Will Samson

Will Evangelicals Go Green?

Great article at ABC News asking about the political and cultural effects of the greening of evangelicals. Check it out: Evangelicals Go Green -- Will Conservative Candidates Follow Suit?

Feeling God

In the last 48 hours,

• my car was hit while parked outside the house of a friend I was helping to move

• the battery light on my car came on, as if jealous that the check engine light was getting all the attention

• I received some bad financial news that was all the result of my oversight

• I checked into a hotel, got into bed and discovered I was not alone ... there were fleas in the bed

Why do I mention all this? Not because I am in need of a pity party - I am under no delusions that you would throw one for me anyway. I mention this because it allows me to reflect on what it means to sense God in one's life.

Right now I don't. The knowledge of a grand design in the world doesn't alleviate the personal aloneness I feel when the circumstances of life do not trend in my direction. I long for a warm inner feeling of God that exists beyond or above or around my logical constructs of the Divine. This would affirm the story I keep telling myself that the more holy I become, the more I would sense God in my life.

Turns out that might not necessarily be the case. In this commentary (well worth the listen) on NPR yesterday, a Catholic priest discussed the "decades-long struggle with darkness and despair that (Mother Teresa) chronicled" in her personal journals. Seems she longed for the feeling of God's presence, but, for the bulk of her ministry, only felt the sense of call. And, I have little hope of matching the holy devotion of a saint like Teresa.

I offer no neatly drawn conclusions to this thought. Feel free to share thoughts or comments.

Bush Administration and Mountaintop Removal

I am on my way out of town for a 4-day research trip to complete my fellowship research on Christian environmentalism around the issue of mountaintop removal. Ironically, there is an article in this morning's NY Times stating that the Bush Administration is getting ready to enshrine this horrible practice into law. Read it here: Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining

Proost Is Relaunching!

Transcript of Internet Evangelism Conference

A few years ago, Steve Knight, DJ Chuang, Stephen Shields, Aaron Flores and Nick Ciske and I presented a blogging seminar at the Internet Evangelism conference, and hung out with Jim Gilliam (we joked that we held the first and only meeting of the Lynchburg Emergent Cohort - it's not exactly an emergent place).

Well, the transcript for that event just went online. It is available here, if you are interested. My name is spelled incorrectly (they spelled it as "SamPson, not Samson), if you are searching for the sapient sayings that fell from my lips.

Larry Gibson on CNN

If you have been at all involved in the issues around mountaintop removal, you have probably heard the name Larry Gibson. Larry has been a tireless fighter for the rights of Appalachians and for the environment that affects us all.

Tonight, Larry was featured as a CNN Hero: Check it out

Hour Challenge

My friend Cory Verner has just launched a great new project to raise awareness of global poverty. It is entitled Hour Challenge. Check it out!

Review of Red Letters

I recently finished reading an advanced copy of Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds, by Tom Davis, the President of Children's Hope Chest.

Wow

This is an important book. It is important not because it is well-written, although it is. And, it is an important book not just because the idea of living justly in the world, "being the hands and feet of Jesus," is for all us to be reminded of, although that's true.

This is an important book because it is filled with the real world stories of someone living out "a faith that bleeds." This is not a dissociated text from an academic. This is filled with the real world stories of Tom Davis, a man who recognizes the injustices in the world and is working within the Church to address them.

My favorite chapter was the tenth, entitled How to Bleed. Although the book clearly is not a how-to on living justly, this chapter and the Additional Resources section that follows provide some clear steps for readers who are seeking to engage with God's work of justice here in the US and around the world.

Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds is a significant contribution to the growing body of books that are seeking to draw the Church back to faithful living in the area of justice. Are you interested in living more justly? Then read this book.

To find out more about Tom, check out:

His blog

Children's Hope Chest

Hank Hill Visits a Megachurch

Fear, Stupid

In 1992 James Carville penned a haiku that hung on the wall of Bill Clinton's campaign office. It went like this:

Change vs. more of the same
The economy, stupid
Don't forget health care.

Most people forget the first and third lines, but the phrase "The economy, stupid," has joined the American lexicon. It is a shorthand method for listing the number one item in any given conversation, one that is so obvious only a "stupid" person wouldn't understand it. (Gotta' love the hubris of Carville) This phrase is still used in punditry when discussing political campaigns.

In 2004, for example, the phrase often uttered was "Gay marriage, stupid." This was even more true in the retrospective analysis, as many of these campaigns flew below the radar screen. Concerns over gay marriage defined the election cycle in key states such as West Virginia and Ohio and may be the single issue that kept George Bush in office. In 2006, for the Democrats, it was, "Competency, stupid." This was the rallying cry in states like Ohio, and became the important wedge issue to allow the Democrats to regain Congress.

I started asking what that phrase might be for contemporary evangelical voters in the 2007/2008 cycle. George Bush continues to hold strong support among ostensibly religious right voters, according to a recent Pew Forum poll. That makes sense on a political level. He has not wavered from who he said he was and what he said he would do. Bush has held fast to his positions on such touchstone issues as abortion, gay marriage and gun control, while maintaining a faithful marriage to his first and only wife, Laura.

So why is Rudy Giuliani leading among the same voters?

Giuliani's current and third marriage is to the women he cheated on during his second marriage. He is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage and for gun control, all issues at odds with contemporary religious Republican voters. So, tell me again, how is Giuliani second only to John McCain among these voters (See Pew Forum Report), and yards ahead of anyone else with a chance of winning the nomination? And then it hit me, the phrase that will define the 2008 election for Republican evangelical voters:

Fear, stupid

I struggle to find a better explanation, though I would welcome any counter-definition you could offer. It seems to me that the only parallel between Bush and Giuliani is their willingness to use military force to create the belief of safety. I am not offering a scientific opinion here - I was not able to find any good polling data on this question (again, open to any links or insights you all can share). But perhaps this is where an ethnographic observation is more relevant.

As I talk to socially conservative folkss, there seems to be a ceding of authority related to personal safety over to the power of government. Despite being a part of a narrative that begins by being freed from "slavery by the fear of death," (Heb 2:15) there remains a confidence in the power of government to delay death and suffering. Despite the invocation not to "fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul," (Mt 10:28) a group of voters gladly trade their moral beliefs to a human agent they believe can protect them from one who seeks to kill their body.