The Prayer Room 1/11/15: Baptism of the Lord Sunday

"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28 NRSV)

The verse listed above from Paul's letter to the Galatians is, to me anyway, one of the most powerful verses in the Bible. He's breaking the down the largest barriers of his age: Jew vs Gentile, slave vs free, male vs female.  For Paul, when Christ comes into the picture, those walls are torn down so that the light of Christ shines on all in equal measure. "You are one in Christ Jesus."

This last week was tough on the world scene.  It seems like every time I sit down to write one of these that there's some other horrible thing that's happened.  Last week it was the terrorist attacks in Paris and subsequent hunt for the killers.  That got all the news.  Let's also not forget that in Nigeria, Boko Haram militants slaughtered over 2,000 innocent men, women, and children.  That didn't get as much play here in the states.

But why? It's an easy question to answer.  French journalists working in an office are "us."  Poor people in the third world are "them."  We're nowhere near as concerned with what happens to them as opposed to what happens to us.  A massacre in a village in Africa seems a world away, while an attack on a French magazine office has us wondering if that kind of a thing could happen in our hometown.

The "us vs them" thinking comes even more into play when we look at Christians, or shall we say "western societies" vs Islam.  It was appalling to see "Kill All Muslims" trend on twitter for several hours last week.  Yesterday a certain American news outlet claimed that President Obama is going to alter the first amendment to fit Islamic law. The same outlet peddled an opinion that the City of Birmingham, in England, was now a Muslim enclave where non-Muslims are not welcome and will not go. They eventually apologized for that one, but it's clear that once again the fear machine has revved up to full volume as people seek to lay blame.  It doesn't matter that a Muslim employee at the Jewish kosher market that was attacked hid people in the meat locker and then snuck out to give police valuable info about the building and the situation inside.  That got little to no airplay.

The fear, and the "us vs them" thinking clearly goes against the Unity that Paul wishes for us to have in Christ, but it's not all bad news.  Yesterday millions of people marched in a rally in France to say that they weren't afraid of terrorism, and the President of France clearly drew a line between regular Muslims and the fundamentalists who perpetrate these actions.  It seems that despite the media hype and the raw rage of social media, most people still have their heads on straight about this.  

My prayer for the upcoming week is that it stays that way, and that it improves.  At some point, if humanity can come to conclusion that we're all in this together no matter gender, age, race, creed, social status or anything else, then we could really make some strides in this world.  Is that a tall order?  Absolutely.  Is it worth advocating for anyway?  Absolutely.  Please join me in keeping the victims of these incidents in your thoughts or prayers this coming week, and our world as well, that we can continue to try to realize that what unites us is bigger than what divides us.

Dear Christ, Prince of Peace:

We find, once again, that our world has been scarred by the worst kind of violence.

We offer up those who have died, that they may be at peace.

We offer up friends and family who are left behind, that they somehow find healing.

We even offer up those who commit these acts, that their hearts might be turned from hate.

We offer up our world to you, as we seek to find the best way to end this violence and be together.

We offer up ourselves to you, that we may recognize and void our own prejudices.

May your Spirit of peace, justice, and unity prevail as we pray the prayer you taught us:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.

Amen.

Advent: We're Not the Only Ones Who Wait

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. (Revelation 3:20 NRSV)

Christians are quite familiar with the concept of "waiting" during Advent, that's what the season is for, after all.  We wait in hope not only to celebrate the first Advent, the Incarnation of Christ, but the second Advent, when we believe he will return to Earth.  Of course when I was a kid it was about waiting for Christmas morning and presents, if I'm honest with you!  We make a nice show out of our own waiting at Advent, but I wonder, are we the only ones waiting?  I think not.

Think about a time when you got somebody what you might consider the "perfect gift" for Christmas. How do you feel as you wait for Christmas day and the opportunity for that person to open it: excited, nervous, expectant?  One year my wife got me a portable weather station (I'm a weather geek), and she was so excited to see my face light up when I opened it.  I trust that I didn't disappoint her!  

Well in the Advent study that Pastor Gary is presenting at our Church this Advent, he portrays God that way.  God has procured for us this great gift, and he's just waiting to see how we respond once the gift is no longer "under wraps," so to speak.  Of course the gift was originally given some 2000 years ago, and it was the gift of his son, indeed the gift of himself, Jesus Christ. God waits in excited anticipation to see how each and everyone of us responds to this special gift.

Which brings us to the matter of Christ himself.  In the book of Revelation Christ says that he is standing at the door knocking, waiting for us to open the door to him.  This is also a familiar image in Christianity, so much so that it has often become cliche, but make no mistake, Christ is waiting, and he is expectant of us everyday of our lives.  Consider this:

"Jesus stands at the door knocking.  In total reality, he comes in the form of the beggar, of the dissolute human child in ragged clothes, asking for help.  He confronts you in every person that you meet.  As long as there are people, Christ will walk the earth as your neighbor, as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you, makes demands on you.  That is the great seriousness and great blessedness of the Advent message. Christ is standing at the door; he lives in the form of a human being among us.  Do you want to close the door or open it?"

                                                                                             --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Does those words give any of us pause?  Do they convict any of us in the slightest?  Here Pastor Bonhoeffer ties in the meaning of Advent to the seminal message of Christianity.  For so many of us, accepting Christ means "opening the door to hearts" so to speak, and inviting him into our lives. That is indeed the first step, but the journey ahead for those who would truly follow Christ is long indeed.  

Christ is there, confronting us in everyone we meet, everyone we hear about.  He waits, and how do we respond?  Christ is present in a young African American man who has been killed by a police officer and left on the street in the open for four hours.  Christ is present in a man who was strangled to death by a New York City officer.  Does that tie this is to everything that's going on around us? Christ presents himself to us in everyone, no matter race, creed, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, or any other qualifier.  He waits to see how we react to him, to see if we will truly continue to open up our lives to him, again and again. It is a constant, active process, where we must remember that an injustice done to anyone is an injustice done to Christ.

So what do we do?  How do we open the door?  It starts by recognizing the validity of each and every human life.    Once we have done this, this fundamental belief should invade every aspect of our lives.  It should inform how we talk to others and treat others around us. It should govern the way we give of our time and resources.  Even just dropping a few coins in the Salvation Army bucket helps, and that's a great way to start, but I encourage all of us to look for other ways that we can reach out to our community.

Finally it should also inform how we vote and how we interact in the political life of our nation.  We should be holding candidates' feet to the fire on these issues, trying to get meaningful change that can help all of us.  We need to be asking the questions:  What do we do about the poor?  What do we do to erase the blight of racism in our country?  How do we confront and change this culture of violence?  

I truly believe that Christ calls us to be active in the lives of those around us everyday and in the life of our country.  I invite you to use this Advent/Christmas season as a springboard to do both in your life.  Christ is knocking, waiting.

The Prayer Room--11/23/14, Last Sunday After Pentecost

A man kneels and prays at a makeshift memorial for Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. (Photo: CBS News)

Many of us will turn our hearts to Thanksgiving this week, and we should definitely do that. Most of us will never know what it's like to be truly hungry.  Many of us will never know what it's like to not have a roof over our heads.  Many of us will never be a victim of violent crime.  Those of us who are fortunate in these and other respects should give thanks for the blessings in our lives.

But we need to remember that this isn't the same for everybody.  In particular I'm thinking about the people of Ferguson, Missouri.  Most of us will be familiar with the events of August 9, 2014, when Michael Brown, an African American teenager, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer.  This sparked racial tensions throughout not only the Ferguson area, but in different places all over the country as well.  It also raised the specter of violence in our society and concerns about the legitimacy of the use of deadly force by police officers.  In short, this incident has become about more than just the particular facts of the case.

Look, I don't know what happened.  I wasn't there, and I haven't seen the evidence.  Perhaps the only person who REALLY knows is officer Wilson himself.  However, this doesn't make the questions that have been asked and the issues that have been raised less valid.  The issues will have to be faced and these greater questions will be have to be answered going forward.  They're not going to go away. 

Many people believe that the church has a role to play here, not only in the larger sense of confronting these big issues, but in the smaller sense of helping the community of Ferguson throughout the days ahead.  The grand jury that will decide whether or not to indict officer Wilson will be announcing their findings soon, likely in the next couple of days.  Most legal experts have said that they don't believe that Wilson will be indicted for killing Brown, and it's quite likely that this is going to cause a great deal of strife in that community which has already been through so much.  There might be some pretty bad things going on there while most of us focus on turkey, football, and family this week.  I pray that this won't be the case, but I fear it will be. 

So I ask that we all keep the people of Ferguson in our prayers and thoughts this week and ask Christ to bring about peace in this situation.

JOYS AND THANKSGIVINGS

--For family and friends that gather around us and support us not only in the good times, but in the bad.

--For the blessings that we each receive in our lives every day and every year.

--For those who will be working to provide a thanksgiving dinner to people who are homeless or less fortunate.

CONCERNS AND PETITIONS

--For those who don't have family and friends, or who are separated from them for Thanksgiving and the holidays.

--For those who will be experiencing the first Thanksgiving after losing a loved one.

--For those who will be traveling throughout the week.

--For the people of Ferguson, Missouri, as they try to cope with the ramifications of the events taking place in their community.

--That Christ will grant us his peace and help to look past race, gender, sexual orientation, and the like and see the humanity in each and every one of his children.

How To Tell If Your Religious Freedoms Are Under Attack

Some folks have really been making hay recently by trotting out an argument that religious freedoms in the United States are under attack from the vile, tyrannical federal government.  Of course, these people are pretty much all Christians, as I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find all that many Americans that really care about the freedoms of religions other than theirs. So I decided to sit down and think critically about it, to really examine how religion works in our society and whether this claim has any merit to it.  The argument is out there, and those that are making it are loud, but is it really happening?

Let's start by examining some things that we might expect to happen if our government was attacking religious freedom, and ask if these things are happening.

1. Has the government taken an official stand for or against any particular religion?
One might expect that in an attack on religious freedoms, the government or agents of the government might take a stand for or against particular faiths.  For instance, if Christian freedoms were under attack, the federal government might make a law banning Christianity and it's practices, or they might issue a statement denouncing the faith as a whole.  Perhaps the government decides to officially endorse Hinduism over Christianity, or even atheism over Christianity.  Of course this hasn't happened and isn't happening.  The first amendment prohibits congress from making laws with respect to religion.

2. Can you go freely practice your religion where you want and when you want?
Throughout history governments that have attacked religious freedom have prohibited the free and open exercise of religion.  The Christian church in particular has had to operate underground in many places over the years.  So, can you go to whatever church you want, when you want without the government sanctioning or arresting you?  Sure you can.  I get up every Sunday and go to Community United Methodist Church.  Nobody prevents me from doing so.  There aren't cops sitting outside the church saying that I can't go in, or arresting me for wearing a cross necklace in public. Congress opens sessions with prayers, usually Christian, as do many government agencies throughout the country.  The Ten Commandments are emblazoned throughout the country.  The President proclaims a national day of prayer every year.  Do you honestly think those things would be happening if religion was under attack?

3. Do agents of the government try to intimidate you in religious settings?
Are there FBI agents sitting in your church parking lot giving you a cold stare from behind their official looking shades while you go into your church?  Do uniformed guards enter your church and watch from the back?  Do police officers take names or license plate numbers from people who go to church?  Maybe these things happen in the minds of black helicopter conspiracy theorists, but you know where they don't happen?  In the USA. Well I don't doubt that the government watches various Islamic elements, but if you see an FBI agent giving you the stink eye as you walk into your church, ward, or synagogue, snap a picture, send it to me, and we'll talk.

4. Are religious leaders thrown in jail or otherwise sanctioned for questioning the government?
Oh hey, we might have something here!  What about those pastors from Houston that had their sermons subpoenaed for being anti-gay?  Well, when you drill down into it, it's not that simple. These pastors had been part of a drive to collect signatures that would have required the city to put a controversial non-discrimination ordinance on the public ballot.  It was found that these signatures did not totally meet the City of Houston's requirements for a petition drive, and thus most of them were disqualified.  A lawsuit was filed against the city in regards to the disqualification of the signatures.  In the process of gathering evidence about the process of gathering signatures, the City of Houston subpoenaed the records that five pastors and their churches had in relation to the petition drive and the ordinance itself.  The original subpoenas did ask for sermons, but after they were served, the City itself agreed that they shouldn't have done that, and refiled the subpoenas without the request for sermons.  Later, after meeting with various clergy members, the mayor of Houston, an openly gay woman, agreed to withdraw the subpoenas altogether.  So, as you can see, this wasn't the City of Houston coming down on pastors for being anti-gay.  It was the City of Houston seeking to defend itself against a lawsuit brought by some of the people who had organized the petition drives. Imagine that.  Maybe next time the people who collect the signatures should dot all their "I's" and cross all their "T's".

Now, certainly throughout American history there have been various pastors and religious leaders who have engaged in acts of civil disobedience and been arrested for it.  Martin Luther King Jr comes immediately to mind.  However, what you don't see is pastors or religious leaders being arrested or fined for preaching various things from the pulpit or having legal gatherings in public.

5. Is the government attacking the central principles of your faith?
For Christians, the central ideas of the faith are that Jesus Christ was the son of God, that he died for the forgiveness of sins, and that he rose from the dead and ascended back into heaven.  Belief in this gives the Christian salvation through grace.  Has the government attacked any of these ideas?  Is there a law somewhere that says "Believing in Jesus Christ is a crime?"  Nope.  Again, if you have proof of any of these laws existing in the United States, pass it along and we'll talk.

Now of course, there could be MANY other things that might happen if the government was honestly attacking religion.  But come on, don't you think we'd at least see one of things above happening if it were a problem?  The United States has long been a place where people are left to do as they please, and that includes practicing religion as they please.

So what religious liberties are really being threatened then?  Where does the argument come from? Of course it's all about homosexuality.  There's a bee in many peoples' bonnets because of the striking down of gay marriage bans.  People think that they have a right to a religious belief that homosexuality is wrong and that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

They are right, of course.  They definitely have the right to believe that.  Churches even have a right to preach it if they so choose.  You can also believe in all sorts of other things like alien anal probes or the thought that one human being is inferior to another because of their gender or the color of their skin.  Nobody's going to throw you in jail for any of those beliefs.

The issue arises when you try to give a particular religious belief the force of law and use it to discriminate against others.  You can believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Your church is free to practice that as well.  What is generally being held (with the exception of the 6th circuit) is that you don't have a right to inject that belief into the government and use it as a tool to deny civil benefits to gay people and same sex couples.

Religion and government, they're different.  Church and state, they're separate.  Why is this so hard to understand?

