It was supposed to be a big deal. President Trump signed another (he has signed so many) executive order that would allow religious groups to be much more politically active. It will be possible for Pastors and Churches to receive contributions and to make political endorsements of candidates and issues.
But what is the big deal? The evangelical right, fundamentalists group have been doing that kind of thing, passing out voter guides for more than twenty years. The liberal, hippie group used to do that back with the war in Vietnam, Civil Rights and Nixon. Both sides used to try to get the IRS to take away the tax exempt status of the other for engaging in political activities. I guess that will be the only difference.
But the rest of us moderate, middle of the road Christians have to confess that we have also been political active in a much more revolutionary way. It may not appear that we have been very good at it, but we have been promoting an entirely different kingdom. We have been fermenting a completely different society. We have been pushing for a different kind of government. We have been asserting that the powers of this world are illegitimate and corrupt. The values and the standards of this current culture are destructive and transitory: wealth, power, fame, military might are fleeting.
The kingdom of God is permanent and eternal. The life style and the blessings in the other political reality are based on a sacrificial power of love. That the people who live in this other world live by grace, hope and love. There is a refusal to accept as absolute any of the laws and requirement of the worldly powers because we know there is a kingdom where there are higher, better, more justice, more accepting, more compassionate standards. The church declares, when it is being true to its Lord, that refusing to pay hard workers a living wage for their work is a violation of the law of God's kingdom. The church is political when it declares that there is no reason why any on this earth should be hungry when we have food enough. The church is being very political when it says that the profit motive is not nearly as eternal as the stewardship of the water, air, and land that we all live on.
The Church, when it is living and loving as the body of Christ, is a dangerous revolutionary force. It has been the incubator for political change down through the ages. Even when the church has been tempted to act like a political empire, the power of the message of the Cross has spurred reformation and change. The only hope this country has is the possibility that that part of the Christian community will stand up and be the Church.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Monday, January 9, 2017
Liberals Hate the Bible?
The email came from a completely unknown person. The subject line had "Why Liberals hate the Bible." The email claimed to have a video that would irritate the Liberals even more and make them hate the Bible with a greater passion. I did not look at the video.
It is not true that liberals hate the Bible. I know a great number of liberals who love Jesus and who seek to understand the scriptures and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What most of the liberals I know hate is what has been done to the Bible by power hungry, conservative, religious preachers.
What I find most disturbing are two things: one the desire to impose their Christianity upon the whole world. Not to offer that grace of Jesus as a gift, but to enforce it by law. Jesus Christ is the gift of God's love to the world and Jesus suggested that the love ought to be set on a lamp stand and let the light shine and people could come to it. There did not seem to be any desire on his part to "make" other people believe or behave the way he said. Two, the way they deny the power of God's gift of salvation by their actions. If we are saved by the Cross of Jesus, and that has been done, then those who accept the gift have no fear of it being tainted or destroyed by what others do. If the clerk is in fact a saved Christ by the grace of Jesus, then her salvation is not in danger by her doing her job and issuing marriage licenses to those who apply. If the doctor is a born again Christian then his salvation is not removed if he provides medical treatment to women who had done what he considers sinful acts.
All Liberals do not hate God. Liberals do not all hate Jesus, Liberals do not all hate the Bible. What we hate is the way that people like Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, so many evangelical conservative people use it as a club to bash others and to leverage themselves into political power.
It is not true that liberals hate the Bible. I know a great number of liberals who love Jesus and who seek to understand the scriptures and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What most of the liberals I know hate is what has been done to the Bible by power hungry, conservative, religious preachers.
What I find most disturbing are two things: one the desire to impose their Christianity upon the whole world. Not to offer that grace of Jesus as a gift, but to enforce it by law. Jesus Christ is the gift of God's love to the world and Jesus suggested that the love ought to be set on a lamp stand and let the light shine and people could come to it. There did not seem to be any desire on his part to "make" other people believe or behave the way he said. Two, the way they deny the power of God's gift of salvation by their actions. If we are saved by the Cross of Jesus, and that has been done, then those who accept the gift have no fear of it being tainted or destroyed by what others do. If the clerk is in fact a saved Christ by the grace of Jesus, then her salvation is not in danger by her doing her job and issuing marriage licenses to those who apply. If the doctor is a born again Christian then his salvation is not removed if he provides medical treatment to women who had done what he considers sinful acts.
All Liberals do not hate God. Liberals do not all hate Jesus, Liberals do not all hate the Bible. What we hate is the way that people like Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, so many evangelical conservative people use it as a club to bash others and to leverage themselves into political power.
