90 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT (=Doomsday)!

A week ago (on Jan. 23), the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced the setting of what they call the Doomsday Clock. Contrary to my expectation, the clock was set the same as last year: 90 seconds to midnight (with midnight representing “doomsday”).

For 75 years now, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has been announcing the setting of the Doomsday Clock. That nonprofit organization was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and former Manhattan Project scientists. They introduced the Doomsday Clock two years later.

The first setting of the Clock was seven minutes to midnight. In 1949, with the explosion of a nuclear device by the Soviet Union and the beginning of the arms race, it was reset to three minutes before midnight.

The testing of the hydrogen bomb in 1952 led to resetting the Clock in the following January to just two minutes before doomsday. Relations between the U.S. and the USSR improved over the next few years, though, and in 1960 the hands on the Clock were moved back to seven minutes.

Over the next decades, the Doomsday Clock kept going up and down, reaching the farthest from midnight, 17 minutes, in 1991. But in 2002 it was back to seven minutes and has never been further since. In 2015 it was back down to three minutes where it started in 1947.

In January last year, the Clock was set at 90 seconds. the closest to midnight it had ever been, and it was kept at that setting last week. I expected it to be set even closer to “doomsday” because of the threat of expanding, and perhaps nuclear, war in the Levant.*

The threat of nuclear war was the main basis for setting the Doomsday Clock for the first 60 years. In 2007, however, climate change was added to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as another portentous threat to humankind, and the hands on the Clock were set at five minutes to midnight.

The announcement regarding this year’s setting of the Clock stated that there were four main considerations for determining that setting: 1) the many dimensions of nuclear threat, 2) an ominous climate change outlook, 3) evolving biological threats, and 4) the dangers of AI.**

How should we respond to the current setting of the Doomsday Clock? This question surely demands our thoughtful attention. Let me suggest three things:

1) Don’t ignore the Doomsday Clock. It would be easy to shrug off the Clock’s warning because of denial, indifference, or the unwillingness to face seriously the present predicament the world is in—or even just due to the pressure of meeting the demands of our everyday lives.

2) Don’t let the Doomsday Clock get you down. Depression, of course, is the result of feeling “down” for whatever reason. Too much attention to the Clock can certainly cause depression. Just as we shouldn’t ignore the clock, neither should we think about it “all the time.”

3) Work actively to elect candidates of the better political party, that is, the party working more consistently to deal with the dire problems besetting the whole world.

On the website linked to in the second footnote, we are told that the threats the world is currently facing “are of such a character and magnitude that no one nation or leader can bring them under control.”

They go on to state that “three of the world’s leading powers—the United States, China, and Russia—should commence serious dialogue about each of the global threats.”

Further, they contend that those three countries “need to take responsibility for the existential danger the world now faces. They have the capacity to pull the world back from the brink of catastrophe. They should do so, with clarity and courage, and without delay.”

I am not at all optimistic, though, that the three countries mentioned will even begin to do most of what is necessary to move the hands on the Doomsday Clock farther from midnight.

But I am quite sure there is much more possibility of that being done under the Democratic Party in the U.S. rather than by the MAGA party, which includes so many xenophobic people who, among other things, are also global warming and pandemic deniers--as well as deniers of the clear results of the 2020 presidential election. 

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  * I previously wrote about the Doomsday Clock in August 2020 (see here) and mentioned it briefly (here) in March 2018. Some things now are much the same, but there are some distinct differences also.

Note too that the Doomsday Clock elicits attention from around the world. See, for example, this Jan. 17 article from the Hindustan Times, an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi.

** See here for the official “2024 Doomsday Day Clock Statement” and related information. 

The Challenge of the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is something “everyone” knows but hardly anyone follows to a significant degree. In this post, I want to think with you about the meaning and practice (or lack thereof) of the Golden Rule and the challenge it presents in one concrete problem facing USAmerican society today. 

The Golden Rule in Christianity and Other Religions

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” (Matt. 7:12), words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, have been referred to as the Golden Rule since the 17^th century. Similar words, though, were said/written in other religious traditions before and after Jesus.*¹

Of special interest is the statement of Hillel, the esteemed Jewish rabbi who died about 10 years after Jesus’ birth. He reportedly said, “What is hateful to yourself, do to no other.”

This negative version of the Golden Rule, sometimes called the Silver Rule, is often expressed, “What you do not wish done to you, do not do to others.” Similar words are found in ancient Hindu and Buddhist texts, as seen in this image: 

It is interesting that the words of the five major religions seen here, the Muslim words are closest to the words of Jesus. One source states, “According to Anas ibn Mālik (d. 712), the Prophet [Mohammed] said: “None of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself’.”

What about the Platinum Rule?

Some people are critical of the Golden Rule and say it should be replaced by what they call the Platinum Rule: “Treat others the way they would like to be treated.” This shifts the focus from what you want to what others want.

Jennifer Furlong, a motivational speaker and advocate for personal growth gave a TEDx talk titled “The Golden Rule Not so Much, Platinum Rule Rocks.” In that talk, she declares that the Golden Rule is terrible relationship advice and urges people to use the Platinum Rule instead. *²

There is certainly merit in this emphasis on the (poorly named?) Platinum Rule. Thinking about what others want or need and seeking to respond to those wants/needs is a worthy challenge for us all. But so many people don’t even come close to meeting the challenge of the Golden Rule.

Let me illustrate this with one contemporary issue.  

The Golden Rule and the Current Immigration Crisis

The number of immigrants crossing the southern border of the U.S. is one of the most contentious issues facing our nation at present, and it raises a lot of red flags for many. A shutdown of the government almost happened because of the strong disagreement between the pro- and anti-immigration legislators.

Further, before long the Republican House of Representatives will likely impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Republicans have repeatedly accused Mayorkas of failing to enforce the nation's laws as a record number of migrants arrived at, and crossed, the U.S.-Mexico border.

The clamor to “close the border” is actively supported by many conservative White evangelicals. But how does one obey the Golden Rule and turn away people, including families, fleeing violence and starvation?

One tragic example is that of a Mexican woman and two of her children who drowned last week seeking to cross the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, Texas. Mexican authorities requested help from the U.S. Border Patrol, but they were denied access to the area by the Texas State Police and National Guard.

So, if you were there in the place of that mother, what would you want others to do to/for you? Of course, you would want them to do all they could to rescue you and your children.

How could people claim to follow the Golden Rule but do nothing to help those seeking refuge from violence and extreme economic hardship?

Some have claimed that we are human beings, not human doings. That may be true, but be sure to note that the first word of the Golden Rule is do.

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*¹ The Wikipedia article gives a helpful summary of the variety of ways the Golden Rule has been expressed by numerous religious leaders and secular scholars. 

*² That 2017 talk was loaded on YouTube, and to date it has had around 12,000 views. It is a bit ironic, though, that in contrast to what once was usually the case, gold is now worth considerably more than platinum. Even at the end of 2017 an ounce of gold was worth $1,300 but an ounce of platinum was worth only $940.

*³ See this article posted on January 16. Although it is about a bridge some 300 miles southeast of Eagle Pass, I also suggest you read this Jan. 17 article titled “Fellowship Southwest joins bridge walk to draw attention to broken asylum system.”

P.S.: Here is a 1967 Wizard of Id comic strip by Johnny Hart: 

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

In her December 31 sermon, my pastor told us about Sankofa, a concept/symbol that comes from the Akan people who live mainly in Ghana. I had not previously heard of Sankofa, but Pastor Ruth’s use of that idea on Dec. 31 was surely appropriate.

Sankofa is also appropriate for us to think about now in this second week of the new year. 

Sankofa is often illustrated as a beautiful bird with its head turned backward taking an egg off its back. It symbolizes the West African proverb about the importance of reaching back to the past, learning from it, and using that knowledge to create a more desirable future.

According to what ChatGPT told me, “The Sankofa is deeply rooted in African philosophy and is often used to emphasize the significance of cultural heritage, knowledge and the interconnectedness of past, present, and future.”

As Pastor Ruth showed us in her sermon, this symbol is at the very top of the new (2019) Sankofa Peace Window at the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. (Click here to see a picture of that impressive window.)**

It is certainly appropriate for African American people to use the Sankofa symbol as they seek to acknowledge their past heritage in endeavoring to create a better future for themselves in this country.

That same emphasis, though, is something we all, regardless of race or nationality, can borrow and apply to our lives with considerable benefit at the beginning of this new year.

Sankofa can be linked to the ancient Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking forward and the other one backward. The English word January, as you probably know, is named after Janus. 

Both Sankofa and Janus symbolize a dual-faced looking backward and forward, but Sankofa is more noteworthy. Janus was primarily the god of beginnings and transitions, associated with the passage of time and the start of a new phase.

Sankofa is more meaningful, though, because it places a significant emphasis on learning from the past for the benefit of the future.

Utilizing the Sankofa concept in this critical year of 2024 is of great importance. We need to learn from the past year, or past few years, to help us make wise decisions in this new year.

Many things might be considered in this regard, and I encourage each of you to consider what you can learn from your own past experiences to forge a better future for yourself and your loved ones in the year ahead.

Here, however, I want primarily to think with you about the debacle that took place three years ago on January 6 in our nation’s Capitol.

At a news conference last Thursday (Jan. 4), Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said,

On January 6, 2021, the United States lost control of the grounds around its Capitol and most of the Capitol itself. Thousands of people descended on the Capitol, and hundreds of people within the mob used force and violence to overwhelm the vastly outnumbered law enforcement officers protecting the building and those who work within it.

Then on January 5, President Biden made an important speech in Pennsylvania, not far from Valley Forge, where General George Washington quartered his troops from December 1777 to June 1778 during the Revolutionary War.

That war, the President said, was about “Freedom, liberty, democracy.” “Valley Forge,” he emphasized, “tells the story of the pain and the suffering and the true patriotism it took to make America.” But three years ago, when insurrectionists tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021, “we nearly…lost it all.”

When all the facts are examined, it seems undeniable that by his words and actions, the 45^th President of the U.S. was the one who instigated the violence of that unruly mob.

For the sake of preserving the democracy that has been at the heart of this nation from the beginning, it is imperative that we look back and properly assess the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and look ahead to November with the resolve to do all we can to keep Donald Trump from becoming the 47^th POTUS.

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** This is the third remarkable stained-glass window installed in that church since the MAAFA Remembrance Window was unveiled in 2000. The term “maafa” is a Swahili word that means “great disaster” or “great tragedy.” It is often used to refer to the African Holocaust or the transatlantic slave trade, during which millions of Africans were captured, enslaved, and transported to the Americas and other parts of the world (ChatGPT). The window pictures a representation of Christ whose torso contains a schematic of a slave ship.

Note: Last week I discovered that a novel titled Sankofa was published in 2021, and I am reading it now and finding it quite interesting. It is by Chibundu Onuzo, a woman born in Nigeria in 1991 and who has lived in England since 2005. It was Reese Witherspoon’s book club “pick” for Oct. 2021. 

In This New Year, Let’s Respect the Humanity of Everyone

In December, I finished (slightly) revising and updating the 2020 book I wrote primarily for my children and grandchildren, the subtitle of which now is The Story of My Life from My Birth to My 85^th Birthday (1938~2023). My daughter Kathy (who lives nearby) helped in several ways, including doing some proofreading. 

A few times in my book, I used the word Black(s) to refer to African American people. Kathy, who is a teacher of gifted students in the local public school system, said that that terminology should be changed, and referred to the current recommendations of the APA in that regard.

In their style guide for writing, the American Psychological Association (APA) lists some “general principles for reducing bias,” one of which is “be sensitive to labels.” In that regard is this directive: “Acknowledge people’s humanity.” They went on to say,

Choose labels with sensitivity, ensuring that the individuality and humanity of people are respected. Avoid using adjectives as nouns to label people…or labels that equate people with their condition.

Although there are some descendants of enslaved people in this country who reportedly prefer to term Black to African American, I soon agreed with the APA’s guidelines, and with my insightful daughter.

This insight is something I heard more than 60 years ago from Wayne Oates, the professor of my seminary course in Pastoral Counseling.* I have not, though, sufficiently or consistently put that perspective into practice.

I still remember Dr. Oates telling us “preacher boys” (and I don’t remember even one female student in that course I took in 1961 or ’62) that in our work as pastors, we shouldn’t say things like we’re going to visit the sick or the elderly. Rather, we should always refer to them as sick or elderly people.

Oates, who had a Ph.D. in religious psychology, was emphasizing then what the APA is still stressing now: adjectives should not be used as nouns to label people. The humanity of all people should always be recognized.

Even the humanity of our enemies must be affirmed. That is one thing that impressed me when I read the Sojourners article that introduced and included an interview with Ali Abu Awwad, the Palestinian pacifist I wrote about in my previous blog post.** That article begins with these words:

A core principle of nonviolence is recognizing the humanity of your opponent.

Considerable progress has been made in this regard in recent years. In the public media, “slaves” are now usually referred to as enslaved people. Such language choice separates people's identity from their circumstance.

And just the other day, I was surprised to hear a newscaster on the radio refer to “people experiencing homelessness” rather than “the homeless.” That was another example of people’s humanity being emphasized over their current condition.

But what about Awwad’s emphasis on recognizing the humanity of one’s opponents or enemies? It is certainly commendable that as a Palestinian man he can see the humanity of the Israelis who incarcerated him.

Can Israelis or even us in this in country, though, recognize the humanity of Palestinians affiliated with Hamas? It is certainly easier to demonize such people—and the enemy in every war is demonized. That makes it much easier to kill them.

As an advocate of nonviolence, I agree with Awwad’s recognition of the humanity of all people, including enemies. After all, Jesus said to his followers, “…love your enemies and pray for those who harass you” (Matt. 5:44, CEB).

The Hamas fighters are usually called terrorists, and not without reason. But if we follow the guidelines given above, perhaps they should be called “desperate people engaging in terrorism [=the use of intentional violence and fear to achieve political or ideological aims].”

I do not in any way condone the 10/7 violent attacks on Israel. But I do want to affirm their humanity, and that affirmation comes partly from recognizing their legitimate grievances at the way Palestinians have been treated since 1948.  

There is no telling what may happen, in the Levant or the world as a whole, in this new year of 2024. But among other things, let us always endeavor to respect the humanity of all people.

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  * In my 10/20/14 blog post I wrote that Wayne Oates was “probably the wisest teacher I ever sat under.”

** Only after making my previous blog post did I learn that Awwad was one of two men awarded this year’s Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in December. That award was bestowed on Awwad for his “efforts towards a non-violent resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.” That prestigious Peace Prize has been awarded annually since its establishment in 1986. Jimmy Carter was the recipient of it in 1997.

Standing for Peace in a Time of War

It has now been nearly 11 weeks since the deadly rocket attack on Israel that began the Israel-Hamas war. Most of the military destruction has occurred in Gaza, and most deaths have been of Palestinians who were not directly a part of Hamas, an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, its official name.  

The destruction and death toll in Gaza has been horrendous. Make no mistake about it: the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was an evil event. Wantonly killing more than 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, cannot be characterized differently.

But I also see Israel’s revengeful attacks on Gaza as even more evil, for far more innocent lives have been taken. The latest figures indicate that around 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces military. How much greater that is than “an eye for an eye”!

A large percentage of Palestinian deaths are of women and children, and as children (and others) dying of starvation and disease will increase in the days/weeks ahead, Palestinian casualties will continue to rise to ever more distressing numbers.

The U.S. government has clearly supported Israel from its beginning in 1948, and this support is even more distressing to me now.

As a U.S. citizen, I am highly displeased with the stance of the federal government. The U.S. has given Israel more than $260 billion of aid since World War II, more than to any other nation. In October, the Administration asked Congress to provide $14.3 billion of emergency aid to Israel.

I have been quite disappointed in President Biden’s public stance on support for Israel—but not as much as Thinking Friend Mike Greer, who on Dec. 15 posted his strong views on this blogsite:

Biden's role in the creation of a hell on earth in Gaza leaves me with little hope for the Democratic party here. I am wondering if he does not have a case of moral dementia . . . .

But I don’t think Biden’s position is any different from what any other President’s would be, including Hillary Clinton (who could well have been nearing the end of her seventh year as President if it had not been for her inexplicable loss in 2016).

Near Election Day in 2016 when I thought Clinton’s election was assured, I wrote “an open letter to Madame President.” Among other things, I implored her to ease up on her support for Israel in order to lessen the injustice being done to the Palestinians.

There are, though, voices for non-violence and peace, even among Palestinians. Despite all the violence that has been unleashed on Gaza by Israel since October 7, I am heartened by those who are still advocating peaceful responses.

Just last week, I learned about Ali Abu Awwad, a prominent Palestinian peace activist and proponent of nonviolence.*

Awwad (b. 1972) took part in the First Intifada as a teenager and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison. During the four years before he was released, he read the writings of Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK Jr. and embraced their commitment to non-violence.

In 2016 he co-founded Taghyeer (the Arabic word for change), a Palestinian national movement promoting nonviolence to achieve and guarantee a nonviolent solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

On the other side, there is Jewish Voice for Peace in the U.S. Since its founding in 1996, it has been working for “a world where all people—from the U.S. to Palestine—live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity.” (see here).

Also, Amanda Gelender, a Jewish American anti-Zionist writer, has also recently stressed (here) that “Israel’s massacre of Palestine is an assault on the Jewish faith.”**

So, in this war of Israel’s Defense Force against Hamas which, broadly speaking, is seen as a Jewish war against Palestinians, which side am I on? Without hesitation, I am on the side of those standing for peace and justice.

*****

Merry Christmas to all as people around the world celebrate the birth of one prophesied to be the Prince of Peace. 

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 * The theme of the January 2024 issue of Sojourners is “Nonviolence in a Time of War.” Their interview with Awwad is titled “Nonviolence in the Face of War.”

** Amanda Gelender is now based in the Netherlands. She has been a part of the Palestinian solidarity movement since 2006. Her Dec. 7 article begins, “I am a Jewish person who opposes the settler colonial state of Israel. This is not despite my Judaism, but because of it.”

Crises within Crises

For this blog post, I originally intended to write only about COP28, the international meeting dealing with the ever-growing environmental crisis. Then, I read powerful opinion pieces by Robert Kagan and became alarmed at the expanding political crisis in the U.S.

But how can we neglect to consider the crises in Gaza, Ukraine, and other countries where warfare continues, such as in Myanmar and Sudan that get far less press coverage? In addition, there are millions of individuals in our world who are facing personal crises of various sorts.

Indeed, there are crises within crises that threaten the well-being and even the survival of individuals, nations, and the world civilization as a whole. Please think with me about these crises, beginning with the outer circle that includes the whole world and moving down to the inner circle of individuals. 

The ever-growing environmental crisis was the central concern of COP28, which met in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12.*¹ The first COP meeting, convened in Berlin, was in 1995 and there have been yearly meetings since then.

As I have repeatedly pointed out over the last two years, the current ecological predicament is a crisis that threatens the very existence of the world as we know it (TWAWKI). Some progress was made toward alleviating the global environmental crisis at COP28, but it’s probably too little too late.*²

There will be dire consequences for most of the world’s population if drastic changes are not made soon, which is highly unlikely. This is the existential crisis in which all the other crises exist.

The wars in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza are crises for people living in those areas of the world. But there is an ongoing possibility that they will expand into larger wars. In the worst-case scenario, either of these wars could conceivably escalate into World War III.

These crises are rather localized now, but they might conceivably enlarge to rival the ecological crisis as an existential threat to TWAWKI.

Within these two larger crises is the political crisis in the United States. While this crisis is only brewing at present, there is a real and present danger of democracy being replaced in the U.S. with a form of fascism.

I had not been aware of scholar and journalist Robert Kagan until this month, but he is an editor at large for The Washington Post (WaPo) and has been a foreign policy adviser to U.S. Republican presidential candidates as well as to Democratic administrations via the Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Kagan (b. 1958) left the Republican Party due to the party's nomination of Donald Trump and endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Kagan’s Nov. 30 and Dec. 7 WaPo articles were titled “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending,” and “The Trump dictator-ship: How to stop it.” (These are long pieces, but well worth reading and reflecting on.)

Some Republican politicians are sounding the same warning. For example, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney's new book (released Dec. 5) is titled Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning. (Hear her talk about that in this Dec. 4 interview on NPR.)

On Dec. 10, Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in 2012, expressed the same sentiment, although more mildly, on “Meet the Press.”*³

There is a lot that can happen between now and Election Day next November, but USAmericans must be aware of the danger of losing their democracy—and minorities, the poor, and the underprivileged are the ones who would suffer most under a non-democratic government.

We common people may not be able to do much about the ecological crisis or the crisis in Ukraine or Gaza, but we do have the power to vote and to encourage our friends and neighbors to be informed and to vote accordingly.

The inner circle is the crisis of individuals who are suffering from illness, poverty, discrimination, or personal tragedies. We pray that many of these people will experience new hope during this Christmas season. Who is one such person you can help between now and December 25?

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*¹ COP stands for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (Click here to access the UNFCCC website.)

*² Here is the link to a helpful summary of the mixed results of COP28 on The Guardian’s Dec. 14 website.

*³ See here; Romney’s discussion of this matter begins at about 7 min. 45 sec. into the program. 

In Honor of Ken Medema on his 80th Birthday

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, but since I have mentioned that event in several past posts, this one is about an outstanding man I consider to be a musical genius who was born on the second anniversary of that tragic attack. 

Ken Medema in 2019

Kenneth Peter Medema’s birth day was December 7, 1943. He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and brought up in the Dutch Calvinist tradition of the Reformed Church. But he jettisoned his childhood faith and then as a college student at Michigan State University, he met Jane Ann Smith.

Jane’s father was the Baptist Student Union director at MSU and pastor of a small Baptist church in Lansing. In his discussions with Jane and her parents, Ken decided that “If this Baptist thing is what Christians are all about I want to be a part of it.” *¹

Ken and Jane married in 1965 and she has been Ken’s exemplary “helpmeet” and his partner in composition for all the years from then until now. Ken acknowledges that “without her input and perspectives his music would not begin to be what it is today.”*²

The Medemas currently live in the San Francisco Bay area, close to their two grown married children and four grandchildren.

From the time he was born, Ken Medema has been visually impaired. His sight has been limited to distinguishing between light and darkness and seeing fuzzy outlines of large objects.

As Ken says on his website, “I started banging on the piano when I was five years old, making up crazy little pieces on my mom’s piano. When I was eight years old my parents got me a wonderful teacher who taught me the classics with Braille music and encouraged me to play by ear.”

After college, he worked for four years as a music therapist at Essex County Hospital in New Jersey. It was while employed there that he began writing his own songs. Then in 1973, Ken left that work and began a career as a performing and recording artist—and he continues to do so.

I have had the privilege of hearing Ken perform two or three times and of meeting him personally. The last time was in 2005 when he was at the Sunday morning worship service at a Baptist church in the Kansas City area.

In my diary/journal entry for that day, I wrote “Ken Medema was…wonderful. He is one of the most talented people I have ever seen and met personally.”

Ken Medema is a radiant Christian in the radiant center. Although as a teenager and in his first years in college Ken seems to have been rather harsh in his criticism of others, he began to mellow after meeting Jane, and through the years he became a radiant Christian and winsome musical performer.

In the 1980s he and Jane became outspoken supporters of moderate or progressive Christianity, becoming ardent advocates of social justice for marginalized and oppressed people.

Jane studied at Union Theological Seminary and became the assistant pastor of Dolores Street Baptist Church in San Francisco. That church began accepting LGBT persons as members in the 1980s—and in 1989 their monetary gifts to the California Southern Baptist Convention were rejected.

But Ken has also been able to maintain an amicable relationship with conservative Christians. One of the recent YouTube videos is of the Easter Monday chapel service at Wheaton College.*³ Also, a few years ago he was repeatedly a guest at the Hour of Power telecasts. (See here, for example.)

At the age of 80, Ken still keeps a busy schedule. His upcoming performances this month include venues at Santa Ana, Calif.; Plano, Tex.; and Albuquerque, N.M.; and his January schedule includes Christ Cathedral, Garden Grove, Calif.; and the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Theater, New York City.

Truly, Ken is a radiant Christian who is a good example of being in the radiant theological center that I have commended many times. I encourage you to listen to some of his many YouTube videos—and to join me today in saying,

Happy 80^th Birthday, Ken Medema!

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*¹ From “Blind musical artist Ken Medema articulates his art form,” Baptist News Global (June 26, 2011).

*² From KenMedema.com website.

*³ Here is the link to that video; Ken first appears about 6½ minutes from the beginning.

** In 1977 a video was made portraying Ken’s early life, his meeting and marrying Jane, and his early musical career. If you have time, this is well worth seeing (here).