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Issue 003 <previous< Issue 004
December 1995
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A Christmas Prayer
We pray for a new Christmas When Submission
Becomes Subjection My husband came home from work, declined dinner, and with a can of beer in one hand and more cooling in the icebox, he settled in to watch a football game on television. While he relaxed, I completed my daily routine alone. Having cleaned the kitchen and tended to the laundry, I shepherded the children through their baths and saw them into bed. While I resented my husband's uncommunicative conduct as much as his drinking, I did not consider demanding either his assistance or his attention. Interruptions during a football game were forbidden. Even being in the same room with him when a game was in progress constituted a certain risk: it was not uncommon for him to leap from his seat, shouting and cursing, if a play did not go the way he thought it should. During these moments of emotional loss of control, whatever object there was closest to his hand, was usually launched at the television screen. A beer can or shoe might be thrown as readily as a pillow. I stood in the doorway to the living
room and waited until he decided to notice me. When he glanced my
direction, I asked, "Would you mind if I spent some time writing since
you're going to watch football?" A Interview With Millard Fuller Millard Fuller is the Founder and President of Habitat for Humanity International. He and his wife, Linda, have four grown children. A native Alabamian who has lived in Americus, Georgia for the last 18 years, he is 60 years old. He is the author of six books including The Theology of the Hammer published last year by Smyth & Helwys with an initial printing of 125,000. Of him and his work, Coretta Scott King has said, "under Millard Fuller's leadership, Habitat for Humanity has provided a vibrant power of love in action to those in need around the world"; and Jack Kemp, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Board member of Habitat for Humanity International, has said, "I have always been a strong supporter and admirer of the outstanding work Habitat for Humanity is doing across America--and indeed around the world--to make a dream of home ownership a reality for people in need. Tom Brokaw, NBC News Anchor said, "A lot of people feel that they do volunteer work and that it doesn't have any impact--[but] those are houses--people are going to live there, and for many they're going to be the first homes they've ever owned. It's harder to have a bigger impact than that." And former President Jimmy Carter has said, "We believe in Habitat's integrity, effectiveness, and tremendous vision. With Habitat, we build more than houses. We build families, communities, and hope." Millard Fuller is, indeed, caught up in an impossible dream that is coming true, a wonderful idea that works, an improbable movement that is changing the world. Q.
Do you believe in miracles? The Gambling
Explosion With its tentacles now reaching all across America, gambling is a huge and growing problem. It is a moral problem, an economic problem, a political problem, a social problem, a crime problem, a personal problem, and a family problem. The statement published here was presented by Illinois Senator Paul Simon to the United States Senate and was provided by Senator Simon’s office3 with permission for it to be printed in Christian Ethics Today. Mr. President, in November of last year, when I announced I would retire from the Senate after 1996, President Clinton suggested that with the freedom from political restraint I now have, and with slightly more credibility because political opportunism would not be the immediate cry of critics, I should, from time to time, make observations about our nation, where we are going and where we should go. One of the marks of our civilization, virtually unnoticed as we
discuss the nation's problems, is our fastest-growing industry: gambling. A Personal Struggle
for Soul Freedom When Buddy Shurden called and asked if I would come here today I said that I would. I realized that I had made a mistake as soon as he added that I would have to make a speech and would have an assigned topic. No pocket speech. That is always mildly daunting, even to a bootleg preacher such as I. It was even more troubling when he said that the subject would be, "A Personal Struggle for Soul Freedom." Unsettling because we all know that the most vain of mortals are those who make a career of humility lest their true vanity be unmasked. Exhibitionism is ill-bred, and vainglory is the cardinal sin, another reason to be judicious with superlatives when reporting on one's own pilgrimage. I have perceived over the years, however, that the only way we can truly learn from one another is by being willing to bare as much of our anatomy as our nervous system will permit, always, of course, circumscribed by some bounds of modesty. Generally we are careful to hide our warts and blemishes and thus deny our true humanity. Well, that's about the extent of any
defense I choose to make regarding my remarks here today. Except I will ask you
to bear in mind that the subject of those remarks was not my doing. I consider
this appearance more of a visit over the fence than a formal lecture. However,
if in the course of my remarks I should saunter off into a homiletical mode,
please understand that I get exceedingly few opportunities to preach to Baptist
audiences. Some of it might be retroactive.
