Chat&Chew

Street-Level Southern Sensibilities

2012-01-28T08:02:00.000-08:00

Street-Level Southern Sensibilities are defective, founded as they are in a hatred for the Federal Government (this is Civil War stuff still moldering, like John Brown's body), a hatred of unions (an invention of the North and a tool of Communism - alla Billy Graham and other right-wing sorts) and the need for a permanent underclass to make the ruling elite feel powerful and good.

Right now, our nation is locked in a Civil War of ideas, and what with Reagan and his cheery smile, and before him, Nixon and his cynical use of Christianity, the South has clearly won enormous territory in the American soul.

It's war that no one can afford to lose, not even the South.

As much as the South fought to retain slavery, it was a war they couldn't afford to win. Had the Union disintegrated and the Confederate States perpetuated the institution of slavery, the cost to all is unimaginable - the balkanization of America and an economy built upon forced labor, an economy that would have been doomed to fail.

Romney and Gingrich and all the rest are held in the grip of Southern Sensibilities.

They look to the past for guidance.

They fail to see the future!

Assurance of Pardon - Where in the Liturgy?

2011-12-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

Where should the Assurance of Pardon be liturgically placed?

In most of my experience, limited as it is, the Assurance appears after the Confession of Sin, and I guess that's okay, but I'm wondering if the placement could be more appropriate if placed before the Confession.

Part of my thinking is a chicken and egg question, though I think the question in my mind is easier to solve, and has been solved for us by Jesus and in 1 John, wherein it is written, God first loved us!

As it now stands, one might assume that our confession of sin triggers God's forgiveness, or, as some might say it, and have said it, without such confession, no forgiveness is possible, driving some, as it did Martin Luther, to endless confession and maniacal self-examination.

With that in mind, perhaps the Assurance should appear first in the liturgy - in other words, we start with the love of God and the grace therein - a primordial love for creation, and through the lambs of the centuries and now the Lamb of God of Calvary, there is forgiveness, profound and pervasive, complete and without condition - though ignorance of it condemns the ignorant to life lived fearfully or despairingly, and for some, ignorance can even promote a self-willed morality that grants approval aside from the love and mercy of God (the heart and soul of various legalisms which are always suffused with arrogance - the vain belief in one's inherent ability to truly be good, often requiring a woeful avoidance of the whole story, as we leave out or whitewash the darker chapters).

So, perhaps we should begin with the love of God - the Assurance of forgiveness - that the great work of God throughout history, ever since God made sturdy clothing for Adam and Eve, has always been forgiveness, and now has reached its culminating moment in Jesus who embodies God's purpose and love in such depth and purity as to finish the work of forgiveness, and, by the Spirit, empowering his disciples to tell "the good news" to all the world and to make disciples, those who know the truth, in full humility, and can share that good news further with others, in full compassion.

We are thus invited to confession, not as some potential trigger of God's mercy, which would always remain in doubt if tied to the "quality" of the confession, always leaving room for anxiety - that, perhaps, the confession wasn't complete enough, or sins of omission were overlooked, and sins of commission forgotten, and, thus, the forgiveness of God is withheld.

If, on the other hand, we know in Christ the unrestrained love of God that has wrought forgiveness, once and for all, confession is relieved of anxiety and empowered to be honest, for we are now, in Christ, without fear of judgment, but, in fact, invite judgment, the work of the Holy Spirit, to further our growth in Christ - sometimes requiring a harsh hand upon the soul, but harsh or not, always the hand of love.

One of these Sundays, I'll locate the Assurance prior to the Confession and then make it a teaching moment.

We'll see ...

Reading History

2011-10-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

The gift of reading history - plenty of scoundrels, for sure, but plenty of people who rise to the occasion - they envision a just society where privation and suffering are limited;
they challenge the powers that be, especially those powers heavily funded by the super-wealthy;
they bristle when they see human beings degraded in the workplace;
they strive for good schools;
they are generally skeptical about military adventurism;
they are not swayed by slogans and throw-away phrases;
they read and they think;
they are generally of good humor, and enjoy a good laugh at themselves;
sometimes they're religious and sometimes not, but they all look at human beings with awe and hope.

Baalism - Alive and Well in Christian America

2011-10-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

The obscene differential in income is a genuine issue for anyone who takes Scripture serious, Jewish or Christian. God's vision of justice is clearly one of balance - not perfect balance, but dynamically so, where the haves have not too much, and the have-nots have not too little (2 Corinthians 8.15).

Surprising how many Christians pay no attention to the Bible's economic/social justice materials, opting, instead, to worship Baal, the feel-good God of Money and Power and libido.

And that's the point: Baalism is a feel-good religion - all about me, my welfare and my salvation.

Ancient Israel was able to skillfully confuse Baalism with the worship of Yahweh.

People bought it hook, line and sinker. When the prophets said, "You're worshipping Baal," they replied, "No we're not. Look at our temple, look at our liturgy, listen to our hymns and prayers - they're all to the God Israel."

But Baalism it was.

A Liberal Who Likes Joyce Meyer

2011-10-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

For reasons known only to God, or worse, I've read and followed Joyce Meyer for some years now.

Several years ago, she flirted with some of the fundamentalist jerks not-to-be-named, but I think someone got to her (I wrote her note expressing my disappointment), and I've seen her back away from them (not that my note made any difference).

I listen to her podcasts a couple o' times a month while walking - I always learn something. For me, she works quite well with Scripture, and the larger message, and she's hell-bent for leather, so to speak, to break the fundamentalist hold on people's minds - what with the fear and judgment that has condemned so many.

She also deals powerfully with abuse (as she was abused by her father).

At this point in time, I think she's made a decision to side-step the LGBTQ question; I can live with that.

Of course, I thought the same about Joel Osteen, until, on Piers Morgan, he inserted foot all the way down his throat.

I think the women who attend her conferences come away with a keener sense of their identity and power (much needed in the circles those women typically run in). She's knows her world, and speaks positively and powerfully to it. It's not my world, but I'm grateful for her iconoclastic ministry. I think she's clearly helping fundamentalist women find a better day.

And besides, she doesn't take crap from anyone!

Genesis 3 Supports Women's Right to Choose

2011-10-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

What does "life begins at conception" mean? What is life anyway? Let's face it - it's a political weapon; obscure theology - it's not science, it's bad theology, and it's surely not faithful to Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3, the only curse is against the snake and against the ground ... what God does "to" the woman is of interest for this essay.

But let's begin with the man first.

With regard to the ground, God introduces a unique element for the man - frustration with thorns and thistles. To frustate his temptation to define himself by toil. Because toil alone cannot define a man. If the man seeks to define himself, he must return to the original story - a partnership with God and a profound care for the entire garden.

For the woman, no curse, just pain - in the process most powerful to a woman - to conceive and carry a child and rear it. As part of the process, she'll watch her children duke it out with the snake's family, a duel with an unhappy ending for both parties: Eve's child will crush the serpent's head, but in its death-throes, the snake will nip the heel, and that means death as well. Such is the burden and sorrow of the woman and her children. There is no salvation in bearing children (Paul's New Testament promise is that a women need not fear going through birth - 1 Timothy 2.15 - she will be saved IN the process, not BECAUSE of the process).

God doesn't bless a woman's fertility, make it divine, or the defining element of her being, but troubles it. So that the women isn't tempted to define herself by her body and its incredible powers, and hopefully, to deter men from doing the same. Though she will desire her husband, he will "reward" her only with a boorish effort to rule over here. Not much pleasure here.

Why for all this trouble?

So she won't waste her time by defining herself as a physical entity, and won't allow anyone else to define her as such, as well.

It's not about her body, her ability to conceive, or anything else related to birth.

Those who are pro-birth - that a woman must conceive and bear a child no matter what, no matter where, regardless of the outcome for either mother or child or both, and the family - disregard Genesis 3 and its effort to free the woman from her body and her husband's control.

A woman remains in charge of her body, not simply as a bearer of children, but in partnership with the husband, to care for the earth in the largest of all possible ways (Genesis 2).

While abortion is a serious business, it's well within the rights and powers of the woman as laid out in Genesis 3. To force a women to carry every pregnancy to term is to contravene the intent of God's purpose. She's not a baby-factory. Only in a wretchedly sinful world would any dare to define a woman solely by her reproductive powers. And only in wretchedly sinful world are men defined in terms of their labor (a cross-over term, for sure) - the end result being the demeaning of the man, the lowering of his status to nothing but an automaton in the grinding machinery of the means of production (Cain's world, Genesis 4.17-25 - which ends in mighty accomplishments, for sure, and then vanity, arrogance and unrestrained vengeance).

As for when life begins, the Bible knows nothing of uterine life - yes, God knows what's in the womb - God watches us take shape in the womb; so what? God knows a whole lot of things, like where the worm goes at night, and where the eagle roosts and where Leviathan lives. And because God knows them, we should, too. But God's knowing them doesn't make them divine, or beyond the reach of responsible management or choice. We do not worship the natural word, because it's not god, though it is very good, including the fetus. But we are given the right and the responsibility of management, and that includes the fetus. Is this so hard to figure out? Only if we make the fetus divine, giving it more status than the woman who carries the child, her family, and a thousand other elements that constitute the web of life.

According to Genesis 3, the woman is defended against those who would define her by physical function only - that of conceiving. And defends her right to choose!

When we read the text faithfully and carefully, it's clear.

We Did It ... or You Did!

2011-09-09T18:49:00.001-07:00

My son's Peace Corps project is funded.

Work will soon begin.

When we visit there at the end of December, the Social Center will have it's Grand Opening!

Thank you.

We Can Finish the Funding for My Son's PC Project - ONLY $500 MORE NEEDED!!

2011-09-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Last chance!

We can do it tonight/tomorrow.

Finish my son's project funding so that he can begin the good work.

You can go to the web site from here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=645-088 OR (www.peacecorps.gov and click on "Donate to Volunteer Projects"--the second one in the light blue. Then go down the page to "Swaziland" read about the Project.) As you can see by the amount needed, 45% has to come from the local area--the town council there is contributing $4800.

Josh needs to raise $5741.96 in all and as of today he has $500 to go. It looks like he has $2550 to go, however, there is a match of $2000 when the last $550 is funded. He cannot start the project until the full amount is funded. So, it is close and he would like to start by the end of September. 11 x $50 will = the $550.

Giving through the Peace Corp web site makes it a tax deductible donation for you. (You will receive a letter from them.) We cannot tell who has or hasn't donated (Josh can when it's finished), so should you have already donated, thank you so very much and please excuse this last solicitation for this project.

Needless to say, he is really excited. There is more that he can do to the building, but once the donations are made (the $5741.96 on this site) he can get started. (He had to do an extensive "Proposal" to the Peace Corps with amounts needed and what for.) The Peace Corps will then deposit it in an account for Josh to use.

If he raises more than the $5742, it goes to the general fund of Peace Corps Volunteer Projects. So, should you see that the $550 has been donated and $2000 still needed, before donating, email (dmec21@aol.com) or call her 734.751.2121 at that point. We can directly deposit it to his project (and it won't go to the "general fund" of PC but will then help him do some of the finishing touches that aren't included in the above amount.)

Josh works along side of other non-profit organizations there too, like: Doctors Without Borders, AMICAALL, Red Cross. Josh says everyday he thanks God for giving him this opportunity, that it has enriched his life so very much and now others too.

Love to all of you,

Tom

“Somalia: Nevermind”: Poem by Amir Sulaiman

2011-08-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

“Somalia: Nevermind”: Poem by Amir Sulaiman

black faces

white tongues

the smell of sea water

taunts with sarcasm

drink me

oh somalia

im sorry i couldnt be there for you

but while you were trying to to get your daughter

to drink her urine

a singer died

while your children

were falling from the tree of life

scattered bushels of rotten fruit

some whiter children were shot

oh somalia

only if your beautiful wasnt so black

only if you were

gaza or

libya or

bahrain or

egypt or

norway or

england or

japan or

america

or the moon

i would mention you in a poem

only if you had

oil or

poppy or

timber or

rubber or

gold or

white people

i would mention you in my prayers

oh somalia

only if your beautiful wasnt so black

the world has grown accustom to watching you die

since i was a child

somalia - synonymous with suffering

african meant adversity

an african struggling was like

a fish swimming

a dog barking

somalia meant starvation

nevermind the magic in your poetry

the glowing saints rising from your lands like a thousand moons

nevermind the beauty of your beaches

the utter perfection in the hips of your women

oh somalia

only if you didnt wear the resemblance of eve

like an ornate funeral shroud

we wouldnt see you as our sin

and avert our gazes

in shame

turn our faces

to blame

only if your lack of the worldy

didnt remind us

of our lack of the other-worldly

perhaps then we would mention you

oh somalia

only if your beautiful wasnt so black

Why I Support Obama

2011-07-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

A friend recently wrote that Obama is no different than the rest - he's owned by big money and has us in six wars.

To which I wrote:

The differences, in both vision and character, are never absolute - one has to weigh and assess, and with that said, make a choice. Neutrality, or mutual dismissal of the options, is a choice, as well, but hardly productive; neutrality, or mutual dismissal, has always seemed to me a luxury I cannot afford. Anyway, I'll continue to support Obama, not because he's perfect, but because of the general trajectory of his values and vision, and not just Obama the person, but the party itself, the Democratic vision of We The People, which, I think, is morally stronger than the GOP's vision at this point in time, simply because the GOP has reduced individuality to "survival of the fittest" - the GOP doesn't recognize the common wealth we enjoy and share. a common wealth that we support, as Lincoln did in the hard decisions of the Civil War. Some things cannot be lost, lest we cease being who we are - "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

From Huffington Post on Greece

2011-06-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

From Arianna Huffington:

Until I went over and witnessed what's happening, I too had become convinced that the real issues were the ones the media were obsessively covering: the effects of a potential sovereign default on the Euro and worries about the crisis spreading to other European countries.

But here's the bigger issue: Can a truly democratic movement break the stranglehold of corrupt elites and powerful anti-democratic institutional forces that have come to characterize not just the politics of Greece, but most Western democracies, including our own? Greece is only an extreme example of an unfolding seismic social shift that is challenging democracies the world over.

Ms. Huffington looks at the issues and reminds us that more is at stake in Greece and in the Western nations than austerity.

The wealthy want tax cuts, so that more cash can flow into their coffers, so they can fund their corporate jets and lavish life-styles.

But taxation is what makes nations work well.

Adequate revenue insures medical research, education for our children, fighting wild fires in Texas, helping folks who've lost their homes in flooding, building and maintaining our roads and water-delivery systems, and a million other things that only a nation can offer.

Democracy is clearly at stake in Greece and throughout the Western world.

America's Love-affair with Conversion

2011-06-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

From a recent message:

We don’t know when the disciples were converted.

The Bible says nothing about it.

Even someone as distinguished at the Apostle Paul is reticent about his “conversion” – he says almost nothing about it.

Why?

Because human beings love the spectacular.

In America, “conversion” is big business.

TV preachers and traveling evangelists.

From the tents of old and the sawdust trails, to the latest book telling us how to get close to Jesus.

Lights, camera, action.

Dwight L. Moody and Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson … Paul Crouch and TBN … and a multi- billion dollar publishing industry.

Conversion is big business in America.

Sadly, the business of conversion has only added to our spiritual confusion and religious division.

The kinds of conversion we see in the Bible are very different.

They’re quiet and slow and no one truly knows the moment.

How about Abraham and Sarah?

Or Jeremiah?

Or Jonah?

We read their stories, and there are lots of odd moments, and wonderful moments, and hard moments, but there’s no one moment, no singular moment, nothing all that splashy or profound … just the slow road of faith … a little here, and a little there, two steps forward and one step backward, and it all adds … a God who walks slowly with us, maturing us in the faith, bringing us along the way, like a fine bottle of wine!

The disciples leave their nets to follow Jesus, but do they understand him, in the fullness of God’s revelation?

Of course not!

Matthew leaves behind his ledgers to follow Jesus, but does he have a full grasp of the message, the glory, the love of God?

Not at all.

At the end of the gospel, Matthew 28, on the mountain in Galilee, the writer notes with accuracy, that some worshipped Jesus, and some doubted … and the language could also suggest that while they all worshipped, they all had some doubt in them, as well.

It takes a lifetime to grow into Christ, and then some.

------------------------

The "conversion" method popularized in America with Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday and most spectacularly by Billy Graham has done enormous damage to America's spiritual psyche, adding to our confusion and intensifying religions division.

The message of conversion is a "Southern" phenomenon based upon faulty interpretations of the Bible; it's pure Americana, with little to do with the reality of God's mighty work to create a people on the face of the earth who know and love and serve the Lord as we see God's work spread out before us in the Bible.

Conversion tactics rely upon fear and the threat of eternal damnation, with lots of emotional manipulation to move people out of their seats and toward the front.

This is no way to reach anyone for God, and no wonder so much of the fundagelical church is full of angry people who are quick to condemn and slow to welcome. They've been manipulated and ripped off, and, guess what? they know it, but without the wherewithal to do anything about it, and lacking the courage (which has been whipped out of them) to challenge the authority of their tradition, the soldier on, bitter and vengeful.

I have always had positive regard for Billy Graham, and still do, but his message has caused untold harm. His refusal to allow segregated crusades speaks to his integrity and vision, but the Southern phenomenon of conversion that he popularized and injected into the American imagination has left us with us a serious mess that will take several generations to clear from our system.

My Son's Peace Corps Swaziland Project Is Validated!

2011-06-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

And your help is needed!

To complete a Community Center for preschool children, for health-care workers and their supplies and community events. Doors, windows and water are needed. Since dollars go along way in Swaziland, your gift will make a big difference.

Monies have already been given, but work begins on the project ONLY WHEN ALL of the funds are secured. Please consider a gift to help this project get up and running. It's vital to the wellbeing of the community in which my son lives and works. He's carefully chosen the work and developed the plans. Everyone's excited to see it get underway.

Remember, this is a TAX DEDUCTIBLE donation when made through the Peace Corps Website.

You can visit the Project's Website at: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=645-088

In the following letter from the Peace Corps, be sure to note the possibility of an employer's matching grant.

Thanks in advance for your kindness on this matter.

Tom Eggebeen

Los Angeles, CA

My email: castaway5555@gmail.com

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Dear Friends of Josh,

We are excited to tell you about Josh Eggebeen’s Peace Corps Partnership Program project. Since its inception in 1964, the Peace Corps Partnership Program has helped thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers implement community-initiated projects worldwide. Now Josh is taking on a new Community Social Center project in Swaziland that needs your support.

This project, developed to address a pressing community need, will be implemented by both Josh and local partners. This project will benefit the people of the community for many years to come.

In order to begin implementation, Josh must raise $5,741.96 from friends, family and other interested donors. Josh and the people of the community are asking for your assistance to turn this project into a reality.

The easiest way to donate is to use this link, 645-088. Although, the web site is the quickest way to make a donation, you may also make a check payable to Peace Corps Partnership Program and send it to:

Paul D. Coverdell Peace Corps Headquarters

Peace Corps Partnership Program, OPSI

1111 20^th Street NW

Washington DC 20526

Be sure to indicate the project number, 645-088, on the check so it will be applied to the correct project.

Also, if you’re looking for ways to make your donation go even farther, check with your employer to see if they have a matching gifts program; many companies match donations dollar for dollar. Furthermore, consider forwarding this email to anyone else who may be interested in supporting Josh. Remember that gifts supporting this project are tax-deductible!

Please feel free to contact our office directly at 202.692.1682 or 1.800.424.8580 x2170 with any questions you might have. Your support will go a long way to aid Josh’s efforts in Swaziland.

Best,

Melissa Becchi

Keep in touch with the Peace Corps Partnership Program by signing up for our e-newsletter, Building Bridges. www.peacecorps.gov/buildingbridges

Melissa Becchi, RPCV Namibia

Program Support Assistant-Peace Corps Partnership Program

Peace Corps

1111 20th St. NW, Washington DC 20526

Voice: 202-692-1682

Fax: 202-692-2171

Email: mbecchi@peacecorps.gov

Peace Corps 50^th Anniversary 2011

Be part of the legacy and join us as we honor our past and look to the future

www.peacecorps.gov/50

Harold Camping and End of the World

2011-05-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

The fact that a 100 mil was spent on signage and other assorted media mystifies me - from whence does this kind of money come? But more than this, the human cost. Camping capitalized on the mystique of end-times prophecies. Folks desperate to escape, and folks eager to show their spiritual superiority, line up for this junk, and junk it is.

As always, the church needs to have a strong educational dimension to it's preaching. N.T. Wright's work on this is extremely helpful.

If Camping had been selling stocks and bonds, he'd be arrested for fraud and imprisoned. He's no different than Madoff, who likely believed in what he was doing, too, and thought he was a pretty good guy. But a crook is a crook - whether it be a Wall Street Dandy stealing money, or a wolf in sheep's clothing stealing faith and hope.

I Am a Universalist

2011-05-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

I am a universalist, and became so some years ago after trying to figure it all out, and I finally decided that no one can know fully the mind of God, but we can all know fully the love of God for creation, and that includes all creatures, great and small, and the not-so-bright (which I think encompasses the whole of the human race).

