Houseblogging Update

A Race – Susy Morris, via Flickr

Over the last several months, I’ve been writing very frequently at Forward Progressives, trying to balance the world between the political progressive movement there (which reads largely as: anti-Republican) and my more *ahem* extreme views. All the LOLZ, people.

It was doing this that I realized that that space, while slowly growing my crowd, isn’t exactly healthy. Whether defending the use of Trigger Warnings or dismantling the charges of fatherlessness and inherent criminality of Black people in Chicago, I got some really nasty treatment from not just conservative trolls, but progressives (or “Brogressives”) as well – most of whom happen to be white and male.  But honestly, I guess being a white(ish) educated male, I should count my lucky stars that the negativity I’ve had to field in comments hasn’t extended to emails. Or even twitter. Much less real life encounters such as happened to Suey Park for dare criticizing St. Colbert (oh yeah, that was another article I wrote on with threatening Brogressives missing the point and blaming victims).

And it’s not that I have a problem so much with criticism and pushback (well, I do need to step back and evaluate). When I’m criticized, I try to evaluate what they’re saying or how I came across. And sometimes I get it. But often the criticism is stoked in White Supremacy, misogyny, heternormativity, and trans-aggression. And, as in the case of the Trigger Warnings article (and, yes, Trigger Warnings for all of the above) just abundantly abusive. So while that doesn’t deter me from saying what I feel I need to say, I am going to consider more carefully consider, as they say in Christian contexts, the pearls before the swines and which audience is most appropriate.

But there’s only so many days I can take hunting down stories about Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, or Todd Starnes or reading articles from National Review before I want to put my head in the toilet. So I’m limiting my writing there to twice a week, tops and hopefully writing two articles here a week. I want to focus on post-evangelical praxis (which has been one of the main focuses here for the last five years), and more focusing on Chicago politics – particularly in regards to the city-wide dismantling of public good in order to privatize (which my friend Don Washington also covers gloriously and insightfully at the Mayoral Tutorial).

But I also want to encourage you if you can, if you appreciate the work here and can afford it, to consider donating to the Paypal link on the left. Although I work for pay, that work is seasonal and this is one of those seasons when I don’t work for wages. (Which also says that the work I do here I consider work. And even when I do get paid for it – well, let’s just say the hours and the pay don’t quite measure up, #ifyoucatchmydrift). But rent and internet and coffee and research time and bike repairs and you know.

In about a month, I’ll be entering grad school full-time, so we’ll see where that takes us. (Insert winky emoticon).

New Blog for Writing

Started a new blog when I realized I needed a different branding than the one I’ve come to be known for here. ‘Cuz here I’m a little bit of a firecracker. In the pants (that didn’t sound wrong at all)

Jason Dye PhDJ is where I’ll be putting stories and articles related to teaching, fatherhood, parenthood, and all that other sissy stuff I like to write about as well. I’ll try and divide my time equally between these two sites – while writing books at a near-feverish pace (for me, at least) and

Speaking of writing books: Shout It from the Rooftops should be – if all goes according to plan – released by the end of this week. This is the first book in the Left Cheek series and it’s about how Evangelical Christians tend to read the Bible. You can check for more updates here, on Facebook, on Twitter, and at the author page here.

I’m sure you’ll like it, but you might be scared to get a copy. Don’t worry, I plan on introducing it for the low, low price of $1.99 over the weekend.

So, again, check out the new blog. You may like it, no?

The New Bullies: Grandma Peace Activists, Christian Feminist Bloggers, and Consumer Advocates

photo © 2007 Simon | more info (via: Wylio)Did somebody say Wookie?

There’s a cynical and ironic phenomenon that I’ve noticed most glaringly in US foreign relationships in the Middle East and is now manifesting itself in the financial / political world as well as the Evangelical social media world in the States: Bullies like to call anybody who holds them accountable a bully.

