"A Light to Enlighten"

Both Ms. Conroy and I have been a bit under the weather today. It's made for a very quiet house - reading, napping, and, of course ... surfing the web.

It's always fascinating to me to read other people's sermons - to get their 'take' on the gospel and how it speaks to them in the message they want/need to deliver to a particular community of faith.

We are richly blessed with some wonderful preachers in The Episcopal Church.

I've been especially interested to see how some preachers are handling the death of young gay men - seven since September - Asher Brown, 13, of Houston, Texas; Seth Walsh, 13, of Tehachapi, California; Billy Lucas, 15, of Greensburg, Indiana; Raymond Chase, 19, of Providence, Rhode Island; Caleb Nolt, 14, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana; and Justin Aaberg, 15, of Anoka, Minnesota, and Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgwood, New Jersey.

All boys; one of them, Raymond Chase, African American.

It would be easy to simply ignore the issue entirely, as I'm sure many preachers have. Actually, the 'main stream media' is doing a great job of educating people about bullying in general and the homophobic and heterosexists tormenting of LGBT young people in particular.

So, why bother bringing "all that stuff" into church, right?

Well, here are three good answers to that question.

I can't recommend highly enough Michael Hopkins sermon "Who let the Samaritan lepers in?". It is powerful, honest, transparent, and the Gospel truth.

As Michael writes,

"The reality is that gay teens commit suicide in these kinds of numbers all the time. The media happened to notice Tyler Clementi’s death and then poked around a little and were “shocked” to find that seven of them did it in a space of less than three weeks. Folks, this has been going on in America for decades. Best estimates are that around one-third of all teen suicide is related to sexual orientation. Those estimates have been around for thirty years."

I also highly recommend a sermon preached by Ed Bacon, rector of All Saint's, Pasadena, "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice. Never one to pull a gospel punch, Ed preaches that the cause of these suicides was due, at least in part, to the "Christian supported harassment and constant dehuminization of youngsters who are gay."

You can catch a three minute snippet of his sermon "Fan the flames of love, not hate" here.

And, if you haven't already, please do read "The world needs our witness," a joint statement by Bishop Mark Beckwith [Newark] and Bishop George Councell [New Jersey] on the death of Tyler Clementi.

I think what's most impressive about the bishops' statement is in raising up of "another, potentially deeper issue": Intimacy, saying:

"Intimacy is a holy place within every human being; an innermost sanctuary where we develop our ultimate beliefs and values, nurture our closest relationships and maintain our deepest commitments. No one has the right to disclose that intimacy for someone else without consent. Such a violation is tantamount to the desecration of a sacred space. It is, in fact, a sacred space. It is the territory of the soul."

I'm very proud to be an Episcopalian and to live and move and have my being among these Giants of Justice. The world would be a much darker place without their light.

The G_od Now Diner

(Luke 17:11-19)

Pentecost XX – Proper 23C (RCL) – October 10, 2010

All Saint’s Episcopal Church – Rehoboth Beach, DE

(the Rev’d Dr.) Elizabeth Kaeton

Let me begin by thanking my dear friend, Max, for the privilege and joy of preaching in this pulpit and, later, presiding at that altar. Some of you know a bit about me – that I’m on sabbatical leave from my sleepy little suburban church in Chatham, NJ; that in January, I’ll be Proctor Fellow at EDS – my seminary and Max’s, and where, I am quite certain, Jesus went to seminary – that I live on Long Neck and that I am contemplating early retirement sometime the end of next year.

Those are the facts. What you may not know about me, however, and what I’ve already shared with the Wednesday night Marcus Borg Adult Ed group, is that I am a bone fide ‘Jesus Freak’. Indeed, I was a ‘Jesus Freak’ long before Sara Miles’ book brought the term back into fashion.

That’s a fact – and a warning.

Perhaps this is because when I was a child, my family lived in a tenement apartment above my grandparents. I was the oldest of four children – all carefully planned two years apart – so my mother was more than happy to have me creep downstairs in the early morning to be with my grandmother.

We’d say prayers together, my grandmother and I, while she combed and braided her waist length hair, and then mine, and then, right after breakfast, off we’d go to walk the lovely mile daily, through the city streets, to early morning Mass.

I loved to hear the stories of Jesus and his mother and his disciples and the things he taught and the people he healed. And, I love the Eucharist. I also learned that they were inextricably bound together – Word and Sacrament – and that neither meant very much if you didn’t put what you heard – and what you discovered about your faith – into action.

If you didn’t take the nourishment you got from the Lord’s Table and make sure that others were safe and warm and well fed, well, as my grandmother would ask, what was the point?

Elizabeth Gilbert titled her book, “Eat. Pray. Love.”

My grandmother’s book would be titled, “Listen. Eat. Share.”

My grandmother made certain that I understood that it wasn’t just about ‘me’. That God’s justice isn’t about ‘just us’, as Civil Rights leader Fanny Lou Hammer used to say. The justice Jesus preached has to do with community.

As we hear God say to Jeremiah in this morning’s first lesson, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

“. . . .for in it’s welfare you will find your welfare.” Our own welfare lies in the welfare of the community – the ‘commonwealth’ of health and healing , wholeness and salvation.

While other kids were reading and collecting Superman Comic Books, I had my very own bible and prayer book. My grandmother had even written my name on the inside cover.

Oh, I’d read comic books, too – a kid learns how to fit in so as not to be tormented – but I’d be thinking, “Yeah, well, if Jesus were there, nobody would have to worry about no kryptonite.”

There’s still a place in my head and in my heart where Jesus is ‘Superman’. Sometimes, my images of God and Jesus are the ones I carry with me from my childhood. I’ve grown up, but sometimes, my faith hasn’t kept pace. I’ll at least cop to having moments of serious regression.

Sometimes, I wonder why God doesn’t do something about the mess that our world has become. Why not send ‘Jesus to the rescue’ to fix the economy, stop unemployment, end world hunger, secure a living wage for everyone who is employed, find jobs for everyone looking for meaningful employment, end the deficit, reduce taxes, stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, while he’s at it, improve our educational system and, oh yes, bring affordable health care for everyone. (Oh, wait. That’s not Jesus. That’s the President’s job, right? Messiah-in-Chief.)

I mean, is Jesus a “Savior or is he not? If he is, he’s been slacking off lately, don’t you think? I jest, of course, but sometimes there is hidden truth in humor.

Some of us believe – and I can fall back into it from time to time – that there’s not much we can do for ourselves or others except bow our heads or look up to the sky and pray to a disembodied spirit.

We can convince ourselves that Jesus was once alive but now he’s gone and, until he returns, we’re left with nothing more powerful than a piece of jewelry fashioned into a cross, or lovely stained glass windows and beautiful music, or (God help us!) church committees. With Jesus safely tucked away in heaven, we’re off the hook to take any action or responsibility.

Except that Jesus is still present – breathing in us and through us.

As our second lesson (2 Timothy 2:8-15) reminds us, “the saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful-- for he cannot deny himself.”

Because I knew how to fit in, I fell away from the church in my late teens and early 20s. You know, the prerequisite years of “young adult rebellion from church,” poking my head in when the kids needed baptism or it was Christmas or Easter and guilt about going to church would overcome my need to wrap one more present or fix one more casserole.

I was young and the world was my oyster. I had a husband and children and a lovely home and my work. I didn’t need no stinkin’ church with all of its archaic, rigid rules and regulations which had absolutely no relevance in my life.

Church was so much more meaningful when I was a child, with my grandmother to talk with before and during and after our walk to church. But then, I grew up and “Superman Jesus” was put away with my Superman Comics. I knew that Jesus was there, if I needed Him, but I didn’t need a childhood hero when I had a very grown up, adult life.

The day soon came, as it often does for so many of us, when my perfect little world all fell apart. Everything – everything - in my life seemed to be coming undone. The perfect little life I had woven for myself was unraveling.

Everything I thought I knew about myself and God had changed. And, I found myself on my knees, sobbing like a child, and calling out to Jesus. And, lo and behold! He was there! Had been there. Waiting for me the whole time.

See, I had been looking for Superman in church. What I found was an old waitress in a broken down diner called “Goodnow’s” with the gospel printed on the back of a menu. This, interestingly enough, led me back, eventually, to church. Let me explain.

In one of my worst moments – one of those times when the clock ticks so loud you think your head is going to explode and, even though it’s Very Late and your mother told you nothing good ever happens after midnight, you just have to get out of the house. Like that. I thought my life would – probably should – come to an end. That I was unloved and unlovable , anyway, so how was I suppose to love? I was confused and hurt and afraid and alone. Very, very alone.

It was late fall in the New England town where I lived. I put on an old sweater and started walking. I had no idea where I was going. I just didn’t want to be wherever I had been. Suddenly, I found myself at the local diner – Goodnow’s – the place where all the losers in town hung out – and just as suddenly, I realized that I was cold. That, in fact, it had been snowing and I had no boots and my sweater was woefully inadequate.

I decided that I needed warmth more than a salve for my pride, so I opened the door and went in, saying to myself, “See how low you’ve sunk. This is exactly the kind of place mother said you should never frequent. And, here you are. See?

As mother always warned, ‘If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas’.”

I was already starting to itch.

I sat myself down at the counter and started reading the menu, waiting for the waitress to stop talking to that man at the end of the counter with the red plaid jacket, full beard and no teeth. Both of them laughed the way people who have smoked too many cigarettes laugh.

The place smelled of burnt coffee, cooking grease, body odor and wet clothing and old work boots.

The menu was old and worn, stained with a drip of spaghetti sauce here and bacon cheeseburger fat there, covering some of the letters of some of the words. But, on the back of the menu, the words at the top of the page jumped out and popped at me like hot grease on a skillet. “G_odnow’s Diner. Where everyone is a friend.”

It was ‘Goodnow’s’, but a plop of food covered one of the ‘o’s’.

God. Now. Diner.

I could feel a wave of the tears I hadn’t been able to cry start to well up in my chest. I fought to hold them back, but when I looked again at the menu, my eyes fell hard on the words, “Where everyone is a friend.”

And, right then and there, just as the waitress came and stood in front of me, coffee pot in hand, I started crying – big, fat, wet, silent tears that flowed down my cheeks, off my chin and plopped unceremoniously onto the counter.

She quietly took a cup from under the counter, poured some steaming, hot coffee into it, took my hand in hers, smiled and said, “It’s okay, honey. Here, you look like you need some strong coffee and a few good friends. You’ve got plenty of both here. Good coffee and good friends you just haven’t met.”

Ordinarily, I would have rushed to wipe the tears from my eyes, but this time, I didn’t. There wasn’t any need to hide my pain. She could see it. She had experienced it. As I looked up and down that counter, I realized most of the people in that diner had, as well.

They were friends – that’s what the menu said, at least. Suddenly, I believed it to be true. And this, well, this was as close to church as I was going to get for now. It would lead me, eventually, to a path that led me here, to this pulpit.

My gratitude for that moment was overwhelming – when a hot cup of coffee and a few good friends became the vehicle by which I could save myself from myself. It led me to seek – indeed, to insist and demand – that from church. To model it in any church where I was the ordained leader.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be in a community which knows what Jeremiah knew: that if you want to improve your own welfare or that of others, pray and work for the welfare of the community.

I want to be in a community like this with a Thrift Shop and a Christmas Bazaar that raises money to make sure that the welfare of the community is understood to be our, individual and collective welfare. That has a prison ministry and enough well attended Adult Education opportunities as to be a wonder and a delight to the very heart of Jesus.

I want to be part of a community that has a sign out front that says, “A fully inclusive home” and gathers to share breakfast, after or – for some – before worship, because it understands itself to be, first and foremost, a community. That breaks bread together. And worships God together. And serves the community together.

A place where you can get a hot cup of coffee and a few good friends who are losers who have been lost and found in Jesus, and are now winning friends for Jesus. I suspect I’ve found one of those communities right here, at All Saints, Rehoboth. I have no doubt I’ll find more at St. George’s Chapel, Harbeson.

God and Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit surpass our human understanding. Hebrew scholar Walter Brueggeman writes: “Our capacity to know and understand, to decode and analyze bewitches us. We imagine that we can see our life whole and clear, and know how to act wisely. Such a capacity for clarity seduces us into being very sure. We end up knowing exactly who we are and who God is and what God wants. It makes us sure and often strident - frequently so sure as to be destructive...We act as though we know fully, too fully, the mind of Christ. Such a neat little morality does not allow for the largeness of God's hidden way, which is more generous and more merciful than we can imagine.”

I want to suggest to you that God’s hidden way of generosity and mercy can be discovered when we find ourselves, like the leper who returned to give thanks to Jesus, in a state of gratitude.

In my experience, gratitude is the deep, underground aquifer which feeds and nourishes the fertile ground of generosity and mercy. When we tap into the deep well of gratitude, all sorts of miraculous things can happen.

We find Jesus within us, who comes to heal us and inspire us to do things we never knew we could do. Like, go to church. Become involved in the welfare of the community. And, in so doing, find the pathway to our own salvation.

Jesus is present to us in the broken bread and wine poured out. So too is Jesus present when our hearts are broken open and our lives have become as empty as a poor man’s pocket.

And, not just once, but every time we find ourselves on our knees, weeping like a child who is frightened and lost, Jesus comes to heal and mend, to restore and make whole, to feed and nourish us back to health and wholeness and holiness of life. He comes to us in community – in and through the service of others – just as He comes through me and you when we care for others.

All we need do is to call out to Him, like the 10 lepers in this morning’s gospel story, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

Or, sometimes, to put down our pride, pick up our gratitude, hold onto our faith, and simply ask for what we need – and, like the one, return to say, with a heart filled with gratitude, “Thank you.”

Here’s the good news for this morning: If you do that – if you return to Jesus with gratitude – you too, like me – along with the 10th leper – will become a bona fide, certifiable, qualifiable, undeniable, justifiable, Jesus Freak.

That’s a fact – and a warning.

Amen.

Shine on, John

John Lennon would have turned 70 today.

Imagine!

What I find hard to imagine is that he's been dead for nearly 30 years.

I remember with crystal clarity hearing the news that Mark Chapman gunned him down as he was entering the Dakota, his apartment building on the Upper West Side of New York City, near Central Park.

That dark memory doesn't shadow the image of the first time I saw him on the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles made their American television debut.

They were four skinny kids, dressed in suits with skinny ties and what the press called "mop top" hair - like that was a bad thing.

They sang, "I wanna hold your hand," and "She loves you," and the studio audience went WILD! Young girls were screaming and fainting and falling all over each other in that inexplicable ecstatic euphoric behavior that results from a mixture of raging hormones and teenage libidinal development.

Watching them was almost as entertaining as watching four Englishmen playing guitars and drum and shaking their full "mop tops" - but not their skinny hips - as they sang "Yeah, yeah, yeah".

My father looked in disgust, harrumphed and said, "Oh, for Pete's sake! It's not like it's Frank Sinatra. At least he could sing!"

My mother said, "Well, but it's not Elvis Presley, either. That boy is trouble."

The Beatles went on to create one of the sound tracks of my life. Their music became one of the cultural icons I could share with my newly developing group of African-American friends.

We may have missed the stage where we traded Baseball cards or Cats-Eye Marbles as kids, but we could share Motown and The Beatles.

We didn't yet know the words "diversity" or "inclusion," but the musical tracks were being set for the next wave of cultural revolution in a world that was already spinning wildly - seemingly, at times, out of control.

Struggles over equal rights for women and people of color, seismic shifts in attitudes and about sexuality, reproductive rights and spirituality, and protests about our involvement in an immoral war were being played out while Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band played on.

Imagine! It all seems like yesterday - when "all our troubles seem so far away".

This evening, several thousand people will gather at Strawberry Fields, a 2.5 area of Central Park West, between 71st and 74th Street, that pays tribute to John - a singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist.

The iconic black and white 'Imagine' mosaic, designed by a team of artists from Naples, Italy, lies in the center of Strawberry Fields. Named after another of John's famous songs, it evokes a vision and hope for a world without strife, war and conflict.

Additionally, there is a bronze plaque that lists the more than 120 countries that planted flowers and donated money for the maintenance of the area, which more than matched Yoko Ono's initial gift of $1 Million.

Strawberry Fields is a Quiet Zone in Central Park and has been designated a Garden of Peace. I think John would have liked that.

People will gather at that spot this evening with flowers and lit candles and sing, "Imagine".

The world is still so filled with his music, it's hard to imagine he's still not with us.

Perhaps, that's because he still is - at least in spirit.

Happy Birthday, John. If I were at Strawberry Fields tonight, here's what I'd sing:

Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev'ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you're ev'rywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev'ryone come on

And, let the church say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Silencing Poets

Yesterday, my dear friend Lane Denson sent me this little clip from The Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of Amiri Baraka, born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey (1934). He has published more than 40 books of poems, essays, and plays.

He was the poet laureate of New Jersey during the September 11 attacks, and a year later, he read his poem 'Somebody Blew Up America' at a poetry festival. In it, he suggested that Israel knew about the attack beforehand; the poem was labeled anti-Semitic and caused a huge controversy.

The governor of New Jersey tried to fire Baraka, but discovered that it wasn't legally possible to fire a poet laureate. So the state passed a bill that dissolved the position, and since then, there has not been a poet laureate of New Jersey.

I don't know about you, but I got a chill when I read that last sentence.

Poets are often the cultural prophets of our time and prophets often use poetry as a vehicle to communicate thoughts and ideas which are not easily carried by words.

Many poets often reflect on the social status and rage against the dominant cultural paradigm. They analyse and critique. They warn the people and threaten the principalities and powers. They cajole and inspire and promote change.

And, they are often dismissed when not the target of persecution and opposition.

Hebrew scripture is replete with examples. The Talmud recognizes 48 male prophets and seven women who are counted as prophets whose message bears relevance for all generations: Sarah, Miriam, Devorah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther. Some Hebrew scholars also recognize Rebecca, Rachel and Leah as prophets.

One of my favorite prophets is Jeremiah who serves as a good example of what can happen to a prophet - ancient or modern.

God’s personal prediction to Jeremiah, “Attack you they will, overcome you they can’t,”(Jeremiah 1:19) was fulfilled many times in the Biblical narrative as Jeremiah warned of destruction of those who continued to refuse repentance and accept more moderate consequences.

In return for his adherence to God’s discipline and speaking God’s words, Jeremiah was attacked by his own brothers (Jeremiah 12:6) beaten and put into the stocks by a priest and false prophet (Jeremiah 20:1-4), imprisoned by the king (Jeremiah 37:18), threatened with death (Jeremiah 38:4) and thrown into a cistern by Judah’s officials (Jeremiah 38:6).

Likewise, Isaiah was told by his hearers who rejected his message, “Leave the way! Get off the path! Let us hear no more About the Holy One of Israel!”(Isaiah 30:11)

The great prophet John the Baptist was beheaded for his prophecy, and Jesus, of course, was crucified for his call to heed the prophets, resist the dominant social paradigm of power and imperialism, rebel against cultural and religious corruption, transform ourselves and the status quo, and return to unity with God.

The women of Jesus' time - his Aunt Elizabeth, his mother, Mary, and the women who followed him - Mary and Martha of Bethany, the Samaritan Woman, and the women who became the first evangelists of his resurrection - Mary, Joanna, and Magdalene - were poets and prophets of The Messiah. All of them were dismissed in their day - and for centuries - as insignificant and unimportant.

Besides Walter Brueggemann, one of my other favorite Hebrew scholars is Abraham Joshua Heschel. His book, The Prophets, sits dogeared and worn on my shelf, its margins filled with notes and exclamation points of insight.

According to Heschel, the Hebrew prophets are characterized by their experience of what he calls theotropism — God turning towards humanity.

Heschel argues that Hebrew prophets are receivers of the "Divine Pathos," of the wrath and sorrow of God over the nation that has forsaken God. He writes:

Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profane riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words.

To silence the poets is often to attempt to silence God who rages against the obscenity of the certainty and avarice that brings about things such as the attack on the Twin Towers and the initiation of immoral wars of revenge and retaliation.

In commenting about Joseph and His Brothers, Brueggeman writes:

Our capacity to know and understand, to decode and analyze bewitches us. We imagine that we can see our life whole and clear, and know how to act wisely. Such a capacity for clarity seduces us into being very sure. We end up knowing exactly who we are and who God is and what God wants. It makes us sure and often strident - frequently so sure as to be destructive...We act as though we know fully, too fully, the mind of Christ. Such a neat little morality does not allow for the largeness of God's hidden way, which is more generous and more merciful than we can imagine.

Amiri Baraka may no longer be Poet Laureate of New Jersey but he is far from being silenced or silent. He rages on, not purporting to know - or have - "The Truth", but moving his listeners out of our "neat little morality" toward a larger religious imagination about "God's hidden way".

In so doing, he becomes a prophetic vehicle of what Heschel calls "theotropism" - God turning toward humanity.

And we, when we listen, also become participants in the "Divine Pathos" - which may be why some of us prefer silence.

From God's mouth to our ears via poetry.

Here - give a listen to "Somebody Blew Up America".

Ask the Candidates

In less than a month, the American people will be voting for candidates in all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, one-third of the U.S. Senate seats, and numerous state and local offices.

According to a survey done by Public Religion Research, there is now empirical evidence that Tea Partiers align with the Religious Right.

According to the survey, recently highlighted in an article by Sarah Posner at Religion Dispatches, nearly half of all respondents who considered themselves part of the tea party movement also considered themselves part of the religious right.

Robert P. Jones, President of PRR, reported, "Among the more than 8-in-10 (81%) who identify as Christian within the Tea Party movement," the survey found, "57% also consider themselves part of the Christian conservative movement."

One third of tea partiers are white evangelical Christians, Jones said the survey showed, compared to one in five voters in the general population. But one in three Republicans are white evangelical Christians, too, more proof that supporters of the tea party and the GOP -- despite the tea party claims to be an outside force -- share many of the same beliefs.

Posner continues:

Based on my own reporting, though, the absence of bloody fetus posters at tea party rallies says nothing about the interest of tea partiers in either the "culture war" issues or economic issues. Early tea party rallies focused on opposition to health care reform described "Obamacare" in baby-killing terms, something Sarah Palin just reminded activists about, telling an audience health care reform has brought "the biggest advance of the abortion industry in America." (The opposite of what Palin means is true, though -- the abortion restrictions in the health care bill will likely mean fewer abortions, not more.)

As people of faith, it's critically important that we not allow ourselves to be distracted or appalled by the "street theater" of the Tea Party movement, and take a long, hard look at the issues involved.

And, vote!

I want to suggest that one of the bell weather issues in this election is Reproductive Health and Rights. It is an indicator of how a candidate will vote on other issues of social justice.

The old saying that "The personal is political" was never more true. Nothing is more personal than a woman's right over her own body.

It doesn't take much to make the justice connection.

When you look at the states that have enacted restrictions on reproductive rights - Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Idaho, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah, Missouri, and Oklahoma - you'll not find one of them with any form of marriage equality or any support to repeal of DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell).

Homophobia and Heterosexism are tools of Misogyny and Sexism.

Always have been. Always will be. 

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights (RCRC) has put together a list of questions to ask the candidates which I find very helpful.

In the next few weeks, it's important to pick up the phone and call your candidates and ask them at least one of the following questions. Better yet, show up at one of the rallies and ask these questions publicly.

Abortion Rights

Do you support the constitutional right to privacy that protects a woman's ability to make decisions about when and whether to have a child?

Facts: Over 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that there is a right to privacy in deciding whether and when to have a child. Diverse religious denominations and traditions with millions of members compassionately affirm a woman's moral right to make reproductive decisions according to her own conscience and religious principles.

Family Planning

Will you vote to expand access to family planing services for low-income women through the Title Ten national family planning program and Medicaid and new health care regulations?

Facts: Low-income and uninsured women need affordable contraception. A low-income woman is 4 times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy and 5 times more likely to have an unintended birth than a woman with higher income. Unintended pregnancy can perpetuate poverty, interrupt education and job opportunities, and create family hardship. My faith underlies my commitment to equality and inspires me to advocate for accessible contraception and intentional parenthood.

International Funding

Will you vote to increase U.S. funding for international family planning and reproductive health services to reduce maternal and infant mortality and fight HIV/AIDS?

Facts: Meeting the need for contraceptive services for women in developing countries would help to prevent 500,000 maternal deaths each year from pregnancy-related causes and help save 4 million newborns who die in the first month of life. As a person of faith and citizen of the world, I am committed to righting the injustice of this needless loss of life.

Medically Accurate Sex Ed

Will you vote to support comprehensive, medically accurate sex education instead of ineffective abstinence-only programs?

Facts: Eighty-five percent of Americans support comprehensive sex education, including a significant majority of people of all faiths. For fiscal year 2011, President Obama's administration has dedicated $155 million to comprehensive, evidence-based sex education programs, although $35 million was promised for ineffective abstinence-only programs. As a person of faith, I support providing honest, accurate information about contraception AND abstinence that will help our youth make responsible decisions and reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Hyde Amendment

Will you vote against the Hyde Amendment?

Facts: We have a discriminatory two-tiered health care system when it comes to abortion access. The Hyde Amendment bans federal funding for abortion; it denies low-income women the same right and access to abortion services that other women have. As a person of faith, I strongly oppose restricting a woman's access to reproductive health care because she is poor. That is discrimination on the basis of economic status and it is wrong. I urge you to oppose the Hyde Amendment.

Unacceptable Restrictions

Will you vote against Representative Chris Smith's bill - "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act?"

Facts: This misleadingly-named bill (HR 5939) would codify the Hyde Amendment and put additional restrictions on women's access to reproductive care. It would permanently deny abortion coverage to low-income women, federal employees, and military women and effectively end coverage in private employer policies. As a person of faith, I am against restrictions that violate a woman's moral agency and ability to act according to her own conscience.

Nominees

This question is for U.S. Senate candidates only: Will you oppose any nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, other federal courts, and the administration who do not support the right to privacy that includes the right to choose abortion?

Facts: The vast majority of Americans want to protect the constitutional right to decide when and whether to have children. Americans want to be free to follow their own conscience and religious beliefs in this matter, not forced to follow views that they may not share or hold.

While all of these questions are important, it is critically important to move beyond your own apathy or cynicism and VOTE.

Start making a "to do" list for November 2nd.

Open your calendar or day book and make sure you've circled TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd and write at the top of the page: VOTE.

Schedule a best time to get yourself to the polls: Early morning before you leave for work? A quick trip at lunch? On your way home from work? After dinner?

Check the location and hours of your polling place. If you jog or walk as part of your exercise, you might want to plan your route with a stop-over at your local voting booth.

Do you know someone who lives alone or is elderly or doesn't have a car? Call them and ask if you can offer a ride.

Organize a car pool from your church or civic organization or community club to offer transportation to the polls for those who need it.

Make no mistake: While we're all either disgusted or mesmerized by the antics of the Tea Party, they are behind the scenes, doing exactly what I'm outlining above.

Let me repeat: 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, one-third of the U.S. Senate seats, and numerous state and local offices are on the line.

Put your faith into action and follow the prophetic call to "love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with God".

Ask questions. 

And, VOTE.

Theological Origami

I remember when Louise Brown - the world's first "test tube baby" was born in 1978.

Her birth offered yet another occasion of great controversy in a world that was changing so rapidly, it felt to some as to be spinning out of control.

On the one hand, the birth of Louise Brown brought great joy to many because it represented great hope and progress for women and men who had long suffered with problems of infertility.

On the other hand, this particular nativity gave birth to important ethical questions and issues of justice.

Why create new life when there were so many unwanted babies who need good adoptive homes? If only the rich can afford IVF, what does this mean for those who long for their "own" children but the costs of IVF are prohibitive? Are there no other, less expensive means to address the problem of infertility?

What about the embryos that are not used? Which, of course, gave birth to that age old question: Where does life begin? Are embryos "babies" or do oocytes merely contain the "potential" for a new life?

Those questions were resurrected the other day when British scientist Robert Edwards, a retired professor at the University of Cambridge, England, was named the Nobel winner Oct. 4 for the development of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In a press release, the award committee said: "Approximately 4 million individuals have so far been born following IVF. Many of them are now adult and some have already become parents. A new field of medicine has emerged, with Robert Edwards leading the process all the way from the fundamental discoveries to the current, successful IVF therapy. His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine."

Msgr. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life at the Vatican, said he recognized that Edwards "ushered in a new and important chapter in the field of human reproduction in which the best results are visible to everyone, beginning with Louise Brown."

However, "without Edwards there wouldn't be a market for oocytes (immature egg cells), without Edwards there wouldn't be freezers full of embryos waiting to be transferred in utero or, more likely, to be used for research or to die abandoned and forgotten by everyone," the monsignor said in a written statement released by the Vatican press office Oct. 4.

"He opened the wrong door from the moment in which he focused everything on in vitro fertilization," which also meant he implicitly permitted people to turn to donations and a buyers-and-sellers market "that involves human beings."

Umm . . . excuse me, your excellency, but oocytes are immature egg cells. They are not "human beings". This isn't rocket science. It's solid scientific fact.

Apparently, the Monsignor has information from another source, one on which he prefers to rely.

The Vatican-based International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations also expressed its dismay about the Nobel committee's announcement.

"Although IVF has brought happiness to the many couples who have conceived through this process, it has done so at an enormous cost. That cost is the undermining of the dignity of the human person," said the federation's president, Jose Simon Castellvi.

The IVF process has created and discarded millions of embryos that have been treated and used "as experimental animals destined for destruction," he said in a written declaration Oct. 5.

"This use has led to a culture where (embryos) are regarded as commodities, rather than the precious human individuals which they are," he wrote.

"Precious human individuals"?

I can only shake my head in dismay and disbelief.

What is it that could make intelligent men and women - highly educated and trained physicians - twist scientific fact into rigid religious dogma?

Here's a hint:

A 2008 document on bioethics issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith repeated earlier Vatican condemnations of in vitro fertilization because it separates procreation from the conjugal act in marriage, and because in practice unused embryos are often discarded, thus violating the principle that "the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception."

Let's take the second part of that statement first.

As a former OB-GYN nurse, trained in a Roman Catholic Hospital Nursing School program, I learned that more than half - at least 60% - of the normally fertilized human ova simply never implant in the uterus. They are discharged as part of the normal menstrual flow, ending up on a sanitary pad or tampon and discarded into the trash or flushed down the toilet.

If you follow the logic of Pontifical Academy for Life, which bases its doctrine on the pontifications of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations - a twisted path, to be sure - that would make God or 'Mother Nature' the Supreme Abortionist, disrespectful of the sanctity of 'human life'.

As ridiculous as that seems (and, it is), the real impulse for this idiocy can be found in the first part of the 2008 statement. The Vatican's condemnation of IVF is "because it separates procreation from the conjugal act in marriage."

Well, and there it is, then.

If it's not "man on top, in bed with a woman, with wedding ring," nothing good can come of it.

The Vatican has done what it always does with its logic about human sexuality - turned it into a theological origami which reflects their image - not God's gift - of human sexuality.

These "princes of the church" have fashioned a theology from scraps of scripture which they intend to look like the new commandment from Jesus to "love one another as I have loved you."

Instead, it looks more like an old crow, squawking on a dry and barren part of the Fields of the Lord because their ancient seeds of Dead Truth have been scattered on Institutional Rocks and not the Human Heart.

These are the same folks who have turned a blind eye to sexual predators in the ranks of the ordained, now asserting an ethical standard for today's couples who seek to affirm, honor and respect life by reproducing it - even with the help of modern medical science.

There's a term for that: hubris.

The arrogance of the Vatican's attempt to tarnish the Nobel Prize committee's selection of Dr. Edwards with their medieval understanding of human sexuality and reproductive science simply takes my breath away.

Some of my Roman Catholic friends argue that it's more than arrogance. It's a strategy, they say, to deflect attention away from their own tarnished ethical standard and their complete and utter irrelevance as a religious moral authority.

That may well be so.

I suppose I still have enough of my Roman Catholic childhood to look for the bright spot in all of this: At least the Vatican hasn't compared the evil of IVF with the evil of ordaining women who, they say, are on an equal evil par with pedophiles.

Well, at least, not yet.

So much for being "respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception." Except, of course, if you are a woman - or a small child.

I suspect someone right now, deep in the bowels of Vatican City, is fashioning a theological origami of a menstruating woman, standing behind an altar, molesting children.

I'm thinking it won't sell half as many copies as "Pope Soap On A Rope."

The Narrow Gate

A Sermon preached for "Homecoming Sunday"

The Church of The Intercession

The Episcopal Church

550 W. 155th Street, NYC, NY

October 3, 2010

(the Rev’d Dr.) Elizabeth Kaeton

Let us pray: Oh Lord, my God, take my mind and think through it. Take my lips and speak through them. Take all our hearts and set them on fire with a love for your Gospel. Amen.

Good afternoon, church! I come to you from my wee cottage on Rehoboth Bay in Delaware – a place known throughout the state as LSD, or Lower, Slower Delaware.

I’m a child of the 60s, so you’ll forgive me when I tell you that I just love saying that I have moved from life in the NE Corridor to life on LSD. If you remember the 60s you know what I’m talking about.

Then again, it is said that if you remember the 60s, you weren’t really there.

I see some of you smiling a hazy kind of smile. It’s okay. We’re all sinners here.

When I got off the train at NY Penn Station and got out onto 7th Ave and 32nd St., I immediately felt a ‘natural high’. Actually, I felt a bit like Jacob, from whom we heard in the first lesson (Genesis 28:10-17), awaking from a dream.

And then, to come into this pulpit this afternoon, which has been graced by so many powerful preachers, I could only echo the words of Jacob when he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

I want to thank your Priest, Berto, for inviting me into the privilege of preaching from this esteemed pulpit on the occasion of your ‘Homecoming Service’.

Now, I say this as a sister-in-Christ with nothing but admiration and affection in my heart for my brother, but I have to tell you that when I first read the gospel he chose for today. . .well. . . .let me just say that I didn’t have a whole lot of admiration and affection in my heart.

It’s ‘Homecoming’, right? And, his choice for the gospel is the one about the ‘narrow gate’? The narrow gate!?! On ‘Homecoming Sunday’!?! Are you kidding me?

Here’s what Jesus says, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  ((Matthew 7:13-14, 24-25)

Nice going, Berto. Great message of welcome and inclusion.

After I prayed on the scriptures for a bit, I realized that Berto, like Jesus – and like St. Francis, whose Feast Day we celebrate tomorrow – was going for paradox. Now, let me explain.

A paradox is a true statement – or group of statements – that leads to a contradiction which defies intuition. And yet, it is, in itself, true. We humans are a living, breathing example of paradox.

For example: both of these statements are true: We must breathe in. We must breathe out.

These two opposites truths together, form the truth that in order to sustain life, we must live and breathe the paradox which is at the core of human existence - breath. We can’t live without holding these two opposite truths in our bodies.

If we deny either truth – or stop either one – we die.

Jesus loved to teach in parables which were often about paradox: camels leaping through the eye of the needle and mountains being tossed into the sea. The tiny mustard seed becoming the largest tree in the vineyard and the last being the first and the first being the last. Wolves lying down with lambs and the meek inheriting the earth.

Homecoming in the church is the paradox of the narrow gate of our culture. Let me explain.

We live in a country of cultural paradox. This nation prides itself on our great cultural diversity. Most – but not all – of our great grandparents and grandparents - our parents and, indeed, some of us – came to this country from many different lands. The legacy of slavery has left an indelible stain on our history.

Many – but certainly not all – of our ancestors and relatives came here, reading and being inspired by the words on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

And yet, even as this monument was being dedicated on October 28, 1886 – 124 years ago – exclusion ruled the day. The general public was not permitted on the island during the ceremony. Invitations were for dignitaries, only.

Only two women were allowed to be present – the wives of dignitaries. The restriction offended area suffragists, who chartered a boat and got as close as they could to the island. The group's leaders made speeches applauding the embodiment of Liberty as a woman and advocating women's right to vote.

Indeed, the inscription on the Statue of Lady Liberty is from a poem by a woman, one Emma Lazarus – who did not enjoy the civil liberty of voting.

Shortly after the dedication, the Cleveland Gazette, an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality". The editors wrote:

"Liberty enlightening the world", indeed! The expression makes us sick. This government is a howling farce. It cannot or rather does not protect its citizens within its own borders. Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the "liberty" of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being "ku-kluxed", perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the "liberty" of this country "enlightening the world", or even Patagonia, is ridiculous in the extreme."

And yet . . . and yet, Lady Liberty stands silently in the harbor welcoming and watching the paradox of her welcome lived out in the land where you have to be brave in order to be free.

We live in a culture which continues to divide in order to conquer - the haves from the have- nots. The light skinned from the dark. The ‘established’ from the immigrant. The male from the female. The so-called ‘gay’ from the so-called ‘straight’.

But, Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”(Mt 11:28). Sounds like Emma Lazarus had been reading the teachings of Jesus before she wrote her inscription for the Statue of Liberty and took them to heart. “E pluribus unum” – out of many, one – is our nation’s motto.

Pity we haven’t all been so inspired to realize, as John Buchanan points out, that “the republic is stronger when the pluribus is respected as well as the unum.”

In the first letter, attributed to St. Peter (1 Peter 2:1-5,9-10), which was our second lesson, he exhorts and encourages the members of the ancient, infant church in the northern part of Asia Minor, who were undergoing persecutions with these words: “So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander.”

The author of that letter writes, “Come to him (Jesus) to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus.”

Here’s the paradox: we are the living stones that build the narrow gate that leads to the Kingdom of God. Our lives. You and me. Hopeful children who survived the Great Depression and WWII. Revolutionary children of the 50s and 60s. Rebellious children of the 70s and 80’s. The technological children of the 90s, and all the children of the new millennium.

All God’s children.

We are, each one of us, living, breathing stones come to Jesus on this ‘Homecoming Sunday’, rejected by some, rejecting the cultural norm of rejection based on color, class, gender, sexual orientation, educational background, and physical, intellectual or mental ability.

We are living stones who listen to the words of Jesus who said, “And I, when I am lifted on the cross, will draw all to me” (John 12:32). That’s ALL. Not some. ALL.

As Bishop Tutu says, “All. all . . . all . . .rich, poor, educated, uneducated, beautiful, not-so-beautiful, white, black, gay, lesbian, so-called straight, on, on, on to all, all, ALL -- there will be no outsiders, even sinners, all, all are precious to this God, for it is this God whose will it is to bring ALL to a unity in Jesus Christ, ALL!”

Every last living stone of us.

And yet, not all of us in the church heed the words of Jesus. Sometimes, even in the church, our gates become barriers until Jesus comes to batter them down or move them with His love.

There is a story about four soldiers who fought in WWI. There may not be atheists in foxholes, but neither are there Catholics, Protestants, Jews or Muslims – only friends who are willing to lay down their lives for others. One of the four soldiers was killed in battle in a little town outside of Paris. His friends knew that he didn’t have any relatives back home, so they went to the local priest to have him buried in the cemetery by the church.

The priest asked if the man had been baptized. The men said, “We didn’t know a lot about him. We know he was a good man who believed in God, but we have no idea if he was baptized.” The priest informed them that, without this information, the man could not be buried in the Church cemetery. However, moved by their persistence and the circumstances of the war, the priest allowed their friend to be buried outside the gate of the cemetery.

Five years later, after the war had ended, the three men decided to return to France to visit their friend at his gravesite. When they arrived, they were horrified to discover that the grave was missing. Outraged, they went immediately to the priest to ask where he had moved their friend. The priest, a man who loved Jesus, smiled and said, “I did not move your friend. I moved the gate.”

That my friends, is the church at its best. We are the living , breathing stones whose hearts of stone must be broken open so that all . .all . . .ALL may enter through Gates of Love and Hope.

The paradox of this is that, in opening wide the gates of the church – in welcoming everyone in through those gates – our culture will take a narrow view of us. Who wants to be part of a bunch of losers? Who wants to be a member of an organization that accepts anyone and everyone?

Well, I do. Do you? Okay, let me see some hands. Do you? And you? Now, turn to your neighbor in Christ – the person sitting next to you - and say “Welcome home.”

The ultimate paradox is that when Jesus opened his arms wide upon the cross, he became the narrow gate of our culture. And we, as his living, breathing Body, can do no less.

I want to be part of a church like Intercession which has a ministry that has the oldest active Girl Scout Troup in Manhattan along with a Gay Men's AA Group.

I want to be part of a church like Intercession with a Senior’s Reading program with primary school children and an Episcopal Church Women’s group who feed the homeless after Sunday Eucharist in Marcus Garvey Park.

Who wouldn’t want to be part of a church with an At Risk Youth Program as well as one that houses a Native American Children’s Museum?

And, how many churches would have programs written in English AND Spanish so that ALL can participate in the liturgy?

Those are just the highlights of what I know. God knows what you do to live out your lives of faith outside the church. God knows. And, God loves you for opening the gates of your hearts to others.

In the words of Jacob after he wrestled with the angel: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:10-17)

God has fashioned the paradox of human lives as living stones to build that narrow gate that opens wide to new way of life, a new way to love, a new way of being in Christ.

St. Augustine says, "God, without us, will not; as we, without God, cannot."

What an Incredible God we worship! Without us, God will not. We, without God, cannot.

We, with God, can find the narrow gate that opens wide to life in Christ, because the paradox is that WE ARE the living stones who have become that narrow gate. In order to enter, we must breathe in the Truth of Jesus and exhale “. . . all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander,” and say to absolutely everyone, “Welcome. Welcome through the narrow gate that is open to all. Welcome home! Welcome home!”

Amen.

Clerical Error

Will this never end?

The story of Bishop Charles Bennison and the Diocese of Pennsylvania has become more and more like a Greek Tragedy played out on The Episcopal Stage.

The latest entry at ENS includes a letter from the Standing Committee to Bishop Bennison which accuses him of "inconsistency between his words and action."
According to ENS:

The Standing Committee also termed as "shocking" a report it said it had received indicating that the bishop had told a Sept. 25 meeting of the Diocesan Council that "'it is known now that all the witnesses at my trial intentionally perjured themselves.'"

The committee members said that Bennison had "managed to ignore or discount the opinions and conclusions of three courts, two Presiding Bishops, the House of Bishops, and untold numbers of lay and clergy in the diocese of Pennsylvania, and now all the witnesses at your trial."

"We find it amazing that you are able to think that this is in any way normal behavior," the letter said.

You are right, my friends. This is not "normal behavior" for a bishop or, for that matter, any person with a balanced interior life.

Yes, I know what I'm staying by inference. It's really the only conclusion one can draw from the bishop's behavior.

The Standing Committee's letter

" . . .included examples of why the Standing Committee believes the bishop was pursuing an agenda that runs contrary to the work the committee says it has done in his absence to begin a visioning process for the diocese and deal with financial problems it has said were caused at least in part by earlier decisions made by Bennison.

Those concerns surround the level of his support of the work of a Diocesan Mission Planning Commission paired with the committee's belief that Bennison is investigating possible real estate transactions involving the diocese's camp and cathedral, and what the committee says is the bishop's intention to spend $70,000 from a trust fund to publish a history of the diocese for which $133,000 has already been spent.

"We are extremely concerned that your apparent insistence on putting everything back the way it was before you left will cause a large number of parishes to hold back funding to the diocese, both assessments and pledges," the committee said in the letter.

The diocese is due to meet Nov. 6 in its annual convention and a narrative report on the 2011 program budget refers to "our ever shrinking base of pledged parish support" and notes that 2010 income from congregations "fell well short of the goal."

The Standing Committee's letter comes a week after Bennison said that he would not honor a House of Bishops request that he resign his position.

This is evidence of something more than hubris or arrogance. Something else is going on here that has all the distinct markings of pathos.

I suspect that, in a larger sense, we are seeing something in the Diocese of PA that is part of what God is doing to reform her church. Over and over and over again - from the Roman hierarchy to Don Armstrong and the so-called "orthodox Anglicans" to the sad case of the bishop of PA - we are witnessing what can happen when there is abuse of institutional power.

It is said that "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." That applies not only to the absolute corruption committed but the corruption of the person with absolute power.

I trust The Episcopal Church will begin to address the issues raised by the Bennison case at General Convention, 2012. I suspect, even now, resolutions are being proposed which will change the canons regulating the power of bishops.

This is a good thing. I fear, however, that it is too little too late for the diocese of PA.

It may not even be enough to save the church from itself.

Pedometers?

I suppose you gotta start somewhere.

One of the seminaries from which I graduated has started a new program aimed at improving Clergy Wellness. It's called, "Dean's Step It Up Program" which encourages seminarians to walk 50,000 steps per week.

Every seminarian, therefore, has been given their very own pedometer which feeds data into the seminary computer that records their progress.

According to the Dean - who is, I should note, one of the most kindhearted and well-intended people I know - large numbers of clergy suffer from various health problems that include obesity, heart disease, diabetes and depression.

She writes that the United Methodist Church’s Task Force on Clergy Health reports that the prevalence of obesity among active clergy who are enrolled in a church health plan is 250 percent higher than expected. The Task Force also found that the same group of clergy has an incidence of type two diabetes that is 96 percent higher than expected.

But, she adds, clergy health problems aren’t limited to the United Methodist Church.

Cases of clinical depression among Episcopal clergy exceed those seen in the benchmark population by an alarming 12.4 percent. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America reportedly spent roughly $30,000,000 in 2004 on medications for its clergy men and women; antidepressant medications accounted for 10 percent of this.

So, the seminary has also established a Center for Clergy and Congregational Health and Wholeness, which is designed to encourage healthy choices and lifestyles. The Center sponsors and disseminates research on clergy health issues; hosts health-oriented conferences for clergy, laity and denominational officials; creates wellness-focused co-curricular activities for students; and exposes theological students and faculty to health professionals and health care systems.

The pedometers, it would seem, are an "outward and visible sign" of everyone's commitment to "health and wholeness."

I'm not knocking the program. As I said, I think it's important to start somewhere. Might as well begin with pedometers.

That's the easy part.

The tough part is looking deeper and asking tough questions. Like, why is it that clergy are more prone to obesity, diabetes, and depression than the rest of the population?

Another Methodist minister gives us a window into one perspective to the possible answers to that question.

Dan R. Dick has a great blog which he calls "United Methodeviations" in which he writes his reflections on topics that range from discipleship to congregational life and mission. His perspective is clearly Methodist, but there is broad application to what he has to say.

Yesterday's post was "Make-No-Wave United Methodist Church." If you insert the name of your own denomination you would recognize the issues immediately.

Dick reports a conversation he had with a pastor who had taken his advice and raised questions about expectations and accountability in the church with his church council. Specifically, he asked three questions:

what is the church?

what is the church for?

how do we hold people accountable to the promises they made to God and one another?

It might have been easier for him to have strapped on a pedometer and taken a 50,000 step walk.

Later that evening, the pastor was called to scheduled a meeting with the church leadership. This is Dick's account of the conversation as it was reported to him (church leadership in bold, pastor in regular type).

We need to know what’s gotten into you?
What do you mean?

This kick you’re on to push; to make us feel bad about not doing enough?
I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad. I’m just trying to offer people something better. I want to help people grow in their faith.

Well, that’s fine, but a lot of people are perfectly happy where they are.
I know they are, but that doesn’t mean they should be.

See? That’s exactly the kind of pressure we’re talking about. Who are you to judge what kind of Christians people should be?
It’s not a matter of “judging” anyone. It’s a matter of helping people grow in their faith.

You made a lot of people uncomfortable last night. You made it sound like we should be doing more.
We SHOULD be doing more! I brought up the issues for a reason.

But that’s not why people come to this church. People come here because they know they will be loved and cared for, not judged and made to feel guilty.
Being loved and cared for and becoming faithful disciples are not mutually exclusive. People should want both.

In your opinion. None of our previous pastors said any of this stuff.
But it isn’t just my opinion. It’s in the Bible. It’s in our Book of Discipline. I didn’t make this stuff up.

No, you said you pulled it off the web and we all know how reliable things are you can find online.
You’re kidding, right? You’re saying because I got the articles off the web that we shouldn’t pay attention to it? All I raised were three questions: what is the church? what is the church for? and how do we hold people accountable to the promises they made to God and one another. That’s all. These are good questions to ask.

But they’re unnecessary. We’re not trying to be super-Christians. We’re just normal people who love God and need to know that God loves us. That’s all. We don’t need you telling us how we ought to live our faith. It’s none of your business if we pray or not or read the Bible or even how often we attend church. You are here to be our pastor, not our conscience.
But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t preach and teach from the Bible and challenge people to be the best Christians we can be.

Look, you’re young and we want to support you, but you need to be reasonable. People are busy — we have full lives. We don’t have time to be saints. We need you to do your job — lead worship, visit church members, teach confirmation, pray for us, and try to grow the church. We just don’t need you making things harder than they ought to be.
I don’t know what to say. You tell me you want me to do my job, but when I do my job you don’t want me to. This is impossible. I didn’t do anything wrong last night. In fact, I did exactly the right thing.

I'm thinking that young pastor left that meeting, went home and, on his way, stopped off at Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts and ate half dozen jelly donuts before he got back to the parsonage.

Had he been an Episcopal Priest, he would have gone back to the rectory and knocked back a few glasses of Dewars or Maker's Mark and perhaps finished off the left over Saga cheese and a box of crackers.

There aren't enough pedometers in the world to walk off that kind of encounter. The thing of it is that while this is, admittedly, a more dramatic exchange, it is neither rare nor unusual. It takes place across all denominational lines to subtler or even more dramatic degree.

Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt to hide the scars.

Indeed, I'm thinking that the pedometers may be part of the problem. The more subtle lesson these seminarians may be learning is a reinforcement of the superficial accountability which is already rampant in the church.

Some of us are obsessed with ASA = Average Sunday Attendance. Recently, on the HOB/D (House of Bishops/Deputies) list serve, there was an esoteric conversation about the minutia of what and how to record attendance in the Parish Register. Do we add private communions distributed on Sunday? What about Morning or Evening Prayer on Sunday morning or evening? If there is a wedding with Eucharist on Saturday night, do those numbers count toward the ASA?

The conversation under the conversation was a palpable anxiety to increase the numbers the priest could report for his ASA.

And, why is there this anxiety about increasing ASAs? Well, because everyone knows that ASAs are down. Why are ASAs down? Oh, let me guess . . . could it be for some of the same reasons that lead clergy to depression, obesity and diabetes?

Let's just call the 'Step it Down: Staying away from Church Program' that's part of the strategy some folk have for their "Parishioner Wellness Program".

These are the folks who know that the church is being held hostage by low expectations, lack of vision and accountability, and complacency. They are not held to a standard of mediocrity anywhere else in their lives - professionally or personally - so why should they come to a church where there is no relevancy, no urgency, no commitment?

Others stay away because they can sense the tension between what the preacher is preaching and how the congregational leadership is not responding to the call for relevancy and accountability to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We want things 'nice'.  The church 'comfortable'. Our faith 'easy'.

My own personal analysis is that the dis-ease we are experiencing among clergy and laity has more to do with the fact that we've become a consumer-based religion, verses a gospel-based faith.

Church has become a place for Sunday morning 'entertainment'. All the songs must have an 'up' beat.  All the messages from the pulpit must be 'inspirational' (read: make me feel good).  And, if you don't give the people what they want, lack of brand loyalty will send them out to other churches in other denominations - or, to non-denominational mega churches. 

That may work to improve the ASAs in the short term, but I'm convinced it is a contributing factor in the dis-ease that is infecting the church.

If we stopped counting bums in the pew and started caring for more bums on the street, we just might see a few point drop in our blood pressure.

Eating 'healthy foods' might give us a better sense of well-being, but it's not as good for your soul as establishing a neighborhood low-cost food coop in the parish hall that's only used for Coffee/Fellowship hour on Sunday so everyone can have something to eat.

Counting how many steps per week might make us feel healthier, but not as alive as if we were working to establish access to affordable health care in impoverished neighborhoods.

Look, I'm not saying pedometers are bad. They may be a good place to start to raise awareness about the connection between mind, heart, soul and body.

We're missing the point, however, if we don't use them as a springboard for a discussion about what it is that makes a vital, lively congregation with a mission and ministry that flows from an understanding of the teachings of Jesus as heard from the pulpit, learned in adult forums and studied in Bible Class.

I don't think the song, "You'll never walk alone" had anything to do with being in the company of lots of people with pedometers.

Then again, I do believe that 'peace on earth' begins with me.

Clergy and Congregational Health and Wholeness may well have the same genesis - with taking charge of my own health and wholeness. And, you taking care of yours.

This well may bring health and wholeness to the Body of Christ.

I'm just not sure its enough for the institutional church. That's going to take a whole lot more than pedometers.

A good place to start is by asking three simple but difficult questions:

what is the church?

what is the church for?

how do we hold people accountable to the promises they made to God and one another?

Find a way to measure the individual responses to those questions and we may well be on the road that leads to the Commonwealth of God.

Fifty thousand of those steps a week may just be the exercise in faith we need to get us there.

Like I said, you gotta start somewhere.

The hypocrisy of Eddie Long

Bishop Eddie Long, the prosperous prophet of the Gospel of Prosperity, and pastor of a 25,0000 member mega-church near Atlanta, has been charged with the sexual coercion of several teenage boys whom he recruited into leadership in the Youth Ministry.

Three of these young men, 17-18 years old at the time but now in their early 20s, have filed lawsuits describing him as a sexual predator and claiming that the bishop pushed them into sex, lavished them with expensive gifts, and sent them suggestive photos of himself in a "muscle shirt" in the bathroom.

He is known throughout the country as the leading "anti-homosexuality pastor" and once led a march of thousands through Atlanta in protest of gays and lesbians and marriage equality, saying, "homosexuality is a spiritual abortion."

Indeed, it has been widely reported that, at Coretta Scott King's funeral in 2006, which was held at his church, some civil rights leaders refused to attend because Long is so anti-gay.

The bishop drives a Bentley, wears expensive suits, and has his own private jet, which one of the boys claims was used to fly him from LA to Trinidad to NYC, while Long abused him sexually.

Attorneys for Long have adamantly deny the charges. However, addressing a New Birth Missionary Baptist Church sanctuary packed with thousands on Sunday, the bishop declined to discuss specifics of lawsuits filed against him – or, interestingly enough, to flatly deny the accusations. But he drew thunderous applause when he told his church that while he's not perfect, the picture painted by the allegations is far from accurate.

"I'm not a perfect man,"  he said. An interesting turn of phrase - one that would ring familiar on the ears of many in that congregation. To my ears, which have been listening to this kind of rhetoric for more years than I'd like to admit, it sounds like "code" for something.

The word on the street is that many knew the bishop was "on the down low" but kept silent.

In his book, "On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep with Men", written in 2004, author J.L. King describes his own experience and those of other Black men who live what he calls "a discreet sexual life style" of having sexual relationships with women, often within marriage and an otherwise "normal family life" while also secretly engaging in sex with other men in gyms, bathhouses and parks.

The term springs out of the urban landscape, predominantly among young African American men who have sex with men and women but do not identify as bisexual.

A 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story on the Down Low phenomenon explains that the black community sees "homosexuality as a white man's perversion." It then goes on to describe the Down Low culture as follows:

“Rejecting a gay culture they perceive as white and effeminate, many black men have settled on a new identity, with its own vocabulary and customs and its own name: Down Low. There have always been men – black and white – who have had secret sexual lives with men. But the creation of an organized, underground subculture largely made up of black men who otherwise live straight lives is a phenomenon of the last decade... Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine thug culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine.

This is one of the photos of Long which the young men of his youth group allege was sent to them by the bishop.

I don't know about you, but, looking at this image, the word, "hypermasculine" certainly comes immediately to my mind. It's clearly not an image of any bishop I've ever known in the church - but that may say more about my own inexperience than anything else.

There are, reportedly, "hundreds" of young men in Long's Youth Ministry. At first, only two came forward. They were joined by a third. I understand that a fourth lawsuit has been filed. I suspect there will be more before this is all over.

While I abhor and detest the sexual exploitation of children and young people in any situation any where, and I am sickened unto death by yet another exposure of yet another trusted church leader who has engaged in this heinous practice, I find myself strangely grateful for the hypocrisy of Bishop Eddie Long.

Well, let me be more specific: It's about time it got exposed. I'm grateful for that.

And, I'm quite certain, he's not the only one - Black or White - whose duplicity about human sexuality fuels the anti-homosexuality fervor which keeps in place immoral policies like DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) and blocks the civil rights of others in things like Marriage Equality.

I think the case exposed by Anderson Cooper - of Michigan’s Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell who is harassing the new student body president of the University of Michigan, Chris Armstrong, a college student, because he’s gay - is yet another example. It may be "immaturity" as Shirvell's boss says, but watching the video, I suspect there's something more.

It's also behind the suicide of Rutgers University Tyler Clementi after his roommate secretly filmed him during a "sexual encounter" in his dorm room and posted it live on the Internet

My hope - my prayer - is that as this legal case of sexual coercion makes its way through the courts, these young men do not succumb to being "bought out" in an out-of-court monetary settlement. That would only give credence to the counter-allegation of Long's attorneys that these allegations are a baseless adolescent prank designed to bring down the powerful Bishop Long and gain personal financial benefit.

Further, I hope - I pray - that, because of cases like this, we can begin to talk about the full range of human sexuality - not just focus on homosexuality - and begin to learn to accept it as a Divine Gift as expressed in a variety of ways in a plethora of social contexts.

Let's applaud people like Bishop Carlton Pearson who addresses Gays in the Black Church as a reality to be embraced and not condemned as an abomination.

Let's call an abomination an abomination. The abuse of power in sexual relationships - sexual coercion, assault and rape, pornography, prostitution, sex slavery, and sex with a child - is an abomination in the sight of God and all of God's creation.

So, too, are the duplicity and deceit which are prospered in the service of our miseducation and misunderstanding about - and therefore, the misuse of - physical expressions of intimacy and love.

Until we can receive, accept and celebrate the divine gift of human sexuality, we hold the potential to abuse it. We'll continue to tangle ourselves in an intricate web of deceit and duplicity - like the 'down low' - making scapegoats of some and victims of others.

"Once you become a public figure, you can't hide anymore," J.L. King once told JET magazine. "Once you accept who you are, you are no longer lying and hiding who you are. I want Brothers to know they don't have to continue to hurt and to hurt others."

My hope - my prayer - is that, once you become a Christian, you don't need to hide any more. Once you accept who you are as a beloved child of God who has been given the Divine gift of sexuality which is part of the totality of your humanity, you no longer need to lie and hide who you are.

Because, not only do you hurt others; ultimately, you hurt yourself as well.

As Audre Lorde, once said, in her essay "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," from her book, "Sister Outsider":

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect.

Your silence will not protect you.

Somebody send this message to Bishop Long, and tell him that, in fact, he's hurting himself, his family, his church, his community, those young boys, as well as the Sacred Heart of the Jesus he professes to love and serve.

Somebody remind him that "confession is good for the soul" - not only his, but that of his church - and, specifically, the souls of the young boys whom he allegedly coerced into sex.

Somebody point him to Matthew 18:15-17 where Jesus talks about how to handle sin in the church, but especially Matthew 18:18: "Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on hearth will be loosed in heaven."

Here's what Sister Audre says after she tells us in that same essay about the Transformation of Silence:

I've been thinking about silence lately. How we use silence to protect ourselves. How we use silence to maintain the status quo. How we use silence to express indifference. How we use silence because it's easier than taking a risk. How silence becomes just another expression of laziness.

I have always interpreted silence as indifference or disdain. It is the fastest, surest way to get me to retreat. In my family of origin, silence was punishment. Being ostracized from the group is how we were forced back into line.

It stops everything cold. It chills the soul. It destroys relationships. It serves no purpose. It allows things to go on that should never go on.

In a more benign sense, silence is what destroys relationships. Things unsaid. And as we use silence in our private interactions, it extrapolates out to the larger world and becomes a way of life.

Not speaking. Not asking. Passivity that comes not from peace but from simple indifference and laziness.

I don't get involved in American politics. Period. But I have definitely seen how silence contributes to the continuation of the path that country is on, and how, just as was predicted by those much wiser than me, it allows the oligarchy (yes, I'll use that word) to gain more and more control over the private lives of citizens. At what point do I use the "f-word" (fascism) which requires a silenced population? I feel safe and accurate to use it now.

Am I the only one who sees it?"

No. No, I think not.

Somebody give the Sister Outsider an 'Amen'.