Monday, January 2, 2017
"Promote the General welfare"
In the preamble to the U.S. Constitution there is the phrase that says the constitutions is being established in part to promote the general welfare. I think that is another another way of saying that the constitution is established in part to provide for the "common good." I don't think it is too much of a stretch to suggest that our political system has lost contact with the "general welfare." I do not think that I am the only one who thinks that there is no agreed upon definition of what is the "common good." In fact, I might even go so far as to suggest that neither party has much interest in seeking the "common good" or the "general welfare" of the country and are both operating out of the position of what is good for their power and how to sustain their power base.
I do not suspect that we will get any help in wrestling with the question of the general welfare in the next four years. But perhaps these next four years could be helpful if there were among people a calm, civil, thoughtful discussion of what does the "common good" or "general welfare" look like for all of us in the 21st century. With automation, technology, globalization, and religious fervor changing the patterns and the goals of society, the "general welfare" of our society will certainly look a great deal different than it did in previous generations. Thus the idea that the USA could be made to look like it did in the 1950's is a very destructive and counter productive goal.
When planes and trucks are operated with no drivers, when so much of the economy is service and technology and yet some one still is needed to repair and to build and farm, the common good will be hard to define, but it needs to be defined so that both parties can work together to make progress.
I do not suspect that we will get any help in wrestling with the question of the general welfare in the next four years. But perhaps these next four years could be helpful if there were among people a calm, civil, thoughtful discussion of what does the "common good" or "general welfare" look like for all of us in the 21st century. With automation, technology, globalization, and religious fervor changing the patterns and the goals of society, the "general welfare" of our society will certainly look a great deal different than it did in previous generations. Thus the idea that the USA could be made to look like it did in the 1950's is a very destructive and counter productive goal.
When planes and trucks are operated with no drivers, when so much of the economy is service and technology and yet some one still is needed to repair and to build and farm, the common good will be hard to define, but it needs to be defined so that both parties can work together to make progress.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Honored in the Absence -Christian use of Scripture
The whole religious climate in this country is getting very depressing and dangerous. We have a very strong Christian religious fanatical element. We have a strong Roman Catholic tradition that has lots of rigid and dogmatic positions. The Pope seems to be trying to bring the "ship" around a bit, but that is slow. We have a growing faithful Muslim community and some rabid fundamentalist Muslims as well. The Muslim fundamentalists have a lot of mixed motives and reasons for their attacks upon the West.
Today while sitting in a worship service, the name of William Stringfellow came back to me. William Stringfellow was an American lay theologian. He was a Harvard educated lawyer. He was a civil rights activist. Stringfellow was convinced at Baptism one entered one into a lifelong struggle against the "powers and principalities" of systematic evils. This is what the New Testament calls the powers of death. This is larger and more devious than individual sins. This is the power and authority that institutions, government. international corporations, and even church denominations. From his convictions Stringfellow insisted on the primacy of the Bible for Christians.
I remember reading of one of his experiences. It seems he was working in Harlem with Dorothy Day. He was working out of a church that had a swimming pool. It was one of the few swimming pools in the neighborhood. In order to be able to use the swimming pool, youth had to come to Sunday School. Stringfellow was asked to teach the class of high school youths. He tried to follow the church literature for a while, but it was so deadly. He decided that he would resort to Scripture. Every Sunday morning he would simply read them the book of Romans. The students just sat there and looked bored. But every Sunday morning he would re-read the book of Romans. Finally after six or seven weeks some of the students began to ask him questions about the book and about the message. He had some significant life changing experiences with those young people.
Almost every Christian Church I know talks about the primacy of Scripture, but you really have to wonder what that means. So many of the places I visit have an hour or more of worship service, but there is no more than two or three minutes of attention give to the "hearing of the Word." There are worship services where they read two or three passages of Scripture, but the person who is reading the scriptures does it so poorly that no one can hear the words. Of course, there are services of worship where the scriptures are so mistreated. They are not even given serious intellectual examination. Poetry is taken as history. History stories are taken as prophecy. Events in the Old Testament are supposed to be predictive of events in the 21st century. Symbolism is taken literally.
Cultural traditions are made into divine commandments. As so often is said one can make the scriptures support anything you want.
The Bible is a collection of reports, conversations, witnesses, personal testimonies, poetry, songs, and memories about God and what he has done in the lives of those people. We are invited to join in that conversation. It obviously suggests that God may be active in our history in our lives in unique and unexpected ways, but the ways and the circumstances of the past are not the divine requirements. If God enables Samson to kill lions with a jaw bone of an ass, does not mean that his disciples now ought to all carry jaw bones for protection. It may suggest that God will equip his servant with the items she needs when confronting danger, but it is not always a jaw bone.
For the Christian religion, and Presbyterians are Reformed and one of our mottoes is "Sola Scriptura" to be so dogmatic about the Bible and then to spend so little time on honest serious study and discussion of it, denies its own affirmations about the role of scripture in their thinking.
Today while sitting in a worship service, the name of William Stringfellow came back to me. William Stringfellow was an American lay theologian. He was a Harvard educated lawyer. He was a civil rights activist. Stringfellow was convinced at Baptism one entered one into a lifelong struggle against the "powers and principalities" of systematic evils. This is what the New Testament calls the powers of death. This is larger and more devious than individual sins. This is the power and authority that institutions, government. international corporations, and even church denominations. From his convictions Stringfellow insisted on the primacy of the Bible for Christians.
I remember reading of one of his experiences. It seems he was working in Harlem with Dorothy Day. He was working out of a church that had a swimming pool. It was one of the few swimming pools in the neighborhood. In order to be able to use the swimming pool, youth had to come to Sunday School. Stringfellow was asked to teach the class of high school youths. He tried to follow the church literature for a while, but it was so deadly. He decided that he would resort to Scripture. Every Sunday morning he would simply read them the book of Romans. The students just sat there and looked bored. But every Sunday morning he would re-read the book of Romans. Finally after six or seven weeks some of the students began to ask him questions about the book and about the message. He had some significant life changing experiences with those young people.
Almost every Christian Church I know talks about the primacy of Scripture, but you really have to wonder what that means. So many of the places I visit have an hour or more of worship service, but there is no more than two or three minutes of attention give to the "hearing of the Word." There are worship services where they read two or three passages of Scripture, but the person who is reading the scriptures does it so poorly that no one can hear the words. Of course, there are services of worship where the scriptures are so mistreated. They are not even given serious intellectual examination. Poetry is taken as history. History stories are taken as prophecy. Events in the Old Testament are supposed to be predictive of events in the 21st century. Symbolism is taken literally.
Cultural traditions are made into divine commandments. As so often is said one can make the scriptures support anything you want.
The Bible is a collection of reports, conversations, witnesses, personal testimonies, poetry, songs, and memories about God and what he has done in the lives of those people. We are invited to join in that conversation. It obviously suggests that God may be active in our history in our lives in unique and unexpected ways, but the ways and the circumstances of the past are not the divine requirements. If God enables Samson to kill lions with a jaw bone of an ass, does not mean that his disciples now ought to all carry jaw bones for protection. It may suggest that God will equip his servant with the items she needs when confronting danger, but it is not always a jaw bone.
For the Christian religion, and Presbyterians are Reformed and one of our mottoes is "Sola Scriptura" to be so dogmatic about the Bible and then to spend so little time on honest serious study and discussion of it, denies its own affirmations about the role of scripture in their thinking.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
So Lucky - So Blessed -So Thankful
I do not claim to be a very gifted or unique person. In fact, there have been personnel committees that thought I should be Richard Bland. I have never been the "hare" and jumped and rushed off to do stuff. In my positions in work and hobby I have generally preferred to be part of the arrangement and management team rather than on the speaker's platform. I recognize that is strange for one who was a preacher for 40 years. The sermons were probably more serious reflections than emotional stem winders. But I was also never willing to refrain from taking a stand on important issues. An Open Letter to Anita Bryant, Letter of support in the paper for McGovern, opposition to the Vietnam War and campaigning against the war in Iraq. Of course the reaction of my congregations were mixed depending on their view. I do know that members of churches do not mind if you mix religion and politics together as long as you are on their side. My persistence in following a decision has generally meant my term of service on community agencies has been one term. When the agency went through the process of developing a five year plan, I would ask each meeting how that plan was being worked. Of course, nobody really wanted to work the plan, it was only to fulfill the by laws to have one.
Still as I enjoy my retirement, I have to confess that I have been very blessed. My father died of a heart attack watching Ed Sullivan one of his favorite TV program. My mother's death was a bit more difficult as she had liver cancer and had to have hospice care. But my children are both grown and responsible adults. One has married and has two children, a boy and a girl. We have had our share of medical issues, but they have not impacted our lives the way so many others have suffered. Some car wrecks but no one was injured in any of them. I have not been unemployed as long as I wanted to work. I look around and listen and hear so many tragic stories, so many people with flooded homes, so many people with lost limbs, so many college students without jobs and high debt. The dark side of life has invaded so many people, drug addictions, long term cancer, drive by shootings. I have not been forced to experience any of that.
