Damned If She Does, Damned If She Doesn't

The latest criticism of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin this past week has been brutal. Not only has she been attacked by many for her purchase of $150,000 of clothes from such department stores as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, but she has also been attacked because she is attractive. Mind you, these attacks are not necessarily from liberal, pro-choice women but from women from her own party, Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker.

On the issue of the clothing, which McCain has said would be donated after the campaign to a charitable cause, how exactly would the public have responded to seeing Sarah Palin in wool while campaigning in humid Florida? Alaskans rarely wear any tropical clothing. She has a yearly income of $166,000 and has five children, hardly enough to purchase a new wardrobe worthy of a vice-presidential candidate. Elitists from Eastern ivy-league universities have already diminished her for getting her college degree from a state school. Who knows how they would have reacted to seeing her campaign in fur in late summer?

In regard to the conservative women attacks on Palin, I can only say that it is common to thrust daggers into the backs of other woman, particularly if the attackers are Southern (a fine long-held tradition). Both Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker are far past the age where they themselves are considered attractive anymore by men. They have no doubt noticed in recent years that men don't tend to look at them anymore, sometimes don't even open doors for them. These pathetic women may continue to flirt as if they are 18, but the grapes have withered on the vine. Instead, they take great delight in putting other women down who are now in their prime. Off-camera in September, Peggy used language certainly not becoming to a woman about Palin's selection, calling it "political bullshit about narratives and youthfulness." Parker, likewise, has indicated that McCain chose Palin for her attractiveness only. These two commentators (hardly journalists) are among the many sad, pathetic women who hide their wrinkles with their long hair and bangs, apply too much makeup, and long for the days of yore for their "many beaus" like Amanda in Tennessee Williams' famous play, The Glass Menagerie.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

I have been thinking about the issue of pornography lately for several reasons. The first is that I have been reading for my book club this month Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine, focusing on the Supreme Court Justices. In his history of the court justices, he speaks again of the appointment of Clarence Thomas in 1991 and the testimony of Anita Hill who accused Thomas of speaking graphically about sex to her as well as his love of "pornographic films starring Long Dong Silver." After a rushed oath to swear him in as justice, reporters from the Washington Post "had testimony from eyewitnesses and the manager of a video store where Thomas rented" pornographic films. But . . . it was simply too late to affect the decision.

Another reason I have been thinking about this subject is the story of a young friend of mine who called her family recently to report that someone close to her was addicted to pornography. Her brother, who is blind, did not know what pornography was. I had never thought, though I certainly should have, about the close relationship between sight and pornographic image.

A final reason the subject looms in my thoughts is my devotional reading this morning in Our Daily Bread. The focus again is on pornography. In the Scripture reading of the day from I John 2: 16-17, we are told, "For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever."

While it would be lovely to truly see no evil or hear no evil, unfortunately our lives are not lived in bubbles. Philippians 4: 8 reminds us, however, that we are to meditate on the things that are pure, good, and praiseworthy. I wish it would be so easy to do that for those who are addicted to pornography.

For Anne . . . And All the Other Victims of Crime

My husband and I spent a fun week in Fayetteville and Wichita for several events--the annual War Eagle Arts and Crafts Show and my brother-in-law's 60th birthday. We were shocked, however, to return to Little Rock to the tragic news that one of our television reporters, Anne Pressly, had been beaten nearly to death in the early morning hours by an unknown assailant. Due to her high exposure to a large television audience daily and to the location of the crime, Little Rock's "The Heights," the outcry from the public has been deafening. The police immediately went into high gear and began heavily patrolling the neighborhood. While I strongly support the police presence in this high visibility crime, I wonder though why we do not show this same level of concern for the many crimes that occur south of Little Rock, a place where African-Americans and other minorities tend to live.

In speaking to my daughter yesterday on the phone, she told me about the "red ball" reaction. Evidently, from watching one of the crime shows on television, police officers often use this term to mean a crime of high priority which often relates to issues of wealth, race, and positions of prominence. It simply draws a lot of media and political attention.

Once again I remember my own father's homicide death in 1976. Perhaps because he was a deck hand, a transient who work up and down the Mississippi River, the police conducted a
minimum investigation, completed the death certificate, and filed his case away forever.

As Americans we have known for years about this phenomenon, yet the reality of it is still shocking. What will it take for all victims of crime in America to receive equal attention from police and the media? Yes, Ann is a beautiful, blond, young woman who appears on television every day while many other victims of crime live in poverty and tough environments. Should we value the latter any less in our zest to solve crimes?

Jesus, the Good Baker

Our Bible Study read for the third time in three years Raymond Carver's short story entitled, "A Small Good Thing." Basically, the story centers on a couple, Ann and Howard, whose son is tragically hit by a car, falls into a coma, and soon dies. Before the accident, Ann had ordered a birthday cake for her son's party, which of course she fails to pick up on time because of her son's hospitalization. The baker becomes enraged at the family because of the loss of money and time for him as a small business owner. He makes a series of harassing calls to the family. After the boy's death, however, Ann and Howard realize who has been making these calls and go to see the baker at his business. Upon learning of their tragedy, the baker asks their forgiveness and serves them limitless amounts of bread. While most contemporary stories can be read at the surface level, this one demands to be considered carefully at a spiritual level as well.

Jesus has stated many times in the Bible that he is the Bread of life. One of the verses is John 6, verse 35, "I am the Bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger." In today's wobbling economy, some in the media have been advising us to begin storing food for the upcoming global depression. The Bible, however, tells us most poignantly in the Model Prayer that we are to depend upon God for "our daily bread." Like the Carver story above, "daily bread," I believe, is a literal reference but also a spiritual reference. It seems that we are being taken back to pre-Y2K levels of thinking, where the same advice was given. On the one hand, we want to be prudent planners for the future, yet at the same time we want to take God at His word--He will provide for us in times of crisis.

Do we believe that Jesus is indeed the "good Baker"? If we do, we will relax and depend upon Him for all our needs.

Come Away With Me

One of my favorite images in the New Testament occurs in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verse 31 when Jesus says to His disciples, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." It is important, of course, always to note the context in which these words were spoken. Jesus had recently empowered His followers to go out into the countryside in order to fulfill the mission He had given them, namely to preach, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick. The tasks I am sure must have seemed enormous to these untrained, itinerant men. The disciples had also returned to Jesus shortly after the murder of John the Baptist by King Herold. At that time they must have felt great trepidation not only about the work Christ had given them to do but also about the dangers they were putting themselves in. Many of us today who call ourselves Christians face a similar trepidation about the future.

For the past week we have been bombarded by 24-hour media coverage of our global economic crisis. The market seems to have been spooked by the number 7--a $700 billion bailout, a 777 point drop in the stock market on Monday, and 7% drop in its market value. For those of us who are retired, we are concerned about our inability to be employed again at our age, the drop in our retirement accounts, and the possibility of inflation.

Yet, in spite of all, we return to Jesus' instructions to His disciples before the life journey they were to embark upon. They were to "take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts--but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics" (v. 8-9). He has given us many promises and assurances in the Scripture that we are not to worry or to become anxious about the future because He will indeed provide. His invitation then is for us to come away with Him to a deserted place and rest a while. Tomorrow is another day for confronting the challenges of the future.

This House Has Soul

In completing Marilynne Robinson's recent novel Home, I encountered a sentence that took me back to my childhood. It basically said, "This house has soul that loves everyone, no matter what." The context was that the mother of the eight children at home always went to her kitchen to cook comfort food when problems in the household became too great for her. Essentially, it was a sign that all would return to normal at a later time. She especially liked to cook chicken and dumplings.

Today I find myself in the midst of a major family problem, religious questioning regarding the church to which I belong, and the threat of what economists are calling a "major meltdown" of the American financial markets. I go to the refrigerator and pull out several Granny Smith and Gala apples from the crisper. It is a good day to make an apple pie, I tell myself, as I begin to roll out a pie crust.

My grandmother and my sister, I believe, also were (and are) believers that houses have souls, and those souls can be expressed through cooking great comfort food. My grandmother cooked a lot of soul food, being raised in the Mississippi hills and delta. There was always fried okra, fried corn, cornbread, ham, fried chicken, and turnip greens with hot sauce simmering in her kitchen. My sister, who has spent the past thirty years in Texas, makes chicken enchiladas to die for, as we say in the South.

We, of course, have always known that comfort food will not solve the problems we are dealing with in our families and in our world, but I believe it goes a long way in soothing our feelings in difficult times.

Deranged by Hope

One of my favorite American authors, Marilynne Robinson, has just published a new novel entitled Home. It features two of the same characters from her Pulitzer-prize winning novel from a few years back, Gilead. Jack is Glory's brother who has returned to his small town home place in Iowa after an inexplicable twenty-year absence. Their aging pastor-father is dying. As the story unfolds, the reader discovers that Jack is searching for forgiveness, grace, redemption, and restoration. Unfortunately, he is unable to surrender to God his two besetting sins: alcohol and lack of true belief. On his search Jack, at one point in the novel, says to Glory that he is "deranged by hope." Robinson as author offers no solutions to Jack's problems but lets him freely explore the world of Gilead for answers.

I think Jack in many ways represents every man and every woman. We have all left the comfort and protection of home to explore a wider world; we have made mistakes; we have returned--sometimes after years of wandering--to home. Robinson acknowledges this search-- that God lets us wander--so that we will know what it feels like to return home. Upon return to home as a prodigal, God lets us do what we can to repair human relationships and to clear the weeds in our lives and replant beautiful, productive flowers. Though we can never regain the Garden of Eden, we can seek to partially bring it back. We too should keep on being "deranged by hope."