Let the church die.

From a "letter" I wrote as a Facebook status:

Dear Southern Baptist leadership,

Your conviction to ban gay rites does not constitute an argument to deny gay rights. Your conviction against equality, dignity, and worth for gay people is no different than the conviction that birthed your convention: it was in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia that the SBC was formed to defend the practice of slavery as ordained of God. It took over a century then, and it may take over a century now for the SBC to repent and lament its bigotry and it's use of God's name in vain. This Holy Week is an opportunity for the people of God in the SBC and other denominational structures to allow the agendas of power and self righteousness and greed to die so that the church can become a place for life instead of whitewashed tombs.

I would Cc a copy of this to the local denominational leadership of my own church's denominations (Christian Church, Disciples of Christ-Southwest region, Northeast Area, Texas-and the United Church of Christ, South Central Conference) that often communicate a love for the "most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplace" than for advocating for the people for whom the gospel was intended (specifically: everyone). They say that the church in America is dying. Let it die--this week reminds me that sometimes that's what happens on the way to resurrection.

What I Learned on my Summer Vacation

This July I went to Poza Rica, Veracruz in Mexico to visit my boyfriend who lives there.  This was my second trip to Mexico.  Six years ago I went to Durango on a mission trip with my Southern Baptist church.  That trip and those people (both my fellow mission-trip-ers and the Mexican people we met) forever marked me.  I've loved Mexico ever since.  A month after my second trip, I have had time to reflect on what I learned on my vacation.

On this recent trip, I was reminded again and again that the man visiting Mexico in 2012 is a completely different person than the boy who went in 2006.  Perhaps because of that, I found the lessons I took away and the way in which I was "marked" this time, to be of a different variety than before.  So here, in three lessons, is what I learned:

We don't need to "help" people by "reaching" them...we need to connect with them because we need them as much as they need us.

MISSIONS is a word used by American Christians to mean a few different things.  Mostly we use it to refer either to service (serving the poor, painting houses, building sanctuaries) or evangelism (proselytizing).  When I last went, it was on a trip to what the SBC had taken to call "unreached people groups"--ethnic groups of people who's knowledge of The Gospel (copyright SBC?) was at an extremely low level.  When we got to Durango, we found a group of people who identified by and large as committed Catholics.  Rancheros where the main attraction of the little town was the church.  But of course, Catholicism didn't count in our version of the gospel.  This time around I realized how dumb that concept of evangelism is...how self-centered, proud, and egocentric...the idea that American Christians somehow need to "help" these people who aren't Christian enough in their Christianity.  Because their cultural version of Christianity isn't pure Christianity like ours...you know, the kind that pledges allegiance to the American flag at Vacation Bible School (an awkward practice when you take your VBS on the road to another country), the kind that thinks the "old songs" are ones written in 1950 and published by Stamps Baxter.  I learned on this trip that my cultural Christianity is important to me because Christ transforms culture and culture is just another way of God's creative work continuing in and among us, God's children.  At the same time, the cultures of other people, Christian and otherwise, are not in competition with my faith but are necessary to enrich it.  We ought to send American Christians across the world on mission trips...the mission should be to learn how to be better Christians by observing how other brothers and sisters across the world do this thing we call "following Jesus."

Our immigration policy is immoral

This isn't a lesson about immigration reform, who to vote for in the coming election, or how to protect our borders.  I don't even know the answers to those questions.  I'm saying that we are asking the wrong questions.  While we debate issues of national security, visit the home of your neighbors who don't have all the right papers in their chest of drawers and ask about the fears that grip them when it comes to their family, their immigration status, and the economic and social climate in their home country.  While we talk about amnesty and obeying the law, go look into the face of a mother who wants her children to be safe and successful and the eyes of a young man who dreams of doing something significant and decide for yourself if geography is enough reason to ignore those wants and dreams.  Our immigration policy in this country is confusing, unjust, unfair, imbalanced, broken, and ironic (as in great grandchildren of illegal immigrants, i.e. white people, deciding who gets to stay or go).  But beyond all of that political discussion, it isn't just politics and policy--it's people...and how we treat these neighbors of ours is immoral and wrong.  "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.  You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God"  -God.  (Leviticus 19:33-34)

Church should be like a Mexican karaoke bar

One night I went out to a karaoke bar in Poza Rica.  We drank tequila and people sang.  And drank.  And sang.  And drank.  And drank.  But there was a marked difference between karaoke here and there.  When the people in the bar knew the song, they sang out.  Loudly.  And as the night wore on, louder.  These people who didn't know each other threw off their inhibitions to enjoy what they shared in common: love of a song.  Those who didn't know the words were caught up in an atmosphere of community.  The person with the mic was drowned out by those nearest me singing their hearts out.  Church should be like that.  People who might not normally become a community gathering in joy around something in common...in our case, Jesus.  Singing our hearts out, unconcerned about how we look because it's about the song.  Not reverently listening to one person perform, but becoming part of the performance ourselves, thereby lifting up the efforts of the leader but drowning them out as our song becomes a song of community...a chorus, not a solo.  Nobody worried about singing too many verses.  Those who don't know the song we're singing, still caught up in the atmosphere of being a community.  No one bored.  No one feeling awkward.  No one excluded or left out (after all, if you don't know the songs we're singing, go pick your own and sing your heart out too!).  Joy.  Celebration.  Communion.  Singing.  Fellowship.  Diversity.  Loud people and quietly smiling people.  People apologizing to the next table for a friend who is a little over eager.  All of these things should mark the community that follows Christ.

So many other lessons I learned on my trip--some too close to the heart to share here.  But above all I learned that people aren't so different from each other.  Language, culture, karaoke song choices, religions...they divide a humanity that is afraid to look at "the other" and see themselves.  Perhaps, if we looked at each other and loved what we saw, we'd learn to love who God has made us too...for in each of us resides the image of God.  In each of us also is the need to stop, rest, and declare with God about God's creation, "it is good."

"He thinks he's a liberal (bless his heart)"

FYI: I am an Obama supporter.  Not because he's black and I value racial equality (I do).  Not because he's cool (he is) and I'm under 30 so I like the cool guy.  Not because he FINALLY said something in support of gay MARRIAGE (instead of using other euphemisms), not because I'm too stupid to be Republican or Libertarian, and not because I'm too dumb to understand his economic policy or any other policy.  Not because I hate rich people (someone needs to be able to contribute more than $5 to the campaign).  I am a real life, actual liberal like they show on National Geographic in its natural habitat (Portland, OR maybe).  And, yes, I do know what that means even if you think (a) it's a bad word or (b) it just refers to me being okay with the gay or other social hippy free love stuff.

I actually believe in the fiscal policy of the President...because it works!

I actually believe in Health Reform...because it has made American lives better and improved a broken system.

My criticisms of the President are almost ALWAYS because he has not been liberal ENOUGH (i.e. avoiding single payer discussion, war policy, extension of Bush's anti-terrorism policies).  I like it when people call the president a socialist because (1) I know he isn't one and I think it's funny and (2) I sort-of am a socialist in many ways.  I favor an economic policy that redistributes wealth because ALL economic policy does that...even if you are a libertarian and think that government shouldn't even build roads and should only pay for defense, because that's just taking people's money and distributing it to the "defense industry."  Rich people don't get rich on their own...the rest of us pay for the roads that ship material to and from their factory, the police force that protects their assets, the fire department that responds to fires at their factory, the education of the employees that work there, the roads and public transportation that carry those employees safely to and from work, the product safety regulation that ensures they don't use dangerous materials that could harm their business or produce hazardous products that could harm others, etc. etc. etc.  I'm a liberal who actually believes in the President's tax policy...because, if implemented in full force, I believe it would strengthen a weakened middle class and close an income gap that threatens to collapse our free market economy.

Yes, I applaud the advances made for gay rights by this President.  I can't imagine a gay person voting for another candidate, because none of them have the record for advancing equality for LGBT persons the way that Barack Obama does.  That doesn't mean that we've arrived or that the President's record is exhaustive or perfect...equality is hard won, and can't be accomplished by a single politician, no matter how effective.  Politics are still politics and involve nuance (lying) and maneuvering (manipulation).  And that also doesn't mean there aren't LGBT people (or allies) that would vigorously discuss with me my inability to imagine them voting for someone else!  But I would just appreciate it if people would stop talking to me like I only support Obama because I don't know any better (bless my heart).

I'm not a conservative who is gay so I have to support Obama.  I don't applaud Obama's record on certain civil rights because I think that his record is perfect or because I didn't know there were gay republicans or that libertarians would sort-of let me get married too (so long as they could abolish state recognition of marriage altogether and so long as I'm religious since marriage to a libertarian is only a religious affair and not a cultural and social construct, centuries in the making).

I'm not a "fiscal conservative" who just doesn't know I have other options in this election (there's nothing "conservative" about giving tax breaks to big oil or about the top 1% of the country owning a massive percentage of GDP). I'm actually a progressive who believes the more wealth someone has, the more taxes they should pay as a larger percentage of their income, and that the biggest problem with our social welfare system isn't fraud but inaccessibility and lack of effective benefits.

I'm not a closet Libertarian who favors laissez faire economic policy or even social policy for that matter!

I do not care about the size of government as much as I care about its effectiveness.  I am a civil libertarian because that's part of liberalism, not because I didn't realize there was an entire political philosophy called libertarianism that I could subscribe to.  And that speaks to much of the commonality that exists among disparate factions of American political thinking...and why we should have more respect for our common ground in these discussions of politics or religion or any other divisive issue (I know: physician, heal thyself!)

I'm a liberal.  And that means I favor elections where everyone can vote (easily, without hindrance, encouraging the highest turnout of voters...even in red Texas) and where you can be as Republican, conservative, Libertarian, or whatever as you want!  I LOVE that so many of my friends are actually just basic conservatives (about everything except they support equality or women's rights or health care reform or whatever exception they might make that endears them to me LOL) and that so many are ACTUAL liberals who are constantly having to patiently explain that they aren't just a confused conservative who didn't know you could be for the Bush tax cuts and marriage equality at the same time.  It's just that I believe people are conservative and/or to the right of me because they disagree with me about fundamental issues of policy or political philosophy...not because they don't get what being conservative means or they don't understand the issues or they are hateful or anti-God or anti-America.  I just like when people treat me with the same deference. I'd rather be yelled at than dismissed.

And, just in case my positions above didn't make you mad enough...I'm not just a liberal who is a Christian, I'm also a liberal Christian...a theological liberal...but that's a whole other series of blog posts!

Now grab your pitchforks and torches and discuss...  :)