TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Today's Gospel Reading

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

COMMENT What's always struck me about this reading is the Samaritan who returned to give thanks, who was - as Jesus says - a foreigner (and considered an outcast in that society).

Today in his sermon the Dean of St Paul's in Burlington talked about a flyer posted on the stairwell of his daughter's apartment house in Montpellier, France. He and his wife had been to visit her last week...she's an American - a foreigner in that land - doing an international grad student internship. The flyer read:

"Support each other"
"Be kind to one another"

And I think of the debates in this country surrounding the marginalised and those considered foreign in our city, state, country, and on the planet. (How can one be a foreigner on the planet?)

I would also add to that flyer the phrase, "Only connect..."

Here are the readings (Proper 23, Year C, RCL) appointed for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost.

PRINCESS MÁXIMA, WORLD CITIZEN

"Identity" has already for some years been an item in the Netherlands. Princess Máxima, the spouse of the heir-apparent, recently and unwillingly put some oil on the fire that refuses to go out. (See my earlier post.)

World citizens?

As an indication of her world citizenship, Princess Máxima pointed to a signpost outside her house the gives the distance to all the most important places in her life; Buenos Aires, New York, Brussels, The Hague and Wassenaar.

She's got some nasty criticism. Almost every day there are articles, LTE's, and polls about her speech. Toby Sterling, an American living in Amsterdam, chimes with his humourous opinion of this recent Dutch media navel gazing.

What she probably meant is that this is a multicultural society, with recent immigrants from many places mixing together with 'native' Dutch (native as in Germanic/Scandinavian/Frisian/Spanish/Celt/Pict/Gaullic/Roman) _ who themselves are divided into many categories (Rich/Poor _ Catholic/Protestant/Secular _ Homosexual/Heterosexual _ Randstand/Countryside _ politically right or left: SGP/PVV/VVD/CDA/D66/PvdA/SP/GL/PvdD _ etc., etc.).
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If we're going to call this "the Dutch identity," why don't we just throw in all the rest of the cliches, including cheese, clogs, bikes, dikes and windmills, as long as we're at it?

The reality is that, on reflection, Maxima was totally right.
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All Maxima really demonstrated is that this country is a little high strung about its identity right now; and she walked right into the tripwire.

If she had said _ "all Dutch should share the ethos that made this country one of the richest and most powerful in the world in the 1600s. Long live the VOC (Far East Indies Company) spirit!" _ a lot of people would have jumped down her throat too.
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You can think of Dutch society as a "melting pot" or a "salad bowl," but either way the idea that it's some Aryan civilization is untenable. People resist it, but that's because they're dreaming of good old days that never existed, or chasing an illusion.

I think Máxima was speaking for the marginalised, but also about the inter-connectedness of all people. Indeed, we may connect to a "place," but we are also "of the world." I have certainly connected with the places and people where my life has brought me. Bloom where you are planted, as the 60s peace poster reminded us. I recall a quote from Sister Joan Chittister, the Benedictine nun from her interview on the radio program Speaking of Faith.

In the United States, we've lived on a very, very large ice cube that's melting now. The world is coming in, the boundaries are going down. What we're about now is the unification of the world. That means that the whole world is not going to come to us; we have to be prepared to walk with the rest of the world on the path it knows.

Related: Radio Netherlands Amsterdam Forum program on Dutch multiculturalism

DUTCH DRUG POLICY CURBED

Guardian reporting about Friday's announcement to ban "Majic Mushrooms" in The Netherlands. Talk Left discusses the ban.

CALENDAR NOTICE: MARCUS BORG COMING TO BURLINGTON 21 OCTOBER

Best-selling author and Jesus scholar Marcus Borg will present “The Split Personality of Religion: Promoting Peace or Inciting Violence?” on Sunday, October 21 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm at Champlain College Gymnasium. The author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1984) and The Heart of Christianity (2003), Dr. Borg will examine the ways in which religion has sometimes countered conflict, sometimes intensified conflict in the name of God. Admission is free, but tickets are required, and seating is limited. Please call 802-862-1898 or email secretary@christchurchburlington.org to request tickets or order online here. Co-sponsored by Christ Church, Presbyterian and Champlain College.

