the spirit of aggieland

In 1993 my cousin Ali and his wife Nada were able to get out of Iraq and come to the United States. Their first stop was our house in a Dallas suburb, just twenty minutes from D/FW Airport. We had only been sitting in the living room a few minutes when a plane loudly took off overhead. Having grown up with this sound I didn’t even notice. But Nada’s face became pale and she almost fell from the sofa to the floor. I asked her what was wrong. “That plane,” she quietly said. “For so long now whenever we hear a plane we know it is an F-16 coming to drop bombs and we must go for cover."

Last week my parents and grandmother (she’s almost 96!) came up to Wilmore to spend Thanksgiving with us. We ate lots of food all week, spent some time with my cousins Ali and Nada and their children in Ohio, were given a grand tour of a Sheiks horse farm, and celebrated the most important of Thanksgiving traditions... watching football.

This year was the 102nd game between the University of Texas and Texas A&M. As far as rivalries go, this is one of the oldest and best. Everyone in the Lone Star State picks a side, and I have always sided with the Aggies.

Both my father and I are Aggies. After earning degrees at Baghdad University and the University of London, my father applied to PhD programs at both Texas and Texas A&M. The Aggies sent him an acceptance letter first, and so it was off to College Station. I was born during my dad’s last year there, and he always blamed my Aggie devotion on the fact that “the first milk I ever drank was from Aggieland.”

Aggieland was the only place I ever wanted to go to school. It was a dream, a fantasy… and it came true: Omar Al-Rikabi, Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of ’96.

The third largest university in the country (43,000 students) Texas A&M is a school unmatched in tradition and spirit, and football is the church where it all comes together. Every game begins with the student body singing: Some may boast of spirit bold/ Of a school they think so grand/ But there’s a spirit can n’er be told/ It’s the Spirit of Aggieland! Most of the traditions are rooted in a time when the school was all male, all white, and all military. This history and tradition is one of the greatest strengths, and at the same time the greatest weakness of Aggieland.

In the early ‘70s, foreigners like my father didn’t fit in, and weren’t treated very well. During his time there the school had only allowed non-military and women as students for less than a decade.

Texas A&M has always seemed to take a little longer than most to catch up to the times, and I often think they are guilty of taking two steps forward, and even two steps back. One time I was cutting through campus near the Memorial Student Center and ran into a "straight pride" parade. To this day there is still a major racism problem there.

Around the time the war started my friend Abbey was a student there, and she was helping a friend with his campaign for student body president. One day he set up a huge “card for the troops” for people to sign, and Abbey volunteered for a three hour management shift. The card was set up next to the Quad, the area on campus that houses the military students, the Corps of Cadets.

She left her post after 45 minutes because she grew tired of the comments people were saying and writing: Leave nothing but oil wells. Kill ‘em all. Blow away Baghdad. Kill all those f***ing Arabs.

That next football season, I came back to campus for a game. After the national anthem there is always some sort of military “fly over.” This time a formation of Air Force F-16s roared over the stadium. Later, during a time-out, the announcer called our attention to the field where the pilots were introduced. At one point the actual number of tons of bombs this very group had dropped over Baghdad was announced, and the place went crazy. Now Aggieland has a reputation for having one of the loudest stadium crowds in the country, but never in my all my years of football games had I ever heard this stadium cheer that loudly. There was a sort of excitement… almost a euphoria about it.

I thought about my cousins still in Iraq... the ones who lived close enough to Saddam's palaces to see and feel the bombs that first night of "shock and awe." I wondered if my family ran for cover from the bombs these men standing in front of me had dropped. How could I cheer along with this?

I remain bothered by that moment. It was bad enough that they were cheering for an unjust war. War is hell, and even if the reasons for it are completely justified there is supposed to be a certain amount of sobriety to the conflict. No matter the means or the ends, humans (many of them innocent) are being killed and maimed in war. I once remember hearing a WWII submariner tell about how his crew would never cheer when the sunk an enemy sub because they knew what horror those men were going through, and what pain their families would bear.

But here I was, witnessing over 80,000 civilian and military Aggies become giddy over the methods of war, almost as if it were a national pastime. My Aggie zeal burned out then. I tried to hold on to it… but last Thursday I found myself telling my good friend and Longhorn fan, Afshin, that I didn’t really care who won.

I still love Aggieland. In a sense it is home and family. But I am beyond disappointed. I took off my class ring a long time ago. It just has too many pro-war symbols, and stands for an institution I can’t agree with anymore. The longer this war has gone on, and the more death and destruction that has occured because of a failed war plan that was greated with such excitement and euphoria, the less pride I have in my alma mater.

Now the President of Texas A&M, Robert Gates, has been tapped to be the new Secretary of Defense. His mandate is to bring a fresh view on the war and to try and fix what Rumsfeld broke. I hope and pray that he does not embody the spirit of Aggieland… for if he does than there is no hope for repentance and a new direction in Iraq.

“Any soldier worth his salt should be anti-war.”
General Norman Schwarzkopf
Commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq 1990-91

thanks, but no thanks(giving)

It is always important for a people to remember their story. It provides insight into who they are, why they do what they do, and where they might be headed. This morning, as I sit in my pajamas watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, surrounded by the newspaper adds for holiday sales and the food waiting in the kitchen to be cooked… I thought it would be a good idea to look back at our Thanksgiving story.

When we last saw our Pilgrim Heroes, they had just crossed the mighty Atlantic in search of “the new world” (or, as the natives who were already living here called it, “home”). They had every intention of sailing further south to warmer waters and milder winters. But there was a problem: They were out of beer. That’s right… beer. One journal written from the boat described the reasons they were stopping:

“Our vittles are low, especially the beer.”

So they pulled over near what is now Cape Cod, and it didn’t take long to realize they might not have what it takes to survive. Religious freedom is good and all, but if you can’t find food it doesn’t really matter your faith. By this point our Pilgrim Heroes had encountered the Indians, but out of fear and ignorance they didn’t ask for help. Instead, when the locals weren’t looking, the Pilgrims stole the corn reserves the Indians had stored up for the winter. And as if that weren’t enough, they looted and desecrated the local’s tombs in search of items buried with the dead which might help in their search for a better life in a new world.

It did not take long before the Indians came after the new immigrants in order to defend what was theirs. But our heroes had a secret weapon: the gun. After shooting at, chasing off and defeating the Indians for getting in the way of their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, our Pilgrim Heroes thanked God for giving them such a sure victory over their enemies, and then moved on to Plymouth Rock.

And a foreign policy was born.

Today, beyond parade costumes and busy kitchens, we continue to reenact the Pilgrim’s story. We still follow their “foreign policy of freedom” in the Middle East. And we remember what these “first immigrants” taught us about how immigration can destroy the local population, and so have begun to set up laws to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

It is good for a people to know their story. It provides insight into who they are, why they do what they do, and where they might be headed. On this day which we have set aside to give thanks - as we eat more food than the poor will ever know, and then shop and spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need - let us pause and remember our first defenders of freedom and officers of homeland security: Our Pilgrim Heroes.

History continues to repeat itself.

Check out more of the story from NPR.

So 3 wise men go up to the pope...

I often wonder how many First Born Son readers are out there, because there are often no comments. So I saw this picture and knew it needed a caption, and thought, "Caption Comment Contest." The winner gets my admiration, because I know there is a good caption for this, I just can't think of it.

My folks are in town this week for Thanksgiving, and we're off to see the cousins in Ohio today. But stay tuned, we'll have plenty at First Born during the holiday week.

Peace be with you...

did you hear the joke about...

Early after I moved to Kentucky I met my good friend Rob. We had some classes together, he was in my wedding, and from time to time we’ll go hang out at Highbridge Park near the Kentucky River and talk about life. A couple of years ago Rob shared in chapel about his dealings with homosexuality. Since then, whenever we hang out, we call ourselves “that joke.”

Did you hear the one about the Arab and the Gay guy hanging out down by the river in Kentucky?

We have to laugh, because we both are students at the largest evangelical seminary in the country, and the evangelical church in America seems to have two main enemies these days: Arabs and gays.

One evening we were down by the river, and again the topic came up. This time I mentioned Pat Robertson, and how he has been one of the leading public voices in Christianity against Arabs and homosexuals. His support for Israel at the expense of Palestinians is at the same time hateful and legendary. And of course, his stance on homosexuality and the rights that they should be given are equally as hateful and damaging. We both lamented on how his voice is the one most associated with what Christians believe in the political realm, and how he does more damage than good. Pat, and others like him, are not all that much different from the fanatical Islamic clerics they criticize who use religion and ignorance to incite racism and violence.

Not five minutes later, an older couple walk by us and start up a conversation. The nice lady was very interested in who we were and what we did?

“Do you boys go to the Seminary?”

“Yes ma’am. And we work there, too.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful. And do you know what you’ll do when you finish?”

“No ma’am. Neither of us really knows yet.”

“Well, don’t worry. God knows.”

And then, she said it:

“Do either of you listen to Pat Robertson?”

