"God Is Not a Christian: And Other Provocations" by Desmond Tutu

The winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has written a new book titled, "God Is Not a Christian: And Other Provocations". An excerpt from the book was posted on Huffington Post yesterday.

I was blown away by the incredible humanity in this great man. In fact, I read through the post to find blurbs to post on this blog and was so impressed that I posted the entire piece below. Please read it below, or go to the original site to read it there, and reflect on what this incredible human being is telling us. Thank you!


The following is excerpted from the Archbishop Desmond Tutu's new book, 'God Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations.'

This talk also comes from a forum in Britain, where Tutu addressed leaders of different faiths during a mission to the city of Birmingham in 1989.

They tell the story of a drunk who crossed the street and accosted a pedestrian, asking him, "I shay, which ish the other shide of the shtreet?" The pedestrian, somewhat nonplussed, replied, "That side, of course!" The drunk said, "Shtrange. When I wash on that shide, they shaid it wash thish shide." Where the other side of the street is depends on where we are. Our perspective differs with our context, the things that have helped to form us; and religion is one of the most potent of these formative influences, helping to determine how and what we apprehend of reality and how we operate in our own specific context.

My first point seems overwhelmingly simple: that the accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong. The chances are very great that if you were born in Pakistan you are a Muslim, or a Hindu if you happened to be born in India, or a Shintoist if it is Japan, and a Christian if you were born in Italy. I don't know what significant fact can be drawn from this -- perhaps that we should not succumb too easily to the temptation to exclusiveness and dogmatic claims to a monopoly of the truth of our particular faith. You could so easily have been an adherent of the faith that you are now denigrating, but for the fact that you were born here rather than there.

My second point is this: not to insult the adherents of other faiths by suggesting, as sometimes has happened, that for instance when you are a Christian the adherents of other faiths are really Christians without knowing it. We must acknowledge them for who they are in all their integrity, with their conscientiously held beliefs; we must welcome them and respect them as who they are and walk reverently on what is their holy ground, taking off our shoes, metaphorically and literally. We must hold to our particular and peculiar beliefs tenaciously, not pretending that all religions are the same, for they are patently not the same. We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.

We should in humility and joyfulness acknowledge that the supernatural and divine reality we all worship in some form or other transcends all our particular categories of thought and imagining, and that because the divine -- however named, however apprehended or conceived -- is infinite and we are forever finite, we shall never comprehend the divine completely. So we should seek to share all insights we can and be ready to learn, for instance, from the techniques of the spiritual life that are available in religions other than our own. It is interesting that most religions have a transcendent reference point, a mysterium tremendum, that comes to be known by deigning to reveal itself, himself, herself, to humanity; that the transcendent reality is compassionate and concerned; that human beings are creatures of this supreme, supra mundane reality in some way, with a high destiny that hopes for an everlasting life lived in close association with the divine, either as absorbed without distinction between creature and creator, between the divine and human, or in a wonderful intimacy which still retains the distinctions between these two orders of reality.

When we read the classics of the various religions in matters of prayer, meditation, and mysticism, we find substantial convergence, and that is something to rejoice at. We have enough that conspires to separate us; let us celebrate that which unites us, that which we share in common.

Surely it is good to know that God (in the Christian tradition) created us all (not just Christians) in his image, thus investing us all with infinite worth, and that it was with all humankind that God entered into a covenant relationship, depicted in the covenant with Noah when God promised he would not destroy his creation again with water. Surely we can rejoice that the eternal word, the Logos of God, enlightens everyone -- not just Christians, but everyone who comes into the world; that what we call the Spirit of God is not a Christian preserve, for the Spirit of God existed long before there were Christians, inspiring and nurturing women and men in the ways of holiness, bringing them to fruition, bringing to fruition what was best in all. We do scant justice and honor to our God if we want, for instance, to deny that Mahatma Gandhi was a truly great soul, a holy man who walked closely with God. Our God would be too small if he was not also the God of Gandhi: if God is one, as we believe, then he is the only God of all his people, whether they acknowledge him as such or not. God does not need us to protect him. Many of us perhaps need to have our notion of God deepened and expanded. It is often said, half in jest, that God created man in his own image and man has returned the compliment, saddling God with his own narrow prejudices and exclusivity, foibles and temperamental quirks. God remains God, whether God has worshippers or not.

This mission in Birmingham to which I have been invited is a Christian celebration, and we will make our claims for Christ as unique and as the Savior of the world, hoping that we will live out our beliefs in such a way that they help to commend our faith effectively. Our conduct far too often contradicts our profession, however. We are supposed to proclaim the God of love, but we have been guilty as Christians of sowing hatred and suspicion; we commend the one whom we call the Prince of Peace, and yet as Christians we have fought more wars than we care to remember. We have claimed to be a fellowship of compassion and caring and sharing, but as Christians we often sanctify sociopolitical systems that belie this, where the rich grow ever richer and the poor grow ever poorer, where we seem to sanctify a furious competitiveness, ruthless as can only be appropriate to the jungle.