Israel does this any time her stranglehold on Palestinians is challenged. Likewise, WORLD Magazine (a Neo-Conservative Christian bulwark) called Rachel Held Evans a slanderer for calling out mega-pastor Mark Driscoll’s irresponsible, homophobic, and trans-phobic behavior (with a bit more civility than I would probably afford him). And now House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, (R-CA) and spokesmouth for corporatocracy, is calling Elizabeth Warren, consumer advocate, a bully who would target the poor, little, downtrodden banks and loaning institutions and give them swirlies and wedgies and all that mean stuff.

Small pockets of men and women (and most recently, grandmas) try to get into Gaza, armed only with senselessly banned material – including harmless school supplies. At one point, they are gunned down at point-blank range by Israeli soldiers. At another point, Greece enforces Israel’s rules for them, in the hope of international aid favor from the US. Illegal settlements are being sprouted up on top of Palestinian homes, bulldozing and setting ablaze homelands, groves, and families that have resided there for hundreds and thousands of years. The Palestinians are denied pencils, buildings, and jobs in their own homeland.

And yet, it’s the international, hippy grandmas that are the bullies…

Author and blogger Rachel Held Evans demonstrated occasion after occasion of Mark Driscoll’s dehumanizing taunts towards women, feminists, “effeminate” males, and queersteh gays. And then she asked her readers to address their concerns to the board of elders at his church. While Driscoll (of a large church in Seattle named Mars Hill) offered some sort of apology, WORLD Magazine writer Anthony Bradley belittled the criticisms and offered his amusing perspective that, “There is nothing loving about calling a pastor a “bully.“”* The rest of the paragraph sends a message that this male writer can only interpret as, “Woman no talk to manly man such way.” (Considering that – without any evidence – Bradley calls her a liar who spreads false testimony, I’m left to believe that the problem isn’t the testimony itself, but the testifier. After all, in biblical times, woman no important.)

So, it isn’t the influential, authoritarian pastor who, once again, ridicules so-called effeminate men who needs to be corrected. It is the woman who dared stand up to him…

Issa is a bit of an extreme example in an extreme time of extreme extremities. It’s common (though often ignored by pro-corporatists) knowledge that the recession is a direct result of predatory lending, borrowing and all means of deceit by big banks and other financial institutions – much at the hands of the poor and middle class. Warren, who has a proven track record of looking out for that important buffer – the middle class – as well as for those on the margins, is trying to protect the rest of us from the horrible practices that make a few very wealthy, very fast, on the backs of the rest of us who are left with fewer and fewer options. But she, not the banks that foreclosed on millions of hard-working Americans, is the bully? Because she would rather that these institutions not eat the poor and devour the middle class?? Really?

I suppose Orwell is shaking in his grave. It got awfully chilly.

———————————————————–

*Obviously, nobody has informed Bradley of the practices of spiritual abuse rampant in fundamentalist churches, specifically. I’m sure that if he were dealing with questions of his own sexuality in such a church, his perspective would change.

The Fourth of July in Sri Lanka

The week leading to the birthday celebration of the United States tends to be the biggest for my good blogger friends. Kurt Willems and Carson Clark and other moderate-to-progressive (for America, at least) Evangelical writers tend to generate a lot of heat for being Debby Downers while every body else is blowing crap up and singing “God Bless Amurika For Being the God-Blessingest-Country-Evah!!!” The genius in their writing is that they are Americans who belong to a tradition that often confuses America with God and who critique America as not being God nor Godly.

But my favorite Fourth-of-July post this year did not come from an American. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was not meant as a Fourth-of-July post. It just happened to be released on that date, and simultaneously speaking of the need for democracy, action, and liberty.

But not in the sense that those words have been co-opted to mean what they don’t mean. Sri Lankan Vinoth Ramachandra is speaking of the need for the oppressed to rise with the oppressors and shake off the bounds of our oppression.

