Religious Flowchart

I thought this was too good not to share. Enjoy:

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I'm Twittering, or Tweeting, or whatever's hip

So I haven't necessarily "given" in to twitter as if I was actively trying to stay away from it, but it has been on my mind for some time now. Of course Lucas introduced me to it and has had an account for some time, so I didn't want to follow suit too soon. But at the Emerging/Moltmann Conference twitter was really integrated into the conversation, so I decided to create an account.

So follow me, if you dare... @joebumbulis

Closing the book on the Bush Legacy

"Thursday's annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and access to health care-the Bureau's principal report card on the well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record of George W. Bush.

It's not a record many Republicans are likely to point to with pride.

On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush's two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. By contrast, the country's condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton's two terms, often substantially."

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Awkward Questions about Jesus

This is my Public Service for the Day

You are welcome.

CLICK TO FIND OUT IF YOU HAVE THE SWINE FLU!

There is a War Going on for Your Mind

Texas Secede...ask Colbert

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A Culture of Anti-Materialism

The problem with our culture of consumerism is that it leans toward the power of docetism. Consumerism is never the drive to gather and store up our goods, it is the drive to replace our current goods with something else. Consumerism in essence denies material reality by always pointing beyond the product toward images and the insatiable desire to be clean, fresh, new, healthy, young, bold, smart, funny or whatever else we are told we are lacking.

Hear Rowan Williams', Archbishop of Canterbury's words (go here to listen or read in full):

'..... far from being a materialist culture, we are a culture that is resentful about material reality, hungry for anything and everything that distances us from the constraints of being a physical animal subject to temporal processes, to uncontrollable changes and to sheer accident.''

The economics of consumption are based on a belief in progress. Thus, for example, when our country and world face the first shrinking global market since WWII, we must realize that this is inevitable and necessary. Do you really believe that we can create a market that will be ever increasing, ever profitable, ever growing?

There seems to be an ontology based on the myth of progress that produces the epistemology that says we can overcome aging, dying, sickness, disease, poverty, etc. Sure these are all well and noble pursuits (obviously some more than others), but reality doesn't seem to work this way. We must work toward solutions to the above mentioned problems, not by trying to defy the reality of the world and ecological economics, but by living faithfully within the means given to us on this planet. An ever expanding market is unsustainable. Rising tides raises all boats, good for the boat owners, and drowns all boat builders.

For every summer there must be a winter, for every birth a death. The market must shrink, it must go up and down in ways that are meaningful. Shrinking is part of the ontology of earth, the seasons, the tide, the ebb and flow. Markets, governments, and people die to make room for new ones.

Other notables from Rowan Williams "Ethics, Economics, and Global Justice:"

We are delivered or converted not simply by resolving in a vacuum to be less greedy, but by understanding what it is to live as an organism which grows and changes and thus is involved in risk. We change because our minds or mindsets are changed and steered away from certain powerful but toxic myths. ...the state that promises maximised choice and minimal risk, is in serious danger of encouraging people to forget two fundamentals of economic reality – scarcity as an inexorable truth about a materially limited world, and concrete productivity and added value as the condition for increasing purchasing power or liberty, and thus sustaining any kind of market. The tension between these two things is, of course, at the heart of economic theory, and imbalance in economic reality arises when one or the other dominates for too long, producing an unhealthily controlled economy (scarcity-driven) or an unhealthily hyperactive and ill-regulated economy (based on the simple expansion of purchasing power). But forget that tension and what happens is not stability but plain confusion and fantasy. We have woken up belatedly to the results of behaving as though scarcity could be indefinitely deferred: the ecological crisis makes this painfully clear. Implied in what has just been said is a recognition of the dangers of 'growth' as an unexamined good. Growth out of poverty, growth towards a degree of intelligent control of one's circumstances, growth towards maturity of perception and sympathy – all these are manifestly good and ethically serious goals, and, as has already been suggested, there are ways of conducting our economic business that could honour and promote these. A goal of growth simply as an indefinite expansion of purchasing power is either vacuous or malign – malign to the extent that it inevitably implies the diminution of the capacity of others in a world of limited resource. Remember the significance of scarcity and vulnerability in shaping a sense of what ethical behaviour looks like.

Patience, trust and the acceptance of a world of real limitation are all hard work; yet the only liberation that is truly worth while is the liberation to be where we are and who we are as human beings, to be anchored in the reality that is properly ours. Other less serious and less risky enterprises may appear to promise a power that exceeds our limitations – but it is at the expense of truth, and so, ultimately at the expense of human life itself. Perhaps the very heart of the current challenge is the invitation to discover a little more deeply what is involved in human freedom – not the illusory freedom of some fantasy of control.

A Society Controlled By Google?

In some wonderfully illuminating writing, Katie McGowan reflects on Google's ability to reshape or (re)Make the human ability to think. We use our technology, then our technology uses us. Using Foucault and Lyotard, she wades through the value claimsto get to the internet's ability to supposedly offer up unlimited (and correct) information at our finger tips. The article is worth reading in its entirety, but I've collected some quotes I thought were interesting:

In the instance of the Internet and Google’s search engines, it is our minds that are up for grabs on the auction block.

...‘we are not only what we read…we are how we read’, and is concerned about the Internet’s preference for quick and efficient information gathering at the cost of deep textual analysis and attention spans.

Such shifts in the way we think are not new phenomenon, says Carr. When humans began using the clock on a wide-scale basis, we began to change our internal habits of eating and sleeping based around the times of the clock.

Do these systems of knowledge transmission reflect systems of power and control, or is the Internet as we know it truly a semiotic democracy?

Carr points to this tension between the economics of the mind and that of the Internet. He argues, “The faster we surf across the Web — the more links we click and pages we view — the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements

The relationship between knowledge and power then is “indispensable” in their relationship to systems of production. Google’s ability to increase production of knowledge through scientific and mathematic experimentation and algorithms creates a system of power, control, and knowledge in the image of its creators.

According to Lyotard, such “administrative procedures should make individuals ‘want’ what the system needs in order to perform well” (62). By giving us what we “want” through individualization via isolated and controlled environments, we are supporting the performance and economies of the Internet.

Googling the Bible- De-Signs of the Times

In staff meeting a few days ago, we were talking about the lectionary reading for the fourth Sunday in Lent, which contains John 3:16. So I shared the story about Tim Tebow, the QB for the national champions Florida who put John 3:16 under his eyes, and that day "John 3:16" was the top Google search. Check it out yourself here and here. The implications being that enough people, in fact several thousand people didn't know and had to google John 3:16 to find out what it means. Yes, the staple verse that every person slightly familiar with the church knows had to be googled.

I think I was more surprised that the staff was surprised that so many people didn't know what John 3:16 means. I posted a few days ago about this study which revealed the fastest growing religious population in the USA are the "Nones" (see CNN"s coverage here).. Via Alan Hirsch's blog post on this subject, I was tuned into some interesting thoughts by a missional leader:

In sum, the findings show or lead to the conclusion that:
1) Religion and Christianity are on the decline in the US;
2) Protestantism is doing worse than Catholicism due to Catholic immigrants;
3) Mormonism is keeping up with population growth, and Islam and New Age/Wicca are exceeding it;
4) Atheism, while still a small percentage of the population, is on the rise; and
5) "Spirituality,"--or non-organized belief in God--is still vibrant in the US.

What implications does this have for the church in the US?
- Attractional methods alone will have decreasing effectiveness, though they will reach some.-
- Not only theologically, but pragmatically, we must make the structure of the church be missional in nature and make dramatic changes in how we allocate our resources. This might mean moving all "Bible studies" off site, in coffee shops, Starbucks, homes, schools, etc.to meet people where they are. With antagonism and apathy towards religion, fewer will show up because we have better programs. And those that do will already be Christians.
- We need to train our members in knowledge of other faiths and resurgent atheism and methods to reach these adherents.

We must make dramatic changes. Sadly, however, most churches will do almost nothing to respond to these cultural changes. Those that do respond will respond incrementally only. With a shrinking pool of Christians, there will be an increasing competition amongst churches for members. This will, ironically, put more pressure upon church leaders to shore up "programs" to attract church members to shore up the decreasing member base.

In the midst of all of this, it is unbelievable to me that our fellowship is consumed on all sides with "doctrinal issues"--meanwhile our nation is hopelessly lost. And the resistance to making practical, methodological changes, such as replacing Sunday night worship or Wed. night classes with outreach and service, moving "classes" off site, planting new churches, changing times, making budgets missional, etc., is quite simply, absurd.

What do you think of these findings? How should the church respond to the changing (a)religious landscape of the US so that we can reach people today?