Great columns about education recently...

Lots of columnists writing about education of late:

1. Matt Miller picks apart the president's speech on education with a pointed critique of the difference between his words and his actions.

2. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pens an excellent op-ed piece about the lack of commitment to education among the school's participating in the NCAA Basketball Tournament over the next three weeks. An excellent point from his column:

"If a team fails to graduate even half of its players, how serious are the institution and coach about preparing their student-athletes for life?"

3. Lastly, former NBA player and basketball analyst Jalen Rose writes about the reasons why college athletes should actually be paid to play for their schools. While it seems controversial on the surface, Rose makes some great points in the column, which is definitely worth reading.

Huffington Post: George Bush Book 'Decision Points' Lifted Passages From Advisers' Books

I guess 'plagiarism' is another word we can add to the list of words Dubya doesn't know or can't pronounce (like 'nuclear'). Now, before people go off the deep end complaining about how Huffington Post is just a partisan lefty liberal site that never liked Bush, skip the main article and go straight to the slideshow of examples at the bottom that indicate the quote and page number from Bush's memoir and the corresponding quote and source of the original author.

Climbing aboard my soapbox again for high-speed rail...

Yes, I'm on that high-speed rail bandwagon yet again. This time even the Economist weighs in on high-speed rail as part of its commentary on American infrastructure overall, stating:

"America's rail system is inadequate and in need of repair and expansion." and "America could probably use a new high-speed rail network..."

At least the Infrastructure Bank proposed by the Obama Administration is a start but it will not be enough and, as The New York Times and Huffington Post point out, we are already far, far behind not just the rest of the world but even our own-country compared to 70-plus years ago.

Wyclef Jean Officially Running For President of Haiti

As I mentioned here last Tuesday, Wyclef Jean has filed the paperwork to become a presidential candidate in Haiti. In an open letter to the people of Haiti, he explains how he came to his decision and has his family's support. Wyclef also discussed how he explained his decision to his four-year old daughter. As the father of a four-year old daughter myself, I can understand and appreciate the manner in which he did it and his hope that "[his] baby girl will understand that...to live for yourself is to live selfishly, but to live for others is the best sacrifice that we can make as human beings." For this sentiment alone, I wish him best of luck in his campaign.

News and Political Highlights of the Week

Since I haven't had a chance to blog in the past few days, here are some key highlights of the week (except Shirley Sherrod, who should just be left alone by everyone that threw her under the bus this week):

- President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Bill, enacting one of the largest regulatory reforms of the financial sector since the Great Depression. This post on New York Times' Dealbook blog has a great breakdown of the Dodd-Frank Act. If you want an interactive explanation, this interactive at the Washington Post is fun, easy to understand, and the pictures are too cute to ignore. (My favorites are the Derivatives panic people and the Regulators raising their hands to be picked.) Also on financial reform, Zach Carter writes in The Huffington Post about "Wall Street Reform: Five Key Fights After the Bill Is Signed"

- Elana Kagan passed the Senate Judiciary vote this week, with only one Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, voting for her confirmation. The Hill has the text of Sen. Graham's statement. What's more telling though are the hateful comments from the readers at the bottom of the page. If you want an idea of how extreme our politics have gotten, read Graham's gracious statement and the venomous replies to them from readers.

- Some fantastic opinion pieces worth reading this week:
In Politico this week, Robert Borosage had an excellent opinion piece about the lack of leaders in DC, from the perspective of leadership as a personality trait rather than a formal position of authority. Here is an especially poignant excerpt:
"This country must build a new economic foundation — revive cutting-edge manufacturing, modernize infrastructure, revitalize education and training, invest in research and development, find ways to shackle speculation and drive private investment into longer-term horizons and empower workers to gain a fair share of the productivity they help generate."

Anne Applebaum of The Washington Post wrote about how people's words and actions can be in direct conflict with each other in a column titled, "A government of the people's every wish?"

Hopefully I can blog during the week. Otherwise, I'll check in next weekend! Have a great week!!!

I'm on my high-speed rail bandwagon again...

To be more accurate, rather than climb onto a bandwagon, I'd rather be on high-speed rail without having to leave the United States. A couple of great posts recently on Huffington Post about this topic:

• Chris Matthews writes about how high-speed rail construction can help improve our crumbling infrastructure and provide vital construction jobs at the same time.
• John Robbins writes about how we Americans tend to thumb our noses at public transportation, which is a phenomenon created by automakers and oil companies conspiring to drive people from the rails to publicly subsidized and built roads and highways.

Huffington Post: Jon Stewart Catches Sean Hannity Falsifying Footage To Make GOP Protest Appear Bigger

There are no words to describe this other than ENJOY:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
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