Hurry Up, November 9

Posted on October 14, 2016 by methodistmel

I wonder what a poll would reveal about the percentage of Americans praying to be time transported to November 9, the day after the elections. Would that we could get there that quickly and easily! Instead, more misery is ahead, irrespective of our political persuasion, as we hit new lows in political campaigning. Most of us already are shocked at the depths being plumbed in this campaign and likely will be further amazed by the three-week endurance run before us. It promises to make ultra-marathon races seem like a walk to our kitchen. A SpongeBob video of “How Low Can You Go” is here.

As we continue the bumpy ride, I remain struck by the parallel universes in which Clinton and Trump supporters reside. I’m in the Clinton universe and cannot imagine how anyone could vote for Trump, and most of those in the Trump universe feel the same way about people like me. I was reminded of this following a recent sermon I gave.

The gist was that our political divisions are dividing our country and threaten to engulf us. So, I urged humility about our own opinions while also respecting those of our political opposites. I said that we should try to assume the best, and not the worst, about those across the divide because they likely loved their country and wanted the best for its people just as much as we do. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good effort for me and true to the gospel.

That opinion was not unanimous.

After the service, one of our members said, “That sounded good, but I can’t do it. How can I when the other side are liars?”

Well.

I responded, “What is the other side?”

“Liberals.”

I said, “What do you think they’re lying about?”

“Pretty much everything. They lie to get more handouts and more regulations . . .”

“I guess that was what the sermon was about, that we should believe they’re acting in good faith for the best of the country as they see it.”

“I disagree. They’re liars and it all started with Roosevelt and Wilson.”

His reference to Wilson was a giveaway that the Roosevelt he was talking about was Theodore and not Franklin. I had never met anyone who went that far back into history with their political grievances. That stopped me in my tracks. I quickly tried to think what he could be talking about that happened during the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations. A list of possibilities ran through my mind: national parks; first food and drug regulations; antitrust enforcement; increased regulation of railroads and banks; child labor laws; and, workers’ rights.

I wondered which of those he didn’t like or if it was something else, and then told him, “I guess we just have a fundamental disagreement.”

I didn’t tell him that I was one of those liberals and living in an alternate universe.

My Sin and Societal Sin

Posted on June 23, 2016 by methodistmel

There have been a number of striking events the past few weeks, but none have affected me more than the mass murders in Orlando and the so-called “Stanford rape” case in Palo Alto. Of course, two horrors cannot be equated with each other but should stand on their own. These certainly do. I wish could make some wise and timeless observations about the two horrors, but have come across two related stories that point me in a different path.

In one, the Lieutenant Governor of Utah gave a speech to a vigil held in Salt Lake City the night of the Orlando massacre. You can find one report about it here. He spoke simply and honestly about his past discrimination against gays . . . and he apologized for it. He also spoke about how he came to soften his views, and about the societal need to reject hate and turn to love.

At one time, I would have said his views on turning to love were trite and simplistic. There are not. They are the essence of Christian belief and should be the essence of our life ethic. Too many Christians shame Christ because of their continued bigotry behind the fig leaf of biblical sanction. I have been guilty of that, too, and apologize to all LGBTQs for my past disrespect and discrimination against them. May God also forgive me. Thank you, Lt. Governor for your honesty and for opening my eyes.

You can find the second story here. It is a story of brutality, courage and accountability. It also contains an apology for past sin. In 1998, a woman named Brenda Tracy was brutally raped and sodomized by four football players, including two from Oregon State. Tracy’s fear and shame led her to drop charges two weeks after she filed them. The then OSU coach, Mike Reilly, suspended his two players for one game explaining, “These are really good guys who made a bad choice.” His words diminished her and trivialized her experience similar to what we saw happen more recently to the young lady in the Stanford case.

Fast forward sixteen years, though. Two years ago, the former OSU head coach, Mike Reilly, became aware of Ms. Tracy’s experience and also became head coach at the University of Nebraska. He invited Ms. Tracy to address his team about the particulars of the incident and its impact on her. When she came to Lincoln to do that, Ms. Tracy and Coach Reilly met and embraced. Reilly also apologized to her. He also stood with his football team as she told the story from her point of view, including the impact that Reilly’s prior nonchalance had on her.