These are great thoughts and questions to ponder honestly in our cultural climate of religious change. There are doctrinal issues that are important, like how we read the Bible when dealing with women or homosexuals; but the church must start asking questions about true change. Yet, I wonder as I reflect upon my experience in staff meeting, if the church is capable of asking these questions. It seems, at least in my context, that the anomalies are just arising and when anomalies first pop their ugly heads our paradigms and plausibility structures have ways of ignoring them. What are the methodological, ecclesiological, budget, staff, small group, community development, worship, discipleship...what are the changes you see that we need to make?

Oh, and here are some other good thoughts on this article.

Who's the Fastest Growing Religious Group in the US?

Would you have guessed Mormons?

Mormons have increased in numbers enough to hold their own proportionally, at 1.4 percent of the population.

What about Muslims?

The Muslim proportion of the population continues to grow, from .3 percent in 1990 to .5 percent in 2001 to .6 percent in 2008.

Baptists, of course?

Baptists, who constitute the largest non-Catholic Christian tradition, have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population.

Then it must be the New Age folks, like the Wiccans?

Adherents of New Religious movements, inc luding Wiccans and self-described pagans, have grown faster this decade than in the 1990s.

“The percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent. Given the estimated growth of the American adult population since the last census from 207 million to 228 million, that reflects an additional 4.7 million ‘Nones.’ Northern New England has now taken over from the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country, with Vermont, at 34 percent ‘Nones,’ leading all other states by a full 9 points.

‘Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly,’ [Ariela] Keysar said. We now know it wasn’t. The ‘Nones’ are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union.’”

The Nones? Yes, that's right, the Nones according to the American Religious Identification Survey from only a few days ago . So it could be very possible that:

"It looks like the two-party system of American Protestantism--mainline versus evangelical--is collapsing," said Mark Silk, director of the Public Values Program. "A generic form of evangelicalism is emerging as the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in the United State s."

What to do in the flood of change, abandon the sinking ship, repair the ship, or build something else that'll float in the flood waters?

Everything is Amazing yet Nobody is Happy

Comedy seems to one of the amazing ways of truthtelling.

In Honor of Today

As we move toward a momentous Inauguration of the 44th President of the USA who will give his speech in front of a building built by slaves, may we look back and remember Martin Luther King Jr. and the many other prophets, activists, and truth-tellers who made this day possible, the Inauguration of an African American to the highest office in our country.

Today is a day not to celebrate the holiness of MLK or Barack Obama, but the effect that a normal man with temptations, trials, and imperfections can have on a nation. May we remember that these men reflect the people who have elected them, listened to them, and who these men have been the voice for. As we look back, let us look forward and see that there is still work to be done, reconciliation to be made, forgiveness to be given, and justice to be poured out. Thank you Martin Luther King Jr, Barack Obama, and the many others who've been given hope and who have given hope.

Truth as False

"In a world that is really upside down, the true is a moment of the false."
-Guy Debord, The Society of Spectactle

For Debord our reality is shaped by what we see and primarily we see media and the culture produced by late capitalism. For Marx humans went from "being to having" with the rise of the market economy and alienation of productivity. For Debord humans have moved from "having to appearing."

Our world is upside down because humans who at their core are creators and find meaning in capability, are reduced to passive recieptients of the spectactle. Television, movies, and media become societies way of giving meaning, solidarity, and the illusion that we participate in the world (video games like fishing, golfing, etc come to mind). Alienation prevails, humans relate to one another by sitting solitarily in their homes watching the same movies, news, or sports events which become the fabric of society.

Thus, truth is really false. Reality is a creation of the spectactle.

The church who wishes to Incarnate the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, must realize that it's truth will present itself as false. When we try and allow the culture of media and television to shape how we pronounce our truth then we've already lost our voice in the meaningless array of consumption.

Seeing reality for what it truly is is a difficult, yet human necessity. Living into the Kingdom of God means living out of the false reality of media. Solidarity is not the culture of media, but relationships, advocacy, and dependency.

Elected Officials Flunk

Are most people, including college graduates, civically illiterate? Do elected officials know even less than most citizens about civic topics such as history, government, and economics? The answer is yes on both counts according to a new study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took ISI’s basic 33 question test on civic literacy and more than 1,700 people failed, with the average score 49 percent, or an “F.” Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent and only 0.8 percent (or 21) of all surveyed earned an “A.” Even more startling is the fact that over twice as many people know Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol than know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
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Wow, that's incredibly lame for our nation, especially the elected officials.

What's you score? I scored an 82.8. Take the quiz here.

