This or That

A good friend who was once a political consultant told me how a political race is often run. He said the goal is to find an issue--it doesn't really matter what that issue is--about which people disagree. The best issues for this are things that cause deep emotions, but, actually, anything will do, because the emotions can be heightened later. The next step is to choose your side on this issue (it is telling to me that the choice of which side comes only after the divisive issue is chosen). Once you have chosen your side, the thing to do is drive a wedge between yourself and the opponent. The wider the gap, the better. As you are doing this, be sure to make your side look good and the other side look as bad as possible.

He didn't say this, but I imagine using the worst possible rhetoric is preferred. Comparing people to Hitler or Stalin or using other deeply loaded terms is a good thing for getting your political views to be heard and to get publicity toward being elected. But in reality, it's all nonsense. That isn't to say that every bit of those political views is nonsense, but the idea that there is no tenable view somewhere between the two extreme views is ridiculous.

I hesitate to even use any examples, but so many news stories have these kinds of issues in them. What is alarming to me is to know that when we are incensed about these issues, when we are stoked to great passion, passion enough to hate others over their views, it is all a type of theater. One thing about being a citizen of democracy is, I think, the idea that we can come together and solve problems together, joining forces and sharing wisdom. But the current climate is less rule by majority than force your will on the minority. I don't think it is healthy, and I don't think it can last.

Speaking from the position of pastor, people leave churches over disagreements over things in the church, sometimes seemingly small things, because there seems to be no way that different views can coexist in the same place. I had a friend lately who had been close to another person, but that person has decided to distance themself from anyone who doesn't share their political views. 

To me that is a sad commentary. How do we grow if we are never presented with alternatives to our own point of view? For churchgoers, is it really possible to find a place where everyone agrees on everything? If not, will it be a revolving door of moving from community to community, checking out once the pastor or someone else in the church says something you disagree with?

I don't think our relationships are supposed to be that shallow. I think there are alternatives to the this or that way of thinking. There are positions in between. There are thoughtful ways to coalesce different ideas of morality. There can be acceptance among different viewpoints as long as each party is willing to be respectful and listen.

My hope for the future is that we can leave the gap creating, wedge driving type of public rhetoric behind and have some meaningful, respectful conversations. We don't have to follow our elected leaders into hatred, disrespect, and divisiveness. There is another way.

At least, that's the view from where I stand today.

Gratefulness

 Do you ever get a little bit down? I do sometimes. I get overwhelmed. I get scared about the future. I get frustrated with the present. I get rueful about the past. I get mad or sad or disappointed in the people around me.

Maybe you feel a little bit like that right now. A few years ago I turned a phrase that I was proud of: Try this year to enjoy the holidays instead of letting the holidays enjoy you. But I find that, almost inevitably, I end up rushing through from November 1 to January 1, chasing down all the stuff I meant to do and not ever really observing the season.

That's one reason this blog post about gratefulness is a week early. After all, next week is Thanksgiving, but I am going to take some time off next week and rest and prepare for the Advent season, so I won't be writing a blog next Wednesday.

Another reason this post is a week before Thanksgiving is that we really need to start early to make any sense of Thanksgiving. My family, like many of yours, I imagine, has a tradition of saying something for which we are thankful around the table before our Thanksgiving meal. It is good to share those things then, but it would also be good to share them all the time.

I am thankful for my family. I have an incredible wife and two fabulous children. We have two dogs at home and one that went to college. I am thankful for my parents and Joy's parents and our extended family.

I am thankful that I have work that allows me to have a nice home and many extra things that I take for granted. I am thankful that the work I do is meaningful to the people with whom I share it. 

I am thankful that I have relatively good health and am able to do lots of things that I don't usually even notice as abilities.

I am thankful for the many people around me to work to make sure that my work and life is better.

There are many more things for which I am thankful. My list is certainly different from yours, but having taken time to jot down a few of the things for which I'm thankful, those irritating things that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog have migrated to the back of my mind.

It seems simplistic to say this, but that really is a practice that would help us to be more fulfilled in our daily lives. Just taking time to call to mind all the things we are grateful for can change a frustrating day into a beautiful one.

I pray it may be so for you. 

Winter and Growth...

I had a wonderful lunch with a good friend and fellow pastor yesterday. That's something I rarely do, unfortunately. We had great and very honest conversation about things going on in our personal lives, our family lives, and in the lives of our congregations. After speaking with my friend, as I was driving home, I had a vision.

As those in the Middle Tennessee area will know, the past few days have been a foretaste of the cold air of Winter. I have been watching for the temperature to fall below freezing, because we have some banana tree plants in our backyard. This year we got some tiny bananas! First time! So I wanted to be prepared to cut them down when the cold weather got here and see if we have anything to eat. 

An interesting thing about these banana trees... the stalks are not like trees we would normally think of. They are much less rigid. This morning, when I did harvest those bananas (harvest is probably not the best word... That makes it sound like a huge crop or something...) I just pulled on the stalk they were on and it broke off in my hand. 

As seemingly fragile as this might be, these same banana trees were planted near to a paved walkway in our backyard. They grew up around it, through it, and over the top of it. The pavers are standing on their sides because of the growth of these seemingly fragile plants.

Every winter the banana tree plants die. But if I cut them off at ground level and then take a little care to cover them with sand or soil, in the Spring they come back to life. These particular plants started with two given by a member of our church choir about two years ago, and now we have dozens of these plants, springing up, breaking the pathway, and giving us fresh (if tiny) bananas.

We all go through seasons. Maybe this is a season of winter in your life. Maybe it is a season of winter in your career or in your emotions or in some other part of your life. Spring is coming. It always does.

And with the Spring comes new growth. That new growth may tear down some of the things that are established in your past--like my paved walkway. Maybe those things are ready to be torn apart and replaced by something living, something growing, something beautiful. Sometimes we have to let those old things be torn apart so the new can appear.

Winter stays for a season. It's a bit more predictable in the seasons of the year, but it still only stays for a season in our lives. When the Winter is past, new growth comes. 

Get ready for Spring!

You Need the Church, too...

A few weeks ago I wrote about why the Church needs you. I was especially writing to those who have walked away from the Church because they don't think the Church is doing enough Jesus work in the world. For me, Jesus work is the work of loving all, accepting others as people made in God's image, and working toward justice for all people. This means economic justice, justice on the basis of gender and sexuality, justice on the basis of race, and ethnicity, and justice for all people--not just people like ourselves or people who live near us, but everyone all over the globe. For people who believe in these values but don't see that in the work of the Church, the Church needs you so it can get back to that Jesus work.

You need the Church, too. You need the Church because being a follower of Jesus has never been an individual path. Being one of Jesus' followers has always meant working through community to bring about the goodness of God's love and justice into the world. From the beginning, the group of Apostles worked together, fought about certain things, came to agreement through debate and lots of listening, and then went out and did the work together.

As many others have pointed out, the cross, the symbol of the way of Christ, has a vertical beam and a horizontal beam. Sometimes we can be so focused on that vertical beam, our relationship with God or with Christ, or the Spirit, that we forget about the horizontal beam, the relationships we are to have with other humans. It's not just me and Jesus, or me and God, it's all of us together trying to follow that path as community. When we leave out community, we are missing an important part of who Jesus called us to be.

Christ's message to the disciples when he was leaving them was to be one as Christ was one with the first person of the Trinity. Jesus understood that none of them could do this alone. He also understood that one person will miss important issues that others will notice. If I go my own way and don't ever have relationship with the stranger in my land, I can forget how important hospitality is in the work of God's people. That's just one example. I have my own understanding and experience of God, and it is perfectly valid in its own right, but it is incomplete because I cannot understand others' connection and relationship to God. Being in community helps me to do that, and that helps me to have a richer understanding of who God is and how God relates to all people.

So, the Church definitely needs you. But you need the Church, too. Not the institution, not a particular denomination, but a loving, accepting community that helps to keep you engaged in God's work and helps you see other ways God works through other people.

At least, that's the view from where I stand today.

God bless you!

Vulnerability

Friends, it is a rough world out there. It seems like people are out to get us. It is common to see fierce arguments and hateful language on social media, things that I'd like to think people would never say about each other if they were in the same room. In the midst of all that, it is hard to allow our true, honest selves to be seen or heard. It is just too painful to reveal something about ourselves and then have someone else stomp on it with fellow commenters egging them on.

