Hallelujah Chorus Flash Mob

Almost nothing puts me in the Christmas Spirit like Handel's Messiah and especially the Hallelujah Chorus. I've been privileged to hear Messiah at the Washington National Cathedral twice while I lived there and can honestly tell you that no other performance compares.

Until now.

Today I heard about the Hallelujah Chorus performed by a flash mob at the Welland Seaway Mall food court.

You simply must watch the video below to the end. If it doesn't put you in the Christmas Spirit, then I don't know what will. As always, if you read Little Merry Sunshine via email, make sure you visit the blog to watch the video.

Signs From God

I've been thinking a lot about Signs from God lately, given all the uproar over the church in Florida sponsoring the Burn the Quran day on September 11th. (I won't name or link to the church because I refuse to give them free publicity from LMS). I've seen a number of interviews with the preacher and in each of them he made statements that he would only cancel the event if he had a clear Sign from God.

I know that in my own life, I've wondered about Signs from God and wanted a Sign that I should take a specific action or make a decision. Every time I have those thoughts, I am reminded about one of my favorite scenes from the first season of The West Wing (yes, I can quote almost every episode, why do you ask?) when President Bartlet has to decide whether to to pardon a federal prisoner scheduled for execution or not. He looks for signs and throughout the episode, signs are given to him and his senior staff, but they all miss them. It culminates with President Bartlet meeting with his priest (played by Karl Malden) and his priest telling him a story about Signs from, after CJ walks in and informs President Bartlet that the execution is done.



I can't help but wonder if the minister from Florida organizing the Burn the Quran Day is simply missing the signs: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a coalition of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders, General David Petraeus, Attorney General Eric Holder, and the Pope, among others, have called for the church to change its plans because their actions will fuel the fire of hate against America and put American military lives at risk. I'd call these some pretty powerful Signs from God.

Unfortunately, I think the Burn the Quran Day is going to happen. I think it's despicable that it will, but hope that all of us who believe in freedom of religion (in addition to free speech) can come together and make our collective voices heard condemning this hateful action and making sure that the world realizes these small minded folks don't speak for the rest of us.

In response to this post, my friend Shari commented on Facebook, "maybe someone will wallpaper the church with COEXIST bumper stickers. Would that be sign enough?" Sadly, I don't think it would be sign enough, but she reminded me how much I love this bumper sticker and its message. Thanks Shari!

Crystal Beach Community Church & Me

On Sunday, Mom and I went to church at Crystal Beach Community Church. I don't attend church often and have many conflicts over what I believe religiously. For this reason, I haven't been a member of any church since I was in high school and had been confirmed at the First Presbyterian Church in Arlington Heights.

That said, I hate missing an opportunity to attend services at Crystal Beach Community Church. It just feels like home to me.

When I sit within its walls, I can feel the weight of the history of the church and my family.

My step-grandfather, Rev. C.W.A. Bredemeier was the founding minister and the first member.

My late Nana was the second member, taught Sunday School, and was the church secretary and treasurer. Nana also helped found the first CBCC Youth Fellowship, which met on Sunday nights for Bible Study at the church and every Saturday night down at former Seaside Hall for recreation and Christian fellowship. Obviously, Nana's Celebration of Life service was held at CBCC last month.

At Nana's Celebration of Life Service last month, a dozen people came up to me with the same story. "I'm a member of this church because of how your Nana greeted me and my husband 20 years ago when we first walked through the door. She invited us to sit with her and made us feel like we'd always been members." Wow. What a legacy. She will certainly live on for years and years. I felt her beside me on Sunday and as we sang her favorite hymn, "What A Friend We Have in Jesus," coincidentally one of the three hymns we sang.

Before he died in 1961, my grandfather, Jesse Paulk, also a member, taught Adult Sunday School, and sang in the choir. When he died in 1961, Nana brought all the money to the church that was donated to the family, saying "Jesse had been wanting us to start a Pew Fund so that we would have pews instead of the wooden folding Army chairs to sit on. Here is the money to buy the first pew." From that beginning, the church raised enough money to buy pews for the entire church and both choir lofts. Plus, there was enough money left over to have the church walls & concrete floor re-painted, as well as to build the current alter and lecterns, communion table and the tall wooden candle holders, all of which were designed by my step-grandfather and founding pastor, Rev. C.W.A. Bredemeier.

My mom sang in the choir, attended Sunday School and the Youth Fellowship Group, and was even married at CBCC to my dad in 1970 by Rev. Bredemeier.

I was baptized at CBCC by my step-grandfather Rev. Bredemeier on September 12, 1971, my mom's birthday, the anniversary of my grandfather's death, and just weeks after Rev. Bredemeier and Nana were married in the church . When I was a kid, I used to go over to the church and sit with the woman who was responsible for the chimes being played every night at 5:45 and could be heard all up and down the beach. Each night, she'd let me play the organ and let me believe that my playing was being heard throughout Crystal Beach, What I only learned last month is that the chimes had been automated since long before my days of playing them, so only the organist and I heard my "music."

No matter where I go, what I do, or even what my current internal struggle with religion, CBCC always feels like home and when I'm in Crystal Beach I have to go to church.

Harmonies of Liberty by Rev. Dr. Susan E. Watkins

In case you missed it yesterday morning, below is the sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Susan E. Watkins at the National Prayer Service. Watch the YouTube videos (note, the first one starts about 30 seconds into the actual sermon) and the transcript is below.

It's no secret that I'm not a huge church-goer. It's not that I don't believe in God because, in fact, I do. I don't go to church very often because I have too much life experience with "good Christians" who sit on the pew on Sundays and spend the rest of the week screwing everyone over. That kind of hypocrisy makes me insane. I also abhor the whole "fear of God" aspect. Finally, I feel closer to God when I'm in nature or doing volunteer work. I'd much rather walk my beliefs than simply talk them.

That said, if Rev. Watkins were my minister, I'd never miss a Sunday. She's inspirational and uplifting. She speaks to our better angels and about how we live each day and treat others says more about our faith than sitting on a pew. As a side note, she's also the first woman to deliver the sermon at the National Prayer Service.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Transcript -

Harmonies of Liberty
The Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins

Mr. President and Mrs. Obama, Mr. Vice President and Dr. Biden, and your families, what an inaugural celebration you have hosted! Train ride, opening concert, service to neighbor, dancing till dawn . . .

And yesterday . . . With your inauguration, Mr. President, the flame of America’s promise burns just a little brighter for every child of this land!

There is still a lot of work to do, and today the nation turns its full attention to that work. As we do, it is good that we pause to take a deep spiritual breath. It is good that we center for a moment.

What you are entering now, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, will tend to draw you away from your ethical center. But we, the nation that you serve, need you to hold the ground of your deepest values, of our deepest values.

Beyond this moment of high hopes, we need you to stay focused on our shared hopes, so that we can continue to hope, too.

We will follow your lead.

There is a story attributed to Cherokee wisdom:

One evening a grandfather was teaching his young grandson about the internal battle that each person faces.

“There are two wolves struggling inside each of us,” the old man said.

“One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, fear . . .

“The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love . . .”

The grandson sat, thinking, then asked: “Which wolf wins, Grandfather?”

His grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”

There are crises banging on the door right now, pawing at us, trying to draw us off our ethical center—crises that tempt us to feed the wolf of vengefulness and fear.

We need you, Mr. President, to hold your ground. We need you, leaders of this nation, to stay centered on the values that have guided us in the past; values that empowered to move us through the perils of earlier times and can guide us now into a future of renewed promise.

We need you to feed the good wolf within you, to listen to the better angels of your nature, and by your example encourage us to do the same.

This is not a new word for a pastor to bring at such a moment. In the later chapters of Isaiah, in the 500’s BCE, the prophet speaks to the people. Back in the capital city after long years of exile, their joy should be great, but things aren’t working out just right. Their homecoming is more complicated than expected. Not everyone is watching their parade or dancing all night at their arrival.

They turn to God, “What’s going on here? We pray and we fast, but you do not bless us. We’re confused.”

Through the prophet, God answers, what fast? You fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with the fist. . .

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice . . . to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house . .? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly . . .

At our time of new beginning, focused on renewing America’s promise—yet at a time of great crisis—which fast do we choose? Which “wolf” do we feed? What of America’s promise do we honor?

Recently Muslim scholars from around the world released a document, known as “A Common Word Between Us.” It proposes a common basis for building a world at peace. That common basis? Love of God and love of neighbor! What we just read in the Gospel of Matthew!

So how do we go about loving God? Well, according to Isaiah, summed up by Jesus, affirmed by a worldwide community of Muslim scholars and many others, it is by facing hard times with a generous spirit: by reaching out toward each other rather than turning our backs on each other. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “people can be so poor that the only way they see God is in a piece of bread.”

In the days immediately before us, there will be much to draw us away from the grand work of loving God and the hard work of loving neighbor. In crisis times, a basic instinct seeks to take us over—a fight/flight instinct that leans us toward the fearful wolf, orients us toward the self-interested fast . . .

In international hard times, our instinct is to fight—to pick up the sword, to seek out enemies, to build walls against the other—and why not? They just might be out to get us. We’ve got plenty of evidence to that effect. Someone has to keep watch and be ready to defend, and Mr. President—Tag! You’re it!

But on the way to those tough decisions, which American promises will frame those decisions? Will you continue to reason from your ethical center, from the bedrock values of our best shared hopes? Which wolf will you feed?

In financial hard times, our instinct is flight—to hunker down, to turn inward, to hoard what little we can get our hands on, to be fearful of others who may take the resources we need. In hard financial times, which fast do we choose? The fast that placates our hunkered-down soul—or the fast that reaches out to our sister and our brother?

In times, such as these, we the people need you, the leaders of this nation, to be guided by the counsel that Isaiah gave so long ago, to work for the common good, for the public happiness, the well-being of the nation and the world, knowing that our individual wellbeing depends upon a world in which liberty and justice prevail.

This is the biblical way. It is also the American way—to believe in something bigger than ourselves, to reach out to neighbor to build communities of possibility, of liberty and justice for all. This is the center we can find again whenever we are pulled at and pawed at by the vengeful wolf, when we are tempted by the self-interested fast.

America’s true character, the source of our national wisdom and strength, is rooted in a generous and hopeful spirit.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, . . .
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

Emma Lazarus’ poetry is spelled out further by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,: “As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made.”

You yourself, Mr. President, have already added to this call, “If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. . . . It's that fundamental belief—I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper—that makes this country work.”

It is right that college classes on political oratory already study your words . You, as our president, will set the tone for us. You will help us as a nation choose again and again which wolf to feed, which fast to choose, to love God by loving our neighbor.

We will follow your lead—and we will walk with you. And sometimes we will swirl in front of you, pulling you along.

At times like these—hard times—we find out what we’re made of. Is that blazing torch of liberty just for me? Or do we seek the “harmonies of liberty”, many voices joined together, many hands offering to care for neighbors far and near?

Though tempted to withdraw the offer, surely Lady Liberty can still raise that golden torch of generosity to the world. Even in these financial hard times, these times of international challenge, the words of Katherine Lee Bates describe a nation with more than enough to share: “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain . . .”

A land of abundance guided by a God of abundance, generosity, and hope—This is our heritage. This is America’s promise which we fulfill when we reach out to each other.

Even in these hard times, rich or poor, we can reach out to our neighbor, including our global neighbor, in generous hospitality, building together communities of possibility and of hope. Even in these tough times, we can feed the good wolf, listen to the better angels of our nature. We can choose the fast of God’s desiring.

Even now in these hard times let us

Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring,
with the harmonies of Liberty;

Even now let us Sing a song full of hope. . .

Especially now, from the center of our deepest shared values, let us pray, still in the words of James Weldon Johnson:

Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us . . . in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.

Those Damn Community Organizers

Ever since I heard Candy Crowley on CNN report the line about Community Organizers from an early copy of Palin's speech released to the press yesterday afternoon, I have been completely incensed.

I had to resist the urge not to throw things at my TV last night when she actually said it. My only saving grace was that I didn't want to punish myself by breaking my TV.

This morning, FranIam wrote a great post about how difficult it is for her to remain positive this morning in light of that speech. I gotta give FranIam kudos, she's really working hard to resist the urge to reach into the muck that the GOP is spouting.

In her post, Fran also asked for the opinions of her readers and what we thought of the speech. I commented about the community organizing line and I can't stop thinking about that comment.

Here's my comment:

I was over-the-top offended by many parts of her speech, but the line that will stay with me forever was the line that in 1 sentence managed to insult every volunteer helping those less fortunate in America:

"I guess being mayor of a small town is kinda like being a community organizer, except I had responsibilities."

Volunteers who help people with no voice have responsibilities too. Those responsibilities may not come in the form of municipal code, but they're a code from a much higher power - our conscious. The responsibilities of volunteers come from that place deep in our souls that won't allow us to ignore the poor, weak and the suffering. As far as I'm concerned, that's the highest calling there is and the most important responsibility we have as humans.

If not for those "community organizers" you clearly hate so much, would the
"community" previously known as the 13 Colonies have come together and risen up
against England? What do you think the Founding Fathers were? They weren't born
with that title. They were fucking COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS.

Oh, and that work you did on the PTA . . . THAT was Community Organizing too.

And all that GOTV stuff that goes on around election day? Community Organizing.

Rallying a group of volunteers to send care packages to the troops in Iraq, including your uber-patriotic son, Track? Community Organizing.

I could go on.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, "Governor, I know community organizers. I've
worked with them. They're friends of mine. Governor, you're no Community
Organizer."

Here's a few more things that occurred to me a few minutes ago (when I really should be focused on work) . . .

I guess you're gonna have to give up your relationship with Christianity, Sarah. Your messiah, Jesus Christ, was also a Community Organizer. He had no "responsibilities," except the ones to God and the rest of humankind.

You know your cute hubby, Todd Palin, the First Dude? You love to talk about how he's a union member. Do you know who started unions? Community Organizers.

And one more thing Sarah Palin, you know those women who came together in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to fight for women's suffrage and ultimately made it possible for the likes of you to be standing at the GOP Convention and (God help us) a candidate for Vice President in 2008? You know those women, right? Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Jane Addams, Helen Kendrick Johnson, Jeannette Rankin, Alice Duer Miller, M. Carey Thomas, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Olympia Brown, Maud Younger, Caroline Severence, and many many more.

They were ALL Community Organizers.

Before you go dissing Community Organizers with a cute, yet shrill (yep, I said it) sound bite, maybe you should think for a moment who fought for your rights and exactly how it is you are able to be where you are today.

In case you're unaware Sarah, Ordinary People CAN Change the World. The fact is, they usually do.

Community Organizers, Sarah. It all starts with Community Organizers.

You Can Call Me Reverand Little Merry Sunshine

You'll recall that last fall I attended a meeting with the Cook County Assessor's Office regarding the reassessment of my home (and all the others in my township). My assessment had increased 45% in 12 months and also included many inaccuracies about my home (1 1/2 car garage, 2 1/2 baths, etc.), but despite numerous appeals in past years, I could never get the County to change my assessments and inaccurate description of my home.

So I hired an attorney to do the job for me this year. And just moments ago, I learned that I had success. I'm gonna save $400 this year and $1200 over the next three years! Yeah! Of course, the attorney cost me $270 PLUS all the paperwork.

But evidently I didn't have to work that hard. In fact, it seems that if I'd simply spent 30 seconds to complete a form online I'd become an ordained minister and could then slap a cross on the front of my house - all for FREE mind you - and I could completely eliminate my property taxes!

Man's home is castle—and church
State gives Lake Bluff estate a religious break worth $80,000 in property tax, but village says not so fast to pastor-owner

By Susan Kuczka Chicago Tribune reporter
11:06 PM CDT, July 16, 2008

A Lake Bluff resident said he converted this $3 million estate into the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff so his ailing wife and daughter can worship. (Tribune photo by David Trotman-Wilkins)

When George Michael placed a cross on the side of his lakefront mansion, neighbors assumed the decoration was simply a display of the man's religious faith.What his neighbors didn't know is that Michael had decided to convert his $3 million residence into the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff, qualifying him for a nearly $80,000 break on his annual property tax bill.

Now, locals are questioning whether the property is a church at all. Village officials wonder how they'll be able to make up the lost revenue, and residents worry that their share of the tax burden will grow as a result.

Meanwhile, Lake Bluff officials notified Michael that if he is running a church, he'll need to pay more than $115,000 in fines for failing to get the village's permission, setting up a possible court battle.