Freedom is impossible without responsibility, and for that reason I believe democracy can at any moment collapse. Democracy needs a populace of informed and responsible citizens. If the American project fails, it will not be the loss of freedoms but the loss of responsibility by the people.

Advent draws Nigh

Patriotic Listening: Kill the Drug Dealer?

Twelve. Twelve juveniles.

Twelve young men under the age of 18 have been detained under American control in the infamous torture camp of Guantanamo, one of which committed suicide. A boy cannot endure the rigors of torture.

To be an American means that we are not simply free, equal, and in power; but to be an American means we must be responsible for the load we carry is great.

Politics is a matter of using and manipulating language to create a reality so that people remain ignorant about reality. Check out my post on how the USA has been intervening in S. America in many wrongful actions for a long, long time. This last month the Bush administration has denied long term trade negotiations with Bolivia for its "failing to cooperate with the war on drugs."

This means that the first indigenous president of Bolivia suspended the USA ambassador and DEA from his country. His reason, put in my own words is that the USA DEA is not cooperating with the war on drugs. Let me explain. First, let's bring back this idea of responsibility. Bolivia is the 3rd largest producer of cocaine. Yes, this is wrong and Bolivia must fight to fix this problem. Yet, the USA is the largest consumer of cocaine in the world.

If you were addicted to drugs, what would be the better solution: A) quit doing the drugs, thus putting the dealer out of business or B) kill the drug dealer?

Bush's answer is B) go and kill the dealer, for this is exactly what a trade embargo would do to Bolivia since we have so much sway on their economy. For God's sake America, when will we stop pointing our damn fingers at everyone else and try to fix our own problems. Quit scapegoating the victims!

Also Morales, the Bolivian president calls for a different type of change. His reasons for kicking out the DEA from his perspective is a very good reason. According to Morales, DEA agents were encouraging the drug trade. If you find this hard to believe then I would argue that you need to speed up on our corrupt dealings with Latin America.

Furthermore, Morales and others who have no voice in the G-20 summit because of their powerlessness in world finances and power argue that the recent summit was awash controlled singularly by the voice of G.W. Bush.

"Morales said developed countries have provided more money to help distressed banks than they have committed to poor countries to improve health, education and development.

The so-called consensus of the G-20 continues to emphasize market principles and free trade,'' Morales said during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. ``To get out of this crisis we have to break with the neo-liberal economic model and the capitalist system.''

Democracy is not tied to capitalism and the way we do world economics must change. The USA cannot continue living this lifestyle of consumption with no repercussions while so many nations fight for survival, food, and development. To simply bail out failing businesses is to ignore reality and the future.

Morales points "to abandon the `neo-liberal and capitalist system' and allow all of the 192 UN member governments to contribute to a restructuring of global trade and financial regulation."

A Real Patriot Would...

There are many avenues for expressing one's patriotism for their country. I for one though would not be classified into what seems a very traditional and narrow view of being an American. There is this strange, dogmatic stance in some circles that believes the USA can do no harm and the greatest gift a person can give their country is their life. While this may be the greatest sacrifice, I'm not sure it's the greatest gift our nation needs, for right now at least.

To die for one's country means to protect what one believes to be more right, better, and correct over and against another (amonst other things). While I'm for protecting democracy, I'm also for pushing, moving towards, and birthing democracy, which we have not acquired. Did you hear that, our country, the "greatest" nation on earth does not live up to its own dream, we are failing, short, and empty in areas.

I for one do not believe that the United States of America is the greatest nation on the world, even in light of our recent election where we voted in a minority whose life represents the real "American struggle." My version of patriotism is to call into mind that our country is wrong and has been wrong in several of our stances and actions, not because I'm against the USA but exactly the opposite. To be an American means not to live in a place of privilege, but a place of responsibility being that much of the world's economies depend upon our own.

Therefore I will not go to war for my country and die for someone else's greed, hate, ignorance, and zeal; but I will call my country to repent. A true patriot is one who will denounce the atrocities of Guantanamo, the killing of civilians in Iraq by our people, or the abuse of the elected officials to our constitution and dream.

So while I admire men who give up so much to go to war and fight battles that their only investment is their birthplace, I must say to all my fellow country men and women that we must look at the gaint Oak Tree growing from our own eye before we try to pluck the tiny sprout from anothers. We cannot continue to be the problem and try to fix everyone elses. We must listen to those countries who are calling us to change, those who we've had a hand in oppressing for far too long (much of S. America).

To be continued.

What if Starbucks Marketed like a Church? A Parable.

Incredible Savant