Livingin the Shadow of a Bully

I do not believe in hell in the classic sulfuric, flame-ridden sense. It defies my sense of logic and my experience of God.   However, I have experienced hell. I have travelled to war zones and ghettos.  I have been in emergency rooms and psychiatric wards. I have experienced the misery of loss and grief.   No question about it.   I have been in hell.  It takes different shapes and expressions, sculpting pain and suffering in a variety of ways, but it is unmistakably, hell.”

 In all this, one hell that has touched me deeply is the mindless bullying I experienced as an adolescent. 

During 8^th grade in Schenectady, New York, I was bullied by a gym teacher.  This alleged educator hounded me in front of the class, calling me names and shadowing me with physical intimidation as he shoved and pushed me around the locker room.    When it came time for wrestling, he would pit me against a boy twice my size who would be publicly encouraged to “beat the crap” out of me.   He was inevitably successful in this endeavor, which of course, empowered others who then took their turns with malicious glee.   They waited for me at the bike rack after school. They followed me home with taunts and beatings administered with sadistic glee.   It was a special kind of hell that was isolating, painful and from which I still suffer even as I walk through my 6^th decade as an alleged adult.

A bully is an assassin of the Spirit.   A bully trades in lies and innuendo.  A bully seeks vulnerability and aims at those tender, unprotected spots with appalling accuracy and devastating affect.  

I have watched with growing alarm and disgust as I have come to the horrifying realization that the President of the United States of America is a bully.    That he is more than this, we know.  He is a narcissist.  He is greedy.  He is a pathological liar.  And he is not, in spite of his own protestation, a Christian.  

This Bully-in-Chief is an assassin of the Spirit, tearing at the fabric of nation and community, leaving most of a nation in chronic depression and grief over the evaporation of civility and decent mutuality.   That he is a liar is an incontrovertible truth.   He can be caught daily in prevarications ranging from denying that he said something that 25 million people heard him say on television to making up things about former Presidents and other leaders out of whole cloth.   A friend of mine recently asked how you could tell that Donald Trump is lying.  I innocently shrugged and my friend said, “It’s when his lips are moving.”   Finally, this malingering occupant of the Whitehouse seeks out the vulnerable and takes clear, careful aim at them.   From young people once protected by the DACA rules to championing the removal of health care for millions of people, he brazenly seeks to wound and even kill the defenseless.

            This bully has a much broader reach than the teacher-inspired tormentors of my youth. He is not merely hanging out waiting to sucker-punch you at the bike rack after school. No. This bully uses the levers of government to strip protections from minorities, laborers, women and children. This bully seeks to steal retirement benefits and Social Security from millions who have faithfully paid into these programs most of their lives.   This bully taunts the leader of another country, pushing us all closer than we have been in decades to an all-out nuclear war.

            Whether it is on the playground in upstate New York or in the oval office, bullies exist because no one will rise up to stop them.  When I was a boy, lot’s of people stood and watched as I was assaulted daily on my way to and from school.  Teachers watched.  Cops watched. Neighbors watched.   And it continued unabated until one day when I fought back.  The look on this one boy’s face when I finally turned to confront him was one of surprise, certainly, but the real surprise to me was that I saw fear on his face.   That’s right.  Fear.  The one(s) who had spent so much time and energy trying to make me afraid were themselves wallowing in fear.   When we stop, turn around and confront the bully in Washington DC we will see the fear in his eyes as well.

But make no mistake about it.  The bully occupying the Whitehouse will continue his malignant behavior until we rise up to stop him.  We cannot, we dare not stand by doing nothing while sisters and brothers are being targeted for deportation and worse.   We cannot, we dare not turn a blind eye to the escalating rhetoric of hate and war.    We may not stand idly by while Donald Trump uses the office of the President to empower racists and thugs who seek to derail our whole national enterprise. 

Part of being a civilized people is the active embrace of the reality that we are connected to each other.   We are inextricably bound together upon this tiny planet, breathing the same air, and exposed to the same future.   Let us, therefore, not make the same mistake that the people of Germany made as Adolf Hitler and his thugs rose to power.  These people did not assume responsibility for one another.   They stood by and allowed their neighbors to be arrested and killed.  They stood by while Jews, Gypsies, Gay and Lesbian and mentally ill people were dragged away to horrible deaths.   They participated fully in the genocide because they did not act to stop it.

Let us awaken to the power that we have as a people.  Let us take responsibility as citizens for the health, welfare and well-being of all people.  Let us be the ones who say “no” to the bully.  Let us lift up a vision of an America where all people have health care; where all people have homes; where all people have enough to eat; where all people have decent jobs and access to education.   Let us dare to live into this vision together and let it start by saying “no” to the bully.

The bully has the power we give him.  Let us take it away.   Now.

           

  

Hope in Difficult Times...

“Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you…” 1st Peter 3:14b-15

Hope. 

I have had a number of conversations recently with people who are feeling hopeless in these turbulent times. I get it. These are difficult days. Each tweet, each blurt of social media, each glance at the news adds to levels of collective stress. And this stress erodes our grasp on hope.

Some suggest that we are, as a society, losing hope in the future.   The ever expanding number of films and television shows that depict a dystopian tomorrow gives painful testimony to this.   Optimism, onscreen or off in these days, is a scarce  commodity.  Enthusiasm and creativity also suffer as the ongoing assault on morality and truth continue unabated.  Whether it's fake news or fake leaders, we have stepped, or been dragged, into a time of blurred lines and disintegrating social contracts.  

In the refracting light of this deliberately created confusion, it is time for people of faith to stake their claim on the hope that Peter describes as residing "in us (1st Peter 3:15)."   This hope, though living in us, is of God and is not only for us as a people, but is for our society, our nation and our planet.    Please understand.  This is not a mere request or desire for hope.  It is a profound insistence on hope.   It is a deep willingness to risk hope; to live into hope; to become hope.   

As the absurd smog of lies continues to blur our vision, the hope for which we reach becomes a tool for survival and yes, salvation.  This hope, though, involves struggle.   It's important to be clear here.  There is no wiggle room to avoid the reality that pursuing this hope is no walk in the park.    It's easy to hope when the times are good. With clear skies and full bellies, hope is within easy reach. But the truth is that easy hope like this is the same as being a vegetarian between meals. 

The hope for which we will be held accountable (1st Peter 3:15) is the hope that matters most in the tough times. This hope knows how to dream.   This hope has a liberated and unruly imagination.   This hope sheds the cynicism and despair which are the stock and trade of contemporary utterance.   This hope moves us as a people to challenge and overcome the present darkness.  This hope calls us to follow the way of Jesus no matter where it leads.

So let us be ready to make our defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in us.

Moral Character of a Leader

I was having a conversation yesterday with a friend who referred to the these days in the United States of America as "Post-Truth America."   The statement made me stop and think.   And in thinking it grew ever more clear that indeed, my friend has a point.   When a candidate for President of the United States of America openly lies over and over again without so much as a journalistic retort or even a mild hiccup, something is wrong.   When a candidate for the office of the President of the United States openly attempts to discredit election results before the election takes place, we definitely find ourselves in a new and different time.    When a businessman who revels in shirking his civic duty of paying taxes runs for the office of President of the United States; when that same person cheats workers and gropes unwilling women we are indeed in a new time.  Post-Truth America?  The notion gives rise to some questions.

What are we to make of a media that is laser focused on an email kerfuffle of one candidate while

completely blind to  more than nine accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault on the part of another?   What are we to think when the alleged un-trustworthiness of one candidate is lifted up again and again while the failure of another to pay taxes, to even pay workers is not seen worth the air time to mention it.    How do we respond when the FBI interferes in the election by illegally releasing vague information certain to put a thumb on the scales of this election?

I am reminded of the words of the Prophet Micah

"Your wealthy are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies with tongues of deceit in their mouths (Micah 6:12)."

The Prophet's words  remind us that evil things happen when good people remain silent.    So I urge you not to be quiet.  Speak up for what you know to be true.  As a people of faith we know the difference between right and wrong.   We really do.  And the difference does not hang in the balance of partisan political ideology.  It hangs in our vision, our clarity, moral acuity, and our faith.

We know truth from lies, and we know dear friends,  about evil lurking in high places.  We know about what Paul calls "The principalities and the powers (Eph. 6:10f)."      And friends, we know the difference between a demagogue liar and a principled leader.   We know the qualities that make for a just and compassionate leader.

So it is that I thought it might be a good idea for people of faith to be clear about what a true leader possesses in terms of character and moral rectitude.     And yes, I'll be bold enough to make a start.    I'm a good Bible reading Christian, and here's a little of what I have discovered.

These are some of the characteristics of a  leader of high moral character:

> Seeks Peace (Psalm 34:14) (Luke 6:35-36)

> Is slow to anger (Psalm 145:8)

> Is humble, and not arrogant. (1st Peter 5:1-7)

> Sensible and kind.  (Colossians 3:12)

> Willing to learn the ways of goodness.  (Isaiah 1:17)

> Puts the welfare of all people on the same plane.  (Galatians 3:28)

> Is able and willing to listen to all points of view.  (James 1:19-27)

> Surrounds him or herself with honest, truthful, conscientious counselors (Proverbs 12:15)

> Has the attitude of service and servanthood. (Matt 20:26)

I could go on for quite a while, but this is a beginning.  Maybe you would add a few in the comment section of this blog?   I'd like that.   The elements I listed are not exclusively Christian by any means, but they ARE a firm part of our tradition, and those who claim to follow Jesus should be thinking about this.

We need leaders of high moral character, not people who look us in the face and lie.

We need leaders who are committed to seeking peace, not leaders who wonder why we  have nuclear weapons if we can't use them.

We need leaders who understand grace and forgiveness, not leaders who stay up tweeting vitriol half the night.

We need leaders who have demonstrated service and servanthood throughout their lives, not leaders who dedicate themselves to the "art of the deal,"  no matter who gets hurt.

We need leaders who care about all the people in our nation and in our world, a leader who cares about a better tomorrow.

So, here is a voice from the faith community.

If you'd like to cut and paste these characteristics of a leader please do so.

If you'd like to add to them, by all means do so.

In the meantime, check out the list and ask yourself which person seeking the highest office in the land comes closest to meeting it's expectations?

Praying for our nation in this Post Truth American....

Liberating Ourselves from the Curse of Left and Right, and Claiming our Core in Christ...

I

Refusing the Lie

I have written and spoken often in the past few years about the destructive impact of our incessant need to line up on one side or the other of an unending line of issues.    In our white hot culture wars these often get defined by right or left, liberal or conservative, or Democrat or Republican.    

My stance in all this continues to be that such divisions are false and designed to divide, not unite people.   There really is no such thing as a true conservative or a true liberal.   Neither we nor life are quite that simple.    Many of us, myself included, are enamored of our current President and many of the things he has tried to do.   Indeed, I find myself wishing for a third term possibility.   However, we cannot be blind to the fact that this President has deported a record number of undocumented people; young children, women, sending them back to poverty and violence.    This President has also led the way in a new kind of warfare using pilotless drones that kill indiscriminately.    Are these liberal or conservative actions?   Personally I don't care about the ideological label.  To me, those things are simply wrong.    It is wrong to send defenseless people into danger whether by deportation or by pilotless drones.   This is wrong from a moral, Christian perspective that defies ideological isolation.  

But this isn't only about political figures on the national stage.  It's also about us.

