Watch this …
(If you're offended by "hell" in the video title, try considering it an act of irony ...)
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
... and then read chapter 16 of The Secret Message of Jesus
0 Comments1 Minute
Nouwen quote
My friend and co-conspirator Denise Van Eck passed on this beautiful quote from Henri Nouwen today.
A New World Is Yet to Come
Henri Nouwen
You are Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, so long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe you have a role to play in the realization of the new kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian you keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.
0 Comments1 Minutes
Faith, Politics, and Voting … Part 3, Process and Product
I know that most people think only in terms of the product of the election. Only one question matters: Who won?
But I think the process of the election is tremendously important to. It raises an even more important question: What are we becoming?
For example, if someone wins through dirty tricks, we have become a dirtier nation in the process. If someone wins through dishonest or superficial arguments, we have become a less honest and shallow nation in the process. If someone manipulates us with unrealistic promises, we have become a more gullible nation in the process. If someone wins through vicious rhetoric or fear tactics, we become a more divided and frightened nation.
A friend sent me an email this morning which suggested one of the more positive possibilities in this process. He and his wife are enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama in this election, and they have been shocked by the negative responses they've received from some relatives and friends at church. Among the responses that have saddened them most have been overt and covert expressions of racism.
After an uncomfortable conversation with a family member that turned into a good dialgoue about race, my friend's wife sent this email to her relative (shared with permission):
I've been thinking...and since it's 4.30am and i can't sleep, thought i'd write...
re: "why does God make different races?", your question on the beach.
0 Comments4 Minutes
Faith, Politics, and Voting … Part 1
To vote or not to vote?
Some folks I've talked to are not going to vote in the 2008 elections. Some are disillusioned. Some don't like either candidate enough to vote. For some, not voting is an act of protest against the whole system, which they believe is hopelessly corrupt. Some believe that their citizenship in God's kingdom means they shouldn't become involved in "earthly" citizenship.
While I respect my friends who aren't going to vote - especially those who have prayerfully thought the decision through from multiple vantage points - I will vote in this election for several reasons.
0 Comments6 Minutes
Faith, Politics, and Voting … Part 2
All of us who choose to vote must base our vote on something.
For some people, it's party. They're Democrats or Republicans and from election to election, they support whomever the party serves up. For others, it's a litmus test issue - abortion, homosexuality, war, whatever. For others, it's fear or hope or some other "gut level" appeal - whoever scares or inspires them the most gets their vote. And for still others, it's a "group thing" - they belong to a group (a race, a religion, an interest group, trade union, a social class, or whatever) that issues a statement on which candidate is most attractive to their group, and that's who wins their vote.
For many of us, none of these factors are satisfying.
0 Comments3 Minutes