Dancing Upon Injustice

Text: John 7:37-39

Focus: The Spirit flowing

Function: to help people rely on the Holy Spirit

John 7:37-39, NRSV

³⁷On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

I think this is one of my favorite descriptions of how the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer in the gospel of John.

It is certainly one of the more bizarre messages that the Lord gave.

The scene is the festival of booths. It was their Darke County fair, so to speak. The festival lasted for one week, and during that week, everyone camped out in tents to remind them that they lived in tents for 40 years while they were in the desert and God took good care of them.

So, they are all together, and in the middle of the crowd Jesus stands up and starts yelling.

It was the best way to get their attention, but what He shouts is mysterious and cryptic. If you are thirsty, come to me.

It is a bold statement to make. It is a divine claim that proves to me that He is the Son of God.

Let the one who believes in me drink.

I love the imagery in the idea of drinking life giving water from Jesus. It is a throwback to several prophecies about Jesus that describe Him as the source of life giving nourishment.

Look at Isaiah 55:1-2a:
Ho, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.
²Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

The prophecy is a reference to the life giving grace that is abundant through Jesus Christ.

The Jewish people were holding on to this prophecy of a season of abundant blessing where God pours out enough and everyone has enough.

Some believe it is a reference to what immediately happened after the Church was formed and they started a commune and they shared everything and no one lacked.

And that is true, but I believe that Jesus is talking on a more spiritual plane here about the force for good that lives inside of every believer.

In the beatitudes we read, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled.

I don’t believe He isn’t talking about vengeance or retribution, but justice rolling down like a river on behalf of all the oppressed.

When Jesus shouts out this message, the bold claim, it is a message of hope to everyone who is believing in Him.

And remember, these were desperate people. They weren’t living in a democracy where the government existed to protect its citizenry. No, they were occupied by an army that considered their lives worth much less than the occupying force.

The people are desperate and Jesus promises them relief, even purpose for their lives.

And He promises them that the same power that motivates Him will be inside of them. It is an exciting and bold promise and according to the text, it brought power and hope to those who are willing to believe in His hope.

Jesus turned the world around with this Spirit that is inside of us.

But Jesus didn’t do a political revolution. Remember, that is what they were expecting, even after He rose from the dead as we saw last week.

His revolution is the revolution of love as each and every heart is touched by this same Holy Spirit through faith in Christ.

We are in desperate times. My son, a history teacher, posted a meme on Facebook that 2020 is the year students will do most the highlighting because of all the dramatic events going on around us.

David Steele, the General Secretary of the COB put out a call for us to address the issue of racism. And this ties into the passage.

The last couple of weeks have exposed another injustice that has been going on in our country since its inception. And that is the way black people have been treated. It seems to be true that our culture values the lives of black men less than it values our lives.

I know it is hard for us to see here in Darke county where we are isolated, but my neighborhood is about 75-25% white to black.

Many of the families are integrated, just like mine.

I would not have understood what is going on if it were not for the stories that my daughter in law can tell me.

One that sticks out is the time when, before she was married to my son, she was dating a different white guy who was smoking pot in the car right before he picked her up from work.

They got pulled over and she ended up on the ground with a boot on her neck while her white friend suffered no brutality. She has never done any drugs in her life, but she knows that it was the color of her skin that put her face on the ground. And stories like that are common in the experience of the black culture.

Now, change the scene to today’s text and picture a protest march on behalf of Black Lives Matter. Picture Jesus standing up in the midst of it and shouting “Come to Me if you are thirsty and I will fill you with life giving water.”

He is crying out, The Holy Spirit has a way out of this mess for you.

I am not going to condemn the demonstrations even though some are getting violent. I, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. condemn the violence, but the demonstrations are coming from a place of sincere frustration because some sort of change needs to happen.

The Jews needed change from the oppression that they felt as well.

And in the middle of that desperation, Jesus cries out that the answer is going to come from God and that it is going to flow out of them in life giving rivers.

It is the kindness of God that leads people to change. It is the love of God that covers a multitude of sins.

Yes, the need to protest seems evident after we witnessed a state sponsored execution of a man who was merely accused of a non-violent offense. What happened to George Floyd was unjust.

Injustice was going on with them as well.

And in the middle of that, Jesus tells them that the power of love is inside of them and that power will transform the world.

I see the frustration of the black community and their perception based on their experience that they are not valued as much as their white counterparts. And, peaceful demonstrations haven’t worked.

But Jesus has given us a greater power. We have the power to dance upon injustice as the Holy Spirit flows through us.

In Northern Nigeria Christians are persecuted by the Muslims. About 20 years ago, the Government declared that the police were going to be inactive for an afternoon during which several Churches were burned and several pastors murdered.

Some angry young Christian men decided to retaliate and burned down a mosque. Then they felt bad and went to the elders of the Church. The elders proclaimed a fast in repentance for burning down the mosque.

They began the process of rebuilding the churches, but before they rebuilt any of their churches, they rebuilt the burned down mosque. Several of the Muslim Imans converted to Christianity.

They used the power of love to overcome evil.

They responded to violence with love and in so doing, they danced upon the injustice that happened to them.

I say dance upon it because it is a statement of faith. Trusting God to make things right, but in the middle of that, showing love.

We have seen violence in the last week, but there have been many signs of hope. Police who take a knee with the protesters. Black men circling a white police officer who was cut off from his cohort and in danger.

God’s love can pour out through us in these situations just as it did back then.

Let us look for ways to overcome evil with good, but just as society was rallied up to end the oppression of slavery during the civil war, it is time to confess the sin of slavery and the damage that slavery caused so that we can live up to the high standards that we have set for ourselves, that all men are created equal.

Advent 2016

I wept for joy this morning at the faces of all the people at the local diner who braved the fresh 5" of snow to enjoy breakfast out with family right before Christmas. As I pondered Imago Dei in every one of them it struck me when a man proudly wearing a Leather jacket embroidered with a rebel flag walked past me. I looked around and realized that most of those people voted differently than me and just moments before, I was seeing God in them.

I wept again that finding the Imago Dei from my perspective was not going to work and God was going to have to teach me new techniques. I see my own "...isms," and "...ists." -God help me.

Then, as I realized the difficulty and the history of warfare and the fallacies of mass hysteria that have always led to violence, I recognized that there were other times when the Church's witness to the world was going to be forced into more and more silence. But the Church has always been born again through the times when caring for poor has been relegated to the churches.

I looked again at my neighbors in that restaurant and wondered just how in the world I was going to lead them to give up the fear and bigotry that they either outright supported or did not care enough about to stop. How, God? That was my prayer.

I was weeping pretty hard there for a while.

I confess, I knew the reversal of civil rights was coming. It was there. I saw it. I just thought that there was enough momentum to get us through. I dream of the coasts where I would not have to contend with the fly-over's calls for my empathy. Sympathy is all I can muster and that is a Spiritual pathos, is it not? God, again, help me.

But alas, I turned to the message of Advent and remembered its focus:

Immanuel.

Immanuel: God with us. GOD.

God -Born to much less than our worse imaginations.

God -Lived to show me how to imagine God within people, regardless.

God -Murdered for caring about the poor. (According to my own understanding of atonement, He was murdered by me as well.)

God -Living again in a community of people who are willing to follow Jesus. A resurrection happened. A Community is born and every time we suffer persecution, we are born again.

Now that Trump Was Elected. A need for the Maintstream Church

A conservative colleague of mine still thinks that evangelicals are better Christians even though they adopted Trump on an unprecedented basis. He posted an attack on Mainstream Christian Churches. I have had enough of it and I am calling it out.

Let me deconstruct the paradigm that Mainstream Churches are somehow a compromise of Christian faith because they try to "appease" sinners.

Having been raised fundamental/evangelical, I was warned of end times "ear tickler Churches" who would let the blacks, divorcées and queers into the Church. And once President Obama was elected it confirmed to them that the end times were upon us. The mass hysteria got so prolific that even my wife who voted for President Obama began to wonder if this "man of peace" with so much favor could indeed be the Antichrist.

The Evangelical/Fundamental group I was raised in did a good job of pointing out my sin and shame. We we warned to watch out because we were so easily tempted. The message was that I could be deceived by an ear tickler who would tell us that gay sex was not worse than the gossip, gluttony, racism and greed we already allowed. We were warned to watch out. I was warned. I was warned that the end times would be marked by people telling me that it was okay to love the lgbtq community.

I am frustrated, ashamed and feeling like they have actually denied Jesus who said: "I was a refugee and you took me in." 

You know the rest. They said: "When?" 

He said, "when I was a Syrian refugee and a Presidential candidate got himself elected by causing weak minded Christians to be more afraid of ISIS than my Word which said that if you reject any one of these refugees you have rejected Me Myself and will be cast into the lake of fire."

At that point, every single Christian in the world should have stood up and shouted: "NO! In the name of Jesus, NO!" According to Jesus, fulfilling the one campaign promise of Trump is enough for us to to incur the entire wrath of God upon our nation and yet, Christians cheered him on.

But guess what? A small mainstream church like mine took in a Muslim refugee family, donated thousands of dollars, over 8,000 hours, and drove well over 10,000 miles to take care of the stranger. Hmmm. Somehow we are the disobedient Christians.

So, let me address those who think Mainstream churches are not teaching Jesus with this obvious hyperbole that reflects what I can only surmise to be the sermons of Trumpianity. Maybe we are in the 2 Timothy 4:3 stage where Churches will hire "ear ticklers." I think the assumption is that the leftist Churches are the ear tickler churches but maybe this will tell a different story?

Paul predicts that people will hire for themselves these "soft on sin" preachers. The current dogma is that the world will flock to these preachers. So, where are people flocking to church right now? It isn't the mainstream churches. Could the mega-churches be the very fulfillment of this prophecy? Let us examine how they do indeed preach what people want to hear instead of what they need to hear:

In the mega-church we hear this: "You do not have to vote in favor the the poor. It does not matter that Jesus was killed for speaking out on behalf of the poor, all that matters is that He saved us by doing it and we get all this wealth here if we are faithful because money is indeed the sign of God's blessing -btw, the poor are not blessed, Jesus got that wrong, but keep it silent, we don't want heaven to figure out the mistake. But the poor are poor because they are lazy, Fox News confirms it. So go ahead, vote your own interests, even "America First!" The only kingdom that matters is US....

We also hear: "...And, btw, we don't have to worry about racism. One of them got elected, so, that's over. They wouldn't get killed by police if they would just learn their place in society. Oops, I mean, that stupid hood, they are just asking for it, aren't they? Why can't they look little white kids, anyway? And, it does not matter that the early church's baptismal vow was "no race, no gender, no class" which was literally the the only rule to that Christian community. It does not matter because God made the tower of Babel to separate the races. Why would we go against God?...

And then we hear: "...The environment? What a load of crap. We gotta get busy preaching Jesus. I don't have to worry about it, because I am escaping the planet in the rapture. Do you want me to tell you how to escape the environmental destruction? Those Mainstream churches, never mind them. Mainstream - lamestream, get the propaganda stunt? Cool, huh? God did not mean it when God commanded us to care for the earth, it is ours to exploit and it makes no difference to us because we are not going to be here when the planet dies. Jesus loves my kind to much for that. He's gonna rapture us. Those other people, they whine too much. And it is their fault for being left behind...

And then we hear: "...Those natives ought to know their place. Don't they know that Christopher Columbus' only plan was to come here and save them for Jesus? Hell, we did them a favor. They may have died off, but some of them will be in heaven with all of us. Yeah, they died off. Oops. No, it wasn't intentional. No don't you know it is leftist propaganda blankets with smallpox were distributed intentionally? Do you believe that leftist propaganda? We probably did them a favor...

Eventually, when some of them start to question if this is really what Jesus meant, they rally the troops with hysteria and start start saying things like this:

"We love Jesus enough to be persecuted for our beliefs. We do not think that it is loving to serve a gay person/couple and we have a right to not serve people we disagree with. Somehow, it is more Christian to defend our rights to not serve others as Jesus commanded us. (If we make a bold enough statement about it, we will get the approval of the rest of those who claim how evil the mainstream churches are for caring about the three years of Jesus' teachings as much as the three days of Jesus' atonement. If we are lucky, we might even get money.) We are convinced that we are more radical than the Christians who stood with Brother MLK, the Christians standing right now in North Dakota with native Americans, the Christian pastors who are standing with BLM. We are better Christians than them because we are willing to be persecuted for taking a stand against their sin and they are not. (Of course, we are taking a stand against a sin we probably will not commit, funny how God honors the faithful like us. How convenient!)

Hopefully, some of them will also see through this bs and begin questioning again about how unloving all these statements are.

And in order to assuage them, the big guns come out that: "We are the true defenders of civil rights because we believe that it is okay to force a woman to have a baby against her will, her fears and or her ability for both to survive an healthy outcome. We know better than they do. It is the moral high ground to force an unwilling participant to carry a pregnancy full term. No one can call that slavery because they are all just women and women don't know enough about these things. So, go ahead, chain yourselves to clinic doors and prove that only you love Jesus enough to force another birth. And remember the poor from earlier? If she can't make it, she should have choose better before... We are moral people, we are making the poor take responsibility for themselves. Hell, once a few of them starve to death, the rest will get off their lazy assess and get to work and they wont siphon of my hard earned money anymore. I am doing both of us a favor. I am teaching them how to fish and persevering my own greed. Can  you believe how they persecute us for being hard working, faithful, industrious? Jealousy, that is all it is...." 

While the world is laughing that you all call a man like Trump a moral good in the name of your god it appears to me that all of this is to prove to those in your sect of Christianity that you are better than others in that sect, or sadly maybe even  to prove to your god that you are worthy.

And yet, My God loved me before God even knew me. And maybe some other will realize that and will join ME, Phil Reynolds, in this journey back to the true church, right there, all along, in the Historic COB, and in many, many other mainstream denominations that have the humility to recognize that they don't have all the answers instead of condemning the rest for not believing exactly like they do.

Appendix:

I truly wish I was not making this up, but I actually heard a mega church pastor say: "the poor idolize money more than the rich. Think about, it. They have so little, all they can do is think about how to get more so they can eat. They are the ones guilty of worshiping money." (Author's note, the only thing I can say in response to this real live statement is "God damn those words.") 

Love Wins (It does!)

Today is one of those spiritual days for me. It started early this morning. God called me to prayer. And God just didn't stop calling me into God's presence.

I have to confess something here. Sometimes -oft-times- my heart just gets overwhelmed in prayer. Sometimes it is just love and worship toward God, and other times, my soul is troubled and I don't know how to pray. So, my spirit groans with mutterings to deep for words and I read in Romans that when this  happens, the Holy Spirit of God mixes in (in what feels like perfect harmony) and W/we pray together according to the perfect will of God.

That happened this morning, and at times the Holy Spirit sort of gives me an inkling of what it was all about. Today's was about love, joy, admiration and gratitude to God. It was worship in community, I believe it was just as Jesus promised us it would be.

During that time, my mind focused on loving the gay men God has given me in my life. Some of them call me "Pastor." And that is an huge responsibility, but it isn't a burden.

Those of us who speak for God do well to examine both ourselves and our doctrine. So, I examined my positional change toward advocating for gay marriage, and my own personal decision to perform Christian weddings for every couple that loves, cherishes and respects each other regardless of their sexual identity. Regardless.

So, as my prayer time continued, I thought of those in my life whom I love dearly who posit a different opinion than me. Was I respecting them? (Regardless of the way they treat me?) And just as important to me, did I have anything to learn from them? Should I imagine their conversation with me and then take time to actually LISTEN respectfully to them? To listen before I answered? To listen and pray?

Is it sin? Is it the way God created people? Is it a problem? Or, is it something to celebrate? (I tend to think the latter.)

But how was I loving those who would say "yes" to the first question in the previous paragraph?

I am pastor and everyone needs love. Even though I am do not call it sin, it is irrelevant to the privilege I have of being pastor. I want to be married, I cannot deny anyone else the same right. To me, the commandment to love my neighbor takes precedent over any other theological construct.

That is my answer, still. When I again re-concluded that this is what I firmly believed, I heard, or maybe thought, but I am pretty sure that I heard the Spirit of God say: "Love Wins." I took it to mean that love wins over sin, over what people call sin, over what people say about others about sin, over people who deny sin even exists...

At 10:00, the beginning of Diane Rehm on NPR, the newscaster announced that SCOTUS just announced that it had legalized same sex marriage in all 50 states. Praise God. I sent a text to one of the gay men that I love.

Friday on Diane Rehm is national politics round table. It is always really good. There is a left leaning, a right leaning, and a moderate panelist. The left leaning panelist was praising the President's "4th quarter" accomplishments as well as the ACA, Iran Nuclear negotions, etc.. He said: "he may be one of the most influential Presidents ever..."

I got to thinking about him and since the day was going well, and it was still a day of prayer, I started praying for him and thanking God for him. I thank God for President Obama.

At 11:00, the newscaster said this: "in a few minutes the President will address the nation about the SCOTUS affirmation of same sex marriage, but the first thing that the President did, the reporter said, was tweet this: "yada yada yada about equality... "LOVE WINS."

The Spirit of God is speaking!

Either I am a troll, or we are going to hell in a handbasket

Someone asked me lately if I believe that America is going to hell in a hand-basket because of the election results from November 4, 2014. I realize that at times, my online persona is that of a troll. I feel bad about it. But I am passionate about my faith and the way it informs my politics.

So, I may be a troll all the time, or, I may have a passion.

But I do believe that perhaps we are going to hell in a hand-basket. Or at least, we are setting ourselves up, as a nation for the judgment of God. I believe that many things are said in the name of Christianity are not biblical and do not reflect the teachings of Jesus.

I see a progression since 2008, when the President was elected. And I see it mainly in four areas. There is much, much more for me to comment on. And this is long. But, it is as abridged as I care to make it.

The first tidbit of rhetoric that I perceive will bring the judgment of God on the USA.

1). Marginalizing the poor: Isaiah 58. When believers "point their fingers at the poor," God denies them the blessing of revival.

Let us use Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Pastor John Hagey as examples. The three are powerful spokesmen for the Conservative and Religious right respectively.

I don't believe that it is an exaggeration for me to say that they make it sound as if the reason why our country is in dire trouble is because of the entitlements for the poor. I see them as people who are marginalizing the poor.

And that is just unchristian. It reminds me of what one of our Theologically and Religiously Conservative Brethren ministers said: "I hate the way Rush Limbaugh says what I believe." I overheard him say this while I as a ditto-head. I was offended by his remarks. But then, I started listening to the way Rush Limbaugh made his statements and I realized that I agreed that his speech was causing a divide. Once I began questioning his methods, I also began questioning his conclusions and I realized that he was only exposing one side of the argument. And, he was doing it with satire and ridicule. There wasn't much substance to his logic. I understand enough of logic to realize that his arguments are Ad Hominem: The logical fallacy of attacking the character of your (debating) opponent instead of his or her conclusions. To me. Ad Hominem amounts to a admission of defeat since the argument is no longer based on the merits of the respective side. However, it is one of the primary devices used by those engaged in Political Science.

So, my questions to the right are these: Do you see the marginalization of the poor in right wing rhetoric? And do you see how I can consider it as grossly unchristian rhetoric and as a preacher, feel a strong motivation to confront Christians about this kind of speech? Do you understand that not all, even most of, the poor are not lazy?

(Remember, I see this as a progression) This segues into:

2). Economic policies, Small versus large government, a debate since the inception of the Constitution.

2.a The great recession of 2008:

Following the string of "logic" from the previous point, the political right seemed to yell about the debt -a metaphor for a smaller government- and imply that the real problem with our nation is the staggering amount of debt created by entitlements. At least, that is what was heard, a lot, on FOX news.

I believe that it is an intentional mis-direction of the problem. The great recession was not caused by entitlements. The great recession was caused by deregulation of the banking industry. And, correct me if I am wrong, this might be the hyperbole from the left speaking, but it seems to me that one of the values voters embraced in this last landslide election was "smaller government." I.E. More deregulation. That was the problem. It seems to me that since this whole thing started, the Right has tried to change the story to blaming the poor instead of Wall Street.

(And, a point against my logic, but one I need to concede because it really is the bigger problem: the real problem is Wall Street's control of both the Democrats and Republicans. Both sides are in bed with them and they -as the Bible says- are the real oppressors.)

2.b Policies designed to strengthen the lower and middle classes (as opposed to the wealthy classes):

Let me give my own version of an example of how Keynesian economics works:

For numbers sake only, suppose I make $5,000,000 per year. How much of that can I spend? Let us imagine it is $1,000,000, for the sake of the example. The other $4,000,000 goes into savings and accumulates wealth. It is used for investments to help others and etc, but it isn't turned over in the economy like this second example.

Imagine I make $50,000 per year. How much to I spend? Pretty close to $50,000. All of that money is poured directly back into the economy. The grocer I buy from makes $50,000 and he spends all of his money, the gas station owner makes $50,000 and he spends all of his money. That income has now been taxed 3 times.

Because it isn't spent, the other $4,000,000 the wealthy guy has is not being used to buy gas, groceries, widgets and thing-a-ma-bobs.

(To be fair, I must say that Investments are not evil. Savings do get used to create investments and without it, the grocer, the gas station owner, etc. can't invest in their business in the first place, so I concede it is necessary -but economic policies must be balanced to ensure the survival of the middle class, and as a just, or righteous nation, the policies must also work to address systemic poverty.)

But if the guy making $50,000 per now makes $40,000, his ability to stimulate the economy is lessened, the rich guy, who owns the company that makes the thing-a-ma-bobs and widgets all of a sudden starts selling less. He lays off other (now) $40,000 per year guys, who now aren't buying the widgets and stuff, and more people get laid off and the cycle spirals downward.

Now, real life examples about the actual negative cost of the rhetoric of smaller government in this last election cycle. For example. Indiana has become a small government state. FWCS decided to outsource the janitorial services for all the school buildings. Politicians bragged that they saved the city over $3,000.000. The company that won the contract fired all the janitors and let them re-apply for their jobs. They were fired from $20 to $25 per hour jobs and re-hired at $13 to $15 per. They lost their houses, their cars, their pensions. Did the big businesses profit by this loss? I believe the overall impact to the entire economy was negative.

Governor Pence, small-government administrator, laid off many Highway workers and closed many InDOT "igloos." Then Indiana had a bad winter and there was not money, salt, budget or employees to clear the roads. As a result, many businesses were forced to close, losing revenue. Now I know the grocers sold as much food as they would, but the gas station, the restaurants didn't. Contracts that were dependent on critical time weren't finished. The economy lost. And, the biggest "savings" being wages for the snow-truck drivers, also meant reduced amount of money for people to buy the widgets, thing-a-ma-bobs and etc. Blue collar government jobs stimulate the economy, build vital infrastructure, and since the wages are relatively low, all that money goes right back into the economy. I remember an economics teacher in High School explaining to us that because the money is turned over 3-4 times a year, more is returned in tax revenue than is spent by the government. But, if it is solely kept in banks for investment purposes -building the war chests of the rich- it turns over less and its over economic stimulus is reduced.

Personal small points about this. My son, Tim, works in a "small government" county in Maryland. His contract ensures that he gets a nominal raise every year. The small government county commissioners refuse to honor his contract. My other son, John, has a different, but similar potential problem. When guys like Gov. Walker, of Wisconsin got elected by decrying the pensions of civic employees, civil employees lose. These small government types have publicly stated that they will not stop until they take away my son John's pension. To them -they are on the record as saying this- John is to lose his pension. Two of the people I love more than anything else in this world are actually harmed (Timmy right now, and John if they get to follow through on this rhetoric) by this idea of smaller government. And for what? Again, the payout is recuperated if and when there is a strong middle class.

I understand that people do not feel the economic recovery we have made. That is mainly because wages have stagnated while real costs have gone up. So, the average middle class worker has less buying power. Again, this is a negative cycle because less and less widgets and thing-a-ma-bobs are being produced (rich people lose) and the middle class has less money to buy them (poor people lose). The same has happened to me, but maybe for other reasons. My retirement investments are doing great, better than I projected. But I will have to delay because the height of my earning potential years have grossly stagnated. We are earning 30% less than what we anticipated earning at this age.

How did Gov Walker get elected by the people whose pensions he cut? It seems to me that he did it by creating moral outrage over the quality of benefits that civil employees get. (At least, I heard conservatives decry the pensions that civil employees get). Again, this directly affects two of my children who have entered civil service as careers. Why should they be denied basic retirement benefits? Why do police officers, teachers, fire-fighters and other unionized civil servants vote for those who promise to bust their unions and their collective bargaining rights? That will be showed in my third point. Remember, these are all only my perceptions of the facts. These are my opinions. I welcome yours. I do.

So, my questions to those on the right are these: Do you embrace the implications that the problems with our economy were MAINLY caused by entitlements or by deregulation? What is the biggest driver of our debt, is it entitlements, or wars fought on credit cards? And, if the debt is such an evil, then why put wars on credit cards?

This segues into:

3). Marginalization of the rest of the others:

Blue collar workers vote against themselves because they are outraged by the actions of the others and Conservatives promise to deal with them.

This addresses what I believe to be unchristian values by the religious right. These are those who are marginalized.

3.a. "Illegals." Simply put, Jesus would have us call them neighbor. Leviticus 19:33-34 gives us a spiritual principle of justice. Essentially, God said, "you were aliens once and I protected you, therefore, you must protect others." And then God said: "I AM THE LORD." That statement, I am the LORD is a warning: "I am watching how well you do this." The implication is that God's blessings will be given or withheld based on our obedience to this Spiritual Principle."

3.b. Homosexuals. Romans 1, and Ezekiel 16:48-49 tell us that God gave them over to their homosexual lifestyles because of Idolatry and rampant materialism respectively. God created them as a judgment. It is another spiritual principle, If people refuse to follow God, then God takes away our ability to reproduce. When Abimelech took Sarah as wife, all the women in his kingdom could not conceive. Terminal sexual deviations (sexual deviations that do not lead to reproduction -abortion, pornography and etc.) are the judgment, not the reason why we are judged.

(Note, added later. Two good friends called me out on this. Their comments -received via email- are copied to the comment section. Everyone needs to hear what they have said. I have an apology and response to this in the comment section as well. And I am working on a different paradigm for myself that is more generous and loving.)

And yet, the religious pundits cite these deviations as the cause, not the result. They fear-monger about coming judgment. But my whole attitude toward homosexuals changes when I view them as the victims of sin, just like medical conditions are a result of the fall. Therefore, to me, I must ensure that they are as loved and cared for, protected by, both the church and society. I, just like Jesus, love homosexual people. I will never say about them; “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” I embrace them for everything they are because the Bible says that God made them that way. 

I want abortion to stop because I believe in justice for the unborn. But to fight it, I must -I am compelled- to preach against injustice everywhere. Christians cannot be single issue voters. Women, as well as the unborn, must have justice. If I want revival to break out, according to Isaiah 58 then I must "cry loudly and not hold back...."

3.c. Islam. Jesus loves Moslems.

3.d. Palestinians. Jesus loves Palestinians.

3.e. Racism. I am a police Chaplain. I believe in and support the police. If it were up to me, only the police would legally own handguns. They are trained to use them. They take this job to place themselves in the line of fire in order to protect the rest of us. I do not personally know any police who are racists and abuse this trust. If they are out there, they are very few and by far the exception rather than the rule. And our media, a media that makes its living on hyperbole and mass hysteria, sensationalizes the times that it happens and by so doing, they create terrible problems for the 99.99% of honest, dedicated peace officers.

Having said that. And this has nothing to do with the police. I believe that Trayvon Martin would be alive if he were white. I believe that Zimmerman killed him because of racial fear. And the fact of that, to me, proves that racism still exists.

My great change happened when I realized that I was paying to high a biblical price in the war against abortion.

Why do we have to embrace all the values of the Republican party to stop abortion? Does Jesus want us to respond to the border crisis by calling undocumented residents: "Neighbor?" Does the US constitution guarantee civil rights for Homosexuals, Moslems and everyone else who we consider "the other?"

And finally, this segues into:

4). Fear mongering by the right.

"Homosexuals are going to ruin this nation." Nope, biblically, idolatry (in our case, the worship of money) and marginalization of the poor are the reasons why God judges nations.

"Illegals are taking away jobs from us." Undocumented residents are working the jobs that we wont work. They stimulate the economy (years ago, someone paid Rush Limbaugh himself to say this. I heard it back when I was a ditto-head.)

The other emotional capital used to cause this landslide victory, according to pundits, was Ebola and Isis.

One person in the US has died from Ebola. One other person has it. And yet, they were able to frame an argument against the President based on this. It seems to be fear-mongering to me.

ISIS. ISIL is a problem and I wish we had a clearer strategy on it. But, I believe the President's policy of forcing Iraq to deal with it with their troops instead of our troops is what is needed. If we go in and clean them out, they will just come back, either as ISIL or some other form of Al-Qeada. Iraq ignored the Sunni's, they reverted back to the tribalism that has defined them for thousands of years.

I blame Bush. We should not have gone there in the first place. We have to figure out a way to embrace governmental systems that are not our form of Democracy.

But fear-mongering makes it happen.

The Power of the Story

On June 8, I shared the story of how a person, who may have been an angel transformed my attitude toward poor people. I met a man who seemed to be lying to me in order to gain my sympathy so that I would give him some money. And the man proved to be telling the truth. I failed to mention how I got to know the man in the process of helping him repair his vehicle and get on his way. When I regarded the man's humanity, my attitude toward him changed.

Jesus defended Himself for healing a woman on the Sabbath by telling those who would accuse Him, “this woman is a daughter of Abraham.” (Luke 13:16) He constantly forced people to look past the ideology of their religious and secular positions to the human consequences of their judgment. Jesus reclined at supper in the house of Simon the Pharisee and while Simon was judging Jesus for letting a prostitute touch Him, Jesus was considering the woman. He knew Simon's mind and although Simon correctly knew who and what the woman was, Jesus asked him to go beyond his judgment and said: “do you see this woman?” (Luke 7:44)

Jesus taught us a new way of perceiving one another. He taught us to look at people as individuals and see their needs instead of judging them by our own worldview. We can get so caught up in our own perceptions that we forget what it is like to be someone who is different.