SHOCK DOCTRINE

Naomi Klein's book, The Shock Doctrine is an exploration and exposé on how free market capitalism exploits crises (tsunamis, wars, terrorist attacks, earthquakes or hurricanes) to accelerate its agenda and overwhelm its opponents. It also hints at ways to resist. I've not read the book, but plan to do so. Lenny has a review: The Perfect Crime.

Here's Ms Klein talking about her book -

TUTU IS OFF TO LAKE WOBEGON COUNTRY AFTER ALL

This news, from MadPriest --

Less than a week after it was revealed that Tutu's appearance at the University of St. Thomas was nixed over comments deemed offensive to Jews, the university's president announced Wednesday he had made a mistake by disinviting Tutu.

"I have wrestled with what is the right thing to do in this situation, and I have concluded that I made the wrong decision earlier this year not to invite the archbishop," the Rev. Dennis Dease said. "Although well intentioned, I did not have all of the facts and points of view, but now I do."

PHILIP, DEACON & EVANGELIST 11 OCTOBER NT

Here are the appointed lessons for the Feast of Philip, Deacon and Evangelist.

In the sixth chapter of Acts, we read that the Apostles commissioned seven men in the congregation at Jerusalem to supervise the church's ministry to the needs of its widows and other poor. (This is generally considered to be the beginning of the office of Deacon in the Church, although the Scriptures do not use this term in referring to the original seven men.) Two of these have gained lasting fame. One was Stephen, who became the Church's first martyr. The other was Philip... Read more here...

NEW BLOGS

On the sidebar are a few new blogs I like. Check them out, if you have a hankering for good writing (or photos).

Broadsides - the SnarkyBoy aka Michael Colby's new site/blog

Craig Murray - Well, his site was down for a few weeks, due to legal wranglings from his hosting provider, but now he's back up. Go:welcome him back!

DutchPhotoDay - lovely photos of NL

General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle - the owner of this blog posts frequently at Lenin's Tomb

Scholars & Rogues

EPISCOPAL PRESIDING BISHOP COMING TO BURLINGTON IN NOVEMBER; WILL HOLD PUBLIC FORUM ON GLOBAL POVERTY & UN MDGS

IT WAS ONLY A DUMB ANIMAL

Last Sunday, MadPriest featured a comment I made (referring to the moose murder in Burlington at the end of September) on his earlier post about the shooting of a grizzly bear in Idaho. (Numerous comments were made about both posts.)

Here's MP on Vermont's huntin' culture -

COMMENT: I did some back reading on this in the BURLINGTON PRESS archives. The blood lust of the inhabitants of this place makes Vlad The Impaler seem squeamish. Evidently, the authorities issue just over 1000 permits for moose murdering every year. So sought after are these licences to kill that 90% of those who apply are not drawn out of the hat. The only reason why these people apply for the permits is because they like killing stuff. That is not a good reason for killing stuff.

A suggestion. Why don't the Americans send all these psychopaths over to Iraq where they can kill stuff to their hearts content. Then all those young people in Iraq who either don't like killing stuff or who are bored with killing stuff could go home to their loving parents. Unless, that is, their loving parents have gone off to Iraq to kill some stuff.

Molly's Last Crusade

Texas Observer Molly's Last Crusade Editoral 5 October 2007 -

Molly Ivins can’t be turning over in her grave. She was cremated. Given what’s happened in Iraq, her ashes probably haven’t yet settled into the Hill Country hardscrabble. We’re partly to blame, and it’s time to make amends by doing what she asked.

The Observer published her last column on January 26, five days before she died, under the headline “Enough Is Enough.” One of her last mortal acts was declaring an “old-fashioned newspaper crusade” to halt the Iraq madness. “Every single day,” she wrote, “every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. ... Hit the streets to protest Bush’s proposed surge. ... We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, ‘Stop it, now!’”
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It’s time to take the bit and pull as Ivins asked. Bang pots and pans. But also let those members of the U.S. Senate who are enabling Bush’s lunacy know it’s past time to back off from this war.

Real all of Molly's Last Crusade...

