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?