Musings

Progressive Christian Visibility

 

That great defender of the faith, Don Trump, responding in faux outrage to the fact that Trans Visibility Day happened to coincide with Easter this year, declared that Election Day 2024 should be “Christian Visibility Day.”

As if Christians have a visibility problem in America today.

Drive through Simi Valley, the town where the church I serve is located, and you'll find a great deal of Christian visibility. Churches are everywhere—even here in California, the Bible Shoestring of America.

But in Simi Valley, one of the very few places you'll experience trans visibility or LGBTQ+ visibility in general is in front of our church.  Except that every time we put up a trans or pride flag, eventually it gets torn down.  Also, signage that indicates our full embrace of LGBTQ+ is torn down repeatedly or defaced.  In response to Trump’s latest mutterance, we mounted yet another trans flag.

Longer may it wave!

Trump’s cynical declaration played to the grievance that evangelical Christian leaders have cultivated in this country.  They whine that Christians are being persecuted in America.  And they say it in the same breath as they claim that America is a Christian nation.  It's an obvious contradiction.  We could ask evangelicals to make up their minds and choose one trope over the other.  But of course, we’d be asking in vain.  In matters of religious or political identity, logic seldom comes into play.

Christianity in America does not have a visibility problem.  Everyone has been subjected to it, whether they like it or not.  Nor does Christianity have a persecution problem unless one twists the word into a pretzel and claims that being denied the freedom to deny the freedom of others is a violation of religious freedom.

I suppose that I and my church members could claim that we are being persecuted for our progressive Christian visibility since our signs and flags are being torn down and defaced.  I am certain that many of our evangelical counterparts would howl the P-word if the same sort of thing happened to them.  We’re annoyed, for sure.  But vandalism happens.  It hardly counts as persecution.  Nobody got hurt, nobody’s religious freedom was denied, no buildings were burned or bulldozed.  In worship, we prayerfully lift up hope that the vandals will see the light and have a change of heart.  And then, we calmly replace the flags and signs.

Progressive Christian Visibility Day definitely should fall on Election Day 2024.

And every other day, too.

Christianity is hardly invisible.  The problem is the type of visibility that it has.  Its image is painted overwhelmingly in dogmatic black-and-white when really it should be rendered as a rainbow.  When people drive past your church, what most of them think they are seeing is a fundamentalist/evangelical congregation full of people who voted for Trump - unless you make it visibly obvious that you’re different.  That means waving the rainbow in front of the building.  And putting up signs to show that you are different.  And replacing them when they get torn down or defaced.  And making obvious who you are and who you aren’t on your websites and social media.  And doing provocative programming that gives you “earned media” you could never afford to buy:  holding events that stand out and make clear your distinctive witness of full inclusion, non-dogmatic spirituality, and activism for peace and justice.

We need to err on the side of outrageousness. That’s a hard ask for many of our progressive churches, filled as they are with nice folks who don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Of course, we should be kind in whatever we do—outrageously kind!

A few months ago, in response to the book-banning craze spreading around the country, our church put up a “Little Library of Banned Books” in front of our building, near the street.  Anyone can open it up and borrow a book that has been banned somewhere.  (Including a Bible, which is banned or limited in access in many countries.)  When the congregation gathered outside to dedicate it, a reporter from a local paper covered the story, and we got enthusiastic support from people in our wider community.  It was “earned media” that cost us almost nothing since the little library was built from scrap, and the books were donated.

The adherents of Christianity in America are in numerical decline.  Not because Christians are being persecuted but because Christians persecute.  More and more Americans are disgusted with a religion that denies women equality and reproductive freedom, disparages sexual minorities, demonizes immigrants, and denies the reality of devastating human-caused climate change.

As progressives, we have a responsibility and a golden opportunity to flip the narrative about Christianity in America.  The time is right and ripe.  As evangelical leaders panic about the decline of their churches, they are looking for a scapegoat.  And they’ve found one in progressive Christianity.  Scour the internet and you’ll see for yourself just how shrill their condemnations of our movement have become.  They used to ignore us as a harmless fringe phenomenon.  But now they see us as the “devil’s vanguard.”  Of course, their rants are the best publicity we possibly could get!  Because with each diatribe against us, they make their own people aware that there is an alternative way to practice and understand the faith - one that many of them are secretly or not-so-secretly seeking.

And indeed, Election Day looms ahead of us, with consequences that could not be more crucial.  From now till November, we need to let “perfect love cast out fear” (1 John 4:18) and make ourselves visible in ways we might never have considered before.  We don’t need to name candidates.  It is IRS-legal and just as effective to name the issues for which we’ll be voting.  Start making and posting signs for the front of your church now:  WE VOTE TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE.  WE VOTE FOR HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.  WE VOTE TO WELCOME MIGRANTS.  ABORTION RIGHTS = RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

For a lot of us in progressive churches, such messaging will seem edgy.  But outrageous times call for outrageous responses.  In our case, for outrageously kind responses that raise our progressive Christian visibility… not just for our own sake, but for the sake of people who really are suffering and being persecuted.

 

God After Deconstruction

 

GOD AFTER DECONSTRUCTION
a review by Jim Burklo of the new book by
Thomas Jay Oord and Tripp Fuller
SacraSage Press 2024

 
In the 12^th century, the Spanish Jewish philosopher Maimonides wrote “The Guide for the Perplexed” in order to help the intellectually-oriented to find meaning in the Hebrew scriptures deeper than a literal reading could yield.  “God After Deconstruction” is a guide for perplexed evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who seek a kinder, saner understanding and practice of the faith.  Its authors themselves have “deconstructed” from supernaturalist, exclusivist, and triumphalist Christianity.  Tom is in recovery from his expulsion from a Church of the Nazarene seminary for viewpoints they considered heretical.  Tripp is a leading ex-vangelical scholar and podcaster.
 
Tom Oord now convenes a wide circle of scholars and thinkers around his “open and relational” theology, clearly influenced by his PhD studies in process theology at Claremont School of Religion.  He crystallized a framework that took the essentials of Whiteheadian thought and made them accessible to a lay audience made up primarily of “deconstructing” evangelicals.  A key term coined by Tom underlies this and his other books: God is amipotent – love + power - attracting all toward goodness and creativity, and not omnipotent – directing and controlling the cosmos. 
 
This book breaks down the causes of deconstruction: grappling with the problem of evil, abuse in the church, irreconcilable conundrums in the Bible, doctrinal absurdities, conflicts with science, conflation of the faith with reactionary politics, and the reality of religious diversity.  One by one, the authors offer alternative theological constructs, all pointing back to God as amipotent rather than omnipotent.
 
This book is easy to read, with study notes after each chapter, and lots of useful footnotes to direct further, deeper exploration.  I recommend it highly for individuals and groups as a pathway into a more sensible, compassionate form of Christianity.  It is a balm for the suffering that comes with dismantling a non-functional and often harmful, toxic theology.  Readers going through this wrenching process will feel understood and embraced.
 
At the same time, the book begs a question.  1 John 4:8 says, “God is love”.  Love is not an entity, a divine or supreme being, but rather a certain kind or quality of relationship.   Indeed, as Tom and Tripp repeatedly suggest, love does not control or direct.  It can’t be blamed for the evil that exists in the world.  It manifests beyond any particular religion or scripture.  It attracts and inspires and guides us toward the good.  But why, then, would we continue to use anthropomorphic language to describe God?  Over and over, the authors write about what God wants and what God does.  They say that God relates, as if he/she/they/it were a party to a relationship, but the implication of “God is love” is that God is the relationship itself.  God is a relationship that is personal, but God is not a person.
 
Either God is an amipotent entity, or God is amipotence itself.  This important distinction isn’t clarified in the book, leaving the deconstructing Christian dangling at a precipice.
 
In the process philosophy and theology of Alfred North Whitehead and his followers, the cosmos is understood as a web of relationships rather than as a collection of atomic, individual “dots”.  Relationships are the fundamentals of the universe - constantly creating, shifting, and changing in an open, non-determined manner.  Why, then, would we stick with the old God-language that is used to refer to a Guy in the Sky, managing and manipulating the universe? 
 
We can creatively interpret the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a mythological expression of the death of a supernatural, omnipotent God and the emergence of God as nothing less, and nothing more, than love.  God as a supreme being was laid in the tomb, and God as the transformative, relational consciousness of compassion rose on the third day.
 
So to this otherwise highly useful book, written with deep sensitivity, I would add this sequel.  Not only is it okay to let go of biblical literalism, Christian exclusivism, and absurd and toxic doctrines, it is also okay to let go of thinking and talking about God as a supreme person or entity.  It’s a small step out of defunct doctrine, and a giant leap into a faith that embraces and nourishes the soul.
 

Remembering Chip Murray

 

 

9/26/1929 - 4/5/2024

When he preached, he spontaneously broke into rhyme.  Not just with his own words, but with the souls of his congregation, with the hearts of the people in the community he served.  Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray was the quintessence of the Black preacher, rousing his listeners to joyful amens and hallelujias.  But carried along in the cadence of his call and their response, embedded between and under and within his words, was mysticism.  Teresa of Avila came through, as did Meister Eckhart and Julian of Norwich and Howard Thurman, if you had ears to hear.  He delivered his hearers into union with divine Love.
 
