Mike King

KC Star covers Feed the Hunger

The Kansas City Star came to Youthfront Camp last week to cover our Feed the Hunger initiative.  Reporter Debra Skodack did an excellent job of telling the story.  The article was also picked up by other news services like Olathe News, etc.

Read the story here.

N.T. Wright speaks out...

N.T. Wright speaks out on the crises within international Anglicanism over ordination of persons in active same-sex relationships.  Read his comments here.

Torture

One of the more profound texts I studied at Nazarene Theological Seminary was Cavanaugh's Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ.  William T. Cavanaugh is a professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.

I've often reflected on this work in the context of the current debate concerning torture.  My people (Evangelicals) hold some very troubling opinions about the role of torture in our world. 

"A survey of 742 U.S. adults released April 29 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants said torture of a suspected terrorist could be often or sometimes justified to obtain important information.

By contrast, 51 percent of white non-Hispanic Catholics, 46 percent of white mainline Protestants and 40 percent of the religiously unaffiliated held that position.

Those who attend religious services at least once a week were more likely than those who rarely or never attend to say torture is sometimes or often justified in that scenario -- 54 percent to 42 percent." Sun Sentinel.

I was happy to find Cavanaugh weighing in on this issue in this article.

Cavanaugh believes that the Eucharist is the heart of Christian resistance to torture and terror.  Cavanaugh believes that Jesus Christ calls us to truly love and identify with the enemy, the victim.  This teaching of radical orientation to the Kingdom of God life versus a life orientation to a Christianity submitted to nationalistic ideals is something I wish I could say I have truly embraced but I'm ashamed more often than not that I embrace an American agenda instead of God's Way.

Cavanaugh writes, "Torture is both a product of—and helps reinforce—a certain story about who “we” are and who “our” enemies are. Torture helps imagine the world as divided between friends and enemies. To live the Eucharist, on the other hand, is to live inside God’s imagination. The Eucharist is the ritual enactment of the redemptive power of God, rooted in the torture, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

I pray for and desire to engage in Christian Formational Practices which will shape me to live inside God's Way for our world.

Fear

“Fear is very contagious. You can get fearful in 5 minutes, but you don’t get confident in 5 minutes.” - Warren Buffett on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Monday, March 9, 2009

Shower the people...

I've been asked several times what were my highlights of the transition from President Bush to President Obama...

I thought the way President Bush handled the transition was first class from start to finish.  He went beyond what anyone would expect from him in speaking kind and gracious words about our new President Barack Obama.

Of course, the historic nature and symbolism of Inaugurating the first African American President left me in tears more than I can keep track of.

I loved the Barack Obama Presidential We Are One Inaugural Celebration concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial... performances by U2, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, etc. were awesome.

I loved watching African American people being interviewed and hearing them talk about "a day they never thought would come."

Everytime the Obama Family appeared together was a highlight.

I loved President Barack and First Lady Michele Obama's first dance to Beyonce singing "At Last."

I was amazed with President Obama's first interview with Arab TV network Al Arabiya.  Brilliant.

I thought it was symbolic of a new day when President Obama invited congressional leaders  to the White House for cocktails the evening after the Stimulus Bill passed in the House... including Republican leaders who did not vote for it.

There were definitely some things that President Obama did in his first week that disappoint me deeply but I will wait and see...

The one moment from the week that I keep going back to watch over and over again is the James Taylor song from 1976 - Shower the People.  James Taylor performed the song with John Legend and Jennifer Nettles.  Perfect, Perfect, Perfect.

Ted and Oprah

I am not one of those who has a problem with Oprah.  In fact, their is much I admire about Oprah.  I just rarely watch her show.  However, I couldn't pass up Ted Haggard's appearance on Oprah yesterday.  I felt like Oprah was very gracious with the Haggard family.  I found myself raising my voice to encourage her to not let Haggard play word games in responding to her questions about his sexual identity. 

Bottom line - Ted Haggard is gay but he still can't acknowledge it.

How do we respond to the economic situation?

We have lived in what has probably been the most affluent and influential country in all of human history.  To whom much is given, much shall be required.  Somehow, we (God’s people living in this culture) haven’t really embraced the responsibility to live generously.  We haven’t embodied a powerful alternative way of life to contrast the greedy “I need more and more” mindset of the dominant culture.  Have we damaged the Good News of the Gospel because we haven’t learned to live the generous and joyful life of the Kingdom of God?

America Robbed Blind

Every Monday I get a memo from Roy H. Williams.  It is consistently filled with interesting observations about the world we live in and specifically focuses on marketing and business practices.  Williams’ company is called the Wizard Academy.

In 2005, Wizard Academy Press published a book by Greg Farrell called America Robbed Blind.  At the time, Farrell was a reporter for USA Today.  He reported primarily on Wall Street and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Today Farrell writes for Financial Times.  Farrell has won the Jesse Neal Award for investigative reporting and is a graduate of Harvard University.  He completed an MBA at Columbia University.

Williams made the following comments in today’s memo.  This is very interesting, in light of what is happening right now in Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.

“Greg was America’s only reporter in the courtroom for every minute of the trials of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and Martha Stewart. As an investigative reporter Greg dug deep, full time, year after year. “Roy, the SEC is being set up to take the fall for a series of financial disasters,” he said. “This whole Enron thing is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“What do you mean?”

“The number of publicly traded companies has grown exponentially in recent years, yet the budget for the SEC had been increased by only a small amount. Think of it this way,” Greg said, "Andy and Barney did a pretty good job patrolling Mayberry, but now they’re being told they have to patrol Los Angeles without any additional help, and without any bullets for their guns.”

