The most important thing that Modern American Christians will ever hear

My responses to this video:
https://www.facebook.com/joshua.feuerstein.5/videos/635248349911184/

I'm going to address what he says point-by-point. If you want to read less, skip to the summary, where I say what I think is the most important thing that modern American Christians will ever hear.

Took Control of Health Care: 

That' just nutty. Obama implemented the republican rebuttal to Hillarycare that was the landmark achievement for the R candidate for POTUSA. It's market based. It relies on private insurers and does nothing to control costs. Liberals hate it, because it's not good enough at actually delivering true access to health-care. The only thing it really manages to do is create a risk pool for the self-employed or those working for small companies. And you're complaining, somehow in "Jesus' name", that it's a bad thing? Taking care of the sick? What's your great Christian plan? Yeah, that's what I thought. 
Utter nonsense. 

Eliminating Guns: 

Name one thing - ONE - that he has done to even slow down guns? Wanna buy a belt fed magazine of "cop-killers" you strap to your back? Don't even need a background check. And, again, what does this have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Nonsense.

Race Riots: 

Find me one historical reference to "race riots" in pre-ww2 Germany. I dare you. The Wikipedia listing of race riots throughout history doesn't even have an entry for Germany. They had riots, alright, and there were those who scapegoated Jews for their problems, but Jews didn't riot. Gypsies didn't riot. Blacks didn't riot.
Nonsense ...

LGBT Intolerance: 

Which side was it that was trying to pass a constitutional amendment against the other? I remember the conversation as going roughly like this -

Gays:
We'd like to jointly file our income taxes, share assets and liabilities, have legal considerations relative to our partner, and be able to inherit property In general, we'd like equal treatment under law.

Christians:
GOD WILL JUDGE US!!!!! ABOMINATION!!!! Let's have a constitutional amendment to make sure that people we don't agree with cannot live their life the way they want to, even if we think it's sin!

In Summary:

But that's not what's really sad about this. What genuinely just sucks about this whole thing is the way in which it's conflating Republican politics, rural social norms  and conservative views with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What did Jesus say about the politics or policies of Rome? Not a thing.
What did he even say about the politics or policies of the Jews? Not a thing, except when he turned a bit violent because the church looked too much like a business. (Ever hear a sermon on that? Yeah - me neither...)

He taught a personal Gospel. A hard Gospel. A devastatingly difficult, frustrating, contrary to human nature Gospel that demands that you walk 2 miles with someone who would force you to go 1. It's a Gospel that commands you to allow someone who hits you to hit you again, to lend money not only without interest, but without ANY REAL EXPECTATION that it would be paid back!!! It's a Gospel that, in summary, tells you to give someone who takes from you your coat the very shirt. off. your. back.

And we've somehow reduced it to something about Obama taking guns.

Guns. Taxes. Race.
Hooey.

It's a terrible, terrible idol right in the center of your sanctuary. Cast it down. Look inward. Take the plank out of your own eye.

On the rancorous TONE of the Bathroom debates

For years, I absolutely could not use a public bathroom. I still hate it. It's such a vulnerable feeling, sitting there doing your business with a bunch of strangers walking in and out and commenting about the miasma created by the odious exudates of your bowels; matched only by the concussive forces generated as the noxious gasses, vented, as it were, through the bodies pressure release valve, bursting forth into the atmosphere, their sounds cruelly amplified by the porcelain echo chamber into which they are released.

For those of you who have followed along this far, what I just said, put another way, is that I'm a 280 lb man who's come out on top in physical contests ranging from pillow fights at camp to football games in school to unpleasant encounters in bars and back-alleys (sadly), and yet I find it a terribly VULNERABLE feeling to use the bathroom in the presence of other men. Other men, incidentally, who's only interest in me is to probably to reach minimum-safe-distance before detonation.

I say all of that to say that I truly cannot imagine what it would be like to be 105 lb women who is now afraid that she is going to be asked to share a public bathroom with the man l just described.

For my left-leaning friends, I get that you're angry because this whole issue manifests as Christians who have been more-or-less defeated on the homosexual front waging a scorched-earth retreat by socking it to trans-genders.

I want to validate that. On some level, I'm sure it's exactly that.

And I'm not saying you shouldn't be angry, or frustrated.

I'm not saying your wrong.


What I AM attempting to do is two-fold.

1) To point out that gender roles are fundamental to everything we do and think, as human beings, and we're tinkering with them. We're asking people leave behind pretty clearly-defined mores to accept, not a clearly defined change to these social codes; but what, to many, feels like a complete blurring or dismantling of these rules. They're not clearly defined and comfortable. They're wibbly-wobbly-potty-wotty. People are uncomfortable. I don't know that they're wrong to be.

2) To ask that we (on the left) be kind to those on the other side.

We're defending the rights of people to live their lives in the way they choose insofar as they're not hurting others. That's what we are all about. That's America, at it's best.

Let's not lose the moral high-ground, or alienate people we're trying to sway, by resorting to name-calling. In all of our interactions with others, let's strive to be kind, and understanding, and patient.

Let's be careful about calling people bigots. Maybe they are. Maybe they've just got a very different world-view. Maybe they're just genuinely frightened. Let's be kind.

Buddhists calls this high-road non-discriminating virtue. The Christians would say do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The atheists would say don't be a d*ck.  ;-)

I've finally made some time to read some of these laws in question, and I actually think that some of their concerns really might be quite legitimate, although clearly related more to predatory heterosexual men than to actual transgenders.

How do we engage them?

Let's try to patiently acknowledge that predatory male sexuality definitely exists, and we get that they're afraid of it, and furthermore they're quite correct to be afraid of it.

Let's talk to them about the trans-genders we know, and what wonderful people they are, and help them to see the "great other" as a person, rather than a concept or a bogeyman.

And, yes: Let's also look at well-intentioned laws that may have been crafted too hastily, that really very well may put women in some sort of vulnerable circumstance, and see if we can shore these laws up in such a way that the rights of trans-genders are protected, but the concerns of women are addressed.

I think it can be done. 

Ultimately: Rather than dividing into us and them, loving us, and hating them, let's be one big us. 

Let's practice the compassion on which we pride ourselves, for all involved.

Loving Day

loving-day-celebrates-national-legalization-of-interracial-marriage

When I was growing up in the 1970's, I remember people - very serious, studious, well dressed, religious people, with bible in hand, standing in my living room and using the Christian scriptures as a basis for their very strongly held conviction that whites and blacks should not marry.

There were verses, somewhere. Important verses.  WEIGHTY verses, of the the most serious nature and imparting the gravest of warnings to those who would disobey.

And, my God, but they *believed*.
Earnestly, in their bones, with CONVICTION! They believed.
It wasn't a game, or a ruse, or some sort of misdirection designed to justify "hate". They were all-in. It was real. A battle for the soul of America.
In their hearts, they were utterly convinced that they spoke for Almighty God, and were defending the purity of the soul of a nation against the nefarious agents that would serve to corrupt it.

And they had ARGUMENTS!  Arguments, I will grant, that inferred racial context in old testament purity codes, but, still - ARGUMENTS!

Fast forward to 2015:
Those same sorts of people now use those same sorts of scriptures and arguments as the basis for their strongly-held position that gays should not marry.
They've got verses! Important verses.  WEIGHTY verses, of the the most serious nature and imparting the gravest of warnings to those who would disobey.

And arguments! Arguments, I will grant, that seem to largely involve animals and toasters, the occasional misreading of scripture, and a bizarre position that our nation is "Christian" in the same way that ancient Israel was Jewish.

But, still - ARGUMENTS!

It's real! It's a battle for the soul of America, and they're all-in.

They don't stand in my living room anymore, because after years of being defined as their enemy and characterized in the most vicious terms imaginable, as a representative of all that is wrong in the nation and world, I could no longer bear their presence.

BUT, they stand somewhere, even now, and proclaim in the same way as before the "truth" of their position. Not a quiet, personal truth about how "I" should live "my" life, in a "sinful" world, as a "stranger in a strange land", or a "pilgrim" passing through.

By No Means!
This is a truth for all! All of US! The elite, the exceptional, the *chosen* nation, blessed by almighty God to become the almighty Empire, triumphant!

And, oh ... ( a solitary tear rolls from left eye) ... you unbeliever ... if you disobey.
... the consequences ...

But, I've seen this movie before. I know how it ends.

A) Alienated people give up on a church that is more and more focused on, in this case, their naughty bits, and less and less relevant to their spiritual life. The church, in turn, becomes ever more isolated and cut off from any opinions that might challenge their apocalyptic and culture-war-centric world-view.
B) The rest of us will roll our eyes at them, and
C) Gays will get to marry one another.
D) Good, earnest, honest believers will continue be mislead by the idols they've erected in their sanctuary; Idols of culture, nationalism, conservative politics, militarism, and on and on, because no one they can hear will challenge those positions.

It's OK, though. They are diminishing in our national conversation. My children will live free of them. Those who pass laws to force others to abide by their beliefs will be defeated. Personal Freedoms, at length, will prevail.

And maybe, just maybe, quite in spite of them, we will learn to be one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for ALL.

Great - Have some food. On me.

Right. So ...

the other day, I'm at the local quickie-mart.

I'm there because I'm a shameless Pepsi addict, and I'm feenin'.  
Bad. 
All I can think about is the wave of joy that will wash over me when I get that first hit of my bubbly, burp-y, burn-y sugar-fix.

Day before payday. Multiple proms and band trips and a graduation and an unfunded bathroom project and some unexpected car expenses and dental work for two kids and hospital bills and Lord-only-knows-what other demands on my finances, as unexpected as they are unavoidable, have hit all at once, and they have drained my checking and savings accounts, utterly.

So, here's me, feeling very sorry for myself, indeed. Feeling like I'm working my life away and have nothing to show for it; hitting the soda-bottle for that sweet, sweet pick-me-up to get through another day of making some other guy really rich, and scoring my fix with change I scrounged from the change jar.  

And that's when I see her.

Right in front of me stands this girl; old enough to have a baby with her, but not beyond her early 20's, surely. She's wearing dirty pj's and buying that same Pepsi, and a slice of pizza as a bonus, with what appears to be some sort of government card.

I have to confess that, in that moment,  I was overwhelmed with this sense that I'm quite literally working my life away to pay for her Pepsi and Pizza when she couldn't be bothered to even wash her PJ's.

So, let me start by just acknowledging that I GET IT.

I really do get it. I get that impulse that I see so many of you expressing on a daily basis on the facebooks. Meme's like this one:

Government assistance isn't paid by the rich, it's paid by the guy working 70 hours a week who can't afford what you're buying, 

Yep. Spot on. I hear ya'.  

Frustrating! Irritating! Unfair! I get it.

I find that the conversation around this comes down to this:
One side wants Karma to work, and the other side doesn't. 

Seriously.

You make bad decisions, and you end up with a crappy life. Your parents make bad decisions, and you have either to work extra hard to overcome them, or you end up with a crappy life. Someone does something horrible to you and sets your world spinning off kilter, you have to overcome that, or live a crappy life. 

I get that perspective.

I just don't agree with it.  



In spite of the way I felt in that moment, I don't agree with the sentiment that we should not be feeding poor people. Even poor people who have made, and continue to make, bad decisions (such as wearing dirty PJ's out to buy soda and a slice of pizza).

At a fundamental level, here's why: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+16:19-31

And this: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25:31-46

And, finally, because I believe that government is not this externalized beast that is up to no good.

Government is us. The government that I am determined to FIGHT for is not what's being done to us, but what we choose to do together!

I believe in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

Saying it is not the government's place to take care of the poor is exactly like saying it's not MY place to take care of the poor.  

No, it is EXACTLY saying that it is not my place to take care of the poor.

Are they undeserving? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows. Let's assume they are. And then, let's feed them, anyway.

In fact, in the list of all the things that a rich nation might give to the undeserving, I would think that FOOD would be at the top, wouldn't you?! Yeah, you're not the greatest, but here: let's not let you starve...

So, you're lazy? You're stupid? You're ugly? You have no social skills? You have a mental or physical disability? You have made terrible decisions resulting in a criminal record and no one will hire you? You continue to make terrible, impulsive financial decisions that lead to absurdities like you're owning an iPhone but not being able to buy groceries? 

You are completely unlovable and I can't stand to be in the miasma you create for more than a few seconds?

Great - Have some food. On me.

In Jesus' name, amen.