Rasslin' with Jesus

I had not intended any kind of follow-up to my last post, but sometimes the headlines call out. This article suggests a fight (pardon the pun) between female and male, masculine and feminine, that I find unhealthy. They seem to be suggesting that Jesus himself must have been "all man" and because of that fact be someone they should consider following. WWJD - What Would Jesus Do? is being replace by another WWJD: Who Would Jesus Deck? This dualism suggests that Jesus himself had no feminine side, that all of his statements about peace can be thrown out because Jesus was a "fighter."

Of course, I hate being placed in a position where it is presumed some traits are feminine and others masculine. If forced to choose, into which of these columns does justice worker go? How about peacemaker? Healer? Friend to all marginalized persons? I would hope that all persons would aspire to embody these distinctions regardless of how we assign their biological gender.

And in a recent advertising campaign Dockers is not-so-subtly suggesting that a lack of manliness has led to many societal problems, difficulties that apparently would not exist if men - presumably white and straight men - had been wearing the pants they way they are supposed to. Maybe the next campaign should be WJWD...Would Jesus Wear Dockers?

If 21st century men need to re-create a 1st century Jesus into a rough and ready, bare-knuckles fighter so that they can follow him, then Jesus' wardrobe of choice will pose problems, not to mention all those pesky sayings of his noted in scripture.

I'm tapping out.

Chicago, Chicago, that toddling town...

Yes, I've been in Chicago this week completing the (hopefully) final seminar for completion of my DMin degree. It has been a rich week, with colleagues carefully critiquing each other's projects and preparing for our oral exams in April.

I've been in this degree process since January of 2007. What some folks don't recognize about DMin degrees is that most programs are designed to allow working clergy to share with each other projects that might help other congregations or local communities. The desire, at least in the CTS DMin program, is that clergy will have created resource material that will tweak the interest of clergy and perhaps provide solutions to common challenges in our faith journeys.

What struck me today, however, is that while we had a wide variety of project presentations and critiques this week, there is a common thread that runs through them all; divisions cripple our communities. Whether the project concerns left vs. right brain learning in Bible studies, mind vs. body considerations regarding health care, liberal vs. conservative in our religious and political discourse, etc., the problems of our communities often boil down to our reluctance to engage all of our being, both individually and collectively.

We think we can feed our minds and ignore the signals from our bodies about whether we are completely - wholly - healthy. We believe we can study the Bible and absorb disembodied facts while ignoring the right hemisphere of our brains that would allow us to internalize what we experience when we encounter scripture. We believe we can heal bodies with technology, ignoring any diagnoses that reflect on our spiritual well-being. We believe we can solve problems within our communities by establishing beachheads where we refuse to talk to those on the "other" side of what we believe about a particular issue.

All of these actions separate us, individually and collectively. We cannot be healthy if we continue down these paths of division. We have been reminded, in the texts of many religions, that the way to "salvation" cannot be accomplished unless we are willing to treat others as we wish to be treated. We must recognize the humanity of the "other" if we are to survive well.

This notion of the recognition of our common humanity seems self-evident to me, but the cultural currents seem to be pulling us away from each other. My prayer is that our Creator will grant us the grace to work toward each other, for it is only through relationships of depth, mutuality and vulnerability that we will be able to survive, that is, survive well.

Stewardship

I've been thinking about a story I read today regarding ads being purchased for the upcoming Super Bowl telecast. It seems that Tim Tebow, the Florida Gators star quarterback, is filming two ads with his mother through Focus on the Family.

Most people know that Tebow would list references to Bible verses in his eye black, a practice I don't have a lot of trouble with, though I'm betting the school would not have gone along with a Muslim player putting references from the Qu'ran in a similar spot.

I guess what I'm really puzzling over is that Focus on the Family recently laid off something in the neighborhood of 300 employees because of budgetary shortfalls, yet somehow they have found about $5 million for these two ads. Their spokesperson said that the monies for these ads all came from special donations and not from FOF's main budget, but that's probably cold comfort for all those persons whose jobs were ended before Christmas.

Then, too, fundraisers are ongoing for Haiti, and I wonder if that $5 million might not have been better used if it had been sent to this devastated island rather than into the pockets of CBS. I can't imagine what Tebow and his mom can say that would be a better Christian witness.

Haiti

There is no good way to measure the extent of the destruction in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. Anyone with a heart grieves at the pictures of death and devastation, particularly as they recognize that there will be no quick solution to the suffering. People of good will are praying for relief organizations to be able to get goods into the hands of the people to alleviate some of the problems, and many US organizations have mobilized campaigns to raise money for the support of aid groups already on the ground there.

In the midst of this outpouring of support, however, land Pat Robertson and Al Mohler, who have both managed to find a way to blame the people of Haiti for this earthquake. Pat claims to know not only what God said about the people, but was able to quote Satan as well. How interesting that he would have such a close relationship to Satan.

Unfortunately, there are many Christians who would agree with Pat and Al, believing that God chose to target Haiti with this earthquake. The God that I and many other Christians follow, however, bears no resemblance to the god whom Pat and Al claim to hear. My God is grieving for the tens of thousands of people who have died, grieving for those who may still be clinging to life, but who are trapped under the rubble and may not be able to be saved. My God is instilling hope in those who are working feverishly to uncover any remaining survivors, giving strength to aid workers who have been on their feet for days without proper rest, and comforting the survivors who have lost family, friends and all their meager possessions.

Harassment and Prop 8

In case you didn't know, there's a big trial underway in California where two lawyers, one conservative and one liberal, have undertaken to have Proposition 8 ruled as unconstitutional. I won't cover all the history of this case; google Prop 8 if you need the background.

The judge in the case wanted to let cameras into the court, and then the material would later be posted for public viewing. But the dissenters took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, who, in a very quick decision, said that allowing the public to view the video testimonies might result in harassment of witnesses, and do them irreparable harm.

