John H Armstrong

A Film Premiere: Archbishop Oscar Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (1917—1980) was a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador. He became the fourth archbishop of San Salvador. Romero was assassinated on 24 March 1980 while serving Mass in a small chapel at a Catholic hospital.

Romero’s assassination came one day after a sermon where he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and stop carrying out the government's repression and the violation of basic human rights. His assassins were financially supported, from what we know of the history and testimony of that time, by the U.S. government. While aspects of Romero’s liberation theology were condemned by the Vatican his martyrdom was recognized as an act of personal courage in the face of violence against the church. In 1997, a cause for beatification and canonization into sainthood was formally begun for Romero. Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God. The canonization process still continues. The film Romero (1989), which I saw in the theater when it came out over twenty years ago, was based on the Archbishop's life story. I found it a moving story regardless of the political controversy that surrounded Archbishop Romero’s story. I have a personal friend who was actually present when he was shot. His account supports all that I have read over the last several decades.

Now a new movie, “Monseñor,” becomes the first film about Archbishop Oscar Romero that goes beyond the classic genre of a filmed biography, to explore and probe the contemporary significance and legacy of his life and tragic death. This new film on Romero places the Latin American campesinos, or workers, at the center of the story.

The Chicago area presentation of this new film will include an introduction and question/answer session with Father Robert Pelton, CSC. Pelton is the project coordinator and theologian for the film as well as other projects related to Latin American/North American Church Concerns connected with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

The film was produced by LANAAC. The screening is sponsored by the Lewis University Multicultural Student Services office and Lewis University’s Committee for Latin American/Latina Academic and Student Events.

If you would like to see this new film it will premier at Lewis University, located in the southwest suburb of Romeoville, Illinois, 6 p.m. on Nov. 30 in the Academic/Science Building Room 158 located on the University’s main campus. Admission to this event is free.

For more information, contact Martha Villegas Miranda from Lewis University Ministry Outreach at (815) 836-5475 or[email protected] .

Blogging for ACT 3 and My Future Plans

I have been an active and committed blogger since 2005. I have “quit” scores of times (in my mind). I have once or twice spoken about quitting. The sole reason I haven’t is because I meet people who tell me that reading these posts has made a difference in their spiritual journey. If you have found any reason for deeper faith, hope and love through this blog then I give God the thanks and praise.

Recently I thought again about these blogs and my own life and vision. After some careful consideration I am not quitting the blogs but I am changing what I do, how often I do it and what my more narrowly defined purpose will be. My best friend is my wife Anita. We talk about this stuff and she helped me clarify my direction and I do listen to Anita. (By the way, this new photo really captures something of our friendship if you look at it really carefully!)

Each week I write what is called the ACT 3 Weekly. This is available as an email sent by subscription at ACT 3. Just sign up and you will get this each Monday. It was once an article of 1,200-1,600 words. It is now about half that size. I am convinced that all the Internet material we can process requires shorter length, which I've personally found to be much, much better. My present series is on “Faith and the American Culture.” I am addressing the problem of individualism and how it impacts community and unity. Back issues can easily be found on our home page. There is also a convenient place to sign up for the future issues. I put my heart and soul into these articles and they are more carefully written and edited than my blogs. They are also available as podcasts for those who want to hear them. They range from 6-8 minutes a week in time.

As I take stock about my life, mission and time I realize that putting five to seven hours a week into reading, writing and producing seven blogs is just way too much time to spend on this process. I am not working at full strength and this amount of time is more than one day’s work. I need this time to write the more permanent things I do; books, ACT 3 Weekly articles, material for teaching, etc. For this reason I will do the following on this blog site going forward:

1. My posts will not appear every single day. I put myself in this bind and need to get myself out of it.

2. My posts will still include occasional personal items (my friends read these posts and I want to share things with them) and some fun stuff (football, baseball, etc.) but I will use material from other sources more often, both my own material and that of guests. I will tell you about events and useful resources that I find/found helpful. I might comment more on books that I am reading, for example. I tend to jot notes to myself about my reading so sharing these can lead to simple and easy-to-write blogs.

3. I will send up “trial balloons” by journaling some of my ideas that might become more permanent by first putting them here and then by getting comments. This will help me frame things better.

