Monday, April 6, 2015

Peace Camp at FCC

Peace Camp at FCC
Monday, June 8-Friday, June 12
9 AM-3 PM

 

“If we are to teach real peace in the world...we shall have to begin with the children.”           Mahatma Gandhi

 

CIS is happy to announce Peace Camp 2015, to be held in our very own church.   Co-operation–Everyone’s a Winner is the theme.   Campers ages 5 years old to 5th grade will enjoy a variety of activities, assisted by junior counselors, grades 6-12.   

 

Some activities are designed to help campers develop inner peace, such as crafts, music, dance, yoga, and gardening.  Other activities focus on learning about famous peacemakers, advocating against bullying, and understanding non-violent approaches to conflicts.

 

The whole congregation is invited to help out with this camp.  Here are ways that you can help:

 

● Bring your old  magazines to church to be used in craft projects.  Place in the designated bin in the fellowship hall.

 

● Gather up beads and jewelry that you want to discard  (such as one-of-a-pair of earrings) for craft projects.

 

● Volunteer to assist the Peace Camp staff during Peace Camp week.    You can choose your own days and hours.

 

● If you have talents in areas such areas as music,  art, or gardening, volunteer to share your gifts.

 

● Make a donation to Peace Camp to be used for scholarships for students who cannot afford to attend.   Write checks to FCC, putting “Peace Camp” on the memo line.  

 

Tuition for the camp is $175.   Extended care can be arranged upon request.   To register, go to the Peace Camp website at peacecamphouston.org.

 

Junior counselors will earn community service credits for their work.

 

For more information, contact Gail Rickey, patrickey@aol.com.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Men's Lunch Group

The Men’s Lunch group meets monthly on the first Friday of each month in the Assembly Room.
 

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Rev Scott Lovaas' Sermon Jan 4, 2015


All News that is Fit for Print

 

What I love about this church is how people question basic assumptions and conventional wisdom about matters of faith. People come to question the validity of Jonah being swallowed by a whale or the creation story or even the resurrection.  Whether it is fact, fiction, or metaphor people draw meaning from it and people are free to disagree.  I am curious, do you question other areas of your life?

            What grade would you give yourself in regard understanding the mass media?  Are you able to ferret out what is censored or if there is a spin?  2 Timothy talks about people who smooth talk themselves into the homes of people.

 

The early framers of the country advocated that the media is the Fourth Estate or Fourth Branch of government- it was to keep a check on the judicial, executive and legislative branches.  Jefferson stated, ‘an enlightened citizenry is indispensible for a functioning democracy.’  Functioning is the key word here.

The media has a far greater effect on our culture than religion.  There is no institution more important in the public sphere in America than the media.  The media links private individuals with the larger society. That is why powerful people—corporations, government and the wealthy have a vested interest in controlling it. 

 

As followers of Jesus, we need to ask, what kind of society do we want to live in?  One that is managed by others and dissident voices are silenced or do we want to live in a democratic society where all views are shared.

 

Let’s go back a few years to 1916 when Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the US on the platform of “Peace without Victory.”  It was in the middle of WWI. The population was extremely pacifistic and saw no reason to become involved in the European War.  But Wilson wanted to get into the war.

 

Wilson had to devise a plan that would drum up support for the war, so he created the Creel Commission or what is often called CPI—Committee on Public Information. The committee used newsprint, posters, radio, telegraph, cable and movies to broadcast its message. It recruited about 75,000 "Four Minute Men," volunteers who spoke about the war at social events like church gathers, movie houses, etc.  Within six months CPI turned a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to destroy everything German.  It was a very impressive achievement.  Creel was so successful at engineering consensus on social and political issues that business and politicians took notice, Adolf Hitler was a notable student. 

 

Walter Lippmann writing in 1922,

 

The common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely,                and can be managed by a specialized class whose personal interests reach beyond the locality.  That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements.  The creation of consent is not a new art.  The purpose, then,      is not to burden every citizen with expert opinions on all questions, but to push that burden away from him towards the responsible administrator. 

 

The public must be put in its place, so that it may exercise its own powers, but no less and perhaps even more, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and roar of a bewildered herd. 

 

In Lippmann’s understanding of world, which  still continues today in intellectual circles, the public should be passive spectators and experts will inform and mobilize the citizens on issues.

 

Edward Bernay’s, the Father of Public Relations stated, it slightly differently in his 1928 with book Manipulating Public Opinion: The Why and the How:

           

            It is the power of the group to sway the larger public in its attitude.

Public opinion can be manipulated, but in teaching the public how to ask for what it wants the manipulator is safeguarding the public against his own possible aggressiveness.

 

Bernay’s was a brilliant PR man.  His uncle was Sigmund Freud.  Bernay’s was instrumental to get women to smoke with his ‘Torches of Freedom’ campaign.” Another cigarette manufactured refused to change the green box of cigarettes.  So Bernay’s was given the task to change America’s preference to green.  Bernay’s recruited beautiful woman to march down 5th Avenue wearing green and smoking.  He talked with department stores to use green, he spoke to fashion editors to use gree,….. in the end it worked. He also provided PR for the US overthrow of a democratically elected leader in Guatemala in 1954.

 

I won’t run through the litany of how public opinion has shaped issues like the Ludlow Massacre, the Red Scare, the Cold War, the two wars in Iraq, NAFTA, or the current wars in the Middle East. 

 

What is important is that propaganda and information is aimed at the educated class, not the poor.   You need the educated class to buy into the issue of the day.  That is why you see a list of experts, scholars on the TV or in the news telling you how to think and believe.

 

Let’s turn to the news.

 

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky released a book in 1988 called Manufacturing Consent they state the US media “serve, and propagandize on the behalf of the powerful societal interests that control and finance them.” They have developed a model called the ‘Propaganda model.’ To my knowledge it has never been refuted, people do not like it, especially the media, but it has not been refuted.

 

I used their model to look at print media in post–apartheid South Africa. I demonstrated how market forces restrict the media more then they did under apartheid.

 

Herman and Chomsky state news goes through five filters before it hits the audience.  Each of these filters, restricts, limits, and or taints the news we receive. 

 

1.      Ownership-media companies are large for–profit organization with multiple business interests.  For example, the Washington Post recently was heavily invested in for-profit colleges and as a result did not want any regulation for for-profit colleges.  Now they are owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Disney has multiple financial holdings as does New Corp. Corporations (Fox) will protect their interests first, they are mandated to do so.   

 

Furthermore, board of directors, investors often come from other prominent businesses and these wealthy corporations want to maintain their status quo and position within society.  These people share common interlocking social, political, economic interests with one another. As a result, news will reflect the interests and desires of media owners and those who finance them. In 1983,  90% media owned by 50 companies, 2011 6 companies control 90%. 

 

With increased media consolidation and ownership you have

            -Decreased competition and diversity of opinion

            -rise to sensationalism

             

2.      Advertising – Where does money come from for these for profit corporations?  The NYT and WSJ are written for the top 5% of the market.  Media corporations are selling audiences, not newspapers, they actually lose money when you buy the newspaper. The audience is the product. 

 

You are not going to run negative stories in the Houston Chronicle about developers, car dealerships, real estate agents or even energy companies.  Newspapers will naturally suppress or self censor themselves if negative stories appear about here advertisers. You can’t offend the ones paying the bills.  It is protection money.  The NYT for example, changed its coverage of the first Persian Gulf War when advertisers started pulling out. Reporters quickly learn not to offend advertisers.

 

3.      Sources.  When you look at a news story or read an article in a magazine or journal look at the sources.  Generally the higher up the chain gives the article more authority.   Sources come from businesses, corporations, think tanks, and trade organizations because they are trusted sources for stories considered newsworthy.  They come from the same socio economic class. Poor people rarely make it into a news articles.  As a result,

 

"The mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful sources of information by economic necessity and reciprocity of interest."

 

Editors and journalists who offend these powerful news sources, perhaps by questioning the veracity or bias of the furnished material, can be threatened with the denial of access to their media life-blood - fresh news. Thus, the media become reluctant to run articles that will harm corporate interests that provide them with the resources that the media depend upon.

 

In short, reporters pay a prices for access:  they become dependent on their official sources.

 

4.      Flak.  Flak is a negative response to a media statement, article or show.  A

negative story of Israel or a positive view of Palestinians or Hamas will trigger an immediate response, a hundred percent of the time. There will be flak with this sermon.  

 

Flak has a way of containing what is acceptable to talk about.  For example, James Risen, a Pulitzer award-winning writer for the NYT, is being threatened with jail time by the Justice Department about sources in a story he had written. His being threatened sends a chilling message to other reporters. What you find is a decrease in investigative journalism and increase in sensational crime, love stories, sports and other things that do not challenge the existing power structures.  Challenging power will always result in flak, or in the case of  MLK, Gandhi, Romero, Jesus it is  death.  

 

5.      The fifth filter is anti-communism—but it is something more general: fear.  People need to be frightened so that the state will protect the people.  The war on terror, the war on drugs, the cold war, fear of losing out on a trade deal attempts to arouse fears, shape understanding, and direct and support for campaigns.  We live in a very fearful society, it all goes back to WWI and the Committee on Public Information—the public can be aroused quite easily. 

 

These five filters serve to reduce any unwanted information or debate about issues affecting the elites consensus.  Furthermore, filters work in an undemocratic way that restricts a free flow of information. 

 

Let’s look at stories in the WSJ and NYT last month:  restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.   As you can predict they present a very narrow one-sided view of the story. I want to highlight a few things.  

 

There must have been about 20 articles since the story broke.  Some interesting observations can be made. 

 

1.      There was no mention of life in Cuba before the revolution under Batista

2.      No mention that Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the US

3.      No mention that Cuba scores higher in education then the US

4.      No mention that since 1992, the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution condemning the illegal trade embargo declaring it to be a violation of the Charter of the UN and international law.

5.      There was little mention of paramilitary groups in Florida

6.      There was one sentence about the Cuban Five.  The Cuban five came to America to spy on paramilitary groups in South Florida.

7.      There were two sentences about assassination attempts against Fidel Castro.

8.      No mention of covert plans like Operation Mongoose, biological and chemical attacks, kidnappings, bombing of foreign embassies, the blowing up of a Cuban airliner. 

 

Cuba has suffered more terrorists attacks by the US than any other country in modern history.  These issues were simply off the table. 

 

Let me address two main issues that are in the papers:   human rights and property that was confiscated. 

 

First confiscated property.  (Show two articles)  Until Friday, there was no mention of returning Eastern Cuba back to the Cuba. A little over 110 years ago the US held a gun to Cuba’s head and made them accept the Platt Amendment which granted the US control over Guantanamo.  All of it was in violation of the Vienna Convention.

 

The second issue is human rights. (Read from the article) “Cuba’s record on human rights is well documented. The State Department’s annual human rights said this year that the Cuban government carried out arbitrary arrests, failed to hold fair elections, spied on private communications, opposed free speech, restricted its citizens access to the internet and refused to recognize independent human rights groups.”  Sounds like our own NSA.  

 

What about people held against their will in Guantanamo, with no charges, no due process?  There was no mention of the recent CIA report about rectal feeding, which is essential rape of people in CIA custody. 

 

(Read last section) “Most human rights abuses were official acts committed at the direction of the government, the State Department report says, ‘ Impunity for perpetrators remained widespread.”   How about our own government? Were Dick Cheney, President bush held accountable for their illegal acts? How about the   bankers who brought down the economy? 

 

What you see are two sets of standards.  You can draw your own conclusion why that occurs, the propaganda model predicts it quite well

 

A moral person, at the very least, will apply the principle of universality, or the golden rule- the standards we apply to others we will apply to ourselves.  If not more stringently.

 

In closing, the media is a very powerful force in our lives, few people fully grasp how issues are framed, what information has been left out.  For the most part, mainstream agenda setting media is tailored to the wealthy.

 

The world I live in is much bigger than that.  I subscribe to a value system that talks about the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized.  There are clear instructions about orphans, widows, the mentally ill, the prisoner, and the homeless. 

 

It is my hope that this series will help you reflect on the images, symbols, and information that is being sent to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, week after week, year after year.  People in the advertising and public relations are some of the smartest people in our society.  As followers of Jesus we need to understand the world we live in and the institutions that have influence within our lives.     

 

Dietrich Bonheoffer stated the test of the morality of a society is how it treats its children.”

 

This can be reframed for the US media

 

‘the test of the morality of  the US are how the poor, oppressed, and marginalized are presented and covered within the media.’

 

We have much work ahead. Let us continue on the journey. Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Rev. Scott Lovaas' First Sermon at FCC

Sermon—My Opening Farewell

First Congregational Church of Houston

Preached 12 October 2014

Scott Lovaas

 

A loud knock pounded on the door next to ours in the middle of the night. Suddenly there was screaming, rustling and a lot of commotion. This was not normal, what was going on? Looking outside my window the military had surrounded the room with machine guns drawn. They had come to take away someone staying next to us in a small little pension/posada. Anne, my wife, and I were staying in the highlands of Guatemala on the shores of Lake Atitlan. The village we were staying in had a lot of local people abducted during the war in Guatemala.

