tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42302770335169136272023-06-20T05:35:16.186-07:00Keeping Jesus Weirdoccasional posts from a progressive United Methodist pastor working in the heart of Austin, committed to following the radical path of JesusJohn Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-80734674297703959802016-07-11T14:52:00.000-07:002016-07-11T15:06:39.133-07:00Do Black Lives Matter?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When someone says “Black
Lives Matter,” does that mean that all lives don’t matter? Does it mean that
black lives matter more than all other lives? Must we choose between black
lives and all lives?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I find a whole lot of
unnecessary confusion in the white Christian community about the phrase “Black
Lives Matter.” And I especially have a hard time with the response that I hear
so often: all lives matter. It almost sounds like a cover for saying that black
lives don’t really matter at all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So in response to what I hear
and read on the internet from my white friends and especially in response to
the individual who stole all of our BLM signs from the UUMC lawn last Saturday,
here are some reflections that I hope you’ll read and ponder. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the Judeo-Christian
tradition, all lives matter. That is ground zero of our faith. Every life is to
be treated with the utmost dignity and respect. Every life is a life loved by
God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, in both the Hebrew
Bible and the Christian Bible, God shows a special preference for those on the
margins. In the Hebrew Bible, God has partiality for the poor, widows and
orphans. Does that mean that God loves the poor, the widow and the orphan more
than God loves me? No. It does mean, however, that God has a special concern
for them because they are especially vulnerable. And since we are attempting to
follow God, we must have a special concern as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Imagine the God of the Hebrew
Bible with a sign on her back that reads: Widows Matter! Would you want to
remind God that all lives matter? Probably not. You already know the answer to
that question. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For Jesus, it was a special
concern for lepers, children and women, all of whom were held in varying
degrees of contempt and low esteem in his day. Jesus helps us turn our
attention away from the lives of the rich and famous, away from ourselves and our
preoccupations with our families toward those who are left out, last and lost
in our day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the 1970s in Latin
America, liberation theologians coined the phrase <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“God’s preferential option for the poor” to understand
God’s special concern for the poor and the oppressed. John Wesley, founder of
the Methodist movement, actually took this preferential option to heart long
before it was formulated. His diaries and letters are full of his ministry with
and for the poor in 18<sup>th</sup> century England. Wesley was quite clear
that the church would rise or fall by how it ministered to the poor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Picture Father John with a
sign that reads: Poor Lives Matter! In other words, pay attention to the poor.
They need you and you need them. And you will find God there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All of which leads me to
reckon that “Black Lives Matter” fits squarely within the Judeo-Christian
tradition and ought to be embraced by those who seek to follow Christ and his
concern for the most vulnerable among us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To recap: in our tradition, we
have a deep concern for all of God’s children. In practice, that deep concern
moves us toward the ones who are hurting. A theology of “Black Lives Matter” means
that in following God, we have an enduring concern in our own time for black
young men and women whose lives are under assault, who are systemically and
unjustly devalued and discriminated against. We see the most visible examples
of these inequities in police shootings of young, unarmed African-American men
and in the mass incarceration of young men of color. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So picture Jesus with a sign that
reads: Black Lives Matter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Picture
all of us white Christians digging more deeply into understanding our power,
our privilege and our unconscious racism and becoming allies in the great
movement toward the beloved community. </span><!--EndFragment-->John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-16042810401952765382013-11-26T13:01:00.000-08:002013-11-26T13:01:09.658-08:00The Streets of San Antonio<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Living on the streets might
look like a piece of cake. No bills to pay. No one to report to. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">No dirty dishes to clean up. You carry
everything on your back. You’re free!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">After just a day on the
street experiencing a “homelessness immersion” with Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith,
I’m convinced it’s about the hardest work I’ve ever done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">My day began early Friday
morning with a walk to Milam Park where Lorenza’s journey started two and a
half years ago. She gave everything away to live in solidarity with the poor
who live “under the stars.” She laughed that she had to phone someone that
evening to drive her to the park because she had forgotten that she had given
away her car. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Thankfully, it was an
absolutely gorgeous day. As she laid out her mat near a park bench, Lorenza
gave me three tasks for the day. “We need money for bus tickets so I can get to
the conference office. We need lunch. And we need a safe place to sleep.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“Oh, and no cheating. You
can’t use the ATM.” She put her head down and closed her eyes, which I took to
be a sign of great confidence in my hustling abilities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Lorenza’s friend, Richard,
showed up and smiled and said, “Just walk around and ask folks for change for
the bus.” Like it was no big deal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So off I headed, winding through
the downtown, lugging a ratty old
back-pack borrowed from a staff member. After wandering for an hour and a half,
and asking countless people for change, I had empty pockets to show for my
labors. And I couldn't help but notice that the goofy grin with which I had begun the day had melted away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I did stumble upon Goodwill
(and a public bathroom!) and they said the Salvation Army might have bus passes.
I tried to call but no one answered, so I began a long hike over there. I
learned later that being sent somewhere else is a common tactic to deal with
the homeless. No wonder some folks who wander in the doors of UUMC looking for
assistance are not always in the best frame of mind! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">On the way, my back-pack
came apart and hit the street. I sat down under a tree, literally undone. No
one had even reached in their pocket for change. Very few folks made eye
contact with me. Some just walked on by without acknowledging my existence,
giving me a wide birth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As I fixed the backpack, I
looked around and spotted a Plasma Center across the street. Light-bulbs went
off. I hustled through the door, practically ran up to the receptionist and
said, “How much money for a plasma donation?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“Forty dollars,” came the
reply. I did a little inward fist bump, signed in and called Lorenza.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“Jackpot,” I told her.
“Get over to the Plasma Bank.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When they called me up to
the desk again, they asked for my ID. In particular, they needed my social
security card. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“You’re kidding,” I said.
“I never carry my social security card.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“Sorry. That’s the rule.
Everyone knows that.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I sat outside the plasma
bank, downcast. I had been “homeless” for about two hours now and was failing
miserably. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I met up with my friends,
and they suggested we head to Travis Park UMC. They might have some bus passes.
On the way, I tried my luck one more time on bus money, and came up with a
transfer. And someone actually reached in their pocket to see if they had change. I
was making progress! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I walked back to the
church with Richard, who proceeded to step off the curb right in the path of a
car. I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. Lorenza said this
happens to folks on the street all the time. You walk around so much, you just
walk into the street without looking, and boom! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We made it through the door
of Travis Park just in time for the lunch Bible study. I beamed at Lorenza: “Well,
I didn’t get bus money, but I did get us lunch!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“No,” she smiled. “I got
us lunch.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We joined about 30 street
folks around long tables for what was, I’m sure a great Bible study, led by my
puzzled colleague, Rev. Taylor Boone. The problem was, I was so concerned about
getting bus passes and wondering where we would sleep that night, that I
couldn’t concentrate on the study. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We learned that Travis
Park no longer gives out bus passes. But I did receive one neatly folded dollar
bill from a Travis Park staff member, Communications Director Betty Curry.
(This will figure prominently later on in the story.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And I found a safe place
to stay for the night. Taylor suggested the Haven for Hope, San Antonio’s center
for services for the homeless and those in transition off the street. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Soon we were on our way
across town to the Haven. In order to get into the courtyard, I had to become a
Prospect and go through intake. Two exceedingly kind staff took us through the
intake process. I sat with two men, who immediately struck up a conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The younger of the two wanted
to know if I needed a jacket. “It’s gonna get cold next week,” he said. I told
him I had a jacket in my pack, but the man next to him asked him what size it
was. Turned out it was a perfect fit. The younger man stripped off his jacket
and gave it to his new friend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The older man was a Haven
veteran and he proceeded to school us rookies in the rules. Where to put stuff.
What to listen and watch out for. I marveled at unexpected hospitality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">With my Prospect card in
hand, we lined up for the bag check and the metal detector. We had the kindest policeman
ever go through our stuff. And we were in. Even though it was mid-afternoon,
folks were already claiming prime spots on the courtyard for the night, men on
one side and women on the other, trying to get some rest. Did I say that unbelievably
loud freight trains pass right by the Haven about every 15 minutes? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We made a quick tour of
the facilities and walked back to Travis Park. Lorenza had a wedding rehearsal
that afternoon, so I waited outside on the steps, glad for the chance to rest my
feet. My handy SWTX Conference pedometer had already recorded over 20,000 steps
for the day, about ten miles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I tried reading on the
steps, but I was so tired and sun-burned that concentration was almost
impossible. How do you do anything on the street when all of your energy and
all of your time is spent waiting for food and walking to public bathrooms and
finding a shower somewhere and a safe place to sleep for the night?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I looked up from my book
at one point, and a guy about my age walked over to me. “Do you have any spare change for a bus
ticket?” he asked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I laughed out loud. “I’ve
been trying all day to get bus money and all I’ve got is one lousy dollar. How
are you doing?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“I’ve been looking for
about an hour,” he said. “I’ve got nothin’.” Now he was standing right in front
of me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I reached in my pocket. “Here.
Take this.” I handed him the dollar bill. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“No way, man. I can’t take
that. How are you going to get home?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“I’ve got a badge to sleep
at the Haven tonight. I’ll be fine. Just take the dollar.” I put it back in his
hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He stared at the bill for
a long time, like I’d given him solid gold. He shook my hand and we exchanged
names and we fist-bumped. He walked
away, and then turned back and held up his hands as if to ask, “Really? Your
last dollar? For me?” I smiled and waved and walked away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Sometimes grace sneaks up
on you. You’re thinking that the day is all about you and your skills and what
you can do. And the amazing generosity of perfect strangers breaks in. Breaks
you wide open. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I had failed miserably at
homelessness that day. But I had discovered the many and diverse faces of
Christ on the streets of San Antonio. Praise be! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-47653500946955170962013-11-02T09:03:00.001-07:002013-11-02T09:03:41.860-07:00Mixing Faith and Politics<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s conventional wisdom
that faith and politics don’t mix. In polite company, it’s best not to talk about
either and to put them together is like pouring gasoline on a fire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In my United Methodist congregation
and in a number of other faith communities, there is lively sense that our
faith, our principles, the things we hold to be true, inevitably shape our
political, economic and social beliefs. And so while mixing faith and politics
may be a social faux pas, perhaps it’s something best consigned to the dust bin of history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">My congregation, located
next door to the University of Texas campus, has regularly taken stands on
political issues. Many of us have joined the call for more humane immigration
reform, for an end to solitary confinement and the death penalty, and for
support of a living wage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We’ve also joined a
growing chorus of Austinites who whole-heartedly support affordable housing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A couple of years ago,
with the help of Austin Interfaith, we had several meetings with folks who are
homeless. We listened to their concerns about life on the streets. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I vividly recall one
meeting where we began listing some of the ways that their lives could be
improved. They needed more day time shelter. Safer places to sleep and keep their
stuff. More public restrooms and water fountains around the downtown. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As we went down the list, one
glaring omission stood out to me. I had to ask, “What about housing? Most of
you live under the stars. Why isn’t housing at the top of the list?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And to a person, our
friends who live on the street said, “Pastor John, we have no hope of ever
getting any kind of housing in Austin, Texas.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Our hearts sank. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">After all, what could we
do? Our church already feeds over 250 people every Saturday morning and clothes
over 100. We provide programs on Thursday afternoon for street youth and we
contribute to the Micah 6 Food Bank. We’re maxed out. Every congregation in the
University area does incredible things to help alleviate poverty, but
affordable housing? That was so far beyond our reach as to be unimaginable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Following that meeting, we
learned of a new bond that was being proposed for the 2012 election that would
provide $78 million for affordable housing, including some funding for
permanent supportive housing for our homeless friends. The last bonds passed in
2006 helped pay for the construction, renovation and repair of 3400 homes. The
investment for the city brought in almost $150 million and created over 3000
construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs. How could this possible fail?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Unfortunately, the 2012
bond did fail by a very slim margin (1.5% of voters) and the funds for
affordable housing have almost run dry. But there are still 38,000 families
that can’t find a home they can afford in Austin and more than 2,000 homeless
students in AISD schools. Low income families typically cut back on food and
medical expenses, and move often, which makes it difficult for their children
to do well in school. They’re also more likely to become homeless, which puts
added stress on our thin infrastructure that provides shelter and services for
the homeless. Doing nothing is not a solution without its own very human costs.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As people of faith, what
is our calling? The Old Testament prophet Micah asks the same question: “What
does God require?” And the answer begins, “To act justly.” If we follow our
faith, we will be pushed out of the relative comfort of charity into the tricky
work of doing justice. We will dare to move beyond simply giving a cup of cold
water to consider systems of injustice. We will be drawn into that
uncomfortable mix of faith and politics, where we practice our religious
tradition’s deepest teachings by challenging policies and advocating for
programs that seek the fullness of life for all human beings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-31026357459719155252013-08-30T19:26:00.000-07:002013-08-30T19:26:53.774-07:00Rally for 15<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Yesterday was the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the March on Washington and much of the focus has been on freedom and civil rights and rightly so. This was a large part of what that march was all about. But there was a second component of that march that is often left out—it was a march for jobs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For Dr. King, those two things—jobs and freedom—were intimately connected. There cannot be human equality without economic equality. What good does it do, he asked, to have an integrated lunch counter if a person can’t afford to buy a hamburger?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fifty years later, that hope for jobs that would pay living wages is still a distant dream for many.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fifty years later, not only corporations have let you down. Your faith communities have let you down.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The scriptures of my tradition, the Old and New Testaments, could not be clearer about the exploitation and the underpayment of workers. </span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> The prophet Jeremiah writes: </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“Woe to him . . . who makes neighbors work for nothing and does not give them their wages” (Jeremiah 22:13). Woe to him, meaning that the judgment, the wrath of God is upon those who do not pay their workers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">And in the letter of James in the New Testament, there’s this: “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4).</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> Your cries today reach the ears of God and call for an answer, for redress, for action!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We have ignored these troublesome parts of our heritage. We have talked about spiritual things in our faith communities and have forgotten that you cannot separate a person’s work from their soul. We have imagined that when Jesus said love your neighbor that he meant, be nice to them. Not pay them fair wages that keep up with the cost of living and that allow them a life of dignity and in safety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We talk in our communities about the importance of getting a job and finding meaningful work, of work as a way out of poverty. And yet it seems that we have created instead work that keeps people in poverty. We have let you down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Over the last 50 years, we have stood idly by while the gap between the rich and the poor in our nation has widened into a vast canyon and poverty has spiraled out of control.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Every Saturday morning at my church, University UMC, we serve close to 300 people brunch, and we clothe another 100 folks, and the stories I hear make me incredibly sad and tired. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I’m tired of hearing the stories of folks who have jobs but who do not have enough even for the daily necessities of life. I’m tired of hearing about folks who work two jobs and can’t make ends meet. I’m tired of hearing folks who have low paying minimum wage jobs tell me that they have to choose between housing and food, because they don’t have enough for both. If I’m tired of hearing about it, I can’t imagine how incredibly tired are the folks I’m listening to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Are you tired?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Forty-five years ago, Dr. King came to Memphis, TN to march in support of sanitation workers who were seeking the very same things you all are seeking today. Better wages and a better life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And people were saying then what they’re saying now. Let’s not rush into things, Dr. King. Let’s give this some time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Dr. King said: Now is the time. <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God’s children …. Now is the time for justice to roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Now is the time.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 17.77777862548828px;"> When is the time? Now is the ti</span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">me. Thank you.</span></span></div>
John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-78187190827297256162013-06-24T13:56:00.000-07:002013-06-24T13:56:52.374-07:00Ministry and Power<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>(A guest blog by Rev. Ginny Hathaway)</i></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">We know that in the UMC we
have a bifocal approach to a call to ministry. We affirm that God calls
persons into the ministry; but we also affirm that the Church has an important
role in calling the called into ordained ministry in a denomination. We,
in the UMC, have a very particular process for that and a structure that
carries the responsibility for that process. But, if we are a community of
discipleship, a community of persons intent on following Jesus, then it is
necessary for there to be mutuality in that structure and process.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">We
still struggle with the role of power in our institution. I believe that
"community" is characterized by a dedication to radical equality and
lived out grace if it is to be true to the vocation of faithfulness to Jesus.
Power must be exercised as power for others and power with others. If it is
exercised as power over others, then it is not faithful to its role in the
faith community.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">In his
book on the subject, "Church, Charism, and Power" Leonardo Boff talks
of power in community as being faithful only when it is conferred in recognition
of the gifts persons have for administration, for instance, or the ordering of the
work of the institution. Those gifts are called into the service of the faith
community. The position in which a person is called to exercise his or
her gifts does not make that person better than, superior to, or more powerful
than anyone else in the community. So any individual or group in whom
particular responsibilities might be vested has a calling to be very, very
careful about how they exercise their responsibilities in mutuality, with grace
and humility.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Here
is where I particularly take issue with the Board of Ordained Ministry of our
conference (Southwest Texas) and their decision to remove Mary Ann from
candidacy. If they had an understanding of faithful exercise of power with and
for the community which they serve in the capacity in which they have been
called to responsibility, they might have drawn back from the way they did
relate to Mary Ann and found a more grace-full process. It stuns me that a
group of persons who profess Christian values would not feel any responsibility
to get to know Mary Ann. They would have been the better for seeking to
understand what gifts she brought to the faith community that resulted in two
churches and two districts recommending her as a candidate. They owed her, if
they had any concept of their duty being to be in a relationship of mutuality
with candidates, a process in which they heard from her about her call, in
which they were in dialogue with her about her desire to be in ministry, about
her faith and commitment. They owed it to themselves to get to know her. They
had an absolute responsibility, if they were to dare to exercise the kind of
responsibility they are given by the Conference, to spend time and effort with
her, to see what they all had to offer each other.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Given
the wording of the Discipline, I can't help but think the Board would have
assumed they would get to the point of turning her down eventually; but there
could have been and should have been a long road to travel between now and
"eventually". There should have been a willingness on their part to
travel that road together with Mary Ann. There should have been enough openness
and imagination in persons invested with such consequential duties to want to
learn about this person, to listen to her, to respect her voice.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">No
one, no group should have the heavy responsibility that the Board has if they
are inclined to make decisions without dialogue, if they feel they can exercise
power without doing the work of relationship, if they hold themselves apart
from or above the possibility of growing with and learning from those who
entrust their love for the Church and the work of ministry to them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">It is
sad for the Church and its future that its servants would deal with such a
gifted candidate and such a complex issue and such a continuing struggle in the
institution with what appears to be an utter disrespect for Mary Ann's call, an
obliviousness to the possibilities and imperative of a relational approach to
this situation that would enable them to be better stewards of their duties,
and an inability to imagine that they might yet have something to learn and
some growing edges, whatever the individual perspectives and opinions of
various members might be.</span></span></div>
John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-35784863777974748832013-02-22T14:22:00.000-08:002013-02-22T14:22:11.035-08:00The Food Stamp Challenge, Part 2<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">This Sunday, we’ll be
gathering after late worship to talk about the Food Stamp Challenge that some
of us have either completed or are going to try as a Lenten practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I discovered that enough
people have taken on the challenge that it’s now thing. There’s even a Wikipedia
article on the challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The challenge is not
without controversy. Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, NJ, took the challenge and
many dismissed it as a political stunt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Some of the “learnings” I’ve
read about from the challenge fall in the category of stuff we should know if
we had been paying attention or listening to friends and neighbors who’ve been
on (or are on) food stamps. Like, people on food stamps don’t go out to
restaurants. They don’t drink lattes. They don’t buy organic food. Really?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">What I’ve been forced to
think about is how my attempt to eat on $63 a week for two is not anything like
what it would really be like for someone who has lived for a significant period
of their life in poverty. I’m cutting back on certain foods and making
different choices, but I have all kinds of material and immaterial benefits
that they don’t have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve also been pushed to
think more deeply about the whole idea of Lenten practices. Why do we put
ourselves through these ordeals? Is this a carry-over from more severe disciplines
of the medieval church? Is this just another way of covering over my Protestant
guilt? I did my thing for the poor with this challenge, so I’m good for the
rest of the year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Is it the intention that
helps us move beyond Lent as a competitive sport? Is there a way to bring more
mindfulness to Lent so that it moves beyond the simple acts of giving this up
or taking that on to something deeper and clearer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I like what Nadia Bolz-Weber
says about Lent: “<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Lent is about
looking at our lives in as bright a light as possible, the light of Christ, to
illumine that which moth and rust can consume and which thieves can
steal. It is during this time of self-reflection and sacrificial
giving and prayer that we make our way through the over grown and tangled mess
of our lives. We trudge through the lies of our death-denying culture to seek
the simple weighty truth of who we really are.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 14pt;">I</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> hope you’ll join me for
conversation this Sunday about the food stamp challenge, about Lent and about
the wider subjects of spiritual disciplines and Christian spirituality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-70168016279544588732013-02-16T18:32:00.001-08:002013-02-16T18:32:53.461-08:00The Lenten Challenge Begins<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some of you have joined
the UUMC Lenten Challenge to buy groceries for the week based on the guidelines
for families living on food stamps. For the two of us here at the parsonage, that’s
$63 for a week’s worth of groceries.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m not sure I can
remember a time when we came back from a full hour of grocery shopping and the
bill was under $100. Clearly some things will have to change. And I’m going to
guess—just a wild guess at this point—that there will be ALL KINDS of
uncomfortable revelations along the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So, day one: planning. Many
questions surface. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">How much does stuff cost?
