A new blog

I just published my new blog. I wanted to blog in English and French at least - perhaps German at times - but wasn't quite satisfied with the way bi-lingual blogging worked. So I created a site called UpsideDownHeaven and you find it here: http://web.me.com/johnhu2


It's still somewhat under construction but it feels inspiring. If you were signed up for RSS Feed, please click that option on the new site.


See you over there....

Food for life...

... not for profit. I was reminded to join Food for Life, by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. After watching "Le monde selon Monsanto" last night on Arte - you can watch it here - I can't not join that page. The documentary is very well done, original too, with Marie-Monique Robin, the journalist who made the film, sitting on her Mac and googling the various keywords, issues, persons involved in Monsanto's quest for conquering the world by literally hijacking the patents on seeds of all kinds, thus making producers dependent on their stuff. Even if genetically modified seed and food were harmless, which obviously they are not, by no means, such an undertaking is an injustice crying to the heavens.

That basic stuff for live, such as seed, water, health care be made into commodities so a few can get rich is one sin. That they are being monopolized is another on top, and when these things become toxic and poison the people touching or eating them, the cup of sins is full. If we're not angry, the stones will start shouting.

Albert Camus: pacifist-journalist

Forty years ago on January 4, 1960, Albert Camus, then 46, died in a car accident. At 20 or so, he had been refused an academic career because of his tuberculosis which was then not curable.

Camus was writing to advocate for the Algerian Muslims, who had no rights as French citizens. He was writing against fascism, but not simply that, his was a struggle against the denial of dignity and rights of people anywhere, from the Kabyle region to the Gulag. To portray Camus as a communist, as was common in schools of my upbringing, was not doing justice to him. Nor was he happy with being labeled as an existentialist. Camus was a pacifist of the best kind, struggling in favor of non-violence, human rights and truth. A pertinent model for today's journalism. Here is a quote from Camus I like: "All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning"

The TSR has a great documentary on Camus, and the Liberation has a series of articles. All of this can be found under lesdocs.ch

Year of Silence

A number of Christian bodies in Germany have taken initiative for  2010 to be a year of silence - Jahr der Stille. Most of them come from the tradition of the word, the protestant tradition. No doubt ours is a time and culture of words. Lots of noise and much of it less than very good. Churches too tend to be noisy and the tradition of silence appears to be fading. Silence is not media-compatible. It's useless for Radio and TV. The internet lives from words and pictures. We are under constant assault of words and noise. 


I welcome the initiative for a year of silence, even though I suspect it will be more words about silence. - Just what I do here. Real silence requires discipline. - As does writing and preaching. Silence is more than not talking. Turning off the constant noise not only outside, but inside, is a real challenge. Becoming quiet has its own blessings. The image of God who is not in the noisy storm or fire, but in the still small voice of a tender breeze is to be pondered more often and more deeply than is usually done. In my view silence and gentleness are cousins. And I wish God's quiet tenderness was as much evoked as God's almighty power. I'm pretty sure the we'd all be better off in our world.

Exclusion and Embrace

Yesterday, first advent sunday, two significant things happened, one a reason to rejoice, the other, a reason to despair.

Exclusion: The Swiss people in an act motivated by fear and ignorance accepted a popular referendum that prohibits the construction of new minarets in Switzerland. This appalling vote, which did a lot of damage even aside of its sad result, demonstrates an act of exclusion. The majority of Swiss people don't want a multi-cultural, multi-religous society. They have not realized that that is not their call. Nor do they seem to be aware that such an act of exclusion today will create more tension and violence they wish to have.

A friend wondered: let's say a muslim community buys one of the empty church buildings, will they have to tear down the church tower? All of a sudden the Swiss want to be Christian and they apparently don't want to have practising Muslims in their neighborhood. For the real reason of this vote was not the Minarets, but the presence of Islam, of other religions and other cultures as such. Never mind that many people don't understand the difference between culture and religion......

Embrace: The Reformed and the Mennonites officially and on a national level celebrated their reconciliation. The Reformed severely persecuted the Anabaptists of the 16th century, fathers and mothers of today's Mennonites. The Anabaptists for their part looked at the Reformed with self-righteous arrogance. Yesterday, after a three-year dialogue and many other steps over decades, they expressed their reconciliation in a moving and meaningful service at the Friedenskirche in Bern, under the theme "Christ is our Peace".

As the institutional church declines, and the Swiss seemingly want to be exclusively Christian, this embracing each other will hopefully lead to more common action towards truth and mercy, so that we won't eternally continue to export weapons while at the same time excluding those who flee from situations where these weapons are being used.

To kill or not kill the prophets of Baal

Last night I attended Mendelssohn's Elias, performed by 150 singers from the Bienne-Jura area. Struck as always by the beauty and power of the concert. One thing that occupied my mind, as often at such occasions: what do people make of the story? I imagine three approaches:


There are those, of whom there were many because it was largely church people who performed, who might feel, see, our God is the true God, good for Elijah, we knew it. He's shown it to these false prophets of Baal. Wouldn't it be better if things happened that way today too.....


Others probably think: Here is another demonstration of what a violent religion Christianity is. We knew it and there you have it: slaughtering those who believe something else than you. It's all the same, religion is a source of violence and killing, no matter where you look....


The third category, of whom Rose thought they were the majority, don't bother too much about it. They enjoy the music, watch the people perform, especially the ones they know. The killing is quickly brushed aside, it's an Old Testament story, so why bother....


To be sure, I tremendously enjoyed the concert. At the same time, I'm not sure whether what bothers me more is the story itself or the fact that sacred works from past centuries are being performed with no reflection, critique, musings, interpretation of the meaning. I often feel the same when a Bach oratorio is being given. In light of today's struggle with religion, meaning, sense, indifference and arrogance, I feel the need to look for interpretation of how that resonates in today's society. Beyond what it does for the individual, how it reinforces of questions post-modern assumptions. How it matches or relates to today's events and observations.


Here is what I learned at last night's concert: Elijah was obviously a true prophet, you know that because he challenged the established order, looking for justice. He was a great prophet, charismatic and inspired, passionate and compassionate. When accused of spreading confusion, he said to the King: you are the one who confuses the people. No King likes that. He brought back to life that boy of the poor and marginalized widow. But Elijah fell short of being the Messiah. Not because he wanted to give up, but because he killed the prophets of Baal. Here is the sequence: From the killing he goes right into depression. There is no sense any longer, neither in his ministry nor in his life. The great prophet whose charismatic power and strong faith brought rain onto a dry land is  removed from the face of the earth before the King can kill him. Kind of a nice way out. Then Mendelssohn's work ends with the perspective of the One coming who will illuminate the people rather than prove God's power, who will not kill but bring wisdom. Nonviolence was not part of the vocabulary of Mendelssohn's time. But that's what he is pointing to. And it's what differentiates Elijah from the Messiah.

More on walls

It's time to pick up the blog pen once again. Over at the PeaceProbe blog my friend Gene Stoltzfus writes about various walls. The late Berlin wall was very much on the news and blogs these past weeks. As I attended a series of events in Washington DC, focusing on military spending, demilitarization and related burning issues such as climate change and education, it occurred to me that world military spending is also some kind of a wall. Only that its height and thickness is hardly imagined. The wall is so big and so predominant we cannot see it.


World military spending is just over 1 Trillion Dollars/Swiss Francs in 2009. How much is that? Well, it's several times 100 Million, right? Right but wrong. Here is a hint Frida Berrigan of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation gave us:


One trillion is one million million, in other words:
1 Million seconds = 11.5 days (the week after next)
1 Billion seconds = 32 years (I'd be well over 80 by then, but it's not inconceivable)
1 Trillion seconds = 32,000 years (what is that in human history?)


That's a little help in picturing the amount of money spent on military stuff. 10% of it would be enough to feed all the hungry children (in the US, which accounts for close to 50% of world military spending, in 2009 one child in four was affected by malnutrition), to provide vaccines and education for the world's children. Alas, education and health are sectors that are being cut as I write this. Military spending has about doubled over the past 10 years.


How is military spending a wall? By keeping people, and especially children, out of bounds from food, health and education. By adding tremendously to spoiling the earth, the waters and the air and by preventing effective measures to slow global warming. By killing hundreds of thousands of people, directly and indirectly. By keeping uncounted soldiers and their families from healthy living. By dividing many whose deaths are not reported from live - they commit suicide. By piling up an unimaginable amount of expenditures - which even our grandchildren won't be able to repay - for stuff that kills people and destroys the earth.


World military spending is a double scandal: it is a scandal in its very nature and existence. And it adds to that scandal the one of its sheer size. It is as if the Berlin wall, a scandal in itself, had been built 300 meters high and 2 kilometers thick. How can we not protest all day long against such deadly nonsense?