The gods of “ limitless growth” and “consumption” brook no rivals. For all the posturing of Western governments on human rights and human dignity, we know how deeply they have become indebted to repressive political regimes such as the Chinese and how deeply enmeshed they are in exploitative financial systems from which they cannot extricate themselves, even if they wished to. Like the client-kings of Rome, depicted in the Book of Revelation, Western governments have capitulated to the Beast and do his bidding (while pretending to be politically sovereign)…

If Greek coffers are empty, it is not because of social benefits given to the sick and the poor; but, rather, the irresponsibility of Greek business corporations who hid their profits in off-shore tax havens. Rich Greeks, with the blessing of their politicians, enjoyed public services while not paying for them. (And the Greek Orthodox Church, owner of vast assets, has also been exempt from taxation). But it is the middle-and working classes who are now being forced to practice “austerity” to rescue Greece from bankruptcy. Moreover, Greece is being charged interest higher than the eurozone rate. Like global warming and subprime mortgages, it is the poor who forced to pay for the sins of the rich.

Reforms in the financial sector, whether in the US or Europe, are purely cosmetic. None of the institutions and individuals who were responsible for the foreclosures of peoples’ homes have been brought before courts of law. Banks seem to be exempt from the bankruptcy procedures that apply to ordinary people and small businesses.

All this speaks of political failure. The racists, the corrupt, and the mediocre have taken over parliamentary assemblies. Even highly intelligent and moral leaders like Barack Obama have their wings clipped by financial elites. Politics in Canada and Italy is no different from India or Thailand. Given these failures of governments all over the world, isn’t it time for more of us to be get out on the streets like the courageous men and women in Athens, Damascus and Bahrain? Direct democracy is when the people themselves directly claim the right to decide the laws and policies that will shape their collective life. Their chosen representatives have betrayed them in favour of unelected business and banking tycoons.

I’m of the opinion that international Christian voices need to be listened to in the churches in the States. The very voices that can speak directly, authoritatively, and clearly about hard truths that those of us in the US – even those of us who try to speak up for the developing world – cannot quite fathom or imagine.

This is the voice that your local pastor needs to hear.

blogging updates

due to some snafus at the Blogger universe, a post i wrote and published on racism (ironically titled, “And that’s tragic…”) got moved back in time. somehow. i’m not quite sure what happened, or why i wasn’t warned before i started fiddling with it (and then had to find out through searching the blogger blog) – because now it’s stuck and i have to meticulously RE-edit it again.

and as much as i love editing. i hate re-editing. hopefully, however, that post and its second part sister will be up early this week. the final part (i’m hoping beyond hope) should be up next week – if i’m going to actually spend an hour each day actually writing, that is. and not just fibbing away on facebook, et al. (though gotta admit that the upcoming elections are interesting in a “look at the dog whistles that crazy MoFo is blowing” kinda way)

in addition to those three posts, i expect to start publishing excerpts from some essays that i’ve done on parenting and teaching – along with some newer parts – soon. i had originally planned to do two different books, one on each subject. but i’m starting to think the theme is too strong to not combine them as one.

add in a few last-minute posts, some sudden inspirations (if i’m lucky), and some responses (also if i’m lucky) to some of my friendly blogs and i may be up to regular blogging speed (or more) shortly.

peace.

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Pangea Blog Guest Post

If you’re new here: Let me welcome you.

Today you may spot my name and signature stylistic stylish style up at Sir Kurt’s Pangea Blog. Kurt’s a great blogger and he writes well and fluidly on topics verging from spirituality to non-violence to empire (some of my faves, of course).

This guest post is all part of my plan to very slowly take over the blogoverse and become the new, humorless-but-politically-savvy Jon Acuff… or the Evangelical and humorous Glenn Greenwald. Or the dude Rachel Held Evans – just with fewer books. Or the really curly-haired Slacktivist… (Or a really curly-haired RHE)…

photo © 2009 Alessandro Prada | more info (via: Wylio)
Or really, I’ll just continue to toil away here in relative obscurity, just happy to have a few fellow travelers – just happy to say to, and hear back from, some lovely but maybe alienated people, “You’re not alone. Let’s walk together.”

