Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2016 http://colleagueslist.blogspot.ca/

Friday 18 May 2018

Colleagues List, May 20th, 2018

Vol. XIII No. 46

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE

 
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address:
wholst@telus.net

This email is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list.
If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns,
write to me personally - waholst@telus.net

*****

Dear Friends:

Welcome to the latest edition of Colleagues List. This week I feature the latest book by Jimmy Carter - entitled Faith. Immediately following the Special Item, Martin Marty provides a Colleague Contribution on "Jimmy Carter (and hope) in the news" - and I think they fit together nicely. There is also a Net Notes piece from the Christian Century on "Why Jimmy Carter is Hopeful" - so there is a lot by and about Jimmy in this issue. He speaks calmly but substantively to our conflicted times.

I continue to be interested in what is happening - religion-wise - in the USA right now (perhaps more so than usual) and my Net Notes reflect this.

Thanks for following these mailings and for your support in other ways.

Wayne

*****


SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice -

FAITH
A Journey for All,
by Jimmy Carter

Simon and Schuster, Toronto
April, 2018. Hardcover. 180 pages.
$30.65 CAD. Kindle $13.50 CAD
ISBN #978-1-5011-8441-3

Publisher's Promo:

In this powerful reflection, President Jimmy Carter contemplates how faith has sustained him in happiness and disappointment. He considers how we may find it in our own lives.

All his life, President Jimmy Carter has been a courageous exemplar of faith. Now he shares the lessons he learned. He writes, “The issue of faith arises in almost every area of human existence, so it is important to understand its multiple meanings. In this book, my primary goal is to explore the broader meaning of faith, its far-reaching effect on our lives, and its relationship to past, present, and future events in America and around the world. The religious aspects of faith are also covered, since this is how the word is most often used, and I have included a description of the ways my faith has guided and sustained me, as well as how it has challenged and driven me to seek a closer and better relationship with people and with God.”

As President Carter examines faith’s many meanings, he describes how to accept it, live it, how to doubt and find faith again. A serious and moving reflection from one of America’s most admired and respected citizens.


--

Author's Words: 

Faith, in both its religious and broader dimensions, influences our individual and communal lives, our lives in religion, and our lives in government and in secular affairs... 
I believe (now more than ever) that Christians are called to plunge into the life of the world, and to inject the moral and ethical values of our faith into the  process of governing... (Later in my life) I have tended to move away from politics and toward religion, but the two are still related.

(Carter writes extensively about how his faith was formed, from his earliest years. He recounts times - such as when he lost the election as president for a second term - how he relied on his faith and his marriage to Rosalynn to carry him through. He did, however decide early to risk and not try to play it safe so far as his next steps. He also describes his early experiences with deep-seated racial prejudice in his local community and throughout the American South. Another concern of his from early years was the equality of women and men. On a number of occasions he has stood against his own Baptist tradition when he saw racism and misogyny at work)...

(A basic principle of his life has been) "We must welcome changing times, but cling to principles that never change" ... We must accommodate life's challenges, some welcome and others quite painful, but we don't want the verities of our lives to change..."

I would like to say as an American,  who has been president that the cherished values of our country are constant, but they are not... despite the confusion and controversy in secular affairs and among religious organizations, the basic principles (I speak of in this book) have never changed. These are the foundation of our faith...

The human challenge now is to survive by having sustained faith in each other and in the highest common moral principles... through mutual understanding and peaceful cooperation in addressing our discerned challenges to our common existence...

It is urgent that humans take a new look at the rapidly growing need for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Ten Commandments, the Koran, or the teachings of Jesus Christ and to see if these visions of improved human interrelationships might be used to meet the challenges of the present moment and evolve a peaceful coexistence, based on faith in each other.

- from the Introduction

--

Author's Bio:

Jimmy Carter was the thirty-ninth President of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981. In 1982, he and his wife founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He is the author of thirty books, including A Full Life: Reflections at NinetyA Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power; An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood; and Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis.

Longer Wikipedia Bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter 

--

My Thoughts:

I have been reading Jimmy Carter's books for more than 30 years. The first one I remember was - Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (1987). It was co-authored with Rosalynn Carter. In that book the authors wrote of the disillusionment they faced after losing the presidential election for a second term and when they returned to their near-bankrupt peanut farm near Plains, Georgia.

At that time, I was going through my own period of disillusionment about my family, my career and my faith. I was 44 at the time, and Jimmy was 62. Even though he was further along life's road than I, it was clear he was not giving up, and that inspired me.

The Carters wrote of three life principles which they followed to help them move forward:

      Good Health, Fulfilling Oneself, and Helping Others.

I took those same goals seriously and look back (and also ahead) with much satisfaction. I would say that the Carters have accomplished a good deal more with those goals since their White House years than up to and during them. Indeed, they were able to build on their experience and employed key "transferable skills" to their new lives. I think I can say I did the same. As with the Carters, we don't do these things by ourselves, or only with the help of our nearest and dearest.

What is important, I believe, is my attitude and a willingness to grow and change. These lessons were not easily learned by Carter or me.

Now, at age 93, Jimmy Carter completes a book entitled simply Faith and, as he writes in his Introduction (above), he follows a path quite similar but more evolved than he was when I first read him.

I discover from some backstory digging that Carter is cutting back on his weekly Sunday School teaching at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. But, interestingly, he is giving a commencement address at Liberty University in Virginia this month.

His teaching decision was made to give others in his church a chance to teach, resulting in a reduction of visitors to his little church (which has a membership of 30. Normally crowds averaging about 350 come to hear him).

Teaching the Bible stimulates his mind. He continues doing such things. That he would give an address at Liberty University (a flagship school of fundamentalist Christianity in America) demonstrates his continuing openness to dialogue with those who differ from him.

