Illinois State Rep. Larry McKeon, friend of the poor, dead at 63

Larry McKeon, our 13th (formerly 34th) district state congressman, has died of a stroke related to his long-time struggle with both cancer and AIDS. Larry was the first openly gay congressman elected in Illinois (1997-2007). I personally knew Larry as someone vitally interested in the poor in our neighborhood, and was able to tell him "Thank you" for that work just a few months back.

His forward-thinking aid to our Chicago 46th Ward Alderwoman, Helen Shiller, helped her to establish both businesses and affordable housing during these lean and mean Bush years.

I'm sure a few readers are waiting for me (an evangelical Christian even if I am a lefty for the most part politically) to comment on homosexuality. That's a long topic and a complex one, and my sucky "Self-Inflicted" interview is probably the best place to go if ya really have to know my thoughts. It isn't impressive. But this is not about that -- it is about Larry McKeon, who did prove one thing. He served us as a public servant, not only with credibility but with heart.

BlueChristian Goes Silent on Obama -- or anything else? How come?

Short and sweet, as a staffer / teacher in Jesus People USA's Project 12 discipleship training program, I was off for the past few weeks on an outreach to New Orleans and elsewhere with the whole of Project 12. That deserves a blog itself, but I can't promise I'll get there.

What I missed -- regarding the elections and regarding other faith-related issues -- while driving nails in New Orleans, scooping gravel in Missouri, and helping hack logs into planks in Indiana...

1. Rev. Wright's appearance in various media outlets, and Barack Obama's subsequent rejection of Wright. I'm trying to backtrack and actually watch the raw footage of these appearances. My current -- very tentative -- sense is that Wright erred in speaking out right now, and possibly erred further in defending his positions. I agree with those positions in large part, but disagree with the idea that HIV-AIDS was / is a plot against black people. (I say that while acknowledging with horror that the U. S. government did for decades experiments on African American soldiers -- without the soldiers' knowledge -- injecting them with syphilis and exposing by doing so not only the soldiers themselves but also their wives and offspring.)

2. The more to the point development that Barack Obama has for all intent and purpose won the Democratic Nomination (any other development would in fact destroy the party's chances not only for this election but potentially for future elections as well). Yes, we've all sensed this coming for some time now, but being both skeptical and existentially depressed (after the last eight years, shouldn't we be?!), it comes as a relief to see things finally falling into place for an Obama vs. Repubs race.

I continue to feel badly that for Obama to run, he had to knock Hillary Clinton out of the race. It was certainly exciting to contemplate a woman President, and I for one do not believe we will have to wait another generation in order to see that hope become fact. But in 2008, it is not about gender or even primarily about race -- it is about change. I hope to blog a little more reflectively on the Obamagelical nexus soon.

3. The terrible tragedies in Myanmar and China over the past few days -- I don't pretend to be an expert on that part of the world, and would direct all praying (and non-praying) folk to get involved via World Vision or World Relief (to name just two of many excellent organizations dealing with poverty and disasters world wide).

4. The release of the so-called "Evangelical Manifesto" is something I find only mildly hopeful, far too little and far too late. A collection of mostly white males talk mostly to other white males, showing at some points they are learning but at other points (such as the fact the document doesn't mention women much at all!) proving their tone-deafness continues. But since I hope to say more later, that's all I'll say now. And maybe I'll even find more positive about this document than I did on a first and second reading...

Well, that's a bit of why I've gone missing. And one more reason? My dear son Christopher is marrying his Azuree this coming weekend. So obviously, a guy who blogs a lot about unity in both this, my political voice, and (less often) romantically on my website HighRomance.com, will be a bit tangented by his son's wedding!

Cornerstone Festival Line-Up Announced!

As many of you know, bluechristian (a.k.a. Jon Trott) is part of the community Jesus People USA, in turn the sponsor of Cornerstone Festival. This year's line-up of outstanding speakers can be found on the official CornerstoneXchange Seminar program page. Cornerstone Festival, by the way, has been Christianity's premier arts festival for nearly three decades, and we're just getting started.