Please, friends, feel free to meander or jaunt or hike. I hope you may have found a friend today.

Here, that is…

Continuing the Convo… dudes

photo © 2008 Horia Varlan | more info (via: Wylio)

I just missed my bloggerversary. Six years now. She’s getting to be such a big girl. (Yes, I know I mixed metaphors. Quiet.)

Please don’t bother looking up the old posts. Basically run-on diaries – that’s what Facebook is for nowadays. Often just musings. But generally, meh…

About a year and a half ago, I realized that I was spending a lot of time on long Facebook posts to fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals particularly. And that time was mostly writing out thoughtful responses to passionate (and sometimes not-as-thoughtful) statements. I realized that I wasn’t getting through, but if I wanted to communicate effectively and quickly, then I would take that energy and write a post. When I ran across a meme, I could just point them to my blog.

For the past year and a half or so, I’ve begun to reinvent my blogging to extend my thoughts beyond just definitive definites. I’m slowly re-learning blogging and – more importantly – dialog. Meanwhile, I’ve been even slowly-er learning to ask more questions.

If you look to the right, you’ll see a few blogrolls. The ones on the top are the ones I read the most. They’re not all Christians. They’re not all Evangelicals. They’re not all Americans. They’re not all progressive (though I think everybody in that list fits into at least one of the rubrics). They are my most frequented blogs, and as such I consider that much of what I do here is engaging in conversation with them.

Some of whom I know only through their writing, never formally having had a chance to talk directly with them. Others I know or have met in real life. Some I’ve had the chance to blog with. And quite a few are real friends, but I’ve yet to meet them in the 3D.

It’s all a part of what I’m trying to learn to do. Continue the conversation. I’m so used to trying to end it. Thinking – like I did with my dad when I was twelve – that I was so sure, so cocksure that I had the answers.

Mostly to questions that nobody was answering.

That pattern is hard to break. So please bare with me as I try to engage and ask more questions. I might even ask some of the right questions.

Maybe?

Snapshot for the Month: pictures of easy bake of making cookies all of the pictures

 

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THREE times? Srsly?

Slactivism

A good friend started an entire blog just to give me a ribbing today. And that’s fine. That’s why he’s my friend. And like all good friends, he challenged me. My friend – let’s just call him Mr. Ed -basically asked, “What’s the point of wasting time and bytes arguing about stuff that may not directly affect you?”

If that were solely it, of course, I would say, “There is none. It’s a vanity. A chasing after the wind.”

But I like to believe that my words here and on Facebook are a sort of ministry – a furthering of my vocation. I learn and teach, that’s my lifelong goal and calling. And I believe, firmly, that teaching is a way of redeeming when it’s done correctly.

It allows people to ask questions of the world and the way it is: Is this how it should be? Is this how it can be? Is there something else? Is this right? If not, what could be right? How can you and I imagine a better world?

And it gets them in contact with resources they can use in order to answer and keep questioning and implore others and act themselves and then encourage others to act.

Case 1 in point: One of the friends of this blog, Kurt Willems, has been doing a series on non-violent resistance. This helps people like me because my environment – the physicality of it, the geographical mapping of shootings and gang turf wars, the robberies, the tv and movies that surround me, the ads, the reality of third world peoples that I come in contact with through one medium or another – is rooted in violence. It helps and inspires me to creatively ponder other ways of addressing problems in a creative, sustaining way.

photo © 2010 ASU Provost Comm Group | more info (via: Wylio)
Other blogs introduce me to ideas, perspectives, means, ends, problems, problem-solvers. And they make me laugh and smile and chuckle. And that is good for the soul.

Additionally, I have gained quite a few friends through the practice of blogging and social media. And for me getting to know them and their stories, pray for them, and even meet some of them (IRL) is tremendously impactful and good.

