." Since leaving the pastorate, I have felt more free to speak out as a Christian and private citizen about my discomfort with the agenda of the Religious Right, and my hopes for a better way of relating faith, politics, and voting. I plan to be more involved in this election than any in my life ... and that includes offering whatever advice I can to whomever might find it helpful.
Over the coming months, I'd like to share on this blog a few thoughts about the way I see faith, politics, and voting to be connected. I'll post under this heading, using Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc., if people want to follow the thread.
When I was writing The Secret Message of Jesus and Everything Must Change, I became more and more amazed at the radical message and profoundly formative power of what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. For me, as for many, the words had become so familiar that I was tempted to go on autopilot whenever I said them.
I tried to render the prayer into fresh language that would convey some of this power and depth, while retaining its primal and understated simplicity. Then I began singing a kind of simple chant of the prayer in my own private devotional life, which I eventually began teaching to others. People frequently ask me to share it with them, so I put together this little video ...
Please forgive the roughness of my voice and my video production skills. (I'm just using isight and imovie on my mac.)
I should add that you can also have someone sing a line of the prayer "solo," and then have the congregation echo it ... this slows people down even more, so that they really savor the words and let the prayer echo in their hearts.
I hope you'll find some value in this version of this amazing prayer - in your personal prayer life, and in your faith community as well.
Here's the powerpoint presentation from my talk at Sojourners' Pentecost event in DC.
Click to download the file.
You can learn more about the Batwa land project at Kelley Johnson Nikondeha's blog here ...
And more on life as visitors to Burundi at Ron and Sarah Gonski's blog here ... be sure to check out their description of "hospital prisoners," which is another amazing story.
Here's a video (thanks Dave Shook!) that will give you a sense of what a group of friends experienced in Burundi a few weeks ago ...
Here's the poem I wrote about the experience ...
And here's a link to amahoro-africa.org where you can donate and learn more. Stay tuned for a specific request about getting involved ...
I just received this today ...
++++
Pastor Brian,
I want to apologize to you about some reviews that I put on www.amazon.com. After reading The Truth War by John MacArthur, I was alarmed by your works.
Recently, I put myself in your shoes and thought what it would be like for people to post things that are not favorable. I went and took my comments off.
I still am unsure of some of the comments that John MacArthur highlights, but am sincerely sorry for my actions.
Sincerely,
+++++
Here's my reply (slightly edited for privacy's sake) ...
In recent years, I've become a bigger-than-ever fan of Christian higher education - largely due to the experiences I've had as a guest speaker/lecturer at some really impressive institutions. This article highlights what are for me the most attractive Christian colleges - the ones eager to break out of old "left-right/liberal-conservative" distinctions.
On that subject, Shane Claiborne had a great quip at the "Jesus for President" tour here in DC the other night ...
He said everyone has been fixated on left and right, but maybe the more significant difference is between kind and nasty (nice and mean). That's the kind of "flipping the script" that I think opens up new possibilities. Where old polarities tend to polarize, this one gets us all thinking.