Columbus & Blackwater

Broadsides: Columbus & Blackwater by Micheal Colby 8 October 2007 --

Sorry, but it’s Columbus Day and I can’t stop thinking about Blackwater. And I finally figured out why: They’re one in the same. Columbus was the original rogue mercenary and Blackwater is simply the modern perfection of what he started: bullies running roughshod on foreign soil in the pursuit of obscene profits and the complete subjugation of the native people. So, Happy Blackwater Day!

But, don’t worry, the Bush administration has got the whole Blackwater thing under control. With a straight face and all the confidence in the world that the American public remains in a deep slumber, the Bush team announced on Saturday that they would be sending members of the State Department to monitor the activities of the Blackwater thugs. And the mainstream media ran with the story – sans laugh track – as if it really was a solution.

Read all of Columbus & Blackwater...

Relatedly, go here and here.

Robert Grosseteste, Philosopher, Scientist and Bishop of Lincoln, 9 October 1253

Here are the appointed readings for use on the Feast of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln.

The pastoral charge [does not] consist merely in administering the sacraments, chanting the canonical hours, celebrating masses -- though even these are not properly done by hirelings --; it consists also in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, covering the naked, receiving guests, visiting the sick and those in prison. By the doing of these things is the people to be instructed in the holy duties of an active life

Iraq Body Count: "A Very Misleading Exercise"

Medialens 3 October 2007 --

The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death toll.
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As numerous studies over many decades have shown, it is quite simply the structural role of the corporate media to defend established power by minimising, as far as possible, public perception of the costs to civilians of US-UK state violence. This role has not suddenly changed in regard to Iraq. On the contrary, media performance on Iraq has been a text book example of a corporate propaganda system acting to protect allied elite interests.
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And yet this is currently the standard line in mainstream reporting, part of a wider attempt to present the occupation as a well-intentioned effort to achieve peace and democracy, rather than conquest and control.

Many thanks to Green Left Infoasis.

Leahy abdicates his responsibility

Vermont's Sen. Patrick Leahy talks tough about justice, but then backs down.

Progressive Gold --

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that after the warcrimes of Iraq and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, after the warrantless wiretapping of its own citizens, and the theft of an election, that the congressional Democrats would be taking a long, hard look at any candidate for Attorney General that Bush might’ve nominated. A reasonable person might consider that the very fact that Bush, a known criminal and liar, nominated him or her should be sufficient to put a confirmation on indefinite hold.

You’d be wrong.

This is the man, Michael Mukasey, that the Democrats have agreed is a fit person to be potentially in charge of of the impartial administration of federal justice and to be the arbiter of the legality of all executive actions:the judge who took away habeas corpus.
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Those who want actual change in America aren’t going to find it via any Democrat.

Either Dems’ve been pressured (it’s not just hippies get wiretapped) or they really do not give a shit anymore for anything except short-term political self-interest or they’ve just gone “Oh, it’s only another 15 months, what the hell, saves hassle”. Any one of those reasons is enough to prove they’ve totally abdicated their responsibility to their country.

An electorate that allows their Democratic representatives to continue to cave in to Bush and the far-right, over and over again, and who then continue to donate to and vote for them, deserves everything it gets as a consequence. America was a great political experiment, once. It’s very sad to anyone who believes in liberty and equality to see it fall apart like this.

Preach to every creature

Speaking to the Soul Preach to every creature --

Francis led a life of exceedingly great joy and a life of constant praise of God, a life of blessedness in the midst of the fecund goodness of God’s creation, celebrated most forthrightly by his “Canticle of the Creatures.” As a citizen of the peaceable kingdom, transported there by his vision and his prayers, Francis could thereafter call every human, however different or distant, and each of the creatures of nature,however alien to human sensibilities, his brother or his sister. He could be a troubadour of a higher order, constantly rejoicing with friends and foes alike, and with birds and oxen and even wolves and worms. The mandate of Christ had claimed Francis’s soul profoundly: to preach the Gospel to every creature. This he made remarkable efforts to do, in deed most often and in word whenever necessary.*

Read all of Preach to Every Creature


*From “The Spirituality of Nature and the Poor: Revisiting the Historic Vision of St. Francis” by H. Paul Santmire, Ph.D., in Tending the Holy: Spiritual Direction Across Traditions, edited by Norvene Vest. Copyright © 2003

Rowan Williams speaks out on Iraq

BBC

"The Iraq conflict has wreaked 'terrible damage' on the region - far more than has been acknowledged, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Dr Rowan Williams said 'urgent attention' was needed to stabilise the country.

