Musings

Turning the Tables

(I'll be giving this speech at a rally for universal, single-payer health insurance in front of the White House health care reform forum in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, 4/6 - held at the California Endowment building, 1000 Alameda, 9 am - come and join us!)

I have a question for the health insurance industry advocates who are inside this building today.  Whom would Jesus deny health insurance?  I think we all know the answer to this question.  And yet as we speak, the bureaucrats who have been denying people health insurance for decades are now inside this building, trying to convince the government to bail out their business.

Jesus told his followers to do just two things: preach the good news of the gospel, and heal the sick.  You can’t do one without doing the other.  It’s hard to hear the good news when you are sick, and if somebody heals you, that IS the good news.  Jesus practiced what he preached.  He offered health care to every ailing person he met.  Even if, and especially if, they had pre-existing conditions!

Healing the sick doesn’t just mean praying for them, wonderful as prayer is.  We have to back up our prayers with action.  And that is what brings me here today, with other Christians, and with sisters and brothers of other faiths, too.  I’m here to do what Jesus told me to do.  The health care system in this country is sick.  It needs healing.  There’s a cure, and it’s called universal, single-payer health insurance.  HR 676 at a national level.  SB 840 in California.   As a Christian, as a citizen,  I’m here to do my part as a healer, and advocate for real change.

Some people are nervous about the government being our health insurance provider.  But let’s be realistic about this.   Anybody here think it’s a good idea for the government to decide what kind of shoes we should wear, what kind of movies we should watch, what kind of clothes we should buy?  If that’s what you believe, then you are a socialist.  But if you think that public sewers are better than private outhouses, if you think a publicly funded army is better than having a bunch of competing private militias to protect your country, if you think that it is better to pay taxes for public highways than to have a patchwork of private toll roads – and if you think that it is better to have a rational, efficient public health insurance system to cover every American, instead of having 45 million of your fellow citizens without any insurance at all, and tens of millions more with woefully inadequate insurance, that is not socialism – that is just good common sense. 

The health insurance industry bosses see a gravy train coming round the bend as they sit inside this building today.  They want corporate welfare – a system that forces all of us to send them our money, guaranteeing more of the existing inefficiency and waste, continuing to siphon money away from health care and into expensive marketing and bureaucracy.  They want a cash IV, not a cure for the health care crisis.  They want health care de-form, not health care re-form!

The moneychangers who run our deformed health insurance system are inside this building, they are at the table.  We’re outside.  So it is time for us to do what Jesus did, and turn over the tables of the moneychangers, and make things right.  We are done with the present system.  We don’t want the present system to be tweaked, we want it to go away.  We want a lively free enterprise economy, and we want public water mains and public schools and public roads and publicly funded, privately provided health care, and we want it NOW!  Amen….

 

Barbie Bandaids, Again?

One day, when I was the director of the Urban Ministry in Palo Alto, California, somebody donated a case of Barbie bandaids to us. We regularly offered first aid to homeless people at our drop in center. We took seriously Jesus' admonition to his followers that they should heal the sick. The homeless members of our community were constantly suffering cuts, scrapes, and abcesses. So our staff and volunteers found themselves giving pale-flesh-toned bandaids with images of blonde Barbies on them, mostly to people whose skin and hair color didn't match. Happily, most of them had a sense of humor about it! But the sight of those bizarre strips on the skin of those people made it obvious to me that for all the caring and kindness that our organization provided, for all the essential human caring and spiritual support we offered, we were, in fact, mostly about bandaids. We weren't sufficiently addressing the underlying causes that resulted in the poverty and homelessness that stared us in the face every day.

It was then that I read THE UNDESERVING POOR: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare, a book by Michael Katz. I was very affected by his analysis of America's resistance to recognizing the existence of economic classes in this country, his breakdown of how liberals (especially religious liberals) got sidetracked from structural change advocacy when they put huge amounts of time and resources into creating homeless shelters and emergency food programs in the 1980's. After reading the book, I realized I was "busted". I saw that religion had become a big part of the problem. We were unwitting members of an unholy alliance to maintain the social and economic status quo, by hiding systematic inequities under the cover of charity. It was time for religion to become part of the solution to the problems that resulted in all these folks being stuck on the streets. After that, I began to spend a lot more of my time writing about and advocating for a new kind of Christianity.