Carter believes that religion has a place in politics, largely because it offers a moral/ethical standard that politics needs. Of course, he realizes that can be abused, and religious people can be misled. But his career has been an evolving example of trying to maintain a creative balance between the secular and the sacred.

I continue to be impressed with the biblical-centre of Carter's faith. This is one of the great values of his Baptist heritage. But he is steadfast in his critique of a Southern Baptist fundamentalism that remains racist and sexist. Some years ago he made a break with the Southern Baptist Convention for just those reasons.

Carter is the kind of Baptist I admire and, in many ways, would seek to emulate!

While reading much of this book (as I have 8-10 other Carter books over the years) I sensed myself in that Georgia church, listening to him teach. It is a blessing to be able to do that - because this book may well be his last.

Carter is still "working on his health" as a cancer-survivor; on "fulfilling himself through work" like jaunts with Habitat for Humanity;  and on "helping others" through his continuing service at the Carter Center in Atlanta.
____

Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
https://tinyurl.com/ybbfy7tp
 
*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL

Sightings,
May 14th, 2018

"Jimmy Carter (and hope) in the news"
  https://tinyurl.com/ydfpsn3o


--

John G. Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton,  NB.

Personal Blog
May 16th, 2018
 
The Willow Creek Story:

"Does Your Board Know It's Business?"
  
https://tinyurl.com/y9afdzke

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
May 16th, 2018

"Geese - An Unintentional Parable"
  https://tinyurl.com/y6wkb8tp


--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON

Sermons and Blog
May 11th, 2018
 
 
"The Pursuit of Happiness"

--
 
James M. Wall,
Chicago, IL

Wallwritings,
May 17th, 2018

"A Child Dies in the Killing Fields of Gaza"
  
https://tinyurl.com/ycwozu87
 
--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
May 14th, 2018

"Suicide and Despair"
  
https://tinyurl.com/yax8h85j

*****

NET NOTES

WHAT ABOUT JESUS?
Jim Wallis on the Current
State of American Politics

Watch the Exceptional Video
Contained in the Wallis Article

Sojourners,
May 15th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yafcmfcd

--

WHY JIMMY CARTER IS HOPEFUL
An Interview on His Latest Book - "Faith"

The Christian Century,
May 7th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y8n4wfhw

--

HATE CRIMES SPIKE AFTER TRUMP TWEETS
His Anti-Muslim Tirades Have an Effect

The Daily Beast,
May 15th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y8l4dsqv

--

LIVING IN GAZA MEANS LIVING WITHOUT HOPE
Palestinians Mark Seventy Years Since Displacement

La Croix International
May 16th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ybsm5dkx

La Croix International,
May 17th, 2018

"Judaism and the Challenges of Zionism"
   https://tinyurl.com/yaellxej

--

BANGLADESHI JOURNALISTS
LIVING IN CONSTANT FEAR
Scores Killed in the Past 25 Years

UCA News,
May 14th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y74cnovu

--

TO MY FELLOW EVANGELICALS, WHAT YOU
ARE CHEERING IN ISRAEL IS SHAMEFUL

Concerns of a Leading American Evangelical
By Richard Mouw

Religion News Service,
May 16th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ycu4m9wm

--

WOMAN NAMED ARCHBISHOP IN CANADIAN
ANGLICAN CHURCH FOR THE FIRST TIME
Melissa Skelton Not First in the Communion However

Anglican Journal,
May 14th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yb7by8vu

--

SEX ABUSE IN HUMANITARIAN GROUPS AND,
CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES - WHO IS LEFT TO TRUST?

The Christian Post,
May 15th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y9esm77c

--

HOW ANTI-RELIGIOUS BIAS PREVENTED SCIENTISTS
FROM INITIALLY ACCEPTING THE BIG BANG THEORY
Entrenched Thinking Cuts Both Ways

Real Clear Science,
May 14th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y975t5ln

--

CANADA SUMMER JOBS ATTESTATION REQIREMENT
SEEN AS "UNFAIR" BY HALF OF CANADIANS, AND AS
"FAIR" BY THE OTHER HALF

Angus Reid Institute,
Vancouver, BC,
May 15th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yc5rs8zy

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK
From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

Words have the power to change the world,
and that realization inspires me every day.
 
- Amanda Gorman

--

Families — keeping them together is very important.
It’s a good thing that you are surrounded by love and
that love is passed down the generations.

- Nanna Fejo

--

... Which causes me to wonder, my own purpose on so
many days as humble as the spider's, what is beautiful
that I make? What is elegant? What feeds the world?
 
- Louise Erdrich

--

It is not love in the abstract that counts. We have
loved the workers, the poor, the oppressed, but
we have not loved “personally.” It is hard to love.
It is the hardest thing in the world, naturally
speaking. Have you ever read Tolstoy’s
Resurrection?
 
He tells of political prisoners in a long prison train,
enduring chains and persecution for the love of
their brothers, ignoring those same brothers on
the long trek to Siberia. It is never the brothers
right next to us, but the brothers in the abstract
that are easy to love.
 
- Dorothy Day

--

It is possible even in the contradictions and confusions
of this life to keep the center of your being calm and
undisturbed. It is possible even in this life to go through
one hellish situation after another with strength and
confidence of spirit. It is possible to endure physical
pain and suffering while the mind and heart are filled
with peace and joy. That’s what I mean by being in
paradise even while you are still part of this earthly
scene of chance and change.

- Howard Hageman

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - Aberjhani

Most people are slow to champion love because they fear
the transformation it brings into their lives.


And make no mistake about it: love does take over and
transform the schemes and operations of our egos in
a very mighty way.


(end)

*****

 

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