Hiram College Lectures In Religion
January 17, 2023
Rev. Allen V. Harris, Regional Pastor & President, Christian Church in Ohio
You can watch this presentation and see the accompanying digital presentation (simple) on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Vx0EpYbtY
December 1, 1989, I arrived in New York City on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to begin my first full-time job as Associate Pastor of Park Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I was seminary trained with the ink of my MDiv diploma still drying – but not yet officially ordained. I had decided to be open and honest about my being gay and that had complicated the process, to put it lightly, both with my home sponsoring congregation which withdrew their endorsement, as well as with the Regional Commission on the Ministry. The wranglings of the Commission on Ministry of the Southwest Region had resulted in lots and lots of meetings, most of them contentious but behind the scenes, and the ones with me face to face were stilted and traumatic. But here I was getting ready to serve a dynamic community of faith that was eager for new energy and the gifts and graces I had to offer. I would have the chance to work alongside a skilled, generous, and wise Senior Pastor who was not simply willing to make room for me to serve, but eager to nurture a ministry setting where a younger colleague could thrive.
It wasn’t long, however, until I was confronted with the challenges of my new context for ministry. Standing in a bus stop waiting for the crosstown I looked at the poster sloppily wheat pasted on the plexiglass walls. “Stop The Church!” it cried and informed me and all who would notice that the church was the adversary of gay people, and its actions were killing persons, particularly persons who had HIV or full-blown AIDS. I would later go to ACT UP meetings, get to know the passion and priorities of this amazing organization, and even participated in some of their marches. But in this moment, I was simply stunned: here I had gone through hell – yes at the hands of the church – but was now in heaven because of the church! I was serving at one of my denomination’s signature congregations alongside people who didn’t simply want me there but were thrilled to have me lead them! And they were the “church” as well! “Stop The Church?” No, I had just been let in!
Little did I know that my first call to congregational ministry would put me in the crucible of history, where mighty forces far larger than I had ever imagined were actively at play, and I would become an actor on a global stage in a grand production. Swirling around me were: the debates about ordaining “homosexuals” into ministry, the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in one of the global epicenters of this wretched disease, a Regional Church that was refreshingly racially diverse and yet politically and socially at odds with itself and each other, and an ordination process that would come alongside the nomination of the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon leading to one of the most epic church battles our denomination had ever known or experienced since at the Tulsa General Assembly of 1991. Who would have known that THIS is where my ministry would begin.
But ACT UP’s cry to “Stop The Church” wasn’t new and was sadly warranted. It is an understatement to say that religious reinforcements for conflict, civil strife, and outright warfare are not novel to the 21st century. From ancient wars where the gods were invoked to support one side or another and leaders treated as gods, to the Christian crusades hellbent on ravaging those infidels who lived in the Holy Land and too many along the way, to the Inquisitions rooting out suspected heresies through cruel and often gruesome means, to the innumerable bloody conquests of colonizers from Europe and the United States plundering land and resources and enslaving hundreds of thousands of human beings in the name of “God, gold, and glory,” to the Nazi’s obsession with a master race and murder of 6 million human beings because they were Jewish, primarily, but also Roma, Homosexuals or just undesirable to Hitler’s penchants, to the frequent attributions of divine and scriptural support for the positions of the extreme right all over the globe today, religious legitimization of oppression, brutal violence, horrific torture, and mass murder is neither new nor unique to our modern world nor to the United States of America.
Certainly, faith and religion have also been the motivating forces for good and inspiration for great achievements in our world, as well as some of the most profound thinking and writing. One has only to look to the last century to observe the great power of faith to motivate real change and progress for good: Ida B. Wells, Mohandas Ghandi, Ellie Wiesel, Caesar Chavez, Dorothy Day, Harvey Milk, and, of course, Martin Luther King, Jr. But as we know too well, every single one of these people rose out of the maelstrom of horrors perpetuated towards the particular peoples they represent. All-too-often it is only out of ashes that the Phoenix rises.
But for many of us, myself first and foremost, over most of my 60 years of life I have allowed myself the illusion being a person of deep faith I have believed that the world was progressing forward to a less and less violent way of being, a more and more reasonable way of thinking, and a deeper and richer inclusive way of relating to one another. EVEN WITH what I have experienced at the hands of self-proclaimed devoted church members, I have believed with all my heart what Martin Luther King, Jr. said so eloquently, that “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”1 Quite honestly, my friends, the last few years of my life have shattered that illusion, and I suspect it may have at least shifted your way of understanding the world. While I still believe in Dr. King’s dream, I have come to believe that arc is neither constant and unwavering nor short enough for any one of us to even begin to comprehend its ultimate realization.
Rather, I have begun to fear we have a reckoning coming that echoes less King’s arc and more the apocalyptic imagery James Baldwin used in his book which I chose as the reading material while on silent retreat the week before my ordination to Christian ministry: God gave Noah the rainbow sign; No more water, the fire next time.
So let me zoom in on the world in which I live and work and have the most influence, and that is the mainline Protestant church of the late 20th and early 21st century.
I want to offer five temptations that humanity has struggled with its entire existence, but which we post-moderns are wrestling with in particularly challenging ways right now. And, lest you think I have given up all hope, I will conclude by offering what I think are antidotes to each and what people of faith, in particular, can do to help change the course of history for the good.
I believe our society is struggling mightily with five temptations:
- The lure to be comfortable rather than good
- The lure to be wealthy rather than just
- The lure to be right rather than discerning
- The lure to be independent rather than interconnected
- The lure to be pure rather than multidimensional
1. The lure to be comfortable rather than good
In a quick succession our world witnessed the industrial revolution, the technological revolution, and now the information revolution, all having brought to our lives some of the greatest achievements imaginable. Through each of these complex sets of feats, and thousands more, human life on this planet has been made easier and more leisurely – for many people.
But in the way that is sadly familiar to humanity, almost every single one of these accomplishments were created on the backs of other human beings. Speaking for our own nation, there is not an inch of land that we claim in the name of this great democracy that – for the vast majority of us, especially those of us whose ancestors hail from Europe – this democracy was built on the genocide, incarceration, and cultural eradication of many of the indigenous peoples who lived here millennia before we ever stepped foot on this soil. And it has long been known that the forced labor of African slaves in the southern part of the United States made the industrial factories of the northern part of the United States possible. Likewise, institutionalized patriarchy, which aggrandized male achievements and subjugated women and belittled their accomplishments was set like concrete into law, cultural norms, and employment opportunities and wages.
And these tragic scenarios are unsurprisingly followed by a world of greater and greater inequality and devastating inequity. For every person that enjoys the comfort of instant hot water, reliable electricity, and the most innovative smart phones, tablets, and laptops there are entire populations that have limited access, if any, to clean water, healthy food, safe housing, the latest technological advances, and political, economic, and societal stability. In fact, as we have begun to chart the effects of climate change, we are witnessing this divide growing exponentially, and soon we will be witnessing the loss of entire populations not to mention ecosystems because of flooding, drought, disease, and starvation.
And religious leaders and religious philosophies were right there beside those who led the conquests. No honest evaluation of human history can ignore the regular and chilling justifications given by religious leaders for the mass killings, enslavement, and outright plundering of resources of peoples after peoples. And while named as God’s divine right, what resulted was the padding of religious leaders’ lives for comfort and safety. Sadly, the efforts by the prophets throughout history to challenge the coopting of faith by those intent on contentment more than justice seems to have been mostly unsuccessful.
What I witness in the world in which most of us live, and post-modern Christianity in the United States in particular, is a careless craving for comfort and titillation for the latest and most fascinating technological improvements. All consumed without thought of how our immediate pleasure affects others’ lives consequentially and forever.
I spend time naming these tragedies because what I witness in the world in which most of us live, and post-modern Christianity in the United States in particular, is a careless craving for comfort and titillation for the latest and most fascinating technological improvements. All consumed without thought of how our immediate pleasure affects others’ lives consequentially and forever. In the church we have opted for doing that which is most familiar, most comfortable, most pleasant, and easiest rather than remaining constantly vigilant to make sure what we are doing is most faithful in that moment in history and, as importantly, fair and just to the majority of God’s children.
I believe the COVID pandemic shocked the mainline Protestant church into recognizing much of what we had to learn to be and to do in the course of a week or a month are things in which we have been needing to engage for generations. From being able to livestream worship and gather virtually for meetings, to receiving online donations and observing the physical space of others more respectfully, to having a broader more inclusive definition of “church member” and allowing our clergy the respect, dignity, and decency to have their own political values and engage in their own justice commitments, the church had to play catch-up. But I never assumed these changes were conveniences as much as there were about fairness and opportunities for equal access.
Sadly, that which we should have been doing all along was then politicized by newly emboldened forces and now we are left with a plethora of broken pastors – mostly clergy women, – and exhausted lay leaders and even more vulnerable communities of faith. Some of my greatest personal anguish is around congregations who have abandoned many of the learnings of the last three years and are retrenching, demanding the comfort and familiarity they had before, even if it was really only an illusion and was not enjoyed by everyone equally.
And so I ask, how can faith do anything to change the course of history and invite us to desire to be good more than we want to comfortable?
2. The lure to be wealthy rather than just
And this leads me easily, though sadly, to my second point. We live in a world that is mesmerized by the *possibility* of being wealthy. And I use the word “possibility” quite intentionally, because the reality is that the extreme wealth of those we read about, who we see in glamorous and exciting images on television, glossy magazines and billboards, and our small screens, those at whose signing deals and year-end bonuses we gawk, are very, very few and far between.
In my younger years we made fun of the television show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” but it was a pitiful precursor to the place we are now, where the illusion of wealth, glamor, and fame is held up as an ideal every single citizen should seek to emulate. Unbridled capitalism is extolled as a premier virtue, and the church rarely names it for the sin that it is and sins that it creates.
The danger is that now we are in a position that people will offer up one of the fundamental and most precious tools of any democracy – their ballot vote at an election – to those who are more famous, wealthy, exciting, and beautiful than they are qualified for elected office EVEN IF it means that when they are in office they will work more to ensure and expand their own wealth than to help those who voted for them become better off, make their lives more stable and their personal finances more just and equitable. This craving for the illusory possibility of wealth is causing far too many average Americans to act and vote against their own best interests, and the resulting decisions being made are widening the wealth gap exponentially. Just look at the earnings of most corporations even during the worst of the COVID 19 pandemic. The gap between corporate executives’ salaries and workers salaries’ is astronomically larger than at any time in human history.
And people of faith are convicted in this litany of greed and extravagance. Jesus, when asked by the rich young ruler, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” informed him he must give away all his earthly possession. Learning this, the questioner walked away, grieving, “for he had many possessions.” Even the early church in the book of Acts which tried to live as a community of shared resources where being equitable was more important than personal comfort, had to respond to those who were hoarding their resources, quite dramatically in fact. Religious leaders are no different now than they have been throughout history. Alliances between popes and kings, patriarch’s and czars, prime ministers and the royalty, and now evangelical leaders and presidents seem to be far more about amassing wealth and protecting assets and prestige than about insuring a fair and just society.
How this plays out in my ecclesiastical experience is that the definition for church vitality has been skewed towards the cultural definitions of what is worthy, successful, and right rather than the biblical or faithful understandings of the same. Churches are choosing to close rather than reimagine who they are and what mission and ministry God might be calling them to in this new day.
How this plays out in my ecclesiastical experience is that the definition for church vitality has been skewed towards the cultural definitions of what is worthy, successful, and right rather than the biblical or faithful understandings of the same. Churches are choosing to close rather than reimagine who they are and what mission and ministry God might be calling them to in this new day. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying closing the visible and regular ministry of a church is wrong. In fact, it may be *the* most faithful thing to do. What I’m dumbfounded by is the lack of imagination and willingness to reimagine church. A large part of this resistance is due to communities of faith taking on societal values of success, such as:
- The number of people in attendance, specifically only those sitting in the pews on Sunday mornings and not counting anyone else benefitting from church programming.
- The need for frequent and sensational programming and events rather than focusing on faithful accompaniment of those in need or nurturing a deep and sustained spirituality.
- The requirement for *every* congregation to take on those things we were told to do by church growth gurus and overanxious denominational executives such as use of projection screens, praise teams and worship bands, short and simple services of worship, blue jean wearing preachers, and benevolence programs rather than creating engaging worship or systemic community transformation.
- The mandate to have absolutely no controversy in the church and the corresponding demand to always have feel-good sermons rather than context-relevant, spiritually stimulating, or prophetic preaching
In light of these forces, congregations have chosen to either become more and more insulated and are seeking clergy who will reinforce their sense of comfort, familiarity, and status quo or they are deciding to close.