Look.  The President is a Christian.  You may not think he is, but he is.  In fact, EVERY PRESIDENT has been a Christian of one flavor or another.  I couldn't put an exact number to it, but I bet that upwards of 90 percent of lawmakers and judges in this country are Christians. We LITERALLY run the place.  Which is just another reason why the argument that Christians are being discriminated against seems totally incoherent to me.

As a final thought, don't assume that all Christians think like you do.  The Bible was pro slavery in many places, we don't do that anymore.  Many, if not most denominations have done away with various teachings about women.  I'm proud that the United Methodist Church ordains women.  Many of us have also moved away from those ancient teachings on homosexuality as well.  Why do many Christians feel the need to cling to those few verses?

In the end, just because the government doesn't agree with you doesn't mean you're being discriminated against.  As Christian blogger and missiologist Benjamin L Corey puts it "One doesn’t become the victim of bullying when they’re told that they can’t make others the victim of bullying. That doesn’t even make sense." He also says: "Being persecuted for our faith is different than being persecuted because we’re acting like jerks."  I urge you to read some of his thoughts on the issue here
and here.

I hate to disappoint guys like Phil from that duck show, Rick Santorum, and apparently Eric Metaxas (who is a fantastic writer, but I just can't agree with him politically), but the Nazis aren't coming for you.  Barack Obama isn't going to show up on your doorstep in jackboots and a brown shirt and haul you off to jail.  It's sure fun to use fear as a weapon to drive your agenda though, isn't it?  Christians should know better.

Church and State: Can the Church Be Too Nationalistic?

What happens when the church and the government, or the church and political parties, become close bed fellows?  This is something that's been on my mind a lot over the last couple of weeks for two reasons.  First, those of us in the United States have elections coming up tomorrow, and second, I've been studying the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his role in a plot to kill Hitler as well as being openly against the way the Nazi party had co-opted the Christian Church in Germany.

This is a huge issue in today's United States, whether you like it or not.  You can be the most irreligious person on the planet, but if you live in the USA, the interaction between the Government, particularly political parties, and Christian churches has an effect on you.  You may or may not think it should be that way, but for now anyway, it is.  The question before us now is: can it go too far, or perhaps has it already gone too far?

Let me give you a little background on what I'm talking about with Bonhoeffer, the Nazis, and the German Church of the World War II era.  In March 1933, the German Reichstag passed what was known as the "Enabling Act," granting then Chancellor Adolf Hitler plenary powers over the German state.  With these powers in hand, he and the Nazi party dismantled the machinery of state and all political opposition.  They also went to work on the church in Germany.  In April of that year, various protestants in Germany (likely Nazi stooges) began to advocate for a "German National Church."  This came to pass over the summer as the machinery inside the German church became steadily Nazified.  There was even a broadcast plea from Hitler to German protestants calling on them to join this movement.  Eventually one of Hitler's cronies was installed as the head of this new church as the "Reichsbischof."  In late summer of 1933, the new "Protestant Reich Church" adopted the "Aryan Paragraph" which included tossing out any clergy with a drop of Jewish blood or any clergy who was married to anyone with a drop of Jewish blood. The seminaries in Germany began cranking out pro-Nazi clerics, and with all of this in place Hitler and the Nazis had full control over the German church.  Throughout the Third Reich era it would be used as a propaganda arm for the Nazi government, an indoctrination center, and a tool to further eliminate Jews from German society.

Not all German Christians were thrilled with this.  One of these was a young pastor and theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer and others broke away from the Protestant Reich Church and formed what would be known as the "Confessing Church."  These Christians contended that any government regime, including a dictatorship, had limits when it came to the church.   They renounced the Reich Church and their interpretation of Christianity.  This was of course, illegal. Bonhoeffer and others were persecuted for this, and some were even sent to concentration camps, including Bonhoeffer himself.  Bonhoeffer had also become a courier with the German resistance and was allegedly linked to Operation Valkyrie.  This was discovered and he was eventually executed by hanging at Flossenburg concentration camp in April 1945, just two weeks before the camp was liberated by Allied forces.  His body was never found.

Now I'm not saying that Christianity in the US is becoming Nazified.  The example of the German Church in the Third Reich is obviously an extreme case, but I am concerned that we are seeing elements of the politicizing of churches in our country.  This is problematic on a couple of levels. First off, the United States Constitution specifically set up the government as a separate entity from any religious organization.  Some conservative Christians disagree with this, but it's true.  The word "God" does not exist anywhere in the US Constitution.  However, the use of religious litmus tests for candidates and making laws about the establishment of religion are expressly prohibited.

As a part of this, churches and religious organizations in the USA are allowed to operate as charitable organizations that pay no taxes to federal, state, or local governments.  They are meant to be apolitical entities.  Questions have arisen in recent years as several churches have not only taken high profile positions on specific proposed laws, but they have also given church (tax free) money to interest groups fighting for or against these laws and have also began to advocate for or against these laws from the pulpit.  Now, this might be one thing if churches were out advocating for the poor, the homeless, the sick, and the dying, you know like Jesus did, but instead much of the church in America seems overly preoccupied with LGBTQ people.

This came to a head in Houston, Texas, in recent weeks.  Some churches in Houston had been gathering signatures that would require the city to put a controversial non-discrimination law on the ballot for public referendum.  The mayor of Houston, an openly gay woman, met with clergy members and came to believe that some pastors were advocating against the law from the pulpit. Five pastors, 4 men and 1 woman, had their recent sermons subpoenaed by the city as they sought to determine if this had actually taken place.  There was an immediate outcry against this by religious groups and conservatives, and the mayor decided to recall the subpoenas.  I will admit that even as a very liberal minded Christian, this made me a bit uncomfortable, and perhaps seemed a bit heavy handed.

However, this is an interesting test case for our nation in which churches have became more and more politically orientated, particularly in Conservative political circles.  I'm not trying to pick on conservatives here, but let's face it, you don't really hear people wondering if the American church is going too far in advocating liberal policies, do you?

Should the church have any role in politics?  Should the church somehow function as the "conscience of the state?" If it should, should there be limits?  Where should the line be drawn on these limits? Can our churches become too nationalistic?  These are important questions that we will continue to face in the years ahead, and as I mentioned earlier, the way these questions are answered will affect both religious and nonreligious people alike.

In order to illustrate my opinion here, I turn again to Bonhoeffer.  In 1933, in the midst of everything that was happening in Germany, he wrote an essay entitled "The Church and the Jewish Question." In this essay, he argued that the church should indeed be the conscience of the state, and he described three ways that the church can interact with the state.  I'll list them here as illustrated in Eric Metaxas' book "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy."

1. The Church can ask the state whether it's actions are legitimate and in accordance with it's character as the state, i.e. it can throw the state back on it's responsibilities.  

2. It can aid the victims of state action.  The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community. "Do good to all people."

3. The third possibility is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to jam a spoke in the wheel itself [to stop the state from perpetuating evil]. Such actions would be direct political actions.

These things are in line with what Bonhoeffer believed about Christianity.  He believed that as Christians, we are required to speak out for those who cannot speak.  He believed that this was the very least that the Bible requires of us.

My opinion is based on these three assertions and the belief that Christ requires me to speak out for those who cannot speak, for those who do not carry the power to influence government, those who cannot escape the crushing wheel that Bonhoeffer speaks of.  Yes, the church has a role in politics. Yes, the church should function as a conscience of the state.  However, yes there should be limits. Churches should not be aiding specific agendas of political parties.  The church should not be pushing the perceived moral absolutes of the ultra right wing on people whether they are Christians or not.  This was not the concern of Christ.  The role of the church is to advocate, and advocate strongly, for the those whom Christ advocated for: the poor, the needy, the sick, and the dying.  These people are becoming more and more ground down under the wheel of the moneyed elite and their powerful political interests in our country, and for the most part, the church is not even asking if that's the right thing to do or aiding those who are damaged by our system.  I would prefer to see Christians drive a spoke into the wheel of the political machine myself, and that's how I vote.  Instead much of the Christian church seems to be caught up in advocating against certain ideals that don't fit their archaic version of morality. much of which Jesus himself had nothing to say about.  In my mind, we've become distracted from the real purpose.  Much of what passes as "Christian advocacy" these days is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Republican party and their ultra right moral agenda. People are not asking what Jesus might say or think, they're too busy buying up books from the Duck Dynasty guys, who seem to be prophets and spokesmen for a new generation of Christians who care about nothing more than money, fame, and strict adherence to an Old Testament morality.

This is all leading to a national, American brand of Christianity, and that frightens me.  We have begun to cloak the cross of Christ and the Bible in the Stars and Stripes.  Want proof?  Click here.
This process attempts to connect our history specifically to Christianity, which is exactly the opposite of the secular republic set up by the Constitution.  This leads to Americans feeling superior to other Christians and non Christians alike and is resulting in negative and un-Christlike behaviors towards many people including poor people, gay people, and Muslims.  A couple of months back, one of the Duck Dynasty guys was on Fox News saying that ISIS members should be converted to Christianity or killed.  Many Christian circles have become hotbeds for anti-Muslim sentiment, and in this climate, I fear that we are only one terrorist incident away from having that sentiment explode into some very nasty outcomes, outcomes that might be sanctioned and advocated for by many Christians in our country.  In the end, is it all that different from earlier times?  Is wrapping the Bible in the Stars and Stripes really any different that wrapping it in the Swastika?

THE GERMAN PATRIOT'S BIBLE connects the teaching of the Bible, the history of the Reich, and the life of every German. Discover Biblical truths that formed the foundation of the Reich's values and how they apply to today's culture. Experience spiritual milestones in Reich history with beautiful, full-color insert pages. Examine the intersection between Reich history and the Christian faith through unique articles spotlighting the people and events that have made the Reich great.

Does reading that make you even a little bit uncomfortable?  Does that sound like something the Nazi propaganda machine might have put it out?  Does it sound like a Bible for the Protestant Reich Church?  All I did was take the paragraph on the "American Patriot Bible" and switch the word "American" with "Reich" or "German."  It makes me sick to my stomach.

That is what I have to say on all of this.  You may disagree or agree with me.  You may think I'm flat out crazy and reading too much into things, but the reality is that these questions and issues will continue to face our country for awhile to come.  They WILL have an affect on all of us no matter which faith we belong to, and even those of us who don't belong to any faith.  These questions are worth asking and it's a conversation worth having.  I've told you what I think, what do YOU think?

Ebola 2014: The Cost and Response

Relief workers hand out information leaflets about Ebola in Guinea. (Time Magazine)

You'd have to be living under a rock to not be confronted with the US media's Ebola obsession. Seriously, I got home from work last night and turned on the TV only to hear the uber-important sounding BREAKING NEWS music on CNN.  I wondered what it was about, perhaps an update on the shootings in Ottawa yesterday?  Nope.  It was about Ebola.  Specifically it was about ONE doctor in New York City who had contracted the disease while treating patients in west Africa.  The anchor was indulging a near hysterical tone asking "Are New Yorkers safe?  Is the Subway safe?"  The doctors on the panel did everything they could to talk him down, but you could tell the interest was more in pedaling fear and obsession than actually disseminating relevant information to the public.

That's sad, and perhaps even dangerous for a couple of reasons.  First off, most of us aren't going to have anything to fear from Ebola.  Despite the constant media blaring, we know a lot about the virus. Most importantly we know how it spreads, and how it doesn't spread.  This allows health professionals to give guidance on how to avoid infection. Namely, don't come into contact with the bodily fluids of an Ebola patient.  Of course, this isn't anywhere near as sexy as "outbreak" and "pandemic" story lines now is it?  There's a fine line between urging people to exercise proper hygiene and precautions and stoking a panic.  We seem to be way on the panic side of that line.

But there's an even darker and deeper tragedy happening behind all of this.  While all of us comfortable, healthy Americans are worried sick over a disease that we'll likely never come into contact with, half a world away some of the most vulnerable people on the planet are dying left and right from the same disease, a disease that they don't have the power to escape by turning off CNN or logging off Twitter for awhile.  The plain fact is that most people in America and other industrialized nations couldn't have cared less about Ebola until white doctors and missionaries started contracting it.  

Even when this happened, the response was less than compassionate.  A couple of Americans who contracted the virus in Africa were brought home under controlled conditions so that they could be treated.  When this came out, people became apoplectic.  Yet these people recovered.  These people didn't make anyone else sick.  Serum produced from the blood of these patients is being used to treat others who have contracted the disease.  Pretty positive outcomes all around, yes?

Well, that was not the outcome for Thomas Eric Duncan, who began to show symptoms after returning to Texas from Liberia.  He went to the hospital, reported his symptoms, and told them that he had just returned from Africa.  He was sent home and given Tylenol for his fever.  According to his family, he had no health insurance.  Only days later when his symptoms had worsened was he admitted and treated for Ebola.  He died.  Even at his passing, the concern wasn't for this man or his family, it was about whether anyone else in Dallas had gotten it from him.  Would he have recovered had he been given proper medical treatment immediately?  Only God knows that I suppose.

Meanwhile, people in west Africa often lack even the kind of medical attention that Mr. Duncan received. Are we seeing stories about that on the news?  Very rarely.  So what do we do about it? The cost of this virus is high in Africa and can't possibly be measured in just dollars.  People's lives are ENDING.  Parents are losing kids, kids are losing parents, spouses are losing their loved ones.  Many are dying alone and afraid, with their corporeal remains perhaps cursed to infect another person who might stumble upon them.  Can we see past our own fear and manufactured panic to show compassion to these people, to try to help them?

There are many ways to help.  Secular and religious organizations around the world are responding to this emergency.  I'll list a few links here.

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Ebola Response

Doctors Without Borders Official Site

UNICEF Ebola Response

United Methodist Church Ebola Response Page

As always, please give only through reputable relief organizations or through official programs of your local church or civic organization to avoid people who are looking to make a quick dollar off of tragedy.

For fellow Christians, I urge all of you to join me in reflecting on how we're viewing and responding to this event, and how Christ would respond to it.  A good place to start is Jayson D, Bradley's blog entry entitled "Love in the Time of Ebola."

Here is a video and prayer put together by the United Methodist Church, a prayer for those suffering from this disease the world over.

"Gracious God, we call you the Great Physician.
We pray your healing power to touch those bodies that now shake with fever, ache with pain, and are too weak to sustain the demands of life.

Gracious God, we know you are a Mighty God.

Grant access to medical care for the most vulnerable in West Africa.
Protect doctors and nurses who kneel at the bedsides of the sick and the dying.
Provide resources in places of lack.  Guide churches and church leaders.
Empower all who work tirelessly to be Christ’s hands and feet.

Gracious God, we believe you are Hope for the hopeless.  Hold parents who’ve lost children.
Gently father and mother children who’ve lost their parents.
Make your presence known to those who are dying alone, in the streets, in wastelands, without friends or family.
Speak tenderly to all who feel abandoned by the world’s governments and systems of power.
Give strength to our friends in West Africa who feel that “life more abundantly” is an unfulfilled promise.

Gracious God, we know you are the Light overcoming darkness.
Why should we be afraid?
Help us, O God, to trust in your unchanging nature in times of uncertainty.
Grant us peace that Ebola or anything in this life that would threaten to undo us, is not impossible for you.
Hear our prayer.
Amen."

Why Is Being Anti-Gay So Important to Some Christians?

The culture is shifting.  Whether you like it or not, attitudes towards gay, lesbian, and transgender people are changing, becoming more accepting.  You may or may not be happy about this.  In the interest of full disclosure I'll say that I'm thrilled.  I do not believe that being gay is a choice. Therefore, if I believe that God created everything, he must have created them that way.  I have no problem with gay people entering into a marriage contract in the legal sense or a marriage covenant in a religious sense.

Now let me explain myself before you all either tune out the rest of this entry or fire up your flame throwers.  First off, I don't believe that churches should be forced to perform gay marriages if that doesn't align with the views of the congregation.  I also don't believe that the current court proceedings are going to force them to do so.  Churches refuse to marry couples everyday of the week across the country.  My wife and I were married at All Souls Catholic Church in Sanford, Florida.  We didn't just show up and say "Marry us or else."  We had to talk with a liturgist, a priest, and take a day long class before we could enter into the sacrament of marriage.  Had the church told us no, we wouldn't have been able to sue them.  So let's all calm down about that.

I have a question though.  Why is being anti-gay so important to so many people who call themselves Christians?  What is it about this issue that divides people, splits churches, and ruins entire families? After all, Jesus didn't address the issue in the recorded gospels.  So one of two things happened. Either Jesus didn't say anything about it or the writers of the gospels didn't think about it enough to include it.  So that being said, what's your problem with it?  At best this is a secondary theological issue.  Surely had it been more important there would be a recorded teaching from Jesus.  Yet all of Jesus' teaching about love and inclusion are so often tossed out the window when it comes to gay people.  I've boiled this down in my own thinking to five reasons why this seems to be such a big deal to so many Christians.

First off, Christians seemed to have adopted so many of the negative stereotypes about gay people that emerge from an aggressive male dominated culture, independent of religion.  How many times have you heard, or even perpetuated the thought that gay people are pedophiles?  Search the discussion on social media and I bet you find a reference to this harmful stereotype in less than 5 minutes.  Another one is the thought that a same sex couple cannot be suitable parents or that children in same sex households will grow up to be utterly confused in their sex roles.  The academic/scientific community consensus  is that there isn't a basis for this conclusion either, but that doesn't seem to matter.  For some reason, many Christians seem to be vulnerable to these kind of stereotypes, or even hoaxes.  How many times have you seen some chain mail sent through email or social media that is patently false, only to see it being perpetuated and nurtured by Christians?  The answer is.....a lot.

The second thing that leads to this issue being such a sore point is the practice of biblical literalism.   For people who read the Bible literally, every word of it is divinely penned and contains ultimate authority.  This authority cannot be contradicted.  They see the Bible as book that tells one story and should be read cover to cover, with every word being taken absolutely literal.  Of course, many problems arise from this.  The universe was created in six days.  People lived to be 900 some years old.  A major flood wiped out all of the animals in the entire world except for a few that some guy put on a boat.  Then when we get to Leviticus, being gay is an abomination and non-celibate gay people should be executed.  That's not very nice now, is it?  I mean, even the most stringent anti-gay people that I know don't want to see them executed.  But why?  I mean it says so right in the Bible!

Let's first say that the Bible is not one book that's meant to be read cover to cover with every word to be taken literally.  The Bible contains material related to two different cultures: ancient Jews and early Christians.  It records how both of these cultures, thousands of years ago, responded to the life and times around them.  The Bible contains poetry, mythology, metaphor, personal correspondence, legend, and a dash of actual history.  You can't read a book like that and take every word literally. Psalm 91 says that God will cover you with his feathers.  So God has feathers.  He's a chicken. Hebrews 12 says that God is a consuming fire.  Now he's a blast furnace.  Which is it?  Oh, you mean it's a metaphor?  Weird, I'll stop worshiping the chicken that lives on the next street I guess.  The plain fact is that while Bible passages have to be read in context with other passages, they also have to be read in the context of the historical time in which they were written.  When viewed this way, the Bible becomes not a constitution that must be followed to the letter, but a library of different books, written at different times, that conveys the feelings of different authors.

But you might say, "Ok, what about Romans 1?"  Yes, in Roman 1 Paul lists homosexuality as "ungodly."  First off, he lists a lot of other things too, and a lot of us are guilty of most of it.  However, something happens if you read the passage in context and you check out the first verse of Romans 2.:

"Therefore you have no excuse. whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things." (Romans 2:1 NRSV).

Sounds like what we were all taught as kids: "when you point a finger at someone else. three point right back to you."   So when you're using the passage against others, you're doing exactly what Paul tells you not to do.  Now yes, Paul still does seem to be against homosexuality, but in 1 Corinthians he also says that women should keep their mouths shut in church.  This view is also part of a bygone era.  If you're interested in learning more about the "Clobber Passages" that Christians use against gay people check out Ronald Goetz's blog Bible Thumping Liberal.

The third reason being anti-gay is so important to some Christians is because they are obsessed with sin and judgement.  It doesn't seem to matter that the expressed mission of Christ was to free all from sin and judgement.  For some reason, a requirement for being a Christian seems to be that you follow the Hebrew law as laid out in the Old Testament.  As Paul himself insists, this is patently false. He treats this subject extensively in Galatians.

"The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you had heard?" (Galatians 3:2 NRSV)

"For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written 'Cursed is everyone who obeys all the things written in the book of the law'." (Galatians 3:10 NRSV)

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." (Galatians 3:13a)

Paul seems to be pretty clear on the subject.  Throughout his epistles he constantly stresses salvation, or transformation, through grace, not through the following of a moral law code or by doing good works.  It is the central theme of his message.

Now that's not to say that Paul is giving everyone a license to go out and do as they please.  However what Paul is stressing, and what the church in the modern era seems to have largely forgotten, is a process of personal transformation made possible by Christ's love and grace, not through moral codes or judgement.  As so many people in the emergent view of Christianity are pointing out, this process leads to a person who becomes like Christ, a person who loves and serves everyone, including their enemies and people who disagree with them.

Yet of course, bending back into Biblical literalism, many Christians see being gay as a sin, or at least not being a celibate gay person is a sin.  And so this obsession with sin, despite clear teaching otherwise, becomes the central focus of faith.  The point is to abhor and virulently condemn anything you see as sinful because you're "standing up for God's will."  But guess what, God doesn't need you to defend him. He's good there.  Plus, why does he keep on creating all these gay people if he hates them so much?  Not to mention, our calling as Christians is not to go around proclaiming God's judgement on those whom we disagree with, or anyone for that matter.  Our calling as Christians is bear the image of Christ into the world.  That image is one of love, service, and sacrifice; not sin, judgement, and dogmatic obsession.

