Sharing Statement March 1, 2015

Today our scripture came from the Gospel of Mark.  Mark emphasizes Jesus' call to sacrifice by those who would follow him, and dwells on the Passion, Jesus' ultimate sacrifice.  What does that mean for us?   I believe it means giving sacrificially with our time, talent and treasure to see that God's will is accomplished on earth.  This church is a good place to give your time, talent and treasure as we embark on a new vision for an old institution.   Right now, we ask you to share your treasure. 

Proving We Are Not A Christian Nation

Conservative Christians, who believe the United States was chosen by the one, true God to be his nation founded on God's principles, ignore Christ's summation of the law and the prophets in order to become Republicans.  These Republicans daily demonstrate to the world we are not a Christian nation as they focus on money not people.  If they win the debt ceiling crisis by destroying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, they will have definitively proved that our government is free of any divine direction.

Christ said that there were two commands that summed up all of God's teachings.  Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  When asked who is your neighbor, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.  In it, a Samaritan (Jews despised Samaritans at the time) helps a man that has been mugged and robbed.  The man is a total stranger.  The Samaritan cares for the man, then pays for his future care.  He tells those caring for the injured man that he will check to see they have carried out his wishes.

What can be clearer?  Christians are to take care of the strangers in our midst who have been attacked by forces outside their control. Christians are not to just take care of them personally if they can, but to see that strangers are cared for.  Christians are to check on the stranger's continued welfare.  In a modern society of millions, how can Christians do this?  Christians can enable a surrogate to act for them.  The government becomes our Good Samaritan.

Republicans do not believe in the Good Samaritan.  I have been repeatedly told that they have no obligation to help anyone outside their immediate family.  That they have no obligation to help those who cannot help themselves.  To the contrary, the Republicans consider those that cannot help themselves defective and a drag on society: they should be abandoned.

Those Republicans who call themselves Christians hold those same views.  One such person in my own church told me that a member of our church who had taken in his grandchildren should not have done so.  That church member should have saved the money he spent taking care of grandchildren so when his health failed he could take care of himself and not ask the church for help. ( He had asked for help. The church did not help. I no longer attend that church.)

Time and again, so-called Christians have written that they will not help people who do not work.  These Christians assume that those not working don't because they are lazy.  Interestingly, when Jesus talks about judgment, he does not say we should check on why a person was hungry, why they are sick, or why they are in prison. Jesus says feed them, take care of them and visit them if you want God to claim you as his own. Republicans have become the goats described in Matthew 25:31-47, turned away by God on judgment day.

With the Republicans dominating the political debate and Democrats cravenly acquiescing to their outrageous demands, this nation is in retreat from any notion of caring for the least among us.  Republicans that call themselves Christian have made being poor a sin.  They believe Christians have no obligation to help sinners.  Republicans of all types have abandoned Christ's command to love your neighbor.  How can our government abandon Christ's command and our country remain a Christian nation?

We are not a Christian nation.  We should not be.  Our founders saw this nation as encompassing all who were citizens regardless of faith.  That is why we have the Bill of Rights: to keep the majority from abusing the minority: to keep Christians from abusing non-Christians.

Those that scream the loudest that we are a Christian nation refuse to follow Christ's command to love your neighbor.  Today, they would shred the social safety net by cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those that profess to be today's only true Christians only love themselves.

Republicans tell us we are to concentrate on money not the well-being of our citizens. Most Republicans have looked around and said, "I have no neighbors except the wealthy."  Even Democrats are falling for that line.  Soon, our government will be of money, by money and for money.  Christ said that "You cannot serve both God and Money."  If Christians who are Republicans choose money over people, then they do not serve God.  By conservative Christians own choosing, we will not be a Christian nation.

Keeping faith, losing religion - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

Ann Rice started this by saying she was leaving Christianity, not Christ. Leonard Pitts echoes her concerns in the title document. What I say is that the media and popular culture have defined Christianity as something very unpalatable. To read Leonard Pitts article, click on the title of this entry.

Mainstream Christianity does not have a voice on cable news or commentary. The only views given are those of the far right, a very mean-spirited, dying branch of Christianity. That many Christians find solace in so-called grace churches is ignored by media and politicians. Others follow different paths to an on-going relationship with God. Some still attend old-line churches whose messages of love and care for your fellow man echo through the ages. Others do find their path to God is a solitary one. I don't think God cares what brand of Christianity we choose  as long as we seek him and remember that the Creator is the great I AM, Jesus is God in Action, and that which binds Creator to Son is Love (sometimes called the Holy Spirit.  The Supreme Being I worship defines himself as "I AM Love in Action."

Some of the lack of diversity in the media is the result of a clever ploy by the Republican party to co-opt Christianity as a branch of the Republican party. Republicans did hoodwink the right-wing, anti-abortion crowd by putting anti-abortion in their party platform. These "Christians" are so focused on the single issue of abortion that they have ignored the other positions of the GOP that can only be characterized as hostile to the precepts of Christianity. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats,Matthew 25:31-46 "whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me". The GOP characterizes "the least of these" as malingers, lazy bums, parasites, and generally scum that does not deserve to be helped. The success of the Republican party is only partly due to their own cleverness, most is due to the failure of mainstream Christianity to engage the right. Just as Muslims have been identified with their fringe, so have Christians.

My goal is to make it clear that the followers of Jesus of Nazareth form a vast church outside the confines of hierarchies, buildings and petty politics. Attendance is voluntary, but the closer to God you want to be, the more you must participate. Participation means reading the Bible, reading the works of great Christians and prayer. Yes, you do have to read the Bible, just not worship it. The writings of C.S. Lewis put me on the path to Christ as well as those of Dorothy Sayers and Thomas Merton.  I believe prayer is the key to knowing God - everything from your babble of problems and pain throughout the day to an always listening Creator to the deeply contemplative moments alone with the Comforter.  God is always near.

To both Ann Rice and Leonard Pitts I say,"Look around, churches come in all flavors. Find the one that nourishes you."  If none do, then seek God on your own. She is always there and always whispering "I am love in action."

Photo by Lel4nd

My Life

Recently in an exchange on Facebook, a self-identified conservative told me "your life sucks."  This was his comment after I explained my current predicament.  As bad as many aspects of my life are, my life does not suck. I will explain why I can say that.

First my current predicament.  My blood pressure has been dropping steadily over the last two years.  This should be a good thing since I have had hypertension for a number of years.  Until recently I had to take three different medications to control my hypertension.  Now, I only need to take one.  The problem: my family doctor does not know why my blood pressure has improved.  He wants me to see my cardiologist.

In my discussion with my doctor, neither of us mention the potential danger lurking in my brain.  I have a nerve being compressed by something.  Best guess is that a small blood vessel is pressing on the nerve.  The problem is the nerve being compressed is next to the nerve that controls my heart beat.  If the nerve to my heart should be compressed my heart rate might slow or my heart might stop.  I have had the condition about seven years, so have grown less concerned with each passing year.  But my heart rate has dropped and I don't think it is because I am in better condition.  I see a neurologist once a year.  He saw nothing alarming, so maybe this is all a false alarm.

I have tried to convince myself of that because I cannot afford to go to the cardiologist.  My business has been very slow and I am barely making enough to live on.  Ramen noodles are always a way to survive. I have insurance but I must pay $5500 before it will pay.  I pay $837/mo for this insurance.  Why? I had a bone disease as a child - a preexisting condition.  I have also added rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and diabetes to the mix.  Nothing but the Texas High Risk Pool will touch me.

I could drop the insurance so I could afford to go to the cardiologist.  But if I need brain surgery to remove the pressure I would have no insurance to cover the surgery.  So, I have opted to muddle on and hope that I don't drop dead.

In saying why I support Obama's health care reform, I gave a sketch of my health care dilemma.  The answer I got back was your life sucks, but there are no good reasons for health reform.  I believe I can refute that, but not here.

What I replied to this conservative was that my life does not suck.  Seven years ago, I came to terms with having this thing in my head.  I embraced the Apostle Paul's statement.  "To live is Christ, to die is gain."

I try to act toward others as Christ would have me act and to live one day at a time.  I have failed miserably at times, notably a couple of years ago, when I tried to kill myself, but I do continue to try to believe "to live is Christ."  I know the Comforter is with me even though I do not feel his presence.  I do not struggle alone.

I have more successfully embraced "to die is gain," . I believe that God resurrects us in another world when we die, a world where there is no pain or sickness, only love and light.  Death is only a doorway into a universe of possibility. That is where I long to be.  My life does not suck because I know there is more to come.  Far better to come.

Like Paul I desire to depart the body and be with God.  Yet, I know that God desires me here.  Why?  I don't know.  But I know I must follow God's command.  As long as I believe that, my life has purpose, and I can face another day.

Photo by dr.knitter

Keith Olbermann and Dan Savage

"I’m sure they don’t want to hear this from me because I’m an avowed atheist but my dad was a Roman Catholic deacon and my mom was a minister and I went to the seminary and I was confirmed in the Catholic church. I’ve read the Bible backwards and forwards and there’s a lot in there, a lot that Jesus had to say about taking care of the sick, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, visiting, not executing the prisoner and nothing about capital gains tax cuts, nothing about denying health care coverage to American families and American children and nothing about this sort of insane opposition to a democratically elected president.

They really have hi-jacked Christianity and are giving it a bad name. The reason we see spikes I think in more and more people who no longer associate themselves with any religious faith or belief is because now to say you’re Christian in America means you are saying I am in the same boat, the same bat crap crazy boat with Michelle Bachmann. And a lot of even nominal Christians don’t want to say that any more or cultural Christians don’t want to say that any more."

The above quote is from Countdown on MSNBC on September 1, 2009. The speaker is Dan Savage. I agreed with most of his statements that evening, but totally disagree with his statement that "to say you're a Christian in America means you are saying I am in the same boat, the same bat crap crazy boat with Michelle Bachman." I am a Christian. I have no problem saying that because I and the majority of Christians know that our faith is not the same as Michelle Bachman's.

I believe Mr. Savage and the media would like the statement to be true because it reinforces a stereotype of Christianity that the media perpetuates and that atheists prefer. The stereotype of the anti-intellectual, the Bible-is-literally-true Christian. A stereotype that is easy to ridicule.

Mr. Olbermann loves to ridicule the religious right and too many times all Christians. His views of Christians seems to always portray them as right wing loonies with equally strange religious beliefs. Of course, I admit there are plenty of examples to support his remarks, but these are not the majority of Christians. Mr. Olbermann seldom if ever offers a more sane view of Christians.

Mr. Olbermann is not entirely to blame for his one-sided view of Christians. Most of the media portrays Christians as far right zealots. Interview after interview is conducted with those Christians who will produce the most audience-grabbing sound bites, people on the fringes of the faith, not those in the solid core of the faith.

I have a Ph.D. in Chemistry and a scientist's view of the world. I believe in evolution and stem cell research. I am an left of center independent who supported Hilliary Clinton. I believe in Christ as the truest manifestation of God in our world, but not the exclusive manifestation. I am a Christian. I believe in God the "I am", the Creator, God as love, the Comforter , and God in action, Jesus Christ. Three in one: "I am love in action."

I would challenge Olbermann and other commentators to interview a mainstream Christian, not an atheist, to discuss what Christians think about issues of the day and the far right of our faith. No one can hi-jack Christianity. The media can portray only a sliver of what the truth is, but the great center continues. God does not need us, we need God.

Those of the left make a mistake when they ridicule Christianity as a whole. Rather the center of the faith should be allowed to speak, to reassure those who do not understand what it means to be a Christian. Christ made it very simple to understand: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. He did not say it would be easy to do.

Easter Alone

I chose not to go to church on Easter Sunday, even though, I am a born again Christian. I belong to a large church whose services have become a farce. As one of my friends told me after attending one of the three Easter services, "We need to pray for the hearing of those who attended." The music is so loud that it actually hurts. The words of the music are unintelligible in the din. Ninety percent of the music is new with the same forgettable lyrics and melody. All in all, Easter services are uncomfortable experiences.

I did think about attending a small church in my neighborhood, but stayed home instead. I have long had mixed feelings about corporate worship. I know that these services reach people, bring them to God. However, I find them to often to be mass entertainment events. Perhaps, that is necessary in the light of our modern society. I don't know. I do know that we must not let corporate worship replace are own individual witness.

I don't mean buttonholing some poor soul and haranguing them about God. No, I mean leading your life so that it is a model of God's love. Not that I do that. I pray about my failings, but have trouble changing. I don't always give to those that ask. I seldom turn the other cheek.

Love God, love your neighbor as yourself, Christ's command. I even have trouble loving God as I struggle to find money to buy groceries, to pay the doctor, to fix my car. How can God make things so difficult? I suspect that these things happen because of God's larger plan, but would it hurt God to bestow a small blessing on me? I pray and continue on. I hope that someday I will have a glimmer of understanding.

And has God really paid attention to the kind of neighbors I have? Drunken college students, urinating bar patrons? How lovable are they? How about the man that let his dogs run and they killed my cat? I received an answer on that one. The man paid part of my vet's fees when Abner died of a crushed chest from his dog's bite. The money was not the answer.

A short time after Abner died the man approached me. "I'm going to prison. My brother will take the dogs, but I have my mother's cat. I can't find anyone to take her. Will you?"

I wanted to say no. Why should I solve his problem? Let him suffer the consequences of his actions. I had trouble meeting my expenses now. I did not need an elderly cat.

"I will take care of her while you are in prison," I heard myself say. With that I became the owner of an elderly Persian cat. You notice I said owner. The man is out of jail after serving more than two years in jail, but he doesn't have a place for the cat. I am sure she is mine forever.

I can only hope that I did a little of God's will when I took the cat. Maybe that is the answer. We model Christ best, not in grand gestures, but in simple, unthinking, kindnesses to others.

Photo by eva101