This is a guest post by Dennis Teall-Fleming:

We look back on historical epochs and give them names, usually described by the things we humans make during that period. Bronze Age, Iron Age, Industrial Age, Nuclear Age … Guess what they’ll call the past hundred years in a millennia or two? The Plastic Age!

Yea, I’m convinced of this. The oil-based polymer plastic that we generally use today had its 100th anniversary last year. What a wonderful invention … until five billion people ended up using it at the same time! Now, we have to deal with all the excess, most of which will last 100,000 years before decomposing. What a wonderful gift to give our descendants! Archaeologists will really have no problem being able to identify the 20th and 21st (and maybe future?) centuries, ‘cuz they’ll just have to start with the layer(s?) of plastic in the geological evidence.

It’s gotten so bad that it’s now the #1 source of our garbage footprint. We now have landfills full of plastics: Some that you can see from space, like Fresh Kills outside of NYC, which, ironically, is also where most of the WTC debris was put after the 9-11 attacks (including countless remains of victims). Others that have become the tallest piece of land in the local area (my favorite is “Mount Rumpke”, outside of Cincinnati, actually named after the waste company that created it, 1,045 ft. tall, the highest point in the county. We now also have “plastic patches” floating on our oceans, some that are bigger than U.S. states (e.g., Great Pacific Garbage Patch, twice the size of Texas!).

Read and weep, my friends. Sadly, this is one of the most prevalent legacies we give to the future …

Action Item: Take a look at the picture (above). This is one of the myriad of problems with our excess plastic these days—it’s going to be responsible for the extinction of countless of species. Baby albatross, such as the one in this pic, are fed the plastic by their mothers, because the plastic is mistaken for food. In pictures such as this one, you can see how this baby bird simply choked to death on the colorful “decoys.” I’ll leave it to you to decide what to do about this, if anything.

Dennis Teall-Fleming is Director of Faith Formation at Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church, Belmont, NC, and part-time Religion Instructor at Gaston College, Dallas, NC.

This is a guest post by Dennis Teall-Fleming:

There’s no denying it, by the year 2050, there will not be a racial/ethnic majority in the U.S. In the next decade, that will become true of people under 18, very quickly. Yes, it seems that the U.S. is finally going to live up to its message of freedom for all—by not killing and suppressing any “Other”s, en masse, for the past 50 years or so, those Others have been able to thrive! And now will help to make our country what it should have been from the beginning—a place so diverse and full of difference, that each person, race, ethnicity, and nationality nurtures, enhances, and strengthens the other.

You can see many of these demographic changes tracked very well at the Pew Hispanic Center, and at more specific resources, like its population tracker by county. These changes have already affected our political landscape, and will continue to do so very dramatically in the next decade. The Census predictions are that, at the end of the 2010 count, Texas will gain three electoral votes, and AZ, FL, GA, NV, SC, UT, and WA will each gain one. OH will lose two, and IL, IA, LA, MA, MI, NJ, NY and PA will each lose one (“South sees new pull via Census”). This is population growth driven primarily by Hispanic population growth—immigrants legal or illegal, and native-born Hispanics—not by us “Yankees” moving South and West. The future is Brown, Southern, and Western!

This is not something to be feared, but welcomed. Each influx of Others has always made our country ever greater. Jews, Germans, Africans, Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Hispanics … it’s this that makes our country great, that we can all become an US (U.S.) together.

Action Item: Listen to a great analysis of the Pew Hispanic study on young Hispanics at the Dec. 14 “Talk of the Nation” show. If you’re not able to listen to the show, there’s a transcript of it at the page linked. A large group of young Americans that are going to make a big difference. Enjoy!

Dennis Teall-Fleming is Director of Faith Formation at Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church, Belmont, NC, and part-time Religion Instructor at Gaston College, Dallas, NC.

Related: Read Dr. Jay Gary’s thoughts on Multichurch (multicultural church)

Photo: CCIR

These three tweets on the subject of human trafficking all came across my Twitter stream today, and each one struck me as a powerful piece of information. (This is exactly why I swim in the Twitter stream, after all, to find interesting useful new information!)