We are missing something in all of this, and it is the ability to be vulnerable. 

Vulnerability may seem like something to avoid. It opens us up to ridicule and attack. For some, it makes us fear that others will view us as weak, as incapable of dealing with difficult or even pretty innocuous situations. Some fear loss of status, loss of face, even loss of their job if they are willing to become to vulnerable.

And so, we don't really know anyone. What I mean by that is, if we are unwilling to be our authentic selves before others, then no one ever knows who we truly are. That may be a way to protect ourselves, to cope in a difficult world, but it is robbing us of something that we need as humans to be fulfilled: intimacy.

That's a hard thing to come by. If you have more than a few people who know your true self, with whom you have a level of intimacy, I would say you are fortunate. I think there are some who have no relationships like this, because the fear of vulnerability makes it impossible.

I know these are just words. They are just one person's opinion. But we need to allow others to be vulnerable with us and we need to be vulnerable with them. We need to let our guard down so we can have the types of relationships that humans, social creatures that we are, are meant to have. We need to make safe space with others so they can experience those relationships with us.

I don't pretend it's easy. I wouldn't come here and bare my weaknesses and fears openly. That's too vulnerable. But on a smaller basis, we have to do this, because not doing it is leading to deeper division and all kinds of health concerns for all of us.

At least, that's how it looks from where I stand today...    

A New Thing

Once every so often in the history of the worshiping community, going all the way back to Moses, something happens and there is a major change. They may come quickly, like in the time of Moses. We could even argue that it literally happened overnight, but reading the rest of the book of Exodus shows us how it took years to re-set the community and its relationship with God. 

Church historians have found that these types of things happen about once every 500 years. There was Moses, then the united monarchy, then the Babylonian exile, then the birth of Jesus, the way the church became synonymous with the Roman empire, the times of the Crusades, and the Protestant reformation. The church has continually changed over time.

It has been just over 500 years since the Protestant Reformation, and something new is coming. It may be spurred on by a global pandemic that changed the way we all meet and worship. Whatever is coming, I hope the church will become what it once was, an open and welcoming community for everyone, especially people who have been ostracized by society in some way. The church has always been considered a haven. Anyone who comes there for help will surely not find harm.

Sometimes people have come to other harm at the hands of the church than physical harm. Sometimes they have been told they don't belong. I think that is at the heart of the drop in membership in many churches. Saying everyone is welcome and then treating some as if they aren't welcome is hypocrisy. In our modern world, that type of hypocrisy will never fly.

My dream is that all those who saw that hypocrisy in the church and left it will now come back and together we can make the church a place of true welcome. Many of us church leaders know we aren't there now. We know we need you, you who gave up on church, to help us re-make this beautiful institution.

If you are wondering where to start, please message me, and I will share what I have with you, but we need you, just as we need all people made in God's image.

I will make sure the door is open for you. You are loved, you are valued, you are needed, and if the church ever told you otherwise, I'm so sorry.

Solidarity

This Sunday is Solidarity Sunday. It is an opportunity for churches to stand in solidarity with those who identify as LGBTQ+. 

Clearly this is a hot topic in the world right now. But surely there is a stance that we can all share, every one who is a follower of Christ, that harming others, bullying others, and treating others as if they are somehow less important than some are things we should never do. That is why I am so proud of the 190th General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for making the following statement: (This is directly taken from the General Assembly Office Summary of Actions, item 37)

Affirmed the following Statement on Opposition to Oppression based on Sexual Identity and referred to the Unified Committee on Theology and Social Concern for development of resources: “We affirm the Confession of Faith and its definition of human sexuality. Echoing the Holy Scripture, the Confession declares that humans are created in the image of God, so we believe that there is no place in any form in our church or in our world for hate, denigration, unkind confrontation, and/or physical violence perpetrated on anyone, or oppression of any person based on their gender or sexual expression.” 

A statement on Opposition to Oppression seems like a no-brainer for a Christian church to make, but it is necessary because oppression is rampant in many places and particularly in some churches. 

We will be celebrating Solidarity Sunday this week. Whatever disagreements we may have with others about inclusiveness, there should be no question that the church is a place where people will never be hated, denigrated, confronted unkindly, or have any type of violence perpetrated upon them because of their gender or sexual identity. 

