Unacceptable

Violence against children widely accepted: U.N. study (Reuters)

A day is coming when we will be protectors of those unable to protect themselves and no child will be harmed by the hands of men. I pray that day comes soon.

1 See, a king will reign in righteousness
and rulers will rule with justice.

2 Each man will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

Isaiah 32:1-2

Axis of Evil is Not a Foreign Policy

I've been thinking about this since yesterday and finally got the time to post.

North Korea explodes (or attempts to explode) a nuclear weapon and the US, via President Bush, condemns it - and rightly so, although somewhat hypocritically. Iran continues to develop a nuclear capability that conventional wisdom says will lead to a bomb and US foreign policy is to talk tough - a policy which failed with North Korea.

So here we are with a policy towards two countries that actually have or are pursuing weapons of mass destruction that is essentially, "Stop! Or I'll say stop again!" while simultaneously bogged down with a war in a country that didn't have nor was developing those weapons (mendacity of our current administration aside.)

What I'm getting at is that the Bush administration is either woefully incompetent when it comes to foreign policy or criminally negligent. Have there been any successes? I can't think of any. The sad part is that I'm pretty sure we could be doing good in the world and we're not. So instead of helping stave off the genocide in Darfur or working towards a more peaceful world, our foreign policy is "fight the terrorists over there." Well, great. Send in the military, make more enemies, foment civil war in Iraq have nothing but empty rhetoric for everybody else and keep telling the American people everything is fine and we'll win the long war.

Is it 2008, yet? We can only hope that somehow the 2006 midterms at least bring some accountability to these people.

Isaiah on Tuesday - Fertile and Fallow

There are many times when I read a Biblical passage and think, "If I were a farmer I think this would be much more meaningful." This week as I look at Isaiah 32:9-20, I feel the same way. It's not that I can't get the point, it's just that I think I'm missing the fuller meaning being a city dweller.

In this section, Isaiah directs his voice to a portion of the women of Israel, those who feel "complacent" and "secure". I suspect that part of this passage has to do with the role of women in agrarian Israel, it seems like they were the primary reapers yet as they go to reap, nothing is to be found. The metaphor is of a nation overgrown with weeds and briars, the fields untended as those who should be tending them make merry. It's as if God is imposing a "fallow" year, after which the fields will be tilled, weeded and planted and will once again be able to bear fruit.

How will the fields become fertile again? "...[T]he Spirit is poured upon us from on high..." (I can't help but think of living water here.) And what exactly does that mean? Here is the rest of the passage:

15 till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

and the desert becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.

16 Justice will dwell in the desert
and righteousness live in the fertile field.

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace;
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest.

19 Though hail flattens the forest
and the city is leveled completely,

20 how blessed you will be,
sowing your seed by every stream,
and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

I think I could use some of that.