Dancing as fast as he can

I’ll admit it. I enjoy watching politicians get caught doing the very things they’ve railed against, so it was a pleasure to watch Republican Sen. Larry Craig squirm after being charged with soliciting an undercover cop for sex in the Minneapolis airport. Given that the GOP has made gay-baiting their favorite sport, it was nice to see a member of the party be caught by the very net he himself supported being cast.

But I’ve developed some pity for Craig in recent days. His party has tried to throw him overboard while at the same time it continues to support Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, whose name showed up on a call log from a prostitute’s phone. Vitter, presumably a staunch “family values” supporter, was cheating on his wife, yet there have been few calls for his resignation.

One could argue that both politicians deserve punishment, but I don’t think that’s true. What, after all, did Craig actually do? It seems his “crime” was a bit of toe-tapping and hand-gesturing designed to let the man next to him know he was interested in him sexually. They never had sex, though, so what conduct was disorderly? I think Craig deserves some pity because he’s a product of conservative religious rhetoric designed to make LGBT people feel so ashamed of themselves that they cannot be truthful about their orientation. Granted, he has participated in his own subjugation, but all the while he’s also been swimming in homophobic waters.

We know if we subject children to continual withering criticism, they will consider themselves to be bad, and act out accordingly. Little Larry was taught that men who loved men were the worst kind of people, and that self-loathing has surrounded him always. In a testament to how engrained orientations are, he hoped to find a way to acknowledge a bit about who he was, even if only for a few furtive minutes.

God calls us to healthy relationships, relationships where we can be honest about who we are, and where another person can accept us for who we are and love us as our full-strength selves. When anti-gay pundits begin to quote statistics that homosexuality is a “dangerous lifestyle” that leads to shortened life spans, they always fail to think about the millions of children who, like Larry, were told they were bad simply for being who they were. If you’re looking for a sin, look no further.

A life to be remembered

Yesterday brought a stark reminder about the tenuousness of our existence; a friend of many years died in a traffic accident, even though several fine trauma surgeons spent hours attempting to save her. She was a Texan by adoption, and if you’ve ever known a Texan, you know there’s something in the water there that makes most of ‘em, but especially a lot of women, stronger than their counterparts in any other state – or any part of the world, for that matter. Consider Molly Ivins and Ann Richards and you begin to understand a little about Sylva. Don’t mess with Texas (women)!

She was larger than life in so many ways. She had a big bank account, a big appetite for life, a big ego…and a big heart. Granted, you could cross her to the point that, like a Mafioso, you would become dead to her. But at the same time, there was no greater advocate for women – for feminism – than Sylva. She really did put her money where her mouth was in terms of supporting groups/causes that advocated for women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, too.

She was also an artist. I don’t think she ever found the audience for her woodworking that she deserved, but it didn’t matter. What became important to her was doing things the right way. Like Michaelangelo, she took wood and worked away anything that didn’t look like the picture in her mind.

She was also a Christian. She hated the way conservative Christians would distort the gospel for their own ends, and we had many conversations about how to overcome the religious bigotry directed toward women and the LGBT population. Sylva was a career student and a particular fan of Phyllis Trible, whose feminist scholarship has given life-sustaining nourishment to generations of students, but especially to women.

As Christians, we are called to take up our crosses and follow Jesus. Sylva did that, not only for herself, but for countless others who could not take up their crosses easily because of the additional weight the world had placed on them because of socioeconomic disparities, race, orientation, gender, etc., and made use of the wealth she experienced to try and help others who had not been similarly gifted. I lift up the beauty of her life and of her advocacy. I also lift up that we should be vigilant about saying “I love you” to people. We should resolve to say it not in a cheap, sentimental way, but in a way that recognizes that on any day you, too, might find yourself at the hands of a trauma surgeon. And in the end, Sylva will be remembered for what she gave to the kingdom of God “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Was dinner too spicy?

I had a disturbing dream last night. Men were transporting hundreds of dogs via travel trailers, trying to escape from Michael Vick's compound in Virginia so that they could continue to use these animals for upcoming fights. During the trip, a horrible traffic accident occurs and many of the dogs are killed. I drive up shortly after the accident has taken place. The carnage is horrible, but even in the midst of this gruesome incident I am struck by what the uninjured dogs are doing; they are lying next to their mortally wounded pack mates. It seemed they were alternately grieving and/or trying to comfort the injured dogs. The drivers of the travel trailers had fled the scene.

I’m not sure what might have triggered the dream given that a couple of months have passed since charges were first filed against Vick. Perhaps an ad for the new season of the Dog Whisperer had lodged in my subconscious. But there was a recent story in the New York Times that had touched me. An African gray parrot, Alex, died at the age of 31. He had been the subject of intense work by Dr. Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist who had studied and worked with Alex for most of his life. Alex had learned a great deal about English, and at the close of their last work session, he said to Dr. Pepperburg: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.” Alex died overnight.

In later online comments posted to this story, I was struck by how hard it was for some writers to imagine that animals other than humans are capable of expressing care and even love for another, particularly a creature not of their species. In other contexts, persons who call themselves Christian also express similar sentiments; humans are made in the image of God, they argue, so animals cannot be that important or share any traits.

While it is certainly the case that Genesis 1 says humans are made in God’s image, we should not overlook other portions of that text. First, God pronounced all of creation “good.” Secondly, humans were given the responsibility to take care of that good creation. Why would God create good creatures only to have humans treat them as though they were disposable goods to be used for our amusement – or for food? After all, Genesis 1: 29-30 does not offer us animals for food!

This discussion highlights a personal problem for me, though, in that while I would never dream of harming a live animal, I have always been willing to eat animal flesh. How do I justify arguing that God is calling us to the care of all creatures when I myself am part of a process that requires the death of animals? I think the reason I can separate these actions is because I am separated from the killing process; if I had to kill the animal I wished to eat, I would have long ago become vegetarian.

Why me?

Why does the idea of blogging bother me so much? When I published the link to this site in my church newsletter, I was already nervous about having members read the material, much less thinking about the general public having access to it as well. My anxiousness is odd given that our church’s morning worship service is broadcast via radio every Sunday morning. When I preach, thousands of people may hear what I have said, and anyone with internet access can visit the church’s website to download audio or document files with that day's sermon.

I guess my problem is that there is something about blogging that has seemed self-important. After all, there are plenty of editorial writers, for example, who are more talented and thoughtful than I who express themselves in powerful and transforming ways, espousing opinions with which I wholeheartedly agree. The problem is that few of these persons write from a religious perspective, and fewer still write from a Christian perspective. As an unabashed liberal, I’m getting tired of hearing what “Christians” think, as though all Christians are of one mind about important issues of the day.

One of the reasons I signed up for this Public Theology class is that I knew having to create and post to a blog would stretch me. But what I hope it will also do is encourage other liberal Christians to make their voices heard. The internet, for weal and for woe, makes it possible for voices that have historically been underrepresented to be able to offer their views in the public square.

So, this blog is now officially open for business. I will try to post several times each week, and I hope that readers will engage with me as I begin to share.