Without missing a beat, Rob said he never watches television, and I mentioned that we didn’t have cable so no, I didn’t get to listen to him.

“Well, you need to. If you watch his show you will see all the wonderful things God is doing. You watch him, and you’ll know that God has a plan for the two of you.”

This moment had been given to me. It was low-hanging fruit. The ball was on the tee. The response immediately came forth in my head. My mouth began to say the words.

“I’m not sure about that, ma’am. You see, he’s gay and I’m Arab, and well… Pat Robertson doesn’t like our types very much.”

But I didn’t. I “chose the high ground.” I let the opportunity pass.

I later asked Rob what he would have done if I had said what I wanted to. “I probably would have started laughing in disbelief that you went there,” he told me.

I honestly regret that I didn’t say anything. Maybe that is why I am telling this story now. I am tired of sitting in church services where the only two items on the pastoral prayer agenda are praying against the “evils of Islam” and the “evils of homosexuality.” I find it very interesting as I read the Scriptures that the only group Jesus criticizes or even demonizes are not the “sinners,” but the religious leaders… for not loving and serving those who do not think, act or believe as they do.

So did you hear the one about the Arab and the Gay guy hanging out in Kentucky? Yeah, God loves them and has a plan for their lives (just don’t ask Pat).

Luke 6:32-36:
“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return. Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."

The whores all seem to love Him, and the drunks propose a toast saying, "Surly God is with us."
Rich Mullins

war and peace at the mall

The 6th grade was the last time I went to the Texas State Fair. Outside one of the exhibition halls I found myself looking up at a life size bronze statue of a man in uniform. I studied it for a moment, and then a very old man standing next to the statue said, “Son, I bet you can’t tell me who that is.” I looked over at the man, who was wearing the hat of a WWII veteran. His question was not condescending, but sounded more like the introduction to a history lesson.

I looked back at the statue and quickly replied, “This is Chester Nimitz, Rear Admiral of the Pacific Fleet during Word War Two.” The old veteran’s mouth hung open for second, and then he stuttered, “You don’t know how happy it makes me that such a young man knows that.”

That’s the kind of dork I was. The other kids wouldn’t let me play on their Atari, and I always got pummeled in football. So while they played video games, watched sports and talked about cars, I read Newsweek, watched Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and built model ships. My two hobbies growing up were WWII navel history and presidential history. I’m not kidding.

So it was with great excitement that I made my first trip this past summer to Washington D.C. I only had one day to walk the Mall, and it was so hot that I didn’t stay out long. But I went from one end to the other, taking pictures and having that moment one does when they see buildings and monuments for the first time in real life that they have only seen in movies and the news.

As I climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I thought this reminds me of a temple. Then of course I reached the top, looked up and saw the words:


Turning around, I looked out on the famous vista. My mind played images of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, and the scene where Forrest Gump runs out to Jenny. And then I had a thought:

What does it say about a nation that has so many monuments to war and dead leaders?

Between the White House, the capitol, the monuments and the memorials – all in this one area – where all the leaders and their wars are planned, led and remembered. And for such a young country, we have been in so many wars.

I have to admit I was a bit saddened. So much potential, and so much good that has been done, yet it is the violence and those who served it well that we immortalize. And so I was happy to see ground broken yesterday on the Mall for the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. There, in the middle of monuments to war and violence, will be the first memorial to peace and non-violence.

That more in this country would remember the dream, and follow the example…

rumsfeld fired as iraq burns

"Naturally, the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy. And it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." Herman Goering - Hitler’s Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials

On the morning of September 12, 2001, my mother and I opened the paper and read that Al Qeda was responsible for the attacks the day before. We were relieved, because the night before, in the midst of shock and grief, we talked about our concern that Iraq might have been involved. At least now we knew that my father’s homeland would not be sucked into this mess. Then Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference.

“We’re looking for an Iraq connection,” I remember him saying. I was so confused, because anyone who had a basic knowledge of the region knew that Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden hated each other. In fact, it was Bin Laden who wanted to go after the Iraqi dictator during the first Gulf War. But here was the Secretary of Defense trying to convince the country that the two were in cahoots. The Secretary and the President he worked for lied, manipulated and played on false fears to justify and convince the country to invade Iraq.

And now - six years, $350 billion, and millions of lives lost, destroyed or displaced - Donald Rumsfeld is gone. But the legacy and damage done will remain: Illegally invading an sovereign nation on false pretence. Failing to plan for the occupation. Arrogantly dismissing the wisdom and advice of experts on the region. Ignorantly ignoring the growing insurgency. Providing for a loss of civil liberties and human rights. Allowing for torture. All in the name of freedom.

