Time to Move Forward

As a nation, isn't it surely time for us to get past the topic of same-sex marriage?  So much time, money and energy have gone into preventing it. And to what avail? Christians, if you believe this is wrong, then I humbly suggest you don't marry someone who is the same sex as you are.

Allowing the estimated five percent of the population which is homosexual to marry, if that is their wish, will cause the other 95 percent which is heterosexual no harm. Then we can all begin to focus on issues which affect 100 percent of us....the national debt, the economy, job creation, education, healthcare, Monsanto ruining our food supply, corporations buying our politicians, reform of drug laws, etc.

In light of all the pain and suffering and real problems in the world, I often wonder: How did same-sex marriage become such an incredibly important issue in the realm of Christianity? If it's because you believe homosexuality is wrong on a personal level, let's remember that Jesus also said divorce and remarriage is wrong and yet many Christians partake in it. Aside from that, he also invites us to find peace in our own existence and concentrate on improving ourselves, rather than judging others.

If you believe it's because we're a "Christian nation" and therefore there are things of which we can't legally "approve" I invite you to read the following:

50 Presidential Quotes In Defense Of Separation Of Church And State

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/24/separation-of-church-and-state-the-presidents-versus-the-christian-right/#ixzz2XiElxD00

I know some readers of my blog will disagree with me, but I believe it is time to move on and let go of the hate which is fomented because of this issue. I hope everyone has a blessed day.

Beyond Cynicism

Some readers of my blog know that I have been involved in local community theater at The Avenue Theatre, for many years. I'm getting ready to take a long hiatus from activities there, but I am currently directing the musical "The King and I" and I'm at the point in the process where it tends to be almost overwhelming. Bringing together nearly 50 volunteer cast (including almost 20 children and their parents) and crew members, keeping them informed about rehearsals and working around their busy summer schedules over several weeks is just a part of it. Yesterday involved a trip to seek out fabric and props and work on publicity and printing. Then there's the ever-present "vision" of the production in my head crowding out other thoughts. Thankfully, there's great team working on the project, and I'm certain the result will be wonderful. 

Sometimes something even as relatively small in the grand scheme of things as a summer musical can seem so daunting as to not be worth the time and effort it takes. I think of the great leaders and innovators through the centuries who have had a vision for change and what it took for them to impact their communities, their countries or the world. One thing they had in common was a lack of cynicism. Jesus, for example, knew not to trust certain leaders in the "church world" of his day, but he loved people and must have believed the best in humanity could prevail or he would not have gone to the lengths he did to change the way the world thinks and acts.

Cynicism is a blanket which is easy to crawl under. If we believe nothing is ever going to change or can change, it seems easiest to hide from the problems of the world and let the chips fall where they will. The problem is the chips fall on all of us. When no one steps forward to challenge the causes of the ills of society in areas where we're collectively headed downhill, then the downward trend will continue. Bad situations in churches, in government and other institutions don't turn around on their own. It takes hard work and dedication to make circumstances better. And we have to believe it's worth it. A flimsy blanket of cynicism does not protect us from anything. It's even too thin to keep us comfortable in our thoughts.

Over the years I have often been encouraged by the words of Jim Wallis, of Sojourners Magazine. A recent post of his has once again been inspiring. In it he speaks of "post-cynical Christians." Here is a brief excerpt:

"Skepticism is a good and healthy thing....Be skeptical and ask the hard, tough questions about our institutions — especially Washington and Wall Street. But cynicism is a spiritually dangerous thing because it is a buffer against personal commitment. Becoming so cynical that we don’t believe any change is possible allows us to step back, protect ourselves, grab for more security, and avoid taking any risks. If things can’t change, why should I be the one to show courage, take chances, and make strong personal commitments? I see people asking that question all the time.

"But personal commitment is all that has ever changed the world, transformed human lives, and altered history. And if our cynicism prevents us from making courageous and committed personal choices and decisions, the hope for change will fade. Along the way, I got to thinking how the powers that be are the ones causing us to be so cynical. Maybe that is part of their plan — to actually cause and create more cynicism in order to prevent the kind of personal commitments that would threaten them with change."

I'm posting the link for those who are interested in reading the rest of Jim's post because it's a good read. Let us remember that cynicism is an enemy of what is healthy and good. Stepping outside of cynical thinking always involves a certain amount of risk, but that which is worthwhile is rarely ever easy.

http://go.sojo.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=30341.0&dlv_id=35921

A Borrowed List of 10 Political Things You Can't Do While Following Jesus

My father has been gone nearly four years. I was fortunate to have a dad who was hard-working, generous and had a kind heart. He talked about religion only rarely, but he lived out the teachings of Jesus every day. He so often expressed dismay that people were not compassionate. It hurt him to hear of cruelty. He was a sweet influence in an often harsh world.

Because I have some other writing projects to tend to and am short on time, I'm taking the easy way out and sharing something I read this week. I'm doing so in honor of my father. It is a list I'm certain he would endorse because most of the items on it were issues he and I had discussed many times. I also agree with the list as it nicely sums up many things I've been writing about recently. Of course since this unabashedly combines politics and religion, it isn't doing too much to address my expressed desire from last week to try to separate my religious posts from my political posts. I am still trying to figure that out. It might not be easy for me to do.

10 POLITICAL Things You Can't Do While Following Jesus  

The following is by Mark Sandlin who currently serves as the minister at Vandalia Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, N.C. 

In response to my last article, “10 Things You Can't Do While Following Jesus,” I was accused multiple times of being political. All I was trying to do was follow Jesus. So, I thought it'd be interesting (and generate tons more hate mail) to show what a list would actually look like if I were being political intentionally. Like the first list, this is not a complete list but it's a pretty good place to start.

There will be those who comment and send me messages berating me for “making Jesus political.” It's okay. Fire away. Jesus didn't worry much about stepping on political toes, and the Bible insists that governments be just toward the least of these (the books of the prophets alone make this point very clear). Frequently, people who are the most vocal about not making Jesus political are the same people who want prayer in school and laws based on their own religious perspectives. By a happy little circumstance that brings us to my list:

10) Force your religious beliefs and practices on others.

One of the strengths of the faith Jesus taught was in its meekness. The faith he taught valued free will over compulsion – because that's how love works. Compelling people to follow any religion, more or less your personal religion, stands over and against the way Jesus practiced his faith. If you are using the government to compel people to practice your spiritual beliefs, you might be the reason baby Jesus is crying. This does get tricky. There is a difference in letting your beliefs inform your political choices and letting your politics enforce your religion. This article is about the first part.

9) Advocate for war.

There's a reason why he was called the Prince of Peace. Sure, you can quote, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword,” and even two or three other verses, but they don't hold a candle to the more than fifty-some verses where Jesus speaks about peace and peacemaking. It's funny how things keep coming back to love but it needs to be said, it is way far away from loving a person to kill them. I guess there's a reason why we say, “God is love.” In the end, love wins.

8) Favor the rich over the poor.

This is actually related to #4. Favoring the rich over the poor is a slap in the face of Jesus, his life, and his teachings. In terms of the teachings of Jesus, it is bad enough when we allow the rich to take advantage of the poor, but when we create laws that not only encourage the behavior but also protect it? Well, let's just say it becomes crystal clear how ironic it is that we print, “In God We Trust,” on our money.

7) Cut funding that hurts the least of these.

To some degree, this is the inverse of #8. Favoring the rich is despicable. We Jesus minions should avoid it. Hurting the poor? Well, that's just …  just ... um, something a whole lot worse than despicable. Despicabler? Über-despicable? When Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it to me,” he meant it. When you cut funding and it hurts people, according to Jesus, you are hurting him.

6) Let people go hungry.

Well, well, well. What have we here? Is this an item from the original top ten list which I claimed was not politically motivated? Looks like I've stepped into my own clever trap! Muh wah ha ha! Seriously though, of course it's on both lists. It is a spiritual issue and it is a political issue. Spiritually, Gandhi said, “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Politically, hunger causes problems with education, production, and civil behavior that are all necessary for a successful nation. More importantly for Christians, Jesus said when we feed the hungry, we are feeding him. So, yes, this item is on both lists – and I'm going to do it again.

5) Withhold healthcare from people.

This time I'm not only repeating an item, I'm repeating a lot of what I said. Did you ever play the game “Follow the Leader?" If you don't do what the leader does, you are out. Following means you should imitate as closely as possible. When people who were sick needed care, Jesus gave it to them. If we are following Jesus, we will imitate him as closely as possible. No, the government can't repeat the miracles he did but I've seen modern medicine do things that are about as close to a miracle as I expect to get. While the government can't do miracles, it can supply modern medicine. Every year, 45,000 people die in the U.S. because of the lack of healthcare. We Christians like to talk about “saving” people. Well, I know of about 45,000 people who'd love for us to do it and we should – because that's how love works.

4) Limit the rights of a select group of people.

Jesus loves everybody – but he loves me best. Kind of sits the wrong way with you, doesn't it? Well, it should and with good reason. If you spend any time reading the Bible you know that we all were made in God's image. Exactly which part of us is in God's image is less clear, but what is clear is that we were equally made in the image of God. Any law that doesn't treat people equally is as good as thumbing your nose at God. Even worse? Doing it in the name of God or based on religious beliefs (see #10).

3) Turn away immigrants.

Christian heritage runs through Judaism. We are an immigrant people. Even our religion began somewhere else. Our spiritual ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, were told by God to pick up what they had and start traveling. Moses, Miriam, and Aaron led a nation out of Egypt, into the desert and ultimately to new lands. Even Jesus spent part of his childhood as a foreigner in a foreign land. As Exodus says, we know how it feels to be foreigners in a foreign land. If you don't think being foreigners in a foreign land is still our story, ask the Native Americans. At best, turning away immigrants makes us hypocrites; at worst, it makes us betrayers of our ancestors and our God.

2) Devalue education.

We learn in Proverbs that wisdom is something in which God delights daily. As a matter of fact, according to Proverbs, wisdom is better than gold. When you look at the percentage of our budget that goes to education and at what Congress is trying to do to student loans, it's pretty clear that delighting in wisdom is something our government no longer does.

1) Support capital punishment — execution.

Jesus died by execution. He was an innocent man. Every year, innocent people die by execution in our nation. It's time to be a shining city on a hill. It's time to express the fullness of love, to express the value of life. It's time to stop the government-sanctioned killing.

Separaton of Ideas

I asked a question this week on Facebook about my friends' thoughts on the government's monitoring of our cell phone records. One of my friends asked if my comments might be included in my blog. It led to an interesting dilemma for me. Some readers of my blog and my Facebook posts are interested (or at least lacking in anything else to do) in my comments on matters of the spirit. I also have discovered that some others are interested in having respectful conversations about what's going on in our country with regard to government and society, in general. Basically: religion and politics, two topics many people want to steer clear of, two topics I find myself inexplicably drawn to.

I absolutely believe in the separation of church and state. It is best for both institutions that one does not bleed over into the other. It has everything to do with freedom of religion and with good government. Citizens should be free to practice the religion (or non-religion) of their choice. Adherents of any religion must have freedom to worship. Just because I am a follower of the teachings of Jesus, that does not give me special rights, but it should give me equal privileges.

I find it fascinating that many want to call our nation a Christian nation, yet the definition of that often boils down to the ability to: display the ten commandments in public areas, pray in schools, declare war on those who threaten our American way of life and whether "in God we trust" remains emblazoned on our money. Oh, the irony. I think we are closer to a Jewish nation by those standards.

Jesus came to fulfill the law, in effect replacing the Ten Commandments with two: love God first and foremost and love your neighbor as yourself. He basically said if you do those two things, the ten (and more) will be taken care of. He told us NOT to pray in public! He told us to love our enemies, not seek retribution. Plus, patriotism toward one's country is not a point of Christian theology: we are taught that we are citizens of heaven and that labels are to be avoided because we are all united as one. And then there is that whole thing about giving Caesar his due. From what Jesus had to say about money, I have a feeling God might be insulted, maybe even none too happy, about having his name on it.

Then there is this interesting quote I ran across this week: "When religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." – Benjamin Franklin

True Christianity can and should flourish without any outside help, especially from government.

But back to my dilemma. What to do about being drawn to write about both religion and politics? I think if political decisions/actions by Christians are not at least formed by one's faith, of treating all with love and respect, of seeking to be compassionate and to find a way to achieve peace with other nations, then our Christian faith is lacking, to say the least. So, I will always feel there is some overlap between the two, I suppose. But for readers of my blog, I think it would be fair to try to separate the two. That way, anyone can choose to read one or the other, both or neither.

I'll have to think on whether that will be two separate blogs or one blog with two clearly defined sections. At any rate, for now, I will share here my thoughts about the question I asked on Facebook.

PLEASE NOTE: The following is strictly political commentary, if you proceed, please do so with that in mind.