A few of the speakers include:

Miroslav Volf on Identity, Otherness & Reconciliation
Shane Claiborne (& the "Jesus for President" Tour)
William Cavanaugh on "The Theopolitical Imagination"
Michael Spencer (aka Internet Monk)
Anthony Smith (aka Postmodern Negro)
Karen Sloan (Flirting With Monasticism)
Andy Whitman (Paste magazine) on Music
Crystal Downing (How Postmodernism Serves [My] Faith) and (A Good War is Hard to Find)
Gordon Melton on "Witch-Hunters & Cult-Busters"

And then there's Mimi Haddad, who happens to be the President of Christians for Biblical Equality as well as a dear friend to my wife Carol and I, offering "Mama Don't Preach."

There will be some dozen or two other speakers (a few listed below in the tags, many more on the afore-linked pages) and the usual mass of bands and musical troubadors of every style and substance artistically known to humanity (they may or may not have the kazoo artist back this year). Carol and I sure hope to see you at Cornerstone Festival this year!

For more on the music, the Flickerings 2008 film venue, and so much more, see the main Cornerstone Festival site.


tag: Cornerstone Festival, Cornerstone Festival 2008, Christians for Biblical Equality, feminism, Jesus for President, Jesus People USA, Cornerstone Seminars, Miroslav Volf, Shane Claiborne. William Cavanaugh, Michael Spencer, Anthony Smith, Karen Sloan, Andy Whitman, Crystal Downing, Gordon Melton, Mimi Haddad, Bill Ellis, Christine Sneeringer, Jonathan Case,

Last Night's Debate Loser? ABC News!

Here I thought it was just me, screaming at the television set as ABC News -- hosts of the debate -- proved they were FOX News' long lost twin. Did Rupert Murdoch buy Disney, or what? No substantial questions for at least the first hour of the debate, and the ABC "moderators" (Charlie Gibson and former Clinton Communications Director George Stephanopoulos) adopted a "gotcha" questioning style that focused almost exclusively on Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton happily dove into the tabloid-style topics provided to her gratis, which included important-to-every-American questions such as why Obama doesn't wear an American Flag lapel pin (patriotism is measured by a pin the way Christian faith is measured by a "Jesus Saves" T-shirt!), why Obama didn't walk out of church when Rev. Wright spoke after 9/11 ("I wasn't there for that sermon," said Obama, rather wearily, for about the 1,000nth time, an obvious reason for not walking out), and then more questions about Wright's own patriotism, all delivered by ABC's dynamic duo of "yes, we are totally out of touch with the American public, and we don't care" hacks.

[photo: ABC Washington Bureau Chief George Stephanopoulos back in his days as President Clinton's Communications Director]

Then came questions regarding Obama's relationship to a former Weatherman Underground member. Hillary seamless picked up the baton from her co-participants, contrasting herself to a man who would hang out with such dubious characters. This farce had for Obama gone on long enough. He reminded Hillary and her ABC friends that Bill Clinton had given two Weatherman a presidential pardon, far more questionable a call than having been on a committee with a former Weatherman (who's crime was committed when Sen. Obama was eight years old).

After they and Hillary tag-teamed Obama for around an hour, I did start feeling really bitter, and did in fact both pray and reach for my handgun, only to find that it wasn't there because I don't have one. Otherwise I'd have plugged the TV set, shrieking "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" As it was, I sat there with my dear wife, smoldering away in impotent indignation. She was no help, as after one particularly dubious bashing of Obama by Hillary, my dear sweet and kind lady muttered in a strangely gutteral tone, "SHUT UP!"

This morning I went to ABC News' website, just to see if anyone else felt as cheated and disgusted at the partisan and useless excuse for a debate as my dearling and I had. Lo and behold, over 13,000 (and counting) comments had been left regarding the debate, and an absolutely astonishing number of them -- from both Obama and Clinton supporters -- bashed ABC's horrendous pretense at a debate.

