As I’ve said–or at least hinted at–before I’m increasingly taking a relational view of justice, that when God calls us to do justice He is really calling us to live in relationship with others. So with that in mind I read through 1 Samuel 8 while reading for my thesis. Up to this point, God has been Israel’s true King, only appointing judges to lead Israel directly in times of crisis when they cried out to Him. But now seeing the sons of the current judge, Samuel, were wicked and corrupt, the people of Israel decided they no longer wanted to live under this system.

The whole of the Ten Commandments and the law that follows in Deuteronomy stands as Gods instructions for how to live in relationship with each other and with him. They are a guide for how the people of Israel were  to be an example to the rest of the world. By living in right relationship with God they would be a light to the world. Granted, this was hard and in opposition to their human nature. So there were times when they fell away from God and stopped upholding the law, but in the depth of their suffering, God never failed to send a judge to rescue them and restore justice. And then comes 1 Samuel 8.

Seeing the wickedness of his sons, the people of Israel come to Samuel and demand he appoint a king to rule them. After the people say this Samuel brings their request to God. I imagine from God’s response Samuel must have felt personally hurt and/or offended by their request. Maybe he was offended that the people rejected his sons, or maybe he was simply hurt by the realization that his sons had turned their backs on God and Samuel himself was no longer able to lead Israel as their judge. Either way God responds to Samuel by saying, “it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” God acknowledges what the people are doing maybe before they even do. He tells Samuel he will grant their request but presents a long list of consequences they will suffer as a result. The people think by following a human ruler instead of their divine King they can gain power and standing among the nations. God doesn’t say they won’t have these things, but he lays out the cost in what their new king will demand of them–the best of their fields, the best of their sons and daughters, and 10% of all they own will belong to the king. And God says when the people suffer as a result and cry out to him, he will no longer hear their cries. Where God has always been a provider of the best things, their new earthly king will now take those things for himself. If they chose an earthly king, they are rejecting God’s kingship over their lives.

Hearing all of this the people respond to Samuel, “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations”.

Why do we not read this passage and feel heart broken?! When presented with a choice between an intimate relationship with their Creator God or a life of hardship and toil serving a king who claims 10% of everything they have, the people of Israel choose the later and reject God.

I think part of why we read this and don’t heed the warning is that we are still choosing our earthly kings today. We still look to law and government to give us moral guidance and justice when in reality those earthly powers will always fail us. Certainly there are forms of government that are more just than others and the same is true for economic systems. However, when we place our faith and trust in systems and people rather than God we are making the same mistake Israel made thousands of years ago–we are choosing ourselves over God. Doing it once was disappointing to God and Samuel. But that we do it over, and over, and over again, this is the heart-wrenching tragedy.

I was tempted to post something about the elections earlier this month, a reminder of the dangers of placing our future hope in one political party or the other. I’m obviously a little late for that, but this is pretty much what I would have said. The “right order” fallacy of anyone from any faith saying that by adhering to this code or that, to what one ruler or another says, to what one judge says over another, to what radio host says what over another, that by doing these things we can achieve greatness and godliness detracts from what God really wants–us. Jesus says in Mark 12 to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s. We need roads and schools and police and laws and taxes. But we can try to make all those things fit God, or we can simply focus on him and let those things fall into place. We often draw lines in the sand over school curricula. We celebrate TV hosts who sling accusations like stones at our public officials. We even let our church leaders sometimes tempt us into believing if we vote for the right candidate, the right king, God will smile upon us. We so often forget our calling to lose our lives in pursuit of the One who first called us. God desires us in a relationship, not with law, not with politics, not with economics, but with Him.

It’s late and of course I should be in bed, but instead I’m up watching video’s on TED.com. Tonight it was this talk from Deborah Scranton, a documentary filmmaker, speaking about her documentary The War Tapes. Scranton had the opportunity to embed with a National Guard unit in Iraq. But rather than go herself as an outsider, she equipped the soldiers with cameras and all the other gear they would need to film their experiences themselves. She wanted to capture life there truly from their perspective.

