THE PROUD INVASION OF AMERICA – GOD STILL CRIES

 In 1620, one of my fraternal ancestors, Stephen Hopkins, landed with his family on Plymouth Rock.  A son, Oceanus, was born on the Mayflower, but died early on.  But the Hopkins family became a productive, functional part of Plymouth Colony.

I wonder if it ever occurred to Stephen Hopkins to think about the long term travesty that would occur as English settlers, as they were certain to, took Indian lands as their own.

As legend has it, this brutal reality was sublimated at least at the outset in a ceremonial meal of thanks sometime after the successful harvest of in the autumn of 1621.  Wampanoag Indians were said to have welcomed the strange, colorless intruders by bringing corn and meats to the festival.  This story is so strong that even today, as Americans gorge themselves around family tables, they tell the tale of that first gracious Thanksgiving.

Fast forward to 1940, just before the United States entered World War II.  I was 7 and had a 5 year old brother.  We lived in a semi-rural area north of Buffalo, right along the Erie Barge Canal.  On Thanksgiving Day my father drove the family to the wondrous farm of my mother’s sister’s family, well south of Buffalo.  We were delighted to get out of the freezing 1932 Ford.  The aroma of baking turkey and all the fixings filled the farm house.  As I sat with my brother and father listening to my Uncle tell of life nearby, it did not occur to me that it was strange that he talked mostly about the Indians who lived nearby.  Uncle Chester was full of mysterious tales.

He was talking about Indians who had been herded generations earlier onto a reservation near Lake Erie.  It was now called the Cattaraugus Reservation, but the inhabitants were of the Seneca Nation of Indians, part of the Iroquois Confederation, once the main inhabitants of most of upstate New York.  As it happened, Uncle Chester was a very gentle man who had spent many hours visiting Indian men on the reservation.  They even had taught him to make genuine flint stone arrowheads, of which he showed us several that holiday.

Fast forward again, this time to 1945.  I was in 7^th grade.  I had an honest teacher, Miss Jepson, who spent the whole first semester teaching us about how North American natives had been rounded up, tortured, killed, and herded onto reservations all across the United States.  This flew in the face of the common understanding that Europeans and Indians had gotten along well, and that during the conquest of native lands, Europeans had been guided and aided by friendly Indians.  For a while, I didn’t know how to reconcile these images.  Even my father tended toward the friendly scenario.  He told stories of how Indians had visited his grandmother’s home in the woods, and had slept around the fire at night.  He never mentioned the need for visiting a white home…poverty, growing at least in part from the loss of lands, inherited from God.

By the time I finished college and was a student at CTS, two realities had become part of my vision of America.  First, I knew it was a hoax to think of my own country as a pure and clean place with a loving people and heritage of peace.  Second, I was beginning to understand the central theme of the Holy Bible.  Even as early as Genesis, God created the world and expected people to share in its fruits.  Because people were free to be greedy, the concept of Jubilee, the redistribution of wealth was embraced by the faithful.  And, as I went along, it became clear that God created all people, all genders, all races, none to be better nor worse than another, and none to be controlled by others.  Jesus even died protesting the illegitimate control of Israel by the Romans.

The pain I have felt of life not being this way, either socially or theologically, beginning with an ancestry with whom I now disagree, is what has driven my often highly frustrating days of trying to help God fix our narcissistic behavior as humans.  Curiously, I am being filled with new hope as I encounter fellow students highly committed to lives of social change, even if it only one Ferguson or one GLBT vote at a time.

Christian Economics Won the Election

How could anyone possibly show a picture of a homeless, poverty stricken family in an article whose title contains the words, Christian Economics?  Aren’t activities called Christian supposed to express God’s love for everyone?

Therein lies the problem of America today.  So called Christian Economics is code for the unregulated capitalism which is the goal of right-leaning Radical Christians.  Christian Economics is a scheme through which God is thought to bless the rich and treat the less fortunate as sinners.  God is seen as the power that enables the greedy to succeed.  The result is an upward transfer of wealth, and an increasingly staggering income inequality in our society.  It has gotten that way through the power of Christian Economics.  Already, the top 10% of the U.S. controls 78% of America’s wealth.  And, changing the politicians who support Christian Economics will not change the system.

For all practical purposes, Christian Economics won the 2014 election.  Candidate after candidate was elected because she or he promoted a fear that upper middle class and rich folk would lose power and wealth.  One city even banned homelessness.

However, Jesus blows the socks right off Christian Economics.  In a moving passage in Matthew 25 Jesus said, “Inasmuch as you have cared for those of my family who are homeless, hungry, sick or in prison, you have given yourselves unto me.  But if you have not served the least of these, also my family, you have not cared for me.”  This is the counter-cultural theme of the New Testament.  God loves ALL her children.

True change, true resolution of the rapidly growing income equality that leaves homeless moms in the street with their kids, that allows big box retailers to pay for thirty hours a week to avoid providing health insurance for millions of workers, that keeps minimum wages for other millions below the poverty level, will require radical realignments  in our economy in access to and distribution of wealth.

Such radical change will not begin with readjustment of government priorities.  It must begin with transformational change of the hearts and souls of those same business leaders who are clever enough to devise inventive systems that enhance their wealth at the expense of the workers.  Surely, they are skilled enough to restructure America’s economy so that all can participate equitably in the nation’s Gross National Product.

True Christianity invites commitment to a God who calls us to care for “the least of these,” and eliminate the evil of income inequality.  Such conversion of soul will not magically arise from riots and protests of the poor that lead to pacification, but not change.  It will come only when those who lead, those with power, listen to the whispering of God in their hearts.

You don’t think this can happen?  It may only be a beginning, but a corporate lawyer in a huge New Town, in Texas yet, has gradually assembled a cadre of CEO’s who have committed to creating an alternative to Christian Economics.  They started, not by out-maneuvering the Tea Party militants who crudely intimidated voters at polls in 2012, but by forming the Voter Awareness Council, (7) a non-partisan action group that has gotten business leaders thinking about the common good for all the residents, whether wealthy or on welfare.

Prior to the 2014 election and at polling places on election day, the Voter Awareness Council circulated a well done flyer in which each candidate for any level of government spelled out her or his platform not vitriol about opponents.  The Council also positively but firmly kept Tea Party activists from confronting and threatening voters as they arrived at polling places.  The outcome was much more democratic, with candidates who care about the welfare of the whole community and state being elected.  Yes, this was spearheaded by well-to-do CEO’s.  I know the story.  The lawyer is my son.

Now go back and read Matthew 25:31-46, and pray for guidance about what you can do in your own community to counter “Christian capitalism” with the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

THREE DENVER GIRLS: An Almost Tragic Story and the Love of God

On October 17, three teenage girls from Denver flew overseas in a bid to join ISIS in Syria before being stopped in Frankfurt, Germany by the F.B.I.  The girls, ages 15 and 16, apparently were lured by an online campaign to join ISIS militants.  All three, who have not been publically identified out of safety concerns, were immediately returned to their families in Denver.  It is known that two of the girls are of Somali origin, while the third is Sudanese.

The American pot of hysteria was stirred once again.  This is at least in part the fruit of the work being done to create a politics of fear built on the notion that Americans are “at risk” as a nation, not only from the violence of a “militant Islam,” but also from the cultural integration of Muslims in the West, “stealth jihadists.”  Coming mostly from the radical right, the goal is to seek power, more than it is to protect America.  Fear works.  It makes the electorate easier to control.

But this story of the ISIS-bound girls has a more positive twist.  For openers, one of girls lives with her family in a low income apartment complex in Denver that was built and is operated by a non-profit organized by the United Church of Christ.  It is one of six UCC projects that happens to be home to Muslims from as diverse places as the Sudan, Nepal, Syria, Somalia, a Russian Republic, Ivory Coast and even the Philippines.

So what happens among these immigrant Americans?  Volunteers are teaching ESL.  Parents, particularly mothers, are working to build trust among their teenagers and younger kids.  Any time a crisis arises, as when a daughter impulsively heads for Syria, or when a father was shot a few months ago in a case of mistaken identity, the whole community comes together in a ritual of support and reconciliation  We have observed that it is the Muslim women, who in spite of the fact that they are intensely controlled by the male dominated culture, are the drivers of human goodness.  And, to our great joy, the non-Muslim neighbors are included in these rituals of love.