I thought I’d just compile them here for others I know who care about this issue and those who might be interested in learning more:

@towardhope: Human trafficking is the second largest industry worldwide and the fastest growing, annual profits of $32 billion. [UPDATE: @cfpdx: Now $36B]

@cfpdx: The countries that have legalized prostitution have become magnets for human trafficking. (NYTimes op-ed) http://bit.ly/rbFUH

@earthmystic: http://bit.ly/ibmgK Sobering article on human trafficking by a friend of mine who works for Catholic Relief Services

We’re now two weeks into the Barack Obama administration, and we’re beginning to see the decisions he is making as president, what kind of leader he is (and is most likely going to be for the next four years), etc. I just feel compelled to share a word of caution for my conservative* friends who seem to see doom around every corner, disaster at every turn, and death in every decision. My message is simply this: You are only going to slip further into impotence and irrelevance if you insist on taking the Rush Limbaugh “I hope Obama fails” approach to your political discourse and action.

RNC #FAIL
Most of my conservative friends still seem to be aligned fairly tightly with the Republican Party. OK fine. But here are some things you’ll need to wrestle with:

• The Republican Party is in decline. Who’s going to turn things around? Sarah Palin? Bobby Jindal? Michael Steele? There doesn’t seem to be any consensus or any real direction. Good luck with that.
• The Republican Party is (like much of evangelicalism) viewed pretty negatively. The parallels here to UnChristian are actually kind of interesting.
• The Republican Party seem to have no real solutions. As I mentioned in my earlier blog post on abortion, the Republican Party seems hopelessly stuck in the same gear, singing the same monotone song, on these important issues**.

**A quick update on the abortion issue: I’ve finally joined the chorus of those who oppose FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act), because I have yet to read anything that has convinced me anything good would actually come from it. But to my conservative friends who are getting worked up over FOCA, I urge you to listen to the comments by GOP strategist Rich Galen who explains in this NPR interview that FOCA has little or no hope of ever getting passed by Congress and will, in the short run anyway, do little more than help raise money for pro-life causes. Please consider this as you consider your approach/response to that particular piece of legislation, especially since this is coming from a reliable Republican source.

We Can’t Afford to #FAIL
An excellent example of this last point is the economic stimulus bill currently under consideration in Congress. Not a single Republican in the House of Representatives was able to bring themselves to vote in favor, despite President Obama’s efforts to achieve bipartisan support and (worse) the urging of economists to not delay in the face of the current crisis.

You might like to think of that as “principled” politics, but it’s also politically expedient and pretty much just more of the same old politics that got us where we are today—an ugly rut we desperately need to get out of.

No doubt these House Republicans are now secretly wishing the stimulus bill will #FAIL so they can wash their hands of it and say, “See? We voted against it! We were right!” But what they don’t seem to understand (or care much about) is that if this stimulus bill #FAILS to revive the economy, then they’ve all #FAILed. And being right is no real substitute for participating and making a helpful contribution.

Bob Dylan said it well once, “Your old road is rapidly aging. Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand for the times they are a-changin’.”

Here’s What I Think Is Un-helpful
I find conservative commentary like Stan Guthrie’s snarky “Barack Obama, CEO” particularly unhelpful. I respect Stan a lot—we’re both passionate about global missions—but I disagree strongly with him about U.S. politics. Go figure. Just listen to the tone of Stan’s appraisal of Obama as president thus far (two weeks into his presidency):

President Obama, blessed with virtually no executive experience of his own, nevertheless apparently can divine how much compensation other executives, whose companies receive bailout money, should receive (no more than $500,000). That’s really rich—and I’m not talking about the salaries.

Then our commander in chief, facing Republicans who disagree that a pork-laden spending bill laced with goodies for Democratic Party favorites [as if Republicans aren't getting pork out of this deal? really?] is the only possible response to the recession, is reduced to sputtering, “But I won the election!” Reminds me of the childish Trelaine character in Star Trek, who, when called inside by his parents, whines, “But I was winnin’!” …

Yes, Mr. Obama, you won the election, but now it is time to start governing. Winning an election doesn’t give you a blank check. It gives you the opportunity to lead. Do you know how to do that?