I find it ironic that those testifying against same-sex marriage are acting as though they are a beleaguered minority who need protection. These same folks are generally against any legal protections for LGBT persons, even when it comes to employment. It is still legal in a majority of states for persons to be fired from their jobs purely on the basis of their sexual orientation. It is hoped that 2010 will finally see passage of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but there are no guarantees.

If the Supreme Court's conservative majority can empathize with these anti-gay persons, you would think that their reflecting on how hard it would be to be subjected to public opprobrium might trigger an "aha" moment where they would likewise recognize how difficult it must be for LGBT persons in a society where a majority (albeit it a small one) of persons don't believe in equal protections for LGBT people!

Thus endeth my rant!

A New Culture

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to help with a training session for our local IAF group, CHANGE - Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment. Every time I participate in any kind of CHANGE training, I am reminded afresh of how counter-cultural IAF is, and why the media - whether local or national - has a hard time understanding IAF.

Anyone who is remotely awake to local, state and national events should recognize that we are an increasingly polarized culture. At every turn, we are being told by pundits and politicians - and some clergy, too - the equivalent of "if you aren't for us, you're against us." People are being trained to out-yell each other rather than to reason together, to demonize anyone who disagrees rather than listening to that person's story and experience.

As I looked out over the several dozen folks who had given up their weekend for CHANGE training, I was - as always - pleased to recognize that we had folks from different ethnic backgrounds, different faith traditions (or none at all), and varying political views. Our culture doesn't know what to do with a group like this that comes together to work for solutions that make life better for the entire community.

I have to wonder if the politically powerful people who lived in Jesus' day were equally as confused. Here was this laborer leading a group of people who were historically marginalized to recognize that if they took care of each other, treated each other as they would want to be treated, that the "world as it was" would be transformed in the ways Jesus referenced in the Sermon on the Mount. For those who were used to wielding power over the populace, how frightening it must have been to see people coming together, by the thousands, to hear what Jesus had to say.

But I imagine the most frightening part of all came after Jesus' crucifixion, after those who wanted to stop this movement believed it took killing only one man to accomplish the task. Instead, the twelve Jesus initially trained became 70, and they taught and trained more who became the hundreds if not thousands as described in Acts 2.

I hope the larger American culture can catch a vision of the world as it could be by looking at the work done by local IAF organizations. Rather than throw stones or hurl invectives, I'd invite them to actually join in the work, building relationships with people from other parts of the city/county.

Mary Daly

Mary Daly, self-described "radical lesbian feminist," died this week at the age of 81. To say she was controversial would be an understatement of mammoth proportion. As I often do when reading news accounts, I viewed comments left with stories announcing her death. It appears no one has middle-of-the-road views about her, and I think Dr. Daly would have liked it that way.

The single most important thing written by Daly, in my view, was "If God is male, then male is God." I can still remember how that single sentence jolted me when I first read it in my 40s, just prior to my sojourn to divinity school. Having grown up in a Southern Baptist church which had already told me that, as a female, I could not be a pastor, I found in that one sentence the key which unlocked a door to the pain I had felt as girl called to ministry, and to the pain I had experienced as a lesbian trying to cope in a world that wanted me to express my femaleness only in particular ways.

To be sure, Dr. Daly wrote words that were painful to the experience of some womanists and transgendered persons. We are all products of our particular times and experiences, which makes writing thoughts down for posterity a dangerous endeavor. As a friend once remarked about the legacy of sermon manuscripts, "I'm not sure I still believe what I believed then!" But Dr. Daly was undeniably at the headwaters of a stream of feminist theo/thealogians who have continued to unlock doors for women - and ultimately for all persons - as they help us imagine and re-imagine our concepts about God.

Through Daly's words, I was able to uncover and recover an image of God that included me. Those words have no doubt changed countless lives, and for that we owe Dr. Daly our gratitude.

Who decides?

There has been a lot of hand-wringing over the attempt made to detonate explosives during the Northwest flight into Detroit on Christmas Day. Google News is logging thousands, if not tens of thousands, of news reports about airport security in the wake of this event.

Many commentators suggest that there is no way to stop someone who is willing to die in order to harm or kill other people. In the case of terrorists who follow fundamentalist Islamic law/teachings, these commentators argue that the subject has dedicated his (occasionally her) life to the ideal that killing those who refuse to convert will earn him great rewards in the hereafter, and bring honor - if not monetary rewards - upon the family that survives him. The focus is between that individual and his God, and how the individual will be favored by God based upon what the individual did.

The bottom line seems to be: because this individual is focused only on himself and his presumed rewards, he cannot be stopped.

I wonder, though, how much of this same "me first" thinking affects/infects our ability to reduce threats from terrorists of all sorts.

For example, it would seem that the networks devised to provide information about potential threats had plenty of data regarding Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. If it is possible to cut through all the inter-agency finger-pointing, it becomes easy to imagine that at least one major reason Abdulmutallab was not stopped prior to boarding the flight was because individuals in various agencies were more concerned about protecting themselves or their agency than they were in stopping a potential threat. The focus was on their own interests rather than in service of the common good. Likewise, the same public that cries out about failures in intelligence systems is the same public that cries out about being asked to undergo security screenings they find inconvenient.

If one begins to view actions through that lens, it becomes possible to see how "me first" thinking threatens our culture in many ways that have nothing to do with airport security.

Think about protection of the environment, and how many individuals refuse to do their part in recycling, changing driving habits, or using energy-efficient materials because it inconveniences them.

Think about individuals who oppose health-care reform because the current system works well for them.

Think about individuals who, like fundamentalists of any religion, believe that "my religion" is the only true one, and want everyone else to live by that truth.

Sometimes Christians scoff at the command to love the neighbor, or they recast it so that loving the neighbor means making that neighbor do the "right" thing THEY want them to do! Doesn't sound much like love to me.