As a child, I developed my love for reading through the autobiographies of some of our nations great leaders. One of the most poignant stories I read was Benjamin Franklin's. Franklin let this axiom guide his life, taken from a Native American proverb: “Never judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes (moccasins).” Understanding people comes from knowing their story. And the story transforms us from judgmental to loving Christians.

When I regard the marginalized in our society, the minorities, the majority, the poor, the rich, the right, the left, the undocumented, those with different gender identities, and every one else who is ostracized by one group or another I remember that every one of them has a story that has shaped their lives. And my first allegiance is to the Kingdom of God and the King calls them “neighbor” and “brother/sister.” I/we must do the same.

A Call to Christian Humanism?

This is clearly just a rant from my personal journal, cut and pasted here without the thought of developing a thesis. So pardon the jumbled thoughts, please.

Today I am in angst over a TV show. I am watching this series on Netflix called “Orange is the new black.” It is about a debutante whose childish crimes catch up with her 8 years later when she is sentenced to 18 mos of prison. She is a good person, but like all dramas, not perfect, just basically good. And she is a victim of oppression by a corrupt prison system. I feel guilty. I feel like somehow her mistreatment is my fault. It is just a show, and there is nothing to be done about it. But I know enough about the system to believe that this abuse happens. Most people are in prison because of mental illness. The system is wrong. The only way to survive is to be involved in the wrong.

I believe that part of the reason the sexual predator at Bear Creek got off was because of me being to honest of a witness. He got caught in his evil, but evil is inside all of us. I would tell both sides. And the prosecutor decided not to go to trial a second time with me as the primary witness. Even though the man ruined my life, I recognize my own propensity for evil and I cannot judge another.

Are people basically good or evil? Many years ago, a bicycle was stolen from my garage. I paid less than $50, but its retail price was over $100. There was no way to be honest and tell the insurance what I lost. As hard as I tried not to, I had to accept the $100 payout of the insurance claim. The world is evil and there are a few of us who want to do right, in the heart, always. And according to this TV show, it is impossible.

But here is the bigger question: Why do I hate injustice so much? Why the angst? Why do I feel guilty that my tax dollars support such a corrupt system? And, injustices range the entire gamut of our culture. And if we permit one, we permit them all. And why aren't other people upset? Why did my colleagues in ministry imply that I should have gone along to get along? But the biggest is still, why do injustices cause such angst that I lose my own peace?

Is this not my Father's world? And tho' the wrong seems oft' so strong, is God not the ruler yet? Lord, Help me. He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

But my big question to myself is this, does this angst, this lack of peace, this anger and hatred toward injustice mean that there is something wrong with me? Am I wrong for caring so much?

When I see George Zimmerman get acquitted for killing Trayvon Martin, I am ashamed. I feel guilty. I feel as if it is my fault. When I hear Sarah Palin cry “death panel” about the ACA, I blame myself. Is it white shame? Is it Christian shame? Am I about to lose my faith all together? Is this me, Lord, losing my religion?

I guess one has to believe in the basic evil of humanity, or the basic good of humanity.

The show, “Orange is the New Black” has this woman who describes herself as a secular humanist when a crazy Christian is trying to convert her. It portrays secular humanism as the only moral world view. This show, along with COSMOS seem to attack Christianity. COSMOS does not need to ridicule faith in order to get its views across. They could get to the same science and include Christians like me. Why the attack?

I suppose that we Christians have brought it upon ourselves. And, worse off, we see the extreme fruits of our dogma in the fanaticism that blames the problems of unrestrained capitalism and over consumption as the judgment of God because of the so called gay agenda, entitlements and abortion.

I guess this is a call to Christian Humanism. “Imago Dei,” see Christ in every person. How do we re-create the narrative and explain our belief in people? Is it even true? Maybe all there is are people who are oriented toward believing in basic good, or people who are orientated toward believing in basic bad. Does the Bible support “basic bad” in the doctrine of original sin? Or, does the unbelievers basic God-given conscience, explained in Romans 2 mean that we are basically good? We are both. But, we can live in competition or we can live in community.

Lord, it is frustrating. It is hard. It is difficult to shine a light instead of curse the darkness. Maybe my angst is completely in sync with God's heart over a broken world. Maybe my angst is best assuaged in the redemption story. God, grant me your peace and give me the strength to persevere.