Once again, we are in a time when politicians, and even some religious leaders, are urging charity for the victims of the current economic crisis, instead of pressing for real, deep, systematic change. A "stimulus package" has been signed by our new president, but I wonder if it is just obligatory CPR that our politicians are performing on an obviously dead patient. The very structure of our economy must change. The government must serve the common good, not just lubricate the joints of a machine that is destroying the planet and wiping out our country's middle class.

Rev. Peter Laarman, director of Progressive Christians Uniting here in Los Angeles, wrote a powerful blog piece today reminding all of us in the progressive religious community that now, more than ever, we need to demand change, not just charity. He offers a succinct list: "... in the name of all that is holy, we demand universal healthcare, a tenfold expansion of Section 8 housing, a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures, full workplace rights, full funding of women’s health care services, radically progressive tax reform, greatly expanded higher education access for poor kids, major structural reforms in our racist criminal justice program (not just re-entry assistance), a severe crackdown on predatory lending, and major child care and transportation subsidies for working mothers of young children." Basic, direct, personal compassion will always be essential and will always be part of the mission of the church. But bandaids weren't, and aren't, going to suffice in the healing work to which Jesus calls us.

This Is My Song

My wife, Roberta Maran, loves "This Is My Song", Lloyd Stone's lyrics to Sibelius' tune, Finlandia.  She mused that it would be wonderful if it was sung during Barack Obama's inauguration as President on January 20.  So we decided to try to make that happen - and short of getting the song into the inauguration program, try to get people to sing it after the ceremony.  To that end, the lyrics are shown below - in hopes that there will be a grass-roots sing-a-long around the world in homes, schools, and work places after Obama is sworn in.  And in houses of worship on the weekends before and after the event!

The original lyrics in Finnish were fiercely nationalistic, reflecting the country's struggle for its own identity during a time of oppression by Russia.  Stone transformed an almost xenophobic song into a hymn of international understanding, a beautiful expression of that most exalted kind of patriotism which honors one's own country while honoring the pride of citizens of other lands.  

It's hard to exaggerate the significance of January 20, 2009, for the citizens of the other lands celebrated in Lloyd Stone's words.  Whether we knew it or not when we cast our votes in November, we were electing the leader of not only our own country, but of the whole human family.  What better way to honor the billions of people who had hope, but no choice, in that election than to sing this song together?  

Perhaps it is no accident that both Barack Obama and Lloyd Stone lived in Hawaii, that most international, multi-cultural, and pluralistic American state.  So let us celebrate our global "ohana" (family) on January 20 - "proclaiming peace together in one song"!

This Is My Song
tune: Finlandia
New Century (UCC) Hymnal #591
words Lloyd Stone, 1934 (verses 1 and 2) - Georgia Harkness (verse 3)
Nice harmonica/video version:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_W-zWj0iCA

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation
May peace abound where strife has raged so long;
That each may seek to love and build together,
A world united, righting every wrong.
A world united in its love for freedom,
Proclaiming peace together in one song.

 

The Rick Warren Gamble

"We're both betting. He's betting his life that he's right. I'm betting my life that Jesus was not a liar. When we die, if he's right, I've lost nothing. If I'm right, he's lost everything. I'm not willing to make that gamble."

The man who uttered these breathtaking sentences will give the invocation at President-Elect Obama's inauguration next month. These words from Rick Warren, evangelical mega-church pastor, closed the "God Debate" between him and atheist writer Sam Harris in Newsweek's 2007 interview.

There is a lot of controversy from all sides about Obama's choice of this particular pastor for this role. Many evangelicals are unhappy that one of their leaders will be blessing someone whom they vigorously opposed in the election. Other evangelicals are delighted that finally they have a leader willing to stray from the narrow path of the political right. Many secular liberals and progressive Christians are outraged at the choice of a pastor who supported the recent ban on gay marriage in California.

I can't think of a more appalling summation of the Christian faith than the one Rick Warren offered at the end of the Newsweek interview. It's the formula that permeates his best-selling book, "The Purpose-Driven Life". (With difficulty, I read it, finding it to be, as Mark Twain said of the Book of Mormon, "chloroform in print".) Fear is his bottom-line argument for Christian faith. So maybe my arguments for dogmatic, literalistic Christianity don't make perfect sense, Warren suggests, but why gamble with roasting in hell for eternity? Just go with it. Say the magic words. Drink the kool-aid. Better to be safe than sorry.