[emphasis added]

Yeah, I think Stan basically just called President Obama a boy, who he is qualified to lecture about politics. I don’t think I need to compare President Obama’s resume to Stan’s to show how ridiculous this kind of rant is. I’m sharing it simply as an example and a warning to conservatives: This kind of thinking will get you nowhere during this new administration, nor will it give the Republican Party a leg to stand on in future elections.

Obama isn’t the one whining and crying here, it’s conservatives—who lost the election and now want to take their ball and go home. I really hope that’s not the case, because we really do need a strong, intelligent, conservative voice in our political discourse. But (sorry, Stan and my conservative friends) it doesn’t sound to me like this strong conservative voice has emerged yet. And, in the meantime, this whole “I hope Obama fails” tone and tack is the worst kind of #FAIL I can imagine. It’s frankly un-Christian and unhelpful, and I’m saying all this, really, to challenge y’all to improve your game. I guess I’ll just have to leave it at that.

*I personally dislike and disavow categories such as “conservative” and “liberal” or even “progressive.” I don’t apply these terms to myself, but I still use them on occasion (as I do here) when talking about self-described conservatives and/or liberals. Most conservatives I know aren’t afraid to call themselves that and self-identify pretty readily as such, so that’s why I’m using it.

UPDATE: OK, one more addition—here are a few articles/perspectives I wish my conservative friends would read/consider (in addition to their steady diet of Fox News, Focus on the Family Action, etc.):

• Obama Lifts ‘Mexico City’ Policy, Could Affect HIV/AIDS Efforts — do my pro-life friends care as much about the 600,000 people without access to HIV&AIDS prevention education, counseling, and family planning services? or the sex workers (spreading much of the HIV!) who are denied this vital education and services? I hope so.
• God, women, and stealing — another perspective on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, President Obama’s first piece of legislation signed into law.
• Obama’s New Faith-Based Council — there’s more good here than bad, in my opinion.

UPDATE 2: This is good timing—Frank Schaeffer’s latest article at the Huffington Post picks up on the theme I’ve been developing here (with perhaps a bit too much vitriol, but Frank was pretty invested in Republicanism, much more so than I, so his emotion is understandable, if unnecessary). It’s called “Step Out of the Way Republicans!”

UPDATE 2/8/2009: Check out “Rush Limbaugh has his grip on the GOP microphone” in today’s L.A. Times. This is exactly what I’m talking about: “Limbaugh may eventually recede. … Until then, the microphone is his.”

A shift occurred this past week. It’s too early to tell what the long-term effects or significance of it will be, but my cheese has definitely moved—from my blog over to my Facebook profile.

Now that Facebook has refashioned itself as an aggregator for all kinds of online content feeds, my profile there has become my lifestream—and, as such, my preferred place of residence on the Web. Sorry, blog, you’ve been replaced. Sort of*.

FriendFeed is probably the next biggest competitor in this new “lifestream” category of online social media. But the problem with FriendFeed is that I don’t actually have very many friends over there! All (or most anyway) of my friends are on Facebook. And I’ve discovered that they apparently read the News Feed on Facebook with far greater interest than my blog has ever gotten (well, except for my abortion post, that is).

Shift Happens
So earlier this week, when I tweeted a political comment, it automagically updated my Facebook status, and a flurry of comments began to pour in (39 comments, so far).

I have to confess, even though I fully embrace this new media technology and enthusiastically promote the use of it in my work of mission communication, I was still a little surprised to see how quickly (and energetically) people were responding and interacting—in response to two sentences I had posted. The conversation, which remained mostly civil and challenging (I think for those on both sides), was intoxicating.

So I’ve been posting a lot of things this week on Facebook—some via Twitter (which I’ve been doing for a while) and also directly on my profile—to see if the conversation continues, where it takes me, and who stays and who goes. So far I’ve gotten comments from current and past co-workers, from old friends (from 10 years ago and from 4th Grade!) and new online-only friends, from the U.S. and from elsewhere (Canada, New Zealand, even Nigeria!), from those who agree with me and from those who don’t.