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Letters to the
Editor Proclaim Liberty Last summer America's oldest human rights institution, the American Jewish Committee, gave its first Religious Liberty Award to one of America's best known and most widely respected journalists, Bill Moyers. Mr. Moyers' response is reproduced in this issue of Christian Ethics Today with his permission. James Dunn wrote a fine word about this address in his "Reflections" column in the September 19, 1995 edition of Report From the Capital; but the entire statement printed here deserves a careful reading. Thank you for those
generous words of introduction, Mr. Leonard Greenberg. And thanks to all
of you for this award. As honesty compels me to confess, it was as
unexpected as it is unwarranted by any special merit on my part. No one
can spend his adult life in politics and journalism and not be compromised.
Even as you were making that extravagant introduction, Mr. Greenberg, I was
thinking of the time a young woman came up to me after I had delivered the
speech at her college graduation. "Mr. Moyers," she said,
"you have been in both journalism and government; that makes everything you
say twice as hard to believe." The Language of
Assault vs the Language of Dialogue The shocking assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, was a stunning and traumatic act. But it was no surprise. In fact, the murder was the culmination of months of verbal assault. A hero in war, Rabin had been hated and vilified and threatened for forty years by the despots and dictators of the Arab “rejection front” and their terrorist hirelings. An officer in the War of Independence, he later played pivotal roles four times in the defense of his country against combined military attacks. As a statesman in peace, he was verbally assaulted also by extremist cadres in the Jewish right wing. As the “peace process” inched forward, as their imperial dreams of an expansionist Israel began to recede, their vilification and threats became a crescendo in intensity and fury. Like the Arab extremists, the Jewish extremists called Rabin a “Nazi.” To this they added verbal blows like “traitor” and “betrayer” and “murderer.” Worst of all, from a religious perspective, they wrapped up their murderous political violence in the language of piety and orthodoxy. This is the Language of
Assault, which prepares the way and justifies physical violence. It can
never be justified under a legitimate government. Some think assault and
counter-assault are the only political recourse under despotisms and
dictatorships. Against such illegitimate regimes they may be justified,
although there are excellent scholars of politics who have concluded that
massive Non-Violent Direct Action is superior--in the immediate present and in
the long run--to any popular, violent revolt against tyrannies. In any
case, the Language of Assault, with murder its logical end result, has no place
among free and democratic peoples. Maston Colloquium Statement on Virtues and Values: What Christians Can Do
Dear America: Do you know how good you are? Before you shovel that last clump of dirt on the
corpse of a "degenerate" America, consider these facts gathered from
recent releases by Gallup Poll, Harris Poll, Newsweek, New York Times, and the
Los Angeles Times Survey: Discerning Citizens, Devoted
Disciples With the political pot beginning to boil throughout the country, it is appropriate for believers to think about matters related to government, politics, and citizenship. Therefore you are invited to consider these three concerns: (1) mixing faith and politics; (2) getting the church into the arena; and (3) freeing the minister for citizenship. Mixing Faith and Politics Why would 80 well-known evangelical leaders, including J.I. Packer and Tony Campolo, take aim at the Christian Coalition and charge it with a breach of faith? The answer can be found in the diversity among American Christians and in the ways people carry their faith into the public arena. The question, “How do Christian carry faith into the public square,” is a hot topic which can be posed in many ways: religion and politics, the church and politics, and Christians and politics. Three
basic questions stand at the heart of the discussion: What is the proper role of religion in public life? How should organized religion relate to the
structures and processes of government and politics? How should the Christian layperson and/or the Christian minister
express faith and commitment in the public arena?
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