Browsed by
Author: Tim

Senior pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ. Ordained in May, 1983. Called to First Congregational UCC in August, 1994. Retired July 1, 2018.
It matters

It matters

Comments 0 Comment

A large number of advocacy groups are joining forces to oppose the nomination of Gina Haspel to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency, including two groups which I support: the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the Center for Victims of Torture. Read more at the Daily Beast:

There were no legal consequences when Gina Haspel oversaw the torture of two men at a secret CIA prison in Thailand 16 years ago. There were no legal consequences 13 years ago when Haspel aided in the destruction of 92 videotapes showing Abu Zubaydah and Abdul Rahim Nashiri’s torture. But now that Haspel is two Senate votes away from running the CIA, a coalition of civil liberties groups is gearing up to ensure that she will at least face political consequences.

This morning, I listened to an interview on NPR with John Rizzo, a lawyer with the CIA during the time of Haspel’s involvement with CIA “black sites.” It was appalling to hear him refuse to label waterboarding, simulated executions, and other interrogation techniques involving extreme physical and emotional abuse as torture and to excuse such measures because of historical context.

Context never changes what is right and wrong. Otherwise, right is merely what is expedient and wrong what is merely inconvenient. Torture is never right and to excuse it is inexcusable. As a nation based on the rule of law and defense of certain inalienable human rights, we are better than that. We must be better than that.

To let this nomination proceed unchallenged is to betray the values for which we claim to stand.

Sierra Hull live

Sierra Hull live

Comments 1 comment

Heard Sierra Hull play the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis last evening with bassist Ethan Jodziewicz and guest pianist/accordion player, Sam Reider. Scott Mulvahill, bass player, songwriter, and sometime band member with Ricky Skaggs opened. It was an extraordinary evening: pure singing, exquisite arrangements, remarkable musicianship, joyful and uplifting tone. Here’s a live sample of the concert from Sierra’s Facebook page …

What will we do about guns?

What will we do about guns?

Comments 2 comments

From the Weekly Sift …

Numerous people have called for banning the AR-15 from civilian use. The tricky thing here is getting the definition right: The AR-15 is one of a class of military-style weapons, and if it were banned some other assault rifle would replace it. Banning all assault rifles has been done before, but there’s a legitimate complaint that “assault rifle” is not really a class of weapons — it’s more of a surface description that doesn’t really address the heart of the problem. Vox reported:

It’s quite easy to turn a military-style gun into something that Congress wouldn’t consider an “assault weapon” under its various definitions.

The key issue isn’t whether a weapon looks like something the military would use. It’s how many bullets it’s able to spray out in a short time, how long it can be fired without reloading, and how easy it is to reload over and over without providing a time-window for potential victims to rush the shooter. Those are the features to regulate.

Emotion is a valid motivator: distress, frustration, anger, a sense of futility about our inability to prevent or limit the incidence of mass shootings and about the entrenched opposition of the gun lobby to any sort of increased regulation. But we need to be sensible and practical and informed. This is helpful: focussing regulation on the capability of a particular weapon, because a weapon that can fire many bullets in a short time frame and is easily reloaded — and it is then purely a weapon, not a hunting tool — has no place, absolutely no place, in the hands of civilians.

It is difficult to imagine a scenario where our nation would significantly reduce the sheer number of guns “in circulation,” but I pray that we will find some way to start down that road.

Chasing the wind

Chasing the wind

Comments 0 Comment

Chasing the Wind book coverI have published my first book entitled, Chasing the Wind: Meditations on Ecclesiastes. It is available at lulu.com. Here is an excerpt from the preface:

Ecclesiastes is a strange and wonderful book. It is a strange book because of its startling cynicism and words of wisdom that offer very little of the solace we might expect from sacred scripture …

And yet, Ecclesiastes is a wonderful book, precisely because it is strange. Like Job, and like Jesus, it will not let us fall back on ready answers or take comfort in a religious orthodoxy that satisfies our need for order and predictability. The Philosopher takes us to a place well beyond the limits of our understanding, well beyond our capacity to know and do and control our own destiny. The Philosopher, like Job, and like Jesus, leads us well past the borders of our comfort zones to the place where God — and God alone — is.

Because?

Because?

Comments 1 comment

Jorge Garcia was brought into the United States at the age of ten by an undocumented relative thirty years ago. He is married with two children, holds a job, pays taxes, and has committed no criminal offense.

Yesterday, he was deported to Mexico. Because? What possible national interest is served by this deportation? Just following the letter of the law for the sake of following the letter of the law?

“How terrible for you! You hypocrites! You give to God one tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy …” (Jesus)

we still need heart!

we still need heart!

Comments 0 Comment

Donald Trump promised, “We’re going to show great heart,” and it is time to keep that promise.  The fate of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) hangs on the balance as ten states have challenged its legitimacy in court and it is not clear whether or not the Trump administration will do anything to defend it.

“Children took a big risk by registering with the government to be covered under DACA. Now, this trust in the American government may lead to their deportation if the Trump administration doesn’t act to save the program.” (Vivek Wadhwa, Washington Post)

What is gained — for the United States, for individual states, for business, for communities — if DACA is allowed to lapse? I can think of nothing that could be gained. We would no safer. We would be no richer. We would be no truer to our democratic heritage.

But we have much to lose! We could lose the dreams and talents and contributions and goodwill of these hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have been “virtual” Americans all their lives. And we would lose something of the “soul” of our nation: our compassion for vulnerable people, our welcome of homeless people, our belief in justice for all, our vision of making “one out of many.”

“time for action”

“time for action”

Comments 1 comment

It seems that “America first” means America alone … and that is not good for America or for the rest of the world.

Fortunately, there remain leaders of erstwhile allies and partners who refuse to be bullied and who are prepared to stay the course for the sake of the well-being, not only of their own compatriots, but of all of humanity and of the planet we share. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said today:

The European Union will not renegotiate the Paris Agreement [on climate change]. The 29 articles of the agreement must be implemented and not renegotiated. Climate action does not need more distractions. We have spent 20 years negotiating. Now it is the time for action. Now it is the time for implementation.

He affirmed that the US ‘abandonment’ will not mean the end of the agreement, but would make the world more united and determined to work towards the accord’s full implementation.

Because we must! If we care about our children and our grandchildren, we must! If we care about the planet with which we have been entrusted, we must!

Climate change is truly a global issue, an impending catastrophe to which all peoples contribute and by which all peoples will be impacted. Confronting its perils will require long-range thinking, coordinated effort, and common sacrifice. There is no better or worse “deal” to be found, for any given nation, for any given economy. There may not be nations, let alone economies, if we do not act now with resolve.

May the best hopes of European leaders like Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands, be fulfilled that the nations of the world may “use the three years before the US pulls out of Paris to try to convince President Trump of the importance of climate action.” And may American recover some of its capacity for moral leadership, leading not by intimidation, but by example, not saying “me first,” but standing for liberty and justice and dignity and life for all.