4. I will sync my blogs and facebook page and then use the two more for short, simple observations, etc.

I’m reading a new book, Microstyle (Norton, 2011), by Christopher Johnson. Johnson urges writers to “think big” and “write small.” We live in a 140-character universe, like it or not. I am going to adapt to this while I still write deeper and richer pieces that are more permanent.

The case in point is my forthcoming book, The Unity Factor: One Lord, One Church, One Mission (Grand Rapids: The Christian’s Library Press, 2011). This 52-page book took me several weeks to write and several more to edit. But it is much more permanent and useful than my blogs. It can be read in 30-40 minutes. It will also be available as an e-book and can be readily given away in either format. It will be around and still read months from now when blogs are all but dead and done. I will take this idea and apply it to my ACT 3 Weekly series and several of those will likely become carefully edited and revised books because they have proven to be of more use over time.

So, please keep checking for new blogs but also understand that I am adapting to the times and to my own time and lifestyle. For now this seems reasonable. If I’ve learned one thing about being faithful to your own life’s vision, and God’s specific calling, it is this--everything must change or your work and vision will die. As a writer I want to be a good steward. I think this is the way for me to be that steward right now.

A few simple requests:

1. Pray for me. I love to hear from intercessors who lift me up to the Father because they know me and love me.

2. Keep checking out this blog site. It will not go away. It will simply adapt and change.

3. Pray for my more permanent writing work and please visit ACT 3 and sign up for the weekly articles.

4. I will be making some more video casts and posting these now and then. I made some new ones about our Missional-Ecumenical Leadership Cohort groups this last week. These cohort groups will be a major part of ACT 3 going into 2012 and beyond.

5. Sign up on my facebook page if you like. It too will eventually require change too as I get nearer the 5,000 limit and have to develop a “fan” page. (I hate that term “fan” page but then facebook “friends” is another misnomer that I can’t quite adopt either! Consider me opposed to “individualism,” at least as we have developed it in American social culture.)

My Love for College Football and the Game of the Season

It is well-documented that I love college football. I have been accused of choosing to attend the University of Alabama (1967-69) because of this passion. This accusation is not entirely true. But it is a serious partial truth. I went out-of-state in the fall of 1967 (I lived in middle Tennessee) because I wanted to go away to college. I also wanted to follow a friend who was a pastor who had just moved to Tuscaloosa. And I wanted to root for the Crimson Tide, being a big-time Bear Bryant fan. After my growing relationship with Christ manifested itself in a clear call to mission I transferred to Wheaton College to finish my bachelor’s and master’s degrees after January of 1969. But I never lost my passion for all things Crimson Tide. I have more shirts, jackets and hats than most fans. I wear crimson as my color of choice. Hey, I did this even when the Tide was losing and being routinely mocked by ESPN with considerable glee. I love the Tide.

A few of you know that one of the greatest material gifts I’ve ever been given was a ticket and trip to see Alabama win the BCS Championship in Pasadena in January 2010. That memorable season will never be forgotten. I still look at my photos and various other reminders of that great evening in California when the Tide rolled and I celebrated a grand season with all its gridiron glory.

Today is the biggest game of the season! The Tide plays LSU, the number one team in the nation, in Tuscaloosa in the incredible venue of Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama is rated number two, just a small percentage point behind LSU. The winner, absent an upset, will make the BCS Championship game and could well be the BCS Champions for 2011 when the big game is played on January 9, 2012. Both schools have won in the past decade. LSU has won twice. In fact, Alabama’s coach Nick Saban won it all at LSU before he then won it at Alabama, making him the only coach to win a national championship at two schools.

After Alabama's last win, over Tennessee on October 22, Birmingham News writer Kevin Scarbinsky captured the humor of Harold Camping's prophetic predictions, in a region of the country where many can relate, and related it to Alabama football and the Tide's early struggles to put away an inferior Tennessee team. Scarbinsjy wrote of Alabama's halftime resolve to win big:

The Alabama players made that decision with authority. They decided not to postpone the Rapture beyond its previously scheduled date. After the Crimson Tide outscored the Vols 31-0 in the final 30 minutes to finish the Vols 37-6, the end of the world will arrive as planned right here on Nov. 5.

