This document was recently produced by a collection of prominent evangelical Christians. It is a fien summary of the evangelical Christian witness, with a refreshing mea culpa for the politicizing of Christian beliefs in America over the last few decades. It is nicely inclusive, while avoiding a watering down of the strong witness of the evangelical tradition. Check it out if you are interested…
The above picture was taken during the South Carolina Democrat primary which, as I write this, it going on still. I have little to say about this primary. In my capacity as a pastor and minister of the United Methodist Church I have not endorsed anyone and I am unsure that I will.
What I wanted to comment on was this simple little picture. Martin Luther King’s birthday was celebrated this past week. How far we have come! I know it is fashionable sometimes to lament that we have not come farther. But it is nice to sometimes take stock on how far we as a nation have come.
This picture would not have been taken just a few decades ago. Half of South Carolina’s electorate is Black. The majority of poll workers are still White. And here we have a poll worker welcoming, greeting, and offering basic instructions to a voter. This in a state which only a few decades ago was considered an impregnable fortress of segregation and racist legislation.
We may need to do better, but we have also done well.
According to the Telegraphy, England is now making moves to abolish a law which criminalized blasphemy.
Personally, I oppose the abolition of such a law. In stead, I propose that the law get transferred to the United States – if the English do not want it. Perhaps then, we can end the practice of politicians ending every speech with “God bless America” Of “God bless you all” as if they meant it.
The whole human race was created by God and for God. In a sense, all our hungers, desires, and longings are pale reflections of our desire for God. And no less certain, we will never be satisfied with our petty thirsts until such time as we have allowed God to pour himself into us so that we will be full.
Paul says in Acts 17: God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
And Augustine said it equally well, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”
This longing is not less pressing in the quest and desire for justice. All true justice and righteousness comes from God and from God alone, who “judges the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” (psalm 98)
So, in this time of elections and seeking out a greater fairness and perfection for our imperfect union, it is always worth taking a moment to realize that our elections, speeches, and positions are more important in that they point to our need for God who alone can bring justice. They point to our human brokenness in our inability to being about a just order of creation and society. They point to the fact that we lie to one another and to ourselves when we think that this or that party or candidate will somehow bring about the good commonwealth.
We do not need another Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson . . . We need God. We need God desperately.
Congregation Poile Zedek is an Orthodox Ashkenazic synagogue located in New Brunswick, NJ. About ten years ago their beautiful synagogue was placed on the historical registry of New Jersey. They have wonderful people and a kindly rabbi. Every year, the put on a wonderful dinner for the poor in the area at Thanksgiving. In fact, their synagogue was originally founded as a mutual aid society and grew into their present congregation over the last hundred years or so.
This week, someone vandalized their cemetery, with 499 stones overturned, of which more than 50 will need to be replaced.
The police initially said that they were not considering this to be an act of anti-Semitism – which to me can only mean that they fail to take this event seriously in any way.
I know that New Brunswick is the home of Rutgers University and sometimes college kids get bored and do dumb things, but no one could have been ignorant of the fact that they were at the very least desecrating the graves of people who were beloved by the living. This is already long past unconscionable.
Still more, it is hard to believe that anyone who has grown to the age of maturity necessary to topple a gravestone can be ignorant that Jews have had a long history of being labeled “undesirable” in almost any place they have called home. If this was college students, they certainly would have been knowledgeable about the legacy of the Shoah, gulags, and ghettoes which litter the history of Western civilization.
But if somehow the persons who did this act where ignorant, then I would argue anti-Semitism is still a root cause of this event. The fact that a child has been allowed to come to some level of maturity and not know the great and evil deeds of our forbearers means that they are destined to repeat it, as the old adage goes. And in this much, the failure to teach the legacies of hate which we inherit, it a commitment to repeat them in the future. In this way, the ignorance of the youth betrays the legacy of hate or - what may be worse – indifference of us all.
Please pray of Congregation Poile Zedek, for their honored dead, and for the people who did this awful thing to these good people.
United Methodist Council of Bishops Resolution on the Iraq War
Whereas, the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church, meeting Nov. 9 at Lake Junaluska, N.C., is committed to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world; and Whereas, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, calls his followers to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9); and Whereas, “We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ” (Book of Discipline 2004, Par. 165.C); and Whereas, the cost of the war in Iraq as of Nov. 7, 2007 has been the lives of 3,843 members of the U.S. military, 171 members of the United Kingdom military, 132 members of the other Coalition military, 28,385 U.S. military wounded, and the lives of at least 76,241 Iraqi civilians; and Whereas the war in Iraq has displaced 2 million persons and forced another 2 million persons into refugee status; Whereas, every day the war continues more soldiers and innocent civilians are killed with no end in sight to the violence, bloodshed and carnage; NOW, THEREFORE, THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS calls on the President and Congress of the United States and the leaders of all the nations in the Coalition Forces:
FURTHER, THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS calls United Methodist people throughout the world:
The following is a creative re-interpretation of Psalm 5, by Fr. Ernesto Cardenal. It was given in Managua, Nicaragua in 2006.
Psalm 5
Here my words, O Lord.
Give ear to my groaning.
Listen to my protests.
For you are not a God
Who is friend to the dictators,
Nor a partisan of their politics,
Nor are you influenced by their propaganda.
Nor are you in league with gangsters.
There is no sincerity in their speeches,
Nor in their press releases.
They talk of peace in their speeches,
While they increase their war production.
They speak of peace at Peace Conferences,
And secretly prepare for war.
Their lying radios roar into the night,
Their desks are strewn with criminal intentions,
And sinister reports.