If we are to be the church of Christ, that's really a pretty low bar.

Life and Death and God's Plan

This past summer our church hosted a reading program called Project Transformation. It's really much more than a reading program. It is an opportunity for children to spend time together, to work on their reading skills, to work on their social skills, and to help them succeed in school. The program emphasizes the success of the students and the success of the congregation where they meet. Along with this, the program gives space for college interns to work with the children, to make a good wage for a summer job, and to explore and question their plans for future careers.

We had a wonderful summer. Our site coordinator and interns were fun, they were loving, and they were great to work with. Every one of them was loved by all the students and the volunteers from the congregation.

We were met on Monday with the devastating news that one of the college interns who had served at our church, a wonderful 19 year old woman, was shot and killed. 

What to think? What to say?

In my Sunday School class, we have been watching videos from the Memphis Theological Seminary Sunday Morning Seminary program, now called Pulpit and Pew. Here's a link if you are interested: https://memphisseminary.edu/pulpitandpew/. The most recent study, presented by Dr. Lee Ramsey, has been about grief. In one of his presentations, he posted several things not to say to people who are grieving. They were things like, "God just needed and angel," or, "At least (insert whatever you like here)," or things like this. One thing that we must be mindful not to say in situations like this is "It must have just been God's plan."

I am a minister, and I do not believe everything that happens is God's plan. When we read scripture, we often see what God's plan is, and we see how people ruin it. Sometimes God is able to redeem those things in some way, but often the damage has been done.

And I can't help but think of the many damages the loss of this one woman's life  may cause in the world. She had a brother and cousin that she brought to camp every day. That's why she got the job. What might she have been in their lives moving forward? We won't know. 

She had a loving heart and a bright mind and offered a lot to our world. What might she have done? We'll never know.

God's plan isn't a plan for suffering. God's plan isn't violent death or pandemics or hurricanes. God's plan is for love, God's plan is for justice, God's plan is for good.

Sometimes terrible things happen because of nature. More often they happen because humans made a wrong turn.

And the loss of one person like this young woman resounds through history. All those losses, to war, to starvation, to suicide, to cancer, they all resound, because those people aren't where they were meant to be. Because those people aren't where they were meant to be, the world suffers, and maybe someone else is sent down a wrong path.

Tragedy is not God's plan. It must not be, not if we serve a God who loves us.

And so, I can only believe God grieves with us, and I can only hope that, as God sometimes does, God can create something redemptive from the sorrow.

It is overwhelming to me to think that, as much as I grieve for the loss of a woman I worked with for two months, how her family must feel, and how the families of all those torn from us must feel, and I cannot process all that pain.

I only, simply believe--hope--that God can.

May God be with all who grieve.

You Need a Break

I have a computer at home that runs really slowly. It did this as soon as we bought it about three years ago. We don't use it anymore because it just takes too long to do anything.

If you have been around computers much, you probably know that you can bring up a window to show what programs are open and what processes are being performed. Each one of those will have a percentage of the amount of the processor's capacity it is taking. 

When I opened this on my slow computer, I found a bunch of processes that were running in the background that each were taking up a bit of the processor's capacity. Maybe one would be 3% and one 5%, and then there'd be 20% for something I was trying to open up, but all these processes would overwhelm the computer. It just wasn't made for that type of capacity.

I have been thinking about this in terms of our human brains. We developed these brains living in a world that had certain processes. We needed to eat, we needed to find shelter, we needed to have companionship, we needed some type of entertainment. I'm sure I am leaving a lot of things out. 

Just as certainly, most of the things we spend our time on in the modern world weren't taking up brain processing capacity back then. Just think of the information that comes into our brains now. Just think of all the sources of data. Our phones, our cars, our televisions--even our watches give us more information to process than our ancestors did.

It has been hard enough to adapt to the digital world, but now we have a global crisis in our minds all the time. We have the cacophony of politics. We have so many things that our brains just weren't designed to deal with, and then extra, frightening things on top of that.

Just like my computer at home, perhaps your processor is overwhelmed. That's OK. We ought to be overwhelmed. This is an overwhelming time.

So, give yourself a break. let your processor wind down a bit. Don't be too hard on yourself if you can't do everything you think you should do. 

We all need space right now and we all need to be able to give one another downtime. Our bodies minds and souls will pay the price if we can't make this happen.

Go ahead... Take a break.

Worth

I had an epiphany of sorts. We are getting close to two years of pandemic. With that comes pandemic fatigue, and for many, I think, a kind of pandemic depression. You may be wondering about your future, about the work you have chosen, or maybe the work that has chosen you. You are likely wondering about family--when will we be able to be together and visit like we once did? It used to seem so hard to find time to visit our families, especially the ones far away, and now we look back and think how easy it was back then. You may be wondering about what new fears may come along with the virus as it continues to change in order to survive our attempts to eradicate it.

And you may struggle with your own self worth. It is common in a time of fear and crisis, especially one as prolonged as this one, to take a step back and look at ourselves. Are we doing what we are meant to do? Are we doing it as well as we ought? Are we the people God has chosen us to be, or for non-believers, are we the best we can be for the sake of ourselves and humanity?

Can we ever be the best? Could we not always say we could have done better, worked harder, spent more time?

Is our worth found in what we do, in what we produce?

If you feel this way, you are not alone. The information we consume every day emphasizes those who do big, amazing things. It reinforces any negativity we may have about ourselves by comparison.

But our worth is not in what we do or in what we produce. Our worth is in who we are.

We don't spend much time thinking about or reading about that. Yet I know it to be true, because I know whatever we have done or not done, our accomplishments cannot fill the void of self-worth. There is always a way to judge ourselves harshly. There is always a way to say we haven't done enough. 

There is a poster at the gym where I used to work out that says, "You can't out-train a bad diet." Well, you can't out perform your own self image.

And you can't rely on others to lift you up, either. At best it would be a momentary boost, and at worst you would always be thinking you somehow had fooled them.

It must come from you.

It has to come from deep within, too. It's not a shallow re-assure yourself in the mirror type of thing, although that may help for some. Finding worth in who you are means letting go of finding worth in what you do and what you make and what you have. 

It is who you are that is precious. For believers, it is confirmed in the loving way God created you. It may mean more to you to recognize that who you are is the only truly unique thing about you. Others can have stuff or do stuff, and maybe better. But they can never be you.

Of course, do your best with what you are, but always realize the value and beauty of who you are.

It's not whether you need the church...

 I am writing today specifically to those the church has pushed out or otherwise made to feel as if you don't belong. At some point in your journey, you, who are likely a person of faith, looked at the church and wondered why you felt so out of step with it. You likely eventually made an assessment that the church didn't have the values that you thought were taught by Jesus, and you decided that you didn't need that organization any longer.

I understand. There is a question of whether or not you need the church at all. My answer to that question is, "yes," but that is a message for another day. Instead, my message to you today is that the church needs you.

I am painfully aware that the church is seen as a political entity. Politics, of course, is fickle. The church itself isn't political, but many people use the church to put forward a political agenda, but these partnerships are only matters of convenience for politicians and church folks. Especially politicians are using the church to sanction their policies, and who better to sanction something than God?

But the church is Jesus at its heart, and Jesus' actions are not in line with any political party of which I am aware. Jesus invited those who were outcast to sit at table with him and he even washed the feet of and served communion to Judas, his betrayer.

If you have felt cast out by the church, that is the fault of the church, not you. Jesus is the great receiver of all who come seeking him. If the church isn't that, then we aren't living up to our calling.

And so, it's not whether you need the church, it is that the church needs you. We need you to come and remind us that the fellowship of Christ is not homogeneous, as many of our churches are. We need you to remind us that in you is the life of Christ, the image of God, and the church doesn't own that. We need you, so we can come to know you and love you and find out that our narrow minded definitions aren't God's.

I pray that if you give the church another chance you find a place that welcomes you as you are, that offers you hospitality, and that recognizes you as a child of God. Come and help us get it right.

Medicine for the Spirit

 When I am preaching, I often share with the congregation that I tend to preach the kinds of things that I need to hear. I imagine other pastors do much the same thing. The messages that I am drawn to in scripture are the ones that touch my heart in a personal way, or the ones that I have a hard time understanding. So, in essence, sometimes I feel like I'm preaching to myself and I hope that enough others have the same questions or curiosities so that the subject matter is meaningful for many.

Today's post feels that way to me, too. I want to simply write to encourage you. Maybe you have had a hard time lately. Maybe you have been struggling with health issues whether they are physical, mental, or spiritual. Maybe you have been deeply affected by the pandemic and just feel sad and lonely.

Maybe you have been discouraged by the lack of care that so many seem to have for others. Maybe you have been hurt by someone who can't see you past your skin color or sex or sexuality or gender identity. Maybe it all just feels a bit heavy sometimes.

Maybe you just feel down and you can't quite put your finger on it.

I want you to remember that while this world can be a brutal, uncaring place, it is also a place of great beauty and love. It is true that many people do not treat others with the love and respect we all deserve, but at the same time there are people who stand up for others' rights and who stand in the way of the bullies. That doesn't happen as often as we might like, but it is cause for celebration every time it does happen.

We have hope, because, as Martin Luther King Jr put it in this paraphrase, the arc of the moral universe is long, and we can only see a small portion of it, but it does bend toward justice.

People of faith have hope in a God who has created all people and has shown love to all people, but those who do not share that faith can still have hope in the love that humans have for one another. It may be rare, but at least sometimes people are able to break out of their selfishness and care more for the community, more for their neighbors near and far, and more for the world than for themselves.

Choose hope. We all get down from time to time. We all feel low. Choose to see the beauty. Choose to believe in the future. Allow that vision of the future to encourage you to work toward it by encouraging others to hope and dream and love, too.

Be encouraged today. 

Pastor Chris

But... I didn't mean it...

 Sometimes I say or do something that hurts someone else's feelings, and my initial reaction is something like, "But, I didn't mean it THAT way." 

It is common, I think, for many of us to think that someone should be offended only when we intended to offend them. If I say something that hurts someone else's feelings, but I didn't mean it that way, somehow that is supposed to mean I am off the hook.

I have been thinking lately about something that happened to me many years ago. I used to sing every year at a local Jewish Temple during the High Holy Days. Leading up to the worship services, we had a series of rehearsals.

Some of you may have heard the ancient music that is sung at these services. Many of the melodies were used in the soundtrack to the film Schindler's List. The melodies are beautiful and haunting, and for someone like me, who is a student of music, they got lodged in my brain.

So, one night as we are leaving rehearsal, I was whistling one of these beautiful melodies as I was walking out to my car. I was doing this because the melody is beautiful and I was lost in its majesty. One of the elder members of the choir pulled me aside and asked me to stop. He said these melodies were sacred to his people and they shouldn't be treated in such a way.

I was embarrassed. I had a lot of respect for this man. He was probably the same age as my grandfather who fought in World War II, so I can only imagine what he had lived through as a Jewish man. I apologized and stopped immediately.

Then some others from the choir who heard the exchange came up and said they were sorry he had spoken to me in that way. And I got a little self-righteous. I was just enjoying those same melodies. He didn't own them. What was his problem anyway?

I was defensively focused on my intention, and had little or no empathy in what his experience was in hearing the melodies in that way.

How many times do we know of something that we have said that someone took "the wrong way?" Is it really "the wrong way?" Or is it that we failed to have the empathy to see how our actions or language affected someone else.

That's not being "Politically Correct," it's just being kind and human. Doing our best to understand another point of view when we use words that are non-intentionally hurtful is simply treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves.

I know I need to do better. In fact, I need to make a few apologies...

That's my view today.

Why the Church Needs to be able to say "Black Lives Matter"

 This is a difficult topic for some. The words have become politicized. People have chosen sides and demonized each other. Before judging these words, I ask you to take a step back from the politics and the way they have been spun to make us angry at one another. Try to see this from a different point of view.

The church needs to be able to say "Black Lives Matter." This is because Black lives do indeed matter. There is no need for debate or questioning of this point. Black Lives Matter.

The counterpoint to this statement that is often made is that all lives matter. In saying this, there is a suggestion that saying Black Lives Matter somehow means Black lives matter more than other lives, and singling out one group of people is placing them above others.

My stance on this depends heavily on how the word "all" has been used in the past of our nation. If there is national scripture, some writings of our government that have risen to be revered above others, there is possibly none more important than the Declaration of Independence. This document, memorized by many of us, is foundational to what it means to be a citizen of the United States. The first sentence in the second paragraph is quoted as much as any sentence in national history, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

These are inspiring words, written by a group of people seeking to be released from subjection by a king and working to create a nation that lived by these principles. But the word "all" is deceiving. We might think that "all" means every man. At this point, these same Rights did not extend to women. In this case, "all" means "some."

That's the root of the problem of saying "all lives matter." On its face, it is certainly true that all lives matter, just as it is true that Black Lives Matter. But given the history of the United States, where in our foundational documents we can say "all" men are created equal, while still forming a nation that subjugated some to slavery and when these were regarded as people counted them as 60% of a person, we realize that the word "all" is insufficient. Regarding someone as 40% less than another human is the very definition of dehumanization. Clearly not "all" men were regarded as having been born equal. Clearly not "all" men were even considered men.

The statement "Black Lives Matter" takes any uncertainty from that statement. If "all" can mean "some" or "elite" or "white land-owning men," then we need to have different language if we want to make sure to include everyone when we say "all."

The church must affirm that Black Lives Matter because the church must affirm that every life matters. All people are created in the image of God. All people are precious to God. This is affirmed in our scripture and in our theology.

Saying "all lives matter" literally white-washes the notion that each and every life matters in the same way the Declaration of Independence did. As people of God, as followers of Christ, we must be able to say, along with our Black sisters and brothers that Black Lives do indeed matter.

We also need to be able to say "Indigenous Lives Matter," "Women's Lives Matter," "Immigrant Lives Matter," "Non-Christians' Lives Matter," "Poor Peoples' Lives Matter," and many many more. We need to say this, loudly and clearly, because for centuries we have said the opposite in word and deed. Saying something specific like this isn't disrespectful to "all" lives, but refusing to say something like this is a reminder that those lives have often been left out. They haven't always mattered. And they must. They must matter, if we believe in the Creator who made all in the Creator's image.

That's my view today.

Love it or Leave it

 I am re-reading a favorite novel. The protagonist describes in one section the division in the country during the Vietnam War Era. He was in his late teens and early twenties during this time, and is writing about the fears present in his generation in response to the growing conflict in Vietnam. One of the things he mentions is a bumper sticker that he sees on a car saying, "America, Love It or Leave It!"

Lately I saw a bumper sticker with a similar message: "If you don't love the US, I'll help you pack." At least it was something like that.

I am part of a book club that is reading and discussing a book entitled Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson. The book chronicles racial disparities in the United States going back to the colonial past. She argues effectively that "Caste" is a better term for the system we sometimes call racist and sometimes classist in the United States.

In our discussion this past week, a question was raised about how, knowing the history of the institutions that I serve, I can continue to serve in those institutions. Having thought about this for several days now, I have at least a partial answer.

Inherent in the message of a bumper sticker that says "America, Love it or Leave it!" or something similar is the notion that if I want America to be something different than it is right now that shows a lack of love. My response is that loving an institution or a nation is not the same as loving another person. Most of us would agree, I would think, that when you love another person, you accept them the way that they are. It is unfair to enter into a relationship with someone and then work to change them into what you want them to be. That is not so with nations or institutions. 

As someone who deeply loves our country, I have a responsibility to look into its flaws and past mistakes. It is important to uncover the falsehoods upon which systems are based in the place where I live, and when I do that, it is important to try to make corrections in the future course of our country to right those wrongs. That isn't a lack of love, that is, to my mind, a higher form of love. Because I love the United States, I cannot ignore the fact that it is based on a history of violence, ignorance, and abuse of people who have not been in power. In the case of the United States that has been People of Color and Women. It has also been any others society has labeled as somehow deviant, or different from the "norm" which in earlier days may have been European immigrants from non-favored European nations, but has been consistently applied to members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

If I seek to expose those foundations and work to eradicate the negative consequences of those foundations for fellow Americans, I do not consider that I love the United States less. I consider that I love the United States and what it represents enough to try to help it hold to those principles that set it apart, principles like freedom and equality. Those principles are in our paperwork, but not in the ethos or where we live, and they will never be until we recognize the abuses of those principles and work to repair the harm.