Crossing the Line
It’s been an interesting experiment. One that I’m sure will continue, and one that I’m learning a lot from. For example, I posted a link to a CNN article about McCain campaign advisor Karl Rove, and included with it an anti-Rove rant complete with a derogatory name directed at Mr. Rove himself (as if he cares what I think—he’s not one of my Facebook friends). I realized a few minutes after posting it that I regretted the angry tone of it, so I deleted the item. Or at least, I thought I did.

Facebook was kind enough to retain it in my list of posted items, and comments began to stream in—most pushing back on me for crossing the line. One friend even told me, “You’ve become a liberal kook, you know that, right?” Well, sure, thanks for letting me know.

The Rove Rant was out of the bag, so I deleted (for good this time) the original comment and re-posted the CNN link with a new comment: an apology for the vitriol I had spewed. Here’s part of what I wrote: “I believe in transparency on the Web, and this is the downside of that transparency, perhaps.”

Perhaps. Because, although I regretted posting what I did about Rove, I was (and am) grateful for the opportunity for online friends to hold me accountable, challenge me on my political positions and religious beliefs, and interact with me on the topics and issues I find intriguing and important. That is not “the downside.” That is a very definite “upside.” And Facebook is facilitating the conversation better and bigger than my blog or other online forums for interaction have done to date.

*I plan to continue posting original content, such as longer-form articles like this one, via my blog, but, for a more steady stream of shorter-form comments/observations/links from me (and the lively conversation that accompanies them), be my friend on Facebook.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist:

Come on, America! Adopt the slogan: Thanks, But No Thanks!

Last week I was the foil for one of the many recent articles declaring “Obama attracts young evangelicals.” No disrespect to Jon Ward, who co-authored the Washington Times article, but I believe Jonathan Merritt’s Southern Baptist credentials made him an even better foil for the same article in the Washington Post.

The experience of being featured in a national newspaper article, however, has given me an opportunity to reflect on my changing political views, especially concerning the issue of abortion. Whether this is wise or not, I believe in transparency, so I want to be honest here (even though I realize this opens me up to even greater criticism).

This may ultimately be a stupid thing to do, but I’ll just do my best to answer some of the questions that have been raised—and live with the consequences.

First, Justin Taylor is right about the importance of appointing Supreme Court justices if the goal is to overturn Roe v. Wade, and that seems to be the primary goal of most pro-life advocacy. I recognize there are wonderful things happening in the areas of pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, etc., but the rallying cry of the pro-life movement is “overturn Roe v. Wade,” and I have to confess that is something I no longer support.

I simply do not believe that criminalizing abortion is the best way to reduce the number of abortions in this country. Already we’ve seen the abortion rate steadily decline since 1990. Why? Well, it’s a number of factors, but I think one of the primary reasons is education—more young people are being raised with an understanding of and appreciation for the sanctity of life. My parents, once they joined the pro-life movement, were quite vocal in their support for pro-life causes, and that was passed down to me. The fact that abortion (and along with it sex and contraception, etc.) became a topic of conversation in many people’s homes has had a very good effect on developing more pro-life young people. And that is a good thing.

But the bottom line is I don’t believe a woman or a doctor should be put in jail for having or conducting an abortion. I no longer believe that threatening punishment is the best solution (and the Guttmacher Institute seems to support that conclusion), and therefore I can no longer support the effort to criminalize abortion. This ties into another question, written in the form of this statement: “Evangelicals who support someone like Obama do not truly believe that the unborn are human persons deserving full human rights.”

When Does a Fertilized Egg Become a Person?
I can only speak for myself, of course, but I suspect there may be many like me who have serious questions about the “human rights” of a fertilized egg. Yes, there is biological life at the point of conception—the potential for it to develop into a full “human person” (this is not going to develop into a kitten or a squirrel)—but what “rights” should be afforded? and at what cost to the mother who may be at cross purposes, facing an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy? What about the “human rights” of the woman without whom the fertilized egg would never develop? These are deep and profound questions not easily answered by a pat “life begins at conception” statement.