Warren's theology insults the intelligence that God gave us all. He trivializes the message and example of Jesus. He reduces Christian faith to a crass analysis of cruel options, a species of investment advice, a self-help formula for success in a fantasy afterlife. He makes the Christian religion look downright weird. In that Newsweek interview, Rick Warren did more to advance the cause of atheism than Sam Harris ever could dream of achieving.

But I enthusiastically support Barack Obama's choice. Obama is showing the country and the world that he plans to lead the whole United States of America. He can't do that without listening to people with whom he does not agree on all points, or even on most points. By choosing Rick Warren, Obama is showing what it means to be a progressive Christian: one who shows respect and inclusion even toward people who aren't progressive. As Lincoln strove to reconcile North and South after the Civil War, so Obama aims to reconcile the division created by the religious and political right-wing in this country. He can't heal the terrible wounds of division inflicted on this country unless he shows respect even to the people who tore the country apart.

It's Obama's shining moment to give Warren a taste of the real heaven. The heaven that Jesus worked to bring down to earth - not after we die, but now. The heaven of political and religious and cultural pluralism, the heaven of justice and peace. The heaven that tears down the wall between faith and good common sense, between my way and the highway. The heaven of gay and lesbian people being accepted as they are, as God made them, living with the same rights as everybody else. Rick Warren can preach all he wants about pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die. Meanwhile, the president he is going to bless was elected by the people to build the New Jerusalem in the real world. Rick Warren is going to get a taste of real Christianity, which has nothing to do with reciting the trite phrase on the evangelical "Get Out of Hell Free" card.

An evangelical Christian pastor is going to bless a progressive Christian president on January 20, 2009. May Rick Warren's Hawaiian shirt flutter in the winds of change that will follow!

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Jim Burklo's BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS speaking-preaching tour continues!

December 28, Sunday, 10:30 am: Mt Hollywood Congregational UCC - preaching

January 4, Sunday, 10 am: Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI - preaching and after-worship seminar

A Cloud of Witnesses

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us..."  (Hebrews 12: 1)

This passage from the Bible sums up a litany of the exploits of notable characters in the Hebrew Scriptures.  It's a passage often read in worship near All Hallows' Eve - Halloween, the night before All Saints Day.  It's the time when the Catholic Church celebrated the lives and examples of all the many saints who didn't get their own day among the 365.  A special holiday to honor the runners-up, the more obscure saints who didn't rate their own squares on the calendar.

Today as I did my morning and evening commute, I was filled with wonderment at the sheer scale and density of humanity around me.  There is nothing like riding public transportation at rush hour to put me in my place, to keep me on the level.  To remind me that we're all in this together.  Driving a car to work just doesn't give me the same sense of existential communion.  On the road, I'm presented with the illusion of being a lonesome human in a stream of rapidly-moving metal objects.  But on the subway train, there's no denying that I'm no more or less than one of the almost 3.6 million human residents of the largest city in the United States.

I'm just another speck in the cloud of witnesses that surge down the escalator, into the train, out and up the escalator again.  What a great reminder to "lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely", for the sake of myself and everybody else crowding around me.  Relax, go with the flow, lighten up.  Abandon any pretense of alienation from the supremely precious human beings who surround me.  Be giddy with the realization that each human being in this mass of humanity is a unique universe of feelings and experiences and insights that I would barely be able to comprehend even if I had time to get to know all of them.  We're all runners-up on the subway, letting the train run with perseverance the race that is set before it.  We're all fellow travelers on the journey. 

As such, now's the time for us to renew a commitment to the common good, refresh our delight in public virtues, celebrate shared values.  Now's the time to get in line with each other and vote for kindness, for humility, for respect, for patience... for a change!

Having moved here recently, we didn't have time to sign up for absentee ballots.  Our son in law, Ali, didn't sign up for one this time, either.  I share his sentiment: "At first I was bummed I had to go down and vote in person.  But now I'm really glad I get to stand in line with the crowd on Tuesday!"  For him, for me, being part of a cloud of witnesses never looked so good...