It should be noted that this war was doomed from the beginning. Last week CNN reported that in 1999 the U.S. conducted war games to determine what it would take to invade and hold Iraq. The military and intelligence communities concluded that it would take at least 400,000 troops, and even then there was the possibility of losing the country (read the article here).

Donald Rumsfeld is not the only one guilty of what amounts to war crimes against the people of Iraq and the U.S. soldiers sent into a death trap. The other men who orchestrated the idea that Iraq must be invaded, such as the Vice President, are guilty as well. And as support for the war has sunk, some of the architects are jumping ship. Richard Pearl, the man who first created the policy and convinced the President of invading Iraq is now backpedaling:

"I think if I had been delphic, and had seen where we are today, and people had said, 'Should we go into Iraq?,' I think now I probably would have said, 'No, let's consider other strategies....' Could we have managed that threat by means other than a direct military intervention? Well, maybe we could have."

Do these men get to decieve and destroy a country and get away with "oops?" Ultimately - as the famous Truman doctrine states - the buck stops with the President. It was on his watch, and under his leadership, that the United States invaded a country that looked like the people who had attacked us on September 11th.

I have to admit that I find some sense of justice in Donald Rumsfeld being forced out. I take his actions personally. Because of his arrogance, lies and failures - along with those of the President and Vice President - my cousin is dead. His daughters are fatherless. My family has to all cram into one house for safety as they look for ways to leave the only homeland they have ever known. An entire country is lost. If this is George Bush’s idea of “winning in Iraq” then I fear what his idea of losing would look like.

Changing the course through firing Rumsfeld is too late to save Iraq. The President, the Vice President are guilty, too, and it is far past time for accountability. There is no one right now who can show them the door, so both history and God will have to judge this administration for the sins in Iraq.

That same September morning I woke up and read about who had attacked us, these men were realizing that they had been caught with their pants down, and at the same time had been given an opportunity to expand the empire. So they cooked up a war, lied to their people, and the Middle East went up in flames.

first born news network

When I was a little kid I would spend part of the summers with my grandparents on their farm in Texas. Those were the only times I would willingly wake up early in the morning so I could go help my Papa with the morning chores. As Granny cooked bacon and eggs in the kitchen, I would sit on Papa's lap as he smoked his morning Swisher Sweet and watched Tom Brokaw give the day's headlines on the Today Show. And a news junkie was born...

These last three days there have been some good news stories that have deserved some attention here at First Born Son. Instead of writing separate posts for each of them, I selected three and thought I would give a quick rundown of them all in one shot:

Saddam's Sure Sentence
Through two Gulf Wars I never heard anyone in my family say anything bad about Saddam Hussein. It was more because of fear than any sort of support for the dictator. Even those who lived in the United States wouldn’t say a word about him, for fear that somehow it would make it back to Baghdad and someone could be in trouble. The man and his regime were that dangerous and deadly. It wasn’t until two days after Saddam was found in that spider hole, and the images of his dirty long beard were broadcast all over the world, that my dad matter-of-factly muttered, “Yeah, that Saddam Hussein really was a son-of-a-bitch.”

It was no surprise that he was sentenced to death on Sunday. What is questionable was the timing… so close to the election in which the Bush camp needs any sort of good press. I’m sure somewhere down the line the order was given to get this sentence passed before Tuesday.

But no matter when it was handed down, it was going to happen, and the Butcher of Baghdad might actually hang from a rope. Sadly, it won’t change a thing in Iraq. This is a country that has had it’s fair share of bloody regimes over the last century. And besides, the goal of freeing Iraq from the fear of death and torture under Saddam has only given way to death and torture under “democracy.”

I asked my dad one day not too long ago what he thought of the trial. He didn’t think it was legitimate because the court wasn’t legitimate. It was a show trial, and it should have been conducted at the Hague. He may have been a son-of-a-bitch, but he was Iraq’s son-of-a-bitch, and he still represented the country. To have such a show trial was an insult.

Saddam’s death will not heal any wounds, bring any closure, end any violence, or unite a country. Ultimately, it will be another death in the long history of the abuse of Iraq. Make no mistake… the man murdered and killed hundreds of thousands, and there needs to be justice. But somehow I don’t think more death is the answer.