Backtracking on the death penalty

The New York Time's article by Adam Liptak, Shapers of Death Penalty Give Up on Their Work offers hope to me that death penalty proponents are losing serious ground. If this group, described as "the only intellectually respectable support for the death penalty system in the United States," recognizes that the system is broken, then perhaps we are on the way to taking the death penalty off the judicial table.

One of their findings was that the system is plagued by racial disparities. Finally.

For too many years, people have tried to justify the death penalty system, arguing that the appeals process has insured that no innocent persons have ever been executed. Riiiiiight...

Here where I live, Forsyth County, North Carolina, there have been two men proven innocent after years of imprisonment. Had they been on death row, who knows if there would have been time to jump through the hoops necessary to prove their innocence. And despite the incredible odds against there being two convictions overturned, there is a third man here who is probably innocent as well, Kalvin Michael Smith. All three men are African American.

I tried to link to the Winston-Salem Journal's latest story on Smith, but could not get the link to work. Search their site for the story: http://www2.journalnow.com/home/

As this institute is finally willing to acknowledge, the death penalty system is broken. Based on what I have seen in the three cases above, our judicial system is broken. Until we are willing to face the racial biases that pervade the system, more innocent people will be convicted while dangerous perpetrators walk the streets.

One final Christmas story

I received some very good feedback on a recent sermon. Click on the post title above and go to the 12/27/2009 links for audio and/or manuscript.

Seeing things anew

Christmas is a complicated time for me. I won't go into further detail now, but suffice it so say that the season has not always been a very happy one for me. That said, I had interesting experiences as I went to visit my mom on Christmas Day.

A few days before Christmas, it snowed about 8 inches where I live. It was a beautiful snow, and I enjoyed watching it fall and taking pictures as it did.

By Christmas morning, the snow had either melted/been scraped such that the roads were passable, but there was still a lot of snow elsewhere, which made for a stimulating drive. The snow gave definition to areas of the countryside that I typically ignore as I drive along the (mostly) interstate route to my hometown.

The white backdrop provided an interesting canvas, causing features of the terrain to 'pop' before my eyes in ways they never had, though I've been traveling this road for 30+ years now. I was reminded of a quote attributed to famous traveler, Charles Kuralt: "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything." I realized that I had been traveling this road for decades without understanding the depth of interest beside the roadways: deep ravines, wetlands, firm stands of pines, deer-filled forests, etc. All of these places had existed before, but in my haste, I had never taken the time to really see them.

Thanks to the "white space" provided by the snowfall, I was able to see things previously hidden as I made my way from Point A to Point B. And while the snow had been mostly cleared, the remaining cold temperatures continued to leave some icy spots where snow had melted, so instead of traveling at the posted speeds, I had slowed, and the lower rate of speed also allowed me to see new things as well. I had never noticed the broken fence, the swollen creek or the depth of the vineyard. Gone from sight, too, had been the small "mom and pop" stores, those retailers who had avoided being swallowed by Walmarts, et. al. There was wildlife to be seen, running waters to be enjoyed, and even the occasional hiker, blessed be, who had pulled him/herself away from other distractions to wander out into nature.

Christmas has not always been my favorite season, but on this particular morning, I was allowed to see different views that changed my vision forever.

Look behind the everyday view, open your eyes to what can be seen anew, and be thankful for the creation at hand. Imagine doing these things on every day. If you can open your imagination in this way, welcome to a new year, indeed.

I'm baaaaaaack!

Ah, it's good to be back at the blog again!

Despite my best intentions, I did not get around to moving this blog to a new domain after all, and life became so complicated that I stopped posting as well. But it's a new year and with new years come resolutions, and I am resolved to blog once again.

Of course, one of the reasons I wanted to move the blog was because it's hard to get traffic if the blog isn't linked to other sites people read. Our church website had not been updated in quite some time, but we recently remedied that problem by having a new vendor create a site for us. It is quite lovely, don't you agree?

So now that I'll have a location from which folks might actually read my rantings, I'm committed to getting back into the blogging habit.

I started to remove all the old posts below, but I kinda hated to delete them. I thought they might inspire me as I try once again to get into this habit. Plus, they'll give you some insight into how my mind works - or doesn't, as you may argue.

Wish list

Car trouble, Christmas events and end of semester work have all conspired to keep me from blogging regularly this week. However, one of my new year's resolutions is that I will continue to blog even after the end of my Public Theology class. I have secured my name as a new domain and once I can figure out how to move content there, I will be operating under a new blog address.

My final op-ed is soon to be ready as well, and I will post it here once I've completed final editing. As I noted earlier, it is about torture, a topic that continues to find its way into our news cycles, as well it should. Given all the scandals of this administration, it is time that the public retain a focus on something as critical to our country's future as this subject.

I am also thankful that John McCain continues to speak out on this subject. It would be easier for his political fortunes for him to join the double-speak bandwagon with some of his Republican presidential contenders, but he continues to argue against torture with compelling personal testimony.

As we move toward Christmas, I marvel at how we can dissociate ourselves from these larger national issues and allow ourselves to be consumed by the consumer process. At this time of the year, Christians should be drawn to the drama of the child that was coming to bring unimagined change to the world, rather than be blinded by the glitz of the season. It is my prayer that we disengage from the consumer culture so that we can turn our attention fully to trying to live in the way we were shown by the one who came as the Prince of Peace.

Shop 'til you drop

I hate to go to shopping malls, so any excuse not to go is good enough for me, even at Christmas time. The recent shooting spree at the mall in Omaha provides just such an excuse. There will no doubt be copycat actions because shooting people while they are Christmas shopping makes for good news copy. If you want to get noticed, now’s the time to grab your guns. It gives “shop 'til you drop” a whole new meaning.

OK. I realize my macabre sensibilities won’t go over well with some, so let’s look at this situation another way.

Immediately after this event, callers to a radio show proclaimed that mall doors should be outfitted with metal detectors. But then a later caller asked; what about the parking lots? If someone wanted to take out a lot of people at once, that would be a fine place, too. Heck, I’ve had moments where having a gun to deal with a parking space thief could have felt really right! OK, so why don’t we have searches of cars/persons as they arrive to a mall?