__________________

How I'm Voting on California's Ballot Propositions

1A - Yes  - Can't wait to take a 2-hour train between LA and SF!!  Wildly expensive but vital investment in infrastructure.
2 - Yes - More humane treatment for farm animals.
3- No - Not convinced it is a good enough reason for more state debt.
4 - No - I don't believe in legislating how family members should communicate with each other re: abortion or anything else.
5 - Yes - More flexibility in sentencing drug offenders.
6 - No - Locks in funding and sentencing requirements at a time when more flexibility is needed.
7 - No - Unwieldy and possibly counterproductive attempt to create more renewable energy.
8 - No - I perform same-sex weddings! and celebrate same-sex couples' right to marry.
9 - No - More, not less, flexibility is necessary in sentencing offenders.
10 - No - An unwieldy and overly expensive measure to increase energy efficiency.
11 - Yes - Finally, a good way to de-politicize the redistricting process.
12 - Yes - Pays for itself - helps vets buy houses.

How (Not for Whom) I'm Voting on November 4

I'm voting on November 4 not just for myself, but for my friends Jenny and Peter and their children in Sweden, my friend Angel and his family in Mexico City, and for many people around the world whose names I don't know - hundreds of millions of them with a strong opinion of whom they want to be president of the United States.  Their hopes and fears hinge on how I choose to vote.  I'm voting to restore America's severely damaged reputation, and renew our nation’s much-needed leadership for progress, decency, and freedom around the world.

I'm voting to preserve the new-found right of same-sex couples to marry.  As a pastor, I have seen the tears of joy of two men as they stood before me and made their wedding vows.  It is hard for me to imagine anyone voting to deny such couples the legal right to marry, after having witnessed such a blessed event. 

I’m voting for a strong, sensibly-managed, sparingly-used military. I’m voting for carrots now and sticks later.  I’m voting for going many extra miles to let aggrieved nations and their leaders feel respected, even if we don’t like them, even if it requires America to eat some humble pie, if it can advance the cause of peace. 

I’m voting for an end to the “war” on terror.  Scattered bands of murderers who live in caves or use developmentally-disabled people as suicide bombers should not be dignified by our declaration of “war” against them.  I’m voting for vigorous “police action” against them, and voting for greatly energized efforts through humanitarian aid and positive propaganda to deny them new recruits. 

I’m voting for greater numbers of Americans to get health coverage, not for schemes that would have the effect of increasing the number of the uninsured – 45 million and counting, an unacceptable shame on our nation.

I’m voting for fewer petty criminals to be kept indefinitely in our bloated prison-industrial complex.  I’m voting for common-sense, flexible sentencing laws that let judges use their judgment.

I’m voting for future Supreme Court justices who believe that abortion should be legal, safe, and rare.  I’m voting for future cabinet members who will not tolerate torture or injustice toward detainees.

I’m voting for long-term, prudent regulation of financial markets, to prevent a repeat of the current debacle, which is a consequence of deregulation, speculation, and unsecured derivatives.  As I’m voting for health care for all people, I’m voting for health insurance for the economy, stiffening the rules in order to facilitate vibrant, sustainable capitalism.

I’m voting for preservation of the California coast and the wilderness of Alaska.  I’m voting for “shine, baby, shine” – solar, cellulosic ethanol, and other sustainable energy sources. 

I’m voting for real science in the public schools and theological teachings like “creationism” and “intelligent design” to take their rightful place in fundamentalist Sunday schools.   I’m voting for reality-based government policies on global warming, family planning, and stem-cell research.   

I’m voting for an end to a long-dominant ideology that says that government is our enemy.  Sure enough, the people who said that government is bad took over our government, ran it badly, and then used their terrible performance as evidence for their initial assumption. I’m voting to put that bankrupt ideology in its proper place in the political spectrum, once and for all – on the radical fringe.  I’m voting for a government that will be our friend: regulating a lively, free market, providing services and protections that the market cannot deliver, and helping make the world safe and secure not just for us, but for all people on the planet.

I’m voting to end the politics of letting the country rot while waiting for a happy afterlife, and I’m voting to begin the politics of bringing heaven down to earth, building the New Jerusalem of abundance and harmony in Cleveland, Baltimore, South Central Los Angeles, and everywhere else.  I’m voting for hope.  And I hope you’ll join me when you step behind the curtain and vote on November 4!

How to Change the World

On Saturday, I led a group of 15 university students on a tour of faith-based service programs.  The students were freshmen at USC who were interested in volunteer opportunities. 