As a white Christian male and board member of the UCC non-profit housing entity, my perspective is that all religions, including Christianity, are metaphorical expressions of the work of one God as seen through the lenses of the many cultures in which these various religious beliefs and practices have evolved.

Micah, a Hebrew of faith, described God for all of humanity, regardless of religious theology and practice.  “He has told you, O mortal, 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)

This is a commandment of love, not hate or fear.  Muslims hear it as clearly as Christians.  And, in terms of their local politics, Muslims struggle with fear as often as do Christians!  Hence the American radical right, the Middle Eastern ISIS, or even Russian and Chinese dictatorships.

I believe the grasping for power in politics and culture drives religious belief and practice, much more than the other way around.  Hence, it is not the Muslim faith that is creating the terrorist unrest of which the world is so fearful today.

The women in our UCC apartments, Muslim or Christian, are united in fulfilling a Biblical New Testament truism found in 1 John:14:  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”

May our sixteen-year old find peace in God’s love.

Black Woman Nominated to be U.S. Attorney General

President Obama has nominated U. S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to serve as Attorney General of the United States.  If confirmed, Lynch would become the first black female ever to serve in this pivotal Department of Justice position.  From a cultural perspective this is a double whammy, even though many Americans now believe that both racism and masculine superiority are social dynamics of the past.  In fact, the opposite is true.  It’s just that they are both so pervasive in our society they’re part of the fabric of “the way things are.”

That Loretta Lynch has been nominated is not evidence that these two underlying social issues have been put behind us.  On race, much of the unspoken disease behind President Obama’s unpopularity in this week’s national election is mute evidence of the hidden racism that still drives many white Americans.

But let’s talk today about a sin that’s been ingrained in societal designs since even before the Bible was constructed.  This is the dysfunctional male control of women in virtually every level of human existence from personal and physical relationships between a man and a woman all the way up to the design and control of civilization.  Conservatives could not even be bothered to attack the correct Loretta Lynch, in fact confusing her with another female attorney, showing how little women count for them.

Why am I, a white male, concerned about this?  The answer is that nine years ago my wife and I adopted our then 2 year old great granddaughter.  Much of our energy since then has been devoted to nurturing in her an identity and self-esteem that goes with her God-given right to participate in life on terms not dominated by men or the male myth of superiority.

Whenever she and I see on T.V. a distressing view of a battered woman, we talk about why men hurt women.  When we heard a news story about U.S. servicemen raping Iraqi women, she asked why soldiers act this way.  As a history student, she asked why women didn’t get to vote when the Constitution was framed.  Whenever we hear a news item about women being paid 20% less than men for the same jobs, she animatedly declares “that’s not fair!”  She even gets it that when someone like Loretta Lynch is successful in a men’s world, she has had to play by their rules.

Yes, I’m concerned.  We need a sea-change, and I don’t think the answer is greater and more severe punishment of individual men who are violent, nor do I think we should let a male-dominated culture redesign the way that culture treats women.  Neither of these moves change the root problem.

This is a situation in which every one of us has the opportunity to take seriously the root story of the Bible, the story of God’s love for all the people, the story of Jesus’ forgiving call to be fully human.

People of neither gender can fantasize that the opposite sex is going to do all the changing.  Men, individually and collectively, have major self-transformational  work to do.  They need to take the gospel seriously, controlling their hearts, souls and bodies in honoring the true humanity of women.  Men need to give leadership to changing the way government, businesses, yes, even churches, exercise power over women.  Men need to pray for the strength to stop treating women as possessions who exist for their pleasure.

Women have an overwhelming challenge, too.  Their option is not to change men.  Individually, they need to work on that kind of self-esteem that won’t allow men to abuse them.  Collectively, they need to continue to organize into a coalition that demands equal pay, equal rights, equal sharing of child rearing, as well as a diminishing of the cultural bravado called war.

Because we all are equally children of God, there is hope.

So What If He Is Gay?

We know we’re still in trouble both culturally and religiously when it makes news that Tim Cook is gay.