Chip Murray was “twice tested by fire”…. the title of the memoir he wrote in 2012.  First in the crash of a plane in his decade as an Air Force officer, and later in his pivotal role in bringing peace to South Central LA in the 1992 riots that burned through the neighborhood of the church he served for 27 years, FAME – First African Methodist Episcopal.  His inspirational leadership grew the church from 250 to 18,000 souls, and FAME became the center of Black life in the city.  After retiring, he served as a mentor to countless pastors and community leaders through the Cecil Murray Center at the University of Southern California.  He taught them the arts of civic engagement for social justice.  It was in that era that I had the very great privilege of getting to know him, in the course of my work as Senior Associate Dean of Religious Life there.  Upon meeting him, I knew I was in the presence of a saint.  A Bodhisattva.  He was radiant.  You could get a sunburn from his smile.  He was unfailingly kind and humble to the core.  He was one of the most powerful political players in Los Angeles, but put on no airs that would suggest it.  He truly was the greatest among us by virtue of being a servant to all the rest.
 
Chip Murray made Christianity look very, very good.  He was disinterested in dogma.  He was disinterested in theological labels.  He ignored the boundaries within and among religions, embracing what was good in all.  He didn’t need to use words like “ecumenism” and “interfaith” and “progressive” because every corpuscle of his being exuded love without limits.  Showing up on the streets during the ’92 riot, the universal respect he commanded in the community was crucial to bringing reconciliation and recovery.  His cred was unassailable.  He was a PhD student under the legendary John Cobb at Claremont School of Theology.  While Chip did not use the arcane lingo of Whiteheadian process theology, what he learned from Cobb was implicit, embedded, in his practice and preaching.  His was a theology of invitation to participate in cosmic, generative creativity.
 
Years ago, I attended a talk he gave at USC for a group mostly consisting of white evangelical staff people.  He responded to a loaded question about doctrine by saying, in so many words, that Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on spiritual truth.  That left his audience speechless.  The reverence they could not help but have for the man left them with a palpable cognitive dissonance.  Chip Murray had the purity of heart and character to change hearts and minds.  A purity to which I earnestly aspire.
 
In death, may his life resonate, vibrate, from Los Angeles beyond, as his sonorous voice reverberated inside FAME church.  Chip Murray, “¡Presente!”

(See my 2012 "musing" about him HERE)

Chants: A Spiritual Practice

These chants are ones I’ve been using for many years in progressive Christian worship, interfaith/spiritual life on campus, and many other settings in my career.  In some cases I’ve changed the words to make them more compatible with progressive theology.  So the words I list here don’t necessarily line up with the versions played online.  

1. Mira que te mira, mira que te mira, mira que te mira, mira le – (“See that you are seen” – a quote from St Teresa of Avila, 16^th c. Spanish mystic) -- LISTEN

2. Busca el tu que nunca es tuyo (4x) (Seek the you that is never yours) – Antonio Machado – tune by Jim Burklo

3. Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bodhi svaha…

            (Buddhist Heart Sutra: Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond…)  Lots of online versions of this

4. Humble thyself in the sight of our God

            Humble thyself in the sight of our God

            And he/she shall lift you up

            Higher and higher

            And he/she shall lift you up    LISTEN

5. O God hear our prayer, O God hear our prayer

            When we call, answer us

            O God hear our prayer, O God hear our prayer

            Come and listen to us....   LISTEN

6. What does the Lord require of you?

                        What does the Lord require of you?