One of our stops was for lunch at Homeboy Industries, a rehab program for East LA gang members.  It was founded by Father Greg "G-Dog" Boyle, who began his efforts as a Catholic parish priest in an area of the city plagued by gang activity.  He put himself on the line to befriend the young members of gangs in his parish neighborhood, encouraging them and supporting them in making positive changes.  He founded Homeboy as a self-help effort, employing former gang members in a bakery, restaurant, and tee-shirt stenciling business. 

We were greeted by Robert, also known as Beto, a 47-year-old hispanic man who got into the gang life early in his young adulthood and spent 22 years of his life in prison.  A scar marks a long-ago knife wound on his upper lip.  When he got out of jail, he found his way to Homeboy and worked his way up the ranks of the business to become a master baker. 

I was expecting to have a very short tour of the building before getting the students into the restaurant in the building to have lunch just before heading back to campus.  But once Robert got going with his spiel, and once he saw he had the students' full attention, I could see this tour was going to take a while.  Not only did he give us the standard rap about what Homeboy is and does, he proceeded to walk us through the details of his work as a baker.  He explained how the convection ovens worked, how the mixers worked, how to set temperatures to get different effects.  The longer he talked, the more animated he became.

And then I began to notice what was happening.  These students, quite without intending it, had ennobled and inspired Robert - just by showing up and being genuinely interested, not only in Homeboy, but in him. 

Finally, a waitress in Homegirl Cafe, the restaurant part of the organization, came in to the bakery to try to convince Robert to stop talking so she could seat our students for lunch.  We were half an hour late for our reservation!  So the students urged Robert to join us for the meal, which, by the way, was extraordinarily delicious.  Beto sat at the head of the table and clearly relished the chance to share his story and also to ask the students who they were and what they had come to USC to study.

We didn't do anything useful.  The students didn't raise money, paint a wall, sort donations, or any of the common things that they would be expected to do on a one-day service event for a university.  But the students were useful - their presence helped bring pride and dignity to a human being who needed it very much.  I was moved by the difference in Robert's demeanor and energy between our arrival and our departure. 

It is moments like this that remind me what ministry is all about.  Some forms of service are measurable with statistics.  The impact of the work can be neatly quantified.  But there is another form of service that is about the heart.  Numbers will never tell the story of what happened in that bakery between Beto and those students.

On the bus back to campus, the students eagerly took the fliers about Homeboy that I had been given as we left the building.  The visit with Beto had been the high point of their day.  This afternoon, at another meeting for freshmen, I saw one of the students from the trip, and she told me she was very interested in doing an internship in faith-based community service with our Office of Religious Life.  I could tell that something had happened to her the day before - that incident at Homeboy had flipped a switch inside her, radiating new light.

I remember when I was her age.  I remember my powerful urge to change the world when I was 18 years old.  I could hardly stand to wait to get out and do my part to change the "system".  I still have that urge.  I still want to make a difference in tangible, visible ways, so that justice and compassion will prevail.  To the degree that I've been able to do that, I have felt fulfilled.  But now I wonder if changing the world isn't really about the change of heart that I witnessed between Beto and the students this weekend... a change that can be felt but not measured.

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Dear Musings Readers:

You can now order my new book, which has just gone to print: BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians, at  AMAZON.com. 

"Ready for a humble, hard-working Christian religion that is progressive, pro-justice, and pro-peace? Ready for faith that takes the Bible seriously because it doesn't take it literally? Ready for a soulful expression of this kind of Christianity in meditative prose, poetry, ritual, and song? Ready to empty the barn of dusty dogma, and take wing with soulful celebration? Jim Burklo, author of OPEN CHRISTIANITY (St Johann Press, 2000), still used as a text by study groups around the world as an introduction to progressive faith, has produced a jewel of a new book. It is a rich devotional resource for individuals, and a treasure-trove of fresh material for churches to use in worship and programming. His personal reflections lead the reader on a spiritual path from the contemplative to the comic, from tender moments to prophetic exhortations, from analysis to inspiration. His new lyrics to old hymns offer poetic antidotes to outdated theology. His prayers move readers, both Christian and non-Christian, beyond supernaturalism and into the heart of mystical experience. His liturgies bust out of the barn of stodgy worship. They buzz with the word that the listeners heard when Jesus pointed at the birds in his Sermon on the Mount. It's word jazz, it's bird jazz; it's BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians (St Johann Press: 2008)"

Protecting Marriage

A few years ago, I officiated at the wedding of two men.  It was the second time I had done such a ceremony for a gay couple.  Both couples were among the most mature, committed, loving people I've ever blessed in marriage - whether heterosexual or homosexual. 

The most recent gay couple touched my heart with their story of the power of love to redeem and heal.  They moved me with their affection and deep respect for each other.  After my meetings with them in preparation for the wedding, I told my wife, Roberta, about how affected I was by this couple.  When the wedding was over, I was overcome with gratitude to have been part of this beautiful occasion, and also filled with thankfulness that I, too, am blessed to have a loving, caring, committed partner in marriage.  Marriage itself had been ennobled by that blessed event!

Both of these couples had wedding ceremonies before the court ruled in California that homosexual couples can be legally married.  I am very proud that the churches I have served have recognized that marriage is a spiritual state into which both gay and straight couples can enter - whether or not the state has evolved enough to recognize it legally.  I believe that the weddings of homosexual couples held in churches across America over the last several years have helped to manifest marriage for what it is:  a natural, spiritual condition for gay and straight couples alike.  Far from threatening the institution of marriage, homosexual marriage is a ratification of it, upholding it and supporting it for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.

For these reasons I hope and pray that my fellow Californians will join me in voting NO on Proposition 8, which is an effort to turn around the recent court decision in California, and thus remove the right of gay or lesbian couples to marry legally.

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For those who might not have seen it before, here are my lists of Ten Real and Ten Unreal Threats to Heterosexual Marriage - which will appear in my upcoming new book, BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS:

Ten Real Threats to Heterosexual Marriage

*  Indifference, complacency
*  Communication breakdowns   
*  Disputes about money
*  Trouble with ex-spouses and children from previous marriages
*  Disease or death of family members
*  Workaholism   
*  Physical or verbal abuse
*  Unemployment
*  Bankruptcy due to lack of health insurance
*  Heterosexual attractions or affairs

   Ten Imaginary Threats to Heterosexual Marriage

*  Abduction by aliens
*  Fluoridated water
*  Meteor impact
*  Deciding whether to vacation on the French vs. Italian Riviera
*  Attack by dinosaurs
*  Assault by Klingons
*  Arguing about whether to buy a white or red Ferrari
*  Invasion by body-snatchers
*  Kidnapping by trolls
*  Legalization of same-sex marriage

Ten Real Threats to Heterosexual Marriage

*  Indifference, complacency
*  Communication breakdowns   
*  Disputes about money
*  Trouble with ex-spouses and children from previous marriages
*  Disease or death of family members
*  Workaholism   
*  Physical or verbal abuse
*  Unemployment
*  Bankruptcy due to lack of health insurance
*  Heterosexual attractions or affairs

   Ten Imaginary Threats to Heterosexual Marriage

*  Abduction by aliens
*  Fluoridated water
*  Meteor impact
*  Deciding whether to vacation on the French vs. Italian Riviera
*  Attack by dinosaurs
*  Assault by Klingons
*  Arguing about whether to buy a white or red Ferrari
*  Invasion by body-snatchers
*  Kidnapping by trolls
*  Legalization of same-sex marriage

Circle "J"

 

Imagine that you are a subsistence farmer in Honduras, and you have an ugly abscess on your arm.  You cut your arm on a branch that you were trimming with your machete, and the wound became infected.  You find out that a group of American doctors and nurses, Protestant church members, are coming to your village to hold a free clinic.  You line up in front of the tent they've set up in the town plaza.  They give you an intake form asking for your medical history and your current condition.  At the bottom of the form is a statement:  "I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior."  If you agree, you are supposed to circle the letter "J". 

What would you do?  Circle the letter "J"?  Or refuse, and then worry about having treatment denied to you?

But this isn't just a story to leave just to your imagination.  It's real.  A medical student friend of mine went with an evangelical Christian group of students and doctors from her school on a mission to offer a clinic in rural Honduras.  My friend was appalled by the question at the end of the intake form, and by the excitement among the other volunteers about how many patients circled the "J" each day.  But how could the volunteers find any meaning in that statistic?  Circling the "J" was a small price to pay for medical care the villagers otherwise couldn't afford. 

Imagine Jesus handing a clipboard to a leper, and then saying, "Before I cure you, I'd like you to fill out this form."  Then try to imagine Jesus with his disciples after a day of healings, with all of them saying "Amen" when counting how many lepers circled the letter "J" on the intake forms.

It's not a story you'll find in the Bible, that's for sure.  And that is because the gospel story tells us that Jesus healed people without any ulterior motive.  He healed them because they were sick and he could do something about it.  Period!  He offered universal, single-payer health coverage to everybody he met, and he didn't ask them to circle the letter "J" on an intake form to get it.

It's time for Christianity to be offered for free.  It's not a club to join by circling "J" on a form or reciting a trite theological formula. It's a wonderful open-source software platform for the soul, which anybody can access, without paying a dime or saying a rhyme.  If you use it, great; if you don't, there's no hell to pay.  It's just there, one of many religious paths to follow in order to get more attuned to the divinity that's within us already.

And it's time for health care to be available for everybody, paid for by our taxes, like roads and schools.  Time for basic medical coverage to be available to all, regardless of ability to pay, regardless of deeds or creeds, ages or wages.  Time to follow the way of Jesus the healer, and offer healing to everyone, with no strings attached.

It's time to circle "J", all right - "J" for justice in health care!  I'll be in San Francisco on June 19 at noon at the Moscone Center to join in a demonstration for universal, single-payer health coverage.  I hope you'll join me, alongside others from the California Council of Churches.  The rally will be in front of the national convention of the health insurance industry, which denies coverage to so many of the neediest, and drains away money for bureaucracy and marketing that could be used for care.  Now, as a presidential campaign heats up, it's time for citizens to speak up and demand a sensible, humane, and dare I say more divine way of providing health care in this country!

 

Endorsed and Entangled

If Barack Obama asked me to endorse him, I'd have to excommunicate him for his own good.

That's my conclusion after the messy consequences of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's association with Obama, and of Pastor John Hagee's proclaimed support for John McCain.  The gonzological utterances of these pastors have given all of us Christian clergy a bad rap, to say nothing of the harm they've done to the candidates they aimed to support.  The best thing that religious leaders can do for their favored candidates, and for our profession, is to avoid the entanglement that comes with endorsement.

That won't stop me, nor should it stop spiritual communities, from taking action on issues that figure significantly in the upcoming presidential election.  Issues like the overwhelming need for comprehensive health care reform, so that Americans finally get universal, single-payer medical coverage that is enjoyed by citizens of most other industrialized nations.  Issues like America's occupation of Iraq, which needs to end swiftly.  Issues like how to deal with Iran and Syria and Palestine/Israel - it is time for our nation to show its true strength by talking directly with their leaders, working hard to deal with the root causes of conflict wherever possible, instead of stonewalling and saber-rattling.  Issues like ending America's disastrous "war on drugs" and adopting a more humane and pragmatic "harm-reduction" approach instead.   Issues like breaking up our prison-industrial complex, giving judges more flexibility in sentencing and giving inmates more opportunities for education and rehabilitation.  Issues like marriage equality:  giving support for the California court decision making gay and lesbian marriages possible. (Anybody out there whose straight marriage is falling apart because gay marriage is now allowed?) 

Strongly as I feel about these issues, the Christ inspires me to a humility that avoids claiming that my opinion is God's, a humility that admits that I don't have the last word on how society best should be ordered.  The Christian faith calls us to care deeply about all the great issues of our day, and take action in response.  But it doesn't unequivocally explain how these questions should be answered. 

So I'll stick with Jesus' gospel of kindness and love that impels me to care about matters political, and also reminds me to stay open to the perspectives of people who disagree with me.  I'll avoid the pitfalls of mixing my pastoral role with partisanship: I'd never vote for a politician who would advertise my endorsement!
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PS for my fellow Northern Californians: I hope you'll join me at a rally for universal, single-payer health care at noon on June 19th, Thurs, at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco, 4th and Howard: www.singlepayernow.net for more info.  I'll be there with a contingent the California Council of Churches, to protest in front of the annual convention of the health insurance industry.

PS for all Californians:  I hope you'll join me in voting no on Prop 98 and yes on Prop 99.  Proposition 98 poses as "reform" of the eminent domain laws, but hidden in its wording is a provision that would end all rent control laws in California.  Proposition 99 is a reasonable, minor reform of eminent domain laws.  Having been involved in an eminent domain proceeding once, I saw how important it is for local governments to have this power - as long as it is exercised fairly toward property owners.