Obviously all these “fixes” lead to the absurd. There is no place that is perfectly safe. As in so many situations, then, the better question would be to return to the source, that is, to the reason why someone felt his only recourse was to shoot and kill others.

Hope is the antidote to the hopelessness that leads people to such desperate actions. We must be able to imagine a world where no one would feel so isolated that he/she had no other way to deal with pain but to hurt others. Just like the shooter at Virginia Tech, it is clear this young man had problems, but there was no one close enough to reach him, no one to hold out a hopeful hand to him.

When I look at scripture, and see what Jesus did for/with others, it seems clear that in so many cases he was, in essence, defusing people with love. His willingness to hear people’s needs and help them turn their lives around no doubt took away so much anger carried by those with physical or emotional difficulties, or those who had been marginalized by society. They were then able to face the world empowered by hope. He taught a way where love could overcome hate and peace overcome violence, whereas the reverse has never been and will never be possible.

(De)Merit badges

A recent news article announced that the Boy Scouts would no longer be able to lease a Philadelphia building for $1/year because they discriminate against gay scouts. The city has a non-discrimination clause that says taxpayer monies cannot subsidize groups that discriminate, and the building once used by the Scouts rents for considerably more than $1/year!

Some will complain that the Scouts, as a private organization, should be able to set their own membership policies, and I agree. However, if they want to discriminate, they shouldn’t complain at having to follow the same rules as any other organization when it comes to things like renting space, using public buildings, etc. Often what the Scouts do is say that their focus is so positive that everyone should give them a break; they are making opportunities available for young boys and thereby fulfilling a public good.

Here’s one big problem with the above argument; it’s like saying that if underprivileged young white boys are served by being giving educational/leadership opportunities, it’s OK that the organization discriminates against boys of other races. I can’t imagine that point of view being accepted by municipalities as a reason for allowing the group to use taxpayer facilities at no/reduced costs.

I have a young friend who was on his way to an Eagle Scout award until it became known that he was gay. In his subsequent research on the subject, he learned some very important points. First, the United States is the only western-world scouting organization that discriminates based on sexual orientation or religious affiliation (or lack thereof), having rather recently constructed membership policies based on "biblical values." Secondly, most countries around the world do not segregate scouts by sex. Finally, the Girl Scouts here in the US do not discriminate based on orientation. When one puts those facts together, a new picture emerges; the discriminatory policies are based on some misguided notion of what it means to be a proper male in our culture. Those who lead the BSA seem to be afraid of both gay boys in particular and girls in general. Their notion of masculinity must be protected.

Jesus showed by his actions that he did not follow his culture’s strictures on interactions between males and females. Women were prominent in his life as supporters and, following his death, as leaders among those who continued to carry his teachings into the world. So if the BSA wants to discriminate, let them find another rationale for their actions rather than misusing Christian scripture.

The passion of Mel?

Last week, I watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ for the first time. Upon its initial release, I had refused to see it. A colleague watched it as part of a panel of clergy recruited by our local paper, and his report was that it was the most violent film he had ever seen. He’s right; The Passion makes Scarface look like a bedtime story.

So many things troubled me about the movie in addition to the excessive violence. As has been noted by reviewers, Mel lays the blame for Jesus’ crucifixion at the feet of the Jewish authorities, a scapegoating tactic that does not follow scripture. But there’s also not-so-subtle scapegoating of women.

The movie focuses on the last hours of Jesus’ life, and opens in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is praying. Circling around him is a Satan figure who might have been intended to present ambiguous gender, but who is smooth skinned as opposed to every other character in the scene having thick beards. Later in the movie, this figure cradles a baby in what seemed to me to be a reversal of a Madonna and child, a scene that latter occurs when Jesus’ body is cradled by Mary at the foot of the cross.

Mel purported to strictly follow scripture in telling this story, but any cursory reading of scripture demonstrates that he took many liberties. This is the story of Mel’s idea of Jesus, a super-macho figure able to withstand 20 minutes of flesh-ripping beatings. Hmmm...almost sounds like the plotline of a Lethal Weapon movie. One has to wonder if Mel doesn’t understand himself as a Christ-like figure, being persecuted by the detractors of his movie.

Growing up

Yesterday, I read a truly troubling NY Times story about a MySpace hoax that led to a young girl’s suicide. The tragedy grows as the story unfolds. A young woman thinks she has found a wonderful boyfriend, their romance blossoms via email and IM time, then he cuts her off and tells her the world would be a better place without her. The “boyfriend,” however, was the 47 year-old mother of a one-time friend of the young woman, and mom wanted to snoop on this young woman to see if she could learn why the young woman no longer wanted to be friends with her daughter. The mom and her daughter actually laughed to a neighbor that they were going to “play” with the young woman. The “play” turned tragic when the young woman hung herself following the breakup with her “boyfriend.”

What would make an adult feel such behavior was appropriate? To make matters worse, the mom doesn’t feel she really did anything so wrong since the young woman had made suicide threats before.

Popular media have talked a lot about “helicopter parents” over the last year or so. These parents seem to have decided that there is no way any difficulty is going to befall their children, so whether it’s a bad grade or the end of a friendship, they are going to make it their business to take care of anyone who would dare create any unpleasantness in the life of a daughter or son.

I certainly don’t advocate the emotional wounding children/young people “for their own good,” but the fact remains that we have to learn how to interact with people as part of our maturation process. The teachable moments following the breakup of a friendship, or the receipt of a bad grade, are places where parents can educate offspring about the nature of relationships, or empower them to deal directly with situations with persons in authority. Taking over these tasks for children just leaves them without the tools necessary to advocate for themselves throughout later life.

We don’t have a lot of information about Jesus’ childhood, but the mere fact that he came as an infant and moved through the stages to reach adulthood should demonstrate that God’s desire for humanity is that they have time to learn how to live whole and healthy lives. If we are to learn how to love our neighbors, we must understand how to interact directly rather than relying on surrogates who separate us not only from understanding others, but understanding ourselves.

Imagine

CNN recently ran a special on the wounded service personnel returning from the war in Iraq. Specifically, they were focusing on the difficulties faced by the most seriously wounded in getting appropriate disability funds. For example, soldiers with traumatic brain injury were being told that their injuries were only serious enough to warrant small payouts, even though most of these soldiers will never be well enough to hold down full-time jobs. Given that many are in their early 20s, they face a lifetime of economic difficulty.

I wish there were no reason for a standing military, but I cannot foresee a future without one. Therefore, I think we are morally responsible for considering how such a military force should be staffed. It is all too easy to say this is a “voluntary” force, as though that fact somehow makes the system an egalitarian one.

The reality is that most of the enlisted personnel are from low-income backgrounds. They join the military because they see it as a way to escape an almost inevitable future of remaining low-income wage earners. Many pundits have noted that this war is unusual in that it seems much of the country continues on without any disruption, seemingly unaware of the details of the war. I cannot see how it could be otherwise; the movers and shakers don’t have to really think about the war because it is being fought, in a sense, by proxies, young people with uncertain futures rather than the sons and daughters of captains of industry.

If a draft had been established for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would have been out of those countries years ago. Middle and upper-class families would not have stood by as their children, full of promise, returned with life-changing injuries that would prevent them from seeking the lives they had longed for. But when we have stand-ins, it is all too easy to placate ourselves by saying these people want to serve, rather than admitting to ourselves that they needed to serve if they wanted to try and grab a slice of the middle-class pie.

If the billions of dollars being spent on this war effort were redirected to addressing the underlying issues of poverty, or redirected to paying educators adequate salaries so they didn’t have to choose between doing a job that could change the lives of poor children, and making enough to feed a family, or redirected to helping young people break out of the cycle of poverty, imagine how much could be accomplished. Imagine how many lives would be spared, lives of Americans as well as of Iraqis and Afghanis. Imagine how God would feel at seeing us treat all humans as persons of sacred worth.

Thankful?

I’ve continued to think about the death penalty since my last blog. Thanksgiving may seem an odd time to reflect on such a sobering subject, but frankly, I can’t think of a more appropriate time. For so many of us, the privileges afforded us because of accidents of birth - race, socio-economic status, location of birth, etc, - make it unlikely that we will experience the criminal justice system in a negative way. We privileged folks express our thanks for all that we have without seriously considering that our good fortune comes at the expense of others.

Whenever I hear someone argue that African Americans must be overrepresented in our prisons because, well, they just don’t respect the law or want to follow the law, I’m drawn back to a situation experienced by my niece. While being driven by her African American fiancé (now husband), in Winston Salem, their car was pulled over. The officer asked for ID, looked them up and down, and asked my niece if she were OK, as though obviously this man driving her must be forcing her, a Caucasian female, to be with him. The incident took place in the daytime on a major thoroughfare. If her fiancé had responded at all negatively to the stop, I can only imagine what the officer might have done; obviously he perceived a threat and it would have been a short walk from that expectation to finding a reason to give the driver some sort of ticket, or worse.

As long as situations like this continue to occur, we cannot, with any serious understanding, look at the disparity in use of the death penalty or even the basic functions of the criminal justice system, as anything other than racist. As long as that racism exists, we cannot blithely say that no innocent persons have been executed.

Likewise, we cannot look at the disparities in our criminal justice system honestly without asking ourselves what should be done to correct them. If I, a middle-class Caucasian female minister, were arrested under dubious circumstances, I could depend on any number of individuals and agencies coming to my aid. If the very same situation occurs with a young, low-income, African American male, too many people would just say, “Well, that’s just the way things are.”

Until we are willing to take a long, hard look at the racism that is still endemic to our culture, there are any number of persons whose lives will continue to be shattered by wrongful expectations or accusations.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

I listened to the radio a lot over recent days because of a flu bug that discouraged me from doing anything but resting in bed! One of the pundits I heard was Michael Smerconish, a conservative radio talk show host and attorney. He was crowing about a recent article in the NY Times regarding the death penalty and its presumed deterrent effect. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html) Smerconish argues that if the (in his view) left-leaning and therefore anti-death penalty NY Times would publish data showing that the number of homicides fall as the number of executions increases, then the numbers must be true. He also argues that the study now makes it impossible for anyone to mount a rational argument against the death penalty because if 3 to 18 lives are saved (or possibly more if other studies are also correct), then we are bound to use it because of the overall saving of lives.

Saving for the moment arguments based strictly on morality, let’s look at the data presented. First, the Times article notes that “Canada has executed no one since 1962. Yet the murder rates in the United States and Canada have moved in close parallel since then, including before, during and after the four-year death penalty moratorium in the United States in the 1970s.” Given this fact, one could argue that the change in rates is based on some other variable. I’m sure there are also comparisons that could (should?) be done with other countries without a death penalty option. Secondly, we aren’t talking about a large data set; there have not been that many executions to track.

The statement Smerconish made that most troubled me, though, was his response to a caller who questioned how many innocent persons may have been wrongly executed. His reply was that there was no proven case of an innocent person being executed. This response would be laughable were it not so sad. He assumes a 100% accuracy rate in application of executions, and there is nothing associated with humanity that functions at 100% accuracy. Fallible lawyers, judges and juries are bound to have made errors, whether we can prove it, or not. Studies have shown that the criminal justice system is skewed based on race, ethnicity and class, so poor minority prisoners who were executed would not have had the resources nor been in the spotlight that would attract persons desirous of proving wrongful execution.

The most persuasive argument to me, however, is that from scripture, where Jesus never advocates the death of anyone he encounters, no matter their offense, and actively works against the stoning of a woman accused of adultery. The Sermon on the Mount is clearly anti-violence. Tony Campolo’s words ring again in my ears: What if Jesus meant what he said?

