Tribe of Los Angeles

Turning Points

I just sent this email to about 3 dozen Sony employees around the world shortly after emptying my last thing from my office:

"Everybody: I always said over the long arc of my time at the company, "The day I leave Sony, will be the day that Anna Nicole Smith wins a case at the Supreme Court!"  I must be more careful with such language in the future.

So, after 14 years, I am moving on and wanted to send off my well wishes and thanks. 

 

It has been a great run.  I've deeply appreciated the working relationships, the mentors I've had here, and the deep friendships -- on both sides of the ocean -- that have been an intrinsic part of my time here at Sony.  It has been an honor and a pleasure.  

Thanks and best wishes to you all..."

Frederick Buecher wrote that when you look at your life, the things you think are the really big turning points -- the ones you really worry over -- rarely really are. And the minor decisions you thought almost nothing of at the time, turn out often to be the true points where the direction of your life changes.

Who knows which one this is, it feels big, but who knows. The main point I guess is to trust God for both the "big" and "small" decisions and trust that in the end He knows a lot better about these things than we do either way.

Tim

"Have a Heartfull Christmas" from Japan

So, I'm posting this on the last leg of a week long Japanese work trip...And as a "reporter on the ground" I can confirm that in the global war on Christmas, as described by various US pundits, that on the Japanese front, we can call this a complete victory.

Nowhere is found the mushy, watered down secular-leaning language wishing for some ambigious "Happy Holidays." Nope, not here. In the full Christmas season rush, all the marketing is fully throated, "Have a Heartful Christmas" and other mostly translated correctly Christmas phrases and carols.

Chrismas in Japan is as Christ-y as it goes. In every mall, in every train station and in every mega-store in every electronics district, Christ in his full name, can't be missed, blessing the Christmas shopping experience. And the Christmas holiday is universally observed throughout the country even by the largely Budhist and Shintoist population.

As conservative pundit Bill Orielly once said, "Every company in America should be on its knees thanking Jesus for being born. Without Christmas, most American businesses would be far less profitable." I assume that Bill would think this applies to Japanese companies as well.

Of course with the Japanese front of the Christmas Culture War firmly won, can we see what spoils come with the victory of emeshing Jesus' name with the yearly consumerist wave of purchaseing that is the shopping season, even here in Tokyo....

Well, in a country of about 125 million people, we see only a steady flat line of Japanese people becoming Christians, about 1% of the population.

However, they did move a lot of PSP's this season, in Jesus' fully spelled out and properly refrenced name.

- Tim

Happy Thanksgiving, and Remember "Buy Nothing Day" is Coming...

Everybody:

Have a great Thanksgiving, but be sure to mark you calanders to my favorite new holiday, "Buy Nothing Day" this November 26th...

Make the busiest shopping day of the year a day of "culture jamming" and of just enjoying not buying stuff. Make it an 24 hour experiment, a fast from "consumerism" or a act of protest. But try it out.

This is an international holiday that has gone on for the last 15 years, where all you have to do is not finiancially consume stuff.  Don't buy gas. Don't buy a track off iTunes. Don't buy a stick of gum.  See what it feels like and what fills the space.

As it says on the above stencil, which you can download free here, "Draw Something, Sew Something, Cook Something, Sing Something, Make Somthing, Buy Nothing...November 26th!

Here are some user created posters from the Buy Nothing Day blog...

Texas Town Adopts Corporate Name for Free TV

What people will do for free HBO. For a decade.

Who needed the name "Clark, Texas" anyway?

A Thought Experiment

Okay just a little experiment:

Pat Robertson (still fresh from his advocating assasination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez) just made this statement regarding Dover residents who voted several school board members out who supported the teaching of Intelligent Design in local science classes.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover. If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there."

Here is the experiment: Just for a second think about the "pIcture of God" that Robertson is painting to the world with this.

• Small and weak, capable of being "voted out" of town
• Kinda petty and vengeful, willing to stand by and willing to abandon a city of people to disaster over a school board vote
• An absent God, not caring for people asking for his help

Later, after this quote was picked up by the press, he issued this "correction" that if you really read it, doesn't correct much:

"I was simply stating that our spiritual actions have consequences and it's high time we started recognizing it. God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in His eye forever. If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin…maybe he can help them."

Again with the "don't call on God," or "I recommend they call on Charles Darwin" lines... and note, the treat of God's curse is still in there:  "if they have future problems in Dover..."

In Scripture Christians are called "God's Ambassadors" and are told that when we talk to the world it is "as though God were making his appeal through us."

That is a crazy heavy responsiblity, and I'm sure I fail at it in a lot of ways.

But I see the peevish, weak, bitter caricature of a god in statements and re-statements today from Pat Robertson, I realize what damage we can do when with that responsiblity.

- Tim

"Gobsmacked"

I haven't used the word "gobsmack" in a sentence ever, till now.

Here goes. I am "gobsmacked" at what issues the Church as a whole chooses to speak out on, and the issues that it chooses to be mostly silent on.

Here is a key, key, key one that I feel very passionately about:

We are at a critical window, a time when our culture is deciding how to define the lowest low end, the bare minimum expected ethical treatment of political and military prisoners. In essence, we are defining what we as Americans is and isn't torture.

It astonishes me that the Christian voice is not more clearly vocal here.

Especially when Jesus himself spoke very directly about our treatment of prisoners as a specific metric to our relationship to Him. In a parable Jesus talks about the end of time, when those right with God ask Him:

'When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

And the King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

That is pretty serious stuff. Whatever we do to our prisoners we have done to Jesus. To me, that needs to be the baseline on the Christian communities voice on this matter.

(And you have to admit, it isn't like we as a Church have had the best history on the subject. We should have learned by now)

I'm further gobsmacked (see how I worked that word in again) by the Church's mostly silence, since this isn't even a partisan issue. It doesn't land as a "liberal" or "conservative" issue.

Republicans like Senators John McCain, Chuck Hagel and almost every other senator has voted for language clearly defining torture, forbiding "cruel and inhumane or degrading" treatment and limiting interrogation techniques to what is in the official Army manual. This passed 90-9 in the Senate.

But this language (which was attached to a military spending bill) has been threatened to be vetoed by the Whitehouse and has been actively lobbied against by the Vice President. Cheney is seeking an exemption be added by the House to allow the CIA to practice "cruel and inhumane" treatment that goes beyond the army field manual.

One exception to the Christian silence on the matter is Sojourners. There may well be others, I hope so.  If so, please post to the comments.

Here is an online petition from Sojourners on this topic to Speaker of the House Hastert asking that he support the bipartisan Mcain ammendment without any exceptions.

-- Tim

Hambone (Dave) on Burning Man and Church

Wanted to pull Dave (Hambone) McSparren's comments up...Really good, and ends with some very good questions...

Tim

"i thought i'd put in a little burningman comment of my own.

the festival has changed, for better and worse, since kevin first attended in '96, and some since i first went in '99.

it's safer... something lost, something gained there. it's bigger, losses and gains, there, too. it's not at all hard to find...you don't even need a compass.

i can't say exactly how, but burning man helped pull me out of a spiritual desert that had lasted 20 years. not surprisingly, the literal desert where the festival is held had something to do with that. there is certainly a history within christiandom of people finding god in the desert. maybe the dryness and emptiness of the desert provide a cleaner slate in one's soul to be written on.

the festival itself somehow gave me more courage to be myself, to express my self, and to overcome fears, that kept me from doing so. burning man and the culture surrounding it pushes me toward individuality and self expression. they do so with radical inclusivity, love and encouragement.

like most christians who i have met who have been, i found myself asking the question: why can't the church be more like this? why does it seem that churches are always places where people are stifled and shut down?

most mainstream churches today are consciously not legalistic, but the problems associated with legalism still remain. why can't the church be a place that fosters freedom, creativity, and self expression?

dave mcsparran... aka hambone"

First Polling on Katrina Survivors

The Washington Post did the first polling of Katrina survivors I'd seen. They interviewed displaced New Orleans residents who had been moved to a Houston shelter, and while the whole poll has interesting facts in it -- including that 61% say that the experience had made them feel that "governement didn't care for people like them" -- the thing that suprised me was that 81% said that the experience had "strengthened their religious faith" and over 80% said they were "hopeful" and "grateful."

Katrina Online Help Sites

On the Yahoo Groups Mailing lists Rebecca wondered what other Katrina relief efforts folks were aware of...

Here are some good starting points online to search out ones that resonate with you:

Wikipedia (an open internet encyclopedia) continues to amaze me with what good and up to date information it creates and manages about things in general but about Katrina in particular. Info and timelines on the storm, the storm, it's effects, and the relief efforts is extensive.

The one caveat is that since Wikipedia is open to ANYONE to edit, I usually verify any facts I find there elsewhere, but so far, they've almost never been wrong, and have always been a good jumping off point....

Similar but urelated is another "wiki" or shared grassroots community site called  Katrina Help.

It lists a particularly extensive list of government, private, church sites to donate to...as well as how to give to the local police, firefighters, national guard, emergency medial technicians and rescue teams on the ground. It also lists places that will offer matching funds to donations given.
Also it has a good list of resources for animal rescue.

One effort that particluarly caught my eye was an extensive "lost and found" service offered by NBC and a mobile company, called "MissingKatrina."

They set up online blogs for in essense matching up the lost and found from the tragedy ..."MissingKatrina" is for folks to post info and pictures of their missing loved ones-- sent in via the web or via MMS phone messages... Heartbreaking to see the faces of the still missing there.

It's counterpart where people who are okay but not yet in contact with their families can post here.

And in the worst example of humans being human, lots of scams both online and offline have already popped up to take advantage of folks generosity. And here is an AP news story on the FBI warning against online, spam email, and other scams. So be careful in giving as well. Good advise from the FBI in that article: "Don't give to any sites you don't know."

Dream Center Ministry in LA Times

Cameron and Eric had been emailing some about helping with the Dream Center ministry, and I noticed this article on the front of today's LA Times... It gives more backstory  on the group, which I wasn't familiar with before Cameron mentioned them online.

My favorite quote from it is "Increasingly, there is an emergent form of Pentecostalism that balances [proselytizing] with Jesus' proclamation to love others as yourself," said professor Donald E. Miller, executive director of USC's Center for Religion and Civic Culture. "They affirm that God's love is unconditional and therefore their service to other people should, likewise, be unconditional."If this expression of the Christian message results in people committing their lives to Jesus, so be it," Miller added. "But Christians are first of all called to be servants to others, not propagandists."

Excerpts from the Times article below:

For two days after Hurricane Katrina made a ruin of his New Orleans neighborhood, David Mince, 50, waited on the roof of his flooded 9th Ward house, eating Spam and crackers, watching dead cats, dogs and humans float by, and waving to helicopters until one finally rescued him.

A few days later at a Baton Rouge shelter, his surreal week took another strange turn. A representative of the Dream Center, a Christian ministry based at the former Queen of Angels Hospital near Echo Park, offered Mince a free Lear jet ride to Los Angeles.

Within hours, he'd arrived in Southern California, where he was offered free room, board and medical care for a year. He picked out a free wardrobe of new clothes. A Dream Center volunteer helped him look for work as a marine electrician.

For the last 10 years, the Dream Center — an Assemblies of God church that is also supported by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel — has ministered to L.A.'s poor, sick and homeless.

That ministry, along with the center's massive facility, Dream Center officials say, has put the group in a perfect position to assist with hurricane relief.

"This clicks so well with our vision: 'They may not have anything, but they are worth something,' " said Gina Hanley, a worker at the ministry.

Already, the Dream Center has taken in 200 hurricane survivors, mostly families who indicated to center volunteers in Louisiana that they would be interested in relocating. They have been promised care for at least 12 months. Center officials say they have room for as many as 300 evacuees, a number they expect to reach by Sunday.

Just how they will pay for the care they've promised the arrivals, though, is still not entirely apparent. Pastor Matthew Barnett, a 31-year-old with a baby face and a crew cut, said he "stepped out in faith" when deciding to host the evacuees, confident that God would provide even though the center had been struggling just to meet its pre-Katrina monthly budget of about $550,000.

"We could miss God if we didn't do this," said Barnett, who added that donations from individuals and businesses have more than kept pace with the center's evacuee-related needs so far.

Since the Dream Center made public its plan this week, lines of cars and trucks, filled with food and supplies, have formed outside its headquarters. People have stopped by with $100 bills or called in with pledges to sponsor families for six months. Trinity Broadcasting Network donated $100,000 to assist with hurricane relief. Twenty-nine corporations had representatives at a job fair for evacuees at the center Friday, and government officials have set up tables there to get benefits flowing.

It has also made the Dream Center a national model for Pentecostal and other churches, which have found that younger Christians often want to see the tangible results of their faith.

"Increasingly, there is an emergent form of Pentecostalism that balances [proselytizing] with Jesus' proclamation to love others as yourself," said professor Donald E. Miller, executive director of USC's Center for Religion and Civic Culture. "They affirm that God's love is unconditional and therefore their service to other people should, likewise, be unconditional.

"If this expression of the Christian message results in people committing their lives to Jesus, so be it," Miller added. "But Christians are first of all called to be servants to others, not propagandists."

Church officials acknowledged that they would be pleased if the evacuees and others became born-again Christians, but their assistance is offered with no strings attached.

"The philosophy here is to help people because they are made in God's image," said Eric Brockhoff, who works in the center's Hope for Homeless Youth agency, which provides services for prostitutes, gang members and drug addicts. "We hope they will find God, but that's really up to them. We're not manipulating people or buying them. We're just serving them."

Church officials see their role in helping the evacuees as providential and hope that their plight might raise awareness — and money — for others with similar needs in Los Angeles.

Only seven floors of the former Queen of Angels building are in use, with room for about 700 people. Renovating the other eight floors, which would provide 1,500 additional beds, would cost $8 million, church officials said.

"We could fill all those rooms today," Barnett said.

The Dream Center was established in 1994 when Barnett, a 20-year-old Assemblies of God pastor, took over Bethel Temple in Echo Park. His co-pastor was his father, Tommy, an Assemblies of God minister who headed a church in Phoenix and now splits his time between the Phoenix and Los Angeles churches.