[...]Dr Williams also said he regards any further 'deliberate destabilisation' of the region - such as action against Syria and Iran - as 'criminal, ignorant...and potentially murderous folly'.

Referring to US political advisers, he added that 'we do hear talk from some quarters of action against Syria, or against Iran'.

'I can't understand what planet such persons are living on when you see the conditions that are already there. The region is still a tinderbox,' Dr Williams said.

Earlier, the archbishop said 'events of the last few years have done terrible damage in the whole of this region'.

He said many people 'do not see the cost in human terms of the war which was unleashed'.

Dr Williams concluded: 'Security that will enable these people to return to Iraq depends on a settlement for the whole of that country guaranteeing the liberty and dignity of every minority.'"

New Central Texas gorge open to public

When I lived in Texas, I would frequently travel up to Canyon Lake in the Hill Country, so this story fascinates me.

Houston Chronicle/Associated Press New Central Texas gorge open to public 5 October 2007 -

CANYON LAKE — The formation of canyons, done with the flow of water over rock and time, is generally a practice in patience. But not here.

A torrent of water from a bloated Canyon Lake sliced open the earth, exposing rock formations, fossils and even dinosaur footprints in just three days. To protect Canyon Lake Gorge from vandals, it's been open only to researchers since the 2002 flood, but on Saturday, it opens to its first public tour.

"It exposed these rocks so quickly and it dug so deeply, there wasn't a blade of grass or a layer of algae," said Bill Ward, a retired geology professor from the University of New Orleans who started cataloguing the gorge almost immediately after the flood.

The gorge, which emerged where a nondescript valley covered in mesquite and oak trees once was, sits behind a spillway built as a safety valve for Canyon Lake, a popular recreation spot in the Texas Hill Country between San Antonio and Austin.

Read all of New Central Texas gorge open to public

Canyon Gorge site
Photo with geological labeling
Google map of spillway and gorge
(AP Photo/Joe Mitchell)

William Tyndale, Translator of the Scriptures, Martyr, 6 October 1536

Here are the readings appointed for use on the Feast of William Tyndale, Translator of the Scriptures, Martyr.

Scientific Conference on Monarchies in the EU

From the Dutch anti-monarchy Republicans (Republikeinen) there's an announcement of a conference on 19 October 2007 sponsored by the Law Faculty of the University of Leiden: EU Monarchies in perspective. You can register to watch it for free, too.

From the outline of the conference:

The process of European integration started in earnest in 1957. This process has both formal and informal consequences for the constitution of the member states. This conference will focus in particular on the position of the non-elected heads of state (as found in the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg). The principal question is how these consequences can be interpreted from a multi-disciplinary perspective (constitutionally, historically and religiously).
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On the one hand, the process of European integration could cause a gradual erosion in the sense of national citizenship and the underlying nationalism of a member state. This in turn may weaken the natural base of the monarchy in member states, particularly if the monarchy is closely connected with national sentiments. Occasionally, this nationalism has an almost transcendent dimension (for instance “God, Fatherland and Orange” in the Netherlands). Will European integration be strong enough to evoke comparable sentiments?

On the other hand, the process of European integration could bring about a nationalistic backlash which would strengthen the position of the monarchies. Such a reaction is imaginable if citizens are fearful that integration will negatively affect their sense of socio-economic and socio-cultural security.

In this scenario, citizens prefer the sense of security of the nation state, traditional nationalism and its transcendent sentiments. In analyzing these tendencies, it’s interesting to pay attention to the differences between member states. In Flanders, for instance, national sentiments are non-monarchal or even anti-monarchy. In the Netherlands on the other hand national sentiments and Monarchy go hand in hand. During the conference these questions will be addressed, as well as questions on how EU monarchies relate to EU constitutional principles, past, present and future.