An interesting fact I didn't know (but probably should have)

From a "dialogues" entry by Amartya Sen* in Slate.com on the so-called clash of civilizations:

"[T]he vast majority of Indians come from a Hindu background—more than 80 percent, in fact. And yet, if you look at the three principal governmental positions in India, none of them is held today by a Hindu: The president is a Muslim (Abdul Kalam), the prime minister is a Sikh (Manmohan Singh), and the leader of the ruling party (Sonia Gandhi) is a Christian of Italian ancestry."

He then writes, hopefully:

"Not only is this situation the result of a democratic electoral process, you will detect no sense of the country being in a state of explosion for this reason. This despite the fact that there have been systematic attempts at cultivating the divisions of religious identity, often quoting [the author of Clash of Civilizations] . There were even killings of minorities in the riots of Gujarat in 2002, which ended up, in the Indian general elections of 2004, as a major vote-loser for the party that seemed implicated in that violence."

* Lamont University Professor at Harvard, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics, and author of Identity and Violence.

Happy Birthday, Pete

This is being posted late in the day, but let it be known that May 3, 2006, was the 87th anniversary of the birth of Pete Seeger. No one has done more to make this country something to be proud of than this man. And no one in public life has been more influential on my own life. Here is one of my favorites of the songs he has written, and an apt one on his birthday.

(He wrote this for Otto Preminger's movie Tell Me that you Love Me, Junie Moon, starring Liza Minnelli, not available on DVD, alas.)

Old Devil Time

Old devil time, I'm gonna fool you now,
Old devil time, you'd like to bring me down.
When I feel low, my lovers gather round,
And help me rise to fight you one more time.

Old devil pain, you've often pinned me down,
You thought I'd cry and beg you for the end.
At that very time my lovers gathered round,
And helped me rise to fight you one more time.

Old devil fear, you with your icy hands,
Old devil fear, you'd like to freeze me cold.
When I'm afraid, my lovers gather round,
And help me rise to fight you one more time.

Old devil hate, I knew you long ago,
Before I learned the poison in your breath.
Now when I hear your lies my lovers gather round,
And help me rise to fight you one more time.

No storm nor fire can ever beat us down,
No wind that blows but carries us further on.
And you who fear, oh lovers gather round,
And we will rise to sing it one more time.

100 years -- or is it 2000? -- of Pentacostalism

As I type, I'm listening to a fascinating discussion of Pentacostalism -- a 100 year old movement that now includes 500,000 of the 2 billion Christians in the world -- with Krista Tippett on Minnesota Public Radio's Mid-morning program. Here's a link that should take you to where you can listen for yourself, and to links to other background information. (I'm not sure how long this link will survive, but MPR keeps an archive of its programs and it would be available somewhere on its site with a little looking.)

If there was one word of the discussion that kept coming back again and again, it was "power." It would be hard for a Quaker to listen to this program and ask, "Why does this all sound so familiar?" It was for this one, anyway.

One of many insights she shared is that she is confident that the growth of Pentacostalism in Latin America is intimately connected with the political turn to the left in many countries in that region. (Not there, alas.) (I liked the joke she repeated: The Catholic Church has a preference for the poor, but the poor preferred Pentacostalism.) She connects it to the Power that Pentacostalism brings to its adherents, most of whom were previously disenfranchised. She also articulates the often misunderstood distinctions between Pentacostals and fundamentalists and evangelicals.

I've been a big fan of Krista Tippett's for as long as her program, Speaking of Faith has been on the air and I highly recommend it to all. (I only wish it didn't overlap with our preparation for going to meeting on Sunday mornings. . . . but I can hear it again on Sunday evenings at 9.)

Added a little later: Simultaneously with this post, and without prior consultation, Kwakersaur posted a very thoughtful essay on Pentacostalism and Quakerism that goes a lot deeper into the subject and points out very important differences.

This is most certainly true

I have been participating with about a dozen other Friends in our meeting in a several-week workshop on vocal ministry. It is being led by a very able Friend who is using Samual Bownas' little book, A Description Of The Qualifications Necessary To A Gospel Minister: Advice To Ministers And Elders Among The People Called Quakers, as our text.

Our exercise for last Sunday's session, "What canst thou say?", was to write a brief (2-3 minute) statement of our "rock bottom core truths" about our spiritual lives of which we are sufficiently sure that we can testify to in vocal ministry.

I'm not sure that everyone did the exercise, but we agreed to share what we wrote with each other. (You can read Liz Opp's statement here.)

With all the usual disclaimers, and with all the trepidation you can imagine I might have, I offer what I can testify to as being true from my own experience (revised, somewhat, from what I read Sunday evening). I wish I could say more, especially about how one establishes an intimate personal relationship with the Living God and receiving instruction and power from that relationship, but that'd be a bit more than I could say in good faith that I know to be true, though I do believe it to be so.

• I exist as a unique human being created in the image of the Living God who created me and all that is. And so do you.

• My life has a unique and indispensable purpose in the Living God’s design and plan for creation. And so does yours.

• The biblical narrative, including and especially the life of Jesus of Nazareth, reveals this design and points to the Living God who created it.

• It is possible, and the Living God intends, for me to become increasingly conscious of my life’s purpose and to live in accord with it. And so can you.

• My purpose and place in the design of creation is inextricably connected to every human being. And so is yours.

• Part of my purpose–and yours–is to help every human being realize his or her purpose in the design of the universe.

• I cannot do this unless I love my neighbor as myself, and neither can you. Anything you or I do that is not consistent with loving my neighbor is false and in error and inconsistent with the Living God's purpose for us.

• Though I will die someday, if I am faithful to the purpose God has for me and live in harmony with my fellow human beings, I will have no fear of death and not be in its thrall. And neither will you.
  

Where we are

Here's an interesting set of maps. After finding them, I was surprised to find that the maps were posted by the geography department of my alma mater.

Here's one of particular interest to Friends:



I wonder about who all the Friends are in St. Louis County, Minnesota? I thought I knew both of them . . . . And what's with the Friends' strength in southwestern Idaho?

I am fascinated by the intersection of religion, culture, and politics, and love these kinds of visual comparisons, looking for patterns. One pattern I can faintly see is comparing the religious-adherents map

with the red-blue-purple political map.

Or this one, a historgram controlling for population: