It's election day in the United States, and I found a piece that fit in with both the message here and the election theme.
An Episcopal priest named Tom Ehrich wrote an op-ed piece for the Indianapolis Star titled "Preachers much reclaim religion from politicians." I couldn't agree more. Here are some excerpts I thought were particularly profound.
"Now that the unloosed genie of religious intolerance has replaced racial hatred and anti-communist blather as the go-to guy of desperate politicians, it is time for religious leaders of all stripes to take back the night."
"Christianity has always served better on the margins than at the center of power. When we walk hand in hand with power-seekers, we lose touch with the Gospel. When we grasp public funds, tax benefits and prestige, we stray far from a savior who commanded exactly the opposite."
"We look stupid parading alongside the corrupt. The dais and dalliance of modern politics aren't our place. Crumbs falling from Republican and Democratic tables aren't the manna we seek. We have nobler ideals than staying in office for another two years. We have food that endures to eternal life.'
I am reminded of the old cliche "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." As religious leaders like James Dobson have gained more political power, it has grossly corrupted any message they might bring from the pulput of a church. Leaders like him wind up preaching more about politics and less about Jesus Christ.
Any preacher who thinks politics is a higher calling should go in that direction because they don't beling in a pulpit. Anyone who believes influencing votes is more important than saving souls should not try the latter because they are obviously not hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
We need more people to influence souls for Christ, not votes for Republicans.
November 07, 2006
November 06, 2006
More Haggard Fallout
Now the distancing begins from disgraced Rev. Ted Haggard.
A spokesman for President Bush, who Haggard was reported to have regular telephone contact with, said, ""He had been on a couple of calls, but was not a weekly participant in those calls," said Bush spokesman Tony Fratto. "I believe he's been to the White House one or two times. I don't want to confine it to a specific number because it would take a while to figure out how many times. But there have been a lot of people who come to the White House."
Dr. Jerry Falwell said, "He doesn't really lead the movement," Falwell said. "He's president of an association that's very loosely knit, and I have never been a member of it. Most of people that I know have not, and no one has looked to them for leadership."
Dr. James Dobson didn't let this little problem make him lose focus on what is really important to him, "Ted Haggard is a friend of mine, and it appears someone is trying to damage his reputation as a way of influencing the outcome of Tuesday's election--especially the vote on Colorado's marriage protection amendment--which Ted strongly supports."
This reminds me of a movie Pastor Brenda and I were watching just last night, "X-Men: The Last Stand." There was a lot of talk among the LGBT community when it first came out this spring because of the story line--a cure that had been produced for mutants to make them "normal."
During the film, one of the members of the mutant resistance, a character named "Mystique," was shot with a dart containing the cure drug and rapidly changed to a normal woman. The leader of the resistance, "Magneto," look at her when she lay naked and helpless, reaching out toward him, and sneered, "You're one of them now." He promptly turned his back and walked away, never associating with her again.
That's just what these members of the religious right are doing. Now that Haggard has admitted at least some indiscretions, he is one of them, the unwashed masses, the sinners, just like them homosexuals.
In this black and white world of evangelical fundamentalism, you're either with them or against them. Ted Haggard, one of their leaders, has now been kicked to the curb and is one of "them."
Does it bother you that these alleged men of Christ are acting very much against the example of Jesus when he walked the earth?
It bothers me...a lot.
A spokesman for President Bush, who Haggard was reported to have regular telephone contact with, said, ""He had been on a couple of calls, but was not a weekly participant in those calls," said Bush spokesman Tony Fratto. "I believe he's been to the White House one or two times. I don't want to confine it to a specific number because it would take a while to figure out how many times. But there have been a lot of people who come to the White House."
Dr. Jerry Falwell said, "He doesn't really lead the movement," Falwell said. "He's president of an association that's very loosely knit, and I have never been a member of it. Most of people that I know have not, and no one has looked to them for leadership."
Dr. James Dobson didn't let this little problem make him lose focus on what is really important to him, "Ted Haggard is a friend of mine, and it appears someone is trying to damage his reputation as a way of influencing the outcome of Tuesday's election--especially the vote on Colorado's marriage protection amendment--which Ted strongly supports."
This reminds me of a movie Pastor Brenda and I were watching just last night, "X-Men: The Last Stand." There was a lot of talk among the LGBT community when it first came out this spring because of the story line--a cure that had been produced for mutants to make them "normal."
During the film, one of the members of the mutant resistance, a character named "Mystique," was shot with a dart containing the cure drug and rapidly changed to a normal woman. The leader of the resistance, "Magneto," look at her when she lay naked and helpless, reaching out toward him, and sneered, "You're one of them now." He promptly turned his back and walked away, never associating with her again.
That's just what these members of the religious right are doing. Now that Haggard has admitted at least some indiscretions, he is one of them, the unwashed masses, the sinners, just like them homosexuals.
In this black and white world of evangelical fundamentalism, you're either with them or against them. Ted Haggard, one of their leaders, has now been kicked to the curb and is one of "them."
Does it bother you that these alleged men of Christ are acting very much against the example of Jesus when he walked the earth?
It bothers me...a lot.
November 05, 2006
Someone Who Didn't Stop Learning
One of the biggest problems I believe we have in Christian leadership at this time is that leaders get to a point where they spend too much time teaching and not enough time learning. It is the exceptional leader who stays focused on learning.
Here is a piece by someone who learned an important lesson about life after he move into a position of leadership. Miguel A. De La Torre, director of the Justice and Peace Institute and a published author, wrote this piece about what he learned from his friend "Tommy" after Tommy came out to him.
Here's an excerpt:
"I agreed to be his spiritual partner in the struggle. We covenanted to pray together. We fasted. We cast out the demon of homosexuality.
If anyone ever truly wanted to be a heterosexual, if anyone ever truly wanted to stop finding men attractive, if anyone ever truly humbled himself before God to faithfully live a Christian life, it was Tommy.
Years went by, andow you know what? Tommy was still gay. Tommy did not change, but I did.
In a very real sense, Tommy taught me something important about God: either God lacked the power to save a willing believer from his sin, or maybe--just maybe--I have been taught to read the Bible through the eyes of homophobics, regardless of how loving they appeared."
A person with an open mind and open heart can always be taught important lessons about how God works in our lives.
We just have to listen.
Here is a piece by someone who learned an important lesson about life after he move into a position of leadership. Miguel A. De La Torre, director of the Justice and Peace Institute and a published author, wrote this piece about what he learned from his friend "Tommy" after Tommy came out to him.
Here's an excerpt:
"I agreed to be his spiritual partner in the struggle. We covenanted to pray together. We fasted. We cast out the demon of homosexuality.
If anyone ever truly wanted to be a heterosexual, if anyone ever truly wanted to stop finding men attractive, if anyone ever truly humbled himself before God to faithfully live a Christian life, it was Tommy.
Years went by, andow you know what? Tommy was still gay. Tommy did not change, but I did.
In a very real sense, Tommy taught me something important about God: either God lacked the power to save a willing believer from his sin, or maybe--just maybe--I have been taught to read the Bible through the eyes of homophobics, regardless of how loving they appeared."
A person with an open mind and open heart can always be taught important lessons about how God works in our lives.
We just have to listen.
November 04, 2006
Evangelical Leader Steps Down, Admits "Some Indiscretion"
The religious right took another severe hit this week with the downfall of Rev. Ted Haggard, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage.
On Thursday, Haggard resigned as the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, a group representing 45,000 churches with a combined total of over 30 million members after allegations that he paid for sex with a man from whom he also purchased drugs.
On Saturday, Haggard resigned at the pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs that he founded over 20 years ago after an investigative board of the church determined he was guilty of "sexually immoral conduct."
The Advocate has an exclusive interview with Mike Jones, Haggard's accuser.
The facts in this case are not clear. Haggard has admitted to part of what Jones accused him of, and Jones failed a polygraph test during a live radio interview Friday morning.
What is clear, though, is yet another of the loudest voices on the religous right has come up short. One of the men who love pointing fingers at those they do not deem as worthy of God's love as they are has taken a hard, painful fall off the pedistal they placed themselves upon.
This is another reminder that we ALL fall short of God's will for our lives and that we only gain admittance to heaven through his grace, not through earning it by our actions. As a result, no man is in position to judge his fellow man.
Hopefully, this situation will help open some minds and hreats to that critcially important truth.
On Thursday, Haggard resigned as the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, a group representing 45,000 churches with a combined total of over 30 million members after allegations that he paid for sex with a man from whom he also purchased drugs.
On Saturday, Haggard resigned at the pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs that he founded over 20 years ago after an investigative board of the church determined he was guilty of "sexually immoral conduct."
The Advocate has an exclusive interview with Mike Jones, Haggard's accuser.
The facts in this case are not clear. Haggard has admitted to part of what Jones accused him of, and Jones failed a polygraph test during a live radio interview Friday morning.
What is clear, though, is yet another of the loudest voices on the religous right has come up short. One of the men who love pointing fingers at those they do not deem as worthy of God's love as they are has taken a hard, painful fall off the pedistal they placed themselves upon.
This is another reminder that we ALL fall short of God's will for our lives and that we only gain admittance to heaven through his grace, not through earning it by our actions. As a result, no man is in position to judge his fellow man.
Hopefully, this situation will help open some minds and hreats to that critcially important truth.
November 03, 2006
Falwell: Clergy Sex-Abuse Case a "Bump In the Road"
Excerpted from an article on EthicsDaily.com:
Jerry Falwell called high-profile allegations that a former pastor of a prominent independent Baptist church molested and raped numerous children over the course of decades a "bump in the road."
"When you hit a bump in the road--the pastor has mentioned six months here of challenges--forget the bump in the road. That's all it is. You've got to move on," Falwell said in a keynote address of a three-day meeting of the Southwide Baptist Fellowship at Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.
Robert Gray, the former 30-year pastor who led the church out of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1960s, was arrested in May. He is scheduled to stand trial Nov. 27 on two counts of capital sexual battery, because two of his accusers say he molested them when they were 6 years old.
Twenty-two people, including one man, have come forward since May to accuse Gray of abusing them. The other allegations involve children older than 12, meaning they cannot be prosecuted due to a statute of limitations.
Twenty two people accuse a church pastor of sexual battery and it's a bump in the freakin' road?!
I'm willing to bet the victims approach it a tad differently.
Of course, if your main purpose in visting a church is to keep them aligned with your political goals rather than ministering to their souls with the Holy Spirit, I suppose it's easier to look past these "bumps in the road."
In this follow-up piece, Ethics Today tells how leaders of the church covered up Gray's pattern of abuse out of fear that public knowledge would harm the effectiveness of the ministry.
If their leadership truly felt that way, I have to question how it could have possibly been effective in the first place.
Jerry Falwell called high-profile allegations that a former pastor of a prominent independent Baptist church molested and raped numerous children over the course of decades a "bump in the road."
"When you hit a bump in the road--the pastor has mentioned six months here of challenges--forget the bump in the road. That's all it is. You've got to move on," Falwell said in a keynote address of a three-day meeting of the Southwide Baptist Fellowship at Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.
Robert Gray, the former 30-year pastor who led the church out of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1960s, was arrested in May. He is scheduled to stand trial Nov. 27 on two counts of capital sexual battery, because two of his accusers say he molested them when they were 6 years old.
Twenty-two people, including one man, have come forward since May to accuse Gray of abusing them. The other allegations involve children older than 12, meaning they cannot be prosecuted due to a statute of limitations.
Twenty two people accuse a church pastor of sexual battery and it's a bump in the freakin' road?!
I'm willing to bet the victims approach it a tad differently.
Of course, if your main purpose in visting a church is to keep them aligned with your political goals rather than ministering to their souls with the Holy Spirit, I suppose it's easier to look past these "bumps in the road."
In this follow-up piece, Ethics Today tells how leaders of the church covered up Gray's pattern of abuse out of fear that public knowledge would harm the effectiveness of the ministry.
If their leadership truly felt that way, I have to question how it could have possibly been effective in the first place.
November 01, 2006
Casting the First Stone
What was it that Jesus said, "He who is without sin cast the first stone."
There's a bunch of folks in Jerusalem who aren't following that guidance, using stones and bottles as part of their rioting against an upcoming gay pride parade. Religion plays a part in this--the rioters are apparently members of an ultra Orthodox Jewish sect.
This is scheduled to be the second annual such event in Jerusalem. Last year the organizers, a group called Open House, needed a court order to proceed. The parade featured over a dozen arrests and three stabbings.
Apparently people wanted to get an early jump on the violence in an attempt to get the parade cancelled to protect national security. Already, over 70 members of Parliment have signed a petition against holding the parade.
It just goes to show yet again that regardless of the struggles GLBT Americans have, there are others worse off.
Please join me in praying for the safety of those who participate in this event and the softening of the hearts of those who are using violence to protest.
There's a bunch of folks in Jerusalem who aren't following that guidance, using stones and bottles as part of their rioting against an upcoming gay pride parade. Religion plays a part in this--the rioters are apparently members of an ultra Orthodox Jewish sect.
This is scheduled to be the second annual such event in Jerusalem. Last year the organizers, a group called Open House, needed a court order to proceed. The parade featured over a dozen arrests and three stabbings.
Apparently people wanted to get an early jump on the violence in an attempt to get the parade cancelled to protect national security. Already, over 70 members of Parliment have signed a petition against holding the parade.
It just goes to show yet again that regardless of the struggles GLBT Americans have, there are others worse off.
Please join me in praying for the safety of those who participate in this event and the softening of the hearts of those who are using violence to protest.
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