Fourth, not only are modern Christians obsessed with sin, but they're obsessed with sex.  Now there are a lot of people that are obsessed with sex, and a lot of it is unhealthy. Modern American Christians have taken this to new heights in the western world though.  For so many people the biggest part of that Law code that they think everyone has to follow is about sex. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex.  Nymphomaniacs aren't as obsessed with sex as some conservative Christians are.  So much of the conversation turns into issues about sex.  "That person is having sex before they're married."  "That couple is using birth control when they have sex."  "Those guys actively engage in gay sex."  "Those guys have multiple partners." "This person's kid is sexually active."  The list goes on and on and on and on.  Then when Christians are confronted by a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex the discussion nearly always devolves into things like incest and bestiality.  Seriously, who spends so much time thinking about sex with animals?  Conservative comment boards and websites have been full of it this week after the Supreme Court actions.  Sigmund Freud would have a field day.  Brian McLaren has a term for this kind of sex obsessed Christian in his book "A New Kind of Christianity." He calls it "fundasexuality" and devotes a whole chapter to it.  For McLaren, this obsession with sex comes not from faith or religion, but from an orientation of fear.  These people fear new things, new ideas.  They fear things and people who different.  They fear religious authority figures.

I totally agree with him there and I encourage everyone to check out that chapter in his book, well check out the whole thing too.  Certainly certain patterns of sexual relationships can have destructive consequences, but that's not where this is obsession comes from.  As McLaren states: "Sociologists sometimes say that groups can exist without a god, but no group can exist without a devil. Some group or individual needs to be identified as an enemy" (A New Kind of Christianity, Pg 175).

That leads me to my final reason as to why Christians get so upset with gay people.  People say that they're protecting their religious rights, but that is a phantom fable.  These folks aren't REALLY worried about their rights, they're obsessed with OTHER PEOPLE and what OTHER PEOPLE are doing.  Look, I promise you, gay marriage could be legal all through the country and you'd still get to go to church whenever and wherever you want.  As I said earlier, your church will not be forced into performing gay marriages.  You can go right on believing that being gay is a sin.  Nobody from the government is going to come stop you.  More and more people might disagree with you, but nobody is gonna throw you in prison for having that opinion.

Let's face it, what people are actually doing is being nosy, superior, and attempting to force their belief onto others, it's exactly what they fear that gay people are going to do to them, and it's exactly the the opposite of what Jesus asks us to do.  Once again we see the fear of the "other" rear it's head in our culture.  The problem for Christians is that Jesus didn't call on us to judge the other.  He called on us to love and serve the other.  Don't forget that Jesus was a guy who hung about with prostitutes, tax collectors, working class people, the sick, and dirty fishermen, all while being reviled by the religious conservatives of his day, people to whom he referred to as "white washed tombs," pure and clean on the outside but dead on the inside.

Look, I'm not under the impression that I'm going to change anybody's mind here.  I don't believe that being gay is a sin.  I don't believe that gay people having a committed sexual relationship is a sin.  I might be wrong, but if I am, I rest comfortably in the fact that I still try my best to exhibit the love of Christ to anyone and everyone, and I'm just fine with that being a legacy that I leave when I'm no longer on this earth.

If you're a Christian who doesn't share my views, that is your right, but I hope what I've had to say can help you understand where people like me are coming from.  You may cling to your rigid belief, but times are changing, and my viewpoint is not going away.  If you're a gay Christian who reads this, please take heart and know that not everyone is against you.  I can't imagine what it might be like for you to be placed in certain situations.  Know that I accept you for who you are, and that I will pray not for you to be "cured" of who you are, but that someday a spirit of love and understanding will prevail for everyone.

If you're gay but you're not a Christian and you read this, please know that not all Christians are against you.  I am not.  I'm certainly not in this to try and convert anyone, but as religious institutions are often leading the fight against your rights, please know that many of us, more than you might think, care for you and are trying to change things from the inside out.

May Christ's Peace and Love be upon ALL.

Peace vs Pragmatism: Something I Struggle With

US Plane in the Persian Gulf: August, 2014. (EPA via BBC)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry about calling for peace in dark times.  I talked about anti-Muslim sentiment and especially how it tends to surface around the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I also discussed the role of peacemaker, the role that Jesus would have us take on.  Toward the end I talked a little about the current situation with ISIS and what's going on there.

Well, as you've most likely noticed in the last 24 hours, things have really ramped up on this front.   Yesterday the US and several other countries undertook airstrikes in Syria that were targeted at ISIS, among others.  This is a significant escalation in the conflict, and as I listened to the news this afternoon I heard more than one reporter or pundit call it a "new war" with varying degrees of giddyness.  

So this brings me to an issue that I really struggle with: Being anti-violence and anti-war is well and good, but what do you do when some people are trying to hurt others and seemingly won't respond to anything else but force and violence being used against them?  Does Jesus really wish for us to sit back and not do anything about it?  It's not just a question for religious folks either.  I know plenty of atheist/agnostic folks who who share my opinions on war and violence, yet none of them have ever given me a way to resolve this issue either.

Should we let ISIS continue to commit the atrocities that they're committing?  Should we just back off and hope that at some point they (and other groups) will just leave us alone?  The pragmatic answer is "of course not," but how do you reconcile this with the classical teachings of Jesus concerning peace and non violence?  How do you deal with this even if you're a totally secular person who just tries to live by the phrase: "Do no harm?"

The first thing that probably pops into your head if you've given this some thought is Just War Theology.  It's not just for theologians either, you'll see it taught in ethics classes as "Just War Theory."  You even see it in the Geneva convention.  The theory has two parts.  The first deals with justice in going to war, and the second deals with justice during of the conduct of war.

I'm not going to go into a treatise on it here.  There's plenty of accessible info on the internet about it. This page gives a quick overview for those who are really interested in the ethical underpinnings. Basically it states that a war can only justly be waged to protect life, that it must be proportional to the issue at hand, that it must be done with proper authority, and it must be a last resort.

I think most regular folks would have no issue seeing the current conflict with ISIS as being sanctioned under Just War Theory.  After all, these guys are forcing religious conversions, holding mass executions of innocent people, and decapitating people on camera just for starters.  It seems like we should all be fine with mopping these guys up and ridding the world of their influence.

So why can't I bring myself to whole-heartedly support this?  Why is it even a question in my mind?

First I guess it's because I'm not so sure it will work.  I have a hard time believing that a few thousand bombs and some partially trained Syrian rebel forces are gonna sort this out.  I'm really afraid that we're going to end up sending in American troops, men and women from who we've asked so much of already.  I know that the politicians say this isn't going to happen, but politicians lie and circumstances change.  I also know that many if not most of our soldiers would go in a heartbeat.  It's what they signed on for.  I respect that immensely, and it's that respect that makes me think we need to be careful about how we use these men and women. I really don't want more families to be experiencing the pain of a lost loved one in this way.

Second: let's assume it does work.  Let's assume that we manage to root out ISIS and their cohorts. What happens next?  We screwed this up big time in Iraq, and it hasn't gone much better in Afghanistan.  We create a power vacuum that must be filled.  Either we stay and fill it ourselves (which the locals aren't going to go for) or we let it go and see what happens.  Either way, I have a hard time seeing this turning out to be anything other than a game of terrorist Whack-a-Mole.  We put one group down and another pops up.  Is that the best we can hope for?  I don't know.

The other thing is my belief that violence breeds violence.  If you watch the news magazine show "Vice," you saw them do a piece on Afghanistan and continued US operations there, specifically drone attacks.  They talked to a number of people both in Afghanistan and the US that said flat out said that every time we drop a bomb we create at least one new terrorist.  It's seen as naked American aggression.  These people don't view the situation the same way we do.  Maybe they don't agree with the terrorists, but what do they think when a bomb accidentally kills some women or kids?  What do they think when they're left to live in the rubble after the bombs are done falling?  That's when violence recycles.  What do we do about that?  How do we win the hearts and minds so to speak?

I don't have the answers to any of this.  As much as I want to advocate for peace, what do we do in this situation?  It isn't just an ethical or esoteric dilemma.  People are dying, and the violence keeps on recycling.  I sat and watched the news coverage of this last night and was totally torn in two on the subject.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, the best thing that I can come up with is hoping and praying that in the end a solution is found that does the least amount violence to the fewest number of people. It's the best way for me to feel comfortable with it, but it doesn't do much about the actual problem. Unfortunately, it's a problem that's not going away anytime soon.  I just hope a solution can be found that's something besides "perpetual war."  At any rate, I hope that you'll join me in the coming days to pray for our leaders, our soldiers, the innocent people in the crossfire, and even the people we're fighting against that their hearts might be softened.

Though admittedly, that's a long shot.

Calling For Peace In Dark Times.

Do you remember what you were doing 13 years ago?  I do.  I was working as an assistant to my Pastor at Family in Christ Christian Reformed Church.  I had just graduated from college and was working toward eventually going to seminary.  I didn't have anything on my plate that day, except for an appointment to get my hair cut around 9 in the morning.  I was in the shower getting ready to start the day, and my mom called through the door and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  As I drove to my hair appointment,  I listened to the news and it seemed like all hell was breaking loose.  Later that day I was glued to the television and watched the horrors unfold.

Thirteen years have now passed since that day.  It's really one of those days that you can point to in history and say, "Nothing was ever the same after that day."  Thirteen years later there are still ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.  It is right and proper to remember those who died, and I imagine that much like December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001 will always occupy a place in the American mind, and it probably should.

Something disturbing happens every year around this time though.  Some people who are still angry, and some people who are still afraid, use this solemn occasion to vent that anger and fear at ordinary Muslim people.  This year, things seem to be worse. Current events in the Middle East have brought all the skeletons back out of the closet.  Truthfully it's hard to hear about, or see, innocent people being executed by masked terrorists and not be angry or even a little afraid.  However, it's how we respond to these events that is most important.

Social media and cable news have been flying the flag of fear nonstop since ISIS turned from a Syrian rebel group into a full fledged terrorist organization that has designs on becoming an actual terrorist state.  We're told that the only way to deal with this is violence.  We have to take the fight to the terrorists.  Some B-List celebrities masquerading as Christians have even taken to the airwaves and said that the way to deal with them is to convert them to Christianity or kill them.  This of course, isn't any different than the ISIS message of "convert to our version of Islam or die."

Islamophobia is rampant and TV, radio, and social media are doing nothing except stoking the fire. That's kind of scary, because our country has a history of issues like this. During World War II, people of Japanese descent were rounded up and put into camps. There were no charges. These folks were guilty of nothing but being Japanese in a time when our national fear was at it's height. It's important to remember that your Muslim neighbor, customer, friend, or coworker doesn't have anything more to do with Al-Qaeda or ISIS than you as a Christian had to do with the Crusades or the Inquisition.  Their blood is red just like yours.  Their DNA is almost exactly the same as yours.

What does Jesus have to say about this?  What example does he set?  Matthew 5: 43-48 is instructive.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (ESV)

Good luck finding that perspective on TV or Twitter.

Look, I don't have the answers.  Obviously we're not just going to be able to hug it out with ISIS. Remember though, with a couple of notable exceptions, their victims have largely been other Muslims.  My prayer is that in the end this is all resolved with the least amount of violence done to the least amount of people. Violence cannot be the only answer.  We've been fighting this "war on terror" for 13 years.  Bin Laden is dead, and yet the problem remains.

I invite you to join me in trying to be a part of a different solution.  Pray for peace, not war. Remember that the vast majority of Muslims are just living their lives the same as you and I are. Actively work to be a friend to others, including our Muslim brothers and sisters, instead of giving into the spirit of anger, hatred, and fear.  You don't even have to be religious to love one another and see others as friend instead of foe.  For those of us who are Christians, we are called to follow Him who was the Lover of Enemies, the Gentle Healer who didn't lift a finger against his own execution.  The hands of Christ were those of a carpenter, not a warrior or conqueror.

If you're curious about how a regular Muslim views the world, his faith, and the world around us, I urge to check out No God But God by Reza Aslan.  If you're a Christian who is looking for answers on how to be a friend to those of other faiths, check out Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road by Brian McLaren.  The blog Godspace also has a nice list of 9-11 memorial prayers from different faiths for those that might be so inclined.

Never Forget, but also remember....

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God." (Matt. 5:10 ESV.)

Little Gems: Micah 6:8 "Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly"

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  

--Micah 6:8 (English Standard Version).

Pastor Gary talked about the verse above last Sunday morning in his sermon.  He brought it back to my mind and made me really consider it.  I can't tell you how many times I've read this verse or sung it as either a Cantor in the Catholic Church or as a worship leader in protestant churches, but for some reason it never clicked with me.  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write about it. The more I wanted to write about it, I started thinking about other verses that either were favorites of mine or some that maybe I hadn't really noticed before.  So I've decided that I'll do some entries about verses in both of those categories and call it "Little Gems."  This is the first of those entries.

The Book of Micah is one of those "out of the way" books in the Bible.  As one of the 12 books of the minor prophets, it doesn't get the consideration the major prophetical books like Isaiah, Ezekiel, or Daniel do.  It also isn't one of the big weighty books like Leviticus.  It's a pity, because Micah has a lot to say about what today we would call "social justice."  Perhaps that's why it doesn't get much play in conservative evangelical circles.

The verse above actually comes from a section (chapter 6) where God is indicting the people of Israel.  Basically God is saying " I brought you out of Egypt.  I've sent all of these upright men and women to you to serve as examples, but you don't still don't seem to have figured out what I want you to do."

Starting in verse 6, God talks about what he wants.  As it turns out, he doesn't want ritual sacrifices. He doesn't want lavish buildings with all the expensive accessories.  He doesn't want you to sacrifice your kids to redeem your soul (that's a good thing!)

Then we get to verse 8.  The prophet says "Hey, God has told you what is good before,  What more does he want of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with him?"  To me, this is the message of Christianity, the message of Jesus in a nutshell.  Let's take just a moment to consider these things.

First the prophet says we are to "do justice."  Some translations have it as to "seek justice."  What does that mean?  Keep in mind the social justice context.  Several times in the book Micah levels accusations at the rich, the people who control the resources and yet covet more and more of them. Just a few verses after the one above, God says:

"Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?  Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.  Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins."

God wants us to do economic justice.  He wants us to seek to end the way people lord and horde countless riches while so many others can't even get by.  He wants people to get paid fairly for the work they do.

The second thing is to "love kindness" or some translations have it as "love mercy."  This is every bit as subversive as the first idea. Kindness and mercy equal forgiveness.  They equal respect for everyone despite their circumstances.  They equal second chances for everyone, whether they deserve it or not.

This is another radical concept in today's world.  Christianity seems to stand for judgment and sin avoidance.  So many of us love to preach about "God's Law" at other people without realizing that none of us measure up either. Showing kindness and mercy toward those who might have committed an offense against us, or what we perceive to be an offense to our beliefs is difficult, but it is an absolutely essential element of Christianity.  How easily we forget that.