"It's a honkin' house," said Shields Township Assessor Teresia Yakes, who recently appraised the Michael mansion.With "No Trespassing" and "Private Property" signs everywhere, the Shore Acres subdivision looks like an unlikely place to open a church.

Michael told state officials last month that he began his North Shore congregation more than a year ago after he got a pastor's degree from an online religious site.

While only a handful of close friends and family attend the church, Michael opened his house of worship to spare his disabled wife the hardship of having to travel to practice her religion, attorney Mark Belognia said.

"He's a devoutly religious man, as is his family, and this is the best and only way for them on a weekly basis to practice their faith," Belognia said.

Neighbors said they have never seen evidence of Sunday services held at the home. Village officials said Michael didn't approach them about special permits he would need to open a new church.

'I do find it a stretch'

And in February, the Lake County Board of Review rejected Michael's claim that he had converted his home into a church, ruling the property's use appeared more consistent with a residence than a church, said board Supervisor Martin Paulson.

"I do find it a stretch," Paulson said of the state's June 12 decision to grant Michael a property tax exemption.

Michael, owner of a Chicago real estate firm and a bank official, won the state exemption after he presented the Illinois Department of Revenue with a copy of his clergy license from the Church of Spiritual Humanism, photos of a church altar, the church's affidavit of organization from January 2007, church bylaws and copies of weekly church bulletins dating to December.

He also provided copies of a quitclaim deed from March 2007 that transferred ownership of the couple's 22,000-square-foot home—formerly listed in the name of his wife, Susan—to the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff, and an October 2007 church bank statement from Citizens Bank & Trust in Chicago. Michael is vice chairman of the bank, Belognia said.

Michael also provided a list of 10 members and officers of his parish council, including at least one who is an independent contractor with Michael's real estate firm, Michael Realty & Associates in Chicago, according to his attorney.

The information Michael supplied convinced state officials that the residence in the 1900 block of Shore Acres Drive was a church.

"We didn't go up on a Sunday morning and see if there were services, but we did require them to sign an affidavit and send us church bulletins about services," said Revenue Department spokesman Mike Klemens. "We did enough checking . . . to convince us that yes, even though the village doesn't want to grant the exemption, and the Board of Review didn't, it is a church, it's being used as a church, so we granted it."

Michael's attorney said his client jumped through the bureaucratic hoops so that his wife and daughter—both of whom are physically disabled—could avoid travel to attend Armenian church services elsewhere. Previously, the Michaels had regularly attended services at St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in Chicago, his attorney said.

"He believes he has a constitutional right to practice his faith, that he violated no zoning codes and that he properly received a property tax exemption for his church," Belognia said.

Michael purchased the home on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in 2004 for about $3 million. He built an addition that contains a playroom for his children and installed an electric lift so his wife could get down the bluff to the beach below his home. He was billed $79,758 for 2006 property taxes.

The Michaels live in the house but have set off a portion for the church, the attorney said.

Although Lake Bluff officials plan to appeal the state's decision, village manager Drew Irvin said officials on June 24 sent Michael a $115,000 bill for violating zoning ordinances, based on the very affidavits Michael provided to the state. Local ordinances do not allow for operation of a church in an area of town zoned as "country estate residence" without a special permit, Irvin said. Village code allows a fine of up to $500 per day, per violation. According to Michael's application, he had been operating a church for 460 days, but village officials levied a fine for half that much, Irvin said."The village is simply following up on zoning violations," he said.

$10.3 million in dispute

The zoning dispute is not the only financial matter Michael faces.

Last month, a Milwaukee bank—M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank—filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Michael and his brother, Robert C. Michael, in Cook County Circuit Court, seeking $10.3 million in unpaid mortgage payments and loans on commercial buildings, storefronts and residential buildings in Chicago and nearby suburbs.

Michael declined an interview, but Belognia said he hoped to amicably resolve the zoning issues. He notified the village July 3 that Michael would suspend services.

The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America in New York, meanwhile, has no record that the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff exists—or that it has been consecrated as a house of worship.

Michael remains registered as a parishioner at St. Gregory, according to Rachel Goshgarian, director of the diocese's Zohrab Information Center.

UPDATE 7/19/2008: John Kass of the Chicago Tribune ran a column yesterday about what an upstanding guy Mr. Michael is (not).