Despite our American prejudice for the lone individual, embodied so wonderfully by John Wayne, we aren't actually as independent as we would like to believe. With all higher mammals, we are more influenced by others than we might wish and not nearly as likely to buck the trend of our cultural ethos as we presume. The research today suggests that it is evermore important to pay attention to the background of our lives because it has subtle effects that are more significant than we would wish. A lot of funding is going into this research as marketers in every field try to figure out just how to set the mood so that you will find their product worth buying, seemingly on a whim. In fact, our subconscious is responding to a number of sophisticated cues that we are unaware of because they are below the radar screen. 
In the near future, we are likely to become much more intentional about the communities we create as we realize how vital they are at stimulating us in the right way. Conversely, people who don't pay attention to the world they create will live to complain about it.
This week we lift up the virtue of creating the beloved community together and the bigger role that it will play in our lives where more and more groups are priming us to get our attention and shape our desires and values.

In order to give the Bible a little backbone, Hollywood gives us the gladiator as Noah. The Times review today begins with the droll forecast, "Rain, heavy at times". Like A. O. Scott, I suppose most of us of a certain age were first taught the flood story- that God might just take us all out if we aren't careful- in a culture where the Principal would paddle our backsides if we were disrespectful. And it wasn't just the Principal. I remember Mrs. Doremus swatting my brother like he was one of her kids. At least in the deep South it was normative for neighbors to act as the final authority in their domain and I can't remember a single case of someone questioning it.
A couple generations later most of our children have never known corporal punishment. Instead they get a trophy just for showing up to play for their soccer team. Could it be that even Hollywood producers are worried that we presume upon the judgement of the Almighty too much?
The first twelve chapters of the Bible are written as saga, the collected lore of what we remember from our primordial past. Theologically, they describe for us how it was that we all came to live "East of Eden", in a world of civilization that is compromised by egotism, violence, inhumanity, and injustice. Their function was to get us to reflect, not on how God behaved a long, long time ago. Rather they are supposed to get us to reflect on the way that our self-development today is predicated on premises that are guaranteed to destroy society tomorrow, like say Global warming in the West or the Cleoptocracy that passes for government in the East. The truth is that the present day problems of our making are actually scarier than the judgments of nature in our primordial past. And their solution will likely need less of the virtue of an ass kicking Russell Crowe and more of the collective wisdom of people living in a world come of age. In the meantime, pass the popcorn and enjoy the show...

The Rev.