Justice, or just us?

In watching C-SPAN recently, I learned some new things about the mortgage crisis currently worming its way through our economic system. The panel was comprised of some of the economic advisers to 2008 presidential contenders.

The biggest surprise was being told that our bankruptcy laws are such that someone who owns several houses has some options in renegotiating mortgages so that homes are not lost. This is not the case for persons who own only one home. Obviously, there is nothing fair about such a system; if renegotiation options are available to some, they should be available to all.

The impact of the collapse of the mortgage market will have far-reaching effects. Studies demonstrate that when homes are repossessed, the values of surrounding properties drop. Today, the New York Times also reported on the number of renters who will be affected because the owners of their apartments may have unworkable mortgages now.

As Garret Keizer writes in a essay for “Getting on Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel,” love of neighbor as one loves oneself applies to all systems, even economic systems. If, because we own three homes, we want the chance to renegotiate a mortgage to save those properties from foreclosure, we should want a family of four owning one home to have that same opportunity. As Keizer argues, there is no where in scripture where Jesus comes upon someone in need and pronounces something like, “well, that’s just the way life is,” or “God is trying to teach you a lesson.” Jesus creates circumstances for lives to be changed for the best. We should want the same for all person.

Fire, or ice?

I had lunch with a ministry colleague today. We’ve known of each other for a long while, but had never taken time to just sit down and talk.

His church is struggling right now because, as the saying goes, “no good deed goes unpunished.” Because our local homeless shelters will soon be full to overflowing, his downtown congregation had decided to offer its gym as overflow space through these winter months.

After much work to prepare the space, they were told by inspectors that they must have a sprinkler system installed in order to be approved as a shelter. Ironically, the current shelters don’t have sprinklers, but since this is a new usage, they are being asked to adhere to new standards.

It would all be funny if it weren’t so sad. Basically, officials are saying these folks are safer sleeping outside than in a building without a sprinkler system. I’m not sure those in need of shelter would agree that trying to sleep in 20 degree weather under an overpass would be more dangerous than a warm, secure gym. The church had arranged for volunteers who would remain awake during the night, all exits would be continually lit, and no smoking is allowed. That doesn’t sound like a very dangerous situation to me.

As if the building guidelines snafu wasn’t sad enough, the families bringing children to the church’s day care also registered some serious complaints about their children being “exposed” to the homeless. Fear ran rampant; there were concerns about airborne diseases, AIDS, overall safety, etc. Of course, those staying overnight would be released before the children began arriving. Were parents afraid of their children seeing homeless people - in a church?

Maybe both the government’s and the parents’ responses are the same in one regard; both parties would like to just make the homeless disappear. Neither group seems to be very interested in getting to the heart of the reasons for homelessness. They simply don’t wish to be inconvenienced by having to deal with them at all.

Who loves you, baby?

Working on a university campus has its privileges. Among them is exposure to visiting lectures by any number of scholars, all free to the public. It’s a great perk for a pastor.

Recently, however, a speaker was scheduled who troubled me greatly. It seems that it is still acceptable to invite speakers who believe lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons are sinners until/unless they repent and become heterosexual. To make matters worse, this woman has no training in psychology or psychiatry, and yet “counsels” people out of homosexuality. I’m a bit dismayed that a university group chose to invite such a speaker.

Under other circumstances, I would not even give the name of this speaker, much less post a web listing, but her thoughts – and those of her late husband – are so sad that I decided to display them at the end of this post so that readers may check them out. If you read her husband’s post, you’ll see that this “ministry” believes same-sex orientation is a function of demonic possession.

In listening to Joanne’s story, it is clear she suffered a lot of abuse, and for that I am truly sorry. But to determine that – in her mind – a disordered sexual orientation is caused by trauma is simply ridiculous to those of us who grew up in “Beaver Cleaver” environments. Indeed, while I knew I was “different” by a young age, the only abuse I’ve ever suffered was at the hands of presumed Christians who believe that God hates me.

She clearly has a dim view of humanity, a view that assumes original sin in all its worst manifestations. I agree with comedian Eddie Izzard who argues that most sins are in no way original. If you want an original sin, he says, admit to poking a badger with a spoon. There’s an original sin.

I like the thinking of a second century pastor, Irenaeus of Lyons. He believed that God created humans as children, a not unreasonable assumption I would say, given that all the rest of us begin that way! The sin that ultimately occurred was that humanity attempted to grow up too fast, to assume it understood God without having gone through the maturation process necessary to really “get” God. A figure like Jesus, then, gave us someone who could once again show us what it meant to be made in God’s image, and he did go through a maturation process of his own.

Joanne lives in fear of a god who would have doomed her to hell if she had not stopped living as a lesbian. She could not conceive of having a relationship to God not based on fear. As a result, I think, she and others who believe this way cannot imagine treating LGBT people as humans created in God’s image. Instead, she can only interact with them if they wish to denigrate themselves, to insist that there is something wrong about them. She refused to admit there was any scientific evidence showing a genetic component to sexual orientation in humans. Unless she wants to insist that animals, too, have free will to choose a “disordered lifestyle”, then what must she do with the research demonstrating same-sex relations among hundreds if not thousands of animal species?

http://www.life-ministry.com/

http://www.life-ministry.com/thoughtsfromron.htm

Make love, not war?

Veteran’s Day prompted a story from the Voice of America regarding the visitors to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. I read with interest that some of the visitors, people too young to remember Vietnam, are interested in this memorial because of the war in Iraq. While the reporter didn’t expand on this statement, I wonder if the memorial’s architect, Maya Lin, provides a clue as to why young people would be attracted to it. Lin described the memorial’s form as one designed to resemble “a wound in the earth that is slowly healing.”

Wars wound all of humanity deeply. It doesn’t matter if one remembers a specific war because there is one dark thread that binds them all together; humans made in God’s image are destroyed, whether directly by bullets and bombs, or indirectly through the unseen scars of emotional bullets and bombs that wound the souls of soldiers, family members and friends.

Why can we not learn that killing each other isn’t a viable long-term solution to any problem? Resorting to killing means that we have failed to be creative enough and caring enough to look for other ways to resolve our differences. Indeed, it is just that recognition – that the administration moved to war on Iraq rather than relying on good intelligence and diplomatic intervention – that may be driving people to the wall – or perhaps up the wall as well!

I’ve always found it interesting that here in the US we are constantly bombarded by movies where violent acts are the glue holding together often poorly constructed plots. Yet I can not remember a film being given an NC-17 rating based only on violence. Sex, of any type, however, is scrutinized much differently. We seem to be OK with teenagers watching people be killed in myriad ways, but let’s not let them see two people make love unless the scene is carefully edited and photographed.

Hmmm…it’s almost as though we are training our population to accept the normalcy of violence. Some critics have noted that violent video games, played by millions of Americans, are quite similar to games used by the military to desensitize soldiers to killing.

I’m reminded of reading about Bonobo chimps. They have sex constantly, and there don’t seem to be too many rules about partners or positions! But what is also true is that they don’t kill each other. “Make-up” sex takes on a whole new meaning among this species.

Interesting, isn’t it, that we refer to them as animals and hold ourselves up as a higher exemplar of the evolutionary process.

Real priorities

Basically, this is a continuation of the previous post. I just realized today that Bob Jones, founder of the ultra-conservative Bob Jones University, had thrown his support behind Mitt Romney.

Understand me; I don’t have a bone to pick with Mormons as they can decide on how they want to define their faith and how that faith is lived out. But Bob Jones has, in the past, been very unwilling to compromise in choosing support of a candidate. Remember, too, that this is the same university that didn’t even allow interracial dating until a few years ago because they didn’t believe it to be biblical. Suddenly, the same man who would think nothing of chastising Mormons for following a false prophet is now willing to follow a Mormon to the presidency.

Obviously the “strongly held beliefs” of these Christian conservatives are not so strong after all. If they were, these folks would have gotten behind Sam Brownback with financial support as soon as he announced his desire to run. Instead, Sam had to withdraw. And as I noted earlier, Mike Huckabee is now the only remaining Republican candidate who really signs on to the majority of the religious right’s plank, yet there has not been a call for financial support, or days of prayer in his support, etc., etc.

How ironic, too, that in these same days when there is so much conversation about the political designs of the Christian conservatives that we find a number of the highly successful faces – Hinn, Dollar (!), Meyers, etc. – are under scrutiny for how their tax-exempt congregations have managed to leave them living lives of not only ease, but incredible luxury. If just one of these individuals had thrown his/her financial support behind someone like Huckabee or Brownback, that campaign would have been cemented.

I guess there was a greater need for a new jet or another vacation home...all in service to God, of course.

Politics

I’ve been following with interest the conversations ongoing among the religious right concerning support for the various Republican presidential contenders. So it was with some bemusement that I read about Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani.

This is the same Rudy Giuliani who, during his separation from Wife Two, I think, bunked with friends – a gay couple with whom he is very close. This is also the same Rudy Giuliani who looked particularly wonderful in a drag getup! In looking at the video of the two of them at the news conference, I’ve wondered what was really going on in Rudy’s mind.

I don’t wonder so much about what’s going on in Pat’s mind because, well, he’s issued so many crazy statements over the years that I don’t think many of his conservative religious colleagues find him credible, either. But he has fired an interesting first shot over the bow of the Republican ship as we move toward the 2008 elections. This man still commands the attention of almost 1 million viewers through the 700 Club, so like it or not, he has to be taken seriously.

What are the religious right folks going to do? I think they’re going to follow Pat, not perhaps in support of Rudy, but in support of trying to win at all costs. Some are already parsing statements about Mitt Romney, even as they have to also admit that they find his Mormon faith to be a cult. Others, like Pat, are arguing that national security is such a major issue that “America’s Mayor” would be better than someone like say, John McCain, who actually fought in a war (and who knows the REAL definition of torture!)

Fred Thompson has angered many religious right folks by using an argument against a constitutional ban on abortion typically used by the pro-choice advocates. He is willing to reject the abortion plank of the Republican party, a move no Republican candidate has been willing to do for at least 20 years.

Mike Huckabee is probably the only candidate who fulfills the majority of religious right’s platform, and if he can pull off some primary wins, might be able to get enough traction to create a stir. But if not, he’ll be thrown under the wheels of the bus because at the end of the day, I can’t imagine religious conservatives will sit out the election. They’ll get behind Rudy or Mitt, no matter how much they have to hold their noses.

As a political junkie I’m interested in these machinations, but as a Christian, I am saddened by the fact that these folks are willing to overthrow their stated values in order to get a political win. It’s a pragmatic approach, but not a Christian one.

It’s fine to be a person of faith involved in politics, but the key is whether one can do so without overthrowing his/her beliefs for the sake of expediency. If we cannot continue “to speak truth to power” then our Christian witness is dangerously diluted and we begin to look like any number of secular political players rather than followers of Jesus.

Food for thought

One of the readings for this week's Public Theology class is by John de Gruchy, a white, South African professor of Christian studies. It is a chapter from a forthcoming book, and looks at what it means to be a Christian - and a human.

He taps into thoughts of people like Bonhoeffer and Irenaeus, writers who have greatly influenced my thought in these past few years. Both men stress the importance of the work Christians do in the here and now. Even though they come from radically different time periods, both believed that the point of Jesus being embodied - and us being embodied - is that real life occurs in the relationships we have with each other and God, where we can exercise the attributes of God, e.g. love, self-giving, and compassion in our interactions with each other, allowing ourselves to be fully alive and fully human.

It is impossible to read any of the work of any of these men without recognizing the circumstances of life that informed them. During Irenaeus' life, persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire was taking place. Bonhoeffer watched the rise of the Third Reich. de Gruchy witnessed the violence of apartheid in South Africa.

