By Dwight Swanson

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among people of his favour!”
(Luke 2:14)

This brief angelic chorus offers a glimpse of the universe in true perspective, when (in the words of one of Charles Wesley’s Christmas carols) ‘earth and heaven agree’. What we need to do is try to see it.

• GLORY AND PEACE

Firstly, some definitions. To begin with, think of ‘Glory’ (there will be a lot of capital letters in this story). Glory is the radiance of God, the visible presence. It is what holiness looks like.

‘The Highest’ is where God is. Wherever God is, is ‘the highest’. Or, in common terminology, heaven.

When things on earth are in accord, synchronised, with God’s heavenly Glory, that is ‘Peace’ (Shalom).

‘People of his Good Favour’ is a phrase which comes from Temple worship. When an offering is made to God, he is pleased, and God and Human are reconciled—at peace. People of his Good Favour are a pleasing offering.
This song is a statement of purpose. Peace is what God’s plan in Jesus the Messiah Emperor looks like. It is, in short, what we pray for when we say, ‘Thy will be done on earth as in heaven’. (more)

By Dwight Swanson

Two stories in this week’s news sparked insight into a subject the Editor has been working on in his Day Job as a teacher of Old Testament, which then sparked thoughts on a subject which has appeared in the Gazelle. The common thread is: the stories nations tell about themselves.

Neither story was ‘new’ news. The first comes from the extreme west of China. Over the course of the past centuryfrozen mummies have been discovered in the far east, along the border with Mongolia, which tell a story that contradicts the Chinese national narrative. The Chinese story is that this part of the world has always been Chinese. However, these mummies are Caucasoid, and come from a time-period that both precedes the Chinese, and continues into the period the Chinese claim as theirs.

The second story comes from Turkey. This relates the context of the murder of writer Hrant Dink. Dink, an Armenian Turk, had written about the expulsion of Armenians from Turkey in 1915, accompanied by the deaths of thousands.

The official Turkish narrative is that no such thing ever happened. The Armenian story is that hundreds of thousands died. Dink was murdered because he broke the rules by telling the story.

What is interesting about these stories is the dissonance between the official narrative and uncomfortable facts ‘on the ground’. In the case of China, the facts are not likely to change the story—the Tarim basin of Xinjiang, and the nine million Uighur people are in a cold and remote part of the world that no one else cares about. The Armenian massacres took place in the midst of the First World War when the attention of the world was bogged down in the trenches of Europe. The subject never made front page news then, and finally became submerged under the weight of the horrific genocide of Jews in the Second World War, and the ‘lesser’ ethnic cleansings of the 1990s. (more)

By Dwight Swanson

The US election is in its final phase, and The Rest of the World waits with baited breath on the result.

The Gazelle Editor offers these reflections, from a distance, on the matter of Christian virtues and presidential candidates.

The first sentence of Mark Noll’s book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1995) reads: ‘The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of evangelical mind’ (according to the Amazon version; I am certain my copy—not at hand at the moment—reads ‘…there is no evangelical mind.’). The British media have always liked to look for the most outlandish stories in America for their documentaries, and so it is no surprise that over here we have been treated to large helpings of examples of evangelical Christian evidence which supports Noll’s observation. In search of balance, the Editor has searched the American websites—and has found ample evidence from evangelical sources, themselves, to verify this statement.

Of course, Mark Noll writes as an evangelical, and from a sympathetic evangelical perspective. But, hearing the truth from one of the family is hard to take. This article, like Noll’s work, is written with American evangelicals in mind, hoping to make contact with thinking people.

This headline should really read ‘an appeal to fundamentalists’, who make up the largest proportion of those who identify themselves as evangelical. In truth, they seem to think only they are the evangelicals. The Editor writes as a protesting evangelical, who is frankly embarrassed to admit to the designation due to fundamentalist extremism in politics and ethics.

Observations on how evangelicals vote.

The voting preferences of evangelicals/fundamentalists indicates that there is little correlation between profession of faith and ethics, and that conservative nationalist politics take priority over revealed truth. This article will focus on the first observation; the second will be discussed in a later article.