                        To seek justice, and love mercy, and

                            walk humbly with our God

                        To seek justice, and love mercy, and

                            walk humbly with our God    LISTEN

7. Ooh, ooh, ooh, adoramus te, Domine LISTEN

8. I am sending you light, to heal you, to hold you

            I am sending you light, to hold you in love     LISTEN

9. Jubilate Deo, omnis terra, servite Domino

            in leatitia, Allelujia, Allelujia, in  leatitita

            Allelujia, Allelujia, in  leatitia

            (Rejoice in God, all the earth

            Serve the Lord with gladness)    LISTEN

10. The river is flowing, flowing and growing

       The river is flowing, down to the sea

       Mother carry me, your child I will always be

      Mother carry me, down to the sea    LISTEN

11. Come and fill our hearts with your peace

            You alone O God are holy

            Come and fill our hearts with your peace

            Allelujia      LISTEN

12. Sing allelujia to our God

            Sing allelujia to our God

            Sing allelujia

            Sing allelujia

            Sing allelujia to our God.....    LISTEN

13. Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray

            Watch and pray (Taize)   LISTEN

14. One bread, one body  

                        One God of all

                        One cup of blessing which we bless

                        And we, though many, throughout the earth

                        We are one body in this one bread...... (St Louis Jesuits)   LISTEN

15. Prepare ye the way of our God

                        Prepare ye the way of our God  (Godspell) LISTEN

16. Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire

                        that never dies away, never dies away  (Taize)   LISTEN

17. Bless the Lord, my soul

            And bless God's holy name

            Bless the Lord, my soul,

            Who leads me into life   (Taize)  LISTEN

18. Return again, return again

            Return to the land of your soul

            Return again, return again,

            Return to the land of your soul

            Return to who you are

            Return to what you are

            Return to where you are

            Born and reborn again....  (Shlomo Carlebach)

  LISTEN

19. Ubi caritas, et amor

            Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est  (Taize)

            (Where there is charity, and love, there is God)   LISTEN

20. Round and round we go

            We hold each other’s hands

            And weave our lives in a circle

            The day begins (or: is done) and the dance goes on    LISTEN

21. The will of your love, the will of your love

            Be done on earth, as it is in heaven....            LISTEN

22. Love, love, love, people this is your call

            Love your neighbor as yourself for God loves all      LISTEN

23. Great peace they surely have

                        Who in our God confide

                        Who cast on God all care

                        And in God's love abide.....  (Jim Garrison)

24. Seek ye first the kingdom of God

            And its righteousness, and all these things

            Shall be added unto you, allelu, alleluia   LISTEN

25. Om nama Shiva, Om nama Shiva,

            Om nama Shiva, Shiva Om nama.... (Hindu – “I bow to Shiva”)

  LISTEN 

26. Truly this is the house of God

            Holy ground

            Truly this is the house of God

            Holy ground

27. Goodbye (or: goodnight), friend of mine

                        Take your rest

                        Lay your weary head

                        Upon your Savior's breast

                        I love you, but Jesus loves you best

                        So goodbye, goodbye, goodbye....

28. May the blessings of God rest upon you

            May God’s peace abide with you

            May God’s presence illuminate your heart

            Now and forever more   LISTEN

29. Oh, emptiness, source of all that matters,

Spirit, give to us hearts that are trusting....  LISTEN

30. Nada te turbe, nada te espante

            Quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta

            Nada te turbe, nada te espante

            Solo Dios basta.....

                        (Let nothing disturb you,

                        Let nothing you dismay

                        He/she who has God lacks nothing

                        Only God suffices.... St Teresa of Avila, 16^th c Spanish mystic)    LISTEN

31. In our God I’ll be ever thankful,

            In our God I shall rejoice

            Look to God, do not be afraid,

            Lift up your voices, our God is near

            Lift up your voices, our God is near    LISTEN

32. Oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh,

            Surrexit Christus, allelujia!

            Oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh,

            Cantate Domino, allelujia!

                        (Christ is risen, sing to the Lord!)    LISTEN

33. Spirit we adore you

                        Lay our lives before you

                        How we love you....  LISTEN

34. Praise God, the love we all may share

            Praise God, the beauty everywhere

            Praise God, the hope of good to be

            Praise God, the truth that makes us free  (Doxology)

35. Now in peace O Lord

            Let thy servant go -- allelujia

            For my eyes have seen

            Your salvation – allelujia     LISTEN

36. Surely the presence of our God is in this place

            I can feel your mighty power, and your grace

            I can feel the brush of angel’s wings,

            I see glory on each face,

            Surely the presence of our God is in this place.   LISTEN

37. O Great Spirit

            Earth sun sky and sea

            You are inside, and all around me    LISTEN

38. Just as long as I'm in this world

                        I am the light of this world----   LISTEN

39. When I went down to the river to pray

            Studying about that good old way

            And who shall wear the robe and crown

            Good Lord, show me the way

            O sisters, come on down, come on down

            Donít you want to go down

            O brothers, come on down,

            Down to the river to pray.....    LISTEN

40. Day by day, day by day

            O dear God, three things I pray

            To see you more clearly

            Love you more dearly

            Follow you more nearly

            Day by day     LISTEN

41. There is one world, one people, one fellowship

            There is one God, who is Mother/Father of all    LISTEN

42. Be not afraid, I go before you always

            Come, follow me, and I will give you rest    LISTEN

43. Our God is an awesome God

            Who soars like the Spirit dove

            With power, truth and love

            Our God is an awesome God    LISTEN

Stand in Wonder

Words:  Jim Burklo
tune:  Christ the Lord is Risen Today – Easter Hymn 7.7.7.7.
Use freely, with attribution