The same applies to the Church. I know many people who have left the Church because they have seen these same abuses perpetuated by the institution of the Church and have found the hypocrisy so abhorrent that they feel they could never support the Christian Church. My work is to recognize, to point out, and to start to repair those same breaches within an institution that I love. The principles of the Church are the principles of Christ, love of God and neighbor, care for the stranger and those who are in need in our communities, and ultimately offering God's kindom to all. If the Church misses that mark, and it has many, many times, then love for the Church moves me to work to bring the church back to the way of Christ. This is not to say that I do this with perfect fidelity. Just like all, I stumble and fall. But I do not blindly follow the institution, and this is not for any lack of love for the Church, on the contrary, it is because I believe the Church can be what it aspires to be, the very embodiment of a loving Christ in the world.

That's our work in all the places where we have membership. In our communities, our work environments, our places of worship, wherever we find ourselves. There is no need to tell someone that if they don't love the US or the Church the way it is right now they ought to get out. Far from it! The hard work of love is the work of trying to call those institutions to become what they have promised to be.

At least, that's my view today...

What Can I Say?

In a conversation with my wife, Joy, last night, I realized something that I hadn't really thought of before. We were talking about people in the middle of the conversations about race and identity, and I told her that as much as I wanted to be a part of that conversation, I felt there wasn't much for me to say. I am what can fairly be described as a member of the dominant caste of our culture, white, cis-gendered, heterosexual. I am a member of the group that has been actively holding others back for the history of our nation. 

To be clear, I desire equality among people, and I support the efforts of those who are critical of the system that has upheld white men like myself as the upper caste. That's one of the reasons I have to ask the question above: What can I say? 

As we were talking about other voices in the conversation, Joy reminded me of Brené Brown who, while she is a well known voice in justice issues, is a white woman. Instead of being silent, she has used her platform to invite others into her space and speak on issues of racial justice.

My realization is, I can do that same thing.

My platform is a bit smaller, but that is the kind of work I want to do. I will not remain silent myself, but I prefer to offer any space I have for those who have been denied space in history. I have tried to do this with work for inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in my own religious tradition, and I hope to be able to do so in work for racial reconciliation and other justice issues.

I recognize the irony in what I have written here, since it is clearly in my own voice, but I hope to devote posts in the future to giving voice to people who might otherwise not be heard. If you are someone who would like to share your story with me for this purpose, please contact me, and I would be glad to have a conversation about how your story can be shared to my small audience.

Keep the faith, and God bless those working for justice.

Chris

It's Been A While...

 It's been a while since I wrote a new blog post. That's hard to believe since so much has happened in the past several months. This seems like a good place to process some of the things that have been going on, but to be completely honest, it has been hard to know what to say. So many frustrations, so many emotions, a global pandemic, a presidential election that for some still hasn't been settled (it's settled), watching my children work their way through this time, watching how all of it wears on me and the people around me. It has been really hard.

I have opinions about a lot of things, but I have found that debate or sharing of facts or opinions seems to make little difference in others. That is disconcerting to me. It isn't that I think I am right about everything, but to think that honest conversation only causes people to retreat more fully into their pre-conceived notions is scary to me.

How can it be that when confronted with data people would rather rely on anecdotal information that confirms their desires? I mean, sure, it's human nature to question things that don't fit with our desires for reality, but how far can that go? Apparently a lot farther than I thought.

With all that said, I am hopeful for the future. I believe humans are resilient, and I believe that given time we will adjust to the new ways that information is distributed. In time we will learn to discern lies from the truth even on a platform like the Internet that is supposed to be neutral. I believe we will learn who is worthy of our trust and who isn't. I hope that some of the division that we are experiencing right now comes from an inability to know who to trust, who has our best interests at heart, who is telling us things that are proven and who is telling us things that are wished. We will have to figure those things out, because if we don't, the division will continue to widen. 

It may be that no one really has our best interests at heart--at least no one in the public sphere. But there must be a way to sort through truth and lies, there must be a way to value data over desires. 

2020 taught us a lot of things. One thing is that when tragedy strikes, public officials will often point their fingers at others for blame. But it also taught us that we can get through a lot. we could get through it a lot easier if we valued one another's stories, especially the stories of those who have historically been overlooked in our societies. 

It is my prayer that this is the beginning of a time of healing for our world. 

A pretty disorganized view from me today...