Having said, “I’m a universalist,” and having confessed my ignorance about ultimate things, but not ultimate means (Israel’s Messiah), I will also affirm that any firm speculation about “eternity” can only lead to deep flaws of thought and ethics.

Traditions that speak with ultimate assurance about ultimate destinies have all, to a one, crashed on the rocks of pride and judgment. And some within the universalist tradition have likewise lost their fervor for any kind of faith, and have played carelessly with what folks believe and live.

We do have a blessed assurance, and it’s Jesus, who is ours, by grace, and his destiny, wrought in the contours of his life, is ours. I agree with Barth, that in Christ, God resolved all the issues, and in Christ, we see the final Yes to all God’s creation, because whatever No any of us might say is never greater than God’s Yes.

Having become a universalist, everything remains the same for me: Jesus and his cross, Jesus and his life, Jesus and his resurrection and ascension, but rather than focused on “getting folks to heaven and not hell,” everything becomes focused on the LORD's Prayer, and it’s central theme, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” For this we need Christ. For this, we need the Holy Spirit. For this, we need the Bible, the church, prayer and evangelism.

One still has to be saved – from ignorance and fear and pride and selfishness, to take this one singular life that God created with such passion and kindness and make it worthwhile, if not simply for the self (which it can never be) but for others, too. The children who suffer and die all around the world for want of political commitment to work for peace, for all the suffering occasioned by the greed and malice of the powerful, for all of this, we need to be saved from fear and cowardice that we might live with the boldness of Christ, and, with him, enter the temple when necessary to cleanse it, calm the crowd that is so eager to stone the woman, and challenge the blindness of the religious cognoscenti.

Give to everyone (letting God clear up all the details) the gift of eternal life with the one who made them, the one who came here to show them the way, the truth and the life, and the Spirit who opens minds and hearts and doors!

Then, we’re free to love, and free to join together in caring for God’s world. We’re free to share Jesus Christ with all, not at the point of a threat, but at the point of a celebration, that, yes, we’re all in this together, both now and forever.

For me, becoming a universalist has removed some of the worst aspects of Christian history and theology and opened up doors of joy and hope for here and now, and most surely, for eternity.

I still share Christ with anyone and everyone I can. Why not?

But heaven is no longer a goal in question. Christ took care of that.

Earth is the goal, as it should be, and that remains the biggest question of all.

And as it is for God – from the beginning, and as Paul the Apostle celebrates in his letter to the Romans – that one day, all will be made new, with a new heaven and a new earth, and every knee will bow to the wisdom and glory of God.

Rob Bell, Albert Mohler and Universalism

2011-05-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, calls Rob Bell’s latest, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, a “theological disaster.” And then adds, “When you adopt universalism … you don’t need the church, and you don’t need Christ … and you don’t need the cross…. This is the disaster of nonjudgmental mainline liberalism.”

But nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, even if we go all the way to universalism, we need the church, we need Christ, and we need the cross all the more. Because this life then becomes incredibly important, and how we love one another, and we love the world, all the more, the bottom line. It’s not about going to heaven (which Jesus never ever said), but doing “God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.”

Mohler’s gospel is a small gospel.

Reduced to a few clichés and a “come-to-Jesus” moment.

In Mohler’s evangelical world, Jesus was born of a virgin and then he died. Everything else in between is ignored. Paul letters are stripped of their ethical orientation and turned into a Gnostic treatise – if you now this, you’re saved; if you don’t know this, your goose is cooked.

Mohler is flat-out wrong.

But there’s nothing new in that.

Mohler’s tiny little world is growing tinier, and it doesn’t feel very good, even for him. But rather than changing and growing, Mohler just grows more and more bitter.

Hats of to Rob Bell for taking up the challenge to think.

Think outside the box … because, indeed, God and God’s love are always larger and bigger than we want them to be.

Yes, I have no doubt about Mohler’s ultimate destiny. But when he gets there, he’s going to spend a few thousand years pissed off that Bell is there. And then a few thousand years pissed at God. And then more years pissed at himself, until there’s no more piss left. And from his lips, the angels will hear, Hallelujah!

If then, why not now?

Just asking … but what do I know?

Far Right and Public Education

2011-05-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

Roman Catholics opted for parochial schools because "public" schools in America, 19th Century, were essential Protestant schools.

When public education freed itself from the shackles of the Protestant Establishment, progressives agreed; conservatives revolted, and the biggest revolt occurred in the South when Eisenhower enforced the desegregation of the schools.

In recent decades, the war against public education has been waged by Creationists and other conservative types who see schooling as a means to further their narrow agenda.

Public education, that is truly public, and truly education (read science and history) is inimical to the style and purpose of the Right.

Palin - Does Anyone Understand Her?

2011-05-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

I cannot understand how anyone could like Palin. I've listened to a lot of conservatives, and while I can't agree with their position, I at least understand what they're saying.

Palin makes no sense at all - her thoughts are ragged, and I suspect she understands very little of what she's saying much of the time, but only mouthing slogans and phrases she's memorized.

Yet, I suppose, like-minded gravitates to like-minded.

Never over-estimate the intelligence of the American people, and, sadly, our rural areas have been falling behind the curve, making rural areas a perfect target for the Koch Machine with it's billions to manipulate people for its own ends. Argh ...

Narcissism?

2011-05-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

We all live by our values ... whatever they may be, and that's the question. What are the values by which we live? The values of a Wall Street Banker are different than the values of a 3rd grade teacher on the south side of Chicago.

Religion, in some ways, helps folks of divergent backgrounds and interests to modify their values in the light of something "higher," but what with the diversity of religion, there doesn't seem to be a lot of concrete agreement. Lots of folks might talk about love, but just exactly what is love, and what does it look like in practice?

Perhaps what we've lost in the cyber-age is the courage to reflect upon our values, to be critical of them in ourselves, to ask hard questions of ourselves. In this respect, I think we've become a lot more self-indulgent, assuming that our personal happiness (whatever that is) is the supreme value. Narcissism is rampant in the West and in societies driven by technology!

Thoughts About Bin Laden's Death

2011-05-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Osama is dead!

Last night, when I heard the news, I shrugged my shoulders, and said, “I’m glad he was killed. A trial would have been ludicrous.” I felt no joy at the announcement of his death, and watching cheering Americans on TV, I felt a sense of sadness for my nation. This “victory” can only reinforce our moral and spiritual blindness as we continue to play out our fantasy of Numero Uno.

I’m a Christian, or I’ve tried to be, and I’m not sure what it means, though my evangelical sisters and brothers always seem to know what it means.

I live out of Christ; that I know, and with that, I cannot dance over the grave of an enemy.

Perhaps I’d feel differently if I had lost a loved on 9/11 or in a military conflict in the last 10 years. But I haven’t lost anyone, and I’m grateful, of course. I can’t even imagine the sorrow and hurt of a loved one lost in such circumstances.

I was struck by LA Times headlines this morning, “U.S. KILLS BIN LADEN.”

Why not, “BIN LADEN IS DEAD.”

The simple spiritual reality: those who live by the sword die by the sword, and it makes no difference who delivers the first blow, and who’s right and who’s wrong and who’s good and who’s bad. The sovereign nations of the world live by the sword, and history is full of the wreckage – millions of lives lost and countless tears shed, economies devastated and stimulated, poverty and prosperity, woe and weal – but the truth remains: those who live by the sword, even righteous swords, will, one day, die by the sword, as well.

As with Israel and Palestine, the pain continues, the death of so many adds up, until nothing makes sense any longer and all that remains is hatred.

Will Bin Laden’s death make any difference?

I doubt it.

The dogs of war have been unleashed, and there’s no calling them back. We’ll never again see anything like WW2, but what we’ll have is a world in constant turmoil, fed by the growing disparity of the nations, with age-old border disputes continuing, along with the struggle to control dwindling reserves of oil and fresh water.

The rising stars of China and India are changing the playing field in ways that no American can envision; we were the top dog, so to speak, since the Spanish-American War. And while still militarily strong, our economy is precarious, our national infrastructure is in need of massive repair, our public systems of transportation and health care are Medieval, and our sense of identity is in flux (and that’s always a dangerous time for a nation).

There is no doubt that Al Qaeda has been derailed, if not permanently as a movement, at least for a considerable time. But as long as the West continues to manipulate its own interests to the disadvantage of the Muslim nations, especially those that have oil, Muslim extremists will continue to see the West as demonic. And Christian extremists in the West will continue to foment ill-will toward Islam.

Last night, I asked, “Who will we hate now?”

Nations love to have an embodiment of the enemy, a poster-child, if you will, of righteous indignation.

In WW1, it was the Kaiser … Hitler and Tojo in WW2 … Mao n Korea, Ho Chi Min in Vietnam, Noriega in Panama, the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, the Axis of Evil, Saddam Hussein and then Bin Laden. Did I miss anyone?

The world will lumber on as it always does. There will be war and rumors of war and earthquakes and famine and fire and pestilence and storms. People will love and people will hate, nations will rise and nations will fall. History will always be written by the winners; prophetic voices will cry out and identify the hubris that infects the human story. Kindly voices will speak; Doctors without Borders will continue to heal. Women and men of good cheer and good faith will build bridges and take down fences.

And in the midst and mist of it all, Jesus says, “Be not alarmed … love one another … and love the enemy, too.”

Wolf Hunting in Idaho and Montana

2011-04-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

From the 4.24.11 LA Times ...

With my reply:

Oh my, how the winguts love to have an enemy. If it isn't some tinpot dictator, or a "communist" (Yeah, I know - they don't exist anymore, but only in the imagination of t-bags over 60), or some other nefarious enemy, like unions and teachers and social workers, then let's go after the wolves.

In reality, I suppose, predators need management, as do the elk, since we humans upset the balance of nature everywhere we live.

But what tickles me, and saddens me, is the language used here - as if wolves were morally responsible for hunting for their lives, and the wellbeing of their young. Hello? To describe wolves as "vicious" is just plain comical; to describe wolves in moral terms, and attribute decisional values to them, is ludicrous. But when you want to kill something, you have to demonize it first. Or hear voices in your head, or something akin thereto.

If there are viscious predators anywhere that need control, it's the gals and the guys who love to pull the trigger. A field-day for psychologists to watch these would be "pioneers," in search of personhood, and with way too much money and FOX news in their heads, mount up and go after the big bad wolves. Woo hoo ... the best damn sex they've had in years!

2011-04-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

In response to this article, my friend Pat Garvey wrote the following piece, and with her permission, I offer it to you:

Oh, Tom, that is such a depressing article, and I believe it's true. Anyone who thinks the US is exceptional in a positive way these days is an arrogant fool. Those days are long gone. The American Dream has always been to get rich quick and then get richer. Was it always based on greed, like it is now? Get rich and powerful and to hell with the weak, stupid "little people"?

How can we claim superiority when we can't even give our kids a decent education? High schools are turning out graduates who can't write or do math, and just forget about science. We have become a culture where education is not valued. What's important? Sports. Entertainment. Celebrities. 15 minutes of fame. Electronic gadgets. Consumerism. We are overweight and lazy. We are in a terrible mess, and are so divided, I don't know if we can ever get out of it.

"America has been and continues to be exceptional. At first we were exceptional because of circumstances that conferred on us enormous advantages over other nations. Today we are exceptional because of our culture, a culture born of our unusually fortunate history and now perhaps the single biggest handicap to our collective survival and prosperity in the less favorable circumstances of the 21st century."

The South Has Won the Civil War (of Ideas)

2011-04-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

The April 17, 2011 New York Times takes a close look at the GOP's effort to redesign the American landscape, or as I put it, to undo everything done by FDR and liberal northeastern establishment.

Is this really the death of kindness in America?

When it comes to the social compact, it's clearly the death of kindness.

On a personal level, any of the current GOP conservative leaders might be good and decent and even kindly. But the failure is occurring at the point of the COMMON good; the conservative world has always focused on the power of the individual to rise and shape her world; this is intensified in evangelical circles where salvation is a "personal" thing and everyone has to find his or her own "personal relationship with Jesus."

In many ways, the conservative view of America is still a reflection of small southern communities out of which this philosophy grows: rugged individualism, charity (but not social change), religion that's deeply personal and emotional (if it's emotional, then it must be good), small government, low taxes, anti-union sentiments (because unions are socialistic and deny individual initiative and freedom) and social division along the lines of race (determined by God) - as long as a person of color got off the sidewalk, even the lowest of the whites enjoyed class privilege.

The failure of evangelical christianity is its loss of the social heart of Scripture - we are our "brother's keeper." The New Testament is read through spiritualized eyes, translating everything into spiritual principles, thus avoiding the social context in which the New Testament was written.

The medieval church did much the same thing, turning Jesus into a savior, to avoid his ethics, and preserve the social order of the day. Victorian England and its opposition to Darwin was aimed at preserving the social order of landed gentry and the working poor; anything that suggested change was anathema to the church and its patrons, the aristocracy.

The current philosophy of the GOP is an image of the ante-bellum south. With huge migrations of people form the Deep South and West South, all of this was brought to SoCal and the West Coast in the 20th Century - it supported Goldwater's failed campaign, reworked itself and give us Nixon and Reagan, and has since revitalized southern politics and touched the heart of many Americans in the midwest and far west. The movement remains determined to undo the America created by FDR - a "welfare state" and unions, gov't regulation and appropriate taxation, along with a strong middle class. All of this is "the enemy."

As I put it, the South won the Civil War of ideas! And the current GOP has embodied these ideas perfectly!

Life Without Limits???

2011-03-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Saw a book yesterday, "Life Without Limits" - only gullible Americans, who lust for life, rather than love it, would buy such a book.

This kind of thinking allows comfortable Americans to "own" their success as if it were their own creation, rather than a simple gift of chance and circumstance, not to mention God, and then, when looking at folks in hard times, blame them for their troubles, attributing the hardship of others to moral failure or sloth, or any number of sins the successful love to blabber about on talkshows and in their self-congratulating books.

Anyway, life is full of limits. And we all know that, and it pisses us off, for sure. But what can we do about it, except tell the truth, and discover the power and the glory of life lived within limits, life that sees and embraces its own reality, rather than living in some bizarre dream-world than can only end with nightmares and tears?

And we all die, sooner or later. And that's a mighty big limit. Not even The Trump can work his way around that one. Money can buy time - watch the wealthy and their hyper-expensive health-care programs and plastic surgery and organ-transplants prove that one every day, while the poor languish and die too soon. But money cannot buy more than the limit - dust to dust, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, is still the truth about life. And when we live beyond the limit, when we buy more time than we deserve, by robbing it from others (that's always the trade-off), then we end up looking like hell and sounding like it, too.

We all die, and that ain't so bad!

After all, we have to make room for one another, especially the young, who may make better choices than we have.

I'm glad when someone can face hardship and disadvantage and prove the victor; it happens all the time. Of course. It's a good thing to push hard and sieze the day, and all of that. We can all do more than we imagine.

But I'm sorry for the mind-tricks we play on our cultural heros, and the mind-tricks we play on ourselves, pretending that we can get to the top of the hill all by ourselves - as if no one ever helped us, even as we ignore the humbling truth that just plain luck, or chance, or fate, or God, or what have you, played a decisive role in all of it.

Will someone write a book entitled, "I Was Just Plain Lucky"?

Or, "I Don't Deserve Any of These Good Times"?

Or, "I'm Sorry I Think I'm Better than You Are"?

Or, better yet, "Life Is Beautiful Within the Limits"?

Far Right hates Public Education

2011-03-14T09:10:00.001-07:00

I do not believe that the right has a genuine interest in PUBLIC ed.

They're too quick to demean teachers and attack the systems that work pretty well in giving us a level playing field for millions of American children, a playing field growing increasingly uneven for want of fair funding.

Are things wrong with the system? I've learned that one can make a good living out of criticism of what may be wrong; but what we are need are people who are devoted to lifting up the system, even with its flaws, and celebrating the millions of teachers who are devoted, who are successful, leading our children to a better life.

Ragged individualism, combined by hyper-induced parental anxiety, fueled by the far right and driven by a sales culture needing anxious parents to seek and to purchase nirvana for their little prodigies, America is shredding its public institutions, much like a mad dog biting its own legs in frustration and fear.

Oh well, just some ramblin' thoughts from an ol' retired guy!

David S. Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, dies at 81 - latimes.com

2011-03-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Obituaries: David S. Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, dies at 81 - latimes.com

We have all lost in Broder's death, for his sanity is badly needed today, more than ever.

Yet, we have all gained from his life. Can anyone offer more than he did?

Life is limited. Period!

But it remains, now, for the living, to learn what a good journalist like Broder can teach us.

And to penetrate the fog of political blather and empty-minded sloganeering, to discern just how history works, what democracy means and how a constitution can work ... and to bring a generous helping of common sense and decency to the public square.

And, by the way, he owned cabin on Beaver Island, Michigan - that, in itself, says a lot about the man's character.

RIP Mr. Broder - you've done your job, and you've done it well.

A Fire in Our Apartment Building

2011-02-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

The sharp, ear-piecing scream of the fire alarm.

Check it out ... someone hollering, someone else going to help ... faint smell of smoke.

"Call the fire department."

"Are you kidding? Fight your own fire. I'm not paying taxes for your junk!"

But here come the fire trucks anyway.

All Communists, I'm sure ... in their RED trucks.

Talk about socialism - they take our money, and buy those big RED trucks, and throw around all that equipment, stop traffic and make a lot of noise.

Where's the entrepreneurial spirit?

Aren't we all on our own?

I mean, those public service employees - who do they think they are? On the public dole, you bet! And then they get to retire early, and draw on that big fat pension, paid by guys like me, who work hard for their money, who earn it the old fashioned way.

Next time there's a fire, I'll do it myself.

Doggone right.

No more of this socialist Communist pinko red crap. No siree ...

Wonder what Rush would have to say about all these RED trucks dashing around town? And you know what, some of them are yellow, and that's the truth! For sure.

All Reds are Yellow, aren't they?

Makes sense to me.

Whoo, what's that?

A fire alarm? In my place.

Someone call the Fire Department. Quick!

-------------

P.S. There really was a small fire yesterday 2.22.11) in our apartment building, and, yes, the fire trucks arrived within 3 or 4 minutes - at least five or six units, including an aerial truck. In no time at all, the dryer-vent fire was out. A few scary moments for everyone - thank God for the village. It takes a village to raise a child, and a village to keep us safe.

Reading Joshua

2011-02-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

Winners write history, and the Bible reflects that. Joshua is deeply nationalistic ... it's part of Israel's "history," but, then, so are the prophets and Ruth and Jonah and Esther. Because America is a large and powerful nation, and lots of Christians enjoy the privilege of such power (as have Christians in other western nations - Britain, Germany, Belgium, France), many have tended to read Joshua as the last word on power and might. It helps to remember that the name of Jesus is the Greek equivalent of Joshua; it is not by accident that the Son of God appears as a second Joshua, not with swords and trumpets, and tumblings walls,but with grace, mercy and peace for all, and a temple curtain torn asunder. As well, like Saul/Paul on the Damascus Road - a version of Israel's first king, but this time, a man of intellect and faith who was sent to the Gentiles with a message of hope and inclusion.

When the Southern Kingdom fell, God got out of the land business - it was too costly - in human lives and to the character of God - and ultimately it failed. Though the folks of Judah returned under Xerxes, there would never again be a nation/state comparable to that of Saul/David/Solomon. When the temple was destroyed, the connection to land was further severed.

Just because "it's in the Bible" is never a reason to go with something. It deserves our thought and a willingness to wrestle with it. There are a multiplicity of themes, greater and lesser ... in the end, we have to choose as we weigh the relative weight of ideas. The far greater weight is on a God of great compassion who truly loves the entire world. Our "holy" book wrestles with this, just like we do. Do we really want a God who loves the whole world? A God who is not a respecter of persons?

A Letter to John Ortberg

2011-02-07T11:18:00.001-08:00

The Rev. John Ortberg

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

Menlo Park, CA

Dear John,

With delight and gratitude, I followed your career at Willow Creek, and with attendance at many a conference, I was encouraged and blessed by your ministry and preaching, and how I enjoyed your careful exposition of Scripture, especially with your focus upon the Old Testament, the “Bible” of our LORD and Savior.

When you left Willow to become a Presbyterian, I gave thanks to God and prayed for you and the Menlo Park Church, for I am a Presbyterian pastor, and have been so since my ordination in January of 1970, First Presbyterian Church, Holland, Michigan. I emailed you a welcome note at the time of your transfer, and you were kind enough to reply.

As a pastor, I promoted your books and CDs, and used your material to guide some of my own preaching and teaching.

Last week, I saw “The Letter to the PCUSA,” and noted you as a signatory.

I felt as if I had been stabbed in the heart and betrayed.

I know many of the pastors on that letter, and I know the truth of that letter, and that’s what disturbs me so deeply.

Whatever pretensions there might be about the centrality of Jesus Christ with high doctrines of revelation, claims of orthodoxy, notions of mission for the glory of God and being Reformed, the root is politics and money and property and pride, buttressed by powerful interests on one singular issue: the ordination of gays and lesbians, and, in California, marriage rights. Fueled by the political far-right, the ordination of LGBT persons has become the line-in-the-sand.

That’s the defining element of “A Letter to the PCUSA,” because, otherwise, there is no reason to write such a letter proposing the essential dismantling of the PCUSA, the church of my ordination, and the church that welcomed you to Menlo Park.

Presbyterian pastors and their congregations have always enjoyed great liberties to conduct ministry and mission and congregational life as they see fit.

There is no reason for “The Letter;” no reason at all, other than pride, and the issues mentioned above: money, property and politics and a decision to leave a fellowship wherein LGBT ordination may someday occur without a fracas.

Carry on your work at Menlo, and let Menlo carry on its ministry, or at least be honest enough to tell the world that the ordination of LGBT people is so distasteful to you that you cannot for a moment tolerate being in a fellowship where their ordination might someday be possible. There is no need to hide behind highfalutin theological notions of the church’s purity.

In reality, the conservatives behind “the letter,” have been hungering and thirsting for a way out and the means to retain their property at the same time. What with gracious dismissal policies emerging, which I gladly support, many a large congregation, rich like the temple-keepers in Jerusalem, now can see a way to realize their dreams. Dreams emerging as far back as C67 and the “Angela Davis Defense Fund.”

Let’s face it, money and property are always the critical factors in the larger churches, and these days, politics, too. That’s the truth of this letter you’ve signed, and I fear it’s the truth of many a ministry represented by its signatories, a gathering of the “boys club.”

By now, you are no longer reading this letter, but if you are, I ask you to reflect upon your Willow journey, your effort to deepen that congregation biblically and historically, and, further, I ask you to retract your signature, because, in truth, “The Letter” is filled with flawed historical analysis and spiritually demeaning theological pretense.

Please, don’t succumb to the notion that the framers of “the letter” have the high moral ground on Scripture and tradition. The biblical work has been successfully done with regard to LGBT persons and their ordination, as the work was done in earlier periods of time with regard to persons of color, who were considered, both by the church and the US Constitution, to be less human than the white race, and the work done on the ordination of women.

Though, in both cases, there are those who yet question these developments, and who would be glad to return us to the days of segregation and racial discrimination and relegate women to the pew and teaching Sunday School. Willow’s own work on the place of women in the church ought to be a paradigm for you and the ordination of LGBT persons.

By now, you are weary of this letter, and I’m weary of writing it.

I fear that the signatories of “the letter” will walk into a dark corner, shared by the likes of Orthodox Presbyterians, Bible Presbyterians, Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church – fractured and fractious bodies, driven by a certain “Presbyterian madness” – the so-called “purity” of the church, with all love being truly lost. “The letter” is a formula for disaster, but like the powerful of Jerusalem, blinded by their unreasonable “trust in God,” the cry of Jeremiah goes unheeded, as Jerusalem, with its tainted sense of purity, speeds headlong into ruin.

With sadness and resolute determination to do everything I can to illumine the flaws of “The Letter to the PCUSA,” I am,

The Rev. Dr. Thomas P. Eggebeen

Interim Pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church

Los Angeles

CC: To all the world.

I'm really glad to be here. It's a miracle, ya' know, that any of us are.

Drug Companies and Whistle Blowers

2011-01-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

In the January 25, 2011 Los Angeles Times, an article about a small pharmacy in Florida that has become a giant whistleblower on big drug companies and their pricing strategies.

It seems that big pharmaceuticals keep their prices low when selling to doctors and pharmacies, squeezing out generic drugs, and then turn around and bill state and federal agencies hugely inflated prices.

Because of this small pharmacy and its whistle blowing, hundreds of millions of dollars have been recovered from the drug companies.

I find myself thinking of Jesus and the disciples in Jerusalem, as the disciples ooh and awe over the impressive buildings. Unimpressed, Jesus turns to watch a widow sacrificially put in a few small coins to support the temple enterprise, while the wealthy drop in huge sums, but only for show and without sacrifice.

Most importantly, Jesus then describes the wealthy and their temple enterprise as a fraudulent system devouring widows’ houses (Mark 12 & 13).

I believe there’s a connection between this moment in the gospels and our world today.

We hear much about government wastefulness and national health-care programs that will never work, along with the mantra: we can trust big biz to provide for us, as long we give it unfettered reign. Government is the problem; biz is the solution.

This was the mantra of the Jerusalem establishment. With its impressive buildings and public piety, people were seduced, as was the widow, and duped into supporting the temple enterprise, believing it to be good, when, in fact, it was rife with corruption.

It didn’t take long for the temple establishment to get all over Jesus, calling him a liar, accusing him of getting his facts wrong, and naming him an enemy of Israel. The Jerusalem establishment joined hands with Rome, and with their combined wealth and might, with their laws and regulations, with their influence and with their armies, they strove with all their resources to silence Jesus.

These days, how many widows’ homes are devoured by the drug companies, and other megacorps, who plow ahead with unregulated pricing structures, international arrangements that are virtually impossible to monitor, gouging the government of much needed tax revenue, manipulating laws and rewriting regulations, causing many to doubt the effectiveness of national health-care, calling for an end to national health-care, going, after Social Security, accusing the government of fraud and waste, while racking in illicit millions.

Is this not the temple establishment in Jerusalem?

Are these not the marble and glass office buildings and skyscrapers that impress us, but are, in fact, warehouses of fraud, deception and greed, at the expense of truth and people?

Thank God for folks who blow the whistles on such things, and may Jesus, himself a whistleblower, as was John the Baptist and the prophets of old and the author of Revelation 18, inspire us to be mindful of the beautiful buildings of power built upon fraud, and the misleading narrative that invites our trust even as it fleeces our pockets.

The moral task of the pulpit is a serious one. The moral imperative for the church, to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, calls us to tell the truth about the huge and deeply fraudulent systems that still devour widows’ home.

Living in Two Worlds: Hope and Despair

2010-12-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

Written for the Presbyterian Outlook blog ...

-------------

I find myself in two worlds: hope and despair.

I think the two are related, in a symbiotic way.

I get the uneasy feeling that hope needs despair in order to be hope, in any authentic way. Hope is a part of the faith I have in Christ, a faith that confronts the "realities" of the day, without flinching, yet rises above them to claim the providence of God, God-at-work, in all things. Without despair in things as they are, hope for things as they will be seems shallow and self-serving.

Which then makes despair an integral part of my spiritual layout. Not that I'm happy about that, but I'm in good company.

I think the Prophets are people of despair and hope, and sometimes the oscillation is severe (read Isaiah). Jesus speaks of his "troubled" heart (John 12:27), as well, and then speaks of "my joy" (John 15:11). I can't have one without the other, if I understand anything about the ways of God in my life.

Paul says that hope has a lot "invisibility" to it - things unseen (Romans 8:25), and then reminds us that it's the Holy Spirit that prays within us, for us and with us, when we can't see, with "sighs too deep for words."

I live in both worlds, and maybe you do, too.

I think Matthew lives in both as he pens the opening chapters of his gospel. He begins with an affirmation of faith in God's ordering of history (Chapter 1), then moves the reader into some of the dark materials of our world (Chapter 2) and then blends it all together in Chapters 3 and 4.

The Gospels help me with despair - not to move me out of it, but to bear it, as a cross, in the name of Jesus, and bear it with hope in the providence of God.

If despair takes hold, and I live only in Chapter 2, what with the conniving of Herod and his bloodlust for anyone who threatens his throne, my spirit grows heavy.

Yet, if I try to live only in hope, with sweet nostrums piled high all about me, my spirit objects, for what right do I have to escape from sorrow and sadness when millions of human beings are condemned to mean and miserable lives, for want of justice and peace?

To follow Christ is to spend time in both realms - in the darkness of Herod's world and in the brightness of a Magi's star.

To live with Jesus shedding tears on the brow of the hill overlooking Jerusalem and with his incredible forgiveness and reinstatement of Peter after the resurrection.

I live in both worlds - maybe you do, too.

Tom Eggebeen, Interim Pastor
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Los Angeles, CA

Following the Script

2010-12-04T05:27:00.001-08:00

The more conservative the congregation to which someone belongs, the more likely I hear in their conversation "the script."

This is rarely the case for Presbyterians, whatever their persuasion, though I find this happening with a bit more frequency as fundagelicalism takes root in our congregations - what with easy praise music and the four-point therapy message, with appropriate screen images, and the need to always be "victorious."

As if, before anything else can transpire in the conversation, sort of like clearing the throat, a certain number of "god-honoring," or "Christ-witnessing" statements must be said, and said in such a way as to impress upon the hearer the "victory" of the gospel.

We all use our scripts, I suppose, in order to establish, both in the mind of the speaker and the listener, the lay of the land. I suspect folks are really trying to convince themselves, more than anything else, because life is scary and life is hard and life is confusing - realities to which various forms of fundagelicalism cannot and will not admit.

I don't like scripted language, because it's not real, even when the person is speaking of "their personal relationship with Jesus" or whatever else they may be trying to impress upon me.

Perhaps, since I'm a pastor, there's some urgency in the speaker's mind to be sure that I know they're saved and bound for glory.

Or, because I'm a Presbyterian pastor, some urgency to witness to the unsaved, which seems to be the status to which I'm assigned in conservative or fundamentalist circles.

In some respects, I think, the issue of "scripted christian-speak" falls under the category addressed by James when he writes, "Above all, do not swear - by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "yes" be yes, and your "no" be no, or you will be condemned."

Christians who try too hard are not likely to succeed in their witness, though God is merciful, and can use most anything to further the cause of the gospel.

But James, I think, hits the nail on the head with scripted language - don't use it. When we talk, let's talk authentically.

If we're afraid, then we're afraid ... if we're confused or uncertain, then so be it ... if we don't know how to say something, then be quiet. None of this is an affront to the Father who loves us and to the Christ in whom we have life, nor to the Holy Spirit who gives us words, and sometimes gives us silence, as well.

More than anything, I try to help such folks get beyond the script so they actually say what's on their mind and heart.

In the course of the conversation, I usually find them relaxing and being more at ease, because that's what honesty is all about ... when our "yes" is a yes and our "no" is a no.

To God be the glory.

Tom Eggebeen, Interim Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles.

Max De Pree Center for Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary

2010-12-01T16:48:00.000-08:00

Written in response to: http://documents.fuller.edu/news/pubs/tnn/2010_Fall/9z_news_and_notes.asp

Dear Friends,

Just finished reading the latest "Fuller: Theology, News and Notes" and was taken aback by a brief excerpt from Michael Novak's lecture (p.35).

If this quote represents the sum and substance of Novak's work, then I must raise a serious question about the purpose of the De Pree Center for Leadership - leadership of what? The people of God, the faithful in Christ, or the capitalist machine that is clearly revealing the fruits of a lot of bad decisions and flawed logic.

The few remarks printed struck me as nothing more than the same old nonsense we've heard from the Wall Street Journal and such, and to suggest that a "moral case" for capitalism can be made is stunning in its hubris - what with 40 million Americans without health insurance and millions more under-insured, and millions out-or-work, victims of the largest transfer of wealth in history - from the pockets of the many to the hands of the few, with millions of good and decent jobs sent overseas so that the giants of capitalism might improve their bottom line and continue in their media effort to manipulate the American people into believing that all is well, because all is well with the top 2 percent of this nation, who continue to whine, by the way, all the more, about the hardships of taxation and wondering how they'll pay for their next Bentley.

Novak is billed as scholar, yet gives no evidence of any scholarly sensibilities about China. I was stunned at the arrogance of his comments, offering a sadly simplistic analysis of China's development and "it's bet" as he puts. Goodness, it seems to me that we've bet the house and grandmother, too, and we're not faring very well at all; we've lost the house, and grandma has no health insurance. Some bet!

Fortunately,this bizarre lecture-description was bracketed by excerpts on "Walk Humbly with Your God" by Clayton J. Schmit and "Life-Giving Spirit" by Luke Timothy Johnson. How ironic that humility and Spirit would bracket such a bunch of big-money humbug.

Anyway, just thought I'd offer my two-cents' worth.

God's Peace.

Tom Eggebeen, Interim Pastor

Covenant Presbyterian Church

Los Angeles, CA

Merciful God, I pray thee to grant me, if it please thee, ardor to desire thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to know thee and skill to speak to the glory of thy name. Amen (Thomas Aquinas)

The Mind, the Face, of American Christianity?

2010-11-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

She had forgotten to “fall back” with her clock, what with being a visitor and staying with friends just down the street from the church.

As it turns out, upon moving to Colorado Springs 30 years ago with her husband, joined the First Presbyterian Church there, but then affiliated a few years back with Ted Haggard’s New Life Church, “Where,” she said, “we had those shootings” (no mention of Haggard’s troubles).

The conversation began when she asked, “Are there any evangelical churches nearby?”

I replied, “What do you mean by evangelical? We’re evangelical here.”

She said, “Oh, I mean non-denominational.”

To which I responded, “We have only denominational churches in the area. But, then, all churches are sort of denominational, including the independent churches who do a lot of things alike – sing the same music, and worship pretty much the same.”

She said, “Oh sure, but for me, it’s the Bible. I only believe what the Bible says.”

At which point, I changed the subject.

She joined with a few folks in my office for prayer and then stayed for worship. Afterward, she expressed gratitude for the day, though it took her awhile to adjust to a bulletin and a printed liturgy and hymnals.

I couldn’t help but feel sorrow for her, an otherwise bright-spirited person who loves the LORD, but without any personal awareness of the culture in which she has been living and moving for some years now.

When she retreated to “I only believe what the Bible says,” I knew that we had reached her limit.

How sad for her, and millions like her, who are fed spiritual pabulum by silver-tongued preachers in multi-million dollar buildings with the latest in technology, mindless praise songs – you know, the 7-11 kind – seven words repeated eleven times. And they leave these stainless steel sanctuaries convinced that they “believe what the Bible teaches” and that “denominational churches” are suspicious.

No wonder the confusion in American religion, but don’t for a moment think that I believe our mainline gang is in any better shape, conservative or liberal.

American Christianity, by and large, stopped thinking some time after WW2, or so it seems to me, though I think the antecedents in a Billy Sunday and the bully pulpits of the big-city churches during the Roaring Twenties had already started the full retreat from mindfulness.

The influx of post-WW2 millions into the churches, in quest of stability, home, marriage and the suburban life, guaranteed the church’s material success, but at what price for the faith? Then came McCarthyism, Eisenhower and the insertion of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and our all-out war against god-less Communism. Then Billy Graham, who took Billy Sunday’s world and mainstreamed it, and before you know it, millions were singing “Just as I Am” and signing up for Jesus, while leaving their minds in the parking lot, only to retrieve it later, untouched by the gospel now held so dearly in their hearts.

All of this, allowing American Christians to embrace the central sin of the Book of James, faith without ethics, or faith without works. Or at least the kind of works envisioned by James – to confront and overcome partiality driven by appearances, boasting about tomorrow and a growing love of riches, little of which seems to bother contemporary Christians in America.

Meanwhile, our seminaries have suffered deeply under the pressure to turn out “leaders” who can compete in the religious marketplace with all the tools and styles inherent in the American entrepreneurial spirit.

All of this, abetted by the rise of the megachurch (safe and comfortable) led by charismatic pastors generally skilled in teaching and preaching but shy on theological discernment – relying a great deal on slogans, mission statements, splendid graphics, inspiring praise music, gripping dramatic presentations and “I believe what the Bible teaches.” Thus able to convince and energize their audiences, but not likely to move them along spiritually,

Mainliners themselves have little to crow about. Conservatives have hunkered down, taking refuge in their various confessions and theological traditions while liberals have jumped onto a variety political bandwagons. Neither group seems particularly interested in what the Bible truly offers in its multifaceted witness to God and what it means to be God’s people, often responding with, “But the confessions say …” or “the latest socio-psychological studies suggest….”

If the visitor from Colorado Springs is, in anyway, the face, or the mind, of American Christianity, we’re in trouble.

Though God will see us through, as God always does, in one way or the other.

But in the meantime, I hope and pray that the voices of reason and compassion, those who love Scripture and tradition, for liberals and conservatives alike, and all those who are willing to work hard at the faith, so that the faith can work hard in our souls, will not surrender the pulpit to mediocrity in the name of success, nor abandon people to the mindless slogans of religious marketeering.

Crystal Cathedral - Some Reflections

2010-10-20T06:13:00.000-07:00

Churches come and go - they always have, they always will.The "latest," sooner or later, becomes old hat.

The American church is particularly susceptible to hitching its wagon to the newest star. Yeah, I've done it, too. But the latest word is never the last word - that, and that alone, belongs to something much better, or shall I say, to someone much better - God!

American Christianity prides itself on inventiveness, as if faith were a consumer product to be "improved" by the latest and biggest and glitteryest developer, and to that developer, everyone flocks. But the sun always sets, and there's always someone who turns out the lights for the last time.

Maybe one of these years, American Christianity will grow up, and quit chasing after the pot o' gold at the end of some imaginary rainbow, using nickels and noses as "proof" of some inside information that not even Moses could wiggle out of God (Exodus 33) - in fact, there is no inside information. But we keep believing there is, and we chase after it like mice in some kind of mad experiment, running until we drop. But fear not, we'll soon catch our breath, and someone or something else will come along to revive our spirits with new promises, new techniques, seminars, webinars and DVDs. Though, I wonder - the world turns, and maybe, just maybe, American Christianity is growing up a little bit - less infatuated with proving itself against itself, and all the one-upsmanship of too many pulpits. Maybe so ...

Help My Peace Corps Son Fly to His Sister's Wedding

2010-10-15T20:48:00.001-07:00

Electronic Giving to Your Church???

2010-10-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

From a good friend and fine writer, The Rev. Bob Orr (ret.) ... on "electronic giving."

Why I won't ever do electronic payments to First Pres for my pledge

Yesterday in the 9:30 am worship there was an effective stewardship minute delivered by a father who pays his pledge electronically. While I see the convenience of this for him and for the church, I cannot go down this path.

Now before you judge me antiquated, let me tell you that I'm a member of a credit union where I pay my bills automatically with monthly deductions from my checking account. In addition I order things occasionally on line and pay with my Visa card.

So why don't I just take the easy step and contribute to the church electrically?

Here's why - in the order of worship each Sunday there's an offering of tithes and gifts, an offertory, a doxology and a prayer of dedication. All of these elements of worship focus on the monetary offering whether it be in cash, coin or check placed in the offering plate as it's passed around the pews, up into the balcony and then carried by the ushers back down the center aisle and placed on the communion table. For me this is a significant moment of worship.

When I pledge in the fall I'm given the option of requesting envelopes and can choose the weekly or monthly option. It's a conscious choice for me to make my offering every week so that I have a physical act to do at this moment in worship. It's a gesture of returning to God that just wouldn't be the same with the press of a computer button.

Sure paper could be saved and trees left standing. Sure the church would get my gift quickly and efficiently.   I could think of my church pledge as a "bill" and pay it along with my gas and electric bill, my car insurance, my groceries but I don't want to think of my pledge that way. It's not a bill, It's a gesture I want to make each week, writing that check on Friday or Saturday, getting it in my shirt pocket each Sunday before heading out to the car and reaching for it at the appropriate time in worship.

The man giving the stewardship message commented that his young daughter looked at him when the offering plate went by and said "shouldn't we put something in?" which prompted him to tell her that he gave electronically. I want to put something in the offering each Sunday, not so someone will see me do so, but because I want to see me return some of my means of living to my Lord, to his church and to his people for local and international mission. Somehow it's more real if I do it this way, week in and week out. It's part of my worship. That's why I won't be giving electronically.

Covenant Coalition - Conservative Presbyterians and Where Do We Go?

2010-09-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

One thing for sure, reading The Layman is akin to watching a hurricane from aloft – it spins and spins and spins some more, round and around a singular eye – the ordination of LGBT persons.

With this agenda, the Presbyterian Coalition comes out now in opposition to three amendments:

- 10-A, which aims to focus and sharpen our Ordination Standards with wonderfully traditional language.

-10-1, a proposed new Form of Government.

-10-2, the Belhar Confession, a remarkable document coming out of the struggle of South African Christians to find a way through and beyond the horrors of Apartheid.

There’s nothing imaginative about a hurricane, and there’s nothing imaginative in the response of the Coalition to the three amendments – though predictably predicable: in their eyes, all three amendments will be used to promote the ordination of “homosexuals.”

Which is to say, the current G-6.106b was never intended to promote either fidelity within marriage or chastity in singleness, but was a cleverly worded phrase to slam the door on the ordination LGBT persons in a same-gender relationship, or who, for reasons of faith and conscience, will not take a vow of celibacy.

But like all hurricanes, this one, too, is losing its strength.

How often can one say no? How long can one bar the door?

Perhaps that’s the fear behind their rejection of Belhar – a reminder that justice prevails ultimately, and though the road to justice is full of landmines and barbed wire obstacles crafted by the guardians of the old order, the new thing God is doing to further the cause of justice in God’s world gains headway and strength from the opponents standing in its way.

In the same issue, it’s noted that the Colonial Church near Kansas City has voted overwhelmingly to leave the PCUSA and seek affiliation with the EPC.

And to that decision, I can only add my blessing and peace.

Our history is full of separations for all kinds of reasons – Presbyterians share this in common with the whole of Christendom.

Splits happen in bowling, and they happen in the church, too.

Until such time as the Millennium is upon us, we will struggle with our frailties, doing the best we can to honor the LORD Jesus Christ.

I honor the LORD by working for the ordination of LGBT persons, marriage equality and the right of our clergy to officiate at LGBT weddings.

While some would call me apostate, I think it’s time for us to quit such name-calling and simply get on with our respective visions, in separate churches, if need be, allowing for a gracious separation.

Perhaps we can yet work out some kind of a local option for Presbyteries and/or congregations, and I’d be willing to live with some such arrangement.

But as much as the Coalition fears the ordination of “homosexuals,” I long for the day when we will be able to ordain whomever the LORD calls to ministry, trusting our Presbyteries with the time-honored task of guiding and examining those within its boundaries, determining their suitability for ministry.

Enough, okay?

Let’s work out a peace treaty of some sort where we can all following the dictates of our conscience and faith, interpreting the Scriptures and Confessions as the Spirit leads.

And if we cannot craft a peace treaty, then let’s declare an armistice, a cessation of hostilities, and let’s all go home to our families.

There’s been enough blood shed on both sides!

Anti-Islamic Sentiment in America

2010-09-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

John Buchanan, editor of The Christian Century and pastor of Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church, writes poignantly of his loving grandmother's seething mistrust about Roman Catholics, and how radio evangelists with their lurid publications promoted hatred and raised lots of money.

Here is John's fine editorial, from the September 21 issue:

EDITOR'S DESK

Nonnegotiable

Sep 08, 2010 by John M. Buchanan

In his New York Times column (August 22), Nicholas Kristof wrote about the controversy over the proposal to build an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan: "For much of American history, demagogues have manipulated irrational fears toward people of minority religious beliefs, particularly Catholics and Jews . . . Today's crusaders against the Islamic Community Center are promoting a similar paranoid intolerance, and one day we will be ashamed of it."

His column reminded me that members of my family, showing the influence of their Scottish/Irish ancestors, believed that the pope was behind a Catholic conspiracy to take over the government of the United States. I used to sit on the front porch with my grandmother, otherwise the gentlest, most unconditionally loving person in my young life, while she regaled me with stories about what was going on under the dome of the Roman Catholic cathedral one block away. They're storing guns in the basement, Grandma assured me, and I imagined that the windows in the dome were gunports through which "they" planned to fire on the rest of the city.

Grandma was a lifelong Presbyterian, but at some point she stopped attending church and began to listen to radio evangelists and to send them modest contributions. Her mail was full of the radio evangelists' newsletters and gospel tracts with vivid pictures of the devil and the fires of hell devouring hapless sinners—along with appeals for more money. Some of it was benign. She adored Billy Graham. But some of it was toxic: anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant. As she aged, my grandmother became more dependent on the radio preachers. She also subscribed to their newspapers for me, including The Sword of the Lord, which condemned ecumenism, mainline church leaders and the civil rights movement—in short, everything I found compelling about the Christian church and its worldview. Nothing galvanized editors of that publication like Catholicism; when John Kennedy ran for president, The Sword of the Lord and Grandma knew that the end was near.

I loved my grandmother and treasure the memory of her love for me, but I'm ashamed of her worldview, and I cringe at Americans' recurrent irrational fear of minorities.

The most tragic dimension of that irrational fear is the way it is exploited by politicians. I cannot comprehend how otherwise sane and thoughtful people can conclude that an Islamic com munity center two blocks away from Ground Zero is inappropriate—not to mention dangerous—and think that the religion of the Qur'an is any more violent than much of the religion of the Bible. It's not a mosque and it's not on the site of the World Trade Center twin towers, but even if it were, the right of all Americans to pray and worship how and who and where they choose is one of the most important rights and values of our nation. It is not negotiable.

The Purpose of a Confession

2010-09-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

" 'Confessions' exist for us to go through them (not once but continually), not for us to return to them, take up our abode in them, and conduct our further thinking from their standpoint and in bondage to them. The church never did well to attach itself arbitrarily to one man - whether his name was Thomas ... or Luther, or Calvin - and in his school to attach itself to one form of doctrine. And it was never at any time good for it to look back instead of forwards as a matter of principle" (Barth, in Eberhard Busch's biography, p. 375).

The church is always tempted to find a place wherein it can find shelter; the only problem is this: such shelters are never God, but always our poorly constructed houses of straw.

Because standing in the shelter of God never quite feels safe enough for us, and, indeed, it's not all that safe.

God takes us on a great adventure, and sometimes our hearts are not up to it, and we want to find a pleasant tree somewhere in Palestine and settle down beneath its pleasant shade ... or on the Mount or Transfiguration, at least build booths for everyone.

The history of the church can be seen, I think, as a constant tussle between the heart's desire for security and the Spirit's call to adventure.

When things get dicey, the church hunkers down in the bunkers of orthodoxy. But what a loss, for in the very things we call dicey, God is at work. In one sense, hunkering down is a genuine loss of faith - faith in God and God's providence.

When things get dicey, the church goes looking for heretics so as to silence the inner voices of our own doubt (always our companion, though mostly quiet) and the voice of God, beckoning us onward.

If we trust God's providence, knowing the perfect love of Christ, a love that casts out all fear, then we can be brave and confident and bold in our faith, even as we are humble and patient and respectful before the mysteries of life in a myriad of human beings and ideas.

Fear, and the enemies it makes, destroys our faith.

But welcome and affirmation gives wings to our faith, faith in God who is creator of the world, and remains the decisive factor in it's history, gathering up everything - the good, the bad and the ugly - into the unfailing energy of redemption and the eventual new heaven and new earth.

Jane Spahr on Trial - Presbyterian Church

2010-08-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

As I read today's note (August 24, 2010) in the LA Times about Jane Spahr to be tried by the PCUSA, I couldn't help but think of the text for this past Sunday, Luke 13:10-17, Jesus setting a woman free from 18 years of affliction, and doing so on the Sabbath, to make a point (he and the lady could have waited 24 hours) - healing is what the Sabbath is all about.

And then the synagogue leader weighs in - scolding folks, "Hey, we've got six days for work, and if you want healing, come on those days, but the Sabbath is for rest - keep it holy - no work!"

And that's when Jesus lays into the leader and his gang, "You hypocrites. You wouldn't treat an ox or donkey this way - you lead them to water on the Sabbath, so why deny the water of life to this woman on the Sabbath? What better day is there for revealing the love of God and the freedom therein?"

While Jesus stood on the intent of the law, the leader clung to the letter of the law. And according to the law, the leader was right and Jesus was wrong.

So, here we go again, arguing about our laws.

And missing the point of the kingdom of God.

Jane Spahr is technically wrong, if that's the tact we wish to take. Jesus was wrong, too, and someone might have told him, "Wait 24 hours. Then do your healing. No one will be offended, the law will be maintained and everyone will be happy."

But Jesus didn't wait, because love and mercy and forgiveness and hope can't wait.

So ... we'll drag Jane into the mud of our own foolish little world of rules - rules that keep people bound - hungering and thirsting for a better day.

We wouldn't treat a dog this way.

But people?

Yeah, keep 'em tied up, and tie 'em up all the more with rules upon rules, until no one knows which way is up.

Sure, I am what I am - a supporter of marriage equality, comfortable with the biblical work done by Jack Rogers and others.

And I've been called an apostate, a heretic and a servant of Satan.

No one has the final word, and I surely don't claim that, but with prayer and study, I've made my decision some years ago to no longer wait, and just to keep myself honest, I continue to study and think about these things.

But I write this note with a certain conviction, that Jane Spahr is pointing the way ahead, reminding us what the church and our faith is all about - setting people free. While the charges fly and the legal briefs are prepared, the PCUSA finds itself in the uncomfortable place of the synagogue leader.

That's how I see it these days.

The Enemy Within

2010-08-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Have ya' read the latest "Layman" (August, 2010) and its "Letters to the editor"?

The anger runs deep.

And I'm sympathetic ... there have been times in my life, more than I like to admit, when anger, self-righteous anger (which, of course, all anger is, right?), ruled the day, and the night as well, violating the advice of Scripture, to not allow the sun to go down on one's anger.

The problem with long-standing anger is that it's never accurate in its assessment of the situation. Anger, like a magnifying glass, focuses the heat of a legitimate concern into a white-hot beam that destroys.

The letters in this issue reveal a loss of control. Anger has simply taken over mind and heart.

The enemy, the PCUSA, is all wrong. Which, of course, in even the worst of all times, wouldn't be true - after all, even a broken watch is right twice a day.

I feel for the letter-writers. They've painted themselves into a corner, and there's no way out for them right now. So the corner becomes home, and though the corner is always an uncomfortable place in which to live, it's defended with growing intensity, until all the corner-dwellers have convinced themselves they're living in theological luxury.

There would be a way out, if they could rise above their anger and temper their opinion with the simple reality that the "enemy" is more within them than anywhere else.

And a good dose of humility. But corner-dwellers cannot afford humility, because humility requires some sense of appreciation for the very people being vilified, and a sense of personal incompleteness - that whatever the opinion, the judgment, the theological point of view, no one has a full and complete grasp of God's truth and God's Kingdom.

We are what we are. Fully human and deeply sinful. And all the creeds in the world, and all our protestations to the contrary, our frailty and our fault remain.

Self-righteousness, amplified by limited conversation with other corner-dwellers, exits on all sides of any given question.

The challenge for any of us is this: how to hold an opinion (and that's what it all is, after all) firmly and faithfully, without drifting into ideology (always the danger, and let's just call it idolatry).

My heart goes out to the letter-writers. They're profoundly unhappy, and if they're pastors, my heart goes out, as well, to their congregations. That kind of anger walks into the pulpit most Sundays, for sure, and spills out into the pews, tainting the gospel with the aroma of rot.

So be it.

Church history is the story of our fightings with one another. I guess such will be the case until the final trumpet is sounded.

But until then, does not the gospel call us to something other than merely being angry with one another?

Is there not the Holy Spirit upon whom we can call, and whose influence might temper our restless hearts?

After all, said Paul, our enemies are not flesh and blood, but spiritual powers and principalities.

I think there comes a time when God walks away from a persistently angry person or organization. As in Paul's letter to the Romans, God abandons us to "shameful lusts," and there is no greater lust than the lust to be right, and no greater shame than the willful condemnation of one another.

Much Ado About "Believing"

2010-08-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

American Christians have made much ado about "believing," which is just fine if there's adequate knowing. But in the last 50 years, large portions of American Christianity have settled for "believing" with lots of emotion, and even commitment, without the knowing (both progressives and conservatives have surrendered the depths and heights of the faith).

I'm inclined to think that believing is a good thing, but one can't always believe - sometimes we doubt, and sometimes darker moods prevail.

But what can never be taken away, never waver is knowledge. Knowledge of the creeds and doctrines of the church. Of course, this isn't belief, but knowing well what scripture and tradition offer us is a genuine foundation, and if someone knows well what faith is all about, in terms of belief and behavior, the believing occurs, I think, more naturally. It no longer needs to be reinforced by hype and drama, but grows evenly and surely, if not surprisingly.

For pastors to be rabbis, above all else. Teachers!

And for congregations to pledge a new loyalty to learning - not always the most exciting thing, but let's not measure things by their excitement factor.

If we could liberate our congregations - indeed, our American congregations, and youth groups and Sunday Schools, from their addiction to "entertainment" and "excitement" and "fun" and all the other bloated adjectives and adverbs we use these days and just be about "our Father's business," we'd do everyone a huge favor, and might, once again, become for our land "the salt of the earth and the light of the world."

All of this must be done, of course, without the harshness of dogma - but with the sweetness of Christ.

For our congregations to become places of great learning, we need pastors and elders committed to great teaching - a renewed passion for discipleship, student-ship! To be covered in the dust of the The Rabbi!

Let's free our pastors from the hideous pressures of "building the numbers" and "seeing to the lawn" and forever "calling on Widow Brown." Let's recover the "teaching elder" dimension of our tradition so that our congregations will be repositories of good knowledge, that our pulpits will be sources of steady and, yes, even inspiring, knowledge of the texts, the traditions and the times! That our youth groups and our Sunday School classes will have serious dimensions of learning the faith - catechesis and reflection, to buttress the legitimate "fun and games" that children and youth deserve.

At first, visitors might well sample all of this, and turn away, seeking a much more intense version of the "fun and games" so peculiar to American Christianity, but I believe in God at this point, and God will save those whom God is saving, and we can rely upon God ... if only God can rely upon us!

That when a visitor should come our way, they will meet depth and height and width and breadth, the likes of which will intrigue their soul and invite further inquiry ... and who knows, one-by-one, "lost souls" will be given, by the Holy Spirit through out faithful and thoughtful witness, a vision of the Kingdom of God.

posted originally at the Presbyterian Outlook.

I Am the Enemy

2010-06-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

According to The Layman, I am everything that's wrong with the Presbyterian Church. My theology is apostate, my ethics are hideous; apparently, I have given up on Jesus Christ years ago, I have abandoned Scripture, thrown out the baby with the bathwater, and I am leading the church down the road to perdition.

Strange.

I got up this morning, brushed my teeth and shaved. I read a book and read my Bible. I worked on the July 4 message and will prepare the liturgy later today, a day late, because I've been home with a nasty cold - no doubt, some form of punishment for my wicked ways.

I love my children and they love me.

I love my wife, and she puts up with me, and that's miracle enough for any day.

I have friends, new and old, and I constantly receive notes from folks, via Facebook and the mail, thanking me for my ministry - a very humbling thing, of course, because any minister worth her salt realizes that it's grace, and grace alone, that enables us to touch a person's life with hope.

But I'm the enemy, according to The Layman, and I'm responsible for the decline of the Presbyterian Church the last 50 years.

When I think about it, that's a pretty serious charge, and I've given it some thought. I've granted to The Layman over the years the benefit of the doubt, and I've tried to listen to their concerns.

From my point of view, there's enough blame to go around, and who can blame anyone for the vast cultural changes affecting our world.

I don't think it's a question of blame?

I think it's a question of opportunity. Look, things have always been in flux, and there have been times of social prosperity for the church (history makes painfully clear that social prosperity doesn't always equate faithfulness) and times of displacement. So, what's the big deal?

Didn't Paul counsel Timothy to preach the gospel, in season and out of season? I think if we spent far less time blaming the other guy and simply did our best, as God has laid it upon our hearts, we'd be a far healthier voice to the world.

Oops, I forgot. We'd still have to make justice decisions, wouldn't we? Especially with regard to our LGBT sisters and brothers, and corporate greed and investment policies and militarism and war and poverty and education. As long as some want to keep the door closed to LGBT persons, I work to get it open, all the way.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what "an enemy" looks and feels like.

I feel pretty friendly this morning. And aside from a little weight I'd be happy to lose, I look pretty good, too.

So, I don't know what "the enemy" feels and looks like. Guess I'll have to read The Layman a little bit more.

Changing Times in Evangelical World

2010-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Huge changes in the evangelical world are shaking that world to its foundations.

For some 40 years, mainline churches have looked with grudging envy at the megachurches and evangelical growth. It became a truism in the church - mainliners are in decline and evangelical churches are growing.

Statistics now prove otherwise. American Christians have always been highly mobile, and the "growth" of the evangelical churches represented more a shift in population than actual conversions, though they reached a younger generation missed by the mainline groups. But many of them and their children are having second thoughts and casting an eye outward.

It seems that the vaunted power of the evangelical movement is grinding to a halt, as do all movements.

Which is to say, mainliners are being given a fresh opportunity. We can't set back, but we can sit up, and pay attention. We have gifts for the world, and God's Holy Spirit, never content to rest anywhere, may be moving people in some new directions - and it may mean new life for the older denominations.

I saw some of that Easter Sunday as I watched the children and youth process with the lilies, to build the lily cross that graces the pulpit on Easter Sunday.

Something like this wouldn't pass muster for the megachurch and its high-end productions ... but it's precisely what makes Christianity so vital - thousands of smaller congregations faithful to Christ, knowing one another and working together. It's not about polish, we're finding, but purpose. Smaller, more intimate congregations may offer exactly what Americans need these days - closeness and purpose, and something a bit more relaxed. Folks get to know the pastor, and the pastor gets to know them.

There will always be large congregations, but the world is shifting ... again. Churches faithful to Christ and loving of people, with wide open doors and wide open hearts, will find the Spirit of God paying them a visit regularly!

To check out what an evangelical has recently written about all of this, click HERE to read.

Beck calls Wallis a Marxist

2010-03-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

When Glenn Beck calls Jim Wallis a Marxist, I have to wonder if Beck knows what a Marxist is.

Because Jim Wallis is no Marxist. He is, however, a Christian through and through.

Jim was born and reared in Detroit in an Evangelical family. Jim's work over the years has consistently been rooted in Jesus Christ and everything Jesus teaches.

Jim's leadership of Sojourners is without question. His loyalty to Christ unimpeachable. His theological acumen and social awareness is formed and empowered by the Bible! Jim Wallis is a man of deep faith and great compassion.

And what's Beck talking about when he's critical of Obama for having spiritual advisors. Bush had them all the time - pastors were flocking to the White House, tripping over one another to get there, including Bill Hybels from Willow Creek and Rick Warren from Saddleback, and many others as well. How do I know? I've heard them speak of their White House trips and late-night calls from the President.

Presidents have always had spiritual advisors - look at Billy Graham's influence.

But getting back to the charge of Marxism.

This mindless hurling of inflammatory words, this casting of aspersions, this insidious attack on someone's character, is damaging to the public well-being and drags discourse down into the dumpster levels of the mind.

Jim Wallis is no Marxist.

When something like this happens, it's time for Christians to speak out and speak up. Whatever one's theological family, the prohibition of "false witness against your neighbor" is one of the Ten Commandments, one of the most basic elements of godly living.

Lies and misrepresentation are a blight on the soul and a serious violation of God's will and purpose.

Beck is wrong.

Period!

As for me and my house, I'll go with Wallis any time.

He's a follower of Jesus Christ our Lord!

Conservative Christians and Creationism

2010-03-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

For many a conservative Christian, the road ahead is frightening and painful. For me, a life-long Christian and a Presbyterian pastor for 40 years, it's sad beyond description how the conservative churches in this country have failed. Rather than equipping their members to live well in the world - being the salt of the earth - they have vilified the world, creating one enemy after the other, offering, not enlightenment for their congregations, but shelter from the world - Plato's cave comes to mind. In recent years, home-schooling has provided an additional haven for them and their children.

Yet they learned an important lesson from liberals - social activism, and one of their pieces: take charge of school boards.

It's terribly important that liberals pay attention. Our track record on civil rights reminds me that organization is critical, and perhaps we've got to go to work and be sure that we have the right people on our school boards. We can write and talk all we want, but if we're not represented on our school boards, our voice is meaningless.

Hopefully, Mr. Harris and what is happening in Texas will energize liberals around the nation to take a close look at their school boards, and, if needed, throw some hats into the ring and seek election.

To read more about Mr. Harris and Connecticut, check out Michael Zimmerman's fine article in Huffington Post.

The Small Promises of God

2010-03-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Been thinking a lot about Genesis 15, since I preached from it Feb. 28.

Been thinking about the small promises of God - God promises Abram a bleak 400 years of slavery for his descendants, and though God will rescue them at the right time and bring them to the land, there's no promise here of bliss, but only of life.

Abram, at least, is promised a long life and a peaceable death.

God's promises are small, but real ... more real than all the bloated, artificial, self-seeking, egotistical, manipulative, fear-driven, promises of our world - buy this, get this, do this, be like this, and you will ... (fill in the blank).

Been also wondering why Christians have bloated the promises of God.

Pop christian music is particularly bloated ...

TV preachers are pretty bloated, too ... and hungry for our money.

How many good and decent preachers have stood in a pulpit, compelled (by what forces?) to offer bloated promises, "If only we give our life to Christ - then, by golly, our teeth will whiten, we'll lose weight, popularity issues will be resolved, employment and promotion will come our way, parking places will magically appear while our godless neighbors have to circle the block endlessly, like some bizarre scene out of Dante's Purgatory ... while others die in freeway crashes and airplane accidents, our guardian angel will shelter us. Our kids will grow up to be successful; we'll live in a beautiful home in the right part of town. We'll be free of illness, and if you should get sick (silly me!), Jesus will heal you. And, then, when we die, off to heaven we go. All we need to do is ...."
What is up with this?

Are not the real promises of God good enough?

Grace Around the Edges - The Rev. Dr. Frank Alton

2010-02-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

The following message was given Sunday, January 31, 2010, at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, CA, by the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Frank Alton. It's one of the best messages I've read, and with Frank's permission, I'm sharing it with you today. Read and be blessed!

Grace around the edges
Jer. 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30

Don’t you hate it when people tell you an uncomfortable truth and you know they are right? I do. I’m reminded how much I hate it every time I go to my peer supervision group. Last Sunday I was in Oakland for one of four annual sessions of peer supervision. About a dozen leaders of multicultural institutions work with consultants to learn to be better leaders. I have come to love the group. But I remember how threatened I was during my first few years attending the group. From day one I was confronted by some of my blind spots in leadership. It was painful to have to face them. But I kept going back because I had learned the cost of quitting. You see, I’d experienced something similar when I took some acting classes right before I joined this group. I found the feedback there intolerable. I felt so vulnerable having to access scary parts of myself and put them on stage for all to see. I quit the acting classes before I had a breakthrough. I didn’t want that to happen again, so I hung in with peer supervision until the breakthrough.

Last week Elizabeth spoke to the first half of today’s Gospel lesson – Jesus’ sermon to those gathered in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus returned as a young adult to the village that helped raise him - not just his mother and brothers and sisters but also the neighbors who had kept him when his mother was sick, and the shopkeepers who had let him run errands for them, the old men who had leaned on their sticks in the heat of the day and told him stories that made his hair stand on end. He was their son too, so of course he went home to them, wanting to give them the best of what he had to offer. The people of Nazareth had heard reports of the great things Jesus did over in Capernaum. He gave them a dramatic message from Isaiah.

Today we read the second half of the story. Jesus pushed the sermon to the edge and got push back from the townspeople who literally pushed him to the edge of town. Jesus confronted his former neighbors with the uncomfortable truth that the least expected people often respond to God more than the expected ones and God in turn responds to them; and the most irritating truth of all: that everybody loses when we fail to love our enemy. Why is that? Well, the enemy loses because we block God’s work in their life; we lose because we miss the insight into God’s grace that we gain when we see God transform the very ones we call enemy. We turn people who are different from us into enemies because we don’t understand their behavior so we’re not sure we can control it. That makes us afraid – afraid of anyone who lives on or beyond the edge of our known world. I refer to the ones Jesus cited in Isaiah’s text - the poor, prisoners, the blind and (we could add) the mentally challenged, people from other cultures, immigrants, etc.

The people of Nazareth tried to get rid of the truth by killing the messenger. Can you blame them? Doesn’t it make you angry when someone tries to get you to reason with your enemy? Just when I’m really enjoying being angry with an enemy, someone comes along and suggests that my enemy is partly right. Oooh, that makes my blood boil. I want someone who says, “Yeah, and can you believe how they…?” That makes me feel better about my anger. I don’t want someone to say, “Well, have you looked at it from their side?” That is the last thing I want to hear when I’m angry.

And we do the same thing with God. As religious people we want God to oppose our enemies as much as we do. We want God to protect us from them rather than push us toward them. When we’re honest we admit that we’d rather have God bring vengeance on our enemies than reconcile us with them. That’s why the people of Nazareth were already a little edgy after Jesus’ reading of the Isaiah passage. They knew their Bibles, and they knew Jesus had left out a key phrase in the Isaiah scroll. The final verse didn’t end after, “to proclaim the year of God’s favor.” It went on to read, “And the day of vengeance of our God.” In their minds one could not come without the other. God’s favor for Israel was tied up with God’s vengeance on Israel’s enemies. Their enemies would finally get what’s coming to them. That’s what they waited for.

But Jesus’ vision went beyond Isaiah’s vision. Clearly Jesus had left out that final phrase intentionally. And he couldn’t just leave it at that. He had to make sure people understood the new level of inclusiveness that was central to his message. He understood that in order for “the year of God’s favor” to mean anything it had to include enemies as well as friends. So he went on to tell two stories from the people’s sacred history: the story of the nameless widow of Zarephath who was about to die of starvation, and the story of Naaman the Syrian general who was a leper and. Both were foreigners and both were healed or saved by prophets of Israel.

In the time of the prophet Elijah there was a famine in Israel and in the surrounding lands. During that time there were many poor, starving widows in Israel who needed food. Elijah was sent to the land of Sidon north of Israel where he met a widow who was down to her last scrap of food. She was going to prepare it for her son and herself before they died. Elijah told her not to be afraid and the three of them had enough meal and oil until the famine ended. The crowd in the synagogue started mumbling to each other: "Is he saying God likes Gentiles better than Jews?”

Jesus recalls another story, this one from the time of Elisha. There were many sick lepers in Israel during that time; they received no cure. Instead Elisha cured a leper named Naaman who happened to be the General of the army of one of Israel’s enemies. It turned out that Naaman’s wife had an Israeli slave girl who told her mistress that the prophet Elisha could heal her husband of his leprosy. The general told this to the king of Syria, who sent a letter to the king of Israel. When the king of Israel read the letter he tore his clothes because he feared that Syria was trying to provoke a war. Elisha intervened, healed Naaman & Naaman worshipped Israel’s God.

When people feel “on edge” the last thing they want to hear is a message that invites them to go closer to the edge. The people in Nazareth were living the same reality as the rest of Israel: they were a colony of Rome. Rome was their enemy. They were awaiting a Messiah who was going to liberate them from Rome. What kind of Messiah shows up & announces the day of the Lord's favor without also bringing the day of vengeance that was promised so long ago? When Jesus reminded them that during previous times of crisis, God seemed to favor their enemies they were incensed. One commentator writes, "Anger and violence are the last defense of those who are made to face the truth embedded in their own tradition." (Fred Craddock)
Rabbi Ed Friedman has written a lot about how families and societies mature. One life principle he has discovered is that “there is no way out of a chronically painful condition except by being willing to go through a temporarily more acutely painful phase.” (A Failure of Nerve, p. 202) Applied to families this means that families that are stuck show a low capacity for enduring pain. To the extent that we are motivated to get on with life, we seem to be able to tolerate more pain; in other words, our threshold for pain increases.

Jesus seems to have understood the same thing. He knew that he would provoke more pain by telling the stories he told. But he went ahead and told them because he knew that he had to raise people’s threshold for pain in order to help them mature beyond love for their own tribe to love for “the other.” We don't like being told that our enemies are God's friends. Yet no matter how hard we try, we cannot seem to get God to respect our boundaries. God keeps plowing right through them, inviting us to follow or get out of the way. The big lie the world tells us is that the universe is connected by trade agreements, electronic banking, computer networks, shipping lanes, & the seeking of profit — nothing else. Whereas the truth of God is that all creation is one holy web of relationships, and gifts meant for all; creation vibrates with the pain of all its parts because its true destiny is joy.

Mature people understand that “we should expect to be challenged and upset by the truth, by the people sent to yank our chains and upset our equilibrium so we do not confuse our own ideas about God with God." (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home by another Way) In the scriptures of all the great religions, Christianity no exception, we see that God is defined precisely as “Other”, as what’s beyond imagination, as outside the realm of the familiar. This is what scripture means when it calls God “Holy”; “Holy”, not because of some moral quality but because of God’s otherness and difference from us. In the Bible, revelation from God is understood to come mostly through the stranger, the foreigner, the unexpected, the unfamiliar, in what’s different, in the surprise. That’s why the scriptures insist on the importance of welcoming strangers: since God is Other, strangers, among all others, are the most likely to be carrying God’s revelation.

This is a difficult message to hear today. We’re being overwhelmed by otherness. Nothing’s safe for long. More than any previous generation, we’re being stretched beyond what’s familiar. That is both painful and disorienting. It’s not easy to have our boundaries, values, and ideas under constant redefinition, especially when we believe in eternal truths. Yesterday at the Presbytery meeting we were discussing the deep chasm that exists among Presbyterians about what biblical truth is. One person stood up to tell us how many people had called her because they were confused by the different messages people found in the same Bible. She was calling us to have a unified message. The problem is we’re not there yet. We live in times where we experience the truth as muddy water. We can’t just clean up the water. That’s not going to happen soon. People need to be equipped to live with the muddiness. We’ve never grasped truth deeply enough. We have it in small pieces. That’s why we call it a mystery. The painful truth is that a lot of the pieces we still need to fill out those mysteries lie precisely in what’s foreign to us, in what’s other, strange, and different. That’s what Jesus was saying.

Rabbi Friedman notes that chronically anxious families will seek out those professionals who promise the most comfort, who help them avoid or reduce their pain as quickly as possible, not those who offer the most opportunities for maturation by encouraging them to endure their pain in order to move toward higher goals. The latter group is offering grace around the edges.

I believe that’s what President Obama tried to offer in his State of the Union address last week. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I was deeply inspired by it. The whole time I was listening I knew that the pundits would start tearing it apart as soon as it was finished. And I was not disappointed. Only one commentator I heard spoke positively about the address, and he got roundly criticized for saying that Obama sounded almost post-racist. Is it no longer appropriate for Presidents to try to inspire hope in the nation? Is it inherently naïve to hold out the challenge to live up to our best selves rather than our usual selves? Have we lowered our standards so far that we consider it naïve to continue to call for bipartisanship after a year of seeing it fail? I, for one, was inspired by the vision our President set forth, by the confessional tone of his acknowledgment of failure, and by his willingness to speak uncomfortable truth instead of sweeping it under the rug.

I was pleased that a series of email reflections that I received from colleagues who are pastors of other churches spoke in these tones in response to some short-term wins for progressives in the Presbytery yesterday. The “wins” were that a proposal to split the church along theological lines was rejected and Brian Symonds was advanced to candidacy on his way to ordination. My wise colleagues realize that it is never a true victory when one side wins a particular vote. Pastor after pastor committed to work with those who proposed the way to split the church without a divorce, in order to seek mutual understanding and unity with those who felt like they lost.

So the question I would like you to walk away with today is: Who is the hardest “other” for you to incorporate into your circle? It’s easy to criticize those who have trouble accepting the ones you easily accept. But it doesn’t help to focus on the one that other people call enemy. That only serves to make us feel self-righteous because we don’t consider that enemy an enemy. The only way Jesus’ invitation to love our enemy will heal us is if it taps into the pain of facing the one we call enemy. Let us pray for the power to do that.

A New Year and Mainline Hopes

2010-01-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

Everything is up for grabs at the start of the 10th year of the 21st Century.

Not unlike the years surrounding Calvin's tumultuous and creative life. At any point in time, it was impossible to predict how the next ten years would unfold in Geneva. Yet Calvin wrote prodigiously and hopefully, anchored in God's sovereignty and with a passion for the person in the pew, so to speak.

As I begin the year and look back over my 40 years of ordained ministry, I turn to the future of mainline denominations with hope for our emergence from a "dark" period of time. Or was it so dark?

One man's darkness may be another man's light.

The last 40 years have seen us RECOVER from the supreme success we enjoyed after WW2 and during much of the 20th Century; we built our megachurches all across the landscape in American cities - talk about 24/7, with incredible programs, jammed worship services, gymnasiums and full-service ministries. Our pulpits were manned by princes, our seminaries were guided by theologians of immense ability, missions were expanding and especially after WW2, thousands of new congregations sprung up in the growing American suburbs, many of which became the second generation megachurch.

Yet in the midst of this, there remained small town and rural churches, places of energy and pastoral strength, but with huge shifts in American population, the disappearance of many of them was inevitable.

Our first generation of megachurches in the cities have clearly suffered huge transitions, and many of them are long gone, tough there are plenty of remarkable exceptions - e.g. Fourth Church in Chicago. And in our older suburbs, where so much of the post WW2 growth occurred, changing cultural patterns and the aging of the inner-ring suburbs have shrunk many of our second-generation megachurches, and many have closed their doors.

During this period of time, new forms of worship and music emerged, inaugurating what came to be known as the worship wars, and bloody they were, but out of the noise and smoke emerged a third generation of megachurches, beginning with Schuller's Chrystral Cathedral, a hybrid of sorts, of mainline and independent trajectories. Then came Willow Creek and Saddleback, and the rest of is history. All across America, the emergence of flagship megachurches - stripped down buildings, 24/7 small groups, high-tech worship, preaching that was both biblical and pastoral. Yet thousands of smaller congregations continued their work, though overshadowed by the media exposure of the large churches.

And there emerged, during this period of time, a truism: Conservative churches are growing and liberal churches are shrinking.

The problem with a truism is that it’s always a half-truth; it surely reflects a pattern, but some took that pattern as if it were the absolute and final blessing of God, and they became legends in their own time, if not their own minds. And the growth and creativity in other settings was ignored, if not ridiculed.

What with America's fascination with "leadership" and growth, folks forgot that church growth is largely the result of two factors: God's grace and location.

Stats in the last few years are beginning to reveal cracks in the truism; conservative churches are experiencing what the mainliners experienced 50 years as the tides turned. Their ranks are rife with debate, if not full-out rancor, with plenty of heresy trials underway, moral failures (nothing new there, but a reminder that everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time, even the superstars of the megachurch stages - pulpits, of course, no longer used), and slight declines in attendance – is this small change preface to the larger changes that occur inevitably in the shifting sands of time?

The megachurch and its success has stilted its creativity. Look at a 25-year old video and one shot last Sunday, and there is no difference: the clergy wear jeans and shirts pulled out, use high-tech tools, and preach pretty much the same message, and for many these days, the message has become a pop-psychology mix of personal triumphalism infused with Old Testament stories and a lot of Pauline materials.

The vaunted success of the "conservative" church is no longer a sure bet, and the churches that hung their heads in shame over their lack of or negligible growth are beginning to emerge from the shadows only to discover their worth, and that God is in their ranks as well, doing mighty things.

It's too early to tell, but the truism that propped up the pride of some (yes, it was pride, wasn't it?) and caused thousands of good pastors and fine congregations to hang their heads in shame and exhaustingly chase after every new program that came down the pike from the publishing houses or was touted at the megachurch teaching seminars, is clearly shifting. And sadly, thousands of congregants bought the truism and blamed their pastors, their denominations, their seminaries when the "thousands didn't show up,” even as the truism pitted enthusiastic pastors against their congregants, charging them with lack of vision and willingness.

But new images and ideas are emerging! The culture wars are subsiding. Mainline congregations, battered and bruised, are recovering, and books like "Christianity for the Rest of Us" by Diana Butler Bass are a part of the reconstitution of the mainline church.

Things are a-changin' ... God does that; lest we build our towers to the heavens, God comes down and confuses our language, spreading us out to the world.

All of us are learning, and perhaps we're learning how to bless one another, help one another. Megachurches are grappling with Barna-type studies that reveal embarrassing failures in their efforts to make disciples and nurture their own children into the faith.

Mainliners are catching their breath and regaining their confidence.

Sure, the church as I knew it when I was ordained at the First Presbyterian Church in Holland, Michigan, is long gone, but new energy is emerging all over the place, and we will find new ways of being Presbyterian, connectional and missional. Leaner, for sure; but not meaner. Humbler and contrite, as we discover God's grace anew.

I think the next ten years will be very good for the mainline churches, and the megachurches, too - as we learn how to humbly love one another and appreciate our respective visions and ministries.

After all, we’re all in this together … for the glory of God!

Peggy Noonan: Look Ahead Stoicism—and Optimism - WSJ.com

2010-01-03T07:06:00.001-08:00

Peggy Noonan: Look Ahead Stoicism—and Optimism - WSJ.com

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Farewell

2009-11-30T06:34:00.001-08:00

A friend from long ago has left the PCUSA for the EPC, along with his congregation.

I sent a note wishing him well, in the hope that he will find peace in the EPC and be able to serve the Christ he knows in a manner consistent with the how the Spirit has shaped his soul.

Needless to say, I'm saddened by his decision and sympathetic with all the emotions.

Perhaps like a divorce, there's the temptation on the part of the one leaving to eliminate ambiguity and doubt - to justify the leaving and ease the conscience by an over-simplification: that God is the cause of this and the leaving is right, and the one left behind had it coming.

And for the one left behind, the same process tempts: to vilify and damn.

All such efforts fail to grasp the complexity of a divorce - and both must eventually face their own frailties and faults. There are no innocents abroad; all alike are sinners, saved by grace.

But Paul and Barnabas are helpful - they reached an impasse beyond human management, and apparently even beyond that of God, and before they did further harm to one another, they decided to go their separate ways.

I've always been thankful that the Book of Acts records this tragic, and oh-so-human, event.

It happens! And continues to happen throughout history, in church and in marriage, and virtually every other form of human relationship - there is a tragic element in our souls. Our love for one another can never quite rise all that high, and we mostly thrive on like-loving-like.

Maybe that's the point of confession, but tragic or not, life goes on. Barnabas mostly disappears from the text; Paul proceeds to center-stage.

Was Paul right? Was Barnabas right?

Like most such questions, it's the wrong question to ask.

They had a deep and bitter disagreement about Mark. Barnabas wanted to forgive and include him; Paul couldn't forget Mark's desertion of them.

And so it goes.

I think it's time for us to admit our tragic character - that on the question of ordination for GLBT persons, we are unable to find a compromise: either we do, or we don't. There can be no half-way covenant on this one, or so it appears.

So, like Paul and Barnabas, we go our separate ways, before we do any more harm to one another, and who knows what life lies on the other side of the divide?

As much as my friend longs for the day when the debate is finished and he and his congregation can get on with the work of God as they see it, so I long for the day when I and the churches I've served can get on with our work, too - including the full acceptance and ordination of GLBT persons.

This issue has shaped most of my ministry (40 years this coming January) and has consumed enormous amounts of energy and money - all of which could have been spent more effectively on the ministries to which Jesus calls us.

I wish my friend well, and I'm sure he wishes the same for me.

It's time for us to get on with the work of Christ!

Until the next chapter, the next issue, the next whatever ... until Christ returns and brings the final healing for body and soul.

Ordaining Lisa Larges

2009-11-11T17:46:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Presbytery votes to ordain Lisa Larges, though it'll be on hold for awhile because of legal wrangling.

I'm relieved to hear this, and hats off to SF and to Lisa.

Though for some in our ranks, this can mean nothing but sorrow.

Where and how shall we work it out?

That we can have unity only when we have diversity is the nature of unity. Without diversity, all we would have is uniformity, and uniformity requires very little of us.

Our Lord recognizes this when he admonishes us to love "our enemies" - a pivotal reminder that only love can create unity, with the subtext - that uniformity is no big deal in the kingdom of God. Even tax collectors and such enjoy that.

So, how do we love "our enemies."

I put the phrase in quotes, because I think there's a slight chance of some tongue-in-cheek here - those whom we might otherwise label as "enemy" may turn out to be something quite different when and if we open our hearts to them in love.

Love discovers things that suspicion and fear will never see.

Love is more than tolerance, then. Love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1).

It is our sinful instincts to huddle with like-minded. We all do it, and it's fun.

But at that point, as cozy as we might be, we're no different than the world and we can offer to the world nothing more than what the world already knows - the power of a gated community.

Our gift to the world, if, indeed, we have one, is more than our theology, but our way of life. Yes, our theology counts, but I think our way of life counts just as much, because faith comes by hearing, but it's our good works that enable someone to give glory to God (Matthew 5:16).

We've done rather well, I suppose, in the theology department, and putting all of our apples in that basket, we've forgotten the power of ethical witness, and, if anything, we've engaged in all the dirty back-biting and squabbling found in the local PTA or some condominium association (my apologies to both).

What does love mean?

And what does it mean for me to love my GLBT friends and to support their efforts for ordination?

And what does it mean for me to love a colleague who opposes that ordination with the same passion I muster for it's promotion?

Big questions ...

Any answers out there?

Where Will It All End?

2009-10-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

Posted at my blog site at Presbyterian Outlook:

It's been awhile since I've dropped a line or two here at the Outlook blog site.

I'm sure some are delighted at my vacation since I'm pretty upbeat about the current state-of-affairs in the Presbyterian Church.

God's relentless love is moving us along in a deep and swift current taking us far beyond all the usual categories in which we formerly found comfort and too often took unwarranted pride.

Yes, we had the world by the tail, so to speak, but times change, and the world in which we now live is vastly different. But I'm hopeful, and more than hopeful, because I know Presbyterians - surely, not all of them; just a few actually over my 39 years of ministry, starting in West Virginia in the former West Virginia Mountain Project created by missionaries who rode into the area on mules.

I have known laity and clergy, pastors and executives, and I have witnessed a steady effort to be faithful to the large images of Scripture and the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Have we always done it right? It's hard to say. Numbers and dollars, while so tantalizing to our eyes, is of no account to God. Sin itself abounds, but so does grace, allthemore.

In the last 40 years, demographics and culture have changed radically, and we, and other mainline groups, nosedived on membership, and the more independent and self-confessed evangelicals grew.
Looking back over the carnage, I chuckle a bit, because their "growth" was constantly rubbed in our face, and we hung our heads in shame or anger.

For the growing churches, it became a matter of pride - their techniques and innovations, their technology and their theology, were clearly "right" and we were clearly "wrong."
But pride goeth before the fall.