Twenty-five years ago in 1989 Anne and I traveled extensively in Central America. We had made several trips. As you recall, it was a tense time in American foreign policy. There were three wars in the area—one in Nicaragua, one in Guatemala, which I mentioned, and another in El Salvador. The place was a bloodbath—over 350,000 people died in those wars.

Several weeks after our time in Guatemala, we tried to go to El Salvador. We had visas. We were initially turned away at an eastern border, partly because the country was on high alert. Several weeks earlier six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter were brutally murdered by government forces. The opposition forces, the FMLN had mounted an offensive and made their way into the capital, San Salvador. As a result, we had to traverse up and around Honduras and we went in through a border crossing in the north.

The first night we stayed in the mountain jungle frontier town of El Poy, in Chalatenango Province. Chalatenango witnessed some of the worst fighting during the war. That first night we heard gun fire in the hills.

The next day we boarded a yellow school bus to head down about a hundred miles to the capital, our flight back to the states left from San Salvador. About every ten miles the bus was forced to stop and unload, we and those on the bus were searched extensively. As we travelled toward the capital we saw columns of soldiers on patrol, we witnessed dozens of school buses that were torched as the opposition forced tried to cripple the economy.

We made it to the capital in the afternoon and you had a sense something was up. There was a dawn to dusk military curfew. We found a place and settled in for the night. We heard sirens all night. During the offensive, the opposition would move up city blocks by going through the walls of houses. For example, they would go through the meeting house move over to CE building then the church offices, to wall by wall. People would hang white flags over on their houses showing that there were no opposition forces there. Yet, during that time the military would fire bullets down from helicopters onto corrugated barrios, other neighborhood were simply bombed—it was awful. The day we arrived the government and opposition forces called a 10-day cease fire over Christmas. The next few days we went to poor barrios, met with journalists, church workers and human rights workers. We met some amazing people during this intense time. We went to where Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed while he was saying mass.

The Christmas Eve service we attended in a Catholic Church will be forever etched in my mind. It was a simple church, cement floor, wood benches with no backs, corrugated tin for the roof, a few light bulbs, it was about twice the size of this meeting house. For me, it is the essence of the church—it was about the people, not the church. Anne and I were the only North American’s in the service, there may have been a few hundred people, most were scared and tormented, some had lost family members, others disappeared. The people attending mass were hoping and praying the war and repression to stop. In the midst of all their suffering and losing their friends and comrades, people turned to faith for support and sustenance. The church ministered to a fatigued and war torn society.

The people we met who were involved in the struggle for peace, justice and freedom were quite remarkable. They walked the talk. They laid their lives on the line. They all had a conscience that prompted action. There was new thinking about the role of church and society. And it was the church that was at the heart of the struggles in Central America—Liberation Theology in particular.

As you may know, liberation theology has as a central idea that: God is revealed as having a preference for those people who are "insignificant," "marginalized," "unimportant," "needy," despised" and "defenseless." Liberation Theology has it’s foundation in the early church as they too helped the poor. It was the church that tried to change the social and political structures of the day, just like Lech Walesa did in Poland. Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. However, there was one difference between Walesa and Havel and those in Central America, they were deemed heroes in the West while priests, union organizers, and teachers in Latin America were deemed as subversives.

Over the years I have received a great deal of inspiration from those in Central America, Africa and the developing world or what is called the Global South. If you have travelled in the developing world, off the tourist circuit, you run into an amazing group of people. They are risk takers, adventurous, forward looking, they often have clear values, they have a different kind of hope, often with a religious conviction. They view the world with a different set of lens. I find it incredibly stimulating. I love being on the frontier.

As you know, Oscar Romero, was killed in March of 1980. He was the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He provides a different framework to think about faith. He states,

Do you want to know if your Christianity is genuine? Here is the touchstone: Whom do you get along with? Who are those who criticize you? Who are those who do not accept you? Who are those who flatter you?

I think these questions are helpful as we struggle to be faithful to the gospel. What are we going to be about here at FCC- Houston. What do the next few years hold for us? Personally, I see tremendous opportunity.

Returning back to my love of the frontier.

This is a frontier church. Like the flax water bag on the car radiator, this church has provided water in a desert. It has repeatedly provided new, innovative, and bold thinking and people for this community.

First, The church has been a thought leader from the very beginning. They have been innovator and early adaptors of new thinking.

Did you know this church was born out of the McCarthy Era? Wyn and Tom Gracean wanted to ‘build an open church‘ in Houston amidst a time of great disruption, racial tension and fear mongering. When the Gracean’s asked if Houston needed a liberal church, the response they received was –more than the darkest Africa. The year—1954.

