Generational Divide on God's Love

Today, voters in North Carolina will have the opportunity to vote on a constitutional ban on gay marriage in their state.  While these laws already exist in NC, proponents of Amendment 1 say that a constitutional amendment is necessary ‘to protect marriage’ because ‘it’s what God created to give children a mother and a father’.

Nevermind the biblical record that the first marriages in the bible had several ‘mothers’ with one father, or that several passages in the bible have been taken out of context or oversimplfied to justify the condemnation of gay and lesbian people.  (For a fun overview of the quandary of biblical verses and homosexuality, try the film Fish Out of Water.)

The truth is that this is a generational issue, and will end up hurting the church. 

Young people overwhelmingly support gay marriage.  According to Gallup, between 2010 and 2011, support for gay marriage grew from 53% to 70% among those aged 18-34.  Within 20 years, this will not be a political football anymore, but for now, it brings the conservatives and the senior citizens out to vote. 

In the meantime, we damage the Christian doctrine of radical love.  Too many young twenty- and thirty-something’s already regard the church as a Ground Zero for judgmentalism, self-righteousness, hypocrisy and bigotry.

On social media and dating sights, people are overwhelmingly “spiritual but not religious”.  These are people who have not seen the church as Christ’s body, demonstrating courageous, rule-breaking, radical love for all of God’s people, but rather have been told where they have done wrong, who they must cut out of their life, what they must believe, and how they should vote.

This is not the way of Jesus, regardless of how ‘saved’ a person claims to be.  Jesus constantly put himself on the side of victims of prejudice.  That is how he demonstrated God’s radical love for all people.  And if Jesus was anywhere last week, he was with the LGBTQ supporters of the United Methodist Church, as they prayed, wept, and witnessed for the universal love promised by God – even as it’s denied by the church.

Proponents of North Carolina’s Amendment 1 claim, in their ad, that “everyone, gay or straight, is free to live as they choose”, except that passage would interfere with health care coverage and custody battles for children of gay couples, and domestic abuse protections would be weakened for all unmarried couples, gay or straight, in domestic partnership or civil unions. 

We, as flawed humans, do so much harm with these notions of knowing what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘Godly’ and ‘incompatible with Christian teachings’.  We cause permanent damage to young people as we reject their emerging self – as parents, community, and church members.  We foster environments where bullies thrive and young people take their own life.  And we condone the very same prejudices Jesus stood against by legalizing exclusion, shame and second-class citizen status.

As Tommy Tomlinson wrote in his Charlotte Observer editorial, No One Is Hurt By Gay Marriage, "when our children and grandchildren look back on it all, this whole debate will make us look silly and small. I suspect that, in God’s eyes, we already do."

I believe God is praying, weeping and waiting for the day we realize it’s not our place to judge, to condemn, or to exclude. 

  

Male Rage is In Season

There seems to be an epidemic of male rage in my neighborhood lately.  The shouting matches below my floor have spread to the apartment next door, and raised male voices can be heard on my dog-walk route, loaded with cuss words aimed at the women in these men’s lives.

And yet, Congress is divided about renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.  Due to objections over expanding protection to LGBT folk, Native American women and immigrants (in the form of more visas), “republicans complained the changes to the law were designed to set them up and distract from issues such as the economy that Democrats would rather not discuss.”

The thing is, this has everything to do with the economy.   The economic plunge of 2008 fell more on the male gender than the female gender. The very first outcome of the housing crash was that houses stopped being built: contractors, carpenters, electricians, roofers, plumbers, landscapers – all out of work indefinitely.  From there it spread to corporate America, with layoffs disproportionately putting men out of work. According to the Council on Contemporary Families, men and women feel the crisis in distinctive ways:

“Men have born the brunt of the recession so far, accounting for more than three-quarters of job losses. And men are more likely than women to experience job or income loss as a fundamental threat to their identity. But the wives of laid-off men also suffer: Unemployed men are more likely to exhibit hostility towards their partners than unemployed women. Not surprisingly, female partners of unemployed men have higher level of depressive and anxious symptoms than do male partners of unemployed women.

Imagine: formerly independent bread winners that were head of households now subject to rely on government ‘hand-outs’ and their wives for survival.  Couple that with the depression, shame, and sense of powerlessness and lack of agency that often accompany looking for jobs when jobs are scarce, and rising tempers seems a likely result.

People of faith who work for peace understand the connection between violence and poverty, agency, and justice.  First coined by Bishop Dom Helder Camara in 1971, the Spiral of Violence begins with “fundamental experiences of injustice and violation” like “lack of social opportunity, educational discrimination, policy harassment, unemployment, military occupation, and so on”[1].  In these situations, an inherent byproduct is the idea that it’s “beyond our capacity to change”.

And so, as with previous economic recessions, a new survey shows that domestic violence is up nationwide.  “Peg Coleman [Utah Domestic Violence Council] says unemployment increases the risk for violence three fold. ‘If their [the abuser’s] strategies are less than respectful to begin with, they are going to seek more control in areas where they feel that they have it, which can lead to abuse.’” 

And yet, the conservative march towards cutting benefits and government spending continues, aimed at state funded programs like home health care and nursing homes – which will have a disproportionate impact on women’s careers.  Cutting is not the answer:   we need more funding to help intervene in impoverished families and domestic abuse situations – before it’s too late. 

---

[1] Enns, Elaine & Myers, Ched.  Ambassadors of Reconciliation, Vol II: Divese Christian Practices of Restorative Justice and Peacemaking.  Maryknoll, NY, 2009.  6.

Bully Nation

Friday was the International STAND UP to Bullying Day. In the wake of dozens of youth suicides, “more than 2600 schools, workplaces and organizations representing more than a million people” took a pledge against bullying. In fact, in the saddest but very real turn of events, the latest suicide tragedy occurred while the community was viewing the anti-bullying film and hearing from the victim’s boyfriend.  

But I question how can we make a dent in the bullying epidemic in schools when we, at a national level, are bullies.

Bullying is the natural outgrowth of a climate where there is a moral ‘black and white’, a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ lifestyle, an acceptable and unacceptable way to exist. It occurs when judgment such as that is sanctioned by parents, national leaders, and those purported to speak for God.  When a child hears from elders that an individual’s way of life is wrong, and therefore unworthy of human dignity, compassion, or God’s love, that child feels free to bully.

We bullied our way into Iraq by talking about WMD – but it was only possible because we had been labeling Muslims as ‘jihadists’ and therefore a threat worthy of destruction.  We bully immigrants regularly by categorizing them as ‘illegal’, as if people, rather than actions, can be ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’ and so destroying families is valid.  Police (some police) bully people of color in neighborhoods of color every day with profiling and harassing, leading others to think it’s ok to copy that behavior.  And almost every GOP candidate for President has bullied homosexuals from a national pulpit, declaring their love and families unworthy.

Unfortunately this is more and more common in religion, and bolstered by our degrading political atmosphere.  Chris Hedges, in his book American Fascists: the Christian Right and the War on America, makes a strong case that people find Christian fundamentalism appealing in an increasingly changing, uncertain, unstable world as a refuge for ‘inability to cope with ambiguity, doubt and uncertainty’.  He says, “they are utopians who have found rigid, clearly defined moral edicts, rights and wrongs, to guide them in life and in politics” through this type of religion.  This type of religion leads to bullying. Not every religion sanctions Fred Phelps and his ilk, but too many faith leaders preach from the pulpit who will ‘receive the kingdom of heaven’ and who won’t.  Even the Vatican recently chastised it’s own devout for not focusing more on bullying the sinners. 

My God loves all the little children.  The Jesus I follow did not deny his grace to anyone of any lifestyle, but stood up against the bullying of his time – the purity laws.  He ate with prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors.  He did not withhold his healing powers to people based on their country of origin. He was banned from towns because he allowed contact with the ‘unclean’.  He cast his lot with the marginalized. 

Children’s behavior manifests the basest of human society.  If we are to stem the tide of bullying in schools, it will require that parents directly intervene in every message their child receives on who is worthy or unworthy.  Parents will have to remind them that every child is loved and worthy in God’s eyes, and faith leaders need reminding that what Jesus did do was admonish people not to judge. 

Love Thine Enemy

Long before September 11, 2001, politicians knew the best way to gain support was to name a fearsome enemy that couldn’t be seen, and proclaim the threat was imminent.  Using evidence or fiction, they argue this enemy has diametrically opposite values and will end life as we know it.  They tell us that the enemy is snaking into our trusted institutions, seeping into our culture, lurking behind every change that we are uncomfortable with.  The circle of paranoia is complete by claiming that anyone who disagrees is unpatriotic, therefore silencing dissent.

This method has worked repeatedly in history, from Hitler’s Germany to McCarthy’s Communism to the current ‘threat’ of Islamic Caliphate.  Unfortunately, it still works.  “In September 2010, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 49 percent of Americans held an unfavorable view of Islam, a significant increase from 39 percent in October of 2002” according to the Center for American Progress.

As Christians, we have instructions of how to act towards a perceived enemy. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."  (Matt 5:43-44).  At no point did Christ instruct his listeners to take any action against another – he taught the opposite: humility and compassion towards the ‘other’.  As followers of Christ, we have a model of how to respond to an enemy threat, as Jesus demonstrated in every day of his ministry.  So why is it so many self-confessed Christians have the most venom towards the “Islamic threat”?

Under this type of manufactured hysteria, every individual or minute act that defies this logic is an individual act of heroism.  In that spirit, I applaud the DuPage County Board for not responding to Anti-Muslim hysteria and permitting the construction of a Mosque in unincorporated Willowbrook – that is, after they denied it.  Happily, fairer heads have prevailed over the Ground Zero Mosque Mania that colored so much of 2010. 

I would applaud louder, however, if a DuPage County rules change last October was applied evenly to all faiths.  The original MECCA Mosque application included a 56-foot Dome and 79-foot Minaret in the structure.  These aspects of the project were denied, and have continued to be denied, even though a policy change was recently enacting regarding height of “religious design elements including bell towers, steeples and crosses to exceed 36 feet — to a maximum height of 72 feet — as long as certain setback requirements are met” – would allow the Mosque to aspire to Godly heights.  Holding the envisioned MECCA Mosque to the ‘precedent’ of previous denial looks conspicuously as if the policy change was designed with two different standards in mind. 

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “the best way to destroy your enemy is by making him your friend”.   This is one of the basic truths of life, and luckily, despite all the setbacks, one that the MECCA Mosque planners understand.

“Though such conflicts have led to concerns of religious discrimination, supporters of the MECCA site were not pointing fingers Tuesday.

"I can't read people's minds, but I have heard from neighbors that this was not about religion, and I believe them," said Touleimat, who lives in Burr Ridge. "The work for us has just begun. Now our job is to show them how good of a neighbor we can be."

The Mosque planners have modeled our own Christian teaching on how to treat an ‘enemy’.  

Are You Privileged?

1) I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

Ten years ago, I was living in Beijing, China and teaching English to Chinese adults who wanted to improve their career potential.  In China I felt as conspicuous as a giraffe in a petting zoo; not only was I taller and stockier than most of the Chinese women, I outsized a good number of the men, too.  There was no mistaking me in a crowd.  When I entered a restaurant, or walked down the street, people turned and stared.

3) I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

I could say that, because of this experience, I know what it means to be a minority, but that would be a fallacy.  When I walked down the street in China, my white skin carried an innate power with it.  Why?  My white skin denoted I was a person of means (in fact, Chinese merchants immediately started recalculating their fruit prices as they saw me approach).  My white skin implied a person of education.  My white skin showed a person of mobility, who could travel freely within their country and throughout the world.  My white skin implied a certain amount of immunity as well – as a white person, I had a ‘get out of jail free card’ - a guarantee that if I broke enough of the arcane Chinese bureaucratic rules, the worst penalty I would experience was deportation back to my home country.  

4) I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

As I walked down Chinese streets, people greeted me with stares, smiles and invitations to browse their wares. At no point was I squinted at with suspicion or followed because I wore a hoodie.

I’ve been reading rumblings of disgust in the Trayvon Martin tragedy referring to the involvement of civil rights veterans like Rev. Jesse Jackson turning the incident into a race issue.  They claim that the rhetoric is outdated, tired, and irrelevant.  Other commentators have suggested that having a black President signifies that we are living in a ‘post-racial’ society.  But if anything, the Trayvon Martin case shows that despite the nation’s willingness to elevate some black people to positions of power, profiling and suspicion based on skin color are still highly prevalent – not only in police matters, but in all our daily interactions.

Yes, I mean I do it too.  I catch myself securing my property, or assuming tardiness, or expecting financial failure from strangers with dark skin.  I have to consistently work against the stereotypes that are always present in my thoughts to both show the respect that is deserved for every person, and to give myself the chance to know someone for their real personality.  

If we want to dismantle racism in American society, we have to acknowledge the luxury of white privilege.  Peggy McIntosh has written an interesting 26-point list (including point 1, 3 and 4 recited above) called “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” that helps articulate the luxury of being the dominant, and accepted norm, of culture.

Number eleven on McIntosh’s list is: I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

The Martins have come face to face with Number 11.   We owe them, in their grief, to take a hard look at our own stereotypes and privilege that come from race.  

Is Easter Political?

As we enter Maundy Thursday, witness Good Friday, and wait through Holy Saturday for Resurrection Sunday this year, I find myself reflecting on an early impression of Easter.

When I was in high school I was in a Passion Play on Maundy Thursday.  Depicting Jesus’ last week, a small cast of players shared all parts, first welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem with waving palms, and later enacting the mob that had turned against Jesus, cursing him and repeatedly yelling,  “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!” to Pontius Pilate.

I always found it mystifying how a crowd whom welcomed Jesus with ‘Hosannas’ one week earlier would turn into a bloodthirsty mob calling for his painful and humiliating death.  It was my first, vivid, look at the darkest side of humanity: mobthink.  Mobthink is alive and well in our politics today.

Jon Stewart interviews crowds for and against the AffordableCare Act.

While the crowds cry ‘tyranny’ outside the courthouse, interested parties could listen to the Supreme Court Justices weigh the nuance and economic principles behind the market failure that is our health care system, and whether we as a people have a responsibility to correct that market failure.

In a different scenario, I marched with ‘A Million Hoodies’ recently to mourn to the unnecessary and unjust death of Trayvon Martin, and mobthink felt dangerously close to the surface. While I will never have to deal with being black in this racist country, I want justice for Trayvon and all the other young black men shot, harassed, profiled, or caught in the deadly cycle of crime that is prevalent in our impoverished neighborhoods.

Walking with the hoodies, however, chanting ‘what do we want?’ “Justice!” ‘When do we want it?’ “Now!” felt disingenuous, and too aimed for blood. Like the Rodney King beating, Trayvon’s murder has provided that spark to ignite the coals that have been red-hot below the surface. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that an eye for an eye is enough for this situation, or let mobthink cloud our judgment. 

Mobthink lies in each of us.  For me, Jesus’ death was always a manifestation of the worst traits of humankind; fear and suspicion, manipulation and greed, kneejerk thinking and mobthink.  Jesus’ death appeals to the need to engage our better selves in times of crisis.  The most difficult part of life is the nuance and responsibility of decision-making. 

George Zimmerman is not the only one at fault in this Travyon tragedy.  As I mourn for the Martin family, I also mourn for an entire nation where all young black teens are worthy of suspicion, and those in power (note: whites) have passed laws deeming murder ‘no fault’, and all but one state has passed laws allowing Conceal and Carry.  Zimmerman needs to be charged, if nothing else than to acknowledge with remorse that he took precious life, precious potential, and precious dreams from another person.  Trayvon was a son, a friend, a boyfriend, and those people were robbed of a future with their loved one.  To not acknowledge his death as wrongful is a criminal indictment of our legal system as one that still values the lives of black people as only 'two-thirds' worth.  But we need not publish the home address of the Zimmerman family, as Spike Lee attempted to do late last week, to fuel mobthink.  

“Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).  When you are operating in mobthink, too often, this is true.  We need leadership focused on how we as people can relate to each other, and how communities can relate to other communities, with responsibility towards each other's well being. 

Bain Capital or Vain Capital?

“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity,” writes the biblical author called the “Preacher.”  (Ecclesiastes 12:8). It’s not meant as praise.  The “preacher” is judging vanity and finding it a serious sin.  Vanity, the idea that one has an excessively high opinion of oneself, especially one’s worth, is central in the GOP race for the presidency.  

The race for the GOP Presidential nomination is almost comical in it’s caricature of the 1%. Here we have 3 prime examples of ‘success’ defined in terms of wealth:

Since 2006, Rick Santorum has somehow parlayed his $165,000 Senate salary into  $1.3 million/year in the last 6 years.

Newt Gingrich is playing the pauper against Romney’s massive wealth, ignoring that he brings in 7 figures as an ‘historian’ for Freddie Mac.

Mitt Romney, former executive of Bain Capital, made $20 million last year in investment income only.  R-Money is so rich that we have a new internet game to help him understand, in Mittbucks, what gas or takeout costs you or me. 

It’s hard to hold this against any of the candidates however, since they were all born with capital to begin with.  The root concept in capitalism is capital.  Capitalism is an economic system that celebrates the potential of capital.  With capital, the possibilities of what you can do are endless. In capitalism, we all strive to have the capital that allows us to achieve a certain amount of wealth that allows us to have the freedom that we see in the American Dream. But you must have ‘capital’ to begin with.

Capital, that is money, doesn’t fare any better in the Bible than vanity.  “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,” writes the author of the letter of first Timothy (6:10).  

Money, and especially the way love of money, leads people to exploit others, having them fall into debt, which is a serious problem for the biblical writers.  That’s why there is debt forgiveness in the year of Jubilee – and freedom to live into the risk of a world that is generous without reservation.  

Do you dare give up your wealth to follow Christ, as Jesus commands in Matthew 10:21-25?  Do you live into the risk of entering a village with no bread, no bag, not money, only the clothes on your back?  (Mark 6:6-11).  It could be seen that Jesus is making an argument against capital.

Capital is usually seen as bank accounts, investments, or property in terms of land or equipment that can be moved into production.  However, there is also ‘human capital’ – a set of skills, knowledge, health, or values that cannot be separated from the individual, according to the Encyclopedia of Economics and Liberty.

Human capital is not just determined by investments in education or training.  It also encompasses inherent knowledge, social status and resourceful connections, agency or the perceived capacity to change ones circumstances.  I believe another term should be coined, ‘community capital’: a particular community’s capacity to provide opportunity, safety, security, education, and income for its residents.  Some people call this ‘community capital’ supporting the ‘common good’. Because it’s not just about wealth.  Health, education, and capacity for prosperity is affected. 

Unnatural Causes Video

When you put “vanity” and “capital” together, like we see today, that’s when you get serious trouble. The result is diminishing will to contribute to neighbor, and greatly diminished human capital in the majority of our communities.  Do we need more proof than the news this week that the 1% collected 93% of the economic gains in 2010?  Capital begets capital. 

We are living in an economic system that inherently requires building of capital in order to achieve freedom, which is fundamentally at odds with the message of the Gospel. If my calling is to be generous in loving my neighbor as myself, collecting capital for personal gain becomes contrary to the Christian message.  And storing up wealth becomes a net subtraction for the other community needs that would benefit from that capital.  Allowing those who were born with inherent capital the victors while the rest of the country has spoiled.

It comes down to vanity and capital.