Greg went on to explain how Congress keeps the SEC under-funded so that big business can grow unimpeded, unsupervised, and unregulated. If Congress allowed the SEC to do its job, big business would cry, “The government has us handcuffed! We can’t compete with all these government regulations.”

Big companies donate big dollars to congressional candidates. Are you beginning to get the picture?

Page 68 of Greg’s book details the proposal made during the summer of 2000 by Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC at the time.

Levitt was absolutely convinced that a financial catastrophe was coming and begged Congress to give him the power to stop it.

“But several big firms whose campaign contributions to lawmakers on Capitol Hill gave them enormous clout, fought the proposal aggressively… Levitt went to extraordinary lengths to show Congress the dangers that lay ahead… But Levitt’s warnings fell on deaf ears. So he took the battle to the states… It was only in November of 2000, when he learned that Congress was threatening to cut the SEC’s budget if the new rule went into effect, that Levitt relented.” - Page 69, America Robbed Blind, (2005)

In essence, Congress told Andy to quit complaining or they would take away his budget to pay Barney.

When the whole Enron thing was over, I asked Greg if he thought anything like that could ever happen again. “You can count on it,” he said, “It’s inevitable. As long as Congress keeps the watchdog starved, muzzled and on a chain, the abuses will multiply. Arthur Levitt begged Congress to empower the SEC and they spanked him for it.”

Enron and his cousins robbed American investors of more than 500 billion dollars. Then on September 18, 2008, after it was learned that Americans would again be left holding the bag for a 700 billion-dollar bank heist, John McCain, a lawmaker on Capitol Hill for the past 26 years, said, “The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and in my view, has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.’’

Wow. They’re trying to hang this debacle around the neck of the SEC and use them as the scapegoat, just as Greg said they would. (Hey, if Obama had said it, I’d be equally appalled, so don’t make the mistake of thinking I have a political bias. I don’t.)

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that Greg described exactly how to fix the problem in his book (pages 180-181,) but no one paid attention:

1.    Allow the SEC to keep the fees it currently collects from public companies. Self-funding would protect the financial health of the commission from the whims of its Congressional overlords, and allow the SEC to grow at the same rate as the financial markets it polices.

2. Give SEC attorney’s criminal enforcement powers.

3. Give bonuses to successful SEC attorneys. Plaintiff’s lawyers who bring cases against tobacco companies and asbestos manufacturers put years of effort into the cause because if they win, the financial payoff is astronomical. But an SEC lawyer has almost no incentive to take on difficult cases where the commission is outgunned by a public company’s army of lawyers.”

OK, so back to me, a guy trying to run a youth ministry organization that is getting impacted by the events unfolding.  When the economy suffers – our donations are effected; prices go up – food costs, insurance, etc.  In my 34 years at Youthfront we have seen several of these types of cycles before.  They have been challenging; sometimes helping to redefine who we are and what we do in positive ways.   This reality doesn’t make this season any easier especially since the scope of this current economic crisis has such huge and global ramifications.

The scripture says, “Greedy people try to get rich quick but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty (Proverbs 28:22, NLT).”  It seems to me that a significant part of this bailout effort is focused on trying to protect those who have been greedy.  I read about a man yesterday who made $250,000 a year and bought a home worth $2.7 million.  He lost his job and is now facing foreclosure hoping this bailout will help him.  You’ve got to be kidding.  When you buy a home that is worth $2.2 million more than you can afford you should have your head examined and shame on a system that will allow someone to do that.  OK, I’ve ranted enough.  Got any thoughts?

Money, economy, security...

The trustworthy will get a rich reward. But the person who wants to get rich quick will only get into trouble” (Proverbs 28:20 NLT).

Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”
(James 4:13–14).

“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14)

Pain in Israel... Oh, God bring Peace on Earth as in Heaven

Having visited the Middle East 21 times I have made several friends.  Some of them are Israelies, some of them are Palestinians, some are Jewish, and some are Christians.  Avi and Chaya Mizrachi are a Jewish couple who have become followers of Jesus.  They live in Tel Aviv...

I received this e-mail from them today;

"On July 12th, 2006  two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped during their patrol, by Hezbollah terrorists who crossed into the Israeli border and took them.  For two years, Hezbollah would not confirm if they were dead or alive.

This week I watched TV with two of my daughters, waiting for these soldiers to be brought from the Lebanon border to Israel, we still did not know their condition, one way or the other.  It was not until the final moment when the two coffins were brought forward, that we knew they were dead.

Tears flowed, tears for the families, for our nation, for our great loss.  Great grief and anger is what we are feeling as a nation.  Tears when their bodies returned, anger because Hezbollah had refuesed to tell us if they were dead or alive.  Tears because the small hope of them being returned alive was dashed, anger that we have now released 5 Lebanese prisoners, all of them alive.

One of these men was a terrorist by the name of Samir Kuntar, a man who left Lebanon and made his way to Nahariya, Israel, where he shot and drowned an Israeli father in front of his 4 year old daughter, then, in cold blood bashed her little head against the rocks, killing her.  He has now returned to Lebanon, this child killer, to a red carpet and hero's welcome, as people rejoice that he is free.  In Lebanon today, his brutal crime means nothing, only that he is free from Israel and home with them.

This week we grieve and we bury our dead IDF reservists: Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev."

In the midst of so much pain I'm reminded of the prayer I prayed yesterday at Youthfront Camp South with 300 plus teenagers during Midday.