And now the stats are coming in: the evangelical world is losing membership, they struggle with issues of second and third generation leadership vacuums, heresy trials abound as evangelicals try to define who they are and what they believe. Compelled by the Great Commission, thy sent thousands of their young to the mission field who come back home with a new sense of the Great Commandment and a passionate regard for justice, often at odds now with Mom and Dad.

I recently attended a luncheon at a large evangelical Presbyterian Church to hear a speaker from Internation Justice Mission.

I was shocked at what I heard, because I heard the language and thelogy and passion of justice. There was no bashing of the mainline, but only a sharp review of how the evangelical movment in this nation overlooked justice.

In my own words, the evangelical movement, bright and energetic, too often settled for the joy and power of charity and conversion, mostly ignoring the systemic issues of justice.

IJM deals with slavery (27 million in the world today), the sex trade and the theft of widow's property, and it was clear to me, they are dealing with systemic issues.

If charity and conversation are the two "c's" of faith, there is a third c, Change ... systemic change.
I was heartened by what I heard, and I believe that God's Spirit is moving mightily among a younger generation of evangelicals taking them beyond charity and conversion to changing systemic evils.

More than ever, I am grateful to be a Presbyterian - we have a fine track record on justice - our mission agencies, our missionaries - have tackled some incredibly tough issues around the world, and we've been making a huge difference.

Where it will all end, who knows. But I think mainline and evangelical Christians will find a lot to talk about, and pray about, TOGETHER, when we find common ground in the Great Commandment and the Third C.

Just a few random thoughts from a random kind of a guy!

College of the Ozarks and Sarah Palin

2009-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here's an email I sent to Elizabeth Andrews, head of PR for the college, after hearing that this fine school invited Sarah Palin to speak, as Ms. Andrews put it to me by phone, to address issues of morals and character.

If you concur, please send a note to Ms. Andrews: pr@cofo.edu

Dear Ms. Andrews,

If you would be so kind as to forward this to your president.

As a Presbyterian Pastor who served in Tulsa for 12 years at a church long supportive of the College, and sharing with Sam and Helen Walton at numerous luncheons in the Tulsa area, I have admired deeply the character of the school and its unique commitment to providing a quality education for students who might otherwise be unable to attend college because of financial constraints.

Yet, I was shocked when I read of the decision to have Sarah Palin as a college guest to address matters of character and morals.

There are dozens and dozens of ably qualified speakers from all sorts of religious and political persuasions who might address such matters with skill and experience, but to suggest that Ms. Palin is qualified is a matter for Saturday Night Live.

That she's a lightening rod for the far right-wing is undeniable, but as a speaker on these matters? Hardly.

I'm disappointed in the decision to invite Ms. Palin, though I'm sure there are monied interests behind this, and knowing the tough role of a college President these days, I'm sure there are some interesting guns being held to your head on this one.

I sympathize with your position, and I suspect you'd have rather chosen any number of other far-better qualified people.

Wishing you the best ... and to honor the heart of the founder of the school, you might well invite a missionary, a pastor or a professor of ethics to address matters of morals and character ... I would suggest historian Diana Butler Bass as an able and knowledgeable speaker for the college, or the Rev. Dr. Michael Lindvall, pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City, a most excellent preacher and a teller of stories.

Blessings on your work and that of the college.

The Rev. Dr. Thomas P. Eggebeen, Interim Pastor
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Los Angeles, CA

Spurious Emails???

2009-10-13T08:41:00.001-07:00

Dear Genesis,

From time-to-time, I receive forwarded emails decrying the efforts of some to eliminate “god” from our national story.

Over the years, I’ve read a dozen of similar notes, long before email was available – remember those days?

Now, with the internet, these stories, slightly updated, flow fast and furious, but, in fact, are false.

Recently, a note about the World War 2 Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the alleged misquoting of Roosevelt’s speech before Congress after Pearl Harbor.

Maybe you’ve seen the note.

If the author of the note were Pinocchio, the nose would be a mile long, and sadly, a lot of decent people unthinkingly forward these notes to their friends and family members, furthering the lie.

If you’d like to check this one out, click HERE to visit Snopes.

And to actually read all the monument inscriptions, click HERE.

As you will see, the email notice is patently false.

As Christians, we have a duty to know the truth, for Jesus is The Truth. We cannot and must not play loose with such things.

And as Paul Tillich noted in his famous “Protestant Principle,” we put a question mark over everything until we have tested it and found it either wanting or true.

It’s terribly important that we not be gullible. Remember – test everything you receive in email, especially “angry notes” that decry the decline of the nation, or some such nonsense.

And if you’re not sure, check with me. I’ve been working on these things for years.

And, please, if you’re not sure of something, trash it; don’t send it on to family members and friends.

Tom

Why Does She Call My Spiritual Pain Political?

2009-10-12T16:50:00.001-07:00

For the Women Who Work in the LAX Hotel Corridor

©Thomas P. Eggebeen – June, 2009

Why does she call my spiritual pain political?

When I can’t work, because my back is bad, and I’m afraid to go to the emergency

Room, because I have no money … and my son needs a new pair of sneakers for

School … and

I pray to Jesus … and

I cry myself to sleep … and

I scream in silence … because I don’t want

My children to lose their

Childish hope for a better life.

Why does she call my spiritual pain political?

When she lives on top of the hill,

In a big house, with fancy things,

And drives a big SUV, all black and sassy.

And can call a man to fix her pool

Without batting an eye.

And see a doctor and get the bills paid.

Why does she call my spiritual pain political?

She prays, she says – about what?

What does she fuss and fret about?

Maybe I should call her up and tell her,

“That’s not very spiritual – that’s political,

You and your world of so many big things.

Getting what you want, when I can’t

Get enough of what I need.”

Maybe I should call her up.

She calls me up in the hotel – “Bring me lunch,

Make my bed,

Clean the bathroom,

Make me comfy.”

I think that’s political, don’t you?

That the world should be arranged for her comfort.

Her income.

Her taxes.

Her medical benefits.

Her church and her home.

And that big fancy black SUV.

Burns more gas in a week than I

Use in a month.

What does she pray about?

I wonder if I should call her up and ask.

I wonder if she knows just how

Political her life is.

All dressed up in her religion.

Which is never political, of course.

Because it’s all about Jesus and faith, and the

Bible and getting saved and

Going to heaven.

But what about my Jesus, my faith, my tears, my hopes, my fears, my pain?

Because my back hurts from hefting 18 beds every day for

Fifteen years -

And my super tells me that I’ll lose my job if I

Miss one more day of work …

Well, that’s political, isn’t it?

Some union folks were by the other day …

And I was afraid.

My super told me, “Don’t talk to them.”

So I didn’t.

But I prayed.

Is it political to pray:

For a safe place to work …

Some benefits along the way …

That the wealthy who try not think about it might

Think about it …

What does she pray about?

I know she prays.

She prays for her children; I do too.

She prays for her man; so do I.

She prays for her health; me, too, all the time.

She prays for world peace; I pray that late-night gunfire would stop.

She thanks God for a dinner table filled with goodies – I pray for enough money for hot dogs and cereal.

She prays for her safe voyage on a big ship – I pray that I’ll have enough money for next week’s rent.

She calls my spiritual pain political.

Why?

In honor of La Mikia Castillo – a tireless worker for justice.

Conservative Church Decline?

2009-10-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

40 years ago, Americans began leaving mainline churches, either to go nowhere, or to affiliate with a newer version of the big box church. But the newer version is now experiencing high levels of chaos, heresy trials and uncertainty, as large numbers of children reared in conservative churches are raising hard questions (especially about homophobia), and many of them are opting out. Some are finding new life in mainline churches with their focus on justice. Others are experimenting with house churches and "emergent" kinds of communities. Everything is up in the air, but one thing is clear: we're shifting from an age of belief (creeds and dogmas) to an age of experience and service. The revealing studies done by Willow Creek a few years back and the Barna Institute document this. The pride of the conservative churches is coming back to haunt them, as is did with the mainline churches 40 years ago. Pride goeth before the fall; it always does. Thanks be to God!

Death Penalty?

2009-10-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

Historically, the State has the right to take a miscreant's life - this is supported in legal and religious studies, but the question that dogs the story is our flawed ability to determine absolute guilt, and all the related stories of the innocent being executed. Along with these sad stories, the simple reality: the death penalty is no deterrent. Historically, societies that regularly kill lawbreakers are themselves likely to become increasingly violent. Death in the air is breathed by everyone. For me, in view of these pieces, I oppose the death penalty.

Written in response to a Facebook query ...

I Thank God

2009-10-07T18:24:00.001-07:00

A Confession of Faith written for October 11, 2009 worship:

I thank God for Jesus Christ.

Because Christ has taken care of heaven for me,

So that I might turn my attention to this world,

And be about my Father’s business.

I love God for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Because the love of Christ has reworked my life.

In Christ, God be praised, I am no longer my own.

But belong to God:

Body and soul,

In life and in death,

Now and forever more.

I serve God, because I can do no other.

Now that I know something of God because of Christ,

Any other claim upon my loyalties is just plain silly,

And a waste of good time and energy.

I belong to God, because God made me.

This is who I am, and I can’t change it.

Nor do I want to change it.

Though there are times when I resent the claims of God,

And wish God would leave me alone.

I am grateful to God, because God understands me.

God knows my foolish thoughts and the awful depth of my self-centeredness.

Yet God’s understanding is God’s unconditional love.

A love that will not let me go.

A love that compels me to reach higher, go further and stand taller.

A love that opens my eyes to the suffering of the world.

To nudge my hand to reach out,

And guide my feet to step out.

I am all of this and so much more.

Because of God!

God in Christ.

And Christ in me.

Amen and Amen!

Israel and the State of Israel

2009-09-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Psalm 147 closes:

God has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the LORD!

Folks sometimes ask if the claims and promises in the Old Testament apply to the State of Israel today.

My answer, for what it's worth - an emphatic, Nope!

God got out of the land business a long time ago. Like any land-endeavor, like any empire, great or small, the land business is costly in terms of lives and livestock, environment and national character.

For God, to create a nation, it was a bloody business from the get-go, and the bloodletting continued to the last fallen stone of Jerusalem.

From that point on, things went in two different directions: there were Jews who believed that Israel was now an idea, a culture, a faith and no longer a land with the Temple as the central feature and its daily sacrifices now at an end. Such is not foreign to the Old Testament prophets who foresaw a day when there would be no more boundaries, but that all the world would join together in God's peaceable kingdom. That God's love would transcend race and boundaries, and even the Temple and its sacrifices.

There were others who yet believed that God would restore Israel to its former glory, symbolized in the reign of King David. It is not by accident that the disciples ask the Risen Jesus if now is the time when God will restore the kingdom, to which Jesus says No and then redirects their thoughts to the world. God is no longer in the land business.

Because of the power of the idea of being Jewish, the Gentile world frequently turned hostile, and it mostly grew worse as Christianity became Gentilized and then grew increasingly hungry for total domination of the mind and heart of Europe and the Middle East (read Crusades), brooking no competition. As long as the Synagogue remained, Jews were a thorn in the flesh for the church; at best, to be tolerated; at worst, to be converted under threat of death or simply annihilated in pogroms (read James Carroll's excellent but brutally sad work, The Sword of Constantine).

No wonder there arose a longing for a place of safety, a land of their own - hence, the birth of Zionism, itself a long-debated idea among Jews.

Zionism, along with the guilt (deserved) of the Allies after WW2, prompted the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, at the cost of many lives and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians; like the land-business of old, it remains a bloody business today.

Within Zionism, the more conservative elements lay claim to the Biblical promises - that Israel as a state is forever. Others, simply lay claim to the human and polical right to be safe, and that I affirm and understand.

Unfortunately, America's failure to genuinely safeguard Israel's security has prompted Israel to become a military power in the Middle East, with the likely possession of nuclear arms. Sadly, the State of Israel has served our purposes - to keep the Middle East destabilized, with Israel as an client state able to threaten its neighbors even as Uncle Sam provides plenty of military aid and satellite photos.

To suggest that Israel's settlement policies, it's brutal treatment of Palestinians and its slow but inexorable elimination of Christian Arabs is somehow related to God's promises in the Bible, is, in my judgment, and that of many others, to be totally in error.

Okay, so where are we?

Israel is a state, a nation, just like Jordan and Iran and Poland and Canada and Peru. That's it; that's all. That get's one a seat in the United Nations as well as the right to exist in peace.

As for God, God is no longer in the land business. Now it's the world that God loves, and all the peoples therein.

Now, for God, it's all the world, or, might I say, the world or nothing.

So, for me at least, and for many Christians and Jews, there is no religious significance to the State of Israel, no more than there is for Chili or Morocco.

Personally, I regret the formation of the State of Israel.

But history cannot be undone. It is my hope and prayer that America will craft a new policy guaranteeing Israel's security, providing for a real two-state solution and putting a leash on the more radical and aggressive elements within Israeli society - i.e. the Orthodox, many of whom are inclined to believe in a radical Zionism longing for the reestablishment of the Temple with its sacrifices and the coming of the Messiah who alone will bring peace - until such time, struggle and war will be the way it is.

Sadly, this violent vision has been embraced by fundamentalist Christians in America who love their guns and muscles and believe that war in the Middle East is a part of God's plan, and when the final war breaks out (see the Left Behind Series), then God will begin to act. So, let's go to war, as some have said, like John Hagee.

The violent visions of war, the rapture, etc., are profoundly distorted images of what the Bible actually says. But there have always been those whose love of war has become strangely intermingled with their love for God!

It is our task to disentangle these elements - to promote the love of God, and to bring to an end our warring inclinations.

Hope these thoughts help clarify some serious questions about the State of Israel and how we read the Bible.

Thoughts About Presbyterian Bitterness

2009-09-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, I do a blog on "Presbyterian Outlook," and, yes, I'm happy to be a Presbyterian, but some folks aren't. In reply to one of my blogs, some pretty nasty stuff, including a request that "The Outlook" close the blog down. I checked out the writer, a pastor from Western PA who writes his own blog on being Presbyterian. Sure, we have our issues; who doesn't? But it's like a good marriage: either the marriage and its happiness take precedence over the issues, or the issues themselves outweigh the marriage, and then it's only a matter of time before bitterness and outrage prompt a divorce.

Yes, I have been bitter, but God be praised, I have learned anew that bitterness, lodged in the heart of a liberal or in the heart of a conservative, is Satan's poison, and the results are always the same - the slow loss of reason and a growing blindness to the goodness of God flowing free and clean every morning. Bitterness locks the prison door, and therein we brood and sorrow, talking only to the other inmates self-sentenced for the same crimes and misdemeanors. Bitterness prompts us to inordinate self-confidence even as we increasingly despise "the other." Well, just a few thoughts. I am grateful for where I am, and though I've travelled the road of bitterness, though I've sentenced myself a few times to the dark room, I'm not there now, and to God be the glory!

Preaching Schlock?

2009-09-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from last (9/13/09) Sunday's message:

I’ve been paying attention to sermons for a long time.

In seminary, I worked in the library – I reshelved books returned by students and pastors … I decided to look at what pastors were reading, and even as a first-year student, I was shocked and disturbed – so much of it was just plain schlock … syrupy spirituality, mediocre moralisms, simpleton ideas and shallow commitments.

(to read the message, click HERE)

I'm still concerned about the character of preaching. Reading Calvin this year, and now into the fourth book of the Institutes wherein Calvin examines the nature of the ordained office and its high calling to instruction, I am saddened by what passes as "preaching" these days.

Many of us have been influenced by the megachurch style - three powerpoints, colorfully illustrated with flowers and crashing waves, along with a few scriptures and a tearful-story or two. The "sermon" outline may be included as a handout, and folks can "follow along" by filing in the blanks, such as "Esther really ________ God."

And, of course, all of this delivered "extemporaneously" ... and listening to a lot of stuff posted to the internet, much of this extemp preaching strikes me as inarticulate as it is loud. Sort of like the preacher of old who noted in the margin of his text, "strike pulpit."

Is this preaching?

Is this teaching?

I don't know.

I've done a lot of extemp preaching over the years, and looking back, I don't think any of it could ever hold a candle to the value of a carefully prepared manuscript filled with carefully prepared thoughts on a text that has been carefully exegeted and prayerfully pondered (sure, no style or method inherently posses the power of God - that's up to God alone, and God will bless what God blesses, and we cannot control or manage that).

I've done the slide-show routine, and there's value there, but like TV, how effective is eye-candy?

Millions have been spent for the latest in tech tools, and I've been there, too, but at this stage of the game, I wonder just how effective it's been in creating disciples and feeding the hungry.

The self-study undertaken by Willow Creek a few years back rocked the megachurch world by its startling honesty, revealing that they had been no more or less successful in creating disciples, spiritually mature followers of Jesus, than anyone else.

I think we've all been cowed by the secular - that glitz, tech and high-powered stunts, will bring folks to Christ, and, the "numbers" of the megachurch prove it ... or do they?

I thank God for the megachurches and how they impacted us, but they're learning, as did the "megachurches" of an earlier time, that numbers are deceptive.

Or in the flow of Isaiah or Gideon's army, it's the faithful remnant who carries the torch, and the remnant is always small in number, so that God's folks never get the impression that it's their might and main that wins the day.

As for preaching?

It's an age-old task - from Jeremiah before the temple to Jesus on the Mount, from Calvin in Geneva to any of us today - and only God will give the blessing!

Presbyterian Divorce?

2009-09-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

Just finished the latest issue (September, 2009) of "The Layman" - an exhausting read for me, and clearly unpleasant, as they dislike the path I'm on even as they walk in a very different direction.

Oh well ... they're convinced and so am I. Wonder how that happens, but it does, with everyone striving to claim the high moral ground of Scripture, theology, creed and tradition.

It's always painful, for everyone - those who leave and those who don't.

I think many, on both sides of the equation, believe that we've done just about all the talking we can do.

Or have we?

Is there anything more to be said, or like a tough divorce, should we just get on with and go our separate ways in the hopes of finding ourselves again?

From the tone of "The Layman" and the recent action of the Beaver Butler Presbytery to serve notice on the PCUSA, it seems like some folks have drawn a pretty clear line in the sand.

I suppose I have, too.

Like a broken marriage, we've slept in separate bedrooms for a long time, we've gone on vacation with our theological peers, and when we talk, it's mostly acrimony and accusation.

Would counseling help?

Or is exit counseling the best course of action - to minimize the damage, to bless one another on our respective journeys and to get on our with life, a little bruised and slightly damaged, but still capable of a good life, free of having to look at each across the breakfast table?

Just some very random thoughts ...

Ill-Advised Zeal

2009-09-12T06:59:00.001-07:00

Writing of the Anabaptists (4.1.13), Calvin notes their sinfulness - yup, that's what he calls it, driven, as it is, by "ill-advised zeal for righteousness."

A few lines later, Calvin writes: they ... sin in that they do not know how to restrain their disfavor. For where the Lord requires kindness, they neglect it and give themselves over completely to immoderate severity. Indeed, because they think no church exists where there are not perfect purity and integrity of life, they depart out of hatred of wickedness from the lawful church, while they fancy themselves turning aside from the faction of the wicked.

I think everyone of us has done this because it feels so good.

But the sin of ill-advised zeal is still sin, and it results in the same thing as any plain old sin might do - things are broken, and the heart is steeled against the impulse of the Spirit. Pride begets pride, and then the anger, and then further acrimony, and more pride and more fighting and more sadness.

I find it of interest that Calvin writes in this way of the Anabaptists - like the early Donatists, I suppose, the impulse to get it right, and the need to lambast those whom they see as getting it less than right.
We've all done it; there's a little Donatist, or an Anabaptist in nosing around in every heart - that secrete place of pride and power wherein we adjudge ourselves pure and righteous, and the others? Oh well, see ya' in hell!

I'm entertained with Calvin at this point: he was a man who could dish it out, and now, on the receiving end of it from the Anabaptist, raises the question of "ill-advised zeal."

How fine is the line between "Ill-advised zeal" and "the zeal of the Lord"?

Perhaps the Book of Proverbs might help us ... or the Beatitutdes ... or the simple washing of feet - for who doesn't need cleansing, who doesn't need grace, who isn't saved by grace morning, noon and night?

Ill-advised zeal - a dangerous business!

The Family ... and What a Family It Is!

2009-09-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

"The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," by Jeff Sharlet, is an eye-popping, gut-wrenching, read, as he details the rise of "elite fundamentalism" in America, a bizarre blend of Christianity and capitalism, union-busting and anti-government ideology, militarism and market globalization, to generate wealth for the wealthy and power for the powerful, most of it under the table, even as it eschews the "populist fundamentalism" of a Billy Graham.

With a city like Colorado Springs being a refuge for thousands fleeing the evils of urban America and a source of ideas and energy to reclaim America's urban centers for Christ.

With Ted Haggard as one of the leading lights of the movement, that is, until Ted's fall from grace, so to speak.

Though spin puts a happy face on it - Ted was so powerful for the Lord, it would seem, that Satan had to unleash a full-frontal attack on the man, causing him to sin.

Fundamentalism, with its focus on personal conversion and inward piety, combined with a sense of retreat from the evil world even as one acquires its wealth (God's blessing) and the accouterments of worldly pleasure - homes, big SUVs, and fine clothing - is a perfect tool for the unregulated capitalism that has driven this nation to its knees and brought about a near-collapse of the global economy.
Sharlet's book is a perfect sequel to Chris Hedges' fine book, "American Fascists: the Christian Right and the War on America" - a carefully written book examining the classic examples of fascism and how the Christian right has flirted with fascism, if not, in fact, been seduced by it.

As I think and pray about such things, I am continually reminded of such things, since September 1 was the 70th anniversary of German tanks crossing the Polish frontier to begin 6 bloody years of world war, at the end of which 45 million were dead, and we must never forget how adroitly the Nazi propagandists used religion to further their own interests and keep the concentration-camp fires burning.

In the midst of that horror, an even greater question: Why did so many millions of German Christians buy into the rhetoric of a Himmler and a Hitler? Why the hatred of the Jews and Gypsies and all the rest deemed unworthy of the name "German"?

Yes, there was the Confessing Church, God be praised - and the Old Testament scholar, Von Rad, who refused to knuckle under and raised a protest, for which many of them paid the ultimate price.
But the question remains and must be asked countless times: Why did so many bishops and pastors, Protestant and Catholic, and millions more who heard their preaching and received the sacraments from their hand, buy the mythology of Aryan purity and power?

Doctrine and Love???

2009-09-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

In 4.1.7, Calvin writes of the Lord's Supper, and of our participation in it: an attestation of our "unity in true doctrine and love."

Had Calvin put a period after doctrine, we'd be left with an impossible dream, for Christians will never find unity on the basis of "true doctrine," at least in the long run. Perhaps in the short run, in the thrill of new friends and new-found associations. But in time, friendships wear and the new becomes just as tired and wearying as was the old.

Doctrine is a good thing, but only as a servant of love.

In those instances where doctrine has been given too much weight, the results are always the same: bickering, dissension and divorce.

And those newly married on the basis of doctrine will soon find other issues to debate, things endlessly in need of fine-turning, sub-point and codicil ... with mountains of paper, books and counter-books, claims and counter-claims, and with each round, a little more bitterness, a little more anger, a little more this and a little more that, until all those little things become big things, and the indifferent makes all the difference.

I know doctrine, but do I know love?

I spent a good many years, early on, in the land of doctrine; it was fun and rewarding, but wearing, too, as ideas wear upon one another like engine parts shy of adequate lubrication, until the whole thing ceases up and comes to a grinding halt.

I think it was Rob Bell who said, "Doctrine makes a good servant but a horrible tyrant." He would know, living and working as he does in Grand Rapids, sort of the Holy City in the Land of Doctrine.

But it's love with which Calvin ends the sentence.

That's always the good end, the only end required of us.

While I'm quite sure what doctrine looks like and a community of faith utterly shaped by it, I have difficulty imagining a community of faith driven by love.

Yet some things seem obvious: like putting up with one another and our respective views, without calling down the wrath of heaven or summoning up the fires of hell.

Making room for one another, and perhaps, then, we can finally address what has been our fatal flaw from the get-to: too much reliance on doctrine and not enough push on love - biblical love - highly ethical and pulsing with loyalty to one another because of Christ's loyalty to us!

Of the former issues of race and gender, those who favored the status quo were able to marshal tons of Scripture and tons more of doctrine. The weight of history, in the main, is always on the side of the conservative [note the Sadducees].

But there are other stories to be told, and someone like Diana Butler Bass ["A Peoples' History of Christianity"] helps us do just that, and with these smaller stories, reminds us of the ways of love, the courage of love, and the humility of love.

Calvin himself relied too much on doctrine [a man of his time, to be sure], but he could never forget the Holy Spirit, the mystery of God, and the power of love.

Doctrine is neat and clean, especially when we walk away from those who might offer another take on things. That's one way of keeping the house clean.

Love, however, requires of us something rather different, or so I think.

The next time I'm at the Lord's Table, which will be this coming Sunday, I'll think about these things ... to be united in true doctrine and love.

Who Wants to Hear About Grace?

2009-08-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

One of the most insidious devices used by Satan to destroy us (personally and socially) is the story of the self-made woman ... who, by dint of her own energies and creativity, masters the world and achieves success.

American mythology is filled with images of frontier women and men bravely hacking their way through the impenetrable wilderness, fighting off wild beasts and staving off savage attacks from those who would foolishly resist progress. The loner. The entrepreneur. The successful!

American religion, as well, has drunk deeply from the well of this salvation-by-works view of life, turning many an American pulpit into a podium for motivational jargon and silly stories that always bring a tear to the eye without the genuine transformation essential to the gospel of a real Christ - a living Christ who invites us to deny ourselves, trust God radically, give away profoundly, take up our cross and follow unconditionally.

Why is this notion of a self-made woman such an insidious idea?

Well, for one, it's patently false!

If one probes beneath the surface of the lives of the successful, one discovers the hidden imprint of grace, an imprint discernible through the lens of faith, itself a gift from God.

That's the point, I suppose - life is a gift from God, every bit of it, determined by God. Though we must be careful - this idea has been used by the powerful and the wealthy to justify the poverty of others and the maintenance of the social status quo as if it were the will of God, forever and immutable. Hence, the Victorian objection to Darwin who suggested that systems actually change. Churchly high pulpits linked arms with positions of privilege to fight Darwin's ideas and to promote the "created order ordained by God" to keep others in slavery and some in the lap of luxury. How convenient to believe that poverty and privilege are ordained by God.

But the point remains: the Bible and the work of good theologians point to the mysteries of grace that bestow wealth and power without our participation. Wealth and power - gifts from God, irrespective our character, our morality, our faith or our intelligence. Ouch! Did I just say that?

Socially, the myth of the self-made woman perpetuates the kind of pride that divides a society against itself - the "successful" person, imaging her success to be of her own making, looks down her snoot at everyone else, and then publishes a book or two about how smart she is, and if working-man Pete and single-mom Susie could only be as smart and as hard-working as she's been, why, they'd be successful, too, living on easy street and enjoying the well-deserved fruits of their labors.

Clearly, one of the fiery darts used by the Evil One to puff the soul and destroy our social conscience.

On the other hand, when one confronts the mystery and the joy of grace, one realizes, quickly, just how fragile our success is - how a million little factors, way beyond our purview and control, have brought us to this point in life. It truly is "amazing grace," and such grace leaves us spell-bound and grateful and utterly humbled.

In the face of grace, we begin to see why God has blessed us ... so that we might be a blessing to others (without questioning and judging their status even as we question and judge our own status in the light of grace), and use our position to fight the larger evils that oppress and destroy body and soul.

The wealthy and the powerful, if they truly understood the source of their wealth and power, would all become deeply radical, working tirelessly to change the hideous systems of disparity and death, even supporting a much higher tax rate for themselves, because taxes are the means of a shared responsibility to care for one another, paying their taxes with joy, giving thanks for what they have without demanding ever-more.

Living in the power of grace, the wealthy and the mighty would devote themselves to legislation and programs to provide the best of schools for every child everywhere, to promote unions for the protection of the guys and gals who turn our beds and serve our food and wash our cars and clean our streets and fight our fires and solve our crimes and fight our wars. Living in grace, the powerful would work to change the world rather than using charity as a sop to the poor and a salve to a greedy conscience.

Grace no longer asks the question: Why are poor people poor? As if it were their fault.

But asks the larger question: Why has God given me so much?

And then grace rolls up her sleeves, figures out how to spend a whole lot less on the self and engage a whole lot more in making this God's world, as it should be, after all.

Grace - who want's to hear it?

But it's the truth, and only the truth, the gracious truth, shall set us free at last.

Is the Prosperity Gospel Sick?

2009-08-15T20:55:00.001-07:00

When I was a young pastor in the coal country of West Virginia, south of Charleston, up the Kanawha River, and then to Nellis and Brush Creek, I was confronted the first time with the spiritual pickpockets of the American prosperity gospel ... a sick system playing upon the fear and dreams of America's poorest.

These days, millions of Americans buy into this corrupt version of the gospel, and folks like the Copelands continue to enrich themselves at the expense of middle class folks hoping to be rich and the poor hoping to be middle class.

For more about this hideous distortion of our faith, click HERE.

The Promise, So I'll Stay

2009-08-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

Been thinking a bit … always slightly dangerous …

Sure, we have our ills, who doesn’t?

Been reading 2 Samuel … who doesn’t have their ills?

But it’s the promise of God …

To be faithful … faithful to the likes of us … Joabs and Davids and

Absaloms and Bathshebas and Uriahs and lusters and lovers and

Killers and plotters and avengers and women and men who still

Somehow, are after God’s own heart, because God is steadfast in faith.

That’s what counts … that’s the story … that’s the gospel.

God.

And, sure, we have our ills.

But it’s the promise that sustains us.

We can’t build it.

We can’t kill it.

We don’t get there.

It comes to us!

The promise.

Glad to be a Presbyterian … we have some of that promise-sturdiness in our gut …

Something of that hope, because God is greater …

And maybe it’s God who’s shrinking us …

Like reducing a good sauce, to intensify it’s flavor ..

And teaching us to weep.

Some would quit and walk away to their own peculiar brand of ills.

But I’ll stay, and I’ll weep, and I’ll hope and work and stay the course.

Because of the promise.

It comes to us.

Again!

Gratitude

2009-08-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

Gratitude …

Sure, it’s a good word.

Who doesn’t want to be grateful?

Or at least, to talk about it.

But gratitude can be a surface thing.

Like a suntan, fleeting for a season …

Words we say, or sing, or pray.

But deep down, something strange and dark.

We actually believe in ourselves more than God.

That it’s our work,

Our diligence,

Our intelligence,

Our drive,

Our ambition,

Our dreams,

Our … whatever … fill in the blank …

That made the day and spread the table,

And filled the bank account and filled

The gas tank.

And I did it my way.

I mean, is it me that provides the daily bread spread upon the table?

Or is there some hidden mystery here that I prefer to ignore.

Some might call it chance.

Or fate.

Or the luck of the draw.

Or it is what it is.

A mystery, that I’d like to ignore … that I have things … and a home … daily bread … and work.

Some would call it grace.

Even God.

But if it’s grace that provides …

If it’s God that gives …

Then I can’t be anything but really grateful …

And humble …

And never again look down my nose at anyone who has less …

And never again suggest that I did it, and so can they,

If they would only work as hard as I have worked hard …

As if I could make the sun rise,

And the wheat grow,

And the stocks rise,

And the world go around …

By my work.

Paul the Apostle, in a fit of disgust with those who pinned

Medals on their chest, wrote,

“I’ve worked harder than all of you.

But it really wasn’t me.”

It was grace at work within in me.”

Poor Paul.

He can’t escape grace.

Grace gives him the work, and

The strength.

The vision.

The moment.

The opportunity.

The “luck” as some would say.

Just grace.

Damn it all!

Just grace.

To shape these hearts into something sweet and soft.

Kindly and gracious.

Humble,

Grateful.

God gave it all to me: every bit of it.

And God might well take it all away, if that’s what it takes …

To transform hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

To say the prayer with simple trust:

“Give us this day,

our daily bread.”

2009-08-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Now is the time ...
a test
a moment
a word
a fire
a rush
a sound

Every Morning

2009-07-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Every morning
when Jesus gets out of bed, so to speak,
the scars are there …
big scars and little scars;
every scar a story.

© Tom Eggebeen, July, 2009

Transitions - a personal poem ...

2009-07-15T09:21:00.001-07:00

Transitions …

I'm in a spiritual transition of some sort ...
Hard to put into words ...

Wright's latest book, "Justification" impacted me deeply ...
The anxious Middle Ages shaped the Reformation ...
A "get saved" sort of deal - to put the conscience at ease
Not by works, that's good, I suppose.
But by faith, that's good, too.

Bring peace of mind to the soul.

But where's the Abrahamic covenant? Wright's question!
It's as if we traded covenant life for religious jargon, mumbo jumbo.
The salvation churches - all about going to heaven,
And personal purity, whatever that may mean.
But no covenant living.
No care for the garden.
No blessings to the world.
Dirty water, who cares, as long as I can buy bottled.
Terrible working conditions, who cares, as long as I have my office and my SUV.
Health care denied to millions, who cares, because I can afford it.
And besides, I have Jesus.
My soul brims with Jesus joy.
Jesus love.
Jesus life.

Just self.

For me,
The whole Christian thing seems increasingly corrupt.

I've become a universalist.
So let's relax on the heaven thing.
Let's get serious about earth.

Oops.
Dangerous.

Don't tell that to the wealthy, the powerful.
Tell them how good they are.
They're chosen.
Believe in Jesus.
Write a check now and then.
Go on a mission trip.
My, ain't you good!

We need to be Jews who believe in the Messiah.
To have become "christian" - gentile religion - we lost the world
And gained a whole new dimension of self-interest.
And it feels good.
So, preach on preacher.
Tell me about heaven.
And how I'm chosen.
And it's good to be charitable.
But let's not change how the money really flows.
Let's keep it the way it is.
The poor are poor.
The rich grow richer.
God be praised.

Oh well ...

So it goes.

© Tom Eggebeen

I Believe ...

2009-07-13T12:56:00.001-07:00

I believe that God’s love is the foundation of my life and the world around me.
I believe that evil, ever so real, will never have the last word.
I believe that Jesus the Messiah is the gift of God to the world, a world so loved by God.
I believe that Jesus the Messiah wrought a new pathway for humankind,
By going to the cross and into the tomb.

A great love at work for all of humankind,
and for the whole of creation,
every creature great and small,
unto the farthest star.

I believe that God’s love is here and now in the person of the Holy Spirit,
Bringing me into the fellowship of faith,
Conforming my life to that of Jesus my LORD,
Enabling me to let my light shine,
So that others may see my good works,
And give glory to my Father in heaven.

I believe that life is greater than death.
And I believe that in death, God’s hand will have me.
And in time, all will be made new.
To the glory of God and to the praise of Jesus,
In the company of the Holy Spirit.

Amen and Amen!

Evangelical Christians Oppose Hate Crimes Legislation

2009-07-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

A letter written to the Presbyterian Layman, a newspaper funded and published by hyper-conservatives in the Presbyterian family. They, of course, oppose the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill. But hats to the Rev. Dr. Mark Achtemeir, an evangelical Presbyterian, who testified before Congress on behalf of the bill.

Dear Friends,

It is a mistake of incredible proportions for evangelical Christians to oppose hate crimes legislation.

Our track record on hatred has been less than stellar, since we seem to have a penchant for "righteous hatred" which we love to dress up in the robes of Scriptural authority and carefully chosen verses.

Whatever one may personally feel about homosexuality, crimes against such persons, if and when motivated by their lifestyle, as any crime motivated by race, color, religion or national origin, is a hate crime. Period.

To suggest, however, that pastors would be punishable under this law is the worst kind of yellow journalism imaginable. To claim, as some have, that such legislation is part and parcel of an effort to silence the church is childish babbling, but part of strange "persecuted" mentality that has crept into certain parts of the evangelical community.

But let's be clear - pastors of the far right flirt far too often with hatred and delight in fanning the flames of prejudice. Hatred spewed from American pulpits seems to be a part of our heritage, and though this law wouldn't touch this freedom, it behooves Christians of every persuasion to examine their hearts and their pulpits.

Hats off to the Rev. Dr. Mark Achtemeier for testifying to Congress on behalf of the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill. He's a wise and faithful evangelical Christian, and I salute him for his effort to help evangelical Christianity come to grips with an elephant in the living room - namely a tolerance for righteous hatred when properly aligned with evangelical sensibilities.

Christians need to join with Dr. Achtemeir in helping our great nation create a climate of freedom and justice for all.

In Christ, for Christ and with Christ,

Tom Eggebeen, Interim Pastor
Covenant Presbyterian Church
6323 W. 80th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90045

310 670 5750

Protestant Christianity's Reluctance

2009-06-17T06:07:00.000-07:00

From Calvin's "Institutes" - 3.7.5, "Now, in seeking to benefit one's neighbor, how difficult it is to do one's duty! Unless you give up all thought of self and, so to speak, get out of yourself, you will accomplish nothing here. For how can you perform those works which Paul teaches to be the works of love, unless you renounce yourself and give yourself wholly to others?"

As of late, I've been wondering why it's so difficult for Protestant Christianity to support justice - to stand beside the workers of America as their jobs are ripped out of their hands by a corporate power-grab that has overseen the largest transfer of wealth imaginable - billions out of the pockets of America's workers into the pockets of the rich, who have quickly shipped the money overseas. The hyper-concentration of wealth is destroying the middle class, but to raise a voice here is to be quickly branded a "radical" or a "socialist" or worse - but what would Jesus say? What would Paul or Jeremiah or Amos offer?

Thoughts Prior to Presbytery Meeting

2009-05-13T14:42:00.001-07:00

My decision to support ordination for gays and lesbians came over a period of years with a variety of conversations and experiences, conjoined with study, thought and prayer.

I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ and a faithful student of the Bible – that is not in question, nor should it ever be questioned; nor will I ever question the faith or faithfulness of those who see this matter differently than I do.

All theology is autobiographical – more so, I think, then we prefer to admit, because we want to believe that our take on things is somehow closer to the truth, more faithful to Christ, and more purely founded – the proverbial game of one upsmanship – my Bible verse is bigger and better than your Bible verse – my theology is more faithful to the traditions than your theology, or my theology is more relevant than yours – we all like to trump one another.

I was ordained in January, 1970, and I read my first GA study on the question before us in 1976, and from that moment to now, we have engaged in a pretty thoughtful process – sometimes marred by rancor and the typical ad hominem arguments wherein we discredit the person rather than dealing with their convictions. Accusation and condemnation have sometimes been hurled thoughtlessly; the threat of leaving, of course, has been used by everyone. In our worst moments, we all believe that the eye can say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Western Christianity tends to think in either/or categories, which mean there has to be victors and the vanquished, or the orthodox and the heretical, the faithful and the apostate. It’s difficult for us to think and live in both/and categories, which is likely closer to the reality and wonder of God than our typical linear thinking.

Our own history has been less than sterling … since 1893, when C. Augusus Briggs was suspended from the ministry and Union Theological Seminary subsequently severed its ties with the Presbyterian Church, and then in 1929, when J. Gresham Machen founded Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, and who was later suspended in 1935, we’ve been locked in a see-saw battle for the church. Machen went on to form the “Orthodox” Presbyterian Church, which, of course, means that the remaining body wasn’t orthodox. We’ve seen the formation of the “Evangelical” Presbyterian Church, which also implies that the remaining body isn’t evangelical. I’ve always been grateful for the PCA, the Presbyterian Church in America – they’ve never used their name to trump other Presbyterians.

But this only reflects what I call a near-fatal flaw in Reformed thought – we believe we can nail the truth down in our confessions and our rulings, and if only we can quote the right verses of Scripture, and do the needed exegesis, and then shout them loudly enough to one another, and failing that, to cite statistics and the latest findings of sociology and psychology. From the heady days of the Reformation in Geneva through Old School and New School, New Light and Old Light, it’s been a running gun battle, and I wonder about the long-term implications – the casualties have been high on both sides, and I believe our witness to the world has been compromised.

I give thanks for so many who have conducted this debate with respect and humility … no one here can out-Christian the other … no one can claim the high moral ground or hurl one more Scripture grenade – since the mid-70s, we’ve said it all, we’ve done it all, we’ve hurt and been hurt by one another – meanwhile the casualty list continues to grow and the world questions our integrity and value all the more.

I am not a reprobate, though some have said so.
Nor am I a heretic, though some have labeled me as such.
Nor am I apostate, those some have called me so.

I love the LORD Jesus – he is my Savior.
God has been with all my life, and some of my earliest childhood recollections are of God’s presence, in whom I have always found comfort and safety.
I was reared in a Christian family and enjoyed the influence of faithful pastors and strong congregations.

To Christ I belong in faith and practice, in body and soul, in life and in death.
He is my only comfort.
I am faithful to the Bible and it’s chorus of voices.
I am a sinner saved by grace.
I am a pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and I have sought throughout the years to honor the church of my ordination with the best I can give.
I have sought to honor my colleagues … to engage in debate and restrain my worst impulses … I have sought to understand myself and how my life has unfolded, and how the values I hold and the faith that holds me has emerged over the years.

So where do we go from here?
It’s not likely that I’ll forgo my commitment to opening the door of ordination for my friends in the GLBT community … and I will continue to strive for an open door policy in our state and our nation.

Some of my sisters and brothers will continue their stance, too – to honor ordination as they see it – that practicing gays and lesbians cannot be ordained, but only those who practice celibacy.

So where do we go from here?

The only course left to us, the only thing we have beyond what the world might offer, is love – agape – the highest ethical commitment to one another, above and beyond specific loyalties and faith-stances.

Without love, we’re just another bunch of ideologues … no different than a squabbling PTA or a condo association.

We may have all kinds of faith and knowledge, but without love, they are nothing.
For knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

I don’t know how it’ll go …
What does grace mean here and now for us?
What does it mean to walk humbly with our God and to think of others as better than ourselves?

I don’t know …

May God have mercy upon us … upon our beloved Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of the Pacific, and may the Holy Spirit give us good eyes – eyes to see one another in a kindly light – that we are all sisters and brothers of one another through our LORD Jesus Christ, saved by grace, and not of works, lest anyone should boast, all for the glory of God and the wellbeing of God’s world.

So help me God – here I stand … I can do no other.

Thomas P. Eggebeen
May 12, 2009

Homosexuality, Christians and Some Thoughts

2009-05-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

The following was written May 1 for a Facebook discussion.

Fascinating discussion on all fronts … It’s always helpful when Christians recognize one another in their self-affirmation. If I say “I’m an advocate for the GLBT community” and “I’m a Christian, “no one else can judge that, because that is precisely the kind of judging against which Jesus warns us.

Thus, the conversation is shifted from any effort to discredit one another at the faith-level of life; rather, we have to admit the complexity of the Christian family – people of good faith read the Text differently, and given the wide latitude of the last 2000 years of interpretation and living, we have to back off a bit and give each other the benefit of the doubt, while refusing to claim the high moral ground for our own views. It’s a matter of humility.

As for sexual surgery, why not? Should we then not fix cleft palettes? Or remove an infected appendix? A case can be made that cleft palettes are God’s will, for they were determined in the womb, maybe even genetically. And why remove the appendix; it may just be God’s will.

Lots of laws in the Bible – in the Jewish Bible, 613 of them – commandments, including prohibitions on eating shellfish and wearing garments made of two types of cloth.

In addition, unruly children should be stoned, along with all sorts of guidelines for sacrifice and incense.

In the NT, the specific intent of Paul’s few passages are not entirely clear. And one has to note, with some degree of appreciation, homosexual practice is never mentioned by Jesus. Fortunately, there’s been some great work done by a very respectable theologian, the Rev. Dr. Jack Rogers (see his book, now in a brand new edition, “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality). Jack comes from an evangelical background and through careful studies and prayer, he came to his present position of advocacy.

The few Bible passages under consideration are not a clear-cut case by any stretch. Overall, it’s very difficult to build an ethic of exclusion on such a limited number of passages that are genuinely open to varying interpretations. On the other hand, the overwhelming numbers of passages that speak of welcome and mercy, kindness and love, must surely have the greater voice.

Marriage is not the be-all and the end-all of life. In heaven, there will be no marriage. Paul wasn’t married and actively encouraged others to forgo it, unless, of course, they couldn’t contain their desires. Neither was Jesus married, and he went so far as to redefine his own family as those who hear and do the will of God.

As for Sodom and Gomorrah, it’s all about their lack of hospitality, and their desire to use sexual humiliation for the strangers in their midst – think of prison and how sex is used as domination. And nowhere else in the Bible is Sodom used as illustration of sexual perversity.

All the fuss that was made about those who couldn’t be priests – physical imperfections and sexual damage – Isaiah and Jesus both say, “enough of this!”

Surely to be a Christian is believe in Jesus Christ and follow his commandments – and what is that, but to love God deeply and with the same kind of love, to love their neighbor. It’s love that stands at the heart of Jesus’ vision for the new community, and vast is the number of those who seek and live his love, albeit imperfectly, and in a thousand different ways.

It’s so hard to admit our commonality in Christ; it is the human instinct, it is sin, that compels us to draw boundaries and divide one from the other, claiming the high moral ground – “My Bible verse is bigger and better than yours.” “My love of Jesus is bigger and better than yours.” “My sense of social justice is bigger and better than yours.” When will this madness stop?

It’s easy to divide and love those of our own kind, but Jesus questions that kind of love – anyone can do that. Rather, real love is to love “the enemy” – real or perceived – the one who doesn’t belong to our circle.

I’ve written way too much … this and $4 gets me a cup of coffee at Starbucks!

Blessing and Joy, and let us be kind and welcoming to one another, and unlike the folks of Sodom, let’s not humiliate the stranger in our midst.

Enough of our fixation on sexual orientation. There’s a real place for everyone at the Table of the LORD.

Ordaining Gays and Lesbians

2009-04-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

From: Shuck and Jive:

The day after the 87th vote was taken an overture was sent to presbytery en route to the 2010 General Assembly. Here is a news release from Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan:

Ann Arbor, MI – Today, Northside Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the Presbyterian Church (USA), proposed a new amendment to the denomination’s constitution that would allow the ordination of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members. This action was taken as a response to the narrow defeat of a similar proposed change that the denomination has been debating during the past year. Northside’s new proposed amendment would allow the ordination of anyone in the denomination whom God has called, regardless of sexual orientation.

Today, a majority of presbyteries, the local governing bodies of the PC(USA), considered, but by a razor-thin margin failed to ratify, a similar amendment to Part II of the denomination’s constitution, The Book of Order. This was the third such vote in the past 12 years. In contrast to those previous votes, this year an unprecedented number of presbyteries reversed their positions and now stand for justice and inclusion for their LGBT members. In spite of today’s setback, with such powerful momentum building for equality in the denomination, Northside Presbyterian believes it is imperative that the struggle for full inclusion in the life and ministry of the PC(USA) continue without delay and so proposes this new amendment.

“We are seeing something today akin to what happened in our denomination in the 1950s with the ordination of women,” said Brian Spolarich, Elder and Clerk of the Session, the governing body of the congregation. “It took over a decade of organizing, and multiple votes for our denomination to get it right, but in the end we recognized the Holy Spirit leading us to draw the circle of leadership more broadly, not more narrowly. I have faith that we will eventually get this one right, too.”

The new proposed amendment will go to the Presbytery of Detroit for action. If approved, it will be sent to the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) for action in 2010. Then, if approved by the General Assembly, the amendment would require approval from a majority of the 173 presbyteries in order to be ratified.

About Northside Presbyterian Church:

Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, we are a small, dynamic congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Celebrating our 50th anniversary this year, we attract a diverse membership from all over Southeastern Michigan. In our denomination, the PC(USA), Northside Presbyterian Church takes a stand as a More Light congregation, affirming and celebrating the Spirit’s marvelous gift of diversity in ministry and ordained leadership, welcoming all sexual orientations and gender identities. Find out more about our faith community on our web site, www.NorthsidePres.org.

About More Light Presbyterians:

More Light Presbyterians, the oldest gay rights group in the 2.3 million member Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), works for the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the PCUSA. Web site: www.mlp.org

Mainline Clergy Going Liberal

2009-04-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Are mainline Protestant Clergy going liberal?

Well, the latest poll results are in, and it seems that mainline clergy are, indeed, going liberal.

In response to this report appearing in the Presbyterian Outlook, I wrote the following:

While some will decry the results, I celebrate them - to be more just, on the one hand, and to freely admit our diversity of thought and belief on the other. For 1500 years, the church traded in “the right answers” - we had them; others didn't, and if you didn't you might lose your head or be burned at the stake. We knew we had the answers – they were in the councils of the church and in the Pope; in the Reformation, we found them in the Bible and enshrined them in our confessions.

But God has been slowly unshackling the church from its self-imprisonment in answers. Answers fail us badly; they divide us, one from the other - "my answer is bigger and better than your answer," and the very moment we craft an answer and spell it with capital letters, we've cast a graven image of God.

We are recovering the original diversity of the Bible - Leviticus to Psalm 23, Deuteronomy to the Song of Songs, from Matthew to John, from Paul to Peter, from James to Revelation, and we're learning the heart and soul of love for the neighbor, the harvest of righteousness (Philippians 1:11, James 3:18) as an outworking of our love for God who shows no partiality (Acts 10:34, James 2:9).

We are learning that the truth of Christ is vastly different than our answers - thus, creating a new humility and a fresh openness. If this be liberalism, God be praised.

Creationism in Texas and Other Strange Goings-ons ...

2009-03-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Members and Friends of The Clergy Letter Project,

With the Texas State Board of Education set to act on the state’s science standards later this week, it seems an appropriate time for an update – especially since those endorsing The Clergy Letter have been brought into the controversy. Additionally, there are a number of other issues that should interest you.

1. The Situation in Texas – And the Role of The Clergy Letter Project

The Texas State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on Friday on science standards to be implemented across the state for the next ten years. While the preliminary meeting which took place in January was largely positive, with the Board largely adopting the language recommended by the experts it empanelled, a number of troubling motions that open the door for creationism were introduced at the last minute by the Board’s chair. The actions of the Board are of great importance for all of us, even those of us outside of Texas, because Texas adopts its textbooks at the state level and because they purchase so many texts that publishers edit books to be certain that they are acceptable to the Texas market. So, if creationism enters textbooks in Texas, you can be sure that it will enter textbooks everywhere else in the US. You can read more about the situation at the web site The Clergy Letter Project co-sponsors with the Center for Inquiry (www.teachthemscience.org).

Don McLeroy, the Chair of the Board, is a self avowed creationist. A recent article in The Texas Observer (www.butler.edu/clergyproject/pdf/The%20Texas%20Observer.doc) summarizes McLeroy’s beliefs quite simply: “McLeroy is convinced that teaching evolution leads to atheism. There’s not a lot of room for negotiation in that position.” Obviously, this position is in direct contradiction to what The Clergy Letter stands for!

Interestingly, and somewhat frighteningly, McLeroy has just written an endorsement for a self-published book entitled Sowing Atheism that attacks The Clergy Letter Project and calls the clergy who have signed our Clergy Letters “morons.” The book says, “In my judgment, only morons—more than 11,500 morons in this case—could sign a letter maintaining that the ‘timeless truths of the Bible’ are compatible with the billions of unpredictable aberrations of evo-atheism. What do these apostate morons celebrate at their Sunday services, the lies about humanity’s origins told by Moses, Jesus, and Paul?”

It is exactly this sort of anti-intellectual name calling that The Clergy Letter Project is designed to combat. What a shame that the individual in a position to shape the framework for science teaching in the country for the next decade thinks that such actions are to be supported. You can read more about the situation on a blog written by Ryan Valentine, the Deputy Director of the Texas Freedom Network (http://tfnblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/what-does-don-mcleroy-really-want-to-teach/).

2. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis Declares Moral Outrage Over an Action He Performed

This item falls well within the dictionary’s definition of hypocrisy! Ken Ham, the head of Answers in Genesis, the group that built the $27 million Creation Museum-cum-theme-park in Kentucky, has recently railed against the BBC for “ambushing” a member of his staff (http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/aroundtheworld/2009/03/21/bbc-radio-and-ambush-journalism/). As you’ll see if you read the link, Ham claims that Jason Lisle was surprised to find that his scheduled interview on the BBC was actually to be a debate with Genie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. (I’ve not checked with Genie to get her side of the story since it is actually not relevant to the point I’m making here!) Here’s how Ham summarizes the situation: “By the way—the BBC has not responded to our publicist who has challenged them concerning their deception. Then again, for those people who don’t believe in God and there is no absolute authority, not telling the truth and deception would not be ethically wrong—as they have no basis for right and wrong!”

What makes Ham’s complaints so incredibly ironic and hypocritical is that this is exactly what he did to me a year ago. I was scheduled to do an interview last year on a fundamentalist Christian radio show only to discover, upon going on the air, that Ken Ham was also on the line, ready to debate me. When asked why neither the host nor Ken had the courtesy to inform me that I was to participate in a debate rather than in an interview, I was told that they believed that I wouldn’t have accepted their offer had I been told the truth. When I questioned them about the deception, I was told that since the debate was to further God’s wishes, a minor deception of this sort was acceptable.

That’s quite a double standard!

3. Canadian Science Minister Refuses to Discuss Evolution on Religious Grounds

When asked whether he accepts evolution, Gary Goodyear, Canada’s Science Minister refused to answer the question, claiming it pries into his religious beliefs. According to The Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090317.wgoodyear16/BNStory/National/home), “’I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,’ Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.”

The response to Goodyear’s comments has been clear. Again, from the same news report: “Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said he was flabbergasted that the minister would invoke his religion when asked about evolution. ‘The traditions of science and the reliance on testable and provable knowledge has served us well for several hundred years and have been the basis for most of our advancement. It is inconceivable that a government would have a minister of science that rejects the basis of scientific discovery and traditions,’ he said.”

4. Journal Editor in Turkey Fired for Publishing Story on Darwin

Cigdem Atakuman, the editor of Science and Technology magazine, a state-run publication in Turkey, was fired, according to the Associated Press (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h8i-0AuYSMrEzBR24V6tfdzQcrVAD96S22580), for attempting to run a story about the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species in the magazine. According to the AP, “Atakuman confirmed reports that the publication was stopped at the presses and the article was removed from the issue. Newspapers printed copies of both the original issue and the new issue without the Darwin article.”

5. Evolution Weekend 2010 – Call for Participation

With creationism continuing to spread as noted above, our efforts continue to be important. Although we are far closer to Evolution Weekend 2009 than we are to Evolution Weekend 2010 (12-14 February 2010), I’ve begun to build a list of participants for next year. What’s utterly amazing is that at this early date, we already have 89 congregations from 34 states and 4 countries signed up to participate. Signing up early will help us enormously by permitting us to focus on new congregations. So, please, if you plan to participate next February, let me know by dropping me a note at mz@butler.edu. I plan to post the list of participants in a couple of months. Remember that participation can take any form you think is most appropriate for your congregation – all that matters is that you help elevate the public discourse about the compatibility of religion and science. Please sign up now and please invite friends and colleagues to do the same.

As always, thanks to all of you who have been active in The Clergy Letter Project. Together we are making a difference.

Michael

Wake Up Call for Religion in American

2009-03-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

New column by William Pitts - click HERE.

Doubt

2009-02-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

A letter to a friend who's teaching a course on doubt.

David,

I've given a lot of thought to doubt - or whatever it is ... and there have been times in my life when "belief" in any conventional sense seemed impossible.

For my doctoral work, I wrote a chapter about the role of doubt in the believer's life - focusing on St. John of the Cross' "Dark Night of the Soul" - that doubt is always a segue to another chapter - doubt signals the close of one chapter, a chapter that worked well for a period of time, but since time never stands still, neither does faith. But we cling to "our faith" because it feels secure, but faith clung too, when it's no longer apropos become dysfunctional, if not destructive, which, I think, is the problem with fundamentalism (an issue Rob Bell is trying to address). Fundamentalism/various forms of evangelicalism have a harshness to them because they're angry about a faith no longer working, so they shout ever-louder, denounce all the more, and pump one another up in endless self-congratulating worship services and hyped up high-school-like pep rallies.

St. John of the Cross (late 1500s) suggested that God's best work was being done in our lives when we had no idea what God was doing. God conceals God's work from us, lest we rush in and muck it all up with our suggestions. It feels as if God is absent, but God is only moving ahead of us, and when the time is right, will reveal to us a further work.

John Calvin, too, works with doubt from a slightly different angle - that we needn't fear doubt, because faith is God's gift, and what God gives, God preserves. Our faith, at best, mostly limps along, but it never dies, because God sustains it.

For me, there's no sense fighting it or faking it - it is what it is ... and biblically, we are very much the one who says, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."

Perhaps most important, Paul Tillich - his book, "The Dynamics of Faith" - he says that all faith, if it's a living faith, has the possibility of doubt, even radical doubt, and sometimes the possibility becomes reality.

A faith that cannot doubt is no faith at all. It has ceased to live.

It's not that doubt is always there ... sometimes in a moment, it's gone, and we believe with a rare purity ... even for months at a time, but then, doubt comes along.

Doubt is friend that keeps faith on its toes, so speak, or on its knees. Doubt is faith's best friend, keeping it honest and humble (another issue for fundamentalists/evangelicals - not the Rob Bell kind) who have to have all the answers all the time.

When it comes to dealing with doubt, it’s sort of like dealing with a cold – we let it run its course, and in the case of doubt, do its work.

But at the same time, we take Aspirin and get some rest … when doubt comes our way (and it’s really always there, sort of like a neighbor whom we only see from time-to-time), we can call upon some resources.

In yesterday’s message, I wrote:

And God sees to it that we have help along the way:
We have the Bible …
We have Moses and the Prophets …
We have the Apostolic witness of the early church …
We have the Holy Spirit …
We have great women and men to inspire us …
We have prayer and fellowship …
We have the gathered wisdom of the ages …
We have one another …
And we have Jesus!

I have never seen doubt as the opposite of faith; rather, doubt, is a traveling companion, if not beside us, at least only a few rows removed from us.

The opposite of doubt, if we can even speak of such things, might well be hyper-faith – faith that fearfully refuses to think, fearfully refuses to be honest about itself and what others might be thinking and feeling, too.

I don’t think God has a problem with someone who says, “I don’t believe” – sometimes they can’t, because they’ve only seen bad examples of faith … or sometimes, because they’re too proud to believe, and pride is only the flip side of fear and self-doubt – but whatever, this isn’t an issue for God.

The central issue in the Bible are people who “believe too much” but without mind and heart in the right place – they “talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk) – the people of ancient Israel who spoke of the LORD Almighty in traditional terms, and then went off after the baals! They were hyper-religious – that’s an issue for God. When they “take the name of God in vain” – talking the talk, but not walking the walk.

I think God might well say to the fundamentalists/evangelicals – relax! Learn to appreciate the doubt within your hearts and minds, and be kind to those who express such thoughts and feelings to you.

Hell is not made for those who doubt – we’d all be there, but hell is an experience right now of those who have neither the grace nor the courage to admit it.

When someone enters a period of doubt, we journey with them, because it’s our journey, too.

We’re all in this one together.

And then trust God … in some sort of basic way … the sun sets and the sun comes up again.

Things are born, and then born again …

Relax!

In These Times ...

2009-01-27T17:03:00.001-08:00

In These Times …

I find fear creeping in at the edges of my mind and heart.

Every newscast brings more sad news for tens of thousands of Americans and folks around the world.

And, then, Citi Group purchases a $50 million dollar corporate jet – get this, it carries 12, and get this and then some, ordered from a French company. Ha! And when challenged by Keith Olbermann, they declined to comment, saying, “security reasons” prohibit us from commenting on our fleet. Yeah, sure – security? No, shame! Plain old shame!

Sadly, their avarice is my money at work, and I’m not real fond of that.

Oh sure, it’s Capitalism, some say. It’s the Free Market, and we all love that, don’t we?

Naw, it’s just plain old greed at work – over-the-top entitlement – the worm in the apple gnawing away at our character and our economy.

I think we’ve got ourselves into a real pickle.

And certain forms of Christianity haven’t helped one bit:
¸ The feel-good, advance-yourself, Jesus-loves-you-always, let’s-clap-our-hands-and-love-one-another, kind of Christianity.
¸ The James Dobson brand of Christianity, with his snarling intrusion into the American bedroom.
¸ The psycho-babble kind of Christianity, where Sunday morning is nothing more than a couch for therapy and learning “five steps to happiness.”
¸ And Americanized Christianity where flag and faith are all entwined in one another, and no one knows where country and Christ begin or end.

Here’s where I have hope for mainline Protestant Christianity to regain some traction. Ours has been a faithful voice, crying in the wilderness of prosperity and evangelical power. As the megachurches zoomed into view and climbed to the top of the numbers heap, we all hung our head and slinked away, ashamed of our faith, and wondering why we were such a failure.

But we’re not a failure at all. And though the numbers are not likely to change in the foreseeable future, it’s all about integrity and responsibility, and the numbers be damned, if you will.

This is not Wall Street after all. It’s not about some bottom line of success. It’s faithfulness and critical thinking. Do we really have anything at all to say?

We’ve been studying the prophets and the kings of Israel and Judah, background to Jesus our LORD. Here we find some grit to throw on the road for traction. Here is where we find some guidance in such times, when the bastions of power and religion have proved hollow!

Yes, I find fear creeping in at the edges, because bad things happen when human beings forget one another, when a nation worships at the alter of prosperity and condemns millions to a life of hardship. Bad things happen when religion loses its bearings and can no longer muster the courage or the conviction to tell the truth to itself, much less to anyone else.

The simple truth, at least as I read in the Prophets and in the life of Jesus: our nation has spent way too much time at the alter of Wall Street and allowed wealth to be concentrated into the hands of a strange breed of royalty who lost their bearings, who spent corporate profits foolishly, who lived high on the hog and damned the rest of us, and way too many Christians, enamored with visions of Jesus and wealth, lost their minds and their souls, as well.

But I think God for God!

God’s Spirit yet strives with our spirit, and when God’s people dig into the Word thoughtfully, intelligently, looking not for ways to condemn others, nor for ways to feather our own bed, but to discern the will of God and to seek ways by which we can effect salvation – shalom – here and now - real peace and a prosperity that leaves no one behind – when such things become our purpose, there will be showers of blessing from on high!

It’s time for decency, a kindliness toward one another, an honest humility, and it’s time for the powerful and the wealthy, for the super-religionists of the world, Christian or otherwise, to remember, that even on the loftiest of thrones, we’re still sitting only on our own rumps (Montaigne), and our task on earth is not to build thrones for ourselves, but to sew pillows for one another, to make the sitting a tad bit easier!