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"In an age where narrow
definitions and reductionist labels divide the Body of Christ and breed
conflict within congregations, Tony is an articulate proponent of "the
third way," helping congregations to discover common identity and
purpose in the mission of creating and sustaining lives of authentic
Christian discipleship. Tony models the servant-leadership he espouses,
listening carefully and speaking humbly. He brings to his work not only
knowledge and experience, but genuine wisdom."
John T. McFadden |


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Posted May 12, 2008:
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This week my daughter,
Laura, our youngest turns 21. Seems like some kind of
marker. All our children officially adults. I told her that now
she'd have to do her own income taxes, but I'll probably give
her another year or now of my "daddy's dubious tax services!"
She's off to Sicily this summer, an ancient history internship.
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In Seattle people are grumbling
about a new city fee on plastic bags,
introduced by City Council President Richard Conlin. I think
it's a good idea. No reason we can't develop the European habit
of taking our own canvas bags on shopping trips. Also the Mayor
is putting the kabosh on bottled in plastic water. High time.
Seattle's tap water is just fine.
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Four or five years ago Linda and I
read the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,
by Jean Dominque Bauby. The other evening we watched the movie
based on the book. Bauby was the 42-year-old editor or the
famous French magazine Elle when he had a stroke that
left him with "locked-in syndrome," able to move only one eye,
hence the diving bell image. His spirit and imagination survived
as the butterfly. Lovely movie. See it.
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Currently reading Walter
Russell Mead's new book, God and Gold:
Britain,
America and the Making of Modern World. It recounts the
paradoxical dominance of the English speaking peoples in
modernity. Paradoxical because they/we have triumphed in every
major conflict (political, economic, military) since the 17th
century and yet have been wrong every single time in the
cherished conviction that our latest triumph would usher in the
new age of peace and justice. This Mead, a highly respected
foreign policy scholar, is the son of Alban Institute founder
Loren Mead.
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My little booklet,
Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective/ Effective Churches,
published by the United Church of Christ sold out of its first
printing but is going into a second and larger printing. You can
order it directly from United Church Resources and their number
800-537-3394.
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In church on Sunday, at Bethany
UCC in Seattle, we learned that the INS operates a
detention center holding up to 1,000 detainees in
Tacoma (built on a superfund site no less). I can't recall
reading anything about this in local media. I'll put on my
journalist hat to take a look.
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This week I'm spending some time
at Seattle's Recovery Cafe, a ministry of the New
Creation Community as the basis for a future column. I
thought last week's column on the upcoming "Death with
Dignity" initiative would trigger some protest, but
most of the comments I got were appreciative.
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Spring 2008 is still remarkably
chilly here in the Northwest. Some of our tulips are only now
starting to bloom. In years past tulips would be over and done
by this time. Gratefully, I'm in town this week and not on any
airplanes. Upcoming trips, this month and next, are to Toronto,
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and North Dakota. Wherever you are
this week, may God be with you!
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- Tony Robinson
Posted May 5, 2008:
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Was I wrong about Wright?
Me and a lot of others. I defended Jeremiah Wright in an Op-Ed
column but his antics last week were painful to behold. Not to
mention another severe blow to Obama who must be muttering,
"With friends like these . . ." Between Hillary's slow bleed and
Wright's narcissism, Obama is deeply wounded. Mortally so?
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In a rather spectacular way, it
seemed to me that Wright embodied what I call, and have written
about elsewhere, as the former pastor problem. The
former pastor problem is what happens when the long
serving pastor refuses to get off the stage. The former pastor
who has this problem usually has had a great run, a significant
ministry. But they just don't seem to get that it's over now,
time to move on, time to play a different role. In the process
of insisting on staying on stage they not only wreak havoc on
successors and churches but diminish, if not destroy, their own
reputation and legacy.
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In a way, Barack and
Hillary both suffer from this syndrome. If for Obama it
really is a pastor, Wright, who has left his pulpit but insists
on grabbing the limelight, for Hillary it is her husband, the
former President, who likewise insists on holding the stage. In
truth, Hillary's problem ought to worry the electorate more than
Obama's. Wright will have no role in an Obama White House, but
Bill most certainly will have a role in a Hillary White House.
Meanwhile McCain too has a shadow, namely George W. As yet the
media and electorate have not discovered that.
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While all this strum and drang was
pre-occupying national attention I spent last week in the San
Juan islands with a group of clergy friends and the bright young
patristics scholar Jason Byassee, who channeled
Augustine for us.
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Noting that people love to
hate Augustine, Jason worked through most of the common
complaints and accusations about Augustine before going on
depths of thought not plumbed by those who use Augustine as a
whipping boy. For Augustine the task of preaching, which he did
daily, was to shape listeners so that they might desire the
right things rightly. The point of exegesis and preaching was
not recovery of the single right meaning of a text via
modernist's "historical critical method," but to bring about
right love of God and neighbor. Augustine had a fine sense of
the apophatic tradition as in sermon 117, paragraph one, "If we
can understand it, it's not God."
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This week I am in
Cleveland for a couple days, a meeting of the UCC
Writer's Group I chair. A recent project of mine for that group
has been writing a curriculum for adult bible study on Acts. I
hope it will be available for use this fall. We are also working
on a resource for pastors and congregations who are receiving
former Catholics, a major source of new members for many UCC
churches.
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On Sunday, May 11, I'll be
preaching at Bethany UCC in Seattle where worship is at
10:30. This year the second Sunday in May is not only Mother's
Day but Pentecost. Two high holy days struggling for the same
hour. Which prevails will probably be a fair indication of the
nature of a congregation.
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- Tony Robinson
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