Random Insights from Facebook

These are insights that I have previously shared on Facebook, particularly centered around the Bible and justice.

March 26, 2017: The more I read the Bible in context the less I find a complementarian view of church leadership as the actual intent of God. Women are equal and capable to lead. A woman's voice saved many an idiot. The church will never be at its fullness until we recognize that God calls regardless.

March 10, 2017: In reading the Bible from cover to cover for Lent, I have reached a challenging conclusion about Christian Trump supporters.

They are like Jephthah, a very righteous and courageous judge of Israel. He was the son of a prostitute and he was elevated to be a warrior and a judge. He contended with the Ammonites for years and prayed to God about success. Instead of waiting for God, he vowed that in exchange for definitive success he would sacrifice as a blood offering the first thing that exited the door of his home. His only, virgin daughter was the first thing out of his door. His daughter heard his vow and begged him to let her grieve her virginity (but really her future). After two months, he sacrificed his daughter (the Bible is surprisingly nuanced, yet specific here). His reign was short and turbulent thereafter.

So, what does this mean? We cannot exchange long-term success for short-term gratification. This is what happened in November and we are living in the consequences of a dangerous vow. Often we frame our decisions merely by the bulk of their apparent sinfulness, when in reality, the sin lies in the clear refusal to see God in the consequences, to the point of using God to deny reality and thereby justify our choices.

(Judges 11-12)

February 9, 2016: 

Three sermons that I am in process of writing because God won't let me ignore them:

The Foundation of the Gospel Demands a Response: John 3 and 4

Justice and the Gospel (Why Justice Matters): Amos 5; Micah 6:8; Isaiah 58:5-14

The Gospel and Justice (Why the Gospel and Reconciliation Matters): 1st Peter 2:1-10; Revelation 7:9-17.

I have no idea when or if I will ever get to share them, but I am going to write them anyway.

Also, for Lent, I am taking up a challenge to read through the Bible in 40 days. If you wanna join up give me a holla. Blessings.

September 17, 2017: 

There are many myths about Christian Persecution in America. But, the one that gets my goat the most is: (Drumroll please) They took prayer out of schools.

I studied hundreds of First Amendment cases in my time in law school. None of them said you could not pray in school. What it does say is that the State should not be in the business of forcing students to recite a prewritten prayer led by their teacher. (Engel v. Vitale). This never stopped individual students from praying (Teachers are more complicated, I know, because of the dual nature of being an individual and a voice of the State).

I wrