Entries tagged with “mercy” from Trans-cendental

Another group of believers were sincerely convinced they knew the date and time of Jesus' return and that they would all be raptured from the Earth to escape the coming tribulation. And another group was wrong.

Harold Camping of Family Radio was certain he was right. The people who listened to his radio show found his arguments convincing. And here's something to consider: if someone you trust tells you to choose between financial solvency with a future eternity in Hell and bankruptcy with a future eternity in Heaven, it's a pretty easy choice. If you're not sure which is going to come true, it gets a bit more complicated, but you're still gambling your temporary comfort against your eternal comfort.

I completely understand the kind of fear this argument instills. I grew up in the Evangelical Free church, and we were taught about the rapture. Sometimes I even worried that the rapture had happened and I was left behind.

So with one's immortal soul at stake, it makes a certain amount of sense to prove one's faith by selling everything, cashing in IRA's, pensions and 401(k) funds, and pouring all that money into billboards, vans, and RV's. These people are not crazy; they're frightened.

And now, of course, many of them are broke, unemployed, and homeless.

So first we need compassion for people who did what they thought God was calling them to do. They stepped out in faith to a degree most of us are too afraid to. Where we can, we ought to help them. They are our sisters and brothers.

Second, maybe we can start taking apart the idea of the pre-tribulation rapture so this sort of thing is less likely to occur in the future.

The modern concept of a pre-tribulation rapture came about in the nineteenth century. There have been many people who have proclaimed the date of the rapture: William Miller (see The Great Disappointment), Charles Taze Russell (whose Studies in the Scriptures were the basis of the beliefs of the Bible Students, a sect with which I was involved for a while) and others. Needless to say, none of these have come to pass.

It would be silly for a progressive theologian to say new ideas are inherently useless. There are plenty of new theological ideas, and some of them are very interesting. So I'm not going to say that a pre-tribulation rapture can't be true because it's a relatively young idea.

What I will say, however, is that I find a pre-tribulation rapture a little odd for Christianity. Here's why:

Jesus (however you understand Jesus - human, divine, both, neither?) could have avoided torturous death, but didn't. And Jesus not only suffered a sacrificial death, he lived a sacrificial life.

So I find it a little odd that people who claim to follow Jesus, the one who said "take up your cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23), should be looking for a way to escape the trouble and leave others to suffer.

One possible problem with such a theology is neglect of the environment. There have been people who argued against ecological concern because they expected an imminent rapture. To me, that's a bit like trashing the apartment when you move out.

Another problematic symptom can be smug superiority. "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned" is one bumper sticker. I've seen comments like "I'll be laughing in heaven while you suffer on Earth". Imagine Jesus taunting a prisoner this way - is that the Jesus of the Gospels?

One could also not care to help the suffering in this world, because it will all be over soon (at least for the righteous). Forget "blessed are the poor", and never mind the oppressed.

Of course, not all believers in a pre-tribulation rapture act these ways. The primary problem I have with the pre-tribulation rapture is that it suggests that some set of us with the right faith, the right knowledge, a kind of Gnosis... can escape trouble.

But we're Jesus' people,

and if we are to follow Jesus' way,

and serve like Jesus,

and take up our own crosses,

and be faithful unto death...

I don't think we get a pass on the struggles of life. Rather, I think we ought to be in the midst of them, struggling with our sisters and brothers.

However we believe our lives - and our world - will end, if we are followers of Jesus, we will love our neighbors as ourselves.

If we see how Jesus came as a servant, we will also be servants.

If we have been blessed by God, we will pour those blessings out on others.

We may not die a sacrificial death as Jesus did, but we can live a sacrificial life. Perhaps we can't do so to the degree that Jesus did, but as best as we are able, our call is to stay here to help those who struggle, to love the unloved, to care for the suffering.

Today, I will offer this prayer:

God, I pray that I will not be raptured,
and that you will help me to show my faith
not by impoverishing myself to prove my trust,
but by using the ways you have blessed me
to bless others.
Do not let me escape the trouble that comes to my neighbor
But let me be a help to her and to him
As you have been a help to me.
Amen.

I should be studying right now, but this was in my head and I had to let it out: it was taking up far too much space.

Lately, I've been thinking about how theology - and, primarily, I'm acquainted with Christian theology - tends to diminish God.

I believe that, at least in most cases, this is unintentional., We're just trying to figure out how things work and, with our narrow vantage point on the fuzzy outside of a rock with a molten core, flying around what amounts to a mid-sized (in cosmological respects) fusion reactor, which itself is flying with billions of other reactors (of various sizes) around a gravitational center which may well be densely-packed matter, which itself is moving... well, you may begin to see the problem. Forget about seeing the forest for the trees. We'd be lucky to see the forest for the fuzziness of the moss.

What troubles me is how our clearly simple understandings of theology become the stuff with which we condemn each other as apostate, heretic, blasphemer, and damned. What troubles me is our lack of humility in our theology. What troubles me is that we too often call our theologies "truth".

For example, let us consider the question of works versus grace. This has been raging for centuries, and even those who fall entirely on one side or the other have trouble working it out.

On the works side, we have a simple proposition: do what God tells you (and avoid that which God prohibits) and you'll be rewarded; get it backward and you'll be punished. This is easy to understand if one has had a parent or guardian, teacher, police officer, or other authority figure in one's life. And, if one doesn't think too hard about this, it seems to work well.

The problem with a works theology is that God's plans are dependent on people. God's plans for Adam and Eve can be interrupted by their disobedience; God has to rely on Samson's parents raising him as they're told; God even has to rely on Judas selling out Jesus in order to get to the sacrifice. If I have a choice to do as God desires or to do otherwise, I can personally change the course of God's plan. It makes me, at least in a small way, more powerful than God.

So let's put all the power in the hands of God: nothing happens unless God wills it. If the entirety of the universe is planned by God, then none of us have any choice at all - we're part of the plan. This works well with scenes such as God hardening Pharaoh's heart (Ex 4:21, 7:4-5) or God allowing "the satan" to direct the Sabeans to kill Job's servants and steal his Oxen (Job 1:15) and the Chaldeans to kill Job's servants and steal his camels (Job 1:17). 

Of course, that means nothing we can do will affect the outcome. This is where John Calvin went, and it led him to double predestination - which he didn't like but had to accept: before the universe was created, God decided who was created for eternal punishment and who was created for eternal bliss. How else could it be? Isn't God in control?

Both of these viewpoints deal with a variation on the riddle "Can God make a rock (humanity) so heavy (able to affect its own destiny) that God can't lift it (determine its fate)? In short, what does "all powerful" (omnipotent) mean?

In Christian theology, there are recurring bubbles of universalism (relatively recently Carlton Pearson made a bunch of waves, and it looks like Rob Bell may as well). These theologies of the redemption of all people (or all of Earth, or all of creation) have many different flavors, but they settle a problem: If God predestines everything, nothing - and no one - is responsible but God. But if God's responsible, why do people do bad things? Why are there disasters? What's the point of cancer?

There are several theologies that make us co-creators with God. "But" complain some theologians "if we have any input at all, doesn't that mean God makes adjustments because of us? Does that mean God changes? And if God changes (which is, of course, against scripture as we know it), how can we trust God not to change again?" And, besides, if we're doing part of the lifting, how great is this God character anyway?

As I noted in a previous blog, these theologies all put God on the same timeline as we are. Most of us recognize the hold time has on us: just remember something embarrassing you did in your life and try to change things so it never happened. We may have a future of many (perhaps infinite) possibilities, but we have a single unchangeable past.

Most of us are willing to free God of space - we let God be everywhere (omnipresent). We allow God to be eternal - in the sense that God has always been, and ever will be. But we don't give God the same transcendence through time as through space. The God of the Pleiades is the same as the God of the Moon and the God of Jerusalem and the God of far western Joliet IL USA, but the God of today remembers the God of yesterday.

And that's a problem for me - because it makes time greater than God. How great time is! Shouldn't God be greater than time? Should God be the creator of time (at least as we know time)? For many theologies, basic cause and effect creates a theological problem where time is greater than God.

This, however, is no big deal, as long as we accept that we have a theology where the greatest (small g) god is time. And if we want God to be, as Anselm put it, "that greater than which nothing can be thought", then we have to accept that "God is greater than time, even if our theologies cannot account for it".

Now, in a previous blog, I suggested that God may be on another timeline. This does not by any means make me a superior theologian. The truth is, I have no way of knowing whether God experiences any kind of time or space outside of what God created - it's just a way for me to get a handle on my relationship with God. My developing theology, like all theologies, is full of holes, contradictions, and inconsistencies.

The point of this article is not to convince anyone that my life-as-improvisation theology is the one right theology, a ground-breaking theology, an important theology, a novel theology, or even a useful theology.

The point is that every theology makes God smaller than God is. It has to: nothing in human experience is adequate even as a metaphor for God. And if our theologies are only our weak attempts at grasping the greatness of God, then they are insufficient as a means of judging one another.

It's not that you're right and I'm wrong, or I'm right and you're wrong. We're all wrong. As the Apostle Paul writes: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." (I Corinthians 13:12).

So let us speak our theologies, and listen more than speak, for each of us may learn from many. But let's not wield our theologies as weapons; rather, let us exchange them as recipes, tasting from each other's pots, adding, stirring, and seeking to get ever closer to understand what God - and we - are made of, realizing that our efforts will never get it exactly right.

Youtube: Vimeo:

The Language of God from United Church of Christ on Vimeo.

It's Easter Sunday, and churches across the world proclaim "He is risen! He is risen indeed!"

We can talk about the empty tomb as proof of the resurrection of Jesus, and then argue about whether it is a physical, spiritual, or metaphorical resurrection. We can talk about whether the resurrection means Jesus' triumph over death, over evil, over Satan, or an illustration of the promise of our own resurrection.

I think thousands of other preachers have "He is risen" covered. And so, my contrarian nature leads me to talk instead about the now available tomb.

Most tombs are single-use. You put someone in, and the tomb remains occupied. In some cases, there may be a crypt or plot where the remains of various family members will reside. But - unless the body is exhumed and moved elsewhere - graves usually stay occupied.

But here we have the unusual case of a tomb left vacant. What are we to do with a used tomb?

The practical thing is to put the remains of someone else in it. (You don't really want to make a former tomb into a restaurant.) So who will we bury in the tomb?

I have a suggestion.

We can bury ourselves.

Progressive and Liberal Christians don't often use the phrase "born again", but it is based in scripture: the Gospel according to John has Jesus telling Nicodemus that he must be born again, and I Peter 1:22-25 says:

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
   "All men are like grass,
      and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
   the grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you

So what, in a progressive, liberal context, does it mean to be born again?

Fearfully, I make a suggestion that condemns me: we become dead to our own self-interest and seek to carry out Christ's command of love for others - especially the hungry, thirsty, strangers (homeless), naked (vulnerable) and imprisoned. For me, it means caring less about where I am going to eat and more about how I am helping to feed others. It means caring less about the declining value of my home and more about the homeless. It means caring less about my job security and more about people who are abused by family members, teachers, clergy, and others. It means caring less about my freedom to write a blog entry and more about those who - rightly or wrongly - are imprisoned and how to restore them to community.

I have to put my own selfish person into the tomb.

All is not lost, however, for from this death, a new person (with God's help) will rise: one who is more concerned with fellow human beings, one who takes risks, one who has faith that God will guide her along the way.

I pray for the courage to put my frightened, anxious self into the tomb.

I was watching a rerun episode of South Park ("Make Love, not Warcraft") the other night. In it, the boys find a player who is just "killing" other payers' characters for no good reason, ruining the game for everyone.

Have you ever played a game with someone who doesn't play fair? Maybe it's someone who hides a card up a sleeve, or has a hidden stash of Monopoly money, or uses a non-regulation bat. Doesn't that take the fun out of the game?

But it is just a game, after all. So does it really matter if someone cheats?

I think it does matter. It matters to those who have been cheated and, if we're honest, it takes some of the fun out for the cheater. In some cases, not playing by the rules can raise the risk of physical injury to players.

So why do we play fair? Not because of some reward or punishment, but because playing fairly makes the game more enjoyable.

I think life is like this. There are some who believe in a single afterlife, some who believe in many reincarnations, some who believe this life is but a dream, and some who believe that the only reality is the one right here. One thing that is true for all of these ways of looking at life is that playing fair makes life better, and cheating makes it worse.

We need not rely on the carrot of Heaven nor the stick of Hell to tell us to be respectful and honest in our dealings with each other. All we need to understand is that life is better when we play fairly, even when we are in competition with each other for resources, ideas, or respect.

Love builds up. And what builds up helps everyone.

So Glenn Beck says that Social Justice is the equivalent of Nazism and Socialism. Of course, Nazism and Socialism are about as alike as drought and rain, but we'll leave that alone. And Beck tells his viewers to leave their churches if they say anything about Social Justice.

So what's a church to do? Charity only, without calling for change in the system?

On the surface, that seems ok. We'll give to the poor to help them out, but we don't want any changes to our financial and social systems. Yet it is our systems that create and maintain poverty. Charity does not erase poverty, it merely treats the symptom.

Imagine a person who could not walk to where the food was. You could bring food to the person, but that person would have to eat again. The person becomes reliant on charity for survival.

What would Jesus do?

Sure, we have the parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus speaks about visiting the sick and imprisoned, feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, but is that all Jesus calls us to?

Did Jesus bring the man crippled from birth a loaf of bread and a fish? Did Jesus hand the paralytic a meal?

Of course not. Jesus healed people and restored them to community. Jesus made people whole in body and social status.

And was Jesus content with treating prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, and others as unclean sinners to stay on the outside of society?

Of course not. Jesus ate with them and even said they would be getting into heaven before the (self) righteous.

Charity without change is a formula for continued dependence and subjugation. That is unethical, unjust, and unChristian. (It's also economically foolish, because it means keeping a class of people dependent on you.)

So I say:

If you belong to a church that offers charity but does not work for change, run as fast as you can and leave that church. It is not a church of Jesus Christ.

I was thinking today about our tendency to help when it's convenient.

When we have a few extra dollars, we contribute to charity.

When we have extra food, we give some to the food bank (some of us offer the dented cans or things we don't want to eat).

Yet need does not wax and wane with availability. Homeless people don't disappear when there's a shortage of beds in shelters. People don't magically have enough winter clothing when there are no coats available. People aren't magically filled when there is no food available. And the needs of people for community don't disappear when churches decide they have no room for "people like that".

Evangelicalism on the outs, says author

Could this be the end of Evangelicalism as we know it?

I grew up in an Evangelical church. I believe that Evangelicalism done well can be powerful and good. Unfortunately, it has largely been done poorly, viciously, and cruelly. Many evangelical groups have taken the easy way of creating an enemy and fighting against it, rather than using the church to heal and grow individuals to be caring members of society. The former is easy but weak, the latter is more difficult but hardy.

Like the financial giants made up of easy money in the form or bloated, empty investments, there are many churches that are filled with lots of people who haven't been given what they need to be part of effective communities of faith. And so there will be a huge contraction, recession, perhaps even depression.

The real tragedy here is not in the collapse of giant churches and the loss of income for their pastors. It's in the disillusionment and spiritual homelessness of the people who went to these houses of worship looking for something meaningful and came back with emptiness.

Whether these people seek another Christian community, another religious community, or a non-religious community, they are going to be looking for something to hold on to. I urge those of you who will be meeting these people to not hold their previous affiliations against them, and to instead embrace these brothers and sisters of ours as they seek to remake their worldviews. They will be very vulnerable, and they need the love they may - or may not - have shown us.

Let us be the example many Evangelicals could not.

There was a certain rich man, who wore expensive suits and ate at the finest restaurants every day, and there was a poor man who begged outside his house.

And it came to pass that the rich man's investments collapsed, and his business was about to go bankrupt. And the rich man lifted up his eyes in torment, and cried and said, "have mercy on me, and send a bailout package ; for I am tormented in this economy."

 - Luke 16:19-24

My church is Plainfield Congregational United Church of Christ, part of the Eastern Association of the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ.

In nearly every language, there is a variation of what Christianity calls the Golden Rule.

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. --- Judaism: Talmud, Shabbat, 31a

That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. --- Zoroastrianism: Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5

This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. --- Brahmanism: Mahabharata, 5:1517

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. --- Buddhism: Udana-Varga 5:18

Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you. --- Confucianism: Analects 15:23

Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. --- Taoism: T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. --- Christianity: Matthew 7:12

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. --- Islam: Sunnah

*In that it harm none, do as ye will. --- Wicca/Pagan: Wicca Rede 1

* --- Shintoism:

* --- Native American

My duty towards my neighbors is to love him as myself, and to do all men as I would they should do unto me. --- Book of Common Prayer: Catechism

All things whatsoever that thou wouldst not wish to be done to thee, do thou also not to another. --- The Diache, Teachings of the Twelve Apostles

Do as you would be done by. --- English Proverb

What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others. --- Epictetus: Encheiridion

Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others. --- Isocrates

This is the sum of all true righteousness: deal with others as thou wouldst thyself be dealt by. Do nothing to they neighbor which thou wouldst not have him do to thee hereafter. --- The Mahabharata

To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbor as one's self, constitue the ideal perfection of utiltarian morality. --- John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

Treat you inferiors as you would be treated by your betters. --- Seneca: Epistolae ad Lucilium, Epis. XLVII, 11

Be excellent to each other. --- Bill and Tedism


This is a very nearly universal idea. And yet, we are willing to apply this only to people who believe in our own version, and sometimes only a subset of that group.


So what of waterboarding?

Waterboarding was developed to help in converting people to Christianity by the Spanish Inquisition, so it does have a Christian basis. I wonder how many of the inquisitors were subjected to waterboarding?

Kaj Larsen was waterboarded as part of his training, and had it done again to demonstrate what was happening. I think this person may be able to judge what he would have done to him.


When will we learn to treat other human beings as human beings? When will we learn that torture encourages torture? When will we learn that killing encourages killing?

And when we we learn that mercy encourages mercy ?

Three hundred fifty three people.

Three hundred fifty three lives cut short.

Three hundred fifty three incidents of violence and neglect.


I don't like anger. I have seen anger turn to violence, and I do not like the results.

But I am angry.

I am angry because of the loss of three hundred fifty three lives - and more that are unreported.

I am angry because of the violence, abuse, and willful neglect of three hundred fifty three human beings.

I am angry because there are some people who support the killing of these human beings.

I am angry because there are many more people who ignore the killing of these human beings.

Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, I will remember my three hundred fifty three brothers and sisters.

I will remember that they have been shot to death, bludgeoned, drowned, strangled, stabbed, repeatedly struck by motor vehicles, fed ground glass, kicked, and refused medical treatment.

And I will remember that they were created in God's image, and that God called them good.

I will cry out:

How many more people must die before we realize we are all one?

How many more people must die before we realize that the violence we do to each other is also violence we do to ourselves?

How many more people must die before we learn to love one another?

Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, I will not fear violence because I am a person of transgender experience.

Today I will mourn the loss of my three hundred fifty three lost sisters and brothers, and I will pray for those who would seek to cause us harm.

See a list of transgender persons lost to violence and neglect at http://www.gender.org/remember/

Have mercy, been waitin' for the bus all day.
Have mercy, been waitin' for the bus all day. - "Waitin' for the Bus", Gibbons, Hill

In the Chicago area, riders may be waiting a bit longer for the bus. In fact, depending on where they're waiting, it could be months... or years. Deep service cuts are about to take effect due to a lack of funding for public transportation.

When Tyra Hunter was 24 years old, she was riding in a car in Washington, D.C. Her car was broadsided by another car. She was knocked unconscious due to the collision, but regained consciousness by the time emergency crews arrived. She was still dazed and had respiration problems because some of her teeth had been knocked into her airway.The paramedics went to work on Tyra, but in assessing the injuries they discovered she had male genitals.

At this point, one of the caregivers said "This ain't no bitch. It's a nigger. He's got a dick and balls." The paramedics ceased treating Tyra and instead laughed and joked about her while onlookers demanded they get back to work on her.

Later, after treating another injured passenger, other emergency workers found Tyra gagging and trying to move away from the insulting paramedics. Finally, a supervisor demanded that her airway be cleared.

In addition to these insults and lack of care, she was received at the hospital as "John Doe", given a contraindicated medication, and was not given blood that had been ordered for her. She died from lack of oxygen in her blood.

This is the kind of health care some transgender persons can expect. Value judgments can override common decency and mercy - and the basic job requirements. Amazingly, the District of Columbia defended the paramedics on the basis of their first amendment rights to free speech.

Time and again, I come back to what Jesus taught about how we treat others: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". "Love your neighbor as yourself" . The parable of the Good Samaritan, in which the person who acted as a neighbor to a victimized person was the one who didn't even get along with people of his kind. The parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus says that as you do to others, you do to him.

And yet, this is what we can expect from some of the people who choose a career in caring for others.

This is not how to do health care.

This is not how to do emergency care.

This is not how to be a Christian.

This is not how to be a human being.

Whatever one's opinion of transgender people, they are people. There is no excuse for allowing people to suffer while we laugh.

My prayer is that the paramedics learn to care for all others, and that they do not need to experience what Tyra did in order to learn it. I would not wish that on my enemies - because I love them.


Trial notes: http://www.gpac.org/im/tyra/tyindex.html



Remembering our dead: http://www.gender.org/remember/.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20.

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward."

- Mark 9:38-41

Sometimes we forget to recognize that we're more alike than we are different. Sometimes we let differences in one area keep us from working together in another.

But not Friends Congregational UCC in College Station, Texas. Even though many of the churches that worked with Prison Fellowship were critical of gay and Lesbian persons, this Open and Affirming (OnA) congregation did not let this get in the way of participating in Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program, which purchased gifts for children of inmates. Though they didn't agree on the sanctity of same-sex relationships, Friends Congregational realized that had nothing to do with helping children at Christmas. They believed in offering hope to kids whose only fault was having a parent who was convicted and imprisoned.

Unfortunately, after several years of participation, Prison Fellowship removed them from the program.

Prison Fellowship specifically refused to allow Friends Congregational UCC to continue to participate in a program to help imprisoned adults offer Christmas gifts to their children because Friends Congregational UCC is Open and Affirming of gay and Lesbian people.

The Rev. Dan De Leon, pastor of Friends Congregational, said the regional office of Prison Fellowship told him that, because the church belongs to the UCC's "Open and Affirming" program, it would not be allowed to participate in the Angel Tree program.

A Senior Vice President of Prison Fellowship said that, out of 12,000 participating churches, only a few congregations have been disqualified, usually due to doctrine on creation or homosexuality.

I doubt the kids - who would not have known which churches were involved, much less the churches' doctrine - would have cared.

"Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward."

References:

• http://www.ucc.org/news/church-in-texas-excluded-from.html
• http://uccforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4037
  

So the candidates were asked when children should be told about homosexuality. In programs like "It's Elementary", we're not talking about telling kids to be gay, or how to have gay sex. We're talking about different relationships. The fact is that there are kids who have same-sex parents - and it's good to teach kids to not beat up on the ones with same-sex parents, just as it's good to teach them to not beat up on children of divorced parents.

But the way some talk about tolerance, it would seem that it is the worst form of child abuse.

And isn't learning about other people a big part of elementary education? I remember learning about the people of Pompeii and about Umskikuk the Eskimo in Social Studies class. Learning about different people - and to not hate or be afraid of them - is an important part of growing up. After learning to respect people who are different, (we hope) adults will be less likely to attack people based on differences.
 
Of course, some people are afraid that such programs indoctrinate children into a lifestyle. Perhaps the Pompeii part of 6th grade social studies is what led to toga parties. I don't know - I've never been to a toga party. I have, however, been to Alaska and visited Inuit there. I didn't join them to live there the rest of my life, though.

Perhaps what people really fear is that a broad public school education will counteract the narrow training they give their children at home. It may really be about control - if we limit a child's knowledge, the child will only see limited options as an adult.

"Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray." - Proverbs 22:6

So what is the right way? Is it the way of judgment of others, or of love for others?

It saddens me that people who are followers of Jesus need the help of public schools to teach their children to love their neighbors. Parents, teach your children to do what you believe is right - but also teach them the love that Jesus had for others - even (perhaps especially) for those who were scorned.

References:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-heffernan/why-not-ask-presidential-_b_66683.html
• http://www.bilerico.com/2007/10/antigays_protecting_gay_kids_worse_than.php
• http://www.newday.com/films/Its_Elementary.html
• http://www.bilerico.com/2007/10/its_still_elementary.php

The City of Chicago has awarded $14 million to a man who accused two Chicago Police Department officers of  doing a "cavity search" using a screwdriver, causing internal injuries. While the officers claimed innocence, they could not explain the presence of screwdrivers in the glovebox of the police car, not the presence of fecal matter in the glovebox.

Meanwhile, a New Jersey woman was followed by a car registered to a company that doesn't exist. The Postmaster of the town in which the car is registered cannot comment because "it's a sensitive matter".

Are these our public servants?

It's certainly not the way I understand service.

While the disciples argued over who would be the greatest, or requested the favor of sitting at the left and right hands of Jesus, Jesus told his followers that the greatest would be the least, and the least: greatest. Jesus's own humility in serving the disciples - demonstrating hospitality to his own followers - shows his own ability to be a servant.

True servants do not spy on those they serve. Those who do right do not hide in shadows - or behind post office boxes for companies that don't exist. And true servants are not cruel, and do not seek to debase those they serve - even if such a person is a suspect.

The heart of service is in respect and in love. If we love one another, we will respect each other. Jesus taught his followers to even love their enemies - how much more should we love those of whom we only have suspicion?


References:

• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13705
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13731
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13741
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13767
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13917
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=13999
• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=14060
• http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyroc245387882sep24,0,1911059,full.story
• http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2007/09/is-that-wiretap.html

In Colossians, Paul speaks of marriage: "And you husbands must love your wives and never treat them harshly."

So what of same-sex relationships? There are some who refuse to recognize same-sex relationships, but a failure to acknowledge something has not effect on whether it exists.

There is abuse in some same-sex relationships - both Lesbian and gay. Unfortunately, few domestic abuse shelters are equipped to deal with women abused by women, or men abused by anyone.

In the case of women abused by female partners, shelters rarely have programs to help a woman deal with physical, sexual, verbal, and psychological abuse by a female spouse. The assumption that women are beaten by men often runs high, and a Lesbian may find such a shelter to be a poor fit. The offender programs are generally geared toward men, and often - for the comfort and openness of sharing -  do not allow women to attend.

In the case of men abused by male partners, the options are almost universally non-existent. It is rare indeed to find a shelter for abused men - whether the offender was male or female. And an offender program for men who abuse women may be hostile to a gay man.

Fortunately, awareness of this problem is increasing. As reported in the Miami Herald, training for health care professionals has begun. Knowing that domestic abuse can happen in any kind of relationship is the first step toward recognition and intervention - and eventually, recovery.

Am I my brother's (or sister's) keeper? While Cain asked that about the very brother he killed, we can all ask that about any person who is abused. We must recognize our connectedness as God's creations and work to protect each other.

And for persons being abused by a same-sex partner: please seek help. Although help may be scarce, it does exist. Do not give up hope. Tell your physician, police, hospital workers, therapist - tell someone.

We are all created in God's image. Do not allow anyone to be abused.

References: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2007/10/doctors-shed-li.html

When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here." But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."

And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people." For there were about five thousand men.

And He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."  And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. - Luke 9:12-17

This miracle is the only one reported in all of the gospels. It's too bad that, with all the hungry people in the world today, that we can't repeat it now.

Or can we?

At 8:30AM today, I'll be rehearsing with my church's praise band. At 10:30, we'll be part of the service at the Harvest Festival in Forrest Illinois.

Three churches will come together to celebrate the harvest to which we all contributed. Two urban churches - * Grace Lutheran Church & School of Forest Park, IL and Plainfield Congregational United Church of Christ - sponsored acres of land tilled by members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Forrest Illinois. The harvest of corn will be sold at market rate, and the money raised will be used in a growing project in Africa. The United States Agency for International Development will match the money raised. So from the modest contributions of two churches and the labor of a third, sustainable agriculture will be developed so that people can feed themselves.

This is the work of Foods Resource Bank. 15 Mainline Christian denominations participate in reproducing this miracle of feeding the multitude.

I'd go on, but I have a celebration to prepare for.

Jesus said to them:

"You give them something to eat."