Case 2 in point: Being involved in politics allows some of us to care for the needs of “the least of us” – those who are disenfranchised, those who are marginalized, those who are not listened to.

And, through the miracles of social media, we can actually do something – even just a small thing such as add our name to an ongoing petition, to add to the voice and stir the conscience of our captains of industry. Take this recent letter sent by Change.org, for example:

We are blown away by the incredible impact Change.org members have made around the world by starting, joining, and winning dozens of meaningful campaigns over the past few weeks. So we wanted to drop you a quick note to say thank you. And congratulations. And let’s keep fighting.

Here are a few of the top victories and successes we’ve had together:

* Late last week, the largest florist in the world, 1-800-Flowers, responded to 54,000 Change.org members and agreed to begin selling Fair Trade flowers and insist on a strong code of conduct for all their suppliers to counteract the deplorable working conditions that thousands of female flower workers face in South America. They’ve promised to offer Fair Trade flowers in time for Mother’s Day, making 1-800-Flowers a leader in the industry.

* After a devastating clothing factory fire in Bangladesh took the lives of 27 workers, you asked seven clothing companies, including Abercrombie, the Gap, and Target to compensate the victims’ families and revamp safety standards in their affiliated factories. After 65,000 of us spoke up, a spokesperson from Target said this to us: “I want to understand what we have to do to get our brand off the Change.org petition … Tell me what we need to do, and we will try to do it.” All seven companies met your demands.

* An Ohio mom named Kelley Williams-Bolar was sentenced to jail last month for sending her kids to a safer school in a neighboring district. Another mom in Massachusetts started a petition on her behalf – and the campaign gained wide notice in Time, USA Today, and on Good Morning America. We teamed up with grassroots groups Color of Change and MomsRising to deliver more than 165,000 signatures in person to the office of Ohio Governor John Kasich. Less than 24 hours later, Governor Kasich took an important step toward pardoning Kelley.

* After firing a lesbian soccer coach for having a child with her partner, Belmont University heard from 21,000 of us — including students, athletes, and alumni of the school — and has adopted a new policy to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. And although there’s still work to do to stop Chick-Fil-A from funding anti-gay groups, your activism made national news (including the New York Times!), and Chick-Fil-A’s CEO was forced to post a video responding to pressure from pro-equality advocates and Change.org members across the country.

* Kim Feil, a Change.org member from Arlington, Texas, has been successfully beating back the massive Chesapeake Energy Corporation from dangerously drilling for natural gas in her neighborhood, with the support of more than 8,000 Change.org members across the country. The Arlington city council has now twice delayed its decision — one member told the local Fox affiliate that the council has been overwhelmed by messages sent by Change.org members.

The list doesn’t stop there. You’ve made a jaw-dropping number of victories possible, from pushing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Sara Kruzan, to successfully calling on the South African Minister of Justice to meet with activists combating “corrective” rape, to getting Nashville’s housing authority to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

You can read more about these victories and many others here.

Each victory was only possible because an activist like you decided to start a petition to make change in their community, city, or country. If there’s something you want to change, you can start your own petition here: http://www.change.org/start-a-petition

We’re so proud to be working with you. Thanks for everything you do.

– Patrick and the Change.org team

In these days, when people are on the move for freedom throughout the Middle East and Midwest, we can align ourselves and support them in solidarity. It does make a difference.

Note: I want to clarify that I mean that activism – and that with risk – is in many ways more important than slactivism. Slactivism supports activism. So, if it’s at all possible, join a strike or a march, a boycott. Get involved with your community. Get out of the house and be about justice. If it’s not possible, however, support those who are able to do that in whatever way you see fit. No guilt. 😉

Conversations and Ruminations Post-Massacre

“Love Will Tear Us Apart.”