The church wanted to be between Bible Belt folks and the Unitarians-they wanted to be theologically liberal congregation with a message. I love these pioneering folks. The flowers on the altar are given in memory of these Wyn and Tom Gracean. Ed- their son. We owe a lot to these folks.

It was daring to be liberal in Houston in the 50’s. Yet, this bold action set the tone for this church.

FCC was one of, or the first church in the South Central Conference to be open and affirming. Long before it was cool to do so.

The second remarkable thing is this church has produced some great community leaders-

Carl Umland stated Houston Habitat for Humanity. Diane and Roger Bub help start Westside Homeless Partnership. Bob Tucker was instrumental in starting Memorial Assistance Ministry. David Nussbaum and Maggie Tucker produced a new hymnal Bill and Mary Sue Fairchild help start Settegast Heights Village Jan Wilbur help start The Metropolitan Organization-a community organizing agency. Steve Rosencranz started Woods Project German Amador and Burton Bagby Grose started Poimiano Community Meal The church has prodded well over 30 people to go onto seminary-most during Bob Tucker leadership.

Third, this church has engaged with the world.

For many years this church was in dialogue about the Middle East with a Christian Ministry of the West Bank and Father Chacour

Susi and Hans Jahn brought forth the work of UCC missionary Dr. Joyce Baker in Honduras. This church helped with her health clinic- ODECKO and the building of 2 room schools. This church provided sewing machines to women who came from abusive relationships so that they can support themselves

The Church built a dental clinic in Mexico.

What a fabulous history. Well done. Or is it well done y’all. We are very fortunate to have these mavericks set the tone for us.

Now the hard part---their gift is our burden—we must uphold that tradition of raising up community leaders, engaging with the world and providing new thinking amidst a changing American landscape.

The church has also had some dry spells or periods of drought, like all institutions and organizations. Apple computer really struggled for a period of time as did IBM. Kodak, Blockbuster, TWA were not able to survive. We have some challenges ahead; we need to continue to provide new thinking in a new era. This church is surrounded by evangelical churches that provide quick easy black and white understanding of the world. It is not a world I live in. I live in a very complex world. Unfortunately life is not like that.

The DNA of this church is rich, diverse and important. We need to once again be a leading thoughtful alternative voice in this community. Today, the Bible passage comes at the end of the sermon. It comes from Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. The people above and hundreds of others in this church drew upon the teachings and wisdom of Jesus.

So as I wrap up I need a little participation.

I want you to come forward

Music of this church?

Adult Education program

A mission project

been bothered or upset with the church

want to be apart of something greater than yourself

You all are the church.

You are part of a dynamic and rich past.

We will be co-creators in God’s vision for this

community in a new era.

To paraphrase one of the statements on our

Heritage Walkway—

FCC has more truth and light to break fourth

from this church.

Amen.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Picnic and Peace Pole Re-dedication!





The Activities Committee will be sponsoring FCC's Annual All-Church Picnic this Sunday, May 4, after the worship service.  The Board of Church in Society (CIS) will also be rededicating the Peace Pole with members of Jewish and Muslim congregations who will also be participating in the picnic following the re-dedication.  

Activities Committee will be providing beef hot dogs and hamburgers, including buns, lettuce, onion, pickles and tomatoes and all the condiments.  

Please contact Jamie S if you plan on coming and bringing a side dish.  
  
 

Friday, April 25, 2014

Sunday, April 27,2014

This Sunday is designated at "Counseling Fund Sunday" at First Congregational Church. The purpose is to raise awareness of the Counseling Ministry here at the church. Sylvia Richards has been serving as the Minister of Counseling and Community life for many years and acts as a therapeutic presence for individuals as well as the entire congregation. Many persons from the wider community who would not be able to receive counseling have been aided by Sylvia's sliding scale fees which are made possible by support from the Counseling Fund. We have a very important resource at FCC in our counseling ministry. Let's all be present this Sunday as Sylvia and the entire Counseling Ministry Team lead our worship service. 

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Refurbishing the Bells

One by one, the bells are getting sponsors!


This picture was taken on Wednesday, and already there are 15 more golden bells to cover up the white ones. Is there a bell up there with your name on it? Would you like  to sponsor a bell? See Dennis for more information.


4/25/14 Update from Dennis:
The Adopt-a-Bell campaign has been very successful so far.  We have collected approximately $2300 toward our goal of $2750.  Thank you to all who have contributed.  We really appreciate your donations.  If you have not yet had a chance to contribute, we will be in the Assembly Room again this Sunday following the 10:00 a.m. service.