The stories she ends up with in her film are about the horrors of war and what war does to human beings. Not just the physical violence, but the emotional and spiritual stress it puts people through. The face to face confrontation of life in America versus life in a war zone. The realization of what people are capable of doing to each other and the aftermath. Scranton is clearly shaken as she relates the stories told in the film and the experiences she has had talking with veterans upon showing the film around the country.

One of the myriad of questions I will sometimes ask myself late at night is if I really am ready for the future I say I want. If I really, truly want to document what life is like for half the people on the planet who live in war zones or deal with starvation or disease or extreme poverty. Am I ready to interview people whose lives have been torn apart by people fighting in the name of religion or ethnicity or for reasons no one even remembers. I had a preview of that in Uganda when a single mother was telling me how lucky I am to be born in America. She’s right, and I had no answer for her. As much as I want to bring those stories back to the US to open the eyes of people here to the realities of the world, chances are I will never be able to make things better for anyone I meet. There will never be a word I can say or a touch I can give that will cure what ails them. And somehow I will have to come to grips with that. Somehow I will have to figure out how I can come back to the US, to my comfy bed, my xbox and my big screen tv. It’s a dangerous question and I don’t know the answer yet. I don’t know that there is an answer.

A little over two years ago I wrote this and this.

Today I watched this and was happy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All the talk about the inauguration tomorrow got my political science nerd juices flowing. I decided to look and see what other countries in addition  to the United States have Presidential inauguration ceremonies. Want to guess how many? Out of 193 recognized sovereign states in the world, 13 of them have inaugurations. 13! And of those, (as far as I can tell) all began after the United States. The inauguration to me has always been somewhat special because of the peaceful transfer of power that takes place. In many of the other 192 countries of the world, a change of government means at minimum a period of political instability, and often that a coup has just taken place. The Presidential inauguration represents the crowning achievement of the American political system. While the people have changed and there has been some maturation of the system as it grows, the fact that every four years we swear in a new executive to lead the country and NO ONE DIES is pretty remarkable. No matter your political leanings, you have to admit that’s pretty dang cool.

Happy Inauguration Day!

I should be heading to bed right now but instead I’m sitting in my living room listening to Neutral Milk Hotel records and trying to prognosticate the future.  I’m trying to figure out what I want to say in my grad school admissions essay.  I don’t know why it seems so hard to put down words about something I feel so passionately about.  I’ve been working on this two page essay for about a month now and I can’t get it down ono paper.  Anyway, I need to get a little bit more done with that before I head to bed so I’ll wrap this up.

Mostly I wanted to post tonight just to remind everyone that come what may, at the end of the day tomorrow we will have a new president-elect.  For some it will be the candidate they wanted, others obviously not.  But it is important to remember that no matter what the election, God still reigns.  Earthly presidents come and go, they make policies that effect lives for a time before circumstances and people change and move on, but the Kingdom of God remains.

I decide to take a break from blogging for a bit and look what happens, all the sudden we have a new gauge on the state of the Presidential election, what does Joe the Plumber think?  It seems like this has happened in the last several elections.  In order to seem more at touch with the people watching at home, one or both of the candidates highlight the story of someone they met on the campaign trail.  Perfectly understandable.  It also drives me crazy, and this time, it just about pushed me over the edge.  Apparently, Joe the Plumber (actually Joe Wurzelbacher) lives in Ohio and dreams of purchasing the plumbing company he works for but is afraid if Obama gets elected, he won’t be able to afford to run said company.  This is a perfectly legitimate and meaningful question and debate point, how do the tax proposals of each candidate impact small businesses?  Joe, and the American public, have the right to know.  Here’s what makes me so frustrated though.