– Joy Division

I get really heated about politics because I see policy as an important (though not THE most important) way to protect and love my neighbors – a cause that I believe that Jesus has called all of his followers to. Actually, that’s not why I’m heated about it. That’s why I think it’s necessary, but I’m actually angry and/or deeply disappointed that so many fellow American Christians have a total disconnect between policy that would best serve “the least of these” and what they perceive as the Kingdom of Heaven – which they see as merely a place you go after you die.

photo © 1970 Dave Gilbert | more info (via: Wylio)

Of course, I also have many friends whom I disagree with merely on how to apply policy to best serve the needs of the whole community. And I love talking with them, and having policy discussions, and discovering the truth behind the typical talking points. I learn a lot from them, I sharpen my thoughts and begin to view those I disagree with (those supposedly on the other end of the political spectrum) as every bit as human as I, and I begin to drop my guard and give them credit where credit is due. I like to think they also benefit from debating with me.

The problem, however, is that oftentimes we get caught up in the waves of rhetoric that surround us on all sides. We can’t help it fully. We don’t live in vacuums. Even trying to talk about scaling back the rhetoric looks, to some thoughtful people, at this time like an attack on groups of people – or as if I were saying that the massacre happened as a result of some pundit’s foolish talk.*

It helps, as friend Carson notes and Jon Stewart held a rally to promote, to buttress our opinions and statements to bring the tone down, of course. But, noticing some of the comments on Carson’s post, changing your tone doesn’t work when you’re dealing with the tone-deaf…

Which is what’s happening in much of the media. I commend Keith Olbermann for pledging to scale back (from what I’ve heard, he did not use the infamous/famous “Worst Person in the World” line and calling the health care travesty in Arizona the “AZ Death Panel” – at least through Monday night), but for how long will this last?

While I was on the treadmill this morning, I noticed that CNN was showing the Congressional memorial for the victims at least through Minority Leader Pelosi’s speech as well as Majority Leader Cantor’s. Fox News, on the other hand, was using the opportunity to give Palin free reign to defend her despicable, violent speech (it’s free speech, apparently, and you can’t criticize it as long as it’s hers… That’s what the Constitution says, don’tchaknow?).

Truly, I want to be in a space where I can continue to dialog with my friends. But this country is toxic right now. It doesn’t have to be. We can choose to turn away the hateful rhetoric. We can tell Congress that we can no longer afford to

Or, we can forget about living in The Greatest Country in the World (one of plurality of ideas and cultures) and move into our gated tribal “communities” based on social/racial/political/class/religious tests. Unless that’s what we’re already in?

*The point that most of my progressive friends are making when bringing up the rhetoric debate is that it leads to a poisonous environment, not that it was directly involved in the shooting. But nuances sometimes fail.

A Voice Crying Out in the Din

You know this camel-wearing dude eating grasshoppers two millenia ago? He called himself, “A lone voice crying out in the wilderness.” Yeah, John the Baptist. Sometimes, when I think of that line I think, “Lucky! He’s already carved himself out a niche. He’s got the whole desert to himself.”

It is awfully crowded in the blogosphere. But, this site (and some of our friends) may just be what you’re looking for.

Perhaps.

Did you ever feel like all your good breaks are pure luck? My biggest blog post so far (with 10 times the amount of hits as the next biggest) is for Emo Elmo (there’s also an Emos for Obama button on that post, but it’s not the number two item in it’s search category). It’d be a pretty big boost for this blog, however, if the number one (or number two, which is the search engine draw “Do beetles bite?” Don’t ask; I really don’t know) post here actually drew traffic into the rest of the site. But there is little connection between such frivolity and my oh-so-seriouser work on churchy Evangelical culture, social justice, politics, and local issues.

Alas, my regular posts don’t catch anywhere near that much traffic – usually. But my Derek Webb post caught quite a bit. In just two short days, it’s already poised to take the number two spot (We’re going viral, baby!). And it’s a more typical taste of what to expect here. So, if you came here because of this or that, but you like what you see, please join us on Left Cheek: the Blog (you can just click on the link to the right), our Facebook page. I guarantee you’ll find other stuff you’ll like.