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I heard Leslie H. Gelb being interviewed last night on NPR’s “All Things Considered” concerning the opinions he expressed in this New York Times op-ed piece titled “The Three-State Solution.” In the essay, Gelb proposes that the most effective way to build a democratic Iraq is to create three ethnically different Iraqs — in the north for the Kurds, in the central region for the Sunni majority, and in the south for the Shiites.
Gelb contends that this sort of division falls along natural ethnic borders, artificially united through force since the 1920s. Leaving the Sunnis with an oil-poor region, they would have to learn to get along with their neighbors or suffer the economic consequences.
Gelb doesn’t deny that this solution isn’t without its costs — monetary and human. Inevitably the Sunnis, placed in a power-starved situation, would rebel violently, requiring force to protect the Kurdish and Shiite areas. Protection would also be required for people emigrating from one new state to another. Taking this course, the U.S. might well be trading one bloody insurgency for another. And he even admits that it may take nine months to settle the Sunni state into some semblance of peace.
Gelb doesn’t mention how this scenario would affect the Al-Qaeda types from Syria and other neighboring Arab states, now aiding the Iraqi insurgents. It’s unrealistic to think they’d all pack their bags and head back home. Would they start causing trouble in the (now relatively stable) Kurdish north and Shiite south? Gelb also completely overlooks the needs of the Christian minority in Iraq. What becomes of them? Which of the three “new Iraqs” would be safest for them?
This article made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Thanks to the erudite Paul Cella for the link. I think what is more disturbing than the many uncontrollable “what ifs” that Gary North raises in his article is the blatant neglect of the U.S. government’s intelligence community to allow Oswald to return to the United States despite his defection and espionage for the Soviet Union, as well as his continued activities to undermine U.S. national security.
Looking for parallels to the 9-11 hijackers is inevitable. In Oswald's case, there was a clear paper trail showing that he was a all-but-sworn enemy of the U.S. government. The final trip to Cuba should have sealed him as a persona non grata. Intelligence on the 9-11 hijackers was more piecemeal, with no real "smoking gun" document pointing to their intentions.
Like every Christian parent, I want to teach my daughter a spirit of compassion and giving for those less fortunate. I want to teach her a spirit of thankfulness for the many material blessings we have. But words don’t do a good job. I can tell by the glazed-eye look I get when I’m telling her to clean up her room and take better care of her stuff.
But sometimes one example can say a lot.
A man and his wife came to our church Sunday, running on fumes. They put aside their last shred of pride and asked for help. After two weeks without income, they were almost out of food. Could someone give them a ride to the food bank? During our “passing of the peace” time, they spoke their need to someone, and someone passed it along to me. I spent the rest of the service praying and planning.
I hit up my husband, the deacon, to help me put together a few bags of non-perishables for them. And then Amy and I drove them to the food bank. Along the way, they talked about the hard knocks life had given them lately. Butch had broken his foot and couldn’t work for six weeks at his carpet-laying job. Debbie was suffering from clinical depression and could only work intermittently. The only food in the house was a can of beans and some pork chops for that night’s dinner.
At the food bank, they were able to get enough to see them through for a month or so, if they were careful. And Debbie got a lead on a program that could pay for her prescription of anti-depressants. You could tell that a big load of care had been lifted from their shoulders. As I hugged them good-bye, it was Butch who said they’d be coming back for worship next Sunday, without an invitation from me.
So what did Amy get from all this? Here’s what she had to say in her on-line diary:
“it couldn't help but make me think that I’m really lucky for everything i have. this thanksgiving I’m going to be surrounded by my family and friends and have a huge dinner at my grandparents...and i can’t help but wonder what these people and others that don’t have much are doing. it makes me realize how much that we take for granted. i mean, this computer i take for granted...my house, my parents, my friends, just everything in general that we don’t really think about at times. we could all be in serious shape if we didn’t have all these things. So now I’m asking you, what have you done to help other people less fortunate than yourself?
“you know..christmas is coming up and some kids aren’t going to be lucky and have a tree, lights, and gifts under the tree...they are going to be lucky to even get a nice christmas dinner. It’s not hard to give anything to someone that needs it...it doesn’t take much time either. it just takes a little piece of your heart. after you give someone something...and you know that it was good, it makes you feel so good about it, and i think that’s the true gift of giving. if you could just see those tears in debbie’s eyes as we were driving to the food bank and picked up the food...or the hug that butch gave to my mom...it would make you truly thankful for everything that you have...because hey, you could be in worse shape.
“i don’t know about any of you...but during this holiday season, I’m going to try my best to give to others...because i cannot stand seeing someone starve, and i cannot stand seeing a child cry because it doesn’t have enough warmth and loving parents to take care of it. actually not just this holiday season should we be giving....we should do it without thinking....and just knowing that it’s right.”