And so I ask, how can faith do anything to change the course of history and invite us to love justice more than wealth?
3. The lure to be right rather than discerning
Throughout history, the connection of religious, political, and social power to the institutionalization of one singular way of believing or behaving has been constant. For every great early church council that helped to shape Christian Theology over a millennium there were commensurate and reactionary violent movements to enforce orthodoxy and orthopraxy and punish dissidence and deviation. The Inquisition, witch hunts, pogroms against Jews, and the current trend toward forbidding public discussion of racism and white supremacy, transgender rights and health care, and strict litmus tests for political candidates echo this dangerous and sad temptation.
In many of our own lifetimes we witnessed much the same backlash against a broad and inclusive Christianity following the 1993 conference Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women: For Men and Women, that grew out of the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Decade: Churches in Solidarity with Women. The controversy that surrounded the conference was intentionally fomented by staunchly conservative power brokers. While it seems small in light of those we encounter regularly today, it was one of the first where many of us experienced the rigid enforcement of orthodoxy and the suppressing of genuinely faithful diverse understandings of the faith.
As a local church pastor I observed a gradually diminishing trust in raising questions in church and engaging in healthy debate. In my ministry now as a Regional Minister I have noticed a clear backlash against the concept of “discernment” which is so central to who I am and fundamental to any faith tradition worthy of one’s total commitment.
As a local church pastor I observed a gradually diminishing trust in raising questions in church and engaging in healthy debate. In my ministry now as a Regional Minister I have noticed a clear backlash against the concept of “discernment” which is so central to who I am and fundamental to any faith tradition worthy of one’s total commitment.
And so I ask, how can faith do anything to change the course of history and invite us to avoid the incessant need to always be right and, rather, be at peace with questions and uncertainty and to find a faithful path in ambiguity?
4. The lure to be independent rather than interconnected
Rev. Dr. King eloquently called us to recognize the interdependence of all humanity when he wrote in his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, “In a real sense all life is inter-related. All [of us] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
But what we witness throughout history, and today in particular, is a desire for the illusion to be maintained of complete independence and autonomy, utter disconnectedness, and a soulless detachment from others. What has happened, it seems to me, is that totalitarian despots who reinforce the false notions of isolationism and the frequently paired philosophies of self-indulgence and selfishness, garner the support of the masses and ride to power on the fear and falsehoods they stoke in the masses. And having demonized the other, they can now be more easily written off, even killed off. The rapid and unsettling rise of right-wing militia groups and survival websites indicates this illusion of complete detachment is on the rise.
What has happened, it seems to me, is that totalitarian despots who reinforce the false notions of isolationism and the frequently paired philosophies of self-indulgence and selfishness, garner the support of the masses and ride to power on the fear and falsehoods they stoke in the masses. And having demonized the other, they can now be more easily written off, even killed off.
Our country has struggled with this overactive fervor for independence ever since the War of Independence with England. The current tirades against immigrants and the blatant xenophobia against anyone who doesn’t look, talk, act, eat, or smell like the rigid stereotypical “American” (which is an oxymoron in an of itself) is reprehensible. Because of the unwillingness of the average person in this country to call out and confront White Christian Nationalism we will forever maintain the lie that complete autonomy of individuals one from another and communities from each other is not simply possible, but the goal of the American Dream.
And so I ask, how can faith do anything to change the course of history and invite us strive for interdependence rather than independence from one another, and to not simply honor the rich diversity of the world’s people, but live as citizens joined together in a mutual destiny?
5. The lure to be pure rather than multidimensional
Perhaps the temptation that is closest to me, and therefor fraught with pain and anger, is the warped and misguided demand for purity. The purity codes of the Hebrew Scriptures have been misunderstood and misappropriated by those who would use them for their own egocentric and malicious purposes. Disconnecting the social codes of the book of Leviticus from their context and the larger biblical story, texts of terror have been pulled out and used as bludgeons to justify attacks, verbal and physical, on women most of all, and on those who “aren’t like us.” Undergirding much of the xenophobia I noted above, the false requirement for purity in order to be faithful has led to economic isolation, chronic poverty, internment, destroyed lives, and even death.