Before addressing ethics, it is useful to note that fundamentalists don’t automatically vote for fellow evangelicals: Jimmy Carter was the first professing born-again evangelical Christian to run for president, and get elected. Throughout his term of office he not only attended church regularly, but continued to teach a Sunday School class. Yet, he was vilified by Fundamentalists throughout his presidency, and rejected in favour of the nominal Episcopalian Ronald Reagan. All fundamentalists know that Episcopalians are wishy-washy liberals.

President George W Bush has been open about his faith, and makes frequent references to prayer and to God. Only a cynic would question his sincerity in this regard. This, and his continuation of the Republican promise to do away with abortion (without ever doing much about it) have endeared him to evangelicals. However sincere his personal faith may be, he seems to leave the teaching of Christ behind in his actions as president. The Gazelle has already gone on record concerning Bush’s record on torture and illegal ‘extraordinary’ rendition of prisoners, let alone the offensive war on Iraq on the basis of imaginary evidence. The names Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo will be remembered by ‘our enemies’ (to use a favourite phrase of the Republican candidates) for a long time as the policies of a Christian leader.

In this election, the clearest statement of Christian faith has been articulated by Barack Obama. He is unashamed of his faith, and speaks of it frequently. On the other hand, John McCain has been reluctant over the years to talk about his faith. When he has, it has been in the most vague of terms, kept at a distance, and only as recent as his prison years [see links to interviews in Christianity Today]. His is American civil religion at its most basic. Yet, fundamentalists reject Obama’s profession of faith, instead readily believing the anonymous circular emails and blogs of questionable origin that say that he is Muslim. And they don’t even bother to question the source of these libellous rumours before forwarding them to all their friends.

On the other, other hand, fundamentalists who were troubled by McCain’s tentative links to conservatism breathed a collective sigh of relief at the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice-President. She immediately became America’s Queen Esther, ‘come to the nation for just such a time as this’ (Esther 4:14; the ‘time such as this’ was the planned slaughter of all the Jews in the Persian empire. The only parallel between Palin and Esther that I can discern is that both were beauty contestants at some time). What Christian can fail to vote for a born-again Christian? [Um. See reference to Jimmy Carter above…] Whereas nothing Obama says about his faith can be accepted, no criticism of Palin’s Christian faith can be viewed as other than an attack on all Christians by secular, and godless anti-Americans.

As a Christian and an evangelical with a mind, I find there are serious questions to ask about Sarah Palin’s faith. Here is where there appears to be a disconnection between professed faith and ethics. The most significant and damning instance of this is found in the response to the report on her alleged abuse of power as governor in pursuit of a vendetta against her sister’s ex-husband. The independent investigation (accepted by Palin in advance of the report) found that Palin did nothing illegal. This result should be accepted. However, the panel also concluded that, whereas no law had been broken, her actions were unethical. What was Christian Sarah Palin’s response? ‘I have been fully vindicated.’

Fellow Christians, this is the question: Can a follower of Jesus Christ consider the finding of a failure of ethics to be a vindication?

It seems that Palin thinks anything is ethical as long as it is legal. Here is a disconnection between belief/faith and ethics.

It is surely not too much to look for a Christian candidate for highest office to act like a Christian when campaigning. It is certain that non-believers do. I am not so naïve as to think that Christian politicians do not compromise ideals at some time, nor that they have total control over what is done in their names. But there are examples in this campaign of higher standards: Obama has stayed largely above personal attacks; McCain has resisted pressure to attack Obama’s faith. Sarah Palin, however, has proudly attacked with what can only be described politely as innuendo bordering on libel. She knows as well as anyone in Republican central office that Obama neither supports terror nor is a terrorist. Yet, she draws on the anti-Muslim and Arab venom underlying the campaign by her accusation that Obama ‘palls around with terrorists’.
It is a lie, and she knows it.

What has been the result? Time and again we hear people saying they are afraid of Obama because he is a Muslim or Arab, with the implicit assumption that this equates with being, at the most, a terrorist, and at the least un-American. McCain rebuked one voter for saying it aloud, but it continues to be repeated as fact. The cry of ‘Kill him!’ in one McCain rally could only have happened in an atmosphere where extremists feel it is safe to voice such desires.

Palin has created this atmosphere. It is difficult to see what Sarah Palin’s faith in Jesus Christ has to do with her actions. A thinking evangelical will want to think about this.

There is a saying of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, ‘By their fruits you will know them.’ I urge thinking evangelicals to look at the fruit of the candidates.