Alabama will be 8-0, same as LSU. LSU will be No. 1 and Alabama No. 2, or should be, and not necessarily in that order. The Tide and Tigers will play the game to end all games, and if it plays out as expected, with one team winning on a pick six in the fifth overtime, it will start the debate to end all debates.

To say that I will be in “all out football mode” this afternoon is an understatement. (Ironically I have no great love for professional football. One reason is I could never get into it on Sundays over the years.) The emotion of these few hours is beyond fun at times. It is often nerve-racking. But in the end it is just a sport and the passion is a way to enjoy something that is not truly serious. (A lot of fans for both teams have no clue how to deal with this passion and live-or-die with these events.)

One of my favorite game-day events is the ESPN College Game Day. Coach Lee Corso, who is now 76-years old, remains a fixture on this show with his famous one-liners and funny sense of the moment. At the end of each three-hour show he dons a head-gear of the team he believes will win the big matchup of the day. The award-winning ESPN gang will all be in Tuscaloosa today so the question is which head-gear will Corso wear at the end of the show? I hope it is the one shown in the photo above but either way “Roll Tide.” Corso’s drama makes the whole business a lot of fun but the game will be won on the field. It could be one of the great games of the era. I am not alone in thinking this way. But then how could you beat the drama of Michigan State’s touchdown to end the Wisconsin game two weeks ago? By the way, congratulations to quarterback Kirk Cousins at Michigan State, the son of Don Cousins, former pastor at Willow Creek Community Church. Kirk is a great young man.

“Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus”

In the Fourth Gospel we read the following account about Jesus and his disciples:

²⁰ Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”²² Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

This request from some Greeks to “see Jesus” has intrigued me for years. I believe, in a simple but powerful way, it underscores what every human heart hungers for—Jesus! The problem is that most churches, and few Christians, actually help people to see Jesus.

My friend Fr. Joseph F. Girzone recently underscored this again in his October issue of the Joshua Mountain Newsletter.

Lately, many churches and parishes are embarking on evangelization programs to introduce people to the Christian message. Interestingly, when I read the description of how they plan to evangelize, so frequently I never see Jesus mentioned in the whole description of the evangelization priorities. There is frequent mention of catechesis and theology and liturgy and scripture reading and involvement in church programs. But I cannot help but feel that people don't realize that Jesus is our religion, and getting to know Jesus should be the substance of evangelization. When the apostles went out to teach they didn't teach bible except when using it to explain Jesus to Jews. And there was no New Testament. Nor did they teach theology. There was no theology developed yet. They taught Jesus; "Let me tell you about my friend Jesus, how he lived and taught us and died for us and rose from the dead." People's lives then were totally centered around the person of Jesus, not church or theological concepts. Those things are the medium of the message, not the message. Jesus is the Message, but we continually make the medium the message and people hunger for Jesus and there are few who know anything in depth about Jesus. That is the real crisis in Christianity today. When we evangelize we should make Jesus and his life real for people. People are tired of substitutes.

Can you see why I am so drawn to the writing and encouragement of Fr. Girzone? He gets the central point of Christian faith about as well as anyone I know. The goal of my life is to see and know Jesus. I have too often made the medium, which in my case has been the study and teaching of theology, the message. The danger is that I know a great deal about a lot but miss the One who I truly hunger for in my soul. In the process of getting knowledge and Christian information we can miss knowing Jesus more deeply each day. 

A Catholic and Evangelical Conversation

You are cordially invited by the Chicago area Fuller Seminary Board of Trustees to join fellow alumni and friends in the Chicago area on Monday, November 14, for a conversation between the president of Fuller Seminary and the president of the Catholic Theological Union.

Dr. Richard J. Mouw
President, Fuller Theological Seminary
Professor of Christian Philosophy

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P.
President, Catholic Theological Union
Professor of New Testament Studies

Catholics and Evangelicals: How Much Common Ground?

When:
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.

Where:
The Arts Club of Chicago
201 East Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60611

Space is limited, so RSVP now to reserve your spot!

Questions? Email [email protected] or call 1-800-617-3209