Category: religion

Dealing with Grief

My wife’s uncle died last week. She flew down to North Carolina to attend the funeral and visit with several of her cousins. When I was traveling to NC on business a lot a few years ago, I always arranged to have dinner with him and the other 2 siblings (only 1 of the 3 is now living) that were still alive. I enjoyed the visits, but I hadn’t seen him in several years. I’ve always had a hard time with how to respond to death. There are no words, I know that, but I want to say something. This week I came across a blog post that reminded me, we already had some instruction in how to deal with it. It was there in the book of Job all along. What is required of us is silence. Just to be there and be silent. I think I can handle that.

Shalom,
Jim

Martin Luther King, Jr Day

I was only 6 when Dr. King was assassinated, I remember the TV coverage very well. I knew of him, but I didn’t really understand what he was all about at the time. It was in the mid-70s that I finally read about him and Gandhi and really came to appreciate what he stood for. Today is the holiday celebrating his birth/life/legacy and to remember that there is still work to be done. Pastor Bob Cornwall has two excellent stories up on his blog today. The first talks about a sermon Dr. King gave a month before his death entitled Unfulfilled Dreams. The second one discusses remarks that Barak Obama made yesterday at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Dr. King’s former church). I especially appreciate the second quoted passage. I am so sick of all the negativity and mud-slinging in politics today. All these politicians who claim to be Christian/religious don’t seem to remember the Golden Rule, do they? I sometimes yearn for a parliamentary system where the legislature can be dissolved and new elections called in a matter of weeks rather than the current system here in the US where Congrescritters essentially have to start running for reelection before they are even sworn in and the Presidential race lasts 2 years. If more folks running for office felt the way Sen. Obama speaks here, perhaps so many of our young people wouldn’t be disillusioned by the process. Ah, well. I hope you all had a good holiday.

The Middle East

I hesitated a long time before even starting to type this because I really don’t plan for this blog to become too political, but with Shane still in Iraq, these things are on my mind. While I have some theological disagreements with Pastor Nathan, I find myself mostly in agreement with this sermon of his and I appreciated Deanna Mershed’s response. It was also heartening to hear the Israeli Prime Minister last week admit that continuing to expand the “settlements” and otherwise not keeping their agreements wasn’t helping the situation. I fear that it will take generations to rebuild the good will we, as a nation, enjoyed around the world as recently as the immediate aftermath of 2001-09-11. Sigh…

Religious discrimination in the political process

I also came across this item today. With ~80,000 citizens of Nevada identifying themselves as Jewish, you’d think they might have thought this one out a little better. It is particularly disturbing to me that the Republican party official wasn’t even aware of the problem. Have the Republicans completely written off the Jewish community? Do you think they would ever even consider holding the caucuses on Sunday morning at those times? And, of course, no coverage of this in the mainstream media that I can tell.

Burnout remedy?

I saw this post by Tony Campolo today and I will be putting this book on my Amazon religion wish list (one of 5 wish lists I have at Amazon, I think I’ll add links to them in the side bar), for anyone who wants to get it for me for my birthday. 🙂 I have not been as successful as I’d like recently in working on my own spiritual practices, but this sounds like something I can/should try.