Finally the prophet says that we are to walk humbly with our God.  Think about the literal act of walking with someone and imagine walking humbly with them. You're talking to them, listening to them, interacting with them.  If you're walking humbly, chances are you're not walking around with your chest puffed out trying to get people to look at you. I mean, hey, you're walking with God!  You're a super Christian. You don't smoke, drink, swear, watch rated R movies or date girls who do!  Walking humbly means being quiet and, well HUMBLE.  It doesn't mean walking by other folks and shouting at them, thumping them over the head with the Bible because you think that they're doing something wrong.

When we do these things: seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, we become an example to others.  We show what walking with Jesus can really bring about in one's life.  We show that despite the trappings of modern Christianity, there are people out there who are dedicated to bringing the justice, mercy, and humility of the God who became man in a stable into the world and try to make it a better place for everyone.

It's worth trying.  I know it is.

Participatory Harmony

Recently I purchased Brian McLaren's new book "We Make the Road By Walking."  In this latest effort, McLaren endeavors to take us through a journey both through the church year and the Bible in 52+ chapters that act as pieces for devotional reading and contemplation.  At the end of each chapter, he poses several questions for the reader to use to engage the material.  I've got a fresh new notebook that I'm using to write about my responses, but I figured I would share a few here on the blog for everyone to read and comment on.

The book is actually set up to begin in late August-early September, for what in the church year is known as "Ordinary Time."  This is the season that eventually leads into Advent and Christmas.  Many evangelical Christians might not be all that familiar with the church year outside of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter.  However, with the Catholic Church in my background, I'm very attuned to the liturgical calendar, and I really enjoy what it can add to any church.  So this book is right up my alley.

The first chapter in the book is called "Awe and Wonder" and is primarily based on the creation story in Genesis 1 as a reading.  The first question asks what one thought in the chapter intrigued, provoked, disturbed, challenged, encouraged, warmed, warned, helped or surprised the reader.  This was easy for me.  One thought stood above the rest, the thought of participatory harmony in creation.

So we get going with the very first word in the very first verse of the Bible.  The Hebrew creation story beautifully unfolds through the opening chapter.  However, too often these days these words are seen as a source for controversy and division as opposed to a celebration of the beauty of the universe around us.  That's right, it's the whole religion vs science debate, a debate where many Christians totally disregard empirical evidence and observation because it seemingly controverts the opening scenes in the Bible.  In the interest of full disclosure, I am not one of those people.  Extensive training in hard sciences gives me the evidence I need to believe in things like evolution and modern astrophysics.  Too often however, this divide becomes so sharp that people on both ends of the spectrum forget to take a step back and marvel at the world around them.

Moving past that debate though, I see one area where modern Christians have really dropped the ball, and that has to do with the care of the world around us.  For me, this stems from one belief that often seems inherent in Christian theology: the idea that God created humans and set them apart from and above the rest of creation and the world around them.  Science challenges this assertion as well.  If humans evolved in the same way other animals, plants, and birds did, well then we don't seem quite so special.  But in my mind, this assertion isn't just an affront to science, it changes the way many of us view the world.

Instead of viewing the ourselves as part of or a caretaker of the world around us, we see ourselves as above it all.  That in turn, gives us leave to abuse it and consume it in an irresponsible fashion.  After all, God put it all here for us to use, right?  We have definitely used it, and used it up.  Global temps are rising, and air quality is an issue in most American cities of any size.  Rivers, streams, lakes, and even our oceans have been turned into dumps, which continues to have toxic effects in many parts of the world.  Forests. jungles, and pristine natural environments are bulldozed to claim their finite resources and to make room for our species to expand even more.  Where is the Christian church in all of this?  Most often the church is either totally silent or tossed in with the "consume at all costs crowd."  People who speak against this are often labeled as tree hugging liberals and either dismissed or shouted down.

This is a pity, because the beauty of this passage is that the creation story calls us to behave in a different manner.  McLaren writes:

"The best thing in Genesis is not simply human beings, but the whole creation considered together as a beautiful, integrated whole, and us a part."

Christians believe that people are made in the very image of the god who created the world, the artist that painted the masterpiece.  Imagine standing next to the Mona Lisa and being able to discuss it with Da Vinci himelf!  Imagine how angry he might become if you destroyed it.  Now, take that a step further.  Imagine that you're not separate and apart from the masterwork, but that you're a part of it!  Imagine that everything you do plays a part in the finished product!  You, and I, have a great opportunity to be a player, to be a character in the greatest masterpiece: the Earth and Universe around us!  We have a part to play in the harmony of creation, and that part is essential.  We are a force, and we can use it for renewal and beauty or consumption and destruction.

However it's when we actually participate in the role that the creator has laid out for us, when we seek to be agents of renewal and preservation of the world around us that we can truly see the beauty, poetry, and music in all of it.  My choir teacher in high school used to talk about how when all 4 parts of a harmony are sung correctly, you can actually hear a fifth part in the music as well.  When we play our part in the harmony, that overarching beauty comes through.  How can anyone stand on the shore of an ocean and not feel like they're a part of something large, unique, and beautiful?

When we actively participate in harmony with creation, then the Creator, the One who is the beginning and ending of all things can, like a master artist, step back, smile upon his creation and say once again that "It is good."

Faith Leaders in Ferguson

Religious leaders have joined the peaceful protests in Ferguson.  (Photo: Mike Angell)

The events in Ferguson, Missouri, have been painful to watch over the last few days.  Tensions erupted in the St. Louis suburb on Saturday after a confrontation between a young man, Mike Brown, and a police officer ended with the officer shooting and killing Brown.  Brown was unarmed at the time.

I'm not here to discuss the merits of the case or any of the particulars.  I share the same concerns that many of us do about violence in our society, use of deadly force by police, and some of the racial elements that seem to be in play here.  However, I've had enough of that over the last few days on social media, where feelings run high, emotions are unchecked, and speculation becomes fact.  After realizing that I was descending into these attitudes myself, I decided to pull away rather than become part of the problem.

However, as I was browsing Brian McLaren's site this morning, I came across this article from Think Progress which talks about how religious leaders in Ferguson, black and white, have organized to take part in peaceful, nonviolent protests.  These folks are uniting with other protesters and helping channel the energy of the community toward something positive in the wake of this tragedy.

To me this is part of exactly what Christians and Christian clergy should be doing.  It's one thing to sit in your pew every Sunday and pray for others, it's another to leave the sanctuary and get out amongst the people and get your hands dirty.  According to the article above, on previous nights one pastor was shot in the abdomen with a rubber bullet and at least two clergy members were arrested.  Last night, as the Missouri State Police took over and more clergy hit the street, things were different.  Not only were faith leaders out with the protesters, but they carried bags of food and supplies to people who lived in apartment buildings that have been blocked off by police during the protests.  Sounds an awful lot like something Jesus would do.  Michael Kinman, Dean of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in St. Louis, mentions in the article:

“I think the role of the faith community is always reconciliation.  Reconciliation is at the heart of our call … Whenever an event like this happens, we have to ask ourselves: who would Jesus be standing with?”

That's a question that Christians should be asking themselves about Ferguson, but we shouldn't stop there.  We should take the Christlike example of these folks and apply it to our own lives and our own circumstances every day.  How about we exercise less judgment and more understanding?  How about instead of venting unchecked emotion via social media, we strive to be a voice for peace and reconciliation?  How about instead of a Day of Rage, we have a Day of Peace and Service?

Think about it.