But you will deliver me from their plans,
They speak through the mouth of the submachine gun.
Their flashing tongues are bayonets.
Punish them, O Lord.
Thwart them in their policies.
Confuse their memoranda.
Obstruct their programs.
At the hour of Alarm,
You shall be with me,
On the day of the Bomb.
To him whom believes not in the lies
Of their commercial messages,
Nor in their publicity campaigns,
Nor in their political campaigns,
You will give your blessing.
With love do you encompass him,
Like an armor plated tank.
This week, a book discussion at a Roman Catholic parish that was to be led by a lesbian Catholic and her father was canceled after objections from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Carol Curoe of Minneapolis and Robert Curoe of Bernard, Iowa, were suppose to speak at St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church about their book, “Are There Closets in Heaven? A Catholic Father and Lesbian Daughter Share Their Story.” However, after various conservatives contacted the archdiocese, spokesman Dennis McGrath contacted St. Francis Cabrini and St. Joan of Arc, the church where Carol Curoe, her partner and their children worship.
The talk went on at a different location: Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ in Minneapolis. McGrath said he advised St. Francis Cabrini that “it wasn’t a good idea” and that Archbishop Harry Flynn would not approve of a lesbian who is “in an actual full sexual relationship” speaking at a church.
He added: “We welcome gays and lesbians in the church, and there are many, I’m sure, who go to many of our parishes. But they have to follow the rules … they cannot be sexually active.”
Of course, this begs the obvious question: How do you know they are sexually active?!?! Does this couple need to get a restraining order on a church looking into their bedroom windows?
While one might object that this couple had children, since both women are, well, women, then there is no way this could have happened through sexual activities of any kind. While it might be argued that this couple has been seen kissing in public, this in itself is not an item to condemn, since all under this item half of Europe would be considered gay and lesbian. Of course, it is nothing that this couple lives together. Many same sex couple live together as room mates for economic convenience. If this were not so, nearly 100% of all college students would have to be classified as homosexual. Neither does it mean something that this couples’ children refer to them as their parents. Such designations are fluid in an era of mixed families.
This leaves only the couples own admission that they have sex. Still, this is hearsay, and if the church wants to prohibit this couple from entering the church and using the church grounds as if they were full members, then the church is going to need to come up with some hard and concrete evidence that this is a couple living in sin.
If the church is going to become a body with closed minds, closed hearts, and closed doors - then I want them to back up their bigotry and go the distance! Let’s see how far they are willing to back up their bigotry.
Gandhi once said that they key to his techniques was to draw out the lunacy of his opponents, to make them see what they were doing with their own eyes. If the British thought they were “compassionate”, then let them beat and murders thousands of people and tell the press about their “compassion”, and see if they still have the stomach for it.
I agree. Let the church stand in people’s bedrooms and take photos. Let it be done by the rectors, pastors and priests. If they think this is all about rules, and they thing everyone should follow the rules, then let THEM follow the rules. Back it up, or pack it up and stay quiet!
Phew! Thanks. I needed that.
Still a Putz
GOP Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas is slowly but surely shaping up to be my least favorite candidate for the White House. I am starting to love to hate him.
He apologized this week to Mitt Romney and two top leaders of the Mormon Church after one of his staffers used her personal e-mail to circulate anti-Mormon materials. This of course was a mistake and not intended in any way. (Right! And Rove never meant to leak that Plame information, too.) The staffer was not fired, but she was severely reprimanded (with a wink and nod, no doubt).
The list forwarded by Brownback’s southeast Iowa field director to a dozen activists asked about the validity of several items, including “the only thing Christianity and the LDS Church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ, and the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith.”
The staffer’s e-mail was naturally seen as an affront to fellow Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, whose Mormon religion is his biggest obstacle for the 2008 nomination and election. Brownback personally apologized to Romney on Monday.
Man, I just love a candiate who campaigns as a religious conservative and who takes time to knock followers of Jesus Christ. He wants to rebuild and strengthen American families, but apparently the uber-family focused Mormons cannot be trusted in this. He wants to protect life, but the prochoice Mormon Christians need not apply. He believed in religious liberty being restored to Christians, but not to all who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. This guys believes in just about everything the Mormons believe regarding our American public square, but he does not like the people who confess the same Savior and advocate the same policies enough to accept them.
Seriously, who can vote for this guy?! Do we really need a president who would spent his days in the White House gnawing off his own feet?
My only hope is that he stays in the election long enough to give me pleasure for some time to come.
Upon meeting the pope this week, President Bush told reporters: “I was talking to a very smart, loving man. I was in awe, and it was a moving experience for me.”
After eight years of Bill Clinton telling us all how he “felt our pain”, are we entering into a time of every president telling us how much they are in touch with their feelings. I do not care whether Bush had some sort of religious experience which he was speaking with Pope Benedict. I want to know whether or not he will do something about the concerns he brought up.
The civil war in Iraq has now claimed about 70,000 civilian lives and another 25,000 American dead and wounded. This does not even begin to address the collateral damage that this war is causing – everything from the dismal health and welfare conditions of Iraqis, to more ethereal concerns like the loss of US prestige to do good.
Then – as a Christian – there are the concerns I have to the people of God there. Earlier this month, a Chaldean Catholic priest, Ragheed Ganni, 31, and three of his assistants were shot dead outside a church in Mosul. This is no longer Muslims killing Muslims. This is not being brought home to the Christians in Iraq.
President Bush is told by Benedict that this war is a catastrophe, and all he can say is that it was a moving experience to meet the pope? Is this guy listening to anyone anymore?