The church, called to be the body of Christ, did not always perform well in these and other historical settings. As many have noted, Christian communities can become very self-focused and self-protecting, forgetting the radical nature of the early followers of Jesus. I've been thinking a lot about "church" because of the impending retirement of the other pastor on our church staff. As a result of this transition, our congregation will be asked to take a good, long look at itself in thinking about an eventual permanent replacement.

In recent visits with congregation members, I have often raised the question: What is Wake Forest Baptist Church to you? I have not asked for immediate responses because I really want folks to think about their answer. Are we truly committed to "the least of these", to the hungry, naked and thirsty? I think we are, but what does that commitment look like, i.e. do we give to missions programs, or go out in the community and get our hands dirty? Do we sign petitions, or do we work to change systems that institutionalize failure for those on the margins? Is our Sunday worship the culmination of our work together in community where we come together to praise God, or is it a performance of the praise of God?

It can become easy for congregations to be complacent, to be so focused on their internal matters that the work of God comes as an afterthought. Perhaps that's why so many congregations struggle with changes in pastoral leadership; the focus is on a position rather than on the work to which we are called as the body of Christ. Just some food for thought.

A drive for life?

On my way to church this morning, I saw one of the buses used by local churches in picking up children for Sunday School. The churches target low-income neighborhoods where families might not have time or transportation for getting their children to church.

Some years ago, I worked with several local children who very much enjoyed attending one such church, so on a couple of Sundays, I rode with them on their bus. I got into a conversation with one of the bus drivers, a man who had been doing this work for many years, Sunday after Sunday. His volunteer time began around 7 a.m. each Sunday morning, as drivers would gather for prayer before leaving for their routes. He often would not make it back home until 2 or 2:30 that afternoon.

I marveled at the devotion he and the other drivers (they had about 25 buses) had for their work, especially given that about one Saturday a month was reserved to travel each route, visit with the children who normally ride, and recruit others to join. Some would say, “Well, that’s a hallmark of evangelicals/fundamentalists. Their drive to save souls borders on the fanatical, and we (liberals) just aren’t like that.”

Granted, I’m not fanatical about the kind of evangelism these folks do. It is primarily born out of the belief that the world will soon end and that they must do everything they can to save souls for Jesus. I do, however, wish that liberals could catch some of the fire these folks have for giving of their time and energy. After all, they may be focused on heaven, but we should be focused on doing God’s will “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

There is a lot of work to be done in the here and now to alleviate pain and suffering, to give human faces to God’s love for the world. Instead, I find that so many liberals like to think about the needs of the world, but aren’t all that interested in getting their hands dirty. We could use a little bit of that evangelical fire for doing God’s work.

What's good for the goose...

As one of the class requirements for the Public Theology class, we were asked to write an op-ed piece. My draft of the piece was submitted a few weeks ago, and I’ll be getting feedback not only from Dr. Thistlethwaite, but from Charlie Madigan, long-time writer for the Chicago Tribune.

While I’ll share the finished piece on this blog, I wasn’t ready for the draft to make its public debut. One of the reasons I chose the subject matter of torture, though, was because it keeps coming around for discussion, and I didn’t see that fact changing at least through the next presidential election. Of course, the current reason for attention to the subject comes because of the hearings regarding the potential new attorney general, Michael Mukasey.

Apparently, the crux of the problem for Mukasey is that he’s been a good judge, but now that this White House has asked him to come on board, he’s developed a problem with being straightforward, a problem he might have considered ahead of time given some of the things this administration has said/done over its years of power. He cannot directly answer questions about a torture technique known as waterboarding because it’s quite likely that the technique has been/is being used with White House knowledge. For him to openly state that it is torture would open some of our citizens to charges of violations to the Geneva convention, at least, and allow for potential prosecution on those charges.

Administration officials seem to be unwilling to allow the rest of the world a chance to weigh in on what we Americans do. They seem to believe that as long as an American official is doing it, it must be right, a dangerous game to play considering that these same officials would not want other countries to have the same right.

If we really believe in the Golden Rule, or in Jesus’ greatest commandment, we have to be willing to treat people as we would want to be treated, to not do things to others that we would not want done to us. I would like someone in our administration to explain how he/she would feel if American personnel serving in other countries were to be strapped to a board, have their faces covered, then have water poured onto their faces such that it enters their lungs and leaves them believing they will be drowned. If our administration is OK with that, then please be honest with the American public. If our administration is not OK with that tactic being used, then they should be willing to stand up and take the necessary consequences for allowing it to be used against others. And Michael Mukasey, as a judge, should stand for the rights of all.

If he did mean it...

What if Jesus meant what he said? It’s the powerful question raised in my last post, coming on the heels of hearing a sermon by Tony Campolo. And, it is a problematic one, given that we don’t exactly know what he said versus what others had him say, or wanted him to say. But there is something we cannot overlook as we consider the question; Jesus was crucified by the Roman Empire because of what he said.

To me, crucifixion makes it impossible for us to domesticate Jesus’ message into some nice, tidy, doctrinal set of teachings. He was a radical and because of that, he scared the powers of the empire so badly that they felt killing him was the best option. If he had simply been a calm, quiet teacher who “kept the peace” as he traveled from place to place, why kill him? Those in power yearn for calm and quiet in their subjects.

No, he scared people in power because his words did not leave people feeling warm and fuzzy and safe, which is often what our worship services devolve into and what our words about Jesus seek to do. (Thanks, Constantine; I think that’s one of your legacies.) Instead, his words caused people to recognize that the world as it was was not the world as it should be; reread the model prayer if you wonder.

Taking Jesus’ words seriously means, in effect, giving up the comfort of place and position that many of us hold by virtue of different kinds of privilege. Taking his words seriously means we will be uncomfortable and unsettled, and unsure of what will happen next. It also means that we’ll shake up the world and cause people to have to confront the inconsistencies and injustices present before them – if they will open their eyes…or, if WE will open OUR eyes.