Creation Spirituality Time

All right friends,

Enough pestering of my right wing friends for a while. I am off to the Creation Spirituality Conference in Asheville. Hot and Holy Cosmic Mass tonight. Hanging out with one of my favorite heretics, Matthew Fox for the weekend at Jubilee! in Asheville.

Why Bishop Wright is Wrong

It is the same story. It is the same rhetoric. It is the sin of privilege.

It is Bishop N.T. Wright:

They [The Episcopal Church] were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level”.

Translation: You uppity (women, blacks, divorced persons, gays, ____________) are not possibly as righteous as I in the eyes of the Lord. You have only a half-assed baptism while I am a complete ass.

Every church has its right-wing. In order to secure their privilege they accuse those they actively oppress of disturbing the peace.

"You are causing schism. You are causing unrest. How dare you claim equality with us? You are threatening the unity and we will break the relationship if you get justice."

Who is causing "schism" again? Who is breaking away? Who is leaving and trying to take the silver with them?

Only a sick church gives in to those threats. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is still pretty sick I am afraid. Although, there are signs of health on the horizon.

The Episcopal Church is showing itself healthy these days. They are making decisions with dignity and integrity and for the sake of the Gospel.

They are seeing the Bishop Wrights for what they are: beloved of God but wrong.

Rednecks, Guns and Alcohol

"We are bunch of rednecks down here in Nashville. Alcohol, rednecks, and firearms really don't mix that well inside bars."
--bar owner, Steve Smith

This was on Colbert in March when the legislation to bring concealed weapons into establishments serving alcohol was introduced.

It would be a bit more amusing if the law wasn't passed and now in effect.

See You in Nashville?

I hope to see some of you in Nashville, September 4-6 for The National Welcoming and Affirming Presbyterian Conference: God's Whole Family. Here is the story!

The National Welcoming & Affirming Presbyterian Conference September 4 - 6, 2009
Labor Day Weekend
Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee

"God's Whole Family" is hosted by Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville and produced by More Light Presbyterians for pro-LGBT Presbyterians, families, friends and allies.

Easy online registration now with housing options.


Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218th General Assembly, PCUSA, will join us as a keynote speaker and preacher.


Bruce is pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, a multi-cultural Presbyterian congregation in San Francisco, CA
Bruce's blog:

Rev. Debra Peevey, MLP's Campaign Outreach Coordinator for Amendment 08-B, will be with us to share heartwarming stories of faith, courage and transformation plus lessons learned from the campaign.

Debra is a minister in the Disciples of Christ tradition and lives with her spouse, Candy in Surprise, AZ.

We will gather in community and deepen our faith through affirming worship and by celebrating the gifts of God's creation, love and grace for us and all the world.

Think Road Trip!

Get a group from your church, youth group, campus or seminary community, or presbytery to be in “ Music City ” for the LGBT-affirming faith and spiritual experience of the year!

Group registration discount 5 for the price of 4, discounted registration for high school, college and seminary students, and early registration discounts for all.

Questions? Email
Local phone contact: Trice Gibbons 615.292.1555

Register online today!

Please forward the good news and this invitation to others within your family, circle of friends, church, youth group, campus or seminary community!

This is the big National Event right here in Tennessee!

Squirt Out Protest

Shuck and Jive award to Numan's Bar and Grill in Johnson City and to the Johnson City Press for the front page coverage of this fun, educational, and soaking wet protest to the new gun law.

From the article:

The same day that legislation allowing carry permit holders to bring firearms into restaurants that serve alcohol went into effect, Numan’s staged its own protest of the law by inviting its employees and customers to take part in a mass water gun fight.

“It turned out it was incredibly successful,” Numan said amid streams of water passing by. “Everybody just had a ball.”

The filled water pistols were given to customers as they came through the door, and Darlene “Potshot” Ponzio quickly armed herself. While she said she was having a blast with the water guns, she had other thoughts on the idea of real guns in bars.

“I think it’s fun. I think it’s great,” she said of the protest, “and I think it’s stupid they would let guns come into a bar in the first place. That was a stupid law they put in. That’s ridiculous.”

Numan said Ponzio’s feelings on the legislation seem to be the consensus among his customers.

“I got a good, wide range of people who come by and everybody is telling me I’m doing the right thing by protesting this,” he said.

Aside from the water gun fight protest, Numan is also leaving up a petition in his bar.

“I know that all my customers are going to be signing this, and I’m trying to get a thousand signatures this week,” he said.

This is a great protest. Good use of symbolism. Front page coverage. Opportunity to do something (sign a petition), educational, and fun. There is nothing like lightheartedness to spoof the mood of paranoia in our country being placed upon us by the gun lobby.

Thumbs up, Dan Numan!

Why Marriage Matters

Here are a couple of fine letters to the Committee on Civil Union and Christian Marriage. One is from Earl Apel and is posted on the Layman's website. It is the second one that the editors titled, How We Interpret, Follow the Bible is Important. Here is a piece of it:

My own church, Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, has been quite vocal on this subject in the past. In fact one of our pastors, Steven Van Kuiken, was defrocked by the Presbytery of Cincinnati for taking such a bold stand in saying that services of same-sex couples were the same as marriage. There was division in our church as to strategy and bottom line our relationship to the PC(USA) whether to go or stay. After Mr. Van Kuiken’s dismissal, our church did issue a new policy that I think is inclusive to all persons wanting to have their partnerships blessed and affirmed in the PC(USA).

I happen to be gay and haven’t been at a point in my life where I needed to have a relationship formally affirmed in the church. But I certainly understand the needs of so many others that wish to do so.

But here is the bottom line. The Christian Church by nature is filled with various relationships. We are in a sense family to each other just as Christ and his followers were. It is important for a healthy family that relationships are honored and respected.

Another good one is posted on Witherspoon's site. This is from a psychologist, Dr. Matthew D. Johnson (scroll down to 7/13/2009). An excerpt:

It is clear from the research literature that the act of a couple gathering together their friends and family and making a promise to stay committed in front of the people most important to them and in front of God is profound. This leads to greater commitment (feeling compelled to stay in the relationship) and dedication (feeling compelled to actively work on improving the relationship) to their partner. These effects are much stronger when a couple weds than when they simply live together. A wedding that lacks an endorsement from the church may well weaken the benefits of marriage for the couple.

Strong marriages also benefit the children. A large amount of research conducted in the last two decades suggests that, on average, the presence of two parents is associated with better outcomes for children.

Unwed parents who cohabitate are more similar to married parents than to single parents on variables related to child outcomes, but children in families with married parents have the best health, behavioral and academic outcomes.

Strengthening families regardless of the gender of the parents should be an important goal of the church, and one way to do this is to allow all couples who seek to enhance their relationship through marriage to do so with the support of the church.

Don't forget to send yours!

Responses can be sent electronically (civilunion.marriage@pcusa.org) or mailed to Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee, Office of the General Assembly, Room 4621, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396.

The Meaning of Life, Part 29

Our problem is civil obedience.

Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war.

Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.

That's our problem.

We recognize this for Nazi Germany. We know that the problem there was obedience, that the people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong.

They should have challenged, and they should have resisted; and if we were only there, we would have showed them.

Even in Stalin's Russia we can understand that; people are obedient, all these herdlike people.

— Howard Zinn, The Problem is Civil Obedience, 1970

Only Water Pistols at Numan's

The "bring your gun to the bar" law goes into effect today in Tennessee. Yeah, bright idea. I enjoyed reading this article in today's Johnson City Press about Numan's Bar and Cafe. The owner, Dan Numan, is giving away guns today. Water pistols. It is in protest to this law. According to Numan:

"The voters aren't in favor of it, the customers don't want it, the bar owners don't want it, the police departments don't want it," he said. "There isn't anybody that wants it, but they're (the legislators) are obviously not listening to the voters or the constituents. They're obviously listening to where they're getting money from, which has to be the gun lobby."

Indeed.

Does the Church Own the Bible?

Thanks to Jim West for pointing out this important essay by Philip Davies, Who's Bible? Anyone's? Davies advocates for what many have been advocating for some time, the Bible does not belong to the church but to humanity and is the centerpiece of Western culture, so we ought to be familiar with it. Davies writes:

I know a lot of secular Jews (actually, as a group, among my favorite people). Very few of them can demonstrate the degree of ignorance of the Bible that Christians do. For them, being Jewish means knowing the Bible, even if not accepting its religious authority. Secular Jews are nearly all proud to be Jewish and know that their Jewish identity is defined by the Bible. There is no equivalent commitment among Christians because they share no ethnic identity. But they do share a cultural identity that is perhaps too pervasive for them to recognize. Imagine a national art gallery without any biblical scenes. The history of Western culture collapses without the biblical backbone that keeps it erect. And that is not to mention the political shape of Europe, gouged out of religious warfare and rescued by a secular ethic that still respects Christianity.

Davies also links to this site regarding Reading the Bible as An Adult by Julia O'Brien. In the section "Getting Started" she writes:

It’s my contention that most people’s problems with the Bible aren’t really with the Bible but rather with what they assume they are supposed to do with what they read. While of course the Bible does offer some explicit instructions, most of it (especially the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) is narrative and poetry. Reading a story or a poem only for its moral bottom-line not only leads to odd doctrine but also overlooks what stories and poems do best: incite the imagination and let readers lose (and find) themselves within the worlds they create. Stories have power, not only to entertain but also to confront us with ourselves.

Most people can testify to having seen their own lives differently because of a well-told tale. The story we read never remains on the page. It also plays itself out inside and around us. And we play out the dynamics of our lives in the process of making sense of someone else’s story.

The stories of the Bible can work like this. They can be read like novels—stories that invite reflection, imagination, and discussion. Reading the Bible as literature doesn’t demote a sacred text to “just literature.” Rather, it releases the Bible from the restrictive assumptions that have choked all the joy out of reading it.

It’s my contention that the Bible can be just as engaging as any novel on the best-seller list—and often more engaging. Its stories are complex, nuanced, and come with the seal of approval of countless generations of readers. The Bible may belong in church, but it also belongs in book clubs and reading groups. It belongs wherever individuals and groups are interested in engaging the questions that literature raises about being human. What makes people tick? Do people change? Which is more important, love or money? How does tracing the contours of a character’s life help me cope with my own?

This is the spirit with which I try to engage the Bible. Folks might be interested in my blog about reading the Bible as literature, Bible and Jive. Follow the month by month guides on the sidebar. Enjoy the quizzes too!

I Love Episcopalians!

I don't know much about the system, their houses of deputies and bishops, or when to genuflect. But I know when my friends are happy. The justice-lovin' wing is pretty darn giddy about votes being taken at The Episcopal Church's big BBQ in California. Here is how Lisa Fox at My Manner of Life put it:

Words fail me. I am astonished. Tonight the House of Bishops approved D025 with only one amendment, which I consider minor. And they approved it with a huge majority: 99 for, 45 against, and 2 abstaining. That is similar to the House of Deputies 2:1 margin. Astonishing!

What, Lisa? What?! What are you talking about?

Resolved that this 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals to any ordained ministry within TEC and that God's call to the ministry is a mystery which the Church attempts to discern for all people through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church.

Who are these "such individuals?" What happened? What is it? What's the buzz?

Resolved...the General Convention has come to recognize that the baptized membership of The Episcopal Church includes same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships "characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God" (2000-D039); and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst...

Oh, gays and lesbians. Gosh we haven't talked about them in a while. So the Episcopal Church thinks they are human beings, eh? With equal rights? Gifts for ministry? Good enough for the Bishop's tall hat?

Yes.

Good for you Episcopal Church. Way to stand up for what is right. This is a good day.

Ahem. How about you, Presbyterians?