Sorry for the late posting this week. The relevant text is John 15:1-8
I am the vine. You are the branches.
I wonder how those disciples heard these words when Jesus spoke them. Here they were, an unexpected assortment of back-woods Galileans, drawn together into a messy tangle of community by their common attachment to Jesus. Branches of a vine, indeed. It may have felt like a nice, quaint image for their community—a community of interdependence, but most of all, a community of loyalty to and connection with Jesus. A community that derived its energy and vision from Jesus—the central vine feeding the whole plant. Bearing fruit of righteousness—goodness in their lives and in their world. Making the world a better place. That’s how this passage is often heard nowadays. I’ll admit that in high school I cross-stitched a sampler of this verse with a pretty cluster of grapes in…
Photo taken by Bogdan in Neptun, Romania. Sunrise over the Black Sea.
In keeping with the musical prayers I’ve been posting in connection with the voting on Amendment One, here is one that I offer on this, the morning after. I believe it captures the defiant hope that has not yet been strangled out of us. If you want to pray, then pray with me and belt this song out at the top of your lungs from the bottom of your heart!
This is a follow-up to my earlier post. The results are in and the senseless act of institutional hatred called “Amendment One” has passed in my home state of North Carolina. There is much that I could say.
The tone of these two posts is consciously different from recent ones, where I have tried to cultivate a sense of commonality with evangelicals and conservatives. I still hope to do so, especially as my church (the Presbyterian Church) moves toward its consideration of same-sex marriage at this summer’s General Assembly. I maintain that there is much that is worthy of respect in the theological convictions of evangelicals and the political ideals of conservatives.
However, Amendment One is not representative of that which I respect and admire in them. This is an outright attack against liberty and equality. And, for the moment anyway, it appears to be a successful one. My conservative and evangelical brothers and sisters in North Carolina have bowed down before the demonic gods of fear and fanaticism. They have betrayed the very best that is in their traditions. I weep, not for myself but for them, as their idols will one day be their undoing.
And the real tragedy is that they look upon yesterday’s events as a victory for Jesus, who they have just re-crucified in hearts and minds of those who already feel nothing but alienation and rejection from the Christian church. I weep for you, my brothers and sisters, because you have hindered the cause of the gospel that I know you love so much. Just as you have done unto the least of these homosexual brothers and sisters of Christ, so you have done unto him.
But now, the deed is done, the votes are cast, and sun will rise today on a world that is a little less just than the one it rose over yesterday. But the sun will rise. And so will we.
We love you. And we will resist you. We bless you. And we will break your cursed laws. We will not bow our heads in silent resignation. Those who are truly free do not wait for the government to legitimate their freedom. True believers do not depend on institutional coercion to mandate the practice of their faith. Just ask any Christian in the People’s Republic of China, where the underground church flourishes in spite of persecution. I do not depend on the U.S. government to define the mystery of the Trinity for me, why then would I depend on them to define the covenant of marriage? Rosa Park was free long before she sat down in her seat on that bus. Even so, I declare to you in the name of every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered child of God that we too are free believers. We will marry and be given in marriage. We don’t need your permission. Love speaks for itself. As Jesus once said, “Wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
I am fortunate enough to live 500 miles away from this most recent oppression. I live in a state that has already decided to recognize marriage equality (a recent development in which I am proud to have played a part). This summer, my church will decide whether or not to join that choir of angels. I have decided within myself that I will not wait for their decision. Whatever happens at our General Assembly, I will continue to solemnize same-sex marriages in the name of Jesus and I will refuse to call them anything other than what they are: marriages.
Worst case scenario: someone will successfully challenge the legitimacy of my ministry in a church court because of what I’ve written here. That’s okay. I’ve been defrocked before. There are other churches who will have me. I say this in writing here and now because I want to be on record as one who stood up for what he thought was right before it was considered proper to do so. I want my children to be able to look back and know the kind of man that their father was on this day.
I was touched and surprised tonight as I prepared to put my three year old daughter to bed just after reading the news about the amendment passing. I found her playing under the desk in the office. When I called her out to get ready for bed, she said, “Look what I found!” She emerged holding a rainbow pride flag in her hand. I take that as a sign of things to come. It gives me hope.
There is a song that I’ve played over and over again in my car as I’ve driven from errand to errand and meeting to meeting today. It sings like a hymn and rises like a prayer. I invite you to pray it with me now, as we begin a new day:
It’s kind of a pointless gesture to comment on this now. My true comments are comprised of the moral and intellectual framework that I’ve been laying down in my preaching, writing, talking, marching, and loving for the past several years. Posts like this are merely symbolic gestures offered by those of us who wish to go on record in moments of truth as people who took a stand for truth, according to our best understanding.
I think Amendment One is a pointless piece of garbage that I refuse to dignify with the term “legislation.” I am not currently a registered voter in North Carolina, but I’ve spent the majority of my life so far in that state. Therefore, it matters to me, personally, what happens today, since many people who I love will be affected.
North Carolina, if you pass this amendment today, it will become an albatross around your neck. It will be an embarrassment and a mark of shame to future generations for whom the question of same-sex marriage will be a non-issue (and that generation is coming much sooner than you think). You are neither preventing the secularization of North American culture nor laying the foundation for a biblical regime by doing this. Read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and then tell me if theocracy is even a goal you want to achieve. To loosely paraphrase William Stringfellow, human beings are most effective at bringing hell to earth when they believe they are bringing heaven.
I’ll close with the lyrics of a song by Evangelical Christian songwriter Derek Webb. Here are the lyrics and the video. Listen and read. I hope it gets stuck in your head while you head to the polls.
You say always treat people like you’d like to be
I guess you love being hated for your sexuality
You love when people put words in your mouth
About what you believe
Make you sound like a freak
‘Cause if you really believed
What you say you believe
You wouldn’t be so damned reckless
With the words you speak
You wouldn’t silently consent
When the liars speak
Denying all the dying of the remedy
Tell me brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me sister, what matters more to you?
If I can see what’s in your heart
By what comes out of your mouth
Then it sure looks to me like being straight
Is all it’s about
It looks like being hated
For all the wrong things
Like chasing the wind
While the pendulum swings
‘Cause we can talk and debate
Till we’re blue in the face
About the language and tradition
That He’s coming to save
And meanwhile we sit
Just like we don’t give a shit about
Fifty thousand people who are dying today
Tell me brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me sister, what matters more to you?
If you’ve ever wondered how to force a smile out of a liberal Christian fan of Pink Floyd first thing on a Monday morning, this would be it. Thank you to The Christian Left group on Facebook. Have a great day!
There are some living parables that simply tell themselves. Neither illustration nor explanation is necessary. Nevertheless, I’ll go ahead and engage in a little pedantic theological overkill, just to make sure the point is driven home.
Go ahead and read it. Then compare the results of that study to the words of the Dude himself (with all due respect to Jeff Lebowski):
[Jesus said:] ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. The father* went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32)
Finally, here’s a video from Derek Webb, one of the only ‘Christian’ artists I can stand to listen to anymore:
Nevermind that I hate the word ‘biblical’ in all of its pretentious and coercive glory. I find that it usually has nothing to do with the Bible and a lot to do with arrogant jerks who don’t like to have their authority challenged.
You want to know what’s really unbiblical?
Bacon. And I’m not giving that up either.
Anyway, here’s a list of farcical reasons that appeared in Sojourner’s Magazine. One of my seminary profs had an almost identical list on his office door. The purpose of this joke is to show how absolutely ridiculous are the hermeneutical arguments of those who fight against women in ordained ministry.
It seems to me that His Holiness is having a hard time of it as of late.
Apparently, having run out of every other kind of human being to alienate, he’s had to turn against his own once again. I wonder, at what point will ole’ Benny answer the question, “What’s wrong with Catholicism?” with the response, “All those damned Catholics!” or, better yet, “Jesus.”
When he first took office back in 2005, he blamed the pedophile priest scandal on gay men sneaking into seminaries (Benny likes to assume that every gay man is a card-carrying member of NAMBLA). It struck me then that those sounded like awfully strange words, coming from a man in a sequined dress.
Before that, during his days as the head of the Inquisition, he presided over the silencing of Fr. Leonardo Boff, a liberation theologian who dared to suggest that the hierarchy of the church existed in order to empower the laity, not vice versa. For this, Boff was branded as a communist and eventually excommunicated. Galileo is spinning in his grave.
These days, the newest threat to Catholicism comes from another unexpected source: nuns. I can imagine Jon Lovitz in papal regalia, shouting, “That’s the ticket!”
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has produced a fabulous column on Papa Benny’s latest witch hunt. Click the link below to read it for yourself:
Drawing from my years of experience working with the mentally ill and chemically dependent, I typically find that one is most insane when you think that you’re just fine and it’s everyone else that’s gone mad.
Having turned the spotlight of accusation on every other Catholic but himself, I think the rhetorical question, “Is the Pope Catholic?” is worth asking.
Hopping Hadrian's Wall 