 
At the dawn new life surprises, Allelujia
From the darkness light arises, Allelujia
See the stone is rolled away, Allelujia
On this resurrection day, Allelujia
 
Over death God’s love prevails, Allelujia
Over all of our travails, Allelujia
By no cross is it restrained, Allelujia
By no grave is it contained, Allelujia
 
Reap in joy what’s sown with tears, Allelujia
Courage springs from all our fears, Allelujia
Stand in wonder at the sight, Allelujia
Sunrise overtakes the night, Allelujia
 
Buried till its second birth, Allelujia
Hope emerges from the earth, Allelujia
In morning light our voices raise, Allelujia
Singing out with joyful praise, Allelujia

 

Reunion

 

REUNION

 

My brother died.
We siblings gathered
To sort through his belongings.
In one box, we found a little stuffed bear,
Its fuzz worn away in patches.
Curious, I asked one of my sisters to pass it to me,
And when I held it up,
And looked into the two buttons
That were all that remained of its face,
Those eyes came alive in mine.
To the surprise of my sisters,
I blurted out, from a place deep within:
“Beary!”
 
Beary! 
Companion and comforter
Of my early childhood!
Beary! 
Whose name I had not uttered
Nor remembered
For nearly sixty years!
Beary!
Lost to my awareness,
But there within me all along.
 
Beary!
You quickened this old man,
Awakened me
To the little child still living within:
The child who knows
Your eyes look back
Into my own,
The child whose love for you
Is one and the same with your love for me.
 
When I had grown out
Of the life in Beary’s eyes,
And saw them just as plastic buttons,
I must have given Beary
To my baby brother.
And through my brother’s early years,
The love of Beary fed his soul.
And when my brother grew out
Of the life in Beary’s eyes,
Beary went into a box
Until our moment of reunion.
 
The last time I saw my brother.
As he lay in a hospital bed,
Our eyes locked,
As my eyes fixed on Beary’s when I was a toddler,
As my brother’s eyes gazed into Beary’s when he was young.
And now as I look into Beary’s eyes,
Again we live
And we love.

 

 

VOTIVATOR: How I'm Voting 3/5/24

Votivator – March 5 Primary Election

Jim Burklo

I begin by urging us all not only to pay attention to “votivators” like myself, but to consider becoming “votivators” for others.  There is nothing at all dishonorable about copying the ballot choices of trusted and respected friends.  It is a form of full participation in democracy.  But of course, it is wonderful to go a step further and make one’s own carefully-researched choices based on reputable, verifiable sources of information about candidates and issues.  And then to go yet another step further and become a “votivator” who shares those choices with others. 

While I am in this latter category, I still pay close attention to the choices of “votivators” who are better informed about particular issues and candidates than I am.  Please let me know what you’re thinking about the choices before us on March 5!  I haven’t filled out my mail-in ballot yet!

I live in Ojai, in Ventura County, California.  So my world of “votivation” has shifted since my days in Los Angeles.  But I subscribe to the LA Times and read it thoroughly, and do maintain some awareness of what’s going on in the greater southern California region.  (BTW, I also subscribe to The Economist Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and the New Yorker – reading these sources carefully, and listening to local and national public radio when I’m driving to and from work, comprise my primary diet of information on public issues and candidates.) 

President:  Joe Biden.  The survival of democracy is very much at stake in the November election.   This becomes more obvious with each passing day, as Trump makes more abundantly clear his autocratic intentions.  I want to address my strongly progressive friends here.  I share your deep frustration with Biden’s “blank check” support of Israel as its radical right-wing government engages in the wanton killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza.  Biden’s administration should have cut off military aid to Israel when this indiscriminate bombing began.  I have repeatedly sent emails to Biden and my members of Congress and the Senate with my sentiments.  And you have protested vigorously, as well.  The good news is that despite our frustrations, our opinions are in fact having a serious impact.  Biden is now pressuring Israel to pause the fighting, get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, end settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and accept a two-state solution to the conflict… moves that the US wasn’t vigorously pushing on October 6.  And we must remember that Trump is cheering on the Israelis to do whatever they want to the Palestinians.  There is a huge difference between the candidates on this issue.  In our political system, we face a binary choice in November.  If we care about maintaining our Constitution, if we want elections to matter, if we want real peace in the Middle East, we have one choice, and it’s Joe Biden.  A vote for anybody but Joe Biden is a vote for Trump.  Period.  Some of us may have pinch our noses when we vote for Biden and urge others to vote for him, but the alternative is absolutely unacceptable.  If Ralph Nader had not made his third-party run in 2000, Al Gore would have won the Electoral College in Florida, and we would have been spared the presidency of George Bush.  Let’s not repeat that debacle.

Senate:  Katie Porter.  It’s highly likely that Adam Schiff will win the primary and will win in November.  And I’m good with him.  But I really admire Katie Porter’s intelligence and feistiness.  I think she’d be a breath of fresh air in the Senate.  She’s unabashed and brash, but is also a team player, which is very important in a body like the Senate that is at least supposed to be deliberative.  I admire Barbara Lee a lot, and I can imagine having voted for her for Senate ten years ago – but her age, 77, is a real problem.  I admire Katie’s statement re: Israel/Palestine – read it here.  Another reason to vote for Katie Porter is strategic:  she’s has a good chance of taking second place in the primary, which would eliminate from the November ballot the breathtakingly clueless and reactionary Republican candidate, Steve Garvey.  A Schiff/Porter contest would make for really lively political conversation… and for those who care about what’s going on in Israel/Palestine, it would make it more likely that this subject would be front and center in the campaign.  Both Porter and Schiff need to be pushed further on this topic.

Congress:  Salud Carbajal, Democrat, incumbent.  Our property is right at the very edge of his 24^th CA Congressional district.  I like to say that we live on the eastern border of the coastal elite! – because of the right-wing yard signs we see across the street and in the countryside beyond.  But Salud Carbajal is anything but a member of that club.  He was born in Mexico, the son of a farmworker, and is a military veteran.

California Senate:  Monique Limon, Democrat, incumbent.

California Assembly:  Steve Bennett, Democrat, incumbent.

Ventura County Supervisors, 1^st district:  Matt LaVere, incumbent.  I’ve met him and am impressed with him.  Along with 5^th district incumbent Vianey Lopez and 3^rd district challenger Kim Marra Stephenson, he’s opposed the oil industry’s lobbying efforts in the County.   All three are the picks of the Ventura County Democratic Party. 

Judge, Office #4, Superior Court, Ventura:  Edward Andrews.  He’s a deputy District Attorney and his boss, Erik Nasarenko, whom I admire (and whose Ukrainian parents are friends of mine) endorses him. 

State Measure 1:  Yes.  I’m torn on this one, but persuaded in particular by its endorsement by NAMI – the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which is the advocacy organization of people experiencing mental illness and their families and friends – a group that I have greatly respected since my days of working with it in Palo Alto when I led the nonprofit serving unhoused people there.  It is a huge bond that would fund housing and treatment beds and services for people suffering from mental illness.  The downside is that it would also redirect substantial existing funds from the “millionaires’ tax” used by local governments to serve this population, prioritizing housing over mental health services.  I and many others wish this “devil’s bargain” wasn’t part of the measure.  If you vote “no”, I wouldn’t argue very vigorously with you about it!  Because there’s always another day, and another, better ballot measure that could be put before us.  But now’s our chance to make a big investment in housing and treatment for the most vulnerable among us, and I’m trusting that whatever problems result from this measure can be rectified later.

 

Servant Consciousness and the Survival of Democracy

 

Matthew 20:25-28 NRSV

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:6-11 NRSV

 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself...

 

A slave.  A servant.  Such is the status to which Jesus aspired.  The status to which he inspires us to aspire.

The slave, the servant, owns nothing.  The slave, the servant, tends to what belongs to the master.  The slave, the servant, belongs to the master and is charged with acting only in the master’s interest. 

Not what most of us have in minds for ourselves, is it?  Especially for those of us who live in an individualistic, capitalistic society in which we are barraged with propaganda suggesting that each of us was meant to be a master.

But as we clear our minds and hearts of this delusion, we can see its disastrous consequences.  In our quest to be masters, we lose the ability to cooperate for the common good.  In our belief that each of us is the captain of our own ship, our ships run aground and into each other.  We run amok, destroying our planet as we each claim sovereignty over our little patches of it.  In our quest to be masters of the universe, we lose mastery even over our own minds.

We’re not meant to be masters.  We’re meant to be servants.  But not of any one human being.

“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants,” said William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania.  We must submit ourselves as servants of the Ultimate Reality.  Or we’ll end up as peons under autocrats.

Each of us is a temporary occupant of the role we play in stewardship of the Earth.  We own no status, we own no position.  We do our parts as we live, and we let our parts be taken up by others when our time is up. 

In America today, with the whole world watching, we are presented with a choice.  Will we follow the admonition of Jesus, will we remember the wisdom of Paul and of William Penn, or will we drift asleep into delusion?  

Here is one simple but jarring way to understand the extreme threat that Donald Trump poses to our democracy.  When he occupied the office of the President, he believed that he owned it, and he acted accordingly.  Just like he owned and operated the Trump Organization for his personal benefit.  He believed that the Attorney General was his personal attorney, to act in his personal interests.  He believed that the military was his personal armed force, to act in his personal interest.  He believed that the entire government – all three branches of it, executive, judicial, and legislative, was his personal property to do his bidding for his own benefit.  No matter that the underlying assumption of our Constitution is that all offices of government, including the presidency, belong to the people, and that those who occupy those offices are temporary stewards of those roles, charged with employing them to serve the people and not their own personal interests.

Donald Trump was only the tenant of the White House, but he was convinced he held title to it.  No wonder he refused to recognize the legitimacy of the person who became its next tenant.

The assumption that ours is a government of laws, not of particular people, is so fundamental to our system of government that few of us have thought about it or discussed it.  So when this man entered the highest office of the land and violated its essential nature with impunity, we were literally left speechless. 

And because we were left speechless, because we failed to wrap our minds around how profoundly he violated the root norm of democracy, this debased person could once again occupy the office of the President.  And then act without any remaining restraints on his assumption that he was, still is, and ever shall be the owner of the White House.

Donald Trump is the nightmarish cartoon image of the exact opposite of the person Jesus wanted us to be.  His obvious unworthiness of his wealth and status is crucial to this aspiration.  If a person so boorish, so disinterested in facts or expertise can be a billionaire and become president of the United States, then anybody can be master of the universe. His spectacular moral and intellectual incompetence isn’t a bug, it’s the main feature of the persona to which he inspires people to aspire.  He’s not aristocratic, not refined, not dignified like proper rich people expect each other to be.  He’s a low-class person with high wealth and power: that is the attraction. This is the message with which he has infected the brains of millions of people:  “He’s me, just with a lot more money!”

Vaclav Havel, an avant-garde playwright and freedom activist who went on to become the first president of the Czech Republic after the communist system there was overthrown, believed that the survival of humanity depended on humility – a recognition that we all answer to Something/Someone beyond us.  He wasn’t a religious person in any formal sense.  But his sentiment resonated with Jesus’ admonition for us to be servants to all the rest:  “… we must divest ourselves of our egotistical anthropocentrism, our habit of seeing ourselves as masters of the universe who can do whatever occurs to us. We must discover a new respect for what transcends us: for the universe, for the earth, for nature, for life, and for reality. Our respect for other people, for other nations and for other cultures, can only grow from a humble respect for the cosmic order and from an awareness that we are a part of it, that we share in it and that nothing of what we do is lost, but rather becomes part of the eternal memory of being, where it is judged….  Pride is precisely what will lead the world to hell. I am suggesting an alternative: humbly accepting our responsibility for the world.” (From his 1995 Harvard commencement address, later published under the title “Radical Renewal of Human Responsibility”)

We are tenants in this world, not its owners.  We are stewards of the earth, not its rulers.  We are servants of each other, no matter our station in life.  Whatever roles we occupy are temporary assignments to be left in better condition when we leave than when we entered.  And we do well to place people in high office who reflect this humble servant-consciousness.  The survival of our democracy – and the survival of our planet – depend on it.

The Christening

By Jim Burklo

(Matthew 26: 6-13, Mark 14: 3-9, Luke 7: 36-50, John 12: 1-8)

 

At a party,

when a woman,

without giving notice,

anointed Jesus with perfumed oil,

his fellow guests objected to its expense,

which could have been put to use serving the poor.

But in that extravagant act,

Jesus was made Christ, the Anointed One.

 

Men were made kings of Israel

with coronations of oil poured over their heads

by other powerful men in pompous ceremony.

Jesus was ennobled by surprise

by a powerless woman

of questioned repute

with fragrant oil

poured over him to excess.

 

And from her,

as profligately as with the oil,

love flowed out and over and into him.

Love without viscosity,

sinking into him

between and around and into his every pore and cell,

lubricating away every point of friction

between him and the world he was meant to serve;

loosening him from the rust of dogma and convention,

releasing his heart and mind

into unbounded empathy

for the sufferings and yearnings of others.

 

So the fine oil of love rises out of the hidden depths

through cracks in the hard strata of the world,

so subtle we cannot see, but only feel it

when, drawn to us, it finds its way

and seeps in.

 

At all costs, let us receive it

and share it

with abandon.

Action Now to Save Democracy

Obviously, American democracy is in enormous danger in 2024, as demonstrated in both the words and the behavior of Donald Trump and his followers and enablers. Now – not later - is the time for each of us to do our parts in preventing him from being elected to the presidency. 

Instead of fretting, we can take action right away.

Here are four very do-able, simple things you can take on right now – and I hope you’ll urge your friends to do the same.
 

1.  Make a list of friends, relatives, and acquaintances who are possible or likely Trump voters.  Initiate kind, friendly, curious, open-hearted and open-minded small talk with them, in person or online… without bringing up politics at all.  Be nice to them, even if you are upset with them. Especially if you’re upset with them. Trump is amping up the rhetoric of demonization, suggesting that all who oppose him are “vermin”.Demonstrate to his supporters that you are a decent, caring human being.  This injects cognitive dissonance into their minds, which they won’t be able to reconcile with what Trump and company are saying.

2.  Start waving the US flag. Put one in front of your house, put a flag sticker on your car bumper, etc. Do it now. I get it that a lot of you will find this very hard. A lot of folks will assume you’re a Republican because you wave the flag. But that’s the point! Later, when campaign season gets fully into play, put up a BIDEN sign under your flag. And/or signs for other Democratic candidates. Surprise! Again, this sets up powerful cognitive dissonance in the minds of Trumpers – whose most cherished assumption is that progressives are not patriots. But, in fact, YOU are the patriot!  Out-flag the Trumpers. If you wave the flag, as a progressive, you give other flag-waving folks implicit permission to change their minds without giving up their patriotism. Remember that many if not most people who support Trump and Trumpism are disinterested in public policy issues. It’s all about identity, culture, emotions, and grievances. By waving the flag, you bridge the culture gap and make it easier for them to move in the progressive direction. The more of us who reclaim the flag, the more powerful it will be for our cause!

3.  Wave your Christian identity, online and in person!  Make it clear that the way you vote has everything to do with your commitment to following Jesus’ way of compassion and justice. Again, this sets up powerful cognitive dissonance in the minds of those who are convinced that crude and cruel political positions are somehow rooted in their Christianity.  It gives them cover to keep their Christian identity while changing course about politics.

4.  Every vote counts, every voice counts, in saving democracy.  A vote for anybody but Biden is a vote for Trump.  And refusing to vote at all is a vote for Trump. Period. That’s just the way it is, whether we like it or not.  Had Ralph Nader not run as a third-party candidate in 2000, Al Gore would have won in Florida and become the president.  So have gentle but firm chats with your progressive friends who are mad at Biden about Gaza, etc, etc.  They’re right to be unhappy with the way he’s dealing with that conflict.  (They ought much more to fear what Trump would do instead.)  They were already mad at Biden for not being progressive enough about other issues.  Let them know you care about these issues, too.  And engage with them about the fact that making things right in the Middle East, dealing decisively with climate change, and addressing ongoing racism, all depend on the survival of democracy in America.  And that, whether we like it or not, today our system of government leaves us with only two choices.Biden, with all his warts, or Trump, who will dismantle democracy and take us backward on all the causes that matter to us.  And that in order for Biden to win, we must support him with vigor, even if some of us have to pinch our noses.  Everything that matters depends on backing him.   This is not a time to demand the perfect.  We’ve all got to act like grown-ups.   It is a time to save America from tyranny, so that it will be possible, over time, to make peace, do justice, and protect the planet.

A special note to religious leaders:  this is not the year to be timid about preaching politics from the pulpit.  It can be done with sensitivity and respect for everyone, but it must be done.  Not speaking out is taking a stand.  As folks who respect the law, we get shy about possible violations of IRS rules about endorsing candidates from the pulpit.  (Read this for helpful background on the regulations.)  Meanwhile, thousands of evangelical pastors have zero respect for the law.  They are blatantly violating the IRS rules and openly are endorsing candidates by name in churches, and are not facing any consequences.  They've successfully intimidated the IRS from taking action.  That doesn't take us off the hook, or make it right for us to do what they're doing.  But since the IRS is failing to enforce its code, we can move very close to the edge of the law and the likelihood of any consequences are virtually nil.  Without naming names, we can speak out clearly about the issues at play in the election, and take stands that have obvious implications.  An example would be for a preacher to say that denying the results of a free and fair election is an assault on the foundation of democracy and should be a disqualification from holding public office.  That's a generic policy position, not focused on a particular candidate, but clearly applies to a particular candidate for the presidency.  (For a "guidebook" on progressive Christian political rhetoric in and out of the pulpit, see my book:  "Deeper Love".)  If you want coaching about how to speak out without running afoul of the law, and without unnecessarily alienating people in your congregations, talk to me!  
 

Beyond these actions, there are of course many more ways you can join the mobilization to save democracy with your time and money.  You’ll get plenty of invitations to do so.  But let’s start now with these.  Instead of doom-scrolling on your smart phone, instead of wringing your hands and panicking, take action now!  It’s the cure for despair….