It seems like every news organization, from the large networks to the local hometown papers are doing their Kennedy assassination retrospectives. Where were you when you heard the news? I have been surprised to find that my own experience is much the same as others who were my age.
I was 7, in second grade at St. John LaLande Catholic School in Blue Springs, Missouri. Was either in Sister Mary Margaret's class or Mrs. Looney's -- I am not clear on who taught second grade that year. Our principal was a very tall, imposing nun, Sister Bernadette. She was so tall that she seemed awesome to us little kids, even when she was smiling or laughing. But that afternoon, when she swept into our room, the skirts of her long habit flying, she was not smiling. She was pale as if she'd seen a ghost. She told us the president had been shot and we were immediately going into church to pray a rosary for him. All us girls went to the cubby in the back of the room to get our little beanies to wear into church. After we prayed, they sent us all home early because they said the president had died.
When I got home, my mom was ironing (I remember because she used to have an old 7-Up bottle with a sprinkler thing fitted into the top so she could dampen the clothes as she ironed -- does anyone do that anymore?) and she was watching the news of the assassination on TV. We watched all of the events unfold on TV, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's funeral. I remember being especially interested in Caroline and John Jr. because, after all, they were kids about my age, and I couldn't imagine my own dad being killed.
We felt numb. As if everything had changed, and we weren't certain how. Very much the way we felt on September 11, 2001.
Update: In a very personal and moving tribute, Jared of The Thinklings writes about another Jack who died on this day in 1963 -- but with much less fanfare. C.S. Lewis. I would do well to read more of Lewis' work. I have "Mere Christianity" and "The Screwtape Letters" of course, and read "The Chronicles of Narnia" as a teen, but he's written so much fine stuff and excellent apologetics, no Christian library is complete without Lewis.
Oswald Chambers on humility in the Christian life. It really hit me between the eyes!
"It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are a spiritual prig. ... Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a Baby. ... We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life. Determinedly take no one seriously but God, and the first person you find you have to leave severely alone as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself."
Pride is such a sneaky thing. Oooh, look at me! I'm a blogger, I lead small groups, I lead worship! I'm so spiritual! I'm so deep! Ha. What kind of Christian am I in the ordinary concerns of life -- eating, talking, driving, shopping?
Thanks to Josh Sargent for the link. It’s funny … someone was just telling me at our last Alpha get-together that he didn’t think I ever felt overwhelmed. Boy, have I ever got him fooled! I am OFTEN overwhelmed or scared. I couldn’t get through the day without the Spirit’s power.
This reminds me of another game I sometimes play with myself. If you knew you were going to be stranded on a desert island or put away in prison for years, and you could take one book or chapter of the Bible with you, what would it be?
It’s been a rough week here in the land of “such small hands.” So I am really looking forward to a fun and restful weekend.
Tomorrow will be great. Ken’s sister Connie and her husband Tom are coming to spend the night. We’re taking them to Mongolian Barbecue for dinner and then it’s a rematch of the euchre competition we started back in August.
I have to agree with his point that the decline of the family in our culture is not the fault of gays and lesbians. We heteros can pretty well mess up a family all by ourselves. You can blame it on easy divorce, and on welfare laws that basically encourage single parenthood, but that’s really not the root of the problem. It’s that old human selfishness — “I want what I want when I want it, and to hell with you.” It’s putting self above spouse and children — no wonder the whole family unit crumbles.
Wallis seeks a way to give gays and lesbians the social justice they seek — civil unions that allow them to enjoy health-care insurance benefits, family visitation rights at hospitals and inheritance rights — while still preserving the definition of marriage between a man and a woman. This of course would not affect the church’s definition of marriage. Unless the individual church chooses to recognize such unions (as some Episcopal congregations in the U.S. do)?
I don’t know the answer. I can appreciate the social justice issues here. It is cruel for long-time homosexual partners to be unable to support each other when one is sick or dying. But does this third way open a door to “culture creep” — so that what is acceptable in the culture becomes acceptable in the church? Will those of us in the church continue to defend the traditional definition of marriage, which Wallis himself says is “the way our society best orders itself”?
A Michigan Court of Appeals has decided that a man’s home is still his castle — or the Lord’s, if he chooses to declare it so. In a neighborhood of $1 million homes, a devout Catholic couple built the home of their dreams and decided to declare their faith by working the words “Jesus is King” into the stonework. (Click over to “Top Stories” for a photo.)
Apparently the neighborhood association disagreed with the family’s right to make a statement of faith with their home, and it sued the couple. The Circuit Court ordered the couple to remove the statement, but the Appeals Court disagreed with them. The deed restriction didn’t specifically prohibit messages or patterns in the building materials, so the law comes down on the side of the property owner’s freedom.
I’ll never be able to own a $1 million house, but I’d be proud to live there when the couple decides to sell.
