A Media Community Integrating Spirituality, Democracy, Ethics
“I Come To You In The Name of the Lord of Hosts”
“I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.”
What an ominous declaration! These days, we educated, sophisticated, skeptical liberals would write the speaker off as a religious right nut case or as a delusional soul in need of proper medication.
You will likely be surprised to learn that this proclamation is from one of the most well know heroes of western lore. This confident boast emanated from the lips of David. You know him as the legendary underdog victor in David and Goliath.
To invoke the “Lord of Hosts” is to assure everyone within earshot that you are acting in the power of the universal presence that is at all times the protector of the common person.
So, the humble, ignored shepherd boy channeled the passion of the Eternal, to “prevail over Goliath with a sling and a stone.”
I want to lift up and praise a few singular voices that in the past few weeks have dynamically acted, “in the name of the Lord of Hosts.”
In a ruling that concluded John Ashcroft can be sued for prosecutorial abuses, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the former attorney general immunity from liability for how he used the material witness warrants in national security investigations following the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Members of the panel, all appointees of Republican presidents, characterized Ashcroft's detention policy as "repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."
A federal judge has overturned a $33 million settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the $3.6 billion bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives just before the bank’s takeover by Bank of America.
Judge Rakoff questioned why the SEC didn’t file charges against individual executives at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch who allegedly filed faulty disclosures to mislead investors about the size of the bonuses.
Judge Rakoff said of the settlement, "It is not fair, first and foremost, because it does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality, in that it proposes that the shareholders who were the victims of the Bank’s alleged misconduct now pay the penalty for that misconduct.”
Former President Jimmy Carter tugged the trunk of the gigantic elephant in the national living room last week.
Interviewed by NBC to mark his 85th birthday, Carter said: “That racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."
Personally, I am not a theist. But I do inwardly resonate with that fire in the belly faith that many ascribe to God.
Gandhi used these words to express acting in “the name of the Lord of Hosts.”
“In every great cause it is not the number of fighters that counts but it is the quality of which they are made that becomes the deciding factor. The greatest men of the world have always stood alone. Take the great prophets Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad―they all stood alone like many others whom I can name. But they had living faith in themselves and their God, and believing as they did that God was on their side, they never felt lonely… Indeed one perfect civil resister is enough to win the battle of Right against Wrong.”
What an ominous declaration! These days, we educated, sophisticated, skeptical liberals would write the speaker off as a religious right nut case or as a delusional soul in need of proper medication.
You will likely be surprised to learn that this proclamation is from one of the most well know heroes of western lore. This confident boast emanated from the lips of David. You know him as the legendary underdog victor in David and Goliath.
To invoke the “Lord of Hosts” is to assure everyone within earshot that you are acting in the power of the universal presence that is at all times the protector of the common person.
So, the humble, ignored shepherd boy channeled the passion of the Eternal, to “prevail over Goliath with a sling and a stone.”
I want to lift up and praise a few singular voices that in the past few weeks have dynamically acted, “in the name of the Lord of Hosts.”
In a ruling that concluded John Ashcroft can be sued for prosecutorial abuses, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the former attorney general immunity from liability for how he used the material witness warrants in national security investigations following the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Members of the panel, all appointees of Republican presidents, characterized Ashcroft's detention policy as "repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."
A federal judge has overturned a $33 million settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the $3.6 billion bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives just before the bank’s takeover by Bank of America.
Judge Rakoff questioned why the SEC didn’t file charges against individual executives at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch who allegedly filed faulty disclosures to mislead investors about the size of the bonuses.
Judge Rakoff said of the settlement, "It is not fair, first and foremost, because it does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality, in that it proposes that the shareholders who were the victims of the Bank’s alleged misconduct now pay the penalty for that misconduct.”
Former President Jimmy Carter tugged the trunk of the gigantic elephant in the national living room last week.
Interviewed by NBC to mark his 85th birthday, Carter said: “That racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."
Personally, I am not a theist. But I do inwardly resonate with that fire in the belly faith that many ascribe to God.
Gandhi used these words to express acting in “the name of the Lord of Hosts.”
“In every great cause it is not the number of fighters that counts but it is the quality of which they are made that becomes the deciding factor. The greatest men of the world have always stood alone. Take the great prophets Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad―they all stood alone like many others whom I can name. But they had living faith in themselves and their God, and believing as they did that God was on their side, they never felt lonely… Indeed one perfect civil resister is enough to win the battle of Right against Wrong.”
Comment
-
Comment by chuck freeman on September 25, 2009 at 10:45am -
Thanks Gerard. I love that translation of John 3!
Soulfully,
Chuck
-
Comment by Gerard Plourde on September 24, 2009 at 8:58pm - I had a boss once who used to say "God don't like ugly." It dovetails with the words of Jesus in Jn 3:19-21: "And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the light so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God." (New Jerusalem Bible translation)
About
The Free Souls Connection
The Free Souls Connection is an initiative of the Free Souls Project with the intention of cultivating a community of Progressive media producers and users in the areas of Spirituality, Democracy and Ethics.
We invite original written, audio, and video creations in the lineage of Spiritual Humanism, the wellspring of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, forming the basis for a healthy integration of Spirituality, Democracy, and Ethics.
Rev. Theodore Parker expresses this trinity of American values marvelously. “There is what I call the American idea…a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.”
Come Ministers, Radio Hosts, Musicians, Poets, Bloggers, Cartoonists, Commentators and all artists for the common good!
Let us support, nurture, encourage, and commune with one other and our sacred world.
We invite original written, audio, and video creations in the lineage of Spiritual Humanism, the wellspring of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, forming the basis for a healthy integration of Spirituality, Democracy, and Ethics.
Rev. Theodore Parker expresses this trinity of American values marvelously. “There is what I call the American idea…a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.”
Come Ministers, Radio Hosts, Musicians, Poets, Bloggers, Cartoonists, Commentators and all artists for the common good!
Let us support, nurture, encourage, and commune with one other and our sacred world.
© 2009 Created by Chuck Freeman on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
You need to be a member of The Free Souls Connection to add comments!
Join this Ning Network