In my own history, the abuse of scripture in the name of strict uniformity and compulsory purity in the church was shocking, with scriptures ripped out of context to attack me on the floor of Regional Assemblies and in Commission on Ministry meetings, as well as others like me, all with the intended goal to “save the church.” Instead, it was – and still is – a means of trying to force the faith of Jesus Christ to be something it never was meant to be.
And, of course, these same tendencies to twist scripture and foment misunderstanding, anxiety, and fear have been used – and are still being used – to dismiss, demonize, disenfranchise others, including women, persons with disabilities, People of Color, immigrants, the elderly, and those with different theological and political commitments than the (presumed) majority.
Even in the church, where we have such rich biblical support for celebrating “each according to the gifts given them,” we witness the mocking of such faithfulness as being “politically correct” and “woke” when, in fact, we are only trying to help us all honor and protect the diversity of God’s good creation.
Even in the church, where we have such rich biblical support for celebrating “each according to the gifts given them,” we witness the mocking of such faithfulness as being “politically correct” and “woke” when, in fact, we are only trying to help us all honor and protect the diversity of God’s good creation.
And so I ask, how can faith do anything to change the course of history and invite us to avoid language, policies, practices, and procedures that are based in purity and lean into a deeper appreciation for, even celebration of, the multidimensional nature of all of our lives?
Let me turn now to some antidotes that I have discovered that I’m investing my life in in order to change the course of history for the better. And while I don’t pretend that these efforts will thwart an impending cataclysm, I know from my own experience that every one of us seeking to do our very best to change the world is the only way the dial of destruction can be turned back. Together, perhaps, it can be turned back in time.
- The commitment to be good rather than comfortable
I put this as number one on my list, and spent the most time exploring it, because I think in 21st century America getting this one figured out makes all the other temptations easier to confront and transform. I believe the most important thing we can do to help ourselves and one another value goodness over comfort is by developing a deeper and more profound practice of empathy.
Yes, I am well aware that “empathy” sounds far too simplistic, soft, and ineffective, but for me nothing will change until there is a transformation of our hearts. All values, actions, policies, and structures are built on whether or not we give a damn about anyone else. Empathy can be strengthened when we are clear what it is not: it is not sympathy, it is not pity, it is not reassurance, it is not codependence. It is seeking to more fully comprehend and even physically feel what another human being might be feeling in any given situation.
In New York City in the late 1980’s and 1990’s the ability of a faith community to have true empathy for those who were infected and affected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus defined whether or not they were able to truly be and live the love of Christ for *all* people, HIV+ or HIV-. I saw empathy define who was willing to be Christ and who consciously chose not to be.
How do we develop and deepen our empathy? Let me offer one example with which I’m familiar: One of the movements in the church in the last few decades has been the development of Godly Play and Children Worship & Wonder. It is a Montessori-style education program for Christian Education that uses unpainted generic wooden figures and simple dioramas to have children reenact biblical stories. At the heart of the learning of the story is the repetitive question the leader asks, “I wonder…?” “I wonder why Jonah didn’t want to go where God asked him to go?” or “I wonder why the disciples reacted to Jesus the way they did?” I believe this teaching style exemplifies for children the call to feel what others may be feeling. We would do well to find more ways to ask such feeling questions in our communities of faith and our communities in general to build up our empathy muscles. Can we integrate such empathetic prompts in our sermons and church board meetings as well?
We would do well to find more ways to ask such feeling questions in our communities of faith and our communities in general to build up our empathy muscles. Can we integrate such empathetic prompts in our sermons and church board meetings as well?
A second recommendation helping us focus on what is good even if it is uncomfortable, is to more honestly acknowledge and then address how almost every creature comfort we have has an equal and unsettling discomfort for someone else. What if we spent more time researching how things come to us before we buy something new? One Lenten practice I named for myself one year was to look at the manufacturing tag for every piece of clothing I wore every day between Ash Wednesday and Easter. I prayed that day for the people of those countries where the very clothes on my back had originated. At the end of each week I researched one of the countries I had prayed for and one of the companies that made a clothing item I wore in regards to their scorecard on preventing sweatshops and paying fair wages. At the end of the season I gave a donation to an organization seeking to hold companies accountable for using unfair labor practices.
And in a similar way, what if we tried to live more simply and sustainably, confessing that perhaps less luxury and extravagance on my end might mean a higher quality of life for others elsewhere. Which leads me directly to…
- The commitment to be just rather than wealthy
One of the common denominators in most faith traditions is the refusal to equate poverty with anything evil, sinful, or unfaithful. Reclaiming the rich depth already offered within many of our faith traditions, especially the teachings of Jesus Christ, around what true wealth is, would be a tangible first step for all of us to address the raging inequalities of life. While Christian scriptures certainly don’t glorify poverty, they are quite clear on sharing wealth and supporting the common good. From Jesus’ commending the leaving of extra grain in the field for the gleaners to gather, to the letters of Paul urging wealthier congregations to share their financial resources with struggling churches, the call to justice and equity is patently clear.
I strongly believe nurturing an ease with waiting, silence, and just being is necessary to confronting our culture’s hunger for more things, obscene wealth, and to develop an appreciation for living simply and therefore more justly.
Likewise, I find most faith traditions value the spiritual discipline of waiting and finding peace with silence. Again, I am aware that this sounds simplistic, but I strongly believe nurturing an ease with waiting, silence, and just being is necessary to confronting our culture’s hunger for more things, obscene wealth, and to develop an appreciation for living simply and therefore more justly. A culture that promotes conspicuous consumerism, planned obsolescence, and the illusion of eternal growth thrives on keeping people anxious, frenetic, and competitive. Therefore, cultivating habits of waiting, watching, and wondering as well as a self-image based in being rather than doing or getting will confront the lure of wealth and invite the joys of justice. These are ancient and familiar truths in almost every religious and faith tradition, so this contemplative journey should be our specialty!
- The commitment to be discerning rather than right
Nothing will cause the craving for absolute certainty to crumble before us more than a full-bodied willingness to nurture ambiguity. And the best way to nurture ambiguity is to honor a culture of inquisitiveness, to ask honest thoughtful questions, and to ponder life. I am reminded of a quote given to me by an Elder at Park Avenue Christian Church from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters To A Young Poet:”
“…Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Likewise, our congregational leaders need to be more comfortable with prophetic preaching by their clergy. For too many generations we have allowed bullies in our church to silence prophetic preachers with the threat of the loss of major donors, the withdrawal of individuals and families from membership, or being fired. We never count those who left the church because it *wasn’t* relevant to their lives and never promoted justice and peace. This is an indictment on the church and has it made it almost impossible to preach theologically healthy and biblically honest sermons. Rather, let us truly honor freedom of the pulpit and create intellectually stimulating, spiritually vibrant, and scripturally deep communities of faith by allowing our clergy to actually share the wisdom and passion with which God has gifted them and that was expanded upon in their seminaries!
Let us truly honor freedom of the pulpit and create intellectually stimulating, spiritually vibrant, and scripturally deep communities of faith by allowing our clergy to actually share the wisdom and passion with which God has gifted them and that was expanded upon in their seminaries!
Dr. King spoke of prophetic preaching in his sermon, Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution when he challenged, “There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but [he] must do it because conscience tells [him] it is right.”7
Of course, this needs to be paired with clergy who are willing to give as much of themselves to listening deeply to their congregants as they are in trying to teach their congregants. Pastors simply must be committed to providing strong and regular pastoral care – which absolutely means pastoral visitation. With every freedom comes an equal responsibility, and freedom of the pulpit has to be paired with the responsibility for high quality and reliable pastoral care. No one wants to be challenged intensely by someone who they believe doesn’t care about who they are or know truly about their lives.
- The commitment to be interconnected rather than independent
At the heart of what I tried to do and inspire others to in the congregations I served in New York City and in Cleveland was to rebuild within our hearts and our church structures a deeper appreciation for the community within and around the church as well as a renewed sense of what might simply be named the “Common Good.”
Here I would reference the wonderful and action-focused book Transforming Communities: How People Like You are Healing Their Neighborhood by Sandhya Rani Jha.5 Sandhya, founder and former Executive Director of the Oakland Peace Center brings to this book her years of experience as a pastor and community organizer to help address real and everyday inequalities and inequities facing real people in our neighborhoods and communities. Any church seeking to be a reliable partner for good in its community should have their leadership read and discuss Transforming Communitiesfor faith communities are uniquely posed to help redevelop for both individuals and communities the honest acknowledgement that we are all interconnected.
Many of us who have been involved in Anti-Racism work know all-too-well the enticement to focus on addressing individual prejudices and personal biases rather than the deep institutional and historic transformation that truly has to happen for racism to be eradicated and white supremacy to be crushed.
More challenging is the need to develop systems-based understandings of the problems in our society and world rather than allowing a simplistic and one-dimensional approaches to be focused upon and furthered. Many of us who have been involved in Anti-Racism work know all-too-well the enticement to focus on addressing individual prejudices and personal biases rather than the deep institutional and historic transformation that truly has to happen for racism to be eradicated and white supremacy to be crushed.
Communities of faith can take a stand and demand no community outreach program be started or extended without the important work of learning and addressing the systemic need for that ministry, whether it be a food pantry or community meal exploring fare wages and food deserts, programs for rental assistance advocating for affordable and safe housing, and churches that offer seminary scholarships lobbying for student debt reduction. Every human need and ill is linked to a larger system that makes it profitable and worthwhile for someone else to maintain that inequality, injustice, or inequity. Again, scripture is rife with understandings of systemic evil and the need to focus on the common good and engaging such scriptures an easy and convincing way to begin this work.
- The commitment to be multidimensional rather than pure
Ultimately, to truly understand, live into, and celebrate the multidimensional nature of who God created us to be requires those of us who are white European Americans to be completely and utterly committed in intention, word, and action to being fully anti-racist every moment of our lives, no matter how exhausting and uncompromising this may feel, and to confront white supremacy everywhere and every time it rears its ugly head – including during family gatherings. Living into our multifaceted identities as God created us to be requires us to commit ourselves to being more than just allies to People of Color, but co-conspirators to change the world, which means constant vigilance and risk-taking action. There is nothing that will transform faith communities for the future and make us agents of hope and healing in our world better to finally and fully becoming pro-reconciling and anti-racist.
Institutionally, we have got to stop feeling content that we are “multicultural” or “diverse” when in fact there is less than 10%, 20%, 30%, or even 40% Persons of Color participating. We must hold the same standards for our leadership bodies including boards of directors, trustees, and staff including executive level leadership. As individuals we need to be listening to and reading the wisdom of People of Color more than we do anyone else. We need to share food and community at the tables inside our homes with People of Color. We need to be in the streets and speaking up in boardrooms and city council meetings about the concerns, issues, and priorities of Persons of Color as they have defined them for us. More critically, we have to move ourselves and our voices out of the center of the conversation so that there is room and resources for People of Color to do what they know best: live their lives freely and lead us all boldly. Those of us who are white with resources need to find deep and meaningful ways to get those resources into the hands of people of color. Ultimately, we finally and conclusively have got to address the necessity for reparations in our land.
We [white people] have to move ourselves and our voices out of the center of the conversation so that there is room and resources for People of Color to do what they know best: live their lives freely and lead us all boldly.
Likewise, we must commit ourselves to be fully educated about, supportive of, and advocates for LGBTQ+ persons in our families, our neighborhoods, our churches and religious institutions, in our city, state, and national politics. In this moment in history this means we have got to learn about what it means to be transgender, gender non-binary, and gender non-conforming even if we tell ourselves this is just too much for us to learn at our age and we’ve already done all we need to do for justice. There is no pass on this for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are in the crosshairs of an army of radical religious political extremists and we cannot rest or they will die. So the first step is to learn the new identity language, get to know someone whose gender identity is radically different from our own, and to call our state representatives and tell them we are scrutinizing their every vote and are working diligently on the side of liberation.
We must demand equal compensation and equal job expectations for women as well as men, and open up our church employment structures to transgender employment as well.
Conclusion:
I’m not going to pretend any one of these commitments alone will change the world, and I know as well as anyone that massive societal changes need to take place and need to be sustained for generations before the arc of the moral universe truly bends towards justice. Laws need to be changed, voting rights need to be insured, wealth including land needs to be redistributed, and policies, practices, and procedures need to be reimagined in all our institutions. But what I do know is that all of these actions will be done by people, individual human beings with hearts, minds, souls, and strengths who are part of a collective whole. My life’s work has been to try to be the very best person I can be and to speak and act and live so as to inspire others to be the very best persons they can be, heart, mind, soul, and strength.
We humans have wrought havoc trying to squelch our anxieties by focusing on the objects: power and wealth and violence and shame. These attempts at calming our fears fail us every time we try them.
So many of the temptations that I have named are born of fear. We fear being lonely, left out, forgotten, unappreciated, and unloved. Of course, one of the most oft repeated phrases in scripture is, “Be not afraid.” From Genesis through the Revelation to John God through the Holy Scripture calls us to “be not afraid.” Søren Kierkegaard described anxiety as fear in search of an object. We humans have wrought havoc trying to squelch our anxieties by focusing on the objects: power and wealth and violence and shame. These attempts at calming our fears fail us every time we try them. The antidotes I have offered are my attempt to invite you – and remind me once again – to be not afraid.
What helps relieve my fears is encouraging myself to let go of the belief that it is all up to me. Thinking I can solve the problems of the world alone risks disfiguring me and misdirecting my energies. I believe in God. I believe in God, the creator of the universe and I do believe this God is a vital, dynamic, living presence in the midst of this world. Ultimately, we must let God be God and honor God’s divine transcendence and trust that the saving energy for everything and everyone will be the love of God that created it all, sustains it all, and will finally redeem it all.
Ultimately, we must let God be God and honor God’s divine transcendence and trust that the saving energy for everything and everyone will be the love of God that created it all, sustains it all, and will finally redeem it all.
May it be so.
Footnotes/Bibliography
1Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” Speech given at the National Cathedral, March 31, 1968. One transcript can be found here: https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/caribbean-breaking-news-featured/mlk-jr-remaining-awake-revolution/
2 The quote, used by James Baldwin for a book title, is from an African American spiritual, referencing the biblical story of Noah and the flood. A great review of how this quote is used in his book, The Fire Next Time, can be found here: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-fire.html?scp=236&sq=fire&st=Search Baldwin’s book can be purchased directly from the publisher at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7753/the-fire-next-time-by-james-baldwin/
3 This biblical story is found in three of the gospels: Luke 18:18–30; Matthew 19:16–29; Mark 10:17–30; Luke 10:25–28
4 This can be found in Acts 4:32-37 and 5:1-11
5 A news article from the New York Times about the Re-Imagining conference can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/14/us/cries-of-heresy-after-feminists-meet.html (Subscription may be required). The Wikepedia article is pretty good as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-Imagining
6 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter From A Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963. The entire speech can be found here: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
7 Find out more about Children Worship & Wonder here: https://www.docfamiliesandchildren.org/cww
8 Ranier Marie Rilker, “Letters To A Young Poet” first published in 1929, can be purchased directly from the publisher here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631497674
9 Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution from A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration From The Great Sermons Of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson and Peter Holloran, Warner Books, New York, 1998, p. 222. To read just the full quote directly: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/432654-in-a-real-sense-all-life-is-inter-related-all-men
10 Sandhya Rani Jha, Transforming Communities: How People Like You are Healing Their Neighborhood, (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2017) You can purchase this book directly from the publisher and more of the proceeds go to the author! Buy it at: https://chalicepress.com/products/transforming-communities
11 Okay, so I failed to do due diligence on this and cannot find a source that says Kierkegaard said this in this simple and clear way. After doing some research, I do believe his work on anxiety would affirm this concept. A great article on Kierkegaard’s understanding of anxiety can be found here: https://academyofideas.com/2018/02/soren-kierkegaard-psychology-anxiety/
Other resources that helped inspired this speech:
John Donne, MEDITATION XVII: Devotions upon Emergent Occasions – found online at: https://www.northernhighlands.org/cms/lib5/NJ01000179/Centricity/Domain/106/honorsbritishliterature/Meditation%20XVII.pdf
Walter Brueggemann, “The Sabbath Voice of the Evangel” in his book of essays Mandate To Difference: An Invitation To The Contemporary Church Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007) especially his understanding of sabbath on p. 43 This book can be ordered directly from the publisher at: https://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/0664231217/mandate-to-difference.aspx
Morrison, Melanie, The Grace of Coming Home: Spirituality, Sexuality, and the Struggle for Justice, (November 1st 1995 by Pilgrim Press) I do not believe this is still in print, but here are a few places one can purchase it used: https://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9780829810714
Living Thoughtfully & Loving Meaningfully 