Jesus and Trans Persons

There has been a plethora of legislation crafted, or in the process of being crafted, by state legislatures across the country, that affects transgender persons and the people who love them. Generally, these laws being considered or already passed affect transgender children, their parents, doctors, and educators. They tend to make life more difficult for those directly affected. They further marginalize those already marginalized in our society.

There are many situations that do not need laws. There are many decisions that need to be left to those who are most affected—who live close to the issues. And there is this reality, also: There are many attitudes present in our society that will support oppressive laws.

Not all societies marginalize trans persons as ours has. There have been societies that have had very different attitudes toward transgender persons than our society. As I understand it, indigenous peoples of the Americas have historically simply recognized the gifts and special place of trans persons in their communities. Their recognition provides an alternative.

Laws motivated by fear, discomfort, and prejudice will end up being oppressive; they will further “disinherit” and put “people’s backs to the wall” (Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited). This is particularly true when politicians, concerned with maintaining power, tap into the fears and prejudices of others in order to gain standing for their next election.

As a follower of Jesus, I tend to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Where is Jesus on this matter of laws that further marginalize people? What do we learn from his life and teaching?

What is clear about Jesus is that he spent his time with the marginalized and outcasts—with the poor, the beggar along the road; the sick, the blind, the deaf, and the lame; with lepers who lived outside the community; with those experiencing mental breakdown. He spent time with those in need, the brokenhearted, and those who were bound. He brought healing and deliverance.

When he was invited to a religious leader’s house and noticed the kind of people who were invited, he said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (Luke 14:12).” It is clear where Jesus’ heart was.

When a woman was about to be stoned for adultery in accordance with the law, Jesus did not join the religious leaders (all men) forming a circle around her. He joined the woman.

Jesus’ harshest words came against those with social standing who set themselves over others. Many are familiar with the beatitudes or blessings of Jesus, but not so familiar with Jesus’ “woes”:

“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep (Luke 6:24-25).”

These words speak to those who have “made it” in society, who have position and influence, and who may also have leadership roles that directly affect the lives of others. Jesus calls all to turn from positioning themselves over others and oppressing others.

He calls his followers to lives of compassion and serving others. He calls us to enter into the lives of others. No more making decisions about others from a distance, decisions that continue to marginalize.

Do not further marginalize. Do not add to people’s experiences of being bullied. Enter, with compassion, into the lives of parents who are raising a child who experiences their gender as opposite to their biological sex. Listen to parents who demonstrate loving acceptance of their child and their child’s experience of themselves. Support them, and encourage teachers who are trying to provide a loving, welcoming space in their classrooms and schools.

Jesus is with the trans child and the trans adult. He comes to them with compassion and acceptance. Like every one of us, trans individuals must make their own decisions about their lives, take the steps they see to take. They will seek guidance from those who love them. They may seek God’s guidance as well.

At the heart of it all is this: we are to love others. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is open to the other person’s experience. Love listens.

Legislators, if you are not listening to trans persons or the parents of trans children, do not craft laws for them. Do not further burden them with your fear, discomfort, prejudice, or that of your constituents.

What is required of you as a human being is to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).” Justice does not add to the wrongs but makes right what is wrong. Mercy sees the burdens others are carrying and does not add to the burdens but lifts them. Therefore, walk humbly, listen, and be open to the experience of those who are being marginalized. They are in a better position to speak of their needs than those operating from fear, discomfort, and prejudice, or from a desire to maintain power.

Filed under: Compassion, Humanity, Justice, MercyTagged with: , ,

Martin Luther King On Love Over Hate

I read a column in the Washington Post entitled, Hug an election denier. It was a gentle call to see the humanity in the person you believe has left reality behind and has embraced ways of thinking and operating that undermine our society. Given the nature of the article, it mainly addresses “moderates” and “progressives.”

The comments of readers of the article were revealing: Many who see themselves as progressives are not particularly progressive when it comes to seeing the humanity in those they labeled fascists or simply saw as gullible. While the right may tend to demonize the left, many on the left (who tend not to believe in demons) make the right out to be crazy or mentally deranged.

There were, however, also comments from those who understood the importance of loving others no matter their beliefs, actions, or conditions. One commenter quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

These words come from a Christmas sermon in 1957. Here is a fuller quote:

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says, “love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies—or else? The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Pastor King knew something of what is required of us to “love our enemies.” He lived it, and we saw the power of people marching out of prayer meetings into the streets to face dogs and fire hoses and beatings and jail, and even death. We also witnessed change come to our society.

I recall John Lewis, in his book, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, writing of his experience on the first freedom ride when he was hauled off the bus and beaten. A police officer asked him if he wanted to press charges against the man who beat him. Lewis said something to the effect that the man who beat him was a victim of and a part of a system. Lewis was fighting the system. So, no, he was not pressing charges; he was getting back on the bus in order to bring down the Jim Crow system.

For John Lewis, love was central. He was attracted to the non-violent nature of the movement because it provided a way for love to act to bring about real change. Love allowed him to see the humanity in those who opposed his freedom. He was able to see beyond what they were caught up in. He was able to see what they could be if they let go of and were liberated from their racism.

Along the same vein, Frederick Douglass wrote of how the slaveholder also was a victim. His slave-holding robbed him of his humanity, robbed him of compassion and the ability to love; it deteriorated all his relationships. Abolish slavery and both slave and slaveholder are set free. At least, the slaveholder has the possibility of freedom, if he embraces it rather than seeks to reinstate slavery under other names.

“Love of enemies” is a spiritual reality. It comes from God who loves a broken, hurting, alienated humanity, a humanity that has made itself enemies of God, enemies of Love. We hear this love in the words of Jesus on the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This love forgives; it looks beyond faults and sees needs. It changes the trajectory of our lives.

This love is a gift from God. It is grace. We can open our lives to it and be changed by it. The apostle Paul says it is the greatest gift. “Faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Filed under: Justice, Liberation, LoveTagged with: , , ,

When Christmas Is A Wilderness

Jesus asked what people were looking for when they came out to the wilderness to see John the Baptist (and, by implication, what they were looking for when they came out to see Jesus). Jesus said, “What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.” Jesus implied that they did not go out to see such things because the wilderness was not the place to find them. They came out to the wilderness to seek God’s reign. They sought the coming and power of God in their lives. They sought healing and new life in God—in the wilderness.

For many people, Christmas comes as a wilderness. At a time when families gather, when there are parties, “soft robes,” lights, and jubilation, there are those who experience most intensely the loss of loved ones or experience depression and anxiety. There are those who, when the parties are over, feel deep emptiness.

We all experience wilderness—times of trial or emptiness, sometimes most profoundly at Christmas. The God, who has come to us in Christ, comes to be where we are in the wilderness. Often, it is when the music stops and the party is over and we are alone in the wilderness and receptive, that Christ’s presence is most made known.

We need the wilderness. Prayer is often experienced as a wilderness. Our self-absorption is not interested in prayer. To our pride and arrogance, prayer appears as a wilderness. Prayer offers emptiness, the emptying of ourselves. Prayer calls us to let go of our lives to God, to trust.

When prayer feels like wilderness, we must enter into the wilderness, enter into the emptiness and silence, and then let the Spirit lead us in the wilderness as the Spirit did for Jesus. When prayer is experienced as wilderness, we simply need to go there. Enter the wilderness where the Spirit leads us to God who, through Christ Jesus, is present in all the circumstances and struggles of our lives.

Whatever the wilderness, this Christmas, the Spirit is present to prepare our hearts to receive Christ afresh. Thanks be to God.

Filed under: Faith, Prayer, Suffering

Politics Won’t Save Us

When traveling recently, I saw a very large sign that read, “Save America. Vote Republican.” I can imagine a similar sign from a Democrat.

I believe that politics matters and therefore who we vote for matters. When I consider who to vote for, I look for those who demonstrate some sense of social justice, mercy, and faithfulness. I have in mind the prophet Micah’s words about what God requires of human beings: “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

I expect that those who are committed to justice will have some understanding of what is unjust in our society, what government policies and actions are unjust, and what steps a government can take to address injustices. I also want people in government who demonstrate mercy and compassion, who are not entirely self-absorbed and out for personal power. As far as walking humbly with God, I will settle for a demonstration of some humility. I tend to avoid politicians who do a lot of God-talk.

Politics are important and I take voting and participation in the political process seriously. But I expect very little from politics when it comes to salvation. The unethical ways that political campaigns are run and the ways that many voters are manipulated by appeals to the worst in us do not indicate much in the way of a rescue from what is tearing us apart.

We have ways we talk about our torn selves and society. We use psychological terms (repression, suppression, denial, avoidance, wishful thinking, rationalization, anxiety, obsession, addiction, etc.) and sociological terms (systemic racism, ethnocentricity, discrimination, sexism, power structures, class conflict, etc.). But there is another term that, outside religious circles, gets little mention. And that is the word, “sin.” It points to the underlying spiritual condition of our fragmentation.

In the New Testament letters of Paul, “sin” is often used to refer to the underlying power that affects our lives. Indicative of this are various phrases he uses: “power of sin,” “enslaved to sin,” “freed from sin,” “captive to the law of sin,” “sin that dwells within,” living “under sin,” and not letting “sin reign.” With this language, Paul indicates that sin is at the root of all human brokenness. He, therefore, rejects the idea of listing various sins that we must then work on eliminating in order to better ourselves. Our problem goes much deeper than something we can simply work on.

The problem of sin is the problem of our alienation from the source and center of our being and identity. Ultimately, the change that is necessary is spiritual. All other solutions to this fundamental problem are simply ways of managing our emotional, mental, and physical brokenness so that we can, on some level, maintain relationships, employment, daily business, some semblance of “success,” and the ability to “carry on.”

That is why scriptures, in one form or another, call us to the recentering of our lives. Our deepest need is to be reconciled to God. And, given the depth of our problem, only God can do this. So, Paul writes, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to God’s self.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

The Gospel of John points to an enlightening that must happen for us to begin to acknowledge the depth of our problem. We are told that the Spirit of truth comes to prove us wrong about sin (It is worse than we think). The Spirit brings us to a point where we acknowledge that our problem is something we are unable to manage. It is more than all our psychological and sociological descriptions and solutions.

Furthermore, the Spirit must prove us wrong about sin, “because we do not believe in [Christ].” (John 16:8-11) We do not believe in the need for God as our Rescuer. We think we can solve our problem. We do not need outside help. We do not need the work of reconciliation that God has accomplished for us in Christ Jesus. So, the Spirit comes to enlighten us.

When we find ourselves giving up on ourselves to fix our problem; when we come to recognize our radical need for help and begin to turn to God, our Liberator, it is the Spirit proving us wrong about the nature of our condition and drawing us toward the help we truly need. Spiritual change is on the way.

Filed under: Grace, Humanity, Spirit, TruthTagged with: , ,

Light In The Darkness

I have previously written about “The Coming Collapse” and the sowing of injustice that operates like a parasite eating its host. It reaps the death it sows.

The words from Psalm 10 express this reality: “In arrogance, the wicked persecute the poor—let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.” They are caught in what they have devised! They reap what they sow and do not see it coming. But how much will evil destroy before there is nothing left to destroy? In the face of evil, love must act, doing the work of justice and mercy.

It does not matter how we think about what we are sowing, the seeds we sow will determine what is produced. We can put a religious facade over our actions and deceive ourselves about our oppressive ways, but the outcome will reveal what we have sown. We reap what we sow, and we know the activity of both love and evil by their fruits. The one will produce justice, mercy, and life, the other oppression and death.

The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures often proclaimed a “word of the Lord” directed to what is being sown—to the evil sown—and what is about to be reaped. The reaping is seen as God’s judgment, but that judgment is also inherent to human actions. If we act against our true selves, as beings created in the image of God, we experience God’s judgment as the judgment of our false selves, our phantom selves that are being wasted away by evil.

It is possible to think of human history in this way—and our present time. Frederick Douglass recognized the destruction that slavery brought not only to those enslaved but to slave owners. Abraham Lincoln viewed the Civil War, which brought a greater loss of life than all other American wars combined, as the judgment of God inherent to the evil of slavery.

In our own time, we see democracy—which our nation has made so much of, whatever its form—being eaten away from within. A growing number of people would prefer autocracy if it were their autocracy, their hold over government, in order to maintain or achieve their positions over others. Many are afraid of equality in a multi-cultural nation. They are afraid of the voices they have sought to silence. In their actions, they end up silencing love and justice. They sow oppression and reap destruction, theirs and their nation’s.

With evil sown comes much hurt and breakdown and injustice. What we hear over and over again in the Hebrew prophets, the Psalms, and the New Testament is that God is with the broken: the poor, the needy, the outcasts, the imprisoned, those who are oppressed. God is their comforter, protector, and deliverer. If we want to be where God is, be with those experiencing oppression. Sit with those who hurt (It makes no difference, their class, ethnicity, gender identity, political party or any other way they may identify themselves). Be with those our former president called “losers.”

And also call out those who are oppressing others so that they may be warned of the coming judgment (the reaping) and turn back to their true humanity made in the image of God. Call them back to the love of God so that they may receive mercy and be changed. And then each of us must keep turning to God so that, in the words of the old Shaker hymn, “by turning, turning we come ’round right.”

God calls forth those who will be light in a world of oppression, who will do justice, love mercy, and operate with compassion. Such people may or may not have a set of “religious beliefs” but they will have the experience of real compassion which literally means to “suffer with” and which always comes from the God who is Love—as does all that is expressive of our true humanity, all that is real. Those who act with compassion will be witnesses to a humanity made in the image of God and will be light in the darkness.

Filed under: Compassion, Evil, Humanity, Justice, Racism, Suffering, WitnessTagged with: , ,

Choosing Life For Our Planet

I have visited Methuselah in the White Mountains of California, the oldest documented tree on earth. As Sarah Kaplan noted, “It was a sapling when the ancient Egyptians built their pyramids more than 4,500 years ago.” So, when I read Kaplan’s article concerning what is happening to bristlecone pines (hundreds are dead or dying in Death Valley National Park), I realized the dire warning they represent for the effects of climate change. Kaplan writes of the stress on trees all over the world. But bristlecone pines! They have survived so many crises over the thousands of years of their existence, and they have managed to flourish in the harshest of environments. And yet, they are now in danger of survival.

And Congress has been unable to pass urgent legislation that would only begin to address the extreme weather situation we are increasingly producing. We are in the midst of a mass extinction that is moving faster than any of the five previous mass extinctions our planet has undergone. We continue down a path of making our planet unlivable and show little awareness of what we are doing to ourselves and our earth home. And we do not have the leaders we need (although, they are the leaders we have chosen) for such a time as this.

We have individuals in positions of leadership whose narrow vision is defined by how they can retain personal power. Life on our planet is being destroyed, mass shootings are rising, divisions sap us of a common vision and power to bring about change, and we have leaders who spend time working people up over false issues. (For example, worrying White parents over their children learning the White-supremacist history of our nation.) These kinds of issues sidetrack others from the truly pressing matters of our time, like taking the necessary actions to truly care for our planet, its creatures, and ourselves.

I think of words from a time when Methuselah, the bristlecone pine, was still young, words from the book of Deuteronomy, where Yahweh, who brought the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, speaks:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.

This continues to be a message for us. We have before us life and death. We can choose. The word of the Creator is “Choose life!”

Can we see that anytime we do not choose to love; anytime we do not choose to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8), we choose death? Justice, mercy, and faithfulness are life-giving. They are life-giving for our planet because they move us into action to make right what is wrong and to do it with compassion.

Anytime we choose to be motivated by fear, prejudice, hate, or choose to disdain or condemn others (Jesus reminds us there is one judge and it is not us!), we choose death. It does not matter how much “religion” we wrap our choices in. These choices cut us off from others and from the needs of our earth home.

It is hard for me to imagine the kind of movement necessary for us truly to choose life, without a great spiritual awakening. Without a renewal of life in the spirit, life directed outward in openness, receptive to the Spirit of God, our decisions will be locked into our physical desires, our arrogance, and our rationalizations. We will be unable to see beyond our most immediate experienced needs and our self-absorption.

Gracious God, free us from our in-turned bondage, the bondage of our wills. Liberate us to love one another, to truly see the needs of others, including the needs of the creatures who share our earth home. Free us to see with compassion and to act. Amen.

Filed under: Climate Change, Compassion, Environment, SpiritualityTagged with:

Pro Life. Pro Choice.

I am pro life. I am pro choice.

(Dear reader, This is the longest post I have ever posted. My hope is that you read it to the end. Thanks.)

I am pro life. I am for life in the womb and out of the womb. I am for nourishing life in and out of the womb. I am for the health of mothers and their children and for women before they become mothers and whether or not they become mothers. I am for a society that cares about life, all life, and supports life with loving compassion.

I am pro life. Therefore, I am against death in our streets, schools, grocery stores, theaters, and for addressing underlying causes of these deaths. I am against capital punishment. I am against war. When my draft number came up during the Vietnam War, I sought a conscientious objector status and was grateful for a nation that allowed me to serve by doing alternate civilian service working with youth.

I am against the huge amounts of money spent on war preparation, funds that could be used to support life, humanitarian aid, learning the ways of peace, and operating justly in the world.

I am pro life. I am for the care of the other creatures who share our earth home. I am against the disregard for these creatures and the choices that lead to their extinction.

In almost all circumstances, my wife and I are not for choosing to end life in the womb. At what point that life becomes a human person, I do not know. I know that it is potentially a human person. The first speck of life on this planet was potentially human in the evolution of life. I think of what happens in the womb as something similar. I am quite simply for life, for being.

I am pro choice. I am for facing the choices before me and making a decision. Sometimes the choices can be very narrow. For example, whether it is time to enter hospice or not. Nothing can take the act of choosing from me. Even in prison, there are choices.

Of course, the kinds of choices I make are affected by the choices others make. Some people have a wider range of choices than others, and one person’s sphere of choices limits another’s. White supremacy, patriarchy, classism, etc. affect and limit the choices available to others. (And affects the choices of those caught up in White supremacy, patriarchy, classism, etc.)

Laws can narrow the choices. Laws and governing bodies historically have limited the choices for women and especially women of color. Men in power (White men), by the means of laws, have exerted control over women’s lives, and more so with women of color. Of course, laws can be defied. The civil rights movement is a powerful example of choosing to defy laws in order to bring about change.

Lawmakers make choices that affect our choices. They make choices from many different life experiences, motivations, attitudes, commitments, and agendas. They make just choices and unjust choices.

I have taken part in many actions and demonstrations over the years witnessing against unjust choices, laws that have brought about the mass incarceration of people of color, laws that have treated drug abuse as a crime rather than a health problem, laws that do not prevent banks from creating predatory loans, laws that diminish various human rights, etc. I have demonstrated against our nation’s wars. Still, our government has decided for one war after another and brought great suffering and loss of life across our globe.

Nevertheless, I view government and lawmakers as necessary and capable of doing good. Government is capable of providing laws that regulate health and safety, address environmental concerns, and respond to inequalities and injustices that are present, if it would.

But government is also very limited in providing help for our personal decisions and adds much to our confusion and breakdown. From a place of solemn silence, Thomas Merton viewed the governments of the world:

“It is necessary to be present alone at the resurrection of Day in solemn silence at which the sun appears, for at this moment all the affairs of cities, of governments, of war departments, are seen to be the bickering of mice.”

There are critical limits to what bickering mice can provide us in the way of help for our choices. The decision of the Supreme Court concerning Roe v. Wade now moves to Congress and to state governments where discourse often breaks down into power plays, disingenuous appeals to culture issues in order to hold onto power, grandstanding, dishonesty, and self-righteous moralism, ways of operating that are not conducive to decisions that encourage life and love. Lost are the experiences of real human beings who cannot simply be forced by law into a decision, particularly when there exists other pressures, circumstances, and life situations. Many women will still feel constrained by circumstances and life experiences to seek an abortion regardless of laws passed by legislators.

Like others, my wife and I have a faith stance and a view that gives form to our choices. Other people have their own stance and view, as well as circumstances—often of an intense and complicated nature—that give form to their choices. We make decisions based on what we see and others do the same. We each must make our own decisions without judging the other. Adding the power of government (the bickering mice) to decide for women only complicates and aggravates the choice they have to make for themselves.

As it is, the issue of abortion is complicated by a culture that makes much of individual choice and little of life—a problem for those on the right and the left. They each have their favored freedoms and rights. And they each have their varying attitudes toward life.

Many in the pro-life movement support war and capital punishment and tend to minimize society’s responsibility for equitable sources of nurture, health care, and resources that support life. While making much of personal responsibility, many do not exercise responsibility for changing the societal context of people’s circumstances and decisions. The pro-life movement undermines its message by its anti-life stances in relation to life outside the womb.

Many in the pro-choice movement undermine their message when they diminish the significance of the choice. Simply having a choice (a right) is not the fundamental issue (although, when we do not have the right, it certainly moves to the forefront). It is what we decide in every situation that is critical, whether the available choices are many or few or very hard.

With every exercise of a right, with every choice we make among the choices available, we are deciding about ourselves and what we are becoming. We are deciding what kind of a society we, along with others, are building. We cannot escape making choices about life in one way or another.

We decide to love or not to love and how we are to love others and how to love ourselves, at times in the midst of great trials. We decide whether or not to undergo struggle or suffering in order to lovingly serve others. We decide for life and wholeness or decide to find a way out of making the hard choices (the life-changing choices) that life and wholeness require. And we often make choices based on what we think we are capable of, not realizing that with God we are capable of far more.

But the cultural reality is this: In a society that accepts some laws almost unanimously (laws against murder and theft), a majority of Americans see a place for abortion, at least within limits. This fact (among other issues, including suggestions above) tells me that, with abortion, we enter an area where laws are incapable of addressing this issue. In the end, each of us must make our own decisions; we must each engage questions of right and wrong and the ways of love and life.

We all have many ethical choices to make without norms set by civil law. This appears to be one of those kinds of choices. Like most choices this one has to be left to individuals to make in times of “solemn silence” and in consultation with their doctor, their families, and those they choose to go to for guidance.

Furthermore, as a society, we can address some of the underlying reasons women have for choosing abortion. For example, we can ensure that all have a living wage—a wage that can support a family. We can ensure that child care and health care are available to all equitably. We can also provide, at the least, a thoughtful “comprehensive sex education” for youth (who are bombarded by sex through various mediums of communication and often left without guidance). Faith communities can offer a holistic spirituality that provides a foundation for healthy decisions and healthy relationships as well as providing a community of support.

Finally, those of us who are pro life must be more persuasive, not by our talk, but by the lives we live, by our compassionate care for all life: for the weak and the vulnerable and the dependent (which is all of us). And by doing justice, loving mercy, and living faithfully. We may find that what the law cannot do, a change in our culture can.

Filed under: Decision, Justice, SocietyTagged with: , , ,

How to Pray for Lying Leaders

One of the things I love about the Bible is its humanity, its expressions of a wide range of human experience—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the sublime. This diversity of expression is true of the Psalms, a book of prayers and songs. The Psalms express our fears and joys, despair and depression, sin and guilt, grace and mercy, rescue and deliverance, gratitude and praise to God.

There are psalms that express deep suffering at the hands of others. The praying person cries out for deliverance from enemies and often calls God to bring judgment down upon their oppressors. Sometimes their prayer includes specific suggestions on how God should act. Some of these suggestions, I cannot imagine praying. But these prayers come from experiences of brutal oppression. And God hears our prayers, our deep suffering. But God does not necessarily do what we ask.

Still, we need to pray out what we are feeling. I had a member of my congregation share with me his anger toward God for his wife’s debilitating illness. His anger kept him from praying. He had been told that he was not to question God. I pointed to a psalm where the person praying was definitely questioning God. This member of my congregation could go to God and share freely how he felt toward God; it was not as if God did not know. And God was certainly “big enough” to take his anger, which was not so true with the people in his life.

Which brings me to Psalm 59, a prayer for deliverance from enemies. I do not feel free to pray for every manner of God’s wrath that the psalmist calls down on his enemies. But I can pray this:

“Make them totter by your power and bring them down,
O Lord, our shield.
For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter.”

How do we pray when our petitions concern leaders and people of influence who lie, distort, and put out all manner of disinformation, who, in their pride and arrogance, show no compunction about leading people astray, who prey upon people’s weaknesses and self-absorption, their fears, prejudices, grievances, misplaced anger, and gullibility? How do we pray for leaders who bow down to and serve the god of personal power?

While many people are concerned with the undermining of democratic institutions (I have this concern as well, along with the undemocratic aspects of our institutions.), my main concern has to do with our basic humanity. After all, our democratic institutions allowed “we the people” to put Donald Trump into the office of president. The deeper issue is the way those in positions of leadership lead us further into our self-deceit and further away from our humanity created in the image of God.

All the lies and distortions ultimately take us away from living out our essential humanity as expressed by the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?”

Lying leaders and influencers lead others away from their true humanity. They beguile people away from doing justice, loving mercy, and living faithfully. Which means that we, as a nation, are being led deeper into injustice, hatred, the despising of others, division, and violence.

So, how to pray when lying leaders refuse to change, refuse to repent. Considering St. Paul’s words about reaping what we sow and pride going before the fall, pray for the reaping and the fall that is coming:

“Make them totter by your power and bring them down. For the sin of their mouths, the cursing and lies that they utter, let them be trapped in their pride.” Amen.

Filed under: Justice, Leadership, PrayerTagged with: , ,

A Spirituality for Ending Gun Violence

You do not need guns. It is possible to live without them. And yet you are very possessive of your guns. You feel that you cannot give them up. But that is an addiction, a false dependency. As an addiction, it looms large in your life. It constrains you to give yourself reasons why guns are necessary and to fight for your right to own the guns of your choice. But you do not need guns; you need a Higher Power.

We can live without the second amendment. Other nations do. It has not made us a better or more exceptional nation because we have it. We can live without it; we cannot live without Love.

Our children can grow and flourish without guns and without violent video games and entertainment; they cannot grow and flourish without Compassionate Love.

Weapons of war will never secure us. They have only added to our insecurity, whereas, the One in whose image we are created holds our lives together, even in the midst of trial and tribulation. Rooted in God, our true center, we find that, rather than live in fear of others, we can enter into the suffering of others in order to serve them in love—even in the face of death.

By the love of God, we can grieve with those who grieve. We can grieve in a way that is true to grief, to the way the Spirit of God grieves. We can grieve with compassion that engages others, not with platitudes, but with repentance and change that moves toward healing.

Love constrains us to act. It will have us act in concrete ways that align with true needs. Love does not pit one addiction against another. Love does not pit one kind of politics against another, one ideology against another, one set of beliefs against another. Love responds to the needs present in a way that is timely and real.

With the love of God, we are freed from trying to force others to conform to our way of thinking (or to our addictions). As St. Paul says, “Love does not insist on its own way.” Love does not have us fighting others over beliefs and values as if they too were addictions that we cannot live without. Rather, love will simply direct us to the actual needs of the moment and will have us work for true life-giving change.

The change we desire for our nation, the end of the stream of mass shootings, will make little progress without the relinquishing of our addictions, our political tribalism, and our insistence on having our own way—surrendering these (and ourselves) to the God who is Love. Let love act! Do what love directs us to do!

Filed under: Healing, Love, SocietyTagged with: , ,

A Young Man and His Nation

My heart goes out to the families and the community grieving the loss of 10 African Americans murdered in Buffalo by a young White man, murdered by White supremacy. I also feel the deep brokenness of a nation in which such violence is fomented and released—and of which I am a part.

The 18-year-old White man who walked into a grocery store with the intention of killing Black people operated from both an inner and outer landscape to his life. Within himself, he made choices that allowed hate to take root, and he decided to act on what he had received into his life. But there was also an outer landscape to his life, a breeding ground for what entered into him and eventually took over his life and took the lives of others.

It is this outer landscape that we are all responsible for: our decisions, our actions, what we say and do deposit love or hate into the world. Justice or injustice, mercy or judgementalism, compassion or complacency, trust or fear are woven into the fabric of our society by our choices and actions.

Our news sources and social media bubbles, our indifference, and our choosing escapism over participation in the struggle for justice rob our society of the compassionate change it so desperately needs. Our ignorance, our ignoring of what love would have us pay attention to, contribute to a landscape devoid of true knowledge and love (they go together).

We allow White supremacy to remain and grow. We, who are White, when we refuse to acknowledge our supremacist history and attitudes and the “privileges” racism has given us, contribute to the landscape of our society what we have hidden from ourselves. When we allow our fears and prejudices to choose our leaders, we add to the fertile ground for hate and violence.

Because there is a receptivity to the idea, politicians are able to spout a “replacement theory” (the idea that people of color are going to replace White people). This idea is part of the landscape and breeding ground for division and hate. The truth is that there is one human race, one human family made up of a beautiful diversity, and yet, we can choose a lie and choose division and choose leaders who feed us the lie and division.

We are tempted by both the inner and outer landscapes of our lives. (St. Paul writes of the temptations of the flesh and the world.) Consequently, spiritual discernment and true self-awareness are necessary for real change. The terror, pain, and death unleashed in the grocery store in Buffalo come not only from the actions of one young man. They also are the outcome of years of White supremacy felt, thought, lived out, allowed, reinforced, and also expressed in the leaders Americans choose.

Jesus says, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” Every society bears fruit. The fruit that is borne tells us something about our society and ourselves: the good and the bad.

A major theme in the New Testament is one of dying. We must die to a false self and falsehood and the loss of love. So Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” The fruit that Jesus has in mind is the fruit of justice and compassion which bring healing and liberation. We have much to die to, much to turn away from that is destroying us.

Filed under: Justice, Racism, SocietyTagged with: , ,