The question: I am curious if the majority of my friends think it is acceptable for the government to keep track of our phone records. Does it make you feel safer or does it make you feel as though your rights have been violated? 

There ended up being about 35 votes for "violated," 3 votes for "safer" and 6 somewhere in between. What I find interesting is that this is one issue which doesn't seem to have a clear division based on politics. Both certain Democrats and some members of the GOP are "blasting" the idea, while others from both sides are supportive. Knowing a little (or guessing) how most of those who commented lean politically, based on past posts and comments, my friends' opinions seem to be further evidence that this is the case.

The Patriot Act was certainly "thrown together" (or so it would seem) and passed quickly after 9/11, which likely could have been an effort by the Bush presidency to legitimize many practices already in place as well as to legalize other issues which definitely sent us down the proverbial slippery slope. There were objections at the time, but the attacks of 9/11 achieved one goal for sure: As a country we were terrorized, made fearful enough that we did not rise up as citizens and say no to legislation that is not good for the country. The price, in terms of lost freedom and wasted resources, is far too high for the potential reward. Some would say we have no way of knowing how many attacks have been averted, but I would say we have no way of knowing how many innocent people have been harassed, arrested or otherwise had their lives destroyed.

Of course, in 2011 the Obama administration made the decision to sign a four-year extension of key parts of the act, so there's plenty of blame to go around, politically.

The Patriot Act is not patriotic at all, in my opinion. Patriotism is loyalty to one's country. Phone snooping (that's a BEST case scenario description of this issue) is not loyalty to the ideals we hold dear. All are innocent until proven guilty. As several pointed out on the original thread, this is fishing for "what ifs" more than for solid evidence of wrong-doing, and as such, it goes far beyond the scope of the rights we have as Americans.

By the way, just as an interesting note, the title of the act is a ten letter acronym (USA PATRIOT) that stands for Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. 

"Appropriate" is not the word I would choose for the "A."

Declarations

What we say about our lives and what is happening around us has an effect on us and others. I'm not talking about "name and claim it" which was a central part of the theology of a church I attended for many years. I'm not talking about "The Secret" or any of the other teachings which claim we can control every aspect of our lives and get anything we want by saying the right things and concentrating intently on what we want. I've seen many disappointing situations develop in the lives of people who buy into those notions with their whole hearts and souls. (If any of you can tell me you have received everything you've ever wanted and prayed for simply by saying you want it over and over again, I would like to hear from you. You probably have reached enlightenment, and I want you to be my guru.)

Having said that, I do maintain it is important that we declare what we want to see happen rather than what we don't want to see happen. I've been thinking about this in regard to war. Doesn't it seem as though war has invaded our way of thinking? The war on drugs, the war on women, the war on guns, the war on Christmas, the war on....well, you name it, I think there might be a war on it.

Attaching the word war to so many things reduces the impact of actual armed conflict where people are maimed and killed. No matter how many manger scenes are banned from public parks, there is no war on Christmas. Maybe you are offended by those who are overly politically correct, but don't try to elevate that to the same level as war. 

As a woman, I don't accept that there is a war on me. If I buy into that I become a victim, and I am not a victim.

The war on guns is an interesting case of irony, don't you think? 

Then there's the war on drugs, which has had real consequences for many, but which has accomplished nothing in the way of helping to "fix" anything. More and more people use drugs and end up in jail for it. Nobody can ever win this supposed war.

Hostility, violence and contention are part of war. Why do we want to declare those things? Let's declare tranquility on Christmas. Let's call a truce between men and women so we can start working together to solve problems. And can we please just stop talking about guns? Nobody is going to take them away. The war on drugs needs to be undeclared and a new plan needs to be put in place.

Of course I haven't mentioned the war on terror, but I would like to declare peace in the face of terrorism and work that angle for a while. Yes, yes, I know I am naive and all of the other things my Conservative friends continue to say. But you know what? I don't care. I'm going to talk about peace anyway. Because Jesus is the Prince of Peace, not a god of war. That would be Ares or Indra or take your pick from a long list, including the goddess Athena in the name of "equal rights." I don't worship gods of war, and I'm weary of war in its every form.

We need to start saying what we want, rather than what we don't want. It's not a magic path to anywhere, but our spirits and souls suffer when we allow ourselves to be under attack by a war of words, the ones we speak and the ones we hear. Changing our talk and our thoughts won't solve everything, but without making those changes first, we won't solve anything. What we declare matters.