As a Christian minister going for another advanced degree in seminary, I can tell you this with no hesitation: bluntly stated, the Bible is not anti-gay.

In fact, the divine joke is that Tim Cook, like Steve Jobs, is probably smarter and more creative than most of us.

So that takes care of the reality problem, what about the cultural issues?

What’s at stake culturally is the question of whether only he-men authoritatively run things.  Check out pro football player, Michael Sams.  Is he now not man enough to put on pads?  Our society, whose norms of insecure male superiority have asserted themselves since Pilgrim days, allows the inferior role definitions of women, as well as those of people who are “different.”  A society just doesn’t work very well when millions are underclass in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.  When people are busy “playing their assigned roles,” their potential for contributing to the common human good is vastly limited.  This is culturally unproductive, even counter productive.

What’s at stake religiously is even more profound.  One of the two doctrines that are most stoned by gay bashing is the fundamental claim, found as early as in Genesis, that God created, and creates, all people “in his likeness…male and female he created them.”  Who elected anyone to discriminate among the God-given values of any human being?

The second doctrine that is ground to pieces is that of God’s grace.  God blesses every person, regardless.  Neither Jesus nor the Prophets defined any class of people as being incapable of receiving God’s blessing.  The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is present in every human soul, imparting wisdom and courage.  A human’s mission, therefore, is to do the best one can with what she or he has been handed.  No one has been given the right to handicap others.

Look at these children.  Each of them has to feel the way into her or his own skin.  One or more of them may discover a sexual orientation she or he didn’t expect.  One may discover that she or he is transgender.  All will have to try on their sexuality.  As you look at them now, can you imagine loving one of them less than the others?  Can you imagine God will ever love one of them less than the others?

As a husband (of 59 years!), a father, a grandfather and now a great-grandfather, I can tell you we received each one of our offspring with joy and thanksgiving. What foolishness to think God would do less.

One of the major ironies precipitated by this gang of cute kids is:  The very people who use the Bible to advance their right to life sentiments which, who knows, may have resulted in the birth of at least one of these kids, are the very same people who will use the Bible to take away the right to life of any of them who ultimately identify themselves as being LBTG or Q.

As Cecil Baxter said recently in Forbes Magazine, “Our bodies are where we stay; our souls are what we are.”

Can’t we at least agree to be who we are?

War is Futile

 

Not only does war take a huge human toll and cause a staggeringly economic disruption well beyond the engaged parties, it ultimately doesn’t solve anything.  Further, God doesn’t like it.  Nor does the Bible condone it.

War as a problem non-solving strategy is as old as humankind and war has dominated human history.

 It is disappointing but not surprising how some Biblical interpretation and Christian theological doctrine has been shaped and controlled by the dominant culture, particularly European and North American, not only to justify, but also to demand war.

 But peacemaking is also a biblical and theological message in Christian history.

Somehow those who use the Bible to justify war don’t hear the opposite teaching of Jesus of Nazareth: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5: 44).  Jesus’ entire life, and death, is a testimony to, and incarnation of, God’s creation of a single human family that is ordained to get along peaceably.  Christians don’t seem to remember that Jesus was murdered because of his community organizing for peace in face of the domination of Palestinians by the forces of the Roman Empire and the Temple bureaucrats.

Two theological doctrines that come into play in a consideration of the efficacy of war are Atonement and Sin & Evil.  Both can be turned upside down to justify war, and both, understanding God’s intent in sending an incarnational Jesus, can give humankind a clue to moving beyond war to a new realm of societal and cultural problem solving.

 The historic view of the atonement, that “God sent Jesus to die for our sins,” is seen by many, particularly conservatives and fundamentalists, as absolving individual and communal destructive behavior.  War, therefore, is understood to be a permanent part of the human experience.  God condones it, even though he lost his son because of those who flew in the face of his love.  But Jesus’ death doesn’t redeem willfully violent people.  Jesus’ death says to suffering humanity, “Follow me, there is hope.”

 The misinterpretation of the doctrine of Atonement reinforces the validity of war as a mechanism for controlling the marginalized by the powerful.  By repeating old solutions, the answer is to keep fighting, only to fight harder and more ingeniously.

As seen by many self-proclaimed Christians, life in this world is a violent struggle between God and the devil.  The good folks are on God’s side, while the victims are possessed by the devil.  As “good folks,” Christians are obligated to support aggression against the infidels.

The doctrine of Sin and Evil can also be used as a justification for war.  The enemy is composed of sinners and the net result is cultural or national, or religious evil.  The good folks, of course, do not sin and are not evil.  They are ordained by God to crush evil, the net result being suffering for everyone involved.

 Of course, the correct Biblical understanding of sin is that all people are free to make mistakes and that evil lurks in every soul.  In being forgiven for being human, it is incumbent on all people of God to love their enemies into fellow compatriots in the keeping of the peace and the saving of humankind.  Life has to work for everybody.

After so many centuries of futile war which seems like humanity’s worst scourge, there comes the question, “Will all people ever inherit the earth without fear of some tyrannical force?”

 As I think about the possibility of civil solutions to moments of conflict, I can feel a new future for God’s Kingdom.  To the degree that I know anything about history, two evidences of alternatives to war come to mind, and give hope.

The first is the Abolitionist movement in England that brought an end to slavery in the British Empire.  It took a Civil War in America a couple of decades later to reach a similar outcome.  But that people, out of their righteous indignation, could bring to its knees the terrible evil of slavery is a miracle from which all of civilization can learn.  Peer into the future.  Can the people of the warring factions in the middle-east repeat this story?

The second glimpse of hope is much more contemporary.  In spite of many nations having enough nuclear weapons to end life on earth as we know it, we are now over 60 years into avoiding self-annihilation by negotiation and compromise, difficult as some of the agreements have been.

 I fervently believe that in spite of all the frightful confidence to the contrary, one day we’ll be able to solve our problems and control our lust for power without war or violence.

 Peace in the world will not come until you can taste it.  And, you won’t taste it until you, too, can relate to others nonviolently.

 

Don’t Fix It…Blame the Government!

Stuff goes wrong in our personal lives.  Stuff goes wrong in our communal living.  Stuff goes wrong in America.  Stuff goes wrong in the world.  From domestic conflict and economic trauma to a world that still tries to fix things with guided missiles, life is not what it could be.

So what happens?  Instead of working on fixes, we play the blame game.  “She made me do it.”  “My boss won’t give me a raise.”  “My doctor gave me the wrong medicine.”  “My kids won’t do what I tell them.”  Blame.  Blame.  Blame.  It’s never my fault, or up to me to change or fix it.

We quickly move to blaming the government for not making our lives easier, each with her or his own personal priorities.  In this election season even the majority of candidates don’t have anything good to say about the very government of which they are a part.  Whether it’s the Affordable Care Act, Immigration, Jobs, ISIS, Ebola, or the Economy, one hears claims daily that the government can’t get it right.  Worse than that, a black President can’t get it right.

Instead, we wallow in our own personal “crises.”  We don’t become accountable for our own lives, we blame the government for our problems.  And, in our blaming, we fail our citizenship test.  We pretend that by protesting we have no obligation to make our society work better.  It’s easier to blame than it is to be part of solutions.  Avdhesh Arya, a citizen blogger, gets it..

Theologically, we are behaving like God created an imperfect world and that there is nothing we can do about it.  Not so.  In the very first chapter of the Hebrew Bible, vs. 31, we read:  “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.  And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Part of this goodness is that humans have the chance in life to grow beyond their sinfulness, to overcome evil, to become more fully human, and to create a new humanity.  Obscure to most Christians is an early theologian named Irenaeus, who had a most productive view of Salvation.  Rather than seeing God as rescuing people at the end of their lives, what most Christians assume is salvation, Irenaeus saw Salvation as being caught up in God’s work for the future good of humanity.  Those who are saved by God are alive and engaged in transforming a world made imperfect by human behavior.  Christ is the inauguration of a new humanity.  Through Jesus, God seeks to free humanity from Satan’s (evil’s) grasp.

Come on, who designed the government?  Who elected the officials?  Who is responsible for changing the structure that holds our common life together?  YOU ARE!  WE ALL ARE!

So a great question for today is:  What does God want us to do about tomorrow?

Essentially, we have two options.  One is to freak out into religious, political and economic fundamentalism, which calls us to do more of the same, only do it harder.  The other is to faithfully take on, in concert with like-minded folk, the task of recognizing and working for the image of God in all of humanity and improving the social structures that allow human community.

To be a fundamentalist in ones thinking and behavior is to go backward from God’s point of view.  And, by working harder to make our lives and our government more like it used to be, which we fantasize as having been good, we get even more of what diminishes our lives.

So far, the American majority, by a squeak, has gone fundamentalist in politics because so many people believe that power for themselves, to the exclusion of millions of others, is the only salvation for their lives.

This is living in YESTERDAY.

Conversely, there is the opportunity to live in TOMORROW.  In addition to managing the “stuff” of our daily lives, all Americans, Christians and others, are called to live into the future.  This means we need to astutely see possibilities of life as we’ve never lived it before.  The 21^st century is already dramatically unlike anything humankind has ever experienced.

The old order in the middle-east is disintegrating.  Democracy is sneaking up its head in China.  Africa could soon sit at the table.  Guided missiles are becoming irrelevant.  Even the Roman Catholic Church is toying with liberation theology.

The internet, high tech age has radically changed the game forever, both for good and for ill.  Future social, financial, environmental, governance and medical issues must be solved on an international basis.

So, what do you want to fix?  What turns your creative crank as you peak into the future?

• An expanded social safety net that assures universal health for the nation’s citizens, care for the infirm, support for the indigent and an assured decent quality of life for the elderly?
• Dealing with worldwide economics where poverty starves millions of children unto death?
• Facing white racism from the underside or from on top, depending on your race?
• Stewardship of the environment; combating climate change; protecting open space, moving past fossil fuels; and better understanding and control of man-made intrusions into our biology and environment?
• Election of candidates to public office who are truly committed to finding new solutions to emerging problems, without blaming each other, the President or the judiciary?
• Reducing gun violence and limiting concealed carry rights?
• Creating a more just refugee system, and acknowledging the need for national sacrifice for a peaceful world, respecting other political, economic, social and civil systems?
• Facing the reality that war no longer solves anything?
•  Limiting state and national testing standards and expanding primary and secondary educational choices toward meeting the different learning styles, creative potential, and imaginations of our kids?

Try to imagine changes for tomorrow.  Then lean into them.  It’s God’s call to salvation!

Ferguson “Weekend of Resistance,” the Bible and Christianity

Do you think racism is just a problem for African Americans? Think again.  For Christians, a racist white church is not a church, it is a racial club.

In order to save its own soul, the Christian Church must immediately make the transformation of social behavior to eliminate racism one of its top priorities.

Some Christians, as well as people of other faiths and humanist values, are starting to get this.

For the weekend of October 10-13, activists plan a “Weekend of Resistance” two months after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.  Whether white America likes it or not, this moment in history is not unlike the day Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a Birmingham bus so a white person could have her seat.  The details don’t make any difference.  Black anger about white America’s continuing racism has been reinforced and inspired by this questionable shooting.

How can there be any doubt that this is a racist society.  Whites don’t need proof of police brutality.  Whites don’t need statistics of incarceration of black males.  Whites don’t need to know of the lower learning accomplishments of black or brown ghetto students.  Whites don’t need their self-justifications in response to black resistance.  All Whites need to do is examine their own smug, silently held smirks about the inferior competence and behavior of black and brown people, predominantly adults, as kids are “so cute.”

This “Weekend of Resistance,” in giving a renewed focus for black action, raises two burning religious questions about white racism in American today.

The first is why do so many people believe or assume the Bible condones or authorizes racism?  The second is why is the Christian church in America not actively outraged by the racism of its people?

People must not be reading their Bibles.  There is absolutely no Biblical basis for distinguishing among the races.  There is only one race in the Bible:  the Human Race.  Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Indians, Arabs, Orientals and Jews are not different races.  Rather, they are different ethnicities of a common human race.  Right in the very first chapter of Genesis it says, “The God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…so God created humankind in his image…male and female he created them.’” (Genesis 1:26&27).

Then God sent Jesus to risk his life for all of humanity, “so that everyone…may not perish but may have eternal life.”  (John 3:16).  Jesus was outright blunt in his concluding remarks in a long passage about caring for all others when he said, “”Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25:45).

Biblically, then, if one treats a person with contempt, that one is mistreating a person created in God’s image.  In racist behavior, when one discriminates or marginalizes another, one is hurting somebody whom God loves and for whom Jesus died.

An irony in all this white self-justification that the Bible treats racism as a normal part of human existence is the fact that very likely Jesus himself was not white.  The scholarly consensus is that Jesus was, like most first-century Jews, probably a dark-skinned man.

Without Biblical authority for racist behavior, we come to the question of why is the Christian church in America not actively outraged by racism?

Part of the answer, of course, lies in the fact that no later than the third century, Christianity was co-opted as the philosophical foil for the spread of empire throughout Europe and eventually to North America.  Further, in its preoccupation with the recruitment of followers, Christianity personalized religion, emphasizing God’s rescue of sinners and offering eternal life to believers.  Today, many white Catholics and Protestants alike, see their religion as an obligatory step toward a recognizable life after death.  Religious faith is about them, not others.

With the admirable exception of whites who have joined civil rights marches, demonstrations, and social transformation activities, the church, for the most part, does not have racism on its agenda.  How many anti-racist sermons have been heard in any given white church in the last twelve months?  How many social and political action activities to eliminate racism have been generated in white churches in the past twenty years?  Does the church believe that the election of a black American president absolves it from moral responsibility to follow the teachings of the Bible?

In a graduate class on generous listening I am taking at Chicago Theological Seminary, I had a conversation with a fellow student who happens to be black:  We had a fairly extensive conversation about white racism.  She asked me whether white folks talk with black folks out of curiosity or out of a desire to enter into relationship.  I said more of the former than the latter, but added a third option which is that most white people tend to avoid people of color altogether.

Interestingly, black church members generally concentrate on supporting one another from the ugly daily onslaughts of racism, and theologically focus on the promise of the coming of the Kingdom.

And, to make this personal, not someone else’s job, read an eye-opening piece by Paul Rauschenbush recently published in the Huffington Post.

 

 

Radical Right “Comes Out” in Colorado School District

 

                          

 

 

 

With roots in the historic Biblical concepts of Apocalypse and evil, a highly  charged controversy has broken out in the Jefferson County School District, a predominantly middle class county on the western edge of Denver.

This controversy has its roots in fear, a fear that if not met with honesty and truth, will convulse our state.

Following their election as conservative co-candidates ten months ago, three new members joined two sitting mainline members on the School Board in the second largest district in Colorado.  Their campaign claim that the district needed to pay attention to student achievement sounded innocent enough.  However, from the outset, vexing issues like teacher pay, charter schools, union-district relations, and job security have rumbled.  Now, their true agenda is “coming out.”  The mission is to reform the way American history is taught by changing its content so as to ignore the bad and the ugly.  The DENVER POST sums it up in graphic terms.

In a move two weeks ago that has galvanized teachers, students, the College Board, and parents alike, Julie Williams, one of the new conservative board members, introduced a resolution that would revolutionize the way history is taught in the District.  William’s proposal calls for presenting only “positive aspects” of U.S. heritage that “promote citizenship, patriotism, benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights, and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law.”

Williams recently criticized how history is currently taught, saying, “It has an emphasis on race, gender, class, ethnicity, grievance and American-bashing while simultaneously omitting the most basic structural and philosophical elements considered essential to the understanding of American History for generations.”

At the heart of the current dispute is the question of whether all of the nation’s history, good and bad, should be taught.  Given the proposed resolution, a whole series of instructive negative events would be avoided.  There is the story of how the government totally disenfranchised the Indians of their lands and rights.  There is the story of racism that led to the Civil War and continues today.  There is the story of how President Reagan gutted funds for poverty and social programs while dramatically increasing support for the questionable military action in Iraq.  There is the story of the huge Bush era tax cuts for the rich.  There is the current story of the dramatically increasing number of children living in poverty.

Perhaps the worst story for twenty first century America is the Radical Right’s absolute commitment to unfettered capitalism and absolute free enterprise, under which the rich get the power while the poor learn the true meaning of suffering.

Jesus was confronted by this kind of self-justifying motivation wherever he went.  The Book of Mark recalls an exchange between Jesus and a Rich Young Ruler.  “As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” ²⁰ And he said to Jesus, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” ²¹ Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.  And Jesus, looking around, said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”

Why does the Radical Right want to eliminate these stories of conflict in American history?  Its proponents want to restore the myth that America is the most upright, peace-loving nation on earth.  They would like to avoid having to face homophobia, racism, economic disparity, and poverty.  They would like to posture themselves as “God’s Chosen People.”

People often think they’re Christian because they use the Bible to value their lives and judge others.  But in Matthew, Jesus says to his disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.  “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”  Jesus’ call to follow him is more than an invitation to pray a prayer. .It is a summons to lose your life finding new life for people in all walks of life.

Where does this irrational desire for emphasizing only the positive come from?  Religiously and spiritually it comes from fear, fear of death, fear of eternal condemnation, fear of loss of lifestyle, fear of the challenges of tomorrow, and ultimately fear of God’s judgment.  These fears add up to an hysteria about the end of time, called the Apocalypse, when God will save the good people and destroy the wicked.  The Radical Right is currently engaged in posturing itself as the beloved community and condemning those who don’t look or think like they do.

By blaming a society’s victims for causing their own plight and suffering, those in power believe they’ll enjoy eternal life.  Thus, the school board is pushing for telling only a positive story about our American heritage.  Unfortunately, it’s generally a story about white male power.  They don’t want anyone to think critically or to take action against their apocalypse-driven agenda.

This “coming out” of the Jefferson County School Board is not something that’s being taken lightly.  Teachers are calling in sick, thus forcing the closing of schools.  Yesterday, it was announced that these teachers are being threatened with loss of pay.   Students by the thousands are demonstrating throughout the county, and are being highly criticized by the conservative press.   This controversy is not going to subside easily or quickly.  Vincent Carroll, DENVER POST Editor has a very clear perspective on the ideological conflict.

The theological question of evil arises here.  Are these school board members evil?  Absolutely not!  They aren’t even bad people.  But when a national movement, of which they are a part, seeks to deny a human history that includes evil treatment of the disenfranchised by the powerful, evil is at work extending the myth that God loves only certain people.  Evil is at work dividing people who should be about the business of caring for the whole human community.

The resolution of this crisis will come only when its victims, students, teachers, parents and the critical-thinking larger community both challenge and embrace the fear-driven school board and its supporters.  The mission here is for everyone to acknowledge that life is filled with ambiguities and suffering, and then to create social structures that work for everyone.

Why Are We So Divided?

Why Are We So Divided?

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

ROBBLAPP

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America is running around 50% “Let’s fix things for everyone,” and 50%, “Let’s fix things to enhance my power.” This guarantees no solutions will be found.

Not transforming our society into one that works for everyone is a tragedy.

We find voices on each side in Colorado.  For example, Conservative Cory Gardner says we should cut government spending on the poor.  Conversely, more Liberal Mark Udall trailed off in support of big energy. Both these opposing voices fly in the face of Christian Biblical teachings.  One good place to start is with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth on the Kingdom of God.

Jesus, in keeping with the beliefs of Old Testament Prophets, believed that the Kingdom of God is a state of being in which all people love and respect one another, caring for the disenfranchised, and eschewing strategies and claims for power.

In this mandate for equal sharing of life’s goods, Jesus called on everyone to care for his or her neighbor, sometimes at great sacrifice.

Whether today’s politicians clamor for reduction in government spending for the health and welfare of everyone, or enact legislation that reinforces the power and wealth of the rich, they are missing Jesus’ call for the creation of a healthy and just community.

Instead of being divided 50/50 over how to wreck the human enterprise as envisioned by Jesus, we need to come together with common goals.

Until we as a Colorado community do this we will never arrive at sane solutions, solutions which, of course, will require everyone giving up a little on her or his goals in favor of the common good.