By way of confession, I will tell you that I live in a pretty conservative theological location while landing in what many would call a liberal social location.   So what does this make me?   Liberal?   Conservative?   Moreover, I hold some outrageously liberal political views, as well as some very conservative social positions.    And what's worse is that I am known to change my positions from time to time when new information renders that appropriate!

The labels we so quickly stick upon ourselves and others do not serve us, particularly if we are Christians.    At our United Methodist General Conference this past summer I actually heard a colleague who ought to know better say, "We can't work with (name deleted) because he's a conservative!"    Really?    I understood this to say that I cannot speak or listen to a person with whom I disagree.     This is not only tragic, it's sinful.     We follow a pathway that strives to remove the boundaries and the divisions that we so readily rise up between us.    While some of us deride a certain presidential candidate for wanting to build a wall along the Mexican / US border, we should be mindful of the walls that we erect in our communities and in our lives.    "In Christ there is no Greek or Jew.... (Galatians 3:28),"  and  Indeed, Christ is our peace, and in him "the dividing walls of hostility have come down (Ephesians 2:14).

What many of us do is to take our hardened ideological perspective and wrap it in the liturgical clothing of religion.    Right wing Christians?   Seriously?   Progressive Christians?   Are you kidding?    There is no left or right in Christian community, no male or female, gay or straight, no more social boundaries designed to alienate.    We are one in Christ, and the difficult struggle of sitting down together to open the Word and to pray through our differences is our clear and sacred call.    One has to ask who it is that benefits while we battle across our ideological lines?    Certainly it is not the people who get wounded and killed in these struggles.

This binary social construct  that has held us captive for so long is designed to separate and disempower us.       Our work is to break this down and engage one another authenticall in faith.  Our call is to be in relationship those with whom we disagree, rather than isolate them and refuse to communicate.  Engagement and open connection with those who differ with us not only a good idea, it is one way that we can grow, expand and change.   It's possible, even probably that when we sit down in authentic community with those who don't see the world as we do that our perspectives and our understandings might change.  

So it is that it's long past time to refuse the lie of ideological rigidity and strive for the building of new communities of hope, power, and diversity.

II

Refusing the Lie Does Not Relieve Us of the Responsibility to Tell the Truth

As we extricate ourselves from the divisionistic ways of our secular culture we have to remember another call that comes to us in Christian community.    And that is the call to not remain silent in the face of evil.  While we work together to expand the table of community and to engage those of different perspectives, we are still recipients of the call to struggle for justice and to stand for what is good and true.    

As I mentioned above, my overall good opinion of President Obama does not relieve me of the responsibility for naming the dramatic rise in deportations and the continuance of what seems to be a permanent state of warfare in our nation.    Presidential candidates who brag about their participation in sexual violence cannot be greeted with our silence or inaction.  The fact that young African American men are being shot down in our streets cannot be ignored.    The reality that more than 15% of the children in our nation are hungry is not something we can simply not acknowledge.   

No.  It needs to be abundantly clear that the willingness to engage across the artificial boundaries erected by our culture is not to be confused with our responsibility to name evil and to stand against it while also naming the good and standing for that.

Is this difficult?   Yes.   Is it following the way of Jesus?   I believe it is.    

My hope is that we will live into a kind of grace that allows us to be willing to engage difference while also being clear about justice.    My prayer is that we will always keep Christ at the center, and not the shallow ideologies that our culture seeks to sell us.  My commitment is to continue to engage in the joyful struggle to build communities of faith live out the Way of Jesus.   

What we seek is what Dietrich Bohnhoeffer reffered to as "Costly Grace."

"Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

Don't Curb Your Enthusiasm...

Friends,

I want to lift my voice today in support of enthusiasm. I know. Cynics and alleged realists among you are rolling their eyes. Enthusiasm? Really? Can you not see?  Well, yes. I CAN see. I see that, in fact, things are moving forward. In 1971 there were more than 1000 political bombings in the United States. in 2015? A few.  In spite of the heated rhetoric and outright lies coming out of the mouths of certain politicians,  crime is at an all time low in this country. And income, for the first time since the "Great Recession" is going up across the board.    Our commitment to healing our environment is expanding.   Forty years ago some rivers were so polluted in the United States that they were actually catching on fire.   That's no so today.   

In the Church, we are bringing in some excellent, powerful new clergy leaders. Alleluia! Our lay folk are claiming new hope and leadership as well and the proof is in the excellent teams we have leading the ministry we share in the District where I am privileged to serve as a Superintendent.   We are collaborating as a broad community in new and exciting ways!   We are planting new Churches and encouraging experimentation in new kinds of outreach and ministry.

Are there challenges? Absolutely. Do we have struggles, the song says, "within and without?" You bet we do.    But we will not over come them if we assume a negative end. We will not find the creativity and energy to embrace an unknown future if we imagine defeat before we step into the battle.     I know.   Some of us are kind of addicted to our cynical, allegedly cool sense of detachment.  Well, it's time to kick the negativity habit and go cold turkey on complaining and nay saying.    It's time, today, to reach for an unreasonable, crazy and joyful enthusiasm.

Remember, the victory is already ours in what happened for us all on the cross.   It's been done!   Our call is to live into that victory with enthusiasm, with joy and with child-like wonder.

So when you set your alarm for tomorrow's rising. Know that someone else has already risen and calls us forward in joy.

My hope and my challenge to us all is that we will reclaim a criticism that was once leveled at us in the Wesleyan movement. We were told we were too enthusiastic and people went around saying, "Beware those singing Methodists...."

So I ask, what piece of the victory will you claim in your day tomorrow? What hope will you share? What joy will you spread? What healing will you offer? And who will you cause to smile because of your humor, your openness and your....enthusiasm?

In a very real way we create the future by the way we embrace this moment.   So, let us be co-creators of a joyful and brilliant tomorrow as we embrace this moment with joyful....enthusiasm.

Just the Facts Ma'am, Just the Facts

"Just the facts Ma'am, Just the facts."   

To some who are old enough, these words from 

Jack Webb in the TV show "Dragnet" from the 1960s may bring a smile of recognition to your face.   The hard boiled cop of black and white tv fame wanted only to deal in what was true.  The facts.

Reflecting back on this leads me to want to think with you about "fact checking."

Over the past year or so there has been a clear and increasing need to check on the veracity of the candidates' statements.   That's right.  Unchallenged, bald-faced lies are coming to us from the mouths of those who would lead our nation, and we actually need people to research and tell us whether what we are hearing is true or not.   To be candid, this takes my breath away.  

Fact checking?  Really?    

Even as these words flow from my fingers to my computer screen I can hear the reaction coming. This is nothing new.  Well,  yes.  it is true that politicians have always exaggerated, engaged in hyperbole, and even lied.  There's no question about it.  The name of Richard Nixon comes readily to mind.  But the absolute  and ongoing need for "Fact Checking" during debates and in public statements in this political season reveals a brave new world where lying is the norm.  It puts on display a media that will not provide skilled journalists who will call politicians to account. And it illuminates the disintegration of a social covenant that has historically recognized that truth telling is something we claim as a shared value.

Today we strangely echo Pontius Pilate who leveled his gaze at Jesus and asked, "What is truth?"

For centuries, people and systems have conspired to blow smog and smoke over truth, claiming that all is relative and that there really no truth.   After all, it''s just a matter or perspective, right?   This ceaseless effort  to blur reality has made all manner of unspeakable evil possible.   

But friends, we do know the truth. 

We know the things that are good and true. 

We know the things that makes for peace. 

And in our heart of hearts we do know the difference between right and wrong.

We know it's wrong for people to perish in the hellish reality of ongoing permanent war around the world.  Moreover, we know that it is evil for people to profit from this slaughter.

We know it's wrong for millions to go hungry while the few wallow in unspeakable wealth.

We know it's wrong to victimize and objectify women and people of color.....to treat anyone as a commodity.

We know that is wrong for people to suffer and die because the cost of health care is beyond their reach.

We know it's right to strive for equity for all.

We know that it is right to make sure that all people are safe and well fed, housed and secure in good jobs.   We know that it's right to welcome all people into the embrace of authentic community.   And we know it's right to struggle against oppression and discrimination in any form.

Oh yes. We know, and no amount of shrill pandering to television ratings,  profits and greed can change what we know.

Let us come together around these things that are good and true. Let us build communities of hope. Let us work together for the dignity and respect owed to all people. And let us place justice and wonder at the forefront of our shared agenda.

And the next time Pilate looks in your direction and asks you, "what is truth?"    Tell him.

It's About Community....

What words could a white  post middle-aged baby boomer utter that would make a difference in the tumult of violence swirling ever maddeningly around us?   I don't know.   I'm kind of flying in the dark here.

I could say that it is incumbent upon white folks to step up and use the power their privilege provides to engage in the authentic struggle for justice for African Americans.  For all people of course....but let's be starkly candid here and acknowledge the continuing devastation of a people by slavery, ongoing entrenched racism and a culture that simply won't confess the horror and make amends.   If anyone has the power to bring about justice and doesn't use it, they are in league with the oppressor.   Indeed.  One could say that they are the oppressor.   And yep.  I'm sayin' that.    

I could say that it might be a good idea to peel back the layers of the onion and see what's going on under the blur of media fibs and Facebook ad-libs.   Someone or some entity is benefitting from the death and mayhem, from the division and  rancor.   Who is that?   What is the perceived benefit derived from the rending fabric of a society?  Is it the Koch Brothers and their stated objective to dismantle the "dominant paradigm?"   Is it the arms industry and their various lap dogs such as the NRA and countless lobbyists beyond?  Yep.  I'm sayin' that too.

I could also say that what we are reaping is, in some ways, the harvest of a deeply imbedded narcissism within our society.   Some people would have you think the original sin has something to do with sex or some other puritanical thing.  I disagree.  I think our primal sin  is the sin of individualism.   The idea that each person can and should do what they want regardless of the impact on others is insane.  Not only is it insane, it is suicidal.    And yet, our mercantile, materialistic culture drives us ever on to do for ourselves first.  To get what we want.   To surrender to the tyranny of our own desires regardless of the consequences.    It matters not what your faith or philosophy might be, we must come to grips with the fact that we are a communal species.    We exist among, with, and for one another.   The welfare of one person is intimately connected  to the welfare of all people.   This isn't just gooey feel good optimism, it's real.    There is an ecology of the human community that is constructed upon our interdependence, upon our need for one another.     And the answer to this is community.   Yep I'm sayin this.

We are wired to be in community.

Community is a place where there is a common and dynamic sense of mutual care and commitment.   Community is a place of safety.  Not always comfort....but certainly a place of safety.   Community is a place, not of radical independent freedom, but a location of mutual exploration and discovery.   Community is a place where everyone has enough.    Authentic community does not allow or support the inequity of some people wallowing in abundance while others suffer from hunger and homelessness.    And friends, authentic community is a place where all people - that's right - no exceptions...where all people are loved and accepted, not for who we wish them to be, but for who they are in their own right.
And yep.  I'm sayin' that too.

Our work is to be weavers.  

Each one of us has the capacity to join in the shared work of weaving a dense and lovely tapestry of human community and we need to be about it now.    Not later, not in our dreams, but now.    Together we can forge the joy and wonder of a community based on mutuality and hope.    On our own, we compete for evermore mountains of "stuff."   Together we can stand with the oppressed and work for healing.   Alone, we participate in the oppression.

And yep.....I am saying this as well.   But it's time to begin the weaving, to walk the walk, to be community together.

sr