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This is a shout out to all of you church leaders out there (ordained, elected, or Holy Spirit anointed right there in the pew): Here's an important lesson from the campaign trail today. According to The Nation, Obama's win in South Carolina was anything but a "black" thing. He's got an interesting group of folks in Butte, Montana, a battered old mining town that doesn't "come much whiter or more hope-resistant," excited about him, too. And here's why:
I'm not shy about admitting that I'm a softee when it comes to the Kennedy clan. Meeting Bobby Kennedy when he made a whistle stop at my house in gritty northwest Indiana during his 1968 presidential campaign, in response to a letter I wrote him, is one of the defining moments of my life. I turned 7 that year and, sitting on the senator's lap, I asked him to bring my uncle Bill home from Vietnam. He replied, "With God's help, honey, I'll sure try." I learned a couple of important lessons that year. When Senator Kennedy was killed a few months later, I learned that sometimes the world can be a terrible place. But, because that young leader was willing to name the One from whom his strength came, I learned that God does not want it to be that way. In fact, God works through regular people and even through politicians(!), to make it different. To make things better.
So I watched Teddy's speech endorsing Barack Obama today with interest, a little nostalgia, and a longing to believe that a new day in this nation and in our world really is within our reach. Here's a taste of what the old lion had to say:
All ears on deck! Appearing on The Sunday Forum yesterday (a weekly conversation hosted by the dean of the Washington National Cathedral, Samuel T. Lloyd III, and broadcast on-line), Rick Warren had some advice for how to bail out the sinking mainline denominations and get 'em seaworthy again. Rick, of course, is pastor of the largest church in the U.S. He and his wife have taken on the fight against HIV/AIDS, pretty much single handedly, since many evangelicals think this is a sign he's gone over to the dark side and the gay community doesn't (and probably shouldn't) trust him. So, fixing what ails the mainline must seem like a walk in the park to him. This isn't all he talked about, though, and it was actually quite fascinating to hear from this guy who really does seem to be serious about getting Christians across the divide to talk to, work with, and love each other. "I’m for the whole bird," he said. "I’m for the left wing and the right wing. A bird with one wing can’t fly."
"Quick, everybody! Look busy!" That's the tone in Washington D.C. these days where lawmakers sense that the American public seems to finally be waking up. Does the whole "$800 & a mule" economic "stimulus plan" being rushed through Congress, with all the weight of the White House behind it, strike anybody else out there as the most cynical and insulting government act of the past four decades? Nobody behind this plan can possibly believe that putting an extra $800 in my pocket (or yours) is going to do a freakin' thing to avoid the economic train wreck we've set in motion. Just for starters, there's this: The average American is carrying $10,000 in credit card debt. No way anyone can seriously argue that the problem is we've been spending too little.
Jim's Wallis' book God's Politics hit the best seller list a few years ago. Last night he made his second appearance on The Daily Show. His positions on various, especially justice & human rights, issues often come off sounding mealy-mouthed, like he's afraid of the conservative somebodies just off stage. That's too bad because he's got enough goodwill stored up out there - and enough media attention - to be able to really help move us forward. Poverty is his pet project and, although it is important, it is not the only thing wrong in the world; and the poor are not the only ones suffering. But Jim has done a lot to help crack the monolithic voice of the Religious Right in the public square and, for that, I'm very grateful. My hope is that the rest of us will figure out a way to leverage the opening he's created. After you watch the video of his interview with Jon Stewart (whose questions, by the way, are first rate) below, sit down and write a letter to your local newspaper. Or do something even more creative(!). Be a humble - but bold - voice for a new day in your community. Jon wouldn't have invited this guy to come talk with him if he didn't know: People out there are interested in hearing another kind of message coming out of the Christian community. That means they want to hear from you.
A lot of mainline churches these days are using an assessment tool called Natural Church Development to discover their strengths and, even more importantly, their "minimum factor." This is their weakest area and it's the place they are encouraged to focus for the sake of renewal, vitality, and health. Everywhere I go, through my work at A Renewal Enterprise (A.R.E.), congregational and judicatory leaders tell me in hushed tones - as though they are the only ones in this position - that the thing they know they need to work on the most is characteristic #8: Passionate Spirituality. In fact, according to my sources within the Lutheran church (ELCA), this is the minimum factor for most of our congregations who have used this tool. In other words, what's missing in our congregations is "a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ."
What in the world is going on here?!
Last weekend we walked right past The Bucket List and Alvin & the Chipmunks (imagine that!) to see The Great Debaters. This is the Denzel Washington/Oprah Winfrey production that tells the true story of the impossibly great debate team from little Wiley College in 1935. Wiley was the first black college west of the Mississippi. Against all odds, its debate team beat every big historically black college to their east...and a couple of famous white colleges, too, including Harvard. The film is, at moments, almost too painful to watch. It's the American south. It's 1935. But you know that the heroes are going to win out in the end - you want to believe they will, anyway - and [spoiler alert] they do.
Continue reading "The Time For Justice Is Always Right Now" »
So a Christian fundamentalist and a mainline Christian walk into a bar...
Sounds like the start of a joke, right?, that would highlight the differences between the two while poking fun at them both. Somebody finish it for me.
In the meantime, in a more serious way, I want to propose this as THE BIG DIFFERENCE between what is usually called Christian "fundamentalism" and the more "mainline" varietal many of us know and love: DOUBT.
We have it. And they don't.
Somebody please send this memo to the two front-runners in the Democratic presidential race: The fact that either of you is in this contest would be a testimony to how far we've come as a nation. That you are BOTH in the race seems to some of us a miracle. It's a day we believed would come some day but we never really expected to see. Celebrate it with us, will you please?!?
And, for Pete's sake, stop fighting.
OK, so what's with the new attitude? Where'd this whole "no more cynicism" thing come from? What happened to the Kelly we all know and love?! Or, at least, have come to count on for a daily dose of "wake up and pay attention to what's really happening, people!"? Relax. I'm still here. But, I've got to tell you, I'm feeling very warm and fuzzy these days. It'd be easy to explain it this way: I took some time off during the holidays. Nothing like a couple of naps to cheer you up. But the real truth is this: I started off the New Year in the company of people through whom God showed up.
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