Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The UMC Deal-broker - Kenneth Feinberg
The UMC is recently atwitter about a proposed protocol of the future of the denomination. This post is not about the specifics of the protocol but in the one person who was able to broker such a deal between a diaspora of UMC theological ideas.
Kenneth Feinburg is a facilitator to a number of difficult and painful experiences. He got his start as a mediator in this capacity by happenstance by working to help Vietnam veterans gain compensation from a government that was resistant to payout. He also had a large role in the compensation for victims of 9/11, the Pulse night club shooting as well as many others.
I was turned on to him and his work through a podcast called Startup. If you are interested to hear more about this fascinating man please give a listen:
We All Have Bought A $120,000 Banana
If art is anything, it is provocative. For anyone who has ever looked at a bit of art and thought, “My kindergartner can paint that! Why don’t you give her $120,000 for her play-doe sculpture?” you are not alone.
Recently humanity lost our collective mind over a banana duct taped to a wall that sold for $120,000. There are many memes to thought pieces on this bit of art. Some believe it to be brilliant. Some find it crazy, others find it immoral and still others wonder what sort of world do we have when people cannot pay for their medical bills while others buy a $120,000 banana.
It is an easy target to throw stones at. It sounds insane that anyone would buy this much less anyone else call it art. We wonder what rich person could possibly have such a cold hart to waste money in this way. We wonder why the wealthy are putting more money to art than towards social services, charity or the common good. We see this bit of art as a proxy for all that is wrong with the millionaires and billionaires of the world. Then, when we hear the buyer of this banana ate the banana we just melt into madness!
Beyond how you feel about this specific banana and duct tape, the purchase, or the people involved I want to remind us that we all have bought a $120,000 banana.
We all have spent money on fleeting things (fast fashion?). We all have justified our expenses on things over using our money for the common good (don’t we all need three winter coats?). We all have bought into consumerism and purchased things just because everyone is a twitter about them (fidget spinners anyone?) We all have bought things that others disprove of (you have seen the National Inquire, right?). We all feel justified in our decisions and condemn others’ (I am improving the value of my home with these updates, you are wasting your money on buying a boat.).
We may not have signed a check for the same dollar amount, but we all have bought our version of the $120,000 banana.
No matter how we feel about this banana it reveals to us that we are no better or worse than the one “wasting their money” on a banana. We all feel justified with our own actions. We all feel like others are the problem.
I am thankful that we know the name of the couple who bought the banana. At least they are not hiding behind anonymity and are willing to publicly face the very questions we all should be asking ourselves every day.
Salvation's Default Setting
Default settings influence behavior. According to Behavioraleconomics.com
Requiring people to opt out if they do not wish to donate their organs, for example, has been associated with higher donation rates (Johnson & Goldstein, 2003). Similarly, making contributions to retirement savings accounts has become automatic in some countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
These default settings are more than just organ donation and retirement accounts. Default settings impact our understanding of salvation.
What do you think is salvation's default?
Some of us hold that all of humanity is defaulted to hell or separation from God. The way to change the setting from the default (hell) to a different option (heaven) is by accepting Jesus as Lord and be baptized. The rest of life is working to ensure that the change in the salvation setting sticks and does not return to the default setting. There is a concern that living an unchecked life our salvation setting will return to the default.
Some of us hold that all of humanity is defaulted to heaven or union with God. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. There are times when the consequences of our actions change the setting, but God is quick to change the setting back to salvation. The rest of life is living out of thanksgiving for the Good News of God’s saving grace and love.
Salvation’s default setting does not mean that is what salvation will be: not unlike defaulting into being an organ donor means you will be an organ donor. Things change. We live with the consequences of our actions and no one knows for certain what is to come.
Perhaps our approach to “the other” is dependent upon how we see salvation’s default setting? Perhaps our approach to our own lives is dependent upon how we see salvation’s default setting?
And so, what is salvation’s default setting?