Thursday, November 26, 2015

Charlotte’s Thanks Giving 2015




Thank You My Jerry. There are no words. Only the swelling of my heart as I remember how you have held me and held me up during this long, odd year. Only the slipping of tears down my cheek when I think of how we have grown up together, are growing old together, keep growing together.


Thank You My Children. You stepped away from your lives to come surround my hospital bed with your tender caring love. You patted my paused hands, massaged my stopped-in-their-tracks feet, brushed my tumbled hair. You surrounded me again this week with your joyful celebration of restored life, our lovely shared life.

Thank You My Friends and My Family. Here and there, near and far, face-to-face and across cyberspace. You comfort me and challenge me and make me better in countless ways. You believe in me when I doubt myself and affirm me when I struggle. You know me well and love me anyway.

Thank You Mom and Dad. Thank you Grandmothers and Grandfathers. Thank you other Parents of My Life and Faith. You taught me what to do and how to be. You showed me what not to do and how not to be. As I have been teacher and example (both good and bad, helpful and foolish) to my own children. Thank you Grace that cushions all us teachers.

Thank You House. You cocooned me and provided sanctuary during this odd ostomic season. And yet, all through this time, your windows keep lifting my eyes and soul to the big bright wonder of the earth.

Thank You Laptop. Your little screen is also a window and a passage to this wider world. I sit on my sofa and still can participate in the large and small joys and sorrows of my human family. I type words and launch them into the wild and messy public conversation. I have a voice. I have something to say.

Thank You Farmers and Local Growers and Migrant Workers. Thank You Cows and Chickens and Salmon and Turkeys. Thank You Bakers and Cooks and Dish Washers. Thank You Recyclers and Garbage Collectors.

Thank You Doctors and Nurses and Anesthetists and Technicians. Your skills kept me alive this year and helped me to heal. Thank you hospitals and home health agencies and clinics in refugee camps. Thank you Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Thank You Compassionate, Collaborative Citizens. Thank you for holding on to hope instead of giving into despair; for being light in our national gloom; for breaking down barriers and working to build bridges. Thank you for welcoming and including and empowering and respecting the other, the stranger, the least of these. (Some of you compassionate collaborative citizens are also elected officials; a special thanks to you. We are counting on you; hang in there.)

Thank you Holy Scripture. Your witness to God’s Story reminds us how our own stories are ever intertwined with one another’s and with yours. Thank You Book of Common Prayer. Your lovely liturgies weave words of gospel and grace. Shared prayers knit us together across nations and cultures and language. Thank you Mother Earth, Sacred Creation. Your witness to the wild and wonderful subtlety and majesty of the Creator evoke my awe and reverence.

Thank You CreatorRedeemerSustainer. You knit me together in my mother’s womb and continue to weave all my various bright and dull doings into a surprising tapestry of grace. You keep redeeming my foolishness, sustaining my hopefulness, re-creating my made-precious humanness. You keep speaking light into every darkness, beauty into every chaos and goodness into every day.

Thank You.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Charlotte's Letter to The Paris News concerning Black Lives Matter

I am disappointed in your recent op-ed in The Paris News that vilified Black Lives Matter. Here are my primary critiques:

1) Characterizing the Black Lives Matter movement as a hate group is irresponsible. This current effort to disrupt the status quo of white privilege in America stands squarely in the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement. The methods are different, yes, because toxic racism remains entrenched within our society even after generations of hard work. In light of recent events of police violence, it was inevitable that activists would find their passion and rise to the occasion. They will not – and they should not – stay in the place society has assigned them. It is high time for real equality in this nation.

2) Characterizing the police as white knights is irresponsible. Of course many of our cops are wonderful human beings and excellent public servants. I am proud to call Chief Hundley and Sheriff Cass personal friends and I admire their character and their professionalism. I also grieve the inexcusable murders of too many cops.

But denying that America has a very real problem with some very bad cops contributes to the myth rather than exposing the reality. Some cops break the law. Some cops harm the people they are supposed to be protecting. Some cops lie and cover up their own actions and the illegal acts of others. Some cops are racist. Some cops are inept. Some cops need to find a job where they are not given a gun and a badge. Good cops – and all the rest of us - will only benefit from the rooting out of the bad, incompetent cops among us.

3) Characterizing Fox News as a credible news source is irresponsible. I was astonished to see this in your op-ed piece. If you will represent yourself as a fair and thorough journalist, then interview some of our local African American citizens. Interview members of the local NAACP. Interview our police chief and our sheriff. Find out if these people see Black Lives Matter as a hate group. Everyone will have a different opinion, I daresay, but I doubt you would get the same kind of recklessness Fox News spews.

Here are two articles I encourage you to read. They too are op-eds but they may help you open your mind and consider alternative understandings.

If All Lives Really Matter: The False Racial Unity of Glenn Beck’s Massive March on Birmingham

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidhenson/2015/08/if-all-lives-really-matter-the-false-racial-unity-of-glenn-becks-massive-march-on-birmingham/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=davidhenson_083115UTC030827_daily&utm_content&spMailingID=49440151&spUserID=MTA1Nzc2NjExNjgzS0&spJobID=744621877&spReportId=NzQ0NjIxODc3S0
 Radical Black Christians in the New Civil Rights Movement

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/radical-black-christians-new-civil-rights-movement-n417871
 
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Respectfully yours,
Charlotte Vaughan Coyle

Rosa Parks and Kim Davis

Many of us have been pondering the similarities and differences between Kim Davis and Rosa Parks. Creating this compare and contrast list has been an interesting exercise.
  • Kim Davis is the elected clerk and public servant for Rowan County Kentucky.
  • Rosa Parks was a seamstress and private citizen in Montgomery Alabama.
  • Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.
  • Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man.STOPPING THE BUSES
  • Kim Davis is an elected official who disobeyed a Supreme Court ruling and several District Court orders.
  • Rosa Parks was a private citizen who disobeyed a bus driver and a local bus segregation law.
  • Kim Davis’ civil disobedience came as a result of a Supreme Court decision which overturned State and local laws permitting marriage discrimination.
  • Rosa Parks’ civil disobedience contributed to the Civil Rights Movement which overturned State and local laws permitting racial discrimination.
  • Kim Davis justified her disobedience by claiming personal religious rights.
  • Rosa Parks justified her disobedience by claiming basic human rights.
  • Kim Davis refused to enforce federal law because she considers the law to be immoral.
  • Rosa Parks refused to obey local law because she considered the law to be inhuman.
  • Kim Davis is committed to resist legally sanctioned marriage equality.
  • Rosa Parks was committed to resist legally sanctioned racial inequality.
  • Kim Davis believes that Divine authority should trump the Constitution.
  • Rosa Parks believed that the Constitution trumps local laws.
  • Kim Davis and Rosa Parks are both decent, good-hearted people willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause.
Here is the part that gets me: the sacrificing oneself for a cause. It’s been interesting to hear the Conservative pundits cast Davis as a martyr in the tradition of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. It’s been interesting to listen to the Liberal outcry against that characterization. But there is a very real sense in which Kim Davis is a martyr for a cause.

I’ve wondered why she won’t resign and let the other clerks in Rowan County do their job. The understanding I have come to is that Davis truly believes her cause is just and her actions are justified. If Davis believes in this cause so much that she would 'die' for it, then it's reasonable she would use whatever power she has to try to influence outcomes. Holding on to the job in order to push the issue makes sense when I see her as a zealot with a cause and a little bit of power.

I’m watching Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War on PBS and I’m struck by the comparison. People living in the South truly believed their cause was just and their actions were justified. Their commitment to a cause led to the sundering of America and to the horrific deaths of 2% of the entire population of our nation.

This commitment to a cause continues to influence our social fabric all these years later. Confederate flags still fly above some government buildings. Some school textbooks re-frame the history of the Civil War in order to teach that the cause was just and the actions were justified. The states of the old Confederacy often vote as a block and continue to rally around passionate cries for states rights.

Allegiance to a cause can be a powerful motivator.
Blind allegiance to a cause can be toxic.

Cynics are quick to say Kim Davis is betting on a book deal or some high dollar speaking engagements. Maybe. But I see one unpretentious woman who has found herself thrust into the middle of a national debate that has become ugly and brutal. I see a modest woman with a simple faith who truly believes she is doing God’s will and who believes her eternal salvation is at stake.

I see a blind allegiance that has twisted the truth, perverted justice and created yet another ungodly, unworthy cause. I hate the cause that led the Confederacy to nearly destroy our nation. I hate the “I’m right and you’re wrong” arrogance (or worse, the “I’m right and you’re stupid” disdain). I hate the cause that denies equality and dignity to our LGBTQ fellow citizens. I hate the hatred. Nevertheless I feel sorry for Kim Davis; she is a pawn.

A Christian blogger colleague, David Henson, says it well:
Instead of railing against Davis, mocking her education, her marital history, or her speech patterns, perhaps we could do better by redirecting our energies to the folks pulling the strings behind her.
He goes on to name several of the “cultural forces” that manipulate the passion of decent, good-hearted people and use them as props and puppets.
 e2a9662869797528810f6a7067008a19_c0-40-3264-1942_s561x327

It is not the Kim Davis’ of the world who are the problem, Henson says; it’s the Mike Huckabees and the Ted Cruzs “peddling a tired blend of bigotry dressed up as faith…” It’s the Jerry Falwell-styled lawyers “torturing every religious angle … and pushing their legal agenda to discriminate.”

I agree. If reasonable people are going to nudge this nation toward its ideals of liberty and justice for all, then we need to tone down the rage aimed at all the various Kim Davis’ out there and increase our outrage over the manipulative powers that cast injustice as a just cause. We need to expose and confront the cultural forces that seek to divide and conquer us. We need to push back without becoming like that which we dislike.
One more compare and contrast:
    rosa_parks_stamp_20130204170341_320_240
  • I pity Kim Davis.
  • I want to be like Rosa Parks when I grow up.


Just in case you want to read David Henson’s blog on Patheos (I recommend it):

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidhenson/2015/09/kim-davis-isnt-the-problem-these-3-cultural-forces-are/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=davidhenson_090915UTC030913_daily&utm_content=&spMailingID=49507594&spUserID=MTA1Nzc2NjExNjgzS0&spJobID=761195325&spReportId=NzYxMTk1MzI1S0

Just in case you haven’t read enough stories about Kim Davis:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-civil-rights_55eb1a09e4b093be51bbb148

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/09/01/kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-on-gay-marriage-licenses-it-is-a-heaven-or-hell-decision/?postshare=3261441165002607

Just in case you are inspired to read more about Rosa Parks or listen to an interview:

The History Channel: 10 Things You May Not Know about Rosa Parks
http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-rosa-parks

See here the Academy of Achievement website with a video interview with Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks Biography -- Academy of Achievement. (February 26, 2010). Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1


cvclogo copy

Charlotte Vaughan Coyle lives in Paris TX and blogs about intersections of faith, culture and politics on her website and Intersections Facebook page. She frequently shares her thoughts with Coffee Party USA as a regular volunteer.
Charlotte is an ordained minister within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and also blogs about Scripture from a progressive Christian approach in her Living in The Story Musings.

Letter to Sen. Cruz concerning Planned Parenthood

Dear Senator Cruz,

It’s all over the news that you recently sent 100,000 letters to ministers encouraging them to preach the scripted anti-abortion sermon generated by the infamous American Renewal Project. I notice you did not send me a letter, but that’s all right. If you have read any of my previous letters, you know I would never preach such a sermon. But I did find a copy.

Let’s talk about the theology of that sermon.

The primary text comes from the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures:
There are six thing which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him; haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to do evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers. (Proverbs 6: 17-16-19)
(I have maintained your emphasis here.)

Several things to note: I could easily preach a sermon completely faithful to this text based on the six other things “the Lord hates.” It could be a sermon naming the sham of faith exhibited by too many of our political leaders. It could be a sermon challenging the divisiveness of our current culture and how too many public leaders contribute to an ungodly strife “among brothers.” It could be a sermon about how too many people of power and influence use their tongues to say one thing when they mean another. It could be a sermon about the hubris of the plutocrats as they plunder the people of this good nation.

The fact that you chose this scripture to single out “hands that shed innocent blood” as your primary argument against abortion demonstrates your disregard for the larger picture of the biblical message articulated here and throughout the text. In a sermon on this topic, the argument must be made theologically rather than biblically. You know as well as I do that there is no definitive word for or against abortion in the Bible. Faithful people of faith who read the same Scriptures do - and always will - interpret this issue (and many others) differently.

My intense study of the whole message of Scripture is what changed my mind on what it means to truly value life. It is the undergirding and overarching call to love that now shapes my understanding of what it means to honor and support the life of my neighbor.

 131

Now I am firmly pro-life and pro-choice. (I blogged about this very topic not too long ago; that essay could be helpful to you.)

I understand your passion against abortion; I really do. I used to make the same arguments. But one huge difference between you and me is that I do not wield the power and influence of the United States government whenever I voice my personal opinions. Even though I concede that your letter to 100,000 pastors is legal, I would argue it is irresponsible and even foolish.

As Senator representing the people of Texas and America, your job should be to try and represent all of us even with all our different opinions. Yes, you are against abortion; I get that.

Nevertheless it is a legal medical procedure that ought to be available to women whenever they need it.
abortion-should-be-rare

Your personal opinion should not be a factor in restricting a woman’s legal option to make her own personal health decisions. Your cause would be much better served by other more reasonable approaches: expanding the availability of birth control, increasing educational programs and making it easier for women to acquire jobs that pay well enough for them to support their families.

An interesting aside and one other thing to note about the above verses from Proverbs: it is telling that homosexuality is not on this list. People who bandy about verses from Leviticus claiming homosexuality is an “abomination” need to read Proverbs, don’t you think? It looks to me like same sex marriage is not even on the list of “things the Lord hates.” (You might refer back to an earlier letter I wrote to you in order to better understand my position on marriage equality.)

When the rest of us hear some Christians talk as if current law assuring marriage equality is the worst thing that has ever happened to America we see clearly the absurdity of that claim. I would argue (from your list) that it is the hubris, greed, deceit and divisiveness currently infecting our nation “that is disastrous on a personal and a national level” (from your sermon).

Another biblical passage that figures prominently in your sermon comes from the book of Exodus:
You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry.              (Exodus 22:21)
If one interprets the Bible literally, as I understand you do, then literal widows and orphans across America surely are crying out against your efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. If one takes the Bible seriously without taking it literally as I do, then the figural speech of “widows and orphans” describes the most vulnerable people within our society. Either way, your use of this Scripture text is wrong headed.

A FactCheck website states that:




"In 2013, Planned Parenthood affiliated clinics provided nearly 10.6 million services to 2.7 million women and men…

"Services its clinics provided to women and men in 2013 included:
    • 5 million tests and treatment for sexually transmitted infections
    • 6 million contraception related services
    • 935,573 cancer screenings including breast exams and Pap tests
    • 1 million pregnancy tests and prenatal services"PP_medicalservices_2013
Only 3% of these services are for abortions. And we all know that Federal money cannot be used for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.

An ObamaCareFacts website (privately owned resource page) states that:

"We still need Planned Parenthood. Its services aren’t replaced by Obamacare; they go hand-in-hand with it. Many states have opted out of expanding Medicaid, and many people have yet to get covered under the law. There are about 30 million Americans without insurance, who have nowhere affordable to turn for the services Planned Parenthood provides.
"Those that do have insurance (and sometimes those without) can get many of the same services they can get at Planned Parenthood from another source, such as a family doctor or public or private clinic. However…Planned Parenthood has a lot of benefits as they are a nationwide health center, with over 70 years of experience in providing sexual and reproductive health services."

Because our own state of Texas and other red states refuse to expand Medicaid, millions of our fellow citizens go without insurance and access to affordable health care. That is one reason is it critical for millions of Americans to continue to be able to receive medical care through Planned Parenthood.
 
Prenatal care. Breast exams.
Pap tests. Pregnancy tests.
Contraception. Treatment for STD’s.

Do you really want to be responsible for the theft of vital medical services to our most vulnerable citizens? Do you really want this on your conscience? Looking at the facts, I can’t fathom how can you justify your efforts to defund this organization and thus take away critical health care from the “widows and orphans” of our nation.

If you insist on continuing your current effort to jeopardize the health care of millions of Americans under the guise of protecting the innocent then you, Senator Cruz, are a wolf in sheep’s clothing plundering the flock that has been given into your care.

In your letter to the 100,000 pastors you said: “The battle we face is not political. It is spiritual.”

No, it is both.

The purpose of our politics should be to negotiate and collaborate about how we live together in this society. Spiritual values such as justice, equity and respect must inform our political conversations. Whether or not America should allow for abortions is a political question that has been settled. Whether or not America should provide social safety nets for our most vulnerable citizens evidently has not been settled – to our shame. That is, in part, because many of our spiritual values are skewed. And not in the way you use that term.

If you are going to continue to appeal to pastors and Evangelical Christians through scripted sermons, alarmist letters and revival style campaign rallies no one can stop you. But we can stand against you. Millions of us Americans, people of all kinds of faith – religious and humanist – are motivated by spiritual values of care for the neighbor and compassion for our vulnerable fellow citizens. I urge you to align your own Christian values with these core spiritual values. Otherwise we will continue to stand together to thwart your misguided efforts to destroy Planned Parenthood.

Sincerely yours,
Rev. Charlotte Vaughan Coyle

Monday, September 7, 2015

A Theological Reflection for Labor Day

A few years ago, during a movie marathon weekend, I watched "The Long Walk Home" on one evening and "The Help" the next evening. The first movie is the story of a Black maid and her employers caught up in the events of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. the-help-davis-spencer_320_fb_small

The second is the story of the maids (the help) who worked in the homes of the well-to-do in Jackson, Mississippi just a few years before Civil Rights laws came into effect. It was an intriguing study of American history, of American culture condensed into two evenings of storytelling. I recommend it. But I warn you, it’s pretty uncomfortable.

Past treatment of our Black citizens is part of the American family story that embarrasses us now. I daresay, many of us good-hearted Christian people look back and wonder how on earth - in this nation we love - could so many people have been so blind for so many years. There’s the first irony: this country of liberty and equality was built on the backs of slaves. Then a second paradox: there was a brutal deadly war fought over whether or not to continue the ugly business of slavery. Then for years after that, “separate but equal” was considered to be an appropriate and even godly way to order our society.

Thank goodness our laws have evolved over these 200+ years to reflect a more just understanding of human relationships in this country. For example, consider our labor laws (since we are celebrating Labor Day this weekend). Thank goodness, we finally have laws that protect our children, protect our health, designate a minimum wage, regulate safety conditions in the workplace and ensure equal access to the workplace for women, people of color and people with disabilities.

Thank goodness our laws have evolved over these 200+ years to reflect a more authentic actuality of the founding visions of this nation. Even though the founders did not allow women to vote; even though they allowed slavery to be part of the DNA of this nation, still they implanted genius ideals of justice and equality that have enabled this country to grow and change and become better over the years.

The whole reason we have laws, I think, is because we don’t have enough love. People tend to avoid doing the loving, giving thing for others. Authentic love is counter-cultural in our human cultures, and so societies have always had to legislate how people should treat one another. Governments must pass laws in order to make sure we treat each other right and act appropriately in our various human relationships.

Jesus and the apostle Paul taught that love is the fulfillment of law. If we would love our neighbors as ourselves; if we would do unto others as we would have them do to us, then commandments and statutes wouldn't be necessary.

But where and when is that going to happen?

An excellent book written by church historian Dr. Mark Toulouse identifies four different ways American Christians have, over the years, intersected faith and politics. There is no one right way to think about these things.

For example, in the earliest days, a significant stream of the church was pacifist. But in America during World War One, preachers across the land, in both liberal and conservative congregations, pounded their pulpits and insisted it was a “Christian duty” to enlist and go kill the enemy.

Toulouse looks closely at the history of the American church’s relationship to its government and he describes several past and current approaches that are not helpful; ways that are not at all appropriate for mixing religion and politics.

But there are some ways he would recommend to Christians and churches as healthy options, ways that religious influence can appropriately affect the course of secular governments.

In his explanation, Toulouse describes what he calls “public Christian” and “public church.”
When Christians truly stand in a public Christian or a public church orientation to public life, they represent a strand of Christian understanding and theological concern not primarily rooted in cultural identities. They don’t speak or act as Republicans or Democrats or even as Presbyterians or Baptists. They do not speak as Christians who are primarily concerned with American or denominational politics.
Rather they speak as Christians who believe in the meaning of the gospel. They believe that the gospel carries with it implications for how human beings, in all their individual and social relationships, treat one another…. Thus when [public Christians] speak or act in public life, they seek to move it toward a greater realization of … the kind of justice found in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian gospel.
When we read Paul’s wisdom to the Roman Christians of the First Century, we remember that they lived under the whims of capricious emperors and we recall how Paul himself was persecuted and martyred by his own government because of his faith. American Christians are fortunate to live under a Constitution that guarantees our freedom to vote and speak and protest and express our faith in the public arena.
The public Christian (Toulouse explains) desires to speak about God in public ways that influence how citizens – not just Christians – think about things.
It was in large part the voices of public Christians and the public church that worked together with a broad coalition of other activists gty_selma_montgomery_civil_rights_walk_mlk_thg_120130_wblogto abolish slavery, to demand the civil rights of Black citizens, to influence child labor laws, to advocate for workers’ compensation protections …and on and on and on. The Christian voice has made a huge difference in this land that we love. The church’s influence has helped change our world.

But there is another voice now prominent in the public conversation of America. What concerns me about this voice is that it is totally devoid of a concept of the wider social community; it is completely dismissive of Christ’s demand that we “love our neighbors as we love ourselves;” that we should do whatever we can to care for God’s little ones; that we ought to go to some trouble and put ourselves at risk in order to care for those in God’s beloved flock who may be lost and struggling.

In this approach, instead of community what we hear is a voice of insiders protecting their privilege. Instead of compassion, it is a voice of the powerful shouting down the whispers of the unemployed and the underemployed - neighbors who want a decent job and a decent wage and a little respect. Instead of justice and equity, it is a voice of greed.

In today’s America, where is the authentic Christian voice that will help move our public life “toward a greater realization of … the kind of justice found in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian gospel?”
Paul’s Christians did not get to vote or speak out in public against the abuses of their society. But we live in a democracy that not only invites - it demands our participation.

Jeffrey Stout has said:
Democracy … takes for granted that reasonable people will differ in their conceptions of piety, in their grounds for hope, in their ultimate concerns, and in their speculations about salvation. Yet democracy holds that people who differ on such matters can still exchange reasons with one another intelligibly, cooperate in crafting political arrangements that promote justice and decency in their relations with one another, and do both of these things without compromising their integrity
Too much of our current national conversation is mean and divisive. Too many public people are not engaged in reasonable exchange of ideas or cooperative efforts. Too many public servants do not seem to be interested in promoting justice.

Where is the voice of the public prophet calling for love, justice, compassion and mercy?

Who will speak for the “little ones?”
Who will stand up for the vulnerable, the despised and disrespected?

Both the movies I watched on that marathon weekend give powerful examples of public Christians and a public church at work in society. The Black Church in America gives us insight into what it looks like to be “light and salt” in our society. These brave and bold sisters and brothers remind us that the public Christian voice can be a voice of hope and welcome for all God’s children, for every single American.

Where did the Black maids go when they had been mistreated by their employers and their society? They didn’t have legal recourse back then so they went to church. Those whom the world had beat down, the church held up.
“We are not wrong,” the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. told God’s ‘little ones’ gathered at the Holt Street Baptist Church on the evening of December 5, 1955; because:
…if we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. So let us fight until justice rolls down like waters.          
This Labor Day let us celebrate all those who have worked so hard to make America strong. But let’s not just wave our flags and mouth our platitudes. Rather let us be a people who get our hands dirty actually working for the ideals this flag and this country stand for.

Unknown-1

Let us be bold to raise our voices and challenge our government to keep the nation’s promise to those who are most vulnerable. Let us recommit ourselves to advocate on behalf of all those who want to be working right now but can’t find jobs; all those who have worked hard their whole life but now find themselves dismissed and disregarded; all those who do the really important work in our society but find they are disrespected and undervalued; all those who must work two and three jobs just to support their families.

Christians are the people of Jesus Christ.
Whose side are we on?


You can blame Mark Toulouse for starting me on this journey of exploring intersections of faith and politics. I am grateful he was my teacher at Brite Divinity School and I am grateful he is my friend.

514s0WVZ0AL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_

Mark Toulouse, God in Public: Four Ways American Christianity and Public Life Relate. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006).

Jeffrey Stout, Democracy and Tradition (2004) quoted in God in Public, p. 193.
Martin Luther King Jr. sermon http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/civilrights03.htm

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Reflections on an Introvert Life


These days my life seems to be decidedly introverted. I’ve known for years that my personality is introvert but my vocation has mostly forced me to a public life. That’s not really a contradiction; most ministers I know are introverts. We just learn how to pour ourselves out in public and then spend time recharging our spiritual batteries in private, quiet places. Or we try to learn. 
During this recovery, I’ve been wondering how well I have learned the lesson of releasing the expectations of others in order to unleash whatever it is within me that is Core Me. Discovering and uncovering my Core Me is harder than I thought. But one of the ways I am doing that is through my writing.

When I was in seminary I realized that I didn’t know what I believed until I wrote it. I would type out a paragraph then read it over and often, in that re-reading, I would recognize that I didn’t actually believe what I had said. Looking at it full in the face forced me to clarify. Sometimes it even forced me to change my opinion about what I had thought was true.  

It looks like that is happening again. Ministers spend a lot of time and energy minding other people’s business. It is all too easy to let that focus obscure the more intimate and challenging work of tending to our own souls. Now, in my current ministry, that’s all I have. Digging deep, unearthing, tilling hard ground, waiting, watching, listening … and then naming what I find. Naming what I believe to be true about myself and true about the world. 

More often than not, when I do this naming, I discover other soul tenders who say: “Yes! That’s how I feel too.” Sherwin Nuland said: “The more personal you are willing to be and the more intimate you are willing to be about the details of your own life, the more universal you are.” Maybe not universally universal, but still – sometimes speaking the truth about who I am somehow articulates some part of Truth for others as well. I think that’s absolutely fascinating. 

Uncovering truth about who I am, discovering the truth about the Core Me takes a lot of energy, but it’s an energy that propels me inward while I sit with my laptop on my sofa. My Enneagram personality identifies “sloth” as my particular temptation/bend/ challenge, and so I ponder the connection between my introversion and this acedia (a much nicer word, in my opinion). Lately especially, my life shows a decided preference for sitting on my sofa. My tendency to homebody has been exaggerated during this strange experience of colostomy and while some days the lethargy of introversion tips my scales out of balance, mostly I’m okay with this time of journeying inward from the comfort of my recliner. 

I have my writing.
And my reading.

Kathleen Norris’ helpful book, Acedia & me, tells of her own journey as an introverted writer and, as Dr. Nuland said, I find that some of the details of her life arc across the universal to intersect the details of my own life. 

“What does it mean,” she asks, “that I now crave the desert journey of revision as much as the initial burst of creativity and flow of words?” 

What does that mean indeed? I find myself laboring over a blog as much or more than I ever labored over a sermon. But it’s a labor of love. Rhythm and rhyme; allusion and illustration; how the words feel as much as what the words say. I read and re-read, edit and re-edit. Like Jerry says: “There’s no such thing as good writing. There is only good re-writing.” 

Even though I am taking this semester off from school, even though my doctoral work is on hold and even though I may decide not to complete it, still – I love my Living in The Story writing. I read these sermons that are three years old and find that many of them are not half bad. I read and re-read, edit and re-edit, then post them to the website and the Facebook page and it feels like I am doing something important. 

Even though I have scaled back my work with the Coffee Party, still – I love pondering the intersections of faith, culture and politics. I’m publishing a weekly essay to the Intersections website and now to the Facebook page and often to the Coffee Party page. Every time I do this, I'm surprised that people actually read what I write. I’m even more surprised when people like what I say. But still - it feels like I am doing something important.

Even though I sit here on my sofa with my laptop, even though I live my small, introverted life in small town Paris, even though I struggle to keep my balance with my inherent (and inherited?) acedia, still – in some ways I am connected and interconnected to a larger world than I have ever been before. 

Kathleen Norris’ book contains “A Widow’s Uneasy Afterword” where she ponders the dramatic changes of her external and internal life since the death of her best friend and husband. What does one do in the midst of such upending change? She admits she wants to heed the advice of Saint Ignatius Loyola: "do nothing; be patient." She admits it's hard. Indeed. 

How does one persevere when there seems to be no light, no path, no future? Norris takes comfort again from Ignatius: “Desolation is meant to give us a true recognition and understanding that we may perceive interiorly that we cannot by ourselves bring on…great devotion, intense love, tears or any other spiritual consolation, but that all these are a gift and grace from God.”

It is gift and grace.

I don’t know if this odd ostomic span of days is a grief, but it certainly is a season and the living of it feels similar. Nevertheless, I will choose to take it as gift and grace. I will choose to continue to unearth and till the hard fallow ground of my soul; to wait and watch and listen and trust that, when my spring comes again, maybe - just maybe - the words will become flesh again.





Sherwin Nuland (1930–2014)
Author of How We Die and How We Live and The Art of Aging
The above quote comes from a 2014 On Being interview with Krista Tippett.
http://www.onbeing.org/program/biology-spirit/184


Also see Maria Popovich’s article on Dr. Nuland at Brain Pickings
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/01/02/sherwin-nuland-what-everybody-needs/


Kathleen Norris, Acedia & me (New York: Riverhead Books, 2008).







Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Birthday Musings

So it's my birthday - one of those milestone birthdays. The birthday when I give up my student health insurance and begin to participate in Medicare. (I think it is a delightful irony that I go straight from student to senior. And don't get me started on how every American at any age ought to be able to buy in to something like Medicare.)
So I'm musing about celebrating birthdays. 

I can remember some years past when I didn't want to celebrate. I didn't feel like my life was meaningful enough, significant enough, not worthy of celebration. I didn't want the reminder that I wasn't successful, wealthy and well known. Celebrating seemed undeserved if I felt I hadn't done "enough" with my life.

Turns out I was mistakenly trying to celebrate myself as a human doing instead of as a human being

On this birthday, I'm very much aware that I'm living in an odd window between post-op and pre-op. Some days I still get grumpy about my inconvenient life. Some days I spend way too much energy dealing with body functions and wishing this wasn't my life. 

But it is my life. And most days I am able to live with gratitude at the simple grace of living.

This year, instead of fretting about whether I have done enough with my life, I want to settle into the being. Content to be. To be alive. 

To be as healthy as I am. 
To be married to such an amazing partner. 
To be parent and grandparent of such amazing children. 
To be surrounded by such amazing friends. To be enfolded in the Goodness of a Grace-Full God. 

To be Here. Alive. Today.
More than enough. 

I love the Beatles' reminder: Let it be. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be. 
Whisper words of wisdom. Let it be.

I didn't do anything to deserve all the grace that has poured into my life today.
So today I choose not to do anything to mar the beauty of it.
I'll just let it be. 

On this birthday I will celebrate my human being.