I remember a woman once was quoted that sometimes you look around and you suddenly feel so thankful and grateful for all that has been in your life and in your experiences and you feel you ought to say thank you, thank you, thank you to someone or to something. That is why we have Thanksgiving. To say thank you to the One who created the world, who created life, and who has given you life and allowed you to have such a long and gracious life. Thanks be Unto God who gives us the gifts.
Still as I enjoy my retirement, I have to confess that I have been very blessed. My father died of a heart attack watching Ed Sullivan one of his favorite TV program. My mother's death was a bit more difficult as she had liver cancer and had to have hospice care. But my children are both grown and responsible adults. One has married and has two children, a boy and a girl. We have had our share of medical issues, but they have not impacted our lives the way so many others have suffered. Some car wrecks but no one was injured in any of them. I have not been unemployed as long as I wanted to work. I look around and listen and hear so many tragic stories, so many people with flooded homes, so many people with lost limbs, so many college students without jobs and high debt. The dark side of life has invaded so many people, drug addictions, long term cancer, drive by shootings. I have not been forced to experience any of that.
I remember a woman once was quoted that sometimes you look around and you suddenly feel so thankful and grateful for all that has been in your life and in your experiences and you feel you ought to say thank you, thank you, thank you to someone or to something. That is why we have Thanksgiving. To say thank you to the One who created the world, who created life, and who has given you life and allowed you to have such a long and gracious life. Thanks be Unto God who gives us the gifts.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
I Did It My Way
I DID IT MY WAY!
Frank Sinatra may have made a fortune singing that song among others, but it seems to me that that idea has become the greatest obstacle to our common life together.
It appears to me that more and more of us are rejecting the mega narratives and living in our own narrow personal narratives. What I have in mind is best suggested by the story of the mother who complained to the school board that the Social Study teacher was infringing on her daughter’s religious faith by just teaching the history and tenets of the Muslim faith. The “in coming” freshmen at a college refusing to read the assigned book because they did not agree with the author’s purpose. The Clerk of Court refusing to issue marriage licenses to all people because she felt that giving licenses for homosexual marriages was contrary to her religious faith. The refusal of people to accept as fact the information from authoritative figures. For example, the refusal of leaders to accept the reality of climate change.
People have become more and more separated from the common narrative. The dramatic rise in the number of home schooling children and the ever growing number of religious and charter schools means that parents now can pick the education they desire. The parent who does not want her child to know about the history of this country with Native Americans can pick a school that “white washes” American history. The family who does not want their daughter to read Slaughter House Five will go to the school board and get her child exempted from that assignment.
The multiplication of news sites adds to this problem as we can now pick the news media that gives us the facts that fit our assumptions rather than the media that gives us facts that challenge what we know. There seems to be very few media outlets now that we tell you both sides of the facts. One source will repeatedly tell you that the economy is horrible, as it is in certain locations and for certain kinds of skills that have become obsolete because of robots and technology, and another will tell you that the stock market is at an all time high and unemployment is at record lows.
We pick the information and the source we like and refuse even to hear or listen to other information. There does not appear to be mutually accepted authorities on the major questions of society. The collapse of “universals” that all of society accepts as a starting point seems to have become total. The poet wrote, “things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” The recent election present a very clear example of each side picking the facts and reality that want to hear and not hearing anything the other side was saying.
Friday, September 30, 2016
not the most important?
MAYBE NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT ?
I am not a history scholar enough to know whether or not the coming election in
the United States of America is the most important election in history, but I think the United States stands at an incredible turning point.
For a very long time the United States has had this vision of itself. It has passed along the self-image of a country that was a Christian nation, a nation that was blessed because it was elected by God as a Christian people. It has added to that image the supporting myth that it was a country blessed because it was lead by wise white male leaders. The founding fathers were all wise white men. The country was built by the wisdom and business acumen of white people. The country perpetuated the notion of its virtue and innocence by keeping out of its textbooks the crimes against Native Americans, the crimes of exploitation of South America, and the middle east oil. This was a magnificent country with a self image of white power and privilege that had accomplished its economic prosperity with the blessing of God.