At least under Saddam people knew the rules. What we have now is just madness… and it is a madness the Unites States helped create both then and now. Our botched invasion strategy has left the country in ruins. But let us also not forget that while Saddam was torturing, gassing, and murdering his own people (and the people of Iran) for twenty-four years, for the first half he was doing it with funding, technology, and a wink from the United States. He may have been a son-of-a-bitch, but he was the White House’s son-of-a-bitch...
Ronald Reagan's envoy to the Middle East, Donald Rumsfeld, meets with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1983. Three months later the New York Times reported that Saddam had used nerve gas against Iran. Three days later Rumsfeld assured the Iraqi leader that he still had the support of the United States.


The Haggard Church
hag·gard: adj. looking exhausted and unwell

A few years ago my best friend Jeremy and I were given a small gig driving big name preachers from DFW airport to the National Association of Evangelicals conference. We chauffeured Jack Hayford, who spent the entire drive telling us about the member of his church who was a car dealer and would, every few months, give him a new luxury car to drive. On another ride we listened for a while as Tommy Barnett ticked off the number of different ministries his church had running at that time. And our last pickup was Ted Haggard, who talked from the back seat about his ideas of how much youth pastors should be paid.

I have to be honest and say that I am not a fan of mega-churches or big name evangelical pastors (quite a quandary since I am in an evangelical seminary and have a history of attending mega-churches). And I specifically have not been a fan of Ted Haggard. I viewed him as the epitome of the abdication of the Church to the Republican Party and the idolatry of American Nationalism over the Kingdom of Heaven.

But I have to say that I am genuinely saddened by what has happened this past week. The grief, loss and damage done to his family, his church, and his life will take a lifetime to work through… not to mention the damage done to the Church and the message of the Gospel. I truly do hope and pray that Ted Haggard can find forgiveness, healing and some sort of restoration.

But I also hope this event is the other shoe dropping, and the mark of the beginning of the end of our abdication and idolatry. Out of sheer curiosity I went and listened online to Pastor Haggard’s last message preached the Sunday before the scandal broke. His opening prayer went like this:

Father, in the mighty name of Jesus we love you and we praise you and we thank you for the wonderful things you do for every one of us. Thank you for wisdom and revelation. Thank you for life and light. Thank you that we can be a body of believers that loves you with all of our heart and is And so Heavenly Father give us grace and mercy. Father help us this next week and a half trying to navigate our responsibilities as believers as well as our responsibilities to cities of this grand constitutional republic within which we live. As we go into national elections. Lord, we pray for our country. Father we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed. Father we pray that wisdom would come upon our electorate and that they would think with clarity and decisiveness, and Lord that we would be a model for the whole world to see how people could disagree passionately, but the rule of law that is written in our constitution and written by our peers will prevail. And Father we thank you for the system in which we live. We thank you Lord for your grace and your mercy, and we pray Lord that these elections would be orderly, we pray that people would be informed and they would vote, and we pray that all people in government power would know that they work for the citizens. And Lord God we thank you for our constitutions, both the federal constitution and the state constitutions. We thank you for our system. We thank you for order and justice. In Jesus name, Amen.

I do find the line about deception being exposed… well, we don’t need to go there. But what bothered me most was that this was a pastoral prayer that said nothing about YHWH’s salvation work in and for the world through Christ, but was instead a prayer of civil religion – a watered down gospel that has more to do with achieving the American Dream than following the life of the Suffering Servant.

The state of the Evangelical Church in this country, along with it’s impact in the world, is indeed haggard. It is long past time for repentance. Maybe this could be the start of something grand…


An Intrepid Omen
On one of my first trips to New York City my brother and I visited the USS Intrepid, a retired WWII aircraft carrier that is now a floating museum on the West Side. I remember it as a ridiculously giant ship, and at the same time I was impressed with how small a space jets had to land. As you can see, we had some stupid fun:
Just last week we drove by it again, and my brother mentioned that she was going to be moved down to New Jersey for a long overdue refurbishing.

The Intrepid has a long and distinguished history. She survived kamikaze attacks in WWII, served in Vietnam, picked up Mercury astronauts for NASA, and was even an emergency command center for the FBI on September 11th.

And so, to honor her history, former crewmembers and captains, city leaders and major politicians running for office gathered on her deck for a ceremony marking her transition. The best tug boats, along with police and fire boats, moved along side to escort the noble giant through the waters. Speeches were given, and one prominent politician stated, “The Intrepid stands for everything we believe in ... our freedom and our values.” And then, this mighty symbol of U.S. military power, freedom and democracy backed out of dock… and got stuck in the mud. They don’t know how, when, or even if they can move her.

I am sure this says something the day before one of the most important mid-term elections in our nation’s history…

Well, thanks for sticking with FBN (First Born News). Hey, it's not FOX or CNN, but then again that isn't such a bad thing: