By now most of you have probably heard our president, B. Hussein Obama, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for his efforts to promote global peace. The world seems to be split over opinions of whether or not this was deserved or a good bit premature, if not even a good bit ludicrous. He did give a good speech in Cairo, and has scaled back US involvement in Iraq (although reviews are mixed as to whether that is leading to more peace), but he has also ordered around 20000 more troops into Afghanistan, (I’m sure the Taliban wouldn’t have voted for him) and has been slow on his promise to close down Gitmo. Perhaps he’s been so busy trying to get the Olympics to Chicago he just hasn’t had time.

What most people don’t know is that the nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize are closed on February 1st. This means he had been in office for all of 12 days before he was nominated. Now, I certainly don’t want to spoon feed people conclusions they can draw for themselves, but what exactly did he do in those 12 days that made his such a shoe-in for the Prize? I came across an interesting article the outlines those 12 days that I felt obliged to pass on. It was written by Tommy De Seno and came from Fox News (I know, some of you have stopped reading already):

HOW TO WIN THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IN 12 DAYS

“Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. Over the last decade the only requirement to win the prize was that the nominee had to be critical of George W. Bush (see Al Gore, Mohamed El Baradei and Jimmy Carter).

President Obama has broken new ground here. Nominations for potential winners of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ended on February 1. The president took office only 12 days earlier on January 20.

Let’s take a look at the president’s first 12 days in the White House according to his public schedule to see what he did to deserve a Nobel Peace Prize:

January 20: Sworn in as president. Went to a parade. Partied.

January 21: Asked bureaucrats to re-write guidelines for information requests. Held an “open house” party at the White House.

January 22: Signed Executive Orders: Executive Branch workers to take ethics pledge; re-affirmed Army Field Manual techniques for interrogations; expressed desire to close Gitmo (how’s that working out?)

January 23: Ordered the release of federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Lunch with Joe Biden; met with Tim Geithner.

January 24: Budget meeting with economic team.

January 25: Skipped church.

January 26: Gave speech about jobs and energy. Met with Hillary Clinton. Attended Geithner’s  swearing in ceremony.

January 27: Met with Republicans. Spoke at a clock tower in Ohio.

January 28: Economic meetings in the morning, met with Defense secretary in the afternoon.

January 29: Signed Ledbetter Bill overturning Supreme Court decision on lawsuits over wages. Party in the State Room. Met with Biden.

January 30: Met economic advisers. Gave speech on Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Met with senior enlisted military officials.

January 31: Took the day off.

February 1: Skipped church. Threw a Super Bowl party.

So there you have it. The short path to the Nobel Peace Prize: Party, go to meetings, skip church, release federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries, party some more.

Good grief.”

Thoughts? Comments? Observations? I’ve striven to stay away from politics on this blog page, and have avoided many an issue I wanted to discuss, but this one seemed a bit too perplexing to leave alone.

Okay, I’ll come right out and say it…I was one of those guys for a while. I didn’t care what others said about it, I knew it was evil and I didn’t want anything to do with it. I was a youth pastor, for goodness sake. I couldn’t be involved in condoning something so vile and abhorrent. It would jeopardize my whole walk with Christ. Then, my wife sold her soul, and tragically, I was quick to follow. So now, with the 6th movie just being released, I’ll just put it out there…I LOVE THE HARRY POTTER SERIES…there, I said it. In my opinion, they are some of the best written books I’ve ever read and will and should be classics for generations to come. Can they be confusing for young readers? Sure, but so can Lord of the Rings, the Narnia series, and any other set of books that deal with wizards, magic, fairytale places, and the battle of good vs. evil. I know many hold strong opinions about these books, and sadly, many of those opinions come about not from reading the books, but from the hype generated by some of the louder voices of the Christian Right. As such, I’d like to offer the following article, written by a fellow follower of Christ, to shed some light on the much maligned Harry Potter series. I hope you enjoy. ***Spoiler Alert - The entire article speaks of information you would only have after having read the entire series*** If you don’t want to spoil it, just trust me, read the books, enjoy a wonderfully woven together story of good triumphing over evil, and then come back to read this article:

Harry Potter and the Fire breathing Fundamentalists
By Jerry Bowyer
Thursday, August 2, 2007

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the Harry Potter book series and contains spoilers including the final book just released in bookstores.  Do NOT read if you do not want to now how the Harry Potter series ends.

KKLA is the largest Christian talk radio station in America. I hold a dubious record there – I am responsible for causing the largest number of complaint calls the station had ever gotten in a single day. The topic? Harry Potter.

The Bowyers love Harry Potter: the novels, the movies, the video games, the midnight bookseller parties, we’re game for any of it. It didn’t start that way; ten years ago my mother wanted to give Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to one of my girls as a Christmas gift. “No way,” I said. “We don’t do witches and wizards here.”

A couple of years later my mother-in-law asked the same question. By then I’d become a little less rock-ribbed and quite a bit more disillusioned with the religious right wing of the conservative movement. Gracie loved the books and started sharing the story with me. As I noticed more and more references to classical and medieval literature my guard started to fall.

Eventually I went to see the movie version with my whole family. When I left the theatre, I knew two things: first, that I had been an ignorant blow-hard. This wasn’t Wiccan propaganda: it was standard-issue fairy tale magic like Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz. Second, that Joanne Rowling had spent a great deal of time immersed in The Greats – the long line of literary masterpieces that range from The Lord of the Rings and Narnia back through Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, the Arthurian Legends, the Church Fathers, the Scriptures themselves, and into the best of the pre-Christian Greek classics. In other words, Rowling was one of us.

Not long after that, I got to know John Granger and his book, The Key to Harry Potter, and I knew that I was not alone.

So I shared what I had learned with the radio audience. Harry is a lot of things. He’s a little bit Prince Harry forced to grow into the great warrior Henry V. He’s a lot more of the young Arthur, taken from his family at a young age, forced to live under the neglectful care of an inferior family, kept in the shadows of a bullying older adopted brother and unaware of his great origins. Eventually he is mentored by a great wizard (for young Wart, that’s Merlin; for Harry, it’s Dumbledore – a member of the Order of Merlin). Both lead quests to find a cup. Both (spoiler alert here- and from now on) end up procuring a great sword out of a lake in order to proceed with the quest.

I’m afraid the Arthur stuff doesn’t do much for many American evangelicals, though. It’s a little too British for Americans, plus it smells suspiciously Roman Catholic to a lot of Evangelicals. While I got lots of appreciative remarks, I didn’t make much headway with the fire breathers.

Next I tried the more recognizable Christian material. In Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Harry confronts Voldemort (whose name means “will to death”) by traveling down into a great cavern where he slays a serpent to win an (eventual) bride. He fatally wounds the serpent in the head. He’s rescued by a bird who descends upon him and the bride, a kind of bird whose “tears have healing powers, and who are able to bear immense loads.” The bird bears them up out of the cavern. “There, how’s that?” I thought. The problem is that very few Christians seem to be aware of descendit ad infernum, the descent into hell. Don’t the schools teach Dante? Don’t the Churches teach the Apostle’s Creed? Well, as a matter of fact, no, they generally do not. The Proto Evangelium, the first gospel in which God told Adam and Eve that He would send Someone who would rescue their descendents by crushing the head of the serpent doesn’t seem to get a lot of play either.

I could go on for page after page: snippets from ancient hymns and creeds for instance. The most powerful spell in Harry’s world is the Patronus, in which the wizard forcefully says “Expecto Patronum”. That’s Christian Latin for “I look for the Savior”. Expecto is used in the Nicene Creed, and Patronum is used in the medieval Dies Irae as the Savior that we look for in the day of judgment. Harry uses the spell when ghastly evil spiritual beings called DEMENtors (caps mine) attack him and another innocent man near a lake. A stag (which just happens to function as a common Christ figure in medieval art) walks across the water dispelling the vile soul-destroying creatures. What’s it take, a 2 by 4 across the forehead? This is Christian stuff!

Well, the 2 by 4 has arrived and it’s called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In it, Harry learns that the evil Voldemort has broken his soul into shards and used those shards to possess certain objects. These are called Horcruxes. One of them is a ring (Lord of the Rings fans should find this a little familiar) and as long as the object is not destroyed the ‘Dark Lord’ cannot be destroyed either. Well it turns out that one of those soul shards in imbedded in a scar in Harry’s forehead and Harry comes to understand that the only way the evil can be destroyed is for Harry to willingly give up his life. In order to save his friends at Hogwarts School (which we learn in book 7 reminds Harry of a church) and particularly his friend Hagrid (whose name is suspiciously similar to Hagioi, which is Greek for Saints) he must allow himself to be killed by the dark lord. He makes a long walk through a wood in which he stumbles (Via Dolorosa, anyone?) all the while being encouraged by a vision of his deceased mother Lily.

This might be a good time to tell you that the Lily is often used as a symbol for Mary, the mother of Jesus, in medieval literature. I have an album in my musical collection of exceptionally beautiful hymns about Jesus and Mary, called The Lily and the Lamb. Harry goes ‘as a sheep to the shearer’ to Voldemort, where he is killed. There he meets his old mentor Dumbledore (old English for bumblebee, a medieval symbol for wisdom based on Psalm 119). While Dumbledore explains it all, the great white cloud in which Harry finds himself begins to take the shape of a familiar train station. The station’s name is King’s Cross, which is also the title of that particular chapter of the book. Harry is given the choice of going ‘on’ or going back to save his people. Harry goes back and finds that since he willingly gave his life for the people of Hogwarts, Voldemort’s curses no longer bind them. Voldemort, then, is destroyed (by his own hand in an attempt to kill Harry again) and the various races and houses of Hogwarts celebrate in a great feast, in which they ignore the walls and divisions which had theretofore separated them.

Since this book has been published I have not seen a single apology to JK Rowling from any of the various fundamentalist bashers. She’d been accused of atheism (she’s an Anglican) and of being a witch (she knows nothing at all about the occult or Wicca).

Why no apologies to the lady? First, it’s always tough to say you’re sorry. But deeper than that, I think the problem is that so much of the religious right failed to see the Christianity in the Potter novels because it knows so little Christianity itself. Yes, there are a few ‘memory verses’ from Saint Paul, and various evangelical habits like the ‘sinner’s prayer’ and the alter call. However the gospel stories themselves, the various metaphors and figures of the Law and the Prophets, and their echoes down through the past two millennia of Christian literature and art are largely unknown to vast swaths of American Christendom, including its leaders.

Seven years ago, Joanne Rowling was asked whether she is a Christian. Her answer:

“Yes I am. Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.”

For once, I disagree with her: I don’t think they would have guessed the ending. Most of them can’t recognize the ending of the story even after it’s been told.

Oh, I almost forgot the radio station. Terry Fahy, the General Manager of KKLA, told me that he’d like to have me on the station again. So, you see, there are signs of hope after all.

On our little satellite box, channel 182 is where you find Dirty Jobs, Futureweapons, Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch, Time Warp, and all those other fantastic shows only The Discovery Channel can bring you. It is, without doubt, my favorite channel to watch. Just south of 182 on my remote control is ABC Family, where one can find reruns of Tom and Jerry and America’s Funniest Home Videos, two of the best shows ever made (with the only pock mark being anything remotely related to Danny Tanner!). Shortly after AFV is over, the commercials take a very noticable turn toward the white-washed and obnoxious, even for ABC Family. That’s because Pat Robertson and his groupies are gearing up for another episode of The 700 Club. As laziness would have it, a couple nights ago after Time Warp was over, I hit the Recall button during a commercial and it landed on that timeless show just as they were discussing all the gloom and doom of our nation, and for some strange reason, I didn’t change the channel. I guess you could compare it to a train wreck when you know you should look away, but you just can’t will yourself to do it! So, I watched for 10 or 15 minutes, which was more than enough to remind me of why I never watch it in the first place. Please allow me to vent for a bit. You can fire back at me when I’m done if you like…

The topic for the show was the National Day of Prayer, which happens to be today. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge advocate of prayer and I have led my fair share of gatherings during this annual time we set aside to turn our hearts and minds to God. I was glad to see coverage being given to an event that quite literally can change the world. What turned my stomach was the video clip they showed over and over again of President Obama addressing a group of people in the middle east and stating the United States is not a Christian nation. The religious right has already turned that statement into commercials, internet adds, and any other anti-Obama propaganda they can dream up. Of all the things to talk about, an obscure statement in a speech on the other side of the world by our president had Pat and his sidekick noticably up in spiritual arms.

So, why did it bother me? Well, if you know me at all, you know with certainty that my political views are a good bit different than that of our president. In fact, on the vast majority of issues, we find ourselves at polar opposites. However, for as much as I generally disagree with our Commander in Chief, I couldn’t agree more with what he said in that statement for which he’s been so vilified. In case you didn’t get the memo, we aren’t a Christian nation any longer. Sure, we were founded on those principles and we’ve fought and died for generations in the name of our Christian faith, but look around, we aren’t exactly what we used to be. The pornography industry in the world (a majority of which is right here in the good ole US of A) is worth a whopping $97 BILLION each year…a football player gets worse punishment for dog fighting than for taking the life of a human being…we haven’t been able to pray in schools for years…millions of babies die each year before being given the chance to live, and often times our best “Christian” response is a pipe bomb at an abortion clinic…each year, billions of dollars are spent fighting to keep gays from marrying and increasingly that entire portion of our population feels more and more unloved by the church (settle down, I don’t support gay marriage…its just an interesting point counterpoint)…more than half of all “Christian” marriages end in divorce…nations once thought to be “pagan” are now sending Christian missionaries to the US…the epicenter of Christianity has moved to the other side of the world and many of us wouldn’t recognize the Holy Spirit at work if it slapped us in the face… more Americans are morbidly obese than ever before due to a culture of absolute gluttony and excess…we are more materially driven than we’ve ever been and we wonder why our stress levels are high, our marriages end, and we’re on 19 different medications…LOOK AROUND…I don’t really see our Savior in very much of that at all. So, I’ll hand it to Obama, he got it right, we aren’t a Christian nation any longer. And what I would love to see is Christians so passionate about the truth in his words, and so broken by their reality, that we start turning back to Christ and begging Him to intercede. 2 Chronicles speaks truth to our present situation so well when God appears to Solomon and says: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” May we be a generation and a nation who seeks the face of God.

So yes, I watched part of the 700 Club. And yes, I agreed with our president. And yes, I’m sure I’ve offended both sides of the story with my disparaging comments both about our fallen nation (which I happen to love) and about the Christian cheese we have on TV because donations from Christians that could be digging wells in Africa or feeding kids in Haiti keep paying for Pat to talk (Yes, I know I’ll see him in Heaven…but you can bet I’ll ask him if that was really the best TV he had to offer!).

Thanks for listening to my rant, if you’re even still here. May God change the world, and may it start with you and me.