Recap - 2.8.09

Tonight, we dove into our first discussion of Mr. Claiborne's Jesus for President.  Props to Tom for sporting the logo on a shirt.  Actually, what's the next highest honor beyond props?  Anyway, I have already digressed.

So we read through page 44, which is about halfway through the first section of the book.  Some logistics here - we will be going through half of one section of the book, every other week.  So on 2/22/09 we should have read through the first section.  We'll watch Nooma's, bring some guest speakers, and condone other shenanigans on the "off" weeks.  I'll update our group calendar (see below, to the right), so if things change or you forget, just check back here.

We discussed the layout of the book.  Some said that it was distracting, (which part do I look at first!?!?), and some said that it bred a creative approach to reading and/or understanding.  The parties that disagreed on this issue created factions and then settled it over violent thumb wars.  Let's just say the creative people won, with the cheating "Russian Attack" move.  Second digression...damn.   

We discussed how the OT has seemingly been positive or promoting towards entities of government.  With all the laws, judges, kings, kingdoms, and governments, found within it, one could assume that God has sanctioned all of these as his instruments.  And yet Shane seems to paint a picture slighted to the contrary. 

We all seemed to agree that the manner in which Shane does this is very refreshing.  He takes a very large and multi-dimensional story (that is the OT) and pares it down into synthesis with Jesus' story in less than 60 multi-colored pages. 

This naturally led to the discussion of how we interact with our own political systems.  We talked about our different upbringings and influence, what we've believed in the past, some of what we believe now.  The overall sentiment was that the dialogue that comes from political discussions can be rich and rewarding, and yet most of the time their outcome is the opposite.  We talked about how facebook jabs, blog attacks, and media blitzes all represent the low road. 

We talked a little about retreating from politics and nationalism due to the above issues.  Wendy brought some hope in how she facilitates progressive and productive political discussions.  Adam said that he'd share a link to some of what Shane Hipps has been up to that addresses this.  Sorry to give you an action item in these meeting minutes Dr. Bamford. 

Well, that does it.  Please feel free to add more or tell me to stop putting words in your mouth.  I'm finding that it's an interesting challenge to publish our discussion without disturbing our group's chi.  You know, the chi.  Let me know if you have thoughts about this.  Yard out.