This sounds horrible, but I don’t pay a lot of attention to prices. I do
compare prices, but I have no idea how much a gallon of milk or even a jar of
peanut butter costs. This is privilege, sticking its tongue out at me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">There are lots of
technical questions, Pharisaical questions, about how to work out the cost of
eating over the week. Like: what do I do with the leftover food in the
refrigerator? (eat it) Do I count the cereal that I already have, but I’m going
to use, or just the new stuff? (figure it in) If I don’t use the Half-and-Half
in my coffee, it will go bad, and that would be a waste, right? (right)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">This morning we created
some menus for the week. We had to be much more detailed than we usually are,
because we’ll be buying everything we’re eating. A whole chicken is the
centerpiece of our cuisine and it will be recycled through three different
evening meals. My old school lunch box favorite, PB&J, will get us through
lunch. And for me, it will be cold cereal and bananas in the morning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We have a grocery list,
but we have no idea how much everything costs. (see above) So shopping will be
a bit more confusing and time-consuming. Usually we divide and conquer. I
remember explaining our process to a young woman checking us out. She thought
it was so cool that we split up the list and then met at the cashier. Don’t all
old married couples do this? (My list is longer, but Linda takes on the stuff
that I would never find in a million years.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We’re also bringing a
calculator. If we fill our basket up and the total is $63.31, it’s back down
the aisles to make some adjustments (and buy cheap stuff that is bad for us).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As we worked through the
planning, I found myself saying, “It’s only for a week. We can do anything for
a week.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><sigh> The face of
privilege again. With a big question mark that hangs over the week. What will you do with what you’ve learned? <o:p></o:p></sigh></span></div>
John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-20318199409946867332013-01-02T12:53:00.001-08:002013-01-02T20:46:59.213-08:00Why Don't You Just Leave<br />
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Today, I’m grateful for the Reconciling Ministries movement that
allows congregations, who respectfully disagree with their denominational
teachings excluding LGBT folks, to remain in the fold as the loyal opposition.</div>
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As I wrote these words, I wonder how truly loyal I am to the
wider United Methodist Church. If I were choosing a church today with my
commitments to justice and equality, I wonder if I would choose a UMC
congregation. There’s much about this church I love, but the unrelenting turn
of the church over the last thirty years away from social justice and toward
biblical fundamentalism and disciplinary legalism is disturbing. </div>
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What brought this reflection on was a comment I often hear from church folks about my
stance toward gays and lesbians. “Why don’t you just leave.” I omit the
question mark, because it always feels more imperative than interrogative.</div>
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Just leave the United Methodist Church. Like it would be so
easy to pick up and move to another state, away from family that we care for
and support. Like it would be so easy to move into another denomination, go
through the certification processes and become pastors of a church. Like it
would be so easy to leave the church that has become my home. </div>
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This makes me wonder what kind of a church tells its pastors
and parishioners, “You just need to leave.” <br />
<br /></div>
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Perhaps it’s a church that told lay and clergy, who marched
for civil rights, if you want African-Americans in our church, you need to get out of town and
start your own church. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Perhaps it’s a church that told women back in the 1920s who marched
for equal rights or women in the 1940s who pushed for the ordination of women, you
need to find another church. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Perhaps it’s a church that told lay people back in the day,
if you want to be represented along with clergy at annual meetings, maybe you
should join another church. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Or maybe it’s a church that told the whole denomination, if
you want to free the slaves, then we’re out of here. </div>
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<br /></div>
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We have this dream in the UMC that we were at the forefront
of civil rights struggles, and while that was certainly true in some individual
cases, as a denomination, we have come kicking and screaming into every battle
for civil rights. Today our churches remain highly segregated along racial
lines and essentially closed to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.
Power flows top-down from bishops and clergy, and suspicion of female pastors
and female leadership remains. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Until the United Methodist Church fully faces this heritage
of discrimination, we will continue to proclaim a broken gospel, one where our
speech does not match our words and actions, and where we let “spiritual concerns”
trump real world concerns, as if the two could ever be separated. </b></div>
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For my part, as a UMC pastor who plans to stay and preach
and live in the UMC, here’s my new year’s resolution. I will continue to proclaim the whole gospel
to the best of my ability, and I will listen and respond to those on the
margins. I will find ways to open the church to those who have been so long
excluded, and I will walk in that gospel way one day at a time. I invite you to
join me. </div>
John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-4000873845628208242012-11-05T07:05:00.001-08:002012-11-05T07:05:35.070-08:00Keep Austin Compassionate<br />
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What kind of city are we? </div>
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<br /></div>
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When I travel and say I’m from Austin, people gush about
our city. “I love Austin!” “Austin is such an awesome city!” “I wish I lived in
Austin!”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Recently, Forbes listed Austin as first among US cities in
economic growth and Yahoo Finance said Austin was the most popular city for
college grads. </div>
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<br /></div>
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From the outside, we look really great. But that begs the
question: What really makes a city great?</div>
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Last April, as a member of Austin Interfaith, I had the
opportunity to accompany several City Council members, staff and
representatives from Austin non-profits on a visit to the Chapman Partnership
in Miami, Fla. The partnership operates two facilities in Dade County that
provide comprehensive services for the homeless, including shelter, day care,
job training and housing assistance. Homelessness has been drastically reduced
through the work of this amazing organization. </div>
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Trish Bell, chairwoman of the Chapman Partnership board,
spoke at a banquet for our Austin entourage. She said that what makes a city
great is not exciting sports teams (like the Miami Heat) or generous donors
(like Alvah Chapman) but the degree to
which a city is willing to help the poorest among them with dignity and
compassion. </div>
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On election day, we have an incredible opportunity to
continue making Austin a great city for everyone. Three ballot items –
Proposition 15 and related Propositions 14 and 17 -- directly address the
shortage of affordable housing and medical care for the poor. These
propositions, which are part of a $385 million City of Austin bond proposal,
will cause no increase in local property taxes.
</div>
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Proposition 15 will provide $78.3 million for affordable
housing for veterans, low-income seniors, the disabled, the homeless and their
families. Passage of this bond allows the city to continue a number of programs
for low-and middle-income persons, including rental assistance, home ownership
grants and loans, home repair and infrastructure improvements. More funding
will be available for transitional and permanent supportive housing for the
homeless. </div>
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Are these programs really needed in Austin? The simple
answer: Yes.</div>
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Rental and housing affordability has risen steeply in
recent years, which makes housing in Austin out of reach for many working
families. According to the U.S. Census, during the past 10 years the poverty
rate among seniors has increased by 42 percent in Central Texas. Approximately
24 percent of workers in Austin earn less than $13.50 an hour. Almost 10,000
homeowners here live at or below the poverty level. </div>
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Who are these people? They are cafeteria workers,
janitors, cabbies, bus drivers, day care workers and home health attendants.
Surely great cities help make available decent, safe and affordable housing for
everyone -- especially for the folks we depend upon daily. </div>
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In addition, Proposition 15 would provide funds for the
most vulnerable among us, for those who have lost their homes or who are
chronically homeless and in need of support services to stabilize their lives and
work toward self-sufficiency. </div>
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But will it work? Housing Works of Austin commissioned an
economic impact study which showed that the 2006 Housing Bond of $55 million
brought more than $800 million to the city of Austin. Housing Works estimates that more than 3,000
affordable homes have been added since the last bond, along with critical
repairs for 600 low-income homeowners. These bonds have helped more than 200
first-time home owners and thousands of renters. </div>
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Propositions 14 and 17 also stand to make positive impacts
on the poor in our community. Proposition 14 is a $78.6 million bond
designed to improve public parks, recreation centers and trails. It will provide
funding for much needed expansions at the Dove Creek Recreation Center, which
features programs and activities for low-income families. </div>
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And Proposition
17, an $11.1 million bond for health and human services, will let the city
expand shelter services for women and children. The recent creation of “Safe Sleep
Shelter” by a coalition of downtown and university-area churches, providing
emergency shelter for about 40 to 50 women each night, demonstrates the need
for increased shelter for Austin women. </div>
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</div>
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The ballot this year is long, so when you arrive at your
polling booth, please take time to scroll down to the propositions. Let’s
continue working together to keep Austin compassionate. I hope you’ll join me and Austin Interfaith in
voting YES on Propositions 14, 15 and 17.</div>
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John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-87563767255944449532012-08-04T13:55:00.003-07:002012-08-04T13:55:39.032-07:00Roots with Fruits<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Guest blogger is Nolan Nichols, a member of University UMC, a firefighter and a fairly new convert to vegetarianism. Thanks, Nolan, for sharing some of your spiritual journey and how it connects with the things we do every day. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Let your good thoughts
grow into good actions. </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #001320;">The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need
you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."</span></i><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"> (Corinthians 12:21)</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"> One cannot say that one
dancer is more important than the other; the beauty is in the two moving
together. Which are more important the fruits or the roots of a tree? </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">(As you read on, feel free to interchange
the words, Love and God, as I have come to know one as the other.)</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What about the roots
and fruits of life? Root of your life, ground yourself, in the soil of love.<i> </i>Let your thoughts and attitudes grow
from there. You must be rooted and grow from a firm foundation of love. From
this nutritious soil love can grow into all the branches of your life.
Spreading off the branches of your life should be the fruit or action of love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the last year I
have truly enjoyed a vegetarian diet. It is love that prompted my dietary
switch. It was not the health, financial, or environmental benefits of
vegetarianism that prompted my decision, but love’s caring grip that held me to
my path. It has been a daily cultivation, maintenance of a penetrable heart,
opening, and accepting of love that has formed the fruit of a peaceful diet. Being
vegetarian is not the goal, but is a fruit of love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My diet is a constant
source of humility. If we look creatively we can be peaceful. Peaceful, with
what some call our “God given food.” Animals and people have been dignified in
this decision. When it comes to your diet, your interpretation of this blog,
your first step into action, trust your intuition. Trust in love. For those
adventuring into vegetarianism: find perseverance, find righteousness, and
don’t becoming self righteous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There will always be
people who accuse you of not growing in the right direction. Do not worry. There
will be someone who spotlights some gnarled branch of your life. There will be
someone who wants your tree to look like theirs. “You should be vegan. You should eat meat.
Animals were put on this earth for us. There is a speck in your eye.” Come to
peace with the inevitability of misplaced judgment. Do not be swayed by the hot
winds of those around you, but continue to lean towards the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Enjoy the springing
forth of sweetness in your life. Go vegetarian, walk, meditate, sing, give a
hug, give a present, give a word of encouragement, take a handout, take a
friend to dinner, take a stranger to dinner, let love grow into fruition. The
goal is not to have a well pruned little tree of life. Grow a great big
expansive loving tree. Let love branch out in all directions and reach yourself
skyward and the fruit we bear will nurture us with goodness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-65682112474256123472012-07-11T20:47:00.000-07:002012-07-11T20:47:18.246-07:00Summer Reading<br />
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At University UMC, the rhythm of the year cannot help but
imitate the rhythm of the university (University of Texas) year. (Isn’t there a
parable about when the elephant moves, the mice scamper?) So, yes, while we
strive to be liturgical and follow the Christian year, when the university
shuts down, we all kind of shut down as well. </div>
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<br /></div>
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For me, it means fewer meetings and emails (yay!) and
more time to enjoy family (mostly by skype these days) to take in great music
in Austin, to enjoy food with friends and to get in some great summer reads.</div>
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Here’s six from my summer list; I’ve read the first four
and have just begun the final two. </div>
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<b>Free Will, by Sam
Harris <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Harris is one of a trinity of writers that I and others call
the “evangelical atheists.” The other two are the late Christopher Hitchens (“God
is Not Great”) and the biologist Richard Dawkins (“The God Delusion”). Harris’s
book explores the idea that what we normally
think of as free will is a fiction. His claim is that to speak of human
beings having free will makes no sense. How, then, does one develop any kind of
morality or hold people accountable for their actions, if they’re not
free? Good question. Harris takes it up
with energy and style and it’s a short read. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>The Age of
Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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What would happen if the earth began to revolve at a
slower pace and the days and nights lengthened? This is Walker’s first novel, a well-written ,
surprisingly hopeful sci-fi tale. The book inevitably shadows questions in
light of global warming and the changes being wrought in the earth of reality. </div>
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<b>The Power of
Parable, by John Dominic Crossan<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Crossan is perhaps the premier New Testament scholar in
our time, one of the best at taking a complex biblical topic and breaking it
down. The subtitle is “How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus.”
Crossan is interested not just in re-describing the parables of Jesus, but
finding their pre-cursors in several books of the Old Testament. And then
taking whole gospels as parables, that have an implied challenge or even attack.
So, for example, Matthew’s gospel becomes an attack parable on a brand of
Pharisaic Judaism that is in important ways in tension with the tenets of Jesus
in Matthew’s gospel. All in all, a fascinating, if at times far-fetched,
journey with a great scholar. </div>
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<b>Take This Bread,
by Sara Miles.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Miles was the keynote speaker at the Washington Island
Forum that Linda and I attended last month, an annual event sponsored by the
Wisconsin Council of Churches. Miles was
a late convert to Christianity, wooed into St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church
by communion. A former chef and war correspondent, Miles sensed a calling to
start up a food bank for all-comers. And so the adventure with Jesus follows, filled
with some incredible characters and stories. And prayers: “O God of abundance, you feed us
every day. Rise in us now, make us into your bread, That we may share your
gifts with a hungry world, And join in love with all people, through Jesus
Christ our Lord.”</div>
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<b>James Cook: Master
of the Seas, by Frank McLynn<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Magisterial biography of Captain James Cook and his three
voyages circumnavigating the globe in the late 18<sup>th</sup> century. McLynn
gives just enough background to make it fascinating without getting bogged
down. Cook is an amazing study of indefatigability and leadership. </div>
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<b>2052: A Global Forecast
for the Next Forty Years, by Jorgen Randers<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Forty years ago, Randers and his colleagues at MIT
produced <i>The Limits to Growth</i>, which
was essentially a scenario analysis designed to answer the question, “What will
happen over the next 130 years if
humanity decides to follow certain policies?”
It was not, however, predictive<i>. 2052</i>
is a broad forecast of what Randers and others believe is the probably global
evolution in areas like population, climate, food and economics. Despite the
fact that Randers believes that humanity will not change its ways, he remains
hopeful about the future. Hmmm … </div>
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<b>What’s on your summer reading list?<o:p></o:p></b></div>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-50063905718197946032012-07-03T07:07:00.000-07:002012-07-03T07:07:57.872-07:00<br />
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<b>The Strangeness of
the Gospel<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A couple of months ago, I had a Sunday off and it
coincided with a visit to Austin by Dr. Schubert Ogden, renowned process
theologian and emeritus Professor of Theology at Perkins School of Theology on
the SMU campus. </div>
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While I still try to read theology and did attend a
process theology conference back in January, I’d pretty much lost track of
Ogden. His writing, even when I was a grad student working with him, was always
pretty heady, heavy stuff. Ogden loves to pile on the qualifiers so that you
understand exactly what he’s saying and what he’s not saying. Or you quickly
get lost and have absolutely no idea what he’s saying at all. </div>
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Robert Hall, senior pastor at Tarrytown UMC, invited
Ogden to answer questions as a kind of Sunday sermon. At the service I attended, some of the
questions were written by kids. He not only gave wonderful answers, he wrote
out answers to everyone who sent in questions.</div>
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My experience of Ogden in grad school was just a tad
different, and so it was a pleasure to see this pastoral side. Back in the day,
Ogden was so passionate about theology and so rigorous in methodology that
sloppy thinking was carved up like sushi. </div>
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One person asked him about other religions. What about
someone who hears the gospel and still continues in their religious tradition? What’s
their fate? Ogden was clear that Christians don’t have a monopoly on the truth.
</div>
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But then he talked about what it might look like for
someone outside Christianity to hear the claim that Jesus makes, the gift and
the demand of God’s grace. <b>Given all of
the things that they might have heard about Christians and about Jesus, it
might be very difficult, perhaps almost impossible for them to hear that claim
in the same way that we hear it in our context. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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All of which led me to wonder about folks who have only
heard the message of our consumer-oriented, American culture-affirming,
flag-waving, prosperity-gospel Christianity buzzing in the background. What do they hear when they come by my church?
Can they ever get beyond a Christianity suffocated by a set of impossible
beliefs that must be believed to hear about the Jesus I know, the one who offers
a way of life of truly radical freedom? </div>
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<b>How do we get that
word across in a culture that understands Christianity as homophobic,
judgmental and hypocritical?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-51189061214186841562012-06-13T20:00:00.001-07:002012-06-13T20:00:31.416-07:00An Impassioned Response to GC 2012(A post from Jeff Sturgeon, lay member of Travis Park UMC in San Antonio, following the General Conference report at the SWTX Annual Conference last week.)<br />
<br />
Bishop Dorff, brothers and sisters of the annual conference... I stand before you as a United Methodist with a long history with the Church. My grandparents, parents and siblings are Methodist. My neices and nephews are forming their own identies within the United Methodist Church. I graduated from a United Methodist related university. I have served my local church in many ways. This history has shaped who I am.
<br />
<br />
I stand before you hurting... smarting from pain, frustration and confusion that was General Conference 2012.
And I stand before you as a gay United Methodist.
I know my pain is not unique; many feel battered and bruised that yet again our General Conference has failed to advance to full inclusion in the church of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.<br />
<br />
This hurt comes from several directions:
It hurts me personally that because I am homosexual, the full life of the church is not available to me.
It hurts me that because I am in a same gender loving relationship, the value of that relationship can not be affirmed.
It hurts my family and friends to see the United Methodist Church respond to me in this way.
And it hurts the Church. It hurts the vitality of the church when GLBT members and their families leave the church. We can not create a culture of growth when certain people are excluded from that growth.
It hurts the church when we cann't even agree to disagree on divisive, hard issues and every one takes opposing sides.<br />
<br />
My friends have asked why I stay in the church. Quite frankly, I did leave. But God didn't leave me alone and has continued to call, push, pull and shove me back into the fold.<br />
<br />
And it hurts the mission of the church. We heard yesterday from Rev. Rendle that the culture around us has changed! The mission field has changed! And they are watching us. Those who are under thirty, see the church's position and behavior as "mean-spirited", not spirit lead.<br />
<br />
I was inspired by Rev. Rendle's use of the quote from St. Augustine that hope has two daughters, anger and courage. I can not stay only in anger and neither can the church. We must, with God's power and the example of Jesus, move forward in courage.
I know that the annual conference can not change the policies of the United Methodist Church. But I know that each person here knows someone in your local church who is like my grandmother, my parents, my brother and sisters, my neices and nephews... like me because all of us are in your churches. How will you express God's love? What will be your Christ-like response to my family and those like me? Thank you, BishopJohn Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-65391269562538190172012-01-01T14:31:00.000-08:002012-01-01T14:35:01.995-08:00Searching for Jesus on Wall StreetSo what do you make of the occupation of Wall Street by thousands of protestors in the last half of 2012, and the sympathetic rallies in many cities around the country, even around the world, including right here in Austin, Texas?<br /><br />If you listen to some of the talking heads, this is an inchoate group of young people who could be working but aren’t and instead are breaking the laws and calling for an end to corporations, the very entities that might be able to provide them with jobs. <br /><br />My sense is that we avoid engagement with the occupy movements at our peril. Yes, the issues are all over the map, but there are several central themes that can be teased out. Sadly, they’re themes that are central to Christian theology, themes that most of the church has been sitting on for years and has either been silent or contrarian. <br /><br />At the center is the call for a transformation of values, a shift away from global capitalism and the power of multinational corporations toward the values of community, local economies and real democracy. It’s a radical shift that Dr. King described in a speech where he broke silence and denounced U.S. involvement in Vietnam. King said: <br /><br />“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”<br /><br />The income inequalities that exist in our country, that are described in the occupy signs stating that “We are the 99%,” are at the highest levels since right before the Great Depression. Turn to almost any prophetic book in scripture, and it’s crystal clear that God is also concerned about inequality between rich and poor. Inequality quickly has quickly turned to injustice as those who have enormous fiscal resources have squandered their wealth on speculation, creating a veritable wasteland for everyone else. <br />If the Occupy movement has done nothing else, it’s brought the discussion of social and economic justice out of the closet into the open. It’s adopted values of nonviolence and hospitality and has sought peaceful relations with local authorities, surely values that are right out of the gospels. <br /><br />Over the last few months, the list of what the occupiers are against has grown from moral outrage against the system to include: the funding of college education through student loans, unemployment, lack of healthcare, outsourcing labor overseas, abuse of police power, predatory banking and the sellout of government power to the highest bidders. <br /><br />How has this happened? Harvey Cox, in what has turned out to be something of a prescient essay, named it: the market has become our God. That’s right—good, old-fashioned, Old Testament-style idolatry. The market has been worshipped as unassailable, which means that to criticize free market capitalism, to suggest that regulations on banks are necessary for example, has been seen by market defenders as sacrilege. <br /><br />Lost in all of the back and forth is the notion that there is an economy given by God long before Wall Street, an acknowledgment that there is enough for everyone. Only when we return to some sense that we can all live out of the abundance that God has given us, will there be the moral will to take on the challenges of changing the structures that create such destructive inequalities. <br /><br />I’m thankful for the Occupy movement, for the issues they’ve bravely raised and for their outrage at greed. What do you think? How should the church respond to the Occupy movement?John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-11632095696233828952011-11-28T21:10:00.001-08:002011-11-28T21:17:52.323-08:00A Foreword to George Ricker's new book<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;line-height: 200%; "><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(George Ricker's latest book, <i>More to Think About</i>, comes out this week (Nov. 28). The book will be available, along with several books by other University UMC authors, at our UUMC Authors' Festival on Sunday, December 11 after worship. Here's the Foreword that George so graciously asked me to write.)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Over the last decade, there has been a remarkable resurgence of theological work which attempts to rethink and re-enliven Christianity. Writers from both ends of the spectrum, like Marcus Borg and Brian McLaren, have engaged in the quest for a Christianity that connects with a postmodern culture, yet does not lose the focus on faithfulness to the life and teaching of Jesus. Theologians like John Cobb and Philip Clayton have brought their prodigious intellectual gifts to tracing a new way of doing theology that moves beyond academic jargon to connect with the church and with real life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span"> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Many pastors jumped into the dialogue and joined the vast movement of revitalized thought only to find that we were not the first ones aboard. George Ricker had taken a seat long before us, quietly working through sermons, newspaper columns, Sunday school classes and radio spots, seeking a mature faith that is authentic to the historic witness and also credible to the postmodern, even post-Christian world. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">George is a marvel. At 89, he serves as Pastor Emeritus at University United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, where I currently serve as Senior Pastor, and he continues to teach and write about the meaning of the Christian faith. I first became acquainted with George through his work at UUMC. Back in the 70s, he offered “Lifestyle Studies,” which featured serious reflection on the work of theologians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich and Reinhold Neibuhr. Ever the pastor, though, George’s work always moved beyond theoretical issues to engage day-to-day realities. Long before much critical thought had been given to the full admission of gays and lesbians into the life of the church, George was there, speaking about the openness of the church to homosexual persons as an issue of justice. In the 80s, at the height of the arms race, even though the issue of nuclear disarmament was not popular, George lent his voice to the prophetic call for peace and for an end to the nuclear weapons. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Some might be tempted to pigeon-hole George as just another liberal theologian churning out mainline Protestant dogma. They will be surprised at the different ways he seeks to embrace and honor the opposite pole, even giving thanks, at one point, for religious extremism! The only kind of faith that comes in for harsh critique is one that is narrow and restrictive. And so while “progressive Christianity” may be the name that he favors, the faith that George outlines might better be described as a more expansive and inclusive Christianity. In approaching the issue of the interpretation of scripture, for example, he lifts up a view of the Bible that is “richer, fuller, deeper than it has ever been” thanks to the work of historical analysis and literary criticism. Similarly in writing about world religions, we’re pushed not only to imagine the value in the diversity of religions but we’re pressed to be personally shaped and transformed by the very different beliefs of others. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Particularly in light of the crisis North American Christianity now finds itself in with the growing decline in church membership and attendance, and the burgeoning numbers of those who are either uninterested or openly hostile to church, the practice of rethinking the meaning and the practice of faith is of paramount importance. Few will return to a church that simply repeats the well-worn formulas of days gone by. Undoubtedly some of what George Ricker says will not be popular. Good! The value of <i>More to Think About </i> lies in the summons to wrestle with the faith once given, not as a purely theoretical project, but as a movement of the soul toward a life of meaning and purpose that contributes to the transformation and healing of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p></span><p></p>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-47550428539389939672011-09-05T18:12:00.000-07:002011-09-05T20:30:26.262-07:00The Invisible Man<p class="MsoNoSpacing">My daughter lives out of town and so the times spent running errands together have grown increasingly rare. She had issues with her phone, a few other errands that concluded with smoothies at Jamba Juice on the drag, on her! I’m in!</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">We parked at University UMC and headed down Guadalupe, the heat of the day still radiating, creating wonderful thirst. As we reached the corner, we slowed, pausing to look down at a man asleep on the sidewalk, propped awkwardly up against the storefront. Something about him just did not look right, but we were on a mission.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">We ordered our drinks, including one for the man outside. Her idea. Drinks in hand, we left the store.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">He was flat on his back now and we knelt down to speak to him. His eyes kept rolling around in his head. His speech was slurred. His body was covered in sweat, which had formed a pool under his head.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">I looked at the man, then at Lauren: “I’m calling 911. This guy needs help.”</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">The operator was amazing. A crowd had gathered around us, concerned. Lauren kept talking to him, patting his arm, checking his vital signs. I had trouble hearing the operator, and the man on the sidewalk seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Within minutes, paramedics arrived.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">“Thanks,” one of the firemen said. “We’ve got it from here.”</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">As we walked away, we could hear them. “Jeremy,” they called out. “Jeremy, you need to wake up!”<span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">“Omigosh!” Lauren said. “They know the guy’s name. He’s a frequent flyer.” (A regular.)</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">And now we all know his name, thanks to a smoothie, and the compassionate desire of one person to give a thirsty stranger a refreshing drink. If I’d been out on my own, would I have walked right on by? How many others had walked by Jeremy that evening? <span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Barbara Ehrenreich, in her classic memoir, <i>Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America</i>, writes: “Some odd optical property of our highly polarized and unequal society makes the poor almost invisible to their economic superiors.” (216)<span> </span>Ehrenreich is writing about the aftermath of her year-long journey trying to live on poverty-level wages. “You were <i>where</i>, doing <i>what</i>?” her colleagues asked her. For the professional-managerial class, the ones who make the big decisions and shape opinion, the poor truly are invisible.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">In Acts 9, one story of Paul’s conversion describes how scales fell from his eyes and he could see again.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Dear Jesus, we are still blind. We see the rich and the famous, the bold and the beautiful. But you didn’t say you’d meet us there. You’re with Jeremy and a thousand, thousand others who lie on sidewalks and in back alleys and under bridges. Is it too late in the day for us to be healed? Have we asked one too many times to see? Come, Lord Jesus, come. May scales fall like rain from our eyes. Amen.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-69124728902148657232011-08-09T14:28:00.000-07:002011-08-15T18:32:11.569-07:00The Evolution of God's Perceived Intentions<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small; "><div class="deleteBody"><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); "><i>A guest blog by the Rev. Dr. George M. Ricker, Pastor Emeritus of University United Methodist Church, Austin, Texas</i>
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">In a church periodical some time ago, an author criticizing a progressive view of the homosexual issue wrote: “God’s intentions for sexual behavior are expressed throughout the Bible in a unified voice starting with the creation story.” I had to respond to this obvious misreading of the biblical messages. What follows is my attempt to be clear about what is a non-unified voice about sexuality in the Bible.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">As a start, let us ignore polygamy, Levirate marriage, concubinage, divorce, and male sexual freedom which hardly represent a unified voice. Instead, let us look at same-sex relationships from the perspective of the biblical writers limited version of what God intended.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">God’s intention is imagined by the Hebrew writers, including Paul. We discover by historical analysis and later revelation that the writers were often wrong about God’s intention. Examples are numerous. The purity/dietary laws of Leviticus (chs.18&19) express what the writer thought was God’s intention: no eating of pork, no interbreeding of cattle, no wearing of clothes of different material, no male acting like a woman, etc. God’s intention suffered from the limited perspective of the writer.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">Or, consider the Hebrew treatment of so-called enemies. God’s perceived intention was that all should be killed: men, women, children, cattle, etc. (1 Sam 15:3 ff. & many other passages). Again this perspective of God’s intention came from the limited understanding of a people in a war mode. Even the Psalmist said that God’s intention was to take the enemies children and dash their brains out against the stones.(Ps. 137:9) This is from a writer in Babylonian captivity who hated those who removed them from their homeland.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">Think, too, of Paul’s view of women who thought that it was God’s intention that they should keep silent in the church (1 Cor. 14:34) as well as other restrictions. Would anyone affirm that all these represent God’s intention? In the course of time we have learned that God’s intention was not always what was once conceived, as noted above; or in same-sex sexual behavior. All this needs to be brought into the understanding of God clarifying God’s intention through a continuing revelation in the Jewish and Christian communities (and elsewhere) as historical situations change. Jesus saw that: “You have heard that it was said of old ... but I say to you ... .” (Matt 5:21-22)
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">In addition many writers (including the writer quoted above) play loose with the term “sin” as though this were simply a moral concept. My professor, Paul Tillich, has done more than any other theologian to clarify the meaning of sin. He says in The Shaking of the Foundations that sin is a state before it is an act. What is that state? Separation from self, others, and the Ground of Being (God). Apply that to the homosexual issue.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">Is the homosexual separated from self by homosexual acts? Not if the homosexual is created that way. The evidence mounts that this is so. Is the homosexual separated from others? Not in same-sex committed, consensual relationships. Is the homosexual separated from the Ground of Being, from the creative process that brought us all into being? Not if that person is not a predator and is in a loving relationship.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">Of course, all of us, heterosexuals and homosexuals, are at times separated in one or more of these ways. That separation may lead to immoral or inhumane acts or, as is common to most of us, we find socially acceptable ways of sinning. That is why “There is no one who is righteous, not even one ; ....” (Rom. 3:10, quoting Psalms 14 & 53) To quote homosexual acts simply as sin is a judgment made by those with a very narrow view of sin.
<br />
<br /></p><p class="postBody" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); ">O that we all could be more loving, more accepting of our differences! Tillich’s word in a sermon, from the volume mentioned above, comes from God’s intention expressed in Jesus of Nazareth: “You are accepted!” I hear that word. I hope the homosexual hears that word. And all my readers! Would that I could sin no more, no more be separated from myself, my brothers and sisters, or from God! I and the rest of us are in constant need of forgiveness and acceptance in spite of.</p></div><form action="http://www.blogger.com/post-delete.do" method="POST" id="deletePost" name="deletePost" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); margin-top: 0px; padding-top: 1em; "><div class="cssButtonSize-small cssButtonSide-left" dir="ltr" style="float: left; display: inline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 5px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div class="cssButtonColor-orange" style="float: left; "><a id="submitBtn" class="cssButton" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-delete.g?blogID=4230277033516913627&postID=2780851996625314815" target="" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 1px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px; display: block; position: relative; font-size: small; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em; text-transform: uppercase; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; "><div class="cssButtonOuter" style="float: left; border-top-width: 2px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; position: relative; border-top-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); border-right-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); border-bottom-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); border-left-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); "><div class="cssButtonMiddle" style="float: left; border-top-width: 2px; border-right-width: 2px; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-left-width: 2px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: -1px; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-left: -1px; position: relative; border-top-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); border-right-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); border-bottom-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); border-left-color: rgb(153, 51, 0); "></div></div></a></div></div></form></span>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-2500757292302697262011-08-04T21:17:00.000-07:002011-08-04T21:21:50.961-07:00Good Friday Reflections<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><i>Guest Blogger: Rev. Peter Michael Aguilar (Pastor, FUMC Laredo, Texas)</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">When I meet people and they find out that I live in Laredo, Texas, their concerns are either those of the hot temperature, or of the drug related violence on the border.<span> </span>Unfortunately both are very real concerns; the more pressing is related to drug violence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">As of January 2011, the drug related violence had claimed over 34,000 lives since <span>President Felipe Calderon had taken office</span> and over 15,000 lives in 2010 alone.<span> </span>It is not uncommon to meet people in Laredo who have been affected directly or indirectly by this turmoil.<span> </span>However, very little of the violence trickles into Laredo from our neighbors of Nuevo Laredo, due largely in part to the efforts of Homeland Security and local law enforcement.<span> </span>We share the burden of these struggles with Mexico in that drug sales amount to a $27 billion a year industry, profiting largely from sales in the United States.<span> </span>Besides illegal drugs there is also human trafficking and the sex slave industry.<span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">As a pastor I try to be as the Apostle Paul teaches, “I have become all things to all people…,” which in my context includes those who work in government and law enforcement.<span> </span>They experience some of the worst of humanity.<span> </span>It is a challenge for them to encounter violence and return home to be a loving and caring spouse or parent.<span> </span>Helping them to process unreality through the biblical narrative and prayer nurtures healing and empowers them to live their faith with integrity.<span> </span>Allow me to share a story of how I experienced being all things to all people played out in another venue.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">Earth Day 2011 also happened to fall on Good Friday. <span> </span>I was invited to participate in a Kayak Race on the Rio Grande with several other pastors from Laredo.<span> </span>Three pastors, including me, volunteered. The organizer of the event was sympathetic to the fact that Earth Day and Good Friday fell on the same day and asked if we were interested in having a prayer for peace on the Rio Grande before the race.<span> </span>We thought about inviting our fellow pastors from Nuevo Laredo to join us on a pontoon to lift up a prayer for peace. Earth Day/Good Friday arrived. Pastors Mike, Paul and I stood on the pontoon and waited for our colleagues who unfortunately never arrived.<span> </span>We later found out that some did not join us for fear of threats from Drug Cartels.<span> </span>We prayed for them, for those who sell the drugs, the drug consumers, and those under the oppression of violence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">Praying on that pontoon for peace was an act of subversion, much like Jesus’ journey to the cross was an act of subversion.<span> </span>Acts of subversion come in many forms.<span> </span>It can be the church militant that marches to raise awareness of injustice; it can be the Word prophetic that challenges our comfortable assumptions of how we live our faith.<span> </span>And, subversion can be the church incarnate where we labor to bring healing, relieve suffering and model peace in the midst of evil.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">Abraham Joshua Heschel refers to prayer as the home for the soul.<span> </span>The greatest act of subversion against the principalities and powers of darkness is prayer.<span> </span>Prayer precludes anything we do in the name of Christ Jesus because it helps us discern the desires of God. It anchors our soul in the certain hope of God’s presence and gives us the confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord as Romans 8:37-39 teaches.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left">I invite you to do something subversive for Jesus.<span> </span>Let your act of subversion begin with prayer before all else.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><i><br /></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><o:p> </o:p></p>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-44303817485550023282011-07-25T08:17:00.000-07:002011-07-25T08:19:55.796-07:00Speaking of ImmigrationAfter the last (Texas) legislative session and the raft of anti-immigrant bills, I’ve been thinking more about immigration lately—in particular, the wave of Hispanic immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border. Since many of the laws have been proposed by legislators who flash their Christian credentials, I’ve wondered whether one could really argue that harsh anti-immigration bills are Christian. (By the way, the sub-title of this blog could be: “How to Talk with your Fundamentalist Brother(Sister)-in-law about Immigration.”)<br /><br />So I picked up a neat book, <i>Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church and the Bible</i>, by M. Daniel Carroll R., who teaches both at Denver Seminary and El Seminario Teologico Centroamericano in Guatemala, a Christian scholar with feet in both worlds, for some guidance.<br /><br />Christians at the Border offers an overview of Hispanic immigration in the context of other immigrations to the U.S., especially in terms of its impact on cultural identity, economics and the church. This is followed by a survey of what the Bible has to say about immigration. There is, after all, a surprising wealth of material in both testaments about immigrants and refugees. He concludes with some implications and hopes for the future.<br /><br />If you’re looking for something that lays out where we need to go legislatively or that recounts in detail the social and economic impact of Hispanic immigration, you’re not going to find it here. Carroll has a much more focused, but no less important purpose.<br /><br />“<i>Christians at the Border</i>,” he says, “above all else strives to motivate believers of the majority culture and Hispanics to begin thinking, talking, and acting as Christians in regard to immigration” (138). Given the heightened rhetoric of the last couple of years, perhaps Carroll might have reconsidered the notion of getting Christians to behave like Christians.<br /><br />So how does this thesis actually play out? Let’s jump right to the heart of the matter, to the whole question of undocumented immigrants. Many Christians have argued that these folks are here illegally, they’re breaking the law and they should expect to suffer the consequences. As Carroll puts it at one point, “What is it about illegal that you don’t understand?”<br /><br />However, Carroll rightly points out that the law, in this case an argument from Romans 13, is not the starting point for Christians. We begin with an appreciation of the myriad migration experiences of God’s people and the history in practice and in law of hospitality toward strangers and sojourners in the Old Testament. Then we look to the ministry of Jesus, particularly his ethic of compassion toward the hated Samaritans, as a model for how to behave toward the immigrant. While none of these Biblical examples translates into a particular law, the weight of the Biblical witness certainly tilts the table in a clear direction, toward grace and compassion.<br /><br />After all of this as context, Carroll hopes that when we finally return to the issue of law, to the "confused contradictory and unfair set of laws" that constitutes our current immigration laws, we might be moved to ask a different question, namely, about whether we need a new set of laws based on theological, pragmatic and humanitarian concerns.<br /><br />I hope that Carroll’s book gets a wide reading, especially in the conservative evangelical world. It’s always a good thing to remind those of us who call ourselves people of the book what the book actually says.John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-2057237417031375032011-07-16T09:56:00.000-07:002011-07-16T09:59:36.306-07:00Dust-up in the Evangelical Blogger WorldSometimes my listening, pastoral side gets the better of me. The side that wants to hear people out, even if it’s something that I completely disagree with. For example, I’ve heard people say for years that the church—in this case the mainline church (that frankly needs a new name, because we’re really not “mainline” anymore)—must move beyond the issues of lesbians and gays. That there are more important issues out there. That calling lesbians and gays, many of whom are white, upper middle class, marginalized is a stretch. And so on. <br /><br />And then I came across this. Mark Driscoll, hugely popular evangelical pastor of Mars Hill mega-church in Seattle, posted this little “gem” on Facebook: “So, what story do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you've ever personally witnessed?” <br /><br />I kid you not. It’s 2011, and a formidable leader in the mega-church world actually posted this question on his FB page, receiving 87 likes and 610 comments. <br /><br />Rachel Held Evans, an excellent emergent Christian author, took Driscoll to task on her blog: “Mark Driscoll is a bully. Stand up to him.” <br /><br />“Mark has developed a pattern of immaturity and unkindness that has remained largely unchecked by his church. In evangelical circles, he’s like the kid from high school who makes crude jokes at every opportunity, uses the words “gay” and “queer” to describe the things he most detests, encourages his friends to subject the unpopular kids to ridicule, and belittles the guys who aren’t “macho” or “manly” enough to be in his club.”<br /><br />In a non-apology that followed his being called on the carpet by a host of angels in the evangelical blogger world, Driscoll explained the source of the question. His elders asked him to do better, to talk about “real issues with real content.” Which is an odd response in itself. Is the issue of gender identity and sexual orientation not a real issue? Are we not talking, after all, about real people who attend our churches?<br /><br />After skimming my way through this strange exchange, I came away convinced that “the issues underlying the issues,” as Driscoll dubs them, are issues that most of us, evangelical and mainline, would love to shove under the carpet. We don’t really want to talk about gender and sex in the church, because, you know, they’re not polite topics. And there is so much shame associated with them for so many of us, that we have to move mountains even to engage the conversation. And so instead we join in “creative” theological rationalizations to shove the issue aside, claiming it’s not worthy of serious conversation. (By the way, Driscoll promises more talk about the issues and I have to give him credit for addressing them. However, based on what I’ve seen and heard, I have little hope that his take will move beyond exclusion and bigotry.) <br /><br />However awkward and out of place this may feel in the church, this is a conversation that’s absolutely necessary. It’s a conversation that’s not going away and one where, frankly, culture is way of ahead of the churches. And it’s no more or less important than the dozens of other issues that the church is unwilling to face. Economic injustice and the growing obscene gap between the wealthiest and the poorest Americans. The untouchable U.S. Defense Budget and the growing prospect that we will have to start eating tanks. Ignoring our homeless brothers and sisters, most of whom are baptized Christians. Just to name a few. <br /><br />We may need first to back up and create a safe space for conversation. But let’s not avoid the conversation altogether in the interest of preserving some kind of fake peace and unity that masks deeper divisions in the way we look at the world and that obscures the Biblical call to mercy and justice. My guess is that welcoming and affirming (reconciling) churches of every stripe, rather than being an unnecessary duplication of what every church should be or perhaps on some level already is, will be critical in the creation of that safe space for real dialogue about difficult issues.John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-36465549446391379652011-07-06T19:59:00.000-07:002011-07-06T20:00:02.136-07:00Going Fast in ReverseI’m a huge fan of Car Talk, both because I have a weakness for cars and I love to laugh. Some time ago, a “puzzler” was shared in which a guy with a very ordinary car challenged a local hotshot with a souped-up muscle car to a race. Somehow the regular car won. How? The race was run entirely in reverse and the regular car was geared such that it was able to outrun the muscle car. <br /><br />I’m intrigued by the picture of two guys barreling down a street, necks craned around, running full speed in reverse. Sometimes I think that’s what the church, particularly the mainline church, has been doing for the last 100 years or so. Most of our movement is in one direction, toward the church. <br /><br />Several weeks ago, we were sharing in a group of pastors about the calling of the church, and one Catholic layman said, “We have two movements in the church. Gathering and sending. We only do the first one fairly well and the second one we do poorly or not at all.” <br /><br />What is the mission of the church? Surely it’s God’s mission, not ours, first of all. And it’s about the world, not the church. Ross Olivier put it well: “The real question is not whether the church can find its mission, but whether God’s mission can find a church.” We are not the end, but the means to the end, which is God’s good news to the poor, release for the prisoners, sight for the blind, releasing the broken and proclaiming God’s favor, to paraphrase Luke 4. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How are we doing at University UMC on those two movements? Are we just about gathering, or we about gathering and releasing for God’s mission?</span><br /><br />The Church Council is engaged in a season of planning and reflection on our goals and objectives as a congregation for 2012. Our mission and justice ministries are meeting to discern where we might engage the movement of God’s justice. You’ll hear more about all of this later this summer. For now, I invite all of us, as followers of Jesus, to consider which way you’re moving. <br /><br />It’s something I wrestle with each day. How can I get out of the office, away from the computer screen and engage in ministry? Over the past year, I’ve felt led toward our homeless ministries at UUMC, but also toward finding long term solutions for homelessness with Austin Interfaith and other pastors here in Austin. I have to carve that time out each month, protect it from encroachments by all kinds of good things and then show up with my sleeves rolled up ready to work. <br /><br />What I’ve found is that the gathering-sending loop becomes the realm of blessing but only, and not surprisingly, when I actually enter the loop. Worship is enriched because I have spent time with others who hurt, and ministry with others becomes a holy time because I’ve been in worship. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I invite you into the loop of gathering and sending. And if you’re there, invite someone to join you. And be prepared for the surprising, transforming grace of God. <br /></span>John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-43969497748119538352011-06-26T20:20:00.000-07:002011-06-27T06:25:53.827-07:00Does 'All Persons' Really Mean All?Two weeks ago at the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, a petition to General Conference was presented by our Conference Church and Society Board. Here’s the text from <span style="font-style:italic;">The Book of Discipline </span>with the proposed changes in bold.<br /><br />¶ 4. Article IV. Inclusiveness of the Church—The United Methodist Church is a part of the church universal, which is one Body in Christ. The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth. All persons without regard to race, color, national origin, status, economic condition, <span style="font-weight:bold;">sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression</span> shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, upon baptism be admitted as baptized members, and upon taking the vows declaring the Christian faith, become professing members in any local church in the connection. In The United Methodist Church no conference or other organizational unit of the Church shall be structured so as to exclude any member or any constituent body of the Church because of race, color, national origin, status, economic condition, <span style="font-weight:bold;">sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. </span><br /><br />We debated the motion in standard fashion—Mr. Roberts would have been proud. A lay person gave an excellent rationale for the changes. I also spoke in favor of the motion and the text of what I said is below. A young seminarian and candidate for ministry, Peter Borhauer, gave an emotional plea for inclusion. Here’s what I said, more or less:<br /><br />"I understand that all of us are not on the same page in our theological understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Southwest Texas Conference is a big tent. However, I think all of us are on the same page with respect to offering radical hospitality. This was the theme of our opening worship service, it’s vital to the culture of growth and it’s the hallmark of our common life together.<br /><br />"As we strive together with God to create this culture of growth, I hope and pray that we might include with specific language, all of God’s people, especially those in the LGBT community who have felt excluded from the UMC in the past. Young people with gay friends, parents of gays and LGBT people themselves are searching for faith communities that are truly inclusive. They’re watching us to see if we indeed embody the radical welcome of Jesus. May we have the courage to respond today! Thank you."<br /><br />The speeches “for” were each followed by speeches against the motion. One pastor argued that including “gender identity and sexual orientation” would take away the prerogative of the pastor to decide who could and could not be members. A lay person from University UMC in San Antonio spoke about the difference, in her view, between “race, class, and gender” which are not sins and “homosexuality” which is a sin. She read one of the “clobber passages” in support of her view.<br /><br />Following the debate, there were two different attempts to remove the motion from consideration, both of which failed. The final vote was 382 to 325 in favor of the petition to General Conference, or about 54% of those present.<br /><br />Some other conferences who are opposed to this kind of language have observed that anyone can petition the General Conference, so why should we spend time in annual conferences debating these sorts of controversial motions. I would argue that this is exactly what holy conferencing is all about. Why should conference be reduced to the lowest common denominator of what we think everyone will agree on? And surely that the petition is coming from an annual conference in the South Central Jurisdiction is of great significance. I’m hoping that it signals that perhaps the times are a changin’ in the church and that we are ready to open our arms as wide as Jesus.John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-59421147377872439162011-05-14T17:40:00.000-07:002011-05-14T18:50:21.491-07:00A Letter to the EditorA month or so ago, I was in a meeting at my local church and we were collectively bemoaning the Texas Legislature and the draconian proposed budget. One person commented that it's interesting that you always hear the preachers on the news announcing how some hurricane is God's judgment against gays or liberals or feminists. But you never hear that it's God's judgment against those who aren't taking care of the poor or the widows or the children. I began to play with the idea and the following letter to the editor was the result. It was published on April 27 in the Austin American-Statesman.<br /><br />“With all of the wild fires breaking out in Texas, I’m surprised we haven’t heard from our brethren on the right who are quick to see disasters as God’s hand of judgment against personal/sexual sins. So I’ll make a pre-emptive strike with an alternative scenario and with all due respect to those who have lost homes and family.<br /><br />“God has seen how Texans are scheming to treat the poor, the widows, the immigrants, the elderly and has unleashed fire and flames from the heavens, in fulfillment of the prophecy from Isaiah: 'Woe to you who make unjust policies and draft oppressive legislation, who deprive the powerless of justice and rob poor people—my people—of their rights, who prey upon the widowed and rob orphans. What will you do on that Day of reckoning when disaster comes from far away?' (10:1-3)”<br /><br />I added my church email address to the letter and so the emails arrived before I was even aware that my letter had been published. The responses divided about equally between those who agreed with the basic point and those who found it sadly wanting.<br /><br />I received some truly wonderful compliments, including one person who had about given up on the church, but would be at University UMC soon to visit. Another came from an avowed “secular humanist” who said my letter had caused her to rethink her views.<br /><br />Several came from conservatives who were unhappy that a “reverend” was espousing political views. (Can you get much more political than “the kingdom of God”?) And there were a few who misunderstood the intended satire and thought I really had it in for the good people of West Texas. (I don’t.)<br /><br />Only one person who disagreed took up the verse from Isaiah, which I thought was telling. That verse typifies prophetic discourse, and it’s a line of thinking sadly ignored by Christians who must believe that free market capitalism, low taxes and no safety net are in the Bible somewhere. (And I suppose if they follow pseudo-historian David Barton, they may feel entirely justified in their fiction.)<br /><br />Becky Garrison, a Christian writer and a satirist, understands satire as the jester to the king, the one who keeps those in power honest. There’s satire in scripture: Amos marrying Gomer. I wonder, though, in a period of such heightened tension between opposing sides, does satire have a place in Christian discourse?John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-21107442092217313642011-05-13T12:20:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:39:17.521-07:00Is Reconciling Reconciling?I appreciate the opportunity to speak at this Reconciling Service. I’m grateful that you’ve created space for talking about what it means to be a “reconciling” church. One of the definitions of salvation in the Old Testament is the creation of a wide space and I hope that’s what we’re doing in our churches—creating that space for real engagement of what it means to be reconciling. <br /><br />The very first thing I want to do is give thanks for the reconciling movement of lay people in Austin who have faced down so much opposition and so many obstacles to create communities of reconciliation in a city that, while progressive on the surface, has many deep pockets of prejudice and much work to do on reconciliation. I know that George Ricker and Chuck Merrill, my predecessors at UUMC took tremendous heat for welcoming gays and lesbians to University church and I’m forever grateful for their brave witness.<br /><br />I hope you’ll forgive me if my “sermon” this evening is not a formal or even an informal exegesis of the second chapter of Ephesians. The quick and dirty version is that for Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s time, reconciliation meant that they would no longer be enemies, but in right relationship, in a mutually productive and enriching relationship. Ephesians 2 and so many other passages of scripture are the horizon toward which we head in any kind of reconciliation work. <br /><br />Reconciliation is a gift from God, but it comes with marching orders: namely, to partner with God in creating the kind of community that we see in the life and teachings of Jesus. It’s difficult work, as those groups, for example, gays and straights, who have been separated learn how to be in a community, how to love and trust each other, how to worship and serve together, how to be healers and to receive healing. <br /><br />Our beloved DS, Bobbi Kaye, says that all United Methodist churches are reconciling churches. Becoming reconciling should not be a scary project for us. The United Methodist church brings together so many different traditions, because reconciliation is in our DNA. Not that we’re done with it by any means. For all of us, even those churches that have been reconciling twenty years or more, reconciliation is still unfinished work; whether it’s our relationship with the GLBTQ community, with racial and ethnic communities, with the disabled and the poor, with all those who have found that they don’t have the right key to get in the front door of our churches, we are none of us done and now dear God please give us some other more meaningful work to do. I don’t think we’re done at University just because we had a vote; I know that I’m not done and I’m guessing that God has much work to do on each one of us. <br /><br />At University church, reconciliation has taken concrete form in the work of the laity over the last 10 or 12 years. A small, active group of leaders have shared with Sunday school classes, home rooms, UMW circles, basically any group of people in the church who would listen, about the real life experiences of gays and lesbians. They fielded difficult questions, shared personal stories, shed tears together, prayed and over time, almost all of our small groups at University voted to become reconciling. Those reconciling groups were like the starter kit for the fermentation of reconciliation and without them becoming a reconciling congregation would have been a very different and much more difficult project. <br /><br />This past fall and winter, our reconciling committee stepped up the pace in preparation for a vote on affiliating with RMN in February. They prepared some excellent discussions, held a movie night, visited Sunday school classes, even sponsored a lecture from Dr. L. Michael White on the clobber passages. We had over 250 people stay after church for a called Church Conference with our DS, Bobbi Kaye and almost 95 % of those in attendance voted to affiliate with RMN. <br /><br />The opposition to the vote, which popped up along the way, was unexpected, at least from my perspective. With a few exceptions, no one who opposed “reconciliation” was opposed to the participation of gays and lesbians in every aspect of church life. I know … you’re wondering, well, if you’re okay with that, then why would you be in opposition to reconciling, right? Did I say that reconciliation is confusing and messy? <br /><br />What I found was that the opposition fell roughly into two groups. The first group felt that we were already reconciling and saw no benefit from our participating in RMN. Our arguments that this was partnering with others, working against the exclusionary language of the Discipline, all of that fell flat. My pastoral intuition tells me that some of the opposition probably had nothing to do with any of this, but it’s difficult to suggest this to members of your congregation without sounding condescending. <br /><br />The second group was opposed to making a public statement about who we are. Our arguments that proclamation is the essence of what it means to be the church, that we must say out loud where we stand again fell flat. One variation of this position was the idea that becoming “reconciling” would be a turnoff to young people. I actually found that the opposite was true—we have young people coming to University and wanting to be part of a declared reconciling community. Last week a couple who will join the church later this month told me that if we had voted against “reconciling” they would have continued their search for a church home elsewhere. <br />The recent book unchristian, by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnamon, used the Barna group research to detail the main reasons why young people in the age group 18 to 35 do not attend church anywhere. The perception that most churches are anti-gay is a huge turnoff to most young adults. Now I’m not sure I’m ready to write the book on reconciling as a church growth strategy, but it’s worth reflecting on all of this in these declining times. <br /><br />When we became a reconciling church, two UM pastors, both of whom are intelligent and compassionate, made fun of the decision. One wrote to me: “After the decision, UUMC will still be the same white, upper middle class educated university church it was before. Nothing will change.” While on a very superficial level that may be true, it misses the powerful healing dynamic of welcoming others with open arms. That’s what folks experience in a reconciling church and to make that any less than revolutionary in our day is to deeply misunderstand the dynamics of reconciliation. To say that we accept you and welcome you, but … you must become heterosexual or you must live a life of celibacy, which is the stance of the vast majority of congregations … that is not welcoming, it’s barely toleration and it’s certainly not love. There is no other group in the church that we single out for this kind of attention. And for someone who perhaps has only recently begun to understand and accept their own sexuality, this stance cannot be anything other than judgmental and painful. <br /><br />For reconciliation to happen, there is work for each of us to do. I think it’s time for the “gay issue” if it’s even appropriate to call it “the gay issue,” to come out of the closet in our churches and in our annual conferences. It’s time for us to study the stories of gay men and women who have been persecuted and taunted for their sexual orientation and who come to church for sanctuary and healing and find more hurt. If we’re ever to make any progress on reconciling, these stories need to be heard and the “Believe out Loud” curriculum should be standard curriculum for our adult Sunday school classes. <br /><br />Over the years, I’ve found so many moving testimonies to the complexity of being gay or lesbian and navigating the church. Rev. Dawson Taylor is just one. Taylor was a UMC pastor, but transferred several years ago to the UCC, which has become an all too familiar scenario. This is part of an address that he made to the Texas Conference at a “Breaking the Silence” luncheon. <br /><br />“The march for justice is long and tiring. I am certain that there are times when you can begin to wonder if it is making any difference whatsoever. But hear me out: When Michelangelo was asked how he was able to carve his great sculpture of David, he responded: ‘I saw the angel in the marble and chiseled until I set it free.” My friends, we see the Church that God intends in the marble and we must continue to chisel until we set it free. Every time you stand up to a heterosexist joke, you chisel another piece. Every time you tell someone that it is impossible to love the sinner and hate the sin, you chisel another piece. Every time you look into the eyes of a young gay person and say ‘I believe in you,’ you chisel another piece. Every time you make a stand that my Annual Conference, the birthplace of my faith, will not be in the grips of fear or untruth, you chisel another piece.”<br /><br />I remain hopeful tonight, because each one of sitting here has moved along that toleration continuum, each one of us has, by the grace of God, moved from somewhere around mere tolerance or perhaps even rejection to appreciation and celebration of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons. May God grant each of us the courage to take up our chisels, and guided by God’s spirit of truth and love, begin carving out a new path that truly reflects the all-embracing love of God for all of God’s children. <br /><br />(A sermon given on Sunday, May 1, at First United Methodist Church, Austin, Texas at a Reconciling Ministries worship service.)John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4230277033516913627.post-26908313486849036202011-04-23T19:58:00.000-07:002011-04-23T20:06:31.873-07:00Torture is a Moral Issue (part one)Last month, I attended a conference at Duke University, “Toward a Moral Consensus against Torture.” The conference was organized by Prof. Amy Laura Hall, who is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Duke Divinity School and a member of our own Southwest Texas Annual Conference. <br /><br />The first keynote speaker was George Hunsinger, Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained Presbyterian minister. Hunsinger began his keynote address with a quote from Dr. King that has stuck with him over 40 years: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” The clear reference was to the church’s almost complete silence in the face of the Bush administration’s authorization of torture and abuse. <br /><br />Hunsinger waited and listened for months after the revelations at Abu Ghraib for the church to say something. Hearing little public outcry, he moved to create a national organization, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), rooted in the singular thesis that torture is always immoral, illegal and ineffective. They have an excellent website at nrcat.org. <br /><br />One of the discouraging realities about U.S.-sponsored torture is that it has not ended under the Obama administration. Guantanamo has not been closed and even when it does close, it appears that some prisoners will be kept in other facilities indefinitely. Obama also pledged to close the secret prisons, and while some may close, others will continue. Other than lower level personnel, no one in command has been held accountable to the torture that took place in the military prison at Abu Ghraib. <br /><br />Hunsinger founded NRCAT as a way to focus on torture as a moral issue. The question for Hunsinger is not whether torture “works” nor how our use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” might affect world opinion of the United States. His point is that torture is morally wrong. Torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners not only harms the victim, it also harms the one who inflicts torture. Our common religious heritage values the treatment of all persons with decency and respect. <br /><br />For me, the most alarming reality about torture is that the vast majority of Christians condone the torture of suspected terrorists. In a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, 71 percent of Americans gave thumbs up to torture. 79 percent of white evangelicals okayed torture under certain circumstances; 63 percent of mainline Christians approved torture. One of the oddest relationships the study illuminated was that the more one went to church, the more likely they were to approve torture. <br /><br />How did we get to this place, where the ones who follow the Prince of Peace approve of the cruel and degrading treatment of other human beings? Why has the church been unable to shape the moral values of its members? <br /><br />My prayer is that the church, both members and leaders, will find its spine and reflect its fundamental conviction in the intrinsic worth of all human beings, in whom we see the hand of the creator, the face of Christ and the breath of the Spirit.John Elfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253042838539348496noreply@blogger.com4