Most males in America, including me, also owe apology to women for our past treatment of them—the objectification, teasing, lust, minimization, etc. All of those things that so many males do contribute to this greater issue of societal failure to recognize the horrors of sexual assault and rape. As with any degree of LGBTQ discrimination, we need to repent and be part of turning our society in a different direction.

Faces of America: Muslim Scouts

Posted on June 11, 2016 by methodistmel

The teenagers pictured here are Muslims joining in one of five Muslim daily prayers. They are praying at a recent Boy Scout camping trip in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. These young men are just a few of the estimated 5,000 American Muslim teens who are Scout members. MGMuslimScouts02561456522266.wdp

You can find the Washington Post article discussing Muslims and scouting in light of the current political climate here.

We can celebrate that neither these young men nor their families were prevented from entering or immigrating to the United States

In the Name of All Decency, Donald, Please Shut Up

Posted on January 9, 2016 by methodistmel

For maybe the last month or so, I’ve had an increasing urge to avoid news, especially political news. Television, radio, internet, newspaper, you name it, I have grown tired of it and run away from it as fast as I can.

This is unusual for me because one of my passions is politics. I used to work in the Texas legislature. Now, if you have heard any bad things about the Texas Legislature, they are most likely true. It is conservative, hard-hearted (in Texas terms, George W was a compassionate conservative.), dominated by special interests, and often mean, petty and venal. However, I worked in and around it for over twenty years and loved doing it. My biggest thrill was researching various policies and getting to be a small part of the state legislative process. My interest in policies and politics not only continued when I went into the ministry but it intensified because I was able to see first-hand the impact of government on people.

As Republican policies took hold in our state, it often angered me to see the miserly turn an already miserly government took. It was crushing to see Texas health and human services get worse. How could that happen? Legislators seemed oblivious to the human toll that their budget cutting took. The hardest hit were poor children. Over the last decade, they have seen a reduction in speech, occupational and physical therapy services; their schools were the first to lose programs and teachers; and, their parents often failed to qualify for needed medical services. Needless to say, no state policy was adopted with the aim of truly reducing poverty.

Politics is important. Now, my interest has run into the Donald Trump phenomenon and been flattened by it. His jingoism, bigotry, fear-mongering, and demeaning comments are like catnip to news organizations. Good God, he covers the news world. He made the news today for having a Muslim woman removed from one of his rallies for apparently standing in silent protest. There is no need enumerating his long list of repugnant comments and actions.

Early in the gospel of Mark, in chapter 1, verse 25, Jesus tells an unclean spirit to, “Be silent.” That Greek word that biblical interpreters translated as “be silent” or “be quiet” can also be translated as, “Shut up!” In other words, Jesus commands the unclean spirit to “Shut up!”

I pray for the day when news organizations and the American voters command Trump or whatever unclean spirit that inhabits him to “Shut up!” And, he has to because he has been defeated. Meanwhile, a lowly Methodist pastor may not be able to do much more than this, but I will do what I can in joining millions of others to hasten the coming of that day.

Texas Foster Care System Held Unconstitutional

Posted on December 18, 2015 by methodistmel

A Texas federal court judge ruled that the state has violated the constitutional rights of foster children by exposing them to a flawed system where children “often age out of care more damaged than when they entered.” Like many other states, Texas phased out the old orphanage system around World War II, opting instead to follow the widely-held opinion that placement of children in group or foster care homes would improve their treatment and living conditions. Perhaps the present system is an improvement, but the Texas court judge wrote that, “Years of abuse, neglect and shuttling between inappropriate placements across the state has created a population that cannot contribute to society, and proves a continued strain on the government through welfare, incarceration or otherwise.” That is a fairly damning accusation.

Judging from some of the testimony, some children were treated horribly. For example, one 16-year-old girl entered foster care at age 6 and changed placements 28 times within four years. Similarly, a 14-year-old girl entered foster care at age 5 and has had 12 different caseworkers and 24 different placements in her 9 years in the system. For now, the court has appointed a court master to study the system and report back in 6 months with recommendations consistent with the court order.

What I have not read in the news accounts are the bitter comments I’ve heard over the years from people concerned with the system. Among them are that there is inadequate screening of foster parents and, as a consequence, a number of kids have been placed with neglectful or abusive foster parents and some have even been placed with sexual predators. In addition, many foster children are moved out of their home county—and away from any friends or support system—to homes hundreds of miles away. There also are continuing complaints about homes that are dirty or ill-kept.

The Bible, of course, is filled with verses concerning compassionate and caring treatment of orphans and children. For example, James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” More ominously, Exodus 22:21-24 says, “You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” Yikes! And then there is the Jesus “millstone” verse in Matthew 18:6, “If anyone causes one of these little ones . . . it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

It is easy to blame this on the Texas legislature as they certainly are certainly are a motley and hard-hearted crew more concerned with taxes than with helping the poor or marginalized. But, just as God put all of Israel under judgment in their lack of concern for the widow and orphan, so we are under that same demand and judgement. After all, the legislators are elected by “we the people,” so any shortcoming lies in all of our hard hearts.

Have a Merry Starbucks Christmas (or Hannakkuh, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc)!

Posted on November 9, 2015 by methodistmel

Duck! The culture warriors are at it again!

One wishes that sanity would prevail in the annual Christian Christmas whine that rings out this time of year. You have probably heard it in the past, “Such-and-such or so-and-so or the liberals or the atheists or the such-and-such, so-and-so liberal atheists are trying to kill Christmas or take Christ out of Christmas.” Unfortunately, sanity remains elusive in 2015.

This year, the first notes in this virtually one-sided battle rang out last week as one Joshua Feuerstein took to Facebook with his peculiar brand of militant Christian ministry. Feuerstein posted an attack on Starbucks last Thursday noting that its annual holiday cup had nothing on it about Christ or Christmas. He added that the company hated Jesus. If you peruse his Facebook page, you will note that Mr. Feuerstein tends toward accusatory hyperbole. (He also has almost 2,000,000 “likes.”)

His Starbucks rant soon went viral and led to posts of all types on his page. Some were wholeheartedly in support, and some suggested that he might find a better outlet for Christian ministry than this. Some of the latter are discussed in a “Salon” article posted on Saturday. Here is a link to a Fox news blog posted today discussing the issue.

I hope and pray that all of my Christian brothers and sisters will learn to deal with our pluralistic society in more constructive ways. Our society changes around us. It is well-documented that in the United States, both the number of those with other religious beliefs are increasing and the number of those with no religious beliefs are increasing. This Pew Research poll on the subject was posted last week. Moreover, past attempts to force beliefs on people have only been counterproductive and, sometimes, lethal. I am thinking here not only Christian brutality to non-Christians but also of brutality by others toward Christians.

Attacking red coffee cups with a company logo on them and the company itself are not the way to live out our beliefs. As noted by Starbucks, we are free to decorate the cups as we choose. We are also free to live out the commands of Christ. Vitriol, condemnation and judgement are not anywhere among them. Indeed, Christians might well note that the only people to whom Jesus spoke harshly were the “devout” people of the day. May we go about our ministry with a little more love, humility and service. May we also not be the ones to take Christ out of Christmas as Mr. Feuerstein threatens to do.

HEROS, Bathrooms and Bigots

Posted on November 7, 2015 by methodistmel

I’ve never admitted this ugly truth publicly, but I’ve sometimes used the women’s restroom in a place of business. Understand please, that I’ve never done it because of some compulsion to pee in a stall instead of standing up or to satisfy my urges in a place that is almost assuredly cleaner and more pleasingly aromatic than are men’s rooms. No, no, no, nothing of the sort. Instead, I’ve done it because of a medical condition which often plagues men of my advanced age. This “problem” sometimes makes it seem as if our sphincter will explode and let loose the Niagara Falls of all urinations if we don’t pee as soon as possible, which means we NEED to go in the first place available. Sometimes, that is a women’s room. It is important to note that I do require that it be unoccupied and have a lock on the door.

This week, voters in Houston overwhelmingly rejected an ordinance referred to as HERO, which is an acronym for the Houston Equal Rights Amendment. The Houston City Council adopted HERO last year to ban discrimination in public places on the basis of race, age, religion, military status, and 11 other categories, including sexual orientation and gender identification. The major reason for such initiatives is to give people who fall within those categories a quickly available local administrative remedy, as opposed to a lengthy law suit, if they feel discriminated against in such things as employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Similar initiatives are in effect in other localities. However, they have been defeated in still others not because of disagreement with the basic goal of the ordinance, but because of opposition over the use of public restrooms. It seems to be generally agreed that in localities where HERO initiatives have lost, opponents have been able to successfully label the law as a “bathroom ordinance” and play up fears that passage will invite male sexual predators to dress up as women and enter women’s restrooms.

Four thoughts on this. First, unfortunately, sexual predators can already do such things: criminals commit criminal acts and predators prey. Second, there are also laws on the book against such activities. For example, sexual assault is a felony. Third, in playing on people’s fears and prejudices, opponents to such laws prove the discrimination that exists against our transgendered brothers and sisters. Fourth, like me, the transgendered probably just want to use the bathroom in peace and then quietly exit.

Here is a link to a story from the public radio program “Fresh Air” that is about a family coping with their transgendered child. Here is a link to “On Point,” an NPR program that presents both sides of the argument. Here is a link to an article in the Texas Tribune discussing the aftermath of the vote.

Blogging 101: Who I am and why I am here

Posted on November 1, 2015 by methodistmel

It is hard to say who I am and why I am here, but one fact for sure is that I am a repeat failed blogger. I’ve been in 101 two prior times have never found a way to continue a blog. I was in this course in January of this year for as long as it took the bloom to wear off of a new year’s resolution. With me, it has never taken long so I was probably out of here before the end of the first week. It obviously is also true that I am back to give it another whirl.

I’ve just retired from ministry in the United Methodist Church and my wonderful wife and I have moved into a Texas Hill Country town about an hour west of Austin. This blog will be about such things as Christianity, politics, government, and new science research that we can apply in our lives. Religion is part of this for obvious reasons. Politics and government is part of it because I worked as a staff person, lawyer or lobbyist in and around the Texas Legislature for about 22 years. I also love TED talks, NPR and cruising YouTube for interesting talks, so will also blog about what I find of interest in those places.

The Pope Reflects on Freedom of the Press

Posted on January 15, 2015 by methodistmel

As reported by several media outlets today, Pope Francis made some observations on free speech today that likely grate on the more caustic despisers of all things religious as well as most free speech purists. While noting that free speech is a basic human right, and also adding that people have a duty to speak on matters affecting the common good, he also indicated that there are limits to freedom speech.

Here is what he said in pertinent part, “If my good friend Dr. Gasbarri [who was standing next to the Pope when the remarks were made.] It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.” He also added that this in no way justified the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, because such horrific incidents were never justified.

His remarks seem to be more practical than legal in nature. They seem to be rather common sense as well: if someone strikes to the core at something which another person values, it is reasonable to expect a reaction. While I sympathize with his comments, they do remain unfortunate. It is one thing to expect a punch or verbal retort, even in response to the most biting satire, but it is quite another to be cut in half with bullets because of a few squiggly lines accompanied by some text.

The Charlie Hebdo cartoons may have been unfair, excessive and provocative, but they were not murderous.

May His Light Shine

Posted on January 9, 2015 by methodistmel

“Epiphany” is an old term that means “revelation.” On January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas, Christians remember and celebrate the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. For centuries, the story in Matthew 2 about the wise men traveling to worship the king has been the focus of the day. As important as those verses are, my favorite Epiphany verses come from Isaiah 60: 1, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!”

One of the important ways to observe this day is to remember how his light has shined among you and how his glory has risen upon you. I got a call this morning from a friend whose mother had just passed away. She was born in the Texas brush country about 90 years ago as “Charleen” Brown but came to be known as, you may have already guessed it, “Charlie” Brown. My goodness, though, by whatever name she used, the light of the Lord shined through her stunningly bright and radiant.

For decades, Charlie was one of weekly greeters at George West First United Methodist Church. She met all who entered the church with a twinkle in her eyes, a welcome on her lips, and a hug or handshake (not to mention a bulletin) soon to follow. Her light—given in the name of Jesus Christ—shined for all who came through those doors.

It also shined for me in more personal ways. Our weekly Emmaus group met in her house every Tuesday morning, and she always had food ready! She was a great cook! Even more than that, though, the light that Christ shined through her that most touched my life was a caring one. My first February in George West found me in a prolonged and childish sulk over something I no longer remember. After a couple of weeks of this, one Sunday morning Charlie asked, “Mel, what are you so angry about? Don’t you know that we love you and want to help you?” She was sensitive to people, could read their moods, and would try to help them, if possible. As she spoke, I felt her love and care. For me, the sulky man-child, the cloud enshrouding me slowly dissipated in the light of her love.

Who has been the light of Christ for you? Who has “revealed” the love of Christ to you? Thank God for our Savior and for those who let his light shine through them! Amen.

Signs of the Time

Exploring threats to Americans' freedoms