Joe is a plumber, probably even a good one.  According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average plumber in Ohio makes $47,930 per year.  Lets round that up to $50,000 since Joe is actually a good plumber and a nice guy.  Now, for the ease of discussion, lets say Joe pays back 20% of his wages in taxes, $10,000 per year.  This leaves him with $40,000 in take home pay.  Now, lets say that Joe, after purchasing the plumbing business, is fortunate enough to make $250,000 per year, the point at which Obama’s higher tax brackets would kick in.  Even if Joe then paid 50% of his wages in taxes, his take home pay would still be $125,000 per year.  Heck, even if Joe paid 68% of his wages in taxes he would still take home $80,000, twice his original $40,000.  My point is this.  There are certainly tax reform issues that need to be dealt with in America, there are things that need to be examined and discussed and fixed.  However, decisions about the future cannot be made based on the possibility that maybe someday we might become rich.

Furthermore, how rich do we really need to be?  We already, and still, are the richest country in the world.  I, on my meager ministry wages, can afford what by the standards of several billion people is a life of luxury.  I do not want for food or shelter, if I see something I want I buy it, no questions.  Do I hope one day to have more money than I currently do so I can pursue my hobbies of photography and computers?  Of course!  I just get tired of people who protect essentially meaningless tax rates on the rich because they think one day they might be rich too.  I certainly do not wish anyone lose their home or even their job in the coming months, but if we are headed into a deep dark recession, hopefully it will become a chance for America to re-examine our priorities and the measures by which we judge the quality of our lives.  Because I can tell you, even if you are living in your car, you have it better than billions of people fighting starvation, war, and disease in the developing world.

Every time I come home I like digging through my old files from school and years gone by.  I always find something interesting or funny that makes me laugh.  This time it’s my application for acceptance into the Political Science program at SPU from the spring quarter of my Freshman  year. . .

“When I was thinking about what I wanted to major in, two subjects came to mind.  The first was History and the second was Political Science.  I decided on Political Science because I realized if I majored in History, I would study history.  But if I majored in Political Science, I would have the chance to make history.  Though this carries much more responsibility, I believe it to be a much more exciting possibility.”

Yeah, I’m awesome.

“John McCain had a line that really embedded for me how the conversation in America has gotten so off base.  He said, ‘I will appoint judges that will strictly interpret the constitution and not legislate from the bench.’  And the crowd went nuts, and gave him a standing ovation.  Explain to me what the hell he said?  Because unless your a constitutional scholar or in the Federalist Society, I mean, what he was really saying is, ‘I’ll make sure gay people can’t get married, and I’ll try to get Roe v Wade overturned.’  Why can’t we have that conversation honestly like adults and not pretend like we’re all talking this weird code language around each other?”

More excellent commentary tonight during his interview with author Peggy Noonan.  I’ll post the full video when Comedy Central releases it.

“I’m not taking all my money out and putting it in a mattress just yet,” Nelson said. “It’s freaky times right now, but at the same time, things always find a way to work out — they have to.”

This time last night I was feeling good after Bush’s speech that the economy would get back on track.  Then came news that the deal being hammered out in the House and Senate had fallen appart.  Then came news that Washington Mutual was seized by the government and sold to JP Morgan Chase.  Ouch.  Now, certainly we  shouldn’t do anything out of panic.  We shouldn’t jump on the first proposal that comes along.  But we have to act.  Frankly I’m scared right  now.  I’m scared that there are too many politicians in Washington playing politics.  I’m scared that we are quickly approaching a point of no return where what is still largely a problem in just one sector of the economy spills over to the others.  No this is not a time to panic.  There will be a tomorrow.  Life will go on.  Recessions, depressions, booms and busts have all come and gone.  The economy is cyclical.  We can have hope and believe things will get better eventually.  But what happens in the next week or so will determine whether it is 2 years or 10 years.  Things will work out, “things always find a way to work out, they have to.”  They have to.

How sad is it that the best political comentary on television comes from a fake news show run by a stand up comic?  That said, specificly watch from 7:30-8:30 and you will hear the two opposing viewpoints about where to go from here on out with the War on Terror.