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Obama's acceptance speech

Jim Wallis is enthusiatic yet not partisan: Link: God's Politics - Jim Wallis blog, faith blog, religion, christian, christianity, politics, values.

I don't agree with everything Obama said. And I am anxious to avoid beng partisan. If we are honest, most of us wouldn't agree on everything with a candidate of any party, unless we are a party hack with only secondary regard for "the good".  I am excited at what this speech represents on the very anniversary of Martin Luther King's proclamation of his dream - but I also pray his black sisters and brothers will  not find themselves let down by the reality of a black man in the Oval Office and a black family in the White House. I am excited by some of Obama's foreign policy plans - yet I also fear that the day will be carried  by the wisdom of Washington on foreign affairs that he has had to come up with to make the dream anything like a reality. I am excited by some of the ideas of change - yet I worry about others. Yet I am most excited by the pure graciousness of the man, the commitment not to deal in character assasination during the campaign, and the evidence of that in the way he spoke about Senator John McCain in hsi speech. That is the real change. We have talked for so long about the importance of character in the place of power. Yet so often in the end that has boiled down to sexual morality. Lies, the odd bit of corruption, and doing the political enemy down in totally unchristian terms don't seem to matter any more than  global injustice does. I pray that  Barack Obama is found true to his words. And that is the secret.

However don't let's get so excited we don't pray. And not just for a win at election. Obama may have said these things, but he like any other cannot deliver without a healthy dose of our prayer. Let's not have Christians do another Bill Clinton on him. How often in the 90's did Christian leaders gather together to the ritual of Clinton-bashing and jokes that ofen bordered on the libellous? If the time had been spent in prayer even Clinton's sexual lapses might not have been inevitable.

The full text of the speech and the video recording of it are here on the BBC.  Obama launches historic campaign.

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Note:  ReconciliationTalk.com  has been in China for the past 10 weeks and ocacsionally blogging on www.ChinaEncounters.com . We were hoping to write more but were busy and some stuff back home proved challenging. But we wil be back on line regularly on both addresses soon.

Why many Americans prefer their Sundays segregated

"Americans may be poised to nominate a black man to run for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States."

Link: Why many Americans prefer their Sundays segregated - CNN.com.

"... whites often say that church should transcend race.  "They'd say, 'Can't we just get along without talking about race all the time? Can't we just be Christians?'"  Not really, say advocates for interracial churches. They argue that churches should be interracial whenever possible because their success could ultimately reduce racial friction in America."

Korean War’s Lost Chapter - South Korea Says U.S. Killed Hundreds of Civilians

More in the gradual uncovering of truth from the Korean war.

Korean War’s Lost Chapter - South Korea Says U.S. Killed Hundreds of Civilians - NYTimes.com

“When the napalm hit [Wolmi] , many people were still sleeping in their homes,” said Lee Beom-ki, 76. “Those who survived the flames ran to the tidal flats. We were trying to show the American pilots that we were civilians. But they strafed us, women and children.” Village residents say dozens of civilians were killed. ....

.... The Wolmi victims’ demands for recognition tap into complicated emotions underlying South Korea’s alliance with the United States. “We thank the American troops for saving our country from Communism, for the peace and prosperity we have today,” said Han In-deuk, chairwoman of a Wolmi advocacy group. “Does that mean we have to shut up about what happened to our families?”

Study revives six degrees theory

This has long inspired me. It seemed about right, even though it was more in the realm of urban myth in terms of research.

Link: BBC NEWS | Technology | Study revives six degrees theory.

"A US study of text messages suggests the theory that we are all linked by six steps to anyone else may be right - though seven seems more accurate. Microsoft researchers studied the addresses of 30bn text messages sent during a single month in 2006.  Any two people on average are linked by seven or fewer acquaintances, they say."

The implications are considerable in terms of transfer of information, building of trust and breaking down of negative stereotypes, etc. There clearly are bottlenecks where contact between people of two nation, religions, or social groups are considerably restricted. The people who operate to connect the two sides in such places by building friendship and understanding are of immense importance. That in a nutsell seems to sum up our work.

Human rights protests at the Olympics?

A very challenging article based on the humans rights protest of Tommie Smith and friends at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Link: God's Politics - Jim Wallis blog, faith blog, religion, christian, christianity, politics, values.

Smith won the 200m Gold, setting a new world record. He and US team colleague John Carlos who won bronze, gave a black power salute, and the silver medallist, an Australian Peter Norman, wore a human rights badge in support of their stand for human rights and liberation for blacks everywhere. They were banned from the Olympic Village and their actions widely denounced.  Smith has recently told the story in his autobiography, Silent Gesture, and in a new feature movie, Salute.  More here.

The Beliefnet article by Jarrod McKenna looks at their  action and asks the inevitable question about stands for human rights at the Beijing Olympics. A good question. I am passionate for truth and justice. However I thinking there may be another way this time round, contrary to the popular wisdom.  I am witing a piece over on my China Encounters site soon that I will link here.

Am I Liberal or Conservative

A good little article on liberal or conservative identity by Rev .Romal Tune :

God's Politics - Jim Wallis blog, faith blog, religion, christian, christianity, politics, values.

I am so aware of how tired these labels are, and yet how politics seeks to force me into their rigid and life-draining, sometimes life-robbing, sometimes even evil boxes, and the media too - all for the sake of a tidy article. I like final words:

"I'm not sure which label fits me best, but one thing I know beyond the shadow of a doubt: When we remove the layers of labels, like the grave clothes that confined Lazarus, we can look in the mirror and know in our hearts that we are Christians."