Remembering the Irish

So lately I've seen a few people link articles discussing the way that Irish immigrants were treated in the early days of colonization and our history as a nation. My family exists in a way that oddly straddles that line... my Dad is descended both from wealthy protestant Irish who founded several quite profitable ventures (I hear the McCurdy Department Store is still going, they are distant family) and potato Irish who were Catholics. It's a tradition I'm very proud of.

So I want you to take my full meaning when I say I do not wish to belittle the harshness those immigrants faced, true blue institutional racism placed up against them, difficult barriers that had to be overcome, used and abused and discarded by countless regimes until they clawed their way into the power structure and were able to enact change. It's part of my story, I know it, and I know that while it resembled, in some ways, the plight of the African American slave, it was not the same experience. I've never seen the mileage in rating suffering, but bad as my ancestors suffered, the African slaves suffered worse on average.

But that doesn't matter.

Even if the Irish suffered the way the Africans did, even if they had it worse, it would not excuse the way that story is being used now, or the implications that because we "got over it," so should they.

One of the refrains of the Old Testament is the near constant reminder of the Jewish people that they had been slaves and immigrants, once. There had been a time when they were without a home, a time when they had been without safety, when their very existence depended on the whims of another.

"A wanderin Aramean was my father," they are called on to announce at Passover, a declaration that all they have is a gift, a vast improvement over what was and a call to remember to be kind to the wanderers and sufferers of today. Slavery, according to Biblical law, was meant to be a temporary state, to keep someone a slave for life was an insult to the traditions, slave owners always called upon to remember the time when THEY were slaves.

So if the Bible means anything to you, if you claim to follow its word, you'll know that the recollection of Irish oppression and subsequent oppression dick wagging contest to be an exercise in futility, a betrayal of the very concepts you claim to adhere to.

Because if your ancestors did suffer in the way you claim, that should not be a call for others to "get over it," but rather a call to sympathy. In time, the Irish fought their way into the power structure, became the power brokers, fought and earned the respect we now take for granted. Instead, when you look and see others fighting for their right to exist and be respected in this nation, we should remember the time when we were the outcasts... and ally ourselves with them.

Because we knew what it was like to be treated as less than human, we would never DARE to do the same to anyone else.

For Politics, I want a Politician.

I am so over this election season.

I am particularly over it as a person with a platform who occasionally gets a call or a visit from someone who wants me in their camp.

For starters, my ability to do the kind of things they usually want me to do is pretty darn limited. I do not speak FOR my church, rather I speak to them, so I don't have the authority to, say, have the church back a candidate, as that could get my church into some legal trouble, as would signs in my yard (which is the church's yard) etc.

But what I am really tired of is politicians telling me that they aren't politicians. "I'm not a politician, I'm a Marine!" You see, that's a false statement. I know that because there are certain things marines do, as part of being a marine, and things politicians do. Running for office is not a part of being a Marine. It is, however, a part of being a politician.


You can deny being a bus driver all day. If, however, your job is driving a bus, then you are a bus driver.

Some have transitioned to using the phrase "career Politician" but that really doesn't help, either. Especially at the State and Federal levels, our politicians face a great many challenges, many of which will only be dealt with through compromise, the ability to say and hear what you and others believe and arrive at workable solutions. Simply having good ideas isn't enough... you need the ability to make those ideas reality. (Something certain third party candidates conveniently forget.)

So when they say they aren't "career politicians" what they mean is that they are amateurs. If I am sending my daughter to her first day of school, I don't want to hear how the person driving her bus is an amateur. That wouldn't make me want to support their bid for bus driver. Why, then, would that be something I want for the one who will guide policy for her school system?

So yes, Candidate shaking hands with steel workers despite cutting their workers rights, you ARE a politician. And by your own admission, probably not a good one, or at least not an experienced one. At this point in History, we need our A team, not the JV. This isn't Amateur hour.

So point me to the politician. Here's hoping they have good ideas, too.

When I support the Flag

During the Olympics, I am always at my most patriotic. It really is pretty silly, but during the Games, even if it's a sport I know nothing about I will hoot and holler for the folks who fly the same flag as I do even if I have no real understanding of what is going on. Even my daughter, Katrina, got dolled up in red, white, and blue and joined me in cheers of "Hoooray, for the USA!" much to her two month old bewilderment.

So on this September 11th, I watch as American Flags big enough to cover football fields are trotted out... and I have a slightly different reaction. Because this isn't the Olympics anymore, and in this moment, the stars and stripes represent something a bit different than they did.

During the Olympics, the Flag represents passionate athletes coming together and competing to the best of their ability in a celebration of athletic achievement that, somehow, manages to transcend some (if not all) of the political difficulties that surround them. Those athletes are our champions, and the flag is lifted because in a way that I don't entirely understand, those athletes represent all of us. Their victory becomes our own, no matter who they are or where they come from.

The flag I saw today, as football kicked off, was different. It came at the start of the game, not in a time of victory, with participants and observers alike instructed to rise and honor it. This was done with additional edge to due the events being memorialized today, as well as a knowledge that several athletes had vowed not to do so. Suddenly this wasn't an act of celebration, but rather a litmus test on national TV. Do you respect the flag? Here you are, the cameras will be on you the second you don't. Do you?

That's not Patriotism. It's peer pressure.

I've attended many pro games live and I have always stood during the national anthem. Given certain prohibitions in my theology concerning idolatry, it has always been vaguely worrying, but I always figured that, like during the Olympics, the flag served as a symbol... by respecting it, I was showing respect to everyone it represented.

Today... I'm just not sure that is the case. Today we are informed by many that the flag, to them, represents something other than freedom. It has become a symbol of fear and oppression. And rather than deal with that head on, we have proceeded to shoot the messenger, to burn jerseys and lash out at people saying that they do not feel included under it's promise.

For a Flag that is supposed to represent Liberty and Justice for all, that is a pretty harsh condemnation in the form of what was supposed to be defense. Suddenly social media is full of those who leap to the defense of the piece of cloth, rather than seeking to understand why others might not feel that the piece of cloth is serving its purpose as being representative of them, as citizens of our nation.

Once that has happened, my idolatry detector is blaring full blast. Once the piece of cloth has been elevated above the people it is meant to represent, our values have gone fully out of whack, and the flag comes to represent injustice and conformity instead.

Now, context will always matter. When I am in a situation where the flag represents us as a nation, whole and without exception, celebrating our champions together in times of victory, I will respect it every time. But when it is used as a litmus test, demanding that we ignore the realities of our world in the name of jingo blinded patriotism, I won't.

Because the flag can be a symbol of both freedom and oppression. The former is a symbol worthy of respect. The latter is a symbol that MUST be rejected, if the true promise of the former is ever to be truly realized.

The Dangers of Pop Theology

One of the questions that often gets thrown my way by my atheists and others who are not regular participants in a life of faith is WHY people believe things a certain way. The Bible being the beautifully complicated document that it is, why do belief patterns seem to run one way so often?

It's the sort of thing that often gets lampooned by internet memes and the like, where the Bible clearly takes one stance that no one cares about, and vaguely mentions another that is seen to be almost mandatory to the faith.

One simple example: what is your visual picture of Hell? It doesn't even matter if you don't believe in it, it's a prevalent enough cultural concept that you've probably imagined before. So what do you see when you think of it?

Did you imagine a multi-level prison with wards for committers of various sins being punished in ways that were poetic justice for those sins, with the Devil alternately serving as ruler over it or Highest security prisoner?

A lot of people do. It isn't the ONLY cultural representation we have, but it is far and away the most prevalent, to the point that even if a Westerner thinks Hell doesn't look like that, they have at some point rejected it and chosen something else. It is the standard.

But here is the thing about that standard... it is utterly non-Biblical. There is very little Scripture to support it, and virtually nothing that could have built the picture independent of other sources. Building a concept of Hell exclusively from the Scriptures would build varying vague images of an eternal waiting room, a refiners furnace, or simply oblivion.

The image we have was largely crafted by Dante Alighieri for his Inferno, which was then borrowed and modified by countless other writers for their versions. The poetic justice bit seemed to resound the most powerfully and so, for many people, that is simply what Hell is, despite the problematic worldviews that can come from it, most obviously the picture of physical suffering as deserved punishment.

But largely, it's just a detailed picture. No matter what your picture of hell, if you believe in it, you believe it is a thing to be avoided, and so the specifics are largely window dressing. But if such a central tenant of belief can be formed so profoundly without any regard for the actual Biblical record, where else can such things happen?

When I was a teenager, I believed that homosexuality was a sinful lifestyle. So when someone asked me recently about why people believed such a thing, I decided to start with myself... why did -I- believe that?

The most obvious reason would be the Biblical message, right? It's supposed to be where all of this starts, after all. But that wasn't it. The Bible doesn't talk about ANY sexuality as often as you would think considering how fixated the church and Christians can be about it, and homosexuality is being discussed only a fraction of those rather rare instances. And of those instances, none were particular relevant to me in my faith education. I have to look them up... they're not just resting in  my head, ready to power my theological understanding. So whatever influenced me that way, it wasn't the Bible.

The next usual suspect would be my childhood pastor, who is easy to track down because he was also my Dad. It probably won't surprise many people to know that Dad is one of the foundational influences of my theology, especially my theology of being a pastor. Nearly everything I do as a pastor is either an acceptance of something I learned from him or a rejection of it. When it comes to homosexuality, though, Dad was also largely silent (except in near constant messages about the importance of loving and respecting EVERYONE, which at last count includes homosexuals) and so my belief that homosexuality was sinful can't be laid at his feet, either.

So I was at a loss. The Bible hadn't taught me to judge homosexuality, neither had my pastor growing up. So who did? Easy. Practically everyone else. The sinfulness of homosexuality was just sort of accepted and talked about, it was a thing people assumed, then when called upon to justify found helpful texts. This even included homosexuals, who whenever they talked about the faith simply assumed that part of them was considered taboo and either rejected faith because of it or continued faith in spite of it.

The origin of such theology likely predates even the Scriptures, hearkening back to a very simple human trait... fear and disgust for the other, a concept that the Scripture Writers struggle with even in the midst of calling upon us to reject it. We feel it, we see it in others, and if we are ever called upon to acknowledge it, we scramble for our justifications wherever we can find them, from a handful of scriptures removed from context to poor understandings of biology to a call to cultural purity.

The fact that many people believe a thing is not a reason to automatically reject it anymore than it is a reason to automatically espouse it, but it is important for people of faith to examine their beliefs and know where, precisely, they come from. Do you believe that the Bible is the basis for your faith? Great. But is it really, or are you simply following the herd?

Christians are called upon to love God with all of their hearts, minds, and strength. That means we can't just take the simpler, easier route. Faith is hard work, not an excuse to stop thinking. Challenge your beliefs, examine their sources, before you find yourself hurting someone else in the name of God, only to learn that God never told you to do what you were doing.

I wonder what level of Hell Dante would craft for that.

Dear Katrina-

Hey there, little girl.

Yesterday I found myself thinking about the fragility of life and how quickly things can be taken from us. It occurred to me that, if something happened to me over the next few years, you might find yourself wondering who I was, and that this blog might be a place you could go, when someone told you about, to learn about me from me.

I am writing this letter under that assumption. Hopefully when you actually do read it, you will do so with me just a call away, giggling over how silly I'm being, because parents can be silly sometimes. But in case you need it, I'll be glad to know I did this.

Because, sweetie, my title, "Pastor" is a very, very loaded one. You'll know this from your mom, your uncle, and your Grandfather as well, but you'll also live in a world that has a lot of its own ideas of what a pastor is, and what someone like me might stand for, and I always wanted you to know who I am, or was, from me.

And now that I have said I want to do this, I find myself unsure of what exactly to say.

I hope you'll know that I did my best to care for people, which to me meant listening to them, sitting with them, talking to them, and trying to make sure that they knew they were loved by God. That is what people want from me, the truth of God, and that is my understanding of that truth.

That God loves them. And, since I am writing this to you, I hope you know that God loves you. And I mean YOU. Not the you that you could potentially be or the you before you screwed up or even the idealized you absented of sin and pain, but the you who exists today, whoever you are.

I often spend time imagining what that YOU will look like and I know it is almost impossible. It is certainly difficult to do so without creating unfair expectations. Maybe you'll love all the geeky stuff I do, maybe you'll just roll your eyes at me when I try to make you watch Star Wars. Maybe you'll like music, or just plug in your own music (if music even still requires plugs!) when I play mine. Maybe you'll walk in the faith like me, or seek out your own path.

As a preachers kid myself, I know the uncertainty of that path, and I hope I can play my part in as powerful a way as your Poppy did for me.

There may be more of these in the future as thoughts occur to me. We'll see. But above all else I want you to know how loved you are. By me, by God, by so many others. And knowing that, I hope you also love yourself.

Love,
Daddy

Clothe the naked, feed the hungry... if they join?

Just had someone walk into my church, into my office, and blurt out that they wanted to join. I'd never seen them before in my life. So I talked to them for awhile and determined what they really needed was help paying for clothes and groceries. That part was easy... five minutes later I'd given them a voucher to the local grocery store, and then addressed the church membership thing.

"Tell you what. We worship on Sundays at 9 for the Summer, then transition to 10 am in the fall. Why don't you come and worship with us a few times, see if it connects with you, and then we'll talk about membership. In the meanwhile, good luck. Take this voucher to the local grocery and they'll take care of you." I wish I could say that this was the first time I saw something like this, but it isn't. Someone needs help, comes to a church, and leads with membership in the hopes that will loosen the ol' purse strings a bit. A few years ago I might have been angry at the ones doing it, feeling that they were manipulating me, but then I remembered that this is a learned behavior. Somewhere along the way, the lesson was learned that the best way to get help from the church, or other faith based organizations, is to prostitute your soul. And that means that we, as the church, have been ROYALLY SCREWING UP, because we were the ones who taught that lesson. Somewhere along the line, someone decided that "saving souls" was the goal, and pursued it by holding physical needs ransom. I mean we HAD been commanded by Christ to make disciples, we had also been commanded to feed the hungry. Why not kill two birds with one stone? It even comes with a built in guilt removal mechanism... if the person then doesn't follow through with a conversion essentially obtained by force, then we get to play the role of the manipulated "holier than thou," the party just trying to tend to the needs of the world only to be disappointed by the dishonest souls we found. But it's bullshit. Because we are called to feed and clothe those who need it. We're not called to make them sign on the dotted line first. And in the meantime millions of people who maybe could use the comfort the gospels truly preached could provide see them only as an elaborate con, the devils bargain they are forced to sign in return for things they desperately need. A trap. Why wouldn't they want to escape it. There are a thousand justifications for this behavior but each and every one of them boils down to a power trip... using our ability to assuage the needs of those we find to force them into a behavior, rather than by trying to make that behavior appeal. We are met to witness to them... instead, we try to take them hostage.For millions, the damage has already been done, yet another reason (amid MANY) that people will never, ever, trust the church. Christians, we are called to feed the hungry. To house the homeless. To clothe the naked. To tend to the sick, to visit the prisoner. We are also called to witness... but that means showing people the love of Christ. If the love they are shown is the love of a pistol held to their head while we wait for them to sign the dotted line... is it any wonder that people leave?

The Audacity of Hope

This is, by my count, the eighth attempt I've made to restart the blog since the birth of my paternity leave ended in July. Not that I've been inactive since then... there has been a lot going on in the church and Nerdfighters will be able to testify (with varying levels of irritation) that I have been loud and proud flying my political colors in the forums during that time, but not a lot of faith based posting.

This has been largely due to the fact that, well, I've been fairly angry lately. This has at least something to do with the general reduced amounts of sleep I've been getting (which are nowhere close to what my wife has lost in rest in that time, so I'm not complaining too much) but mostly to do with my attitude towards the election rolling down the tracks towards us.

I'm frustrated, in that vein. Frustrated with the willingness of certain groups to wield hate as a political weapon, even while sacrificing their ideals to the votes it gains. Frustrated with the general reduction of politics to meme warfare, predicating entire political stances on emotional reactions rather than an examining of fact and circumstances.

My attitudes towards Donald Trump have been plainly stated... if you want to see that, check it out here. While I do support Clinton, stumping for her is not what this blog is supposed to be about, and so other than that stating of my preference (which most people who read this probably already knew) I don't want to spend too much time doing it. Instead, I'd rather like to say something about the Democrats that I have enjoyed ever since that first Obama campaign...

I will take a party that runs on hope over a party that runs on fear EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

It would have been easy for the DNC to simply run a hate-fest... inflaming fears of what a Trump presidency could mean to various constituents would be pretty standard for the current climate of politics, a 4 day tale of doom and gloom meant to hide the failings of Hillary Clinton behind a red painted coat of fear. But they didn't.

Oh, they certainly named the stakes, but the polls make it clear that American minorities do not need a picture painted... the unanimity of their polling in favor of Clinton is nearly unprecedented. Instead, the DNC chose to highlight hope... showing how much we have achieved, and rather than hiding from what MAY happen, choosing to guide what WILL happen in the future.

A White House built by slaves now home to our first African American President and his family. A woman nominated to take his place. Muslim Americans proud of their sacrifices for their country and enraged at the insults toward their son. A left wing of the party bolstered by unprecedented levels of youth involvement thanked and recruited to push their revolution further, not scolded to get in line but invited to stay plugged in and keep the party honest.

A recognition that the US has a long way yet to go... but also that we have the tools to get there. A candidate who in response to her mistakes can name her successes, her victories and her passions. As I held my daughter while Michelle Obama spoke I remembered why I care so much about this stuff... I want her future to be as bright as possible. I want my daughter to live her whole life seeing that it is clearly possible for a woman to be President by the most obvious route, raised in a political climate of hard work and hope rather than hatred and fear.

This won't matter much to my atheists, but to Christian readers (I have those, right?) there is a video circulating that compares the opening prayers of the RNC and the DNC. The RNC had the better prayer, no doubt (which is hardly surprising, as the RNC has stopped even pretending to represent non-christian interests) but as a Christian it was obvious to me that the message of Christianity, a message of love, welcoming, and hope, the Bible I always read growing up, was found not in quoted platitudes from ancient texts or coopting of ancient hatreds, but rather in the welcoming hope of the DNC.

Was the DNC more Christian? Certainly not explicitly, and not in the way such a word has been weighted in todays culture.  Was it more Christ-like? Beyond even the shadow of a doubt.

And that is why I will always choose the Audacity of Hope over the Hysteria of Hate.