The current election may be the last great battle to hold on to that crumbling image. The image is crumbling. The cracks in the image are beginning to open to wide to hold together. The old myth of our white power and privilege is under attack by a rising number of forces. The growing number of legal people of Hispanic ancestry. The report is that more than half of the children born in California are of Hispanic heritage. The number of Latin American legal and illegal immigrants may be tapering off but their presence must be acknowledge. The visibility and demand for equal treatment as a religion by the Muslims means that we can no longer pretend that all of our citizens are Christians. The separation of church and state means that government and society have to acknowledge the Muslims have as many rights as the Christians.
The Christian unity is being slowly weakened by the rise in the number of “nones” and the decline in the power of the main line Christian Church. The rise of the harsh religious conservatives is a response to the fear of losing Christians dominance in the culture and they are struggling to maintain the myth. The white power institution may be trying to maintain its grip on the power by the police’s attempt to keep blacks in their place by shooting many. Black lives matter is the refusal to continue to allow white privilege to go unchallenged. Women are beginning to speak up and demand equal pay for equal work. The impact of ever changing technology that puts many out of work is changing the way we work. The demand for a higher minimum wage is a response to the widening gap in wealth that pays “old white men” way more than they are worth. If those CEO are so wonderful why do we keep having to bale out the saving and loan industry, the real estate industry, the auto industry, the banking industry?
The Old White Male dominated Christian image of ourselves is being attacked and Donald Trump is running as the great defender of that old image. His appeal is to those who fear the coming of a new USA. Those who have lost their jobs in the new economy want to go back to the old way. The Christian right is supporting the immoral Donald because he offers them their continue place at the top of the power structure. Donald Trump is the last great white hope. Unfortunately Hillary Clinton has been a part of the working of the old power structure for so long that she has a hard time being the champion of the new world that is coming. She speaks on behalf of that new vision, but her long career as part of the old power elite makes many new voters a little less enthusiastic about her. If Donald Trump wins, the revolution will continue in the street.
I am not a history scholar enough to know whether or not the coming election in
the United States of America is the most important election in history, but I think the United States stands at an incredible turning point.
For a very long time the United States has had this vision of itself. It has passed along the self-image of a country that was a Christian nation, a nation that was blessed because it was elected by God as a Christian people. It has added to that image the supporting myth that it was a country blessed because it was lead by wise white male leaders. The founding fathers were all wise white men. The country was built by the wisdom and business acumen of white people. The country perpetuated the notion of its virtue and innocence by keeping out of its textbooks the crimes against Native Americans, the crimes of exploitation of South America, and the middle east oil. This was a magnificent country with a self image of white power and privilege that had accomplished its economic prosperity with the blessing of God.
The current election may be the last great battle to hold on to that crumbling image. The image is crumbling. The cracks in the image are beginning to open to wide to hold together. The old myth of our white power and privilege is under attack by a rising number of forces. The growing number of legal people of Hispanic ancestry. The report is that more than half of the children born in California are of Hispanic heritage. The number of Latin American legal and illegal immigrants may be tapering off but their presence must be acknowledge. The visibility and demand for equal treatment as a religion by the Muslims means that we can no longer pretend that all of our citizens are Christians. The separation of church and state means that government and society have to acknowledge the Muslims have as many rights as the Christians.
The Christian unity is being slowly weakened by the rise in the number of “nones” and the decline in the power of the main line Christian Church. The rise of the harsh religious conservatives is a response to the fear of losing Christians dominance in the culture and they are struggling to maintain the myth. The white power institution may be trying to maintain its grip on the power by the police’s attempt to keep blacks in their place by shooting many. Black lives matter is the refusal to continue to allow white privilege to go unchallenged. Women are beginning to speak up and demand equal pay for equal work. The impact of ever changing technology that puts many out of work is changing the way we work. The demand for a higher minimum wage is a response to the widening gap in wealth that pays “old white men” way more than they are worth. If those CEO are so wonderful why do we keep having to bale out the saving and loan industry, the real estate industry, the auto industry, the banking industry?
The Old White Male dominated Christian image of ourselves is being attacked and Donald Trump is running as the great defender of that old image. His appeal is to those who fear the coming of a new USA. Those who have lost their jobs in the new economy want to go back to the old way. The Christian right is supporting the immoral Donald because he offers them their continue place at the top of the power structure. Donald Trump is the last great white hope. Unfortunately Hillary Clinton has been a part of the working of the old power structure for so long that she has a hard time being the champion of the new world that is coming. She speaks on behalf of that new vision, but her long career as part of the old power elite makes many new voters a little less enthusiastic about her. If Donald Trump wins, the revolution will continue in the street.
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