By Dwight Swanson

Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine, offers what is possibly the most balanced presentation to be found of the presidential candidates’ Christian backgrounds and beliefs. They can be found here (in alphabetical order):

John McCain

Barack Obama

Promise that you will read them both.

By Dwight Swanson

As the ordinary taxpayer sits on the sidelines and watches the economic collapse with trepidation, Gazelle readers help maintain a sense of perspective.

The article ‘The Rise of American Socialism’ has attracted a record number of readers, and a number of responses came by means other than the ‘comment’ section. For the edification of all readers, the Gazelle offers a glimpse of these responses.

A Russian reader points out another link between the US Republicans and socialism Russian style:

Corporate America on a mission! Interesting times to have money in property.

Another reader responded (rather tardily) to the article ‘The Management Delusion’ (See January 3, 2008) to observe that a Christian denomination of his acquaintance has completed construction of its new world headquarters, now called ‘Global Mission Center’. Hmmm. That rings a bell.

Corporate Christian America on a mission! Great time to get into the property market...

By Dwight Swanson

There was a man in the first church of which I was pastor who liked to cite the proverb, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves’. This was in the sparsely populated part of the state of Colorado known as the ‘Western Slope’, in a small town in which its every inhabitant defined the term ‘rugged American individualism’. I hadn’t been there very long, and was trying to adjust to the great distances we had to travel to find basic amenities, when I met an ancient cowboy during a hospital visit who told me he thought it was time to be moving on. ‘Its getting too crowded around here’, he said. Freedom, for him, was large open spaces between him and other people. That’s the West.

And, that proverb epitomises the creed of the West. Most who cite it undoubtedly think it can be found in the Bible. (Which, in case you are wondering, it cannot.)

Westerners also know that socialism is bad. It is difficult to find a dirtier word in the vocabulary than ‘socialism’, other than ‘communism’. But, since they both stand for the same thing, they are about equally egregiously nasty (sorry, I just like the word and have to find ways to use it). Whenever my wife and I mention how glad we are for the National Health Service in Britain, even with its difficulties, the response is, ‘But socialised medicine is…’, and they go into the horror stories of waiting lines that they are fed by the American media and politicians. A relative of ours has no health insurance for his family, because it would take over half his salary, and he would still have to pay $1000 deductible. But, he was horrified at the thought of ‘socialised medicine’. So, his family lives in fear of a medical emergency, whereas when our daughter needed an important heart procedure we had no worries. (more)

By Dwight Swanson

The first news reports showed Georgian rocket launchers outside the South Ossetia town of Tskhinvali, aiming into the ostensible capital of the region. The Gazelle Editor has to depend, like the rest of the world, on what the media publish or broadcast; but this was the BBC, which has maintained the most balanced reporting of the major Western network suppliers of news. The reports appeared alongside those of the opening of the Olympics, where the world watched George W (‘W’hat will you do when the phone rings at 3 am) Bush have a little chat with Vladimir S (‘S’o much for Georgia) Putin that obviously resolved matters. At least, ‘W’ must have thought so, because he stayed on to pat the back sides of some American swimmers (so it seems)

It was only the next day that scenes of Russian advances into South Ossetia were seen, followed by scenes of their advances into Georgia, smoke rising over the town of Gori.

Smoke rising over civilian populations is never a reassuring sight.



It was only at this point of the reporting that the Georgian president introduced the explanation that he was responding to a Russian advance. Something seemed a little fishy about this to the Editor. (more)

By Dwight Swanson

Hardly a day goes by now without news of knife crime. So far this year 16 teenagers have been murdered by knife-wielding youths in London alone. The level of concern this registers is evidenced by the thousands who turned out for a march against knife killings just yesterday. Nowhere are knives more common, sadly, than Manchester.

Slashing out seems to have become the first response to differences of opinion. Showing a knife is certain to ‘gain respect’.

The police rang my doorbell yesterday. It seems that in the early hours of Saturday morning a young man was accosted by another with a knife on the street in front of our house. He was brought onto our property, and made to sit down on our porch steps—at knife-point. And robbed.

No injury. But, the latest crime-fad has found its way to our doorstep. While I was soundly asleep. Should I be afraid? Or, profoundly sad?

An ordinary doorstep.