I also find myself disillusioned by the apparent hypocrisy within the pro-life movement, which has tightly aligned itself to the Republican Party with its economic policies which seem to say to women, “You have to carry your baby to full-term, and we’re not going to do much to help you financially.” It’s an almost Darwinian “survival of the fittest” political platform that is inherently racist when you realize the abortion rates are highest among black and Hispanic women.

Here’s another reason for my disillusionment: Much of the birth control used by evangelicals essentially promotes “abortion” by not allowing the already fertilized egg to implant on the uterine wall. Now, if you really believe that life begins at conception, then this type of birth control should also be on your “to don’t” list. Perhaps Catholics have been more consistent in this pro-life practice, but I have not seen such consistency in the evangelical movement.

Why Risk Being Wrong?
Finally, I find myself questioning the theological arguments as to when life begins and the nature of the soul. None of these are conclusive in my mind. So I have to admit that I’ve become somewhat agnostic when it comes to the question of “When does life begin?” And, I can hear the response now: “Why would you want to be on the wrong side of that question? What if life does begin at conception? Then abortion is murder and even a holocaust! Why risk it?”

Well, I simply have to say that I would give deference to the life of the person standing before me who is faced with the abortion decision, over the potential life of the fertilized egg inside her. Maybe that’s being too pragmatic. To be honest, abortion has never had any real-life implications for me. Like it is for many (dare I say, most) people in the abortion debate, the actual people affected by abortion are just hypothetical and theoretical to us, and what happens on a daily basis has no real impact on our lives. I say this to my own shame, but also to hold a mirror up to my pro-life friends who fervently believe abortion should be made illegal in this country.

I have serious questions for you:

• Who goes to prison if Roe v. Wade is overturned?
• How do you plan to pay for all of the new prisons that will need to be built?
• Who is going to adopt or provide foster care for the thousands of unwanted babies that would be born and abandoned?
• What are you doing now to support the unwed mothers in your local community?
• Has your church come alongside any pregnant teens to provide a safe, supportive environment for them to keep their baby and still get an education and develop themselves further?
• Have you taken on any of the real financial costs for a woman who could not make it on her when faced with an unplanned pregnancy?

More importantly, I wonder:

• How can we work together to see the number of abortions in this country continue to drop?
• How can we work together to develop a culture of life in this country?
• How can we work together to seek justice for the poor and the oppressed who do not feel they have a safe, supportive environment in which to bring a child into this world?

No, I don’t have certainty about when personhood should be recognized and full human rights afforded to a baby—or if a fertilized egg should ever be elevated over the life of a woman—and that is certainly a factor in the erosion of my support for overturning Roe v. Wade (besides other concerns I have about the criminal justice system in our country). I can say this: I am still committed to reducing the abortion rate. And I still consider myself a pro-life evangelical. But if those movements are more narrowly defined, then maybe I am neither of those things. Perhaps “whole life post-evangelical” would be a better label for me. Let me know if any reporters are looking for that angle on the election story.

Frank Schaeffer’s latest article is a forceful argument for why he is voting for Obama. It is a must-read!

Conservative Republican megachurch pastor Joel Hunter has some interesting things to say in Zack Exley’s article “Will the Real Pro-Life Party Please Stand Up?” (www.tinyurl.com/prolifeparty) Link

No, I don’t believe Barack Obama is the messiah, despite that accusation coming from my evangelical-Anabaptist and straight-up Republican friends. But I do believe he is the best hope for a political windchange in Washington, D.C., and that’s why I’m supporting his candidacy for President.

In that spirit, I want to recommend to you a great new song from Derek Webb’s new album (available for free on NoiseTrade). Check out this fun music video and then grab the code and post on your website to help this thing go viral!:

Also available for free on NoiseTrade: Red State Update’s How Freedom Sounds

Haven’t heard/seen Red State Update?! Enjoy this recent installment: