DAJ ONLINE/ APRIL 30, 2008

April 30, 2008/ EDITION
Rather than writing twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays I have decided to change it to a weekly schedule. I have also changed the name to the DREAM AGAIN JOURNAL ONLINE. We published the DREAM AGAIN JOURNAL for a few years in the 90’s and so this is the resurrection of an old endeavor for Project Dream Again. The DAJ Online will come out on Wednesdays. Along with those folks who receive it by email it will be posted at the sites listed above.
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According to findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences outdoor activities is on the decline while people spend more time online or in front of the TV. For example fishing peaked in 1981 and by 2005 had dropped 25%. Visits to U.S. national parks are down 23% from their high point in 1987. Why does any of this matter? I could give you reasons like if you aren’t out in nature you will not be as interested in the conservation of it. However, let me see if this one finds it way into your inner being. Have you ever been feeling low and heard a bird singing and the sound lifted your spirit? Nature can nurture your very soul. Merriam-Webster Online defines nurture as “the sum of the environmental factors influencing the behavior and traits expressed by an organism.”
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Mark Penn has written a book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes in which he argues that it is the little things that shape the big things of the future. I want to share just a couple of things from the book. (1)The top 1% of American pets live better than 99% of the world’s human population. (2) 54% of black 12th graders said religion played a very important role in their lives, compared to only about 27% of white students, and their church attendance correlates with lower drug and alcohol abuse, later sexual activity, and altruistic attitudes. [Seems if they make it to the 12th grade their religion played a major role] (3) Ten times more men regularly visit Internet pornography sites than regularly watch baseball.
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Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the seminal religious thinkers of the 20th Century. As a theologian, ethicist, and pastor, he worked to make the Christian faith comprehensible to and responsible for the modern world. The legacy of Reinhold Niebuhr, along with his brother, H. Richard Niebuhr, is a socially engaged tradition of thoughtful Christian activism, and a realistic and sober recognition of the limits and possibilities of human aspirations.
Niebuhr began his career as the pastor of a German Reformed congregation in Detroit, but very quickly grew to national prominence as a writer and speaker on the issues of his time -- war, poverty, racism, and social inequality. He stood for a progressive Christianity that believed in making a positive difference in the world.
As his theology matured, he came to argue that the human capacity for evil could not be easily overcome by simple appeals to the love of God and neighbor. In rejecting those versions of the Social Gospel movement that seemed to be too reliant on a naively optimistic assessment of human nature, he began to develop his own approach, which came to be known as "Christian Realism." This realism stood in contrast both to the idealism of Christian pacifists and socialists who believed that social change could be brought about by pure moral suasion, and the cynicism of the more Machiavellian brand of realism, that believed that politics was a realm of power not subject to moral critique. Niebuhr sought a middle way between these two positions, recognizing politics as the realm of the struggle for power, but affirming the need for principle to underlie and uphold the human conscience in that struggle.
We need some of his realism today. We can’t afford more talk or study groups. We need action based on realism. What is really going on with real people in their daily lives? To learn to Dream Again and begin the recovery journey takes looking realistically in the mirror not rhetoric from Raleigh.
You can reach me directly at edcooper@projectdreamagain.com
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