A few samples should offer the flavor:

"Fed Up and Bitter" wrote:

George Stephanopolis and Charlie Gibson should be fired. This debate is a meaningless waste of time....right along the lines of the newspapers you see at the checkout stand that feature batboy.

"mustafadream" wrote:

Thank you for driving public discourse into the ground. Bring me my bread and circus! Hooray!

"politipsych" brought up the still-brewing controversy regarding possible connections between George S's questions and right-wing commentator Sean Hannity who -- surprise! -- works for FOX News:

"Evidence described this morning [revealing] that Stephanopolos' questions we not just metaphorically derived from the likes of Hannity, but were literally given to him by Hannity, underscores two things. First, Stephanopolos and his ilk (in which I include Hillary) are more comfortable with the right-wingnuts than they are with the traditional positions of the Democratic Party. And second, Stephanopolos is no journalist and should never be mistaken for one. This was simply disgraceful."

Did I mention that 13,000 plus comments have been posted at ABC? Please, if you haven't left one yourself, and you watched what I watched, do yourself a favor. Go get a user name and account on ABC.com and leave them another comment.

A final note... it should be said that they also asked Hillary about her Bosnia comments. I don't care much about her response (which was to me unimpressive), because I don't think the question should have been asked any more than the ones Obama was asked. American voters care this year about issues. The media, and possibly their multinational corporate heads, seem to care more about making sure a Republican ends up in the White House.

Still bitter... and still clinging (minus my gun) to God...

bluechristian.


tag: April 16 debate, ABC News, ABC Loses debate, Sean Hannity, FOX News, Christian Right, Right Wing, media bias, attack on obama, multinational corporations and politics

Republican Race-Bating: Forty-six Year Old Senator Obama Called "Boy" by Forty-Nine Year Old Congressman Davis

That would be Kentucky Congressman Geoff Davis, not Danny Davis of Chicago, Illinois. The latter, after all, is black. The former is white.

What made the comment particularly classic was that it took place at a self-described Kentucky "Lincoln Day Dinner." Davis compared Obama to a "snake oil salesman," and claimed Obama participated in a "highly classified" national security simulation with Davis. (That claim, as of this writing, has not been verified, by the way.) But here's what Geoff Davis said:

"I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button... He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country."

The comment was enthusiastically applauded.

Later, Davis did apologize to Senator Obama in a written statement. "[M]y poor choice of words is regrettable and was in no way meant to impugn you or your integrity. I offer my sincere apology to you and ask for your forgiveness."

Uh, it wasn't meant to impugn Senator Obama or his integrity? Come, come now. A real apology would have said,

"Senator Obama, please forgive me for race-bating. I opened my mouth and nearly 400 years of white history came popping out. I hate it when the subconscious mind betrays one like that! I hereby pledge to enter therapy in order to deal with what is obviously a big problem for me, and to shut up for the remainder of this election season about your candidacy. Or, if you'd rather, I can continue to speak out, which will probably help you among thinking Americans.

Sincerely, Congressman Geoff Davis"

I wish.


tag: racism, white racism, Geoff Davis, Barack Obama, that boy's finger, snake oil salesman, black history, republican race-bating, republican racism, race bating,

Fundamentalist Atheists and the Christian Right: Birds of a Feather?

Sometimes, there's a truth hovering just outside one's own consciousness. Chris Hedges, a harsh critic of the Christian Right, has taken the conversation in a new direction by examining the "New Atheism" in his book, I Don't Believe in Atheists. By "new atheists" Hedges refers to the currently popular voices of Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins, among others. An interview with Salon reveals that Hedges first grew interested in doing the book after frosty public encounters with Hitchens and Harris -- the interview reveals less about his critique of Dawkins.

I first found Dawkins irritating not for being an atheist -- a position which has a long and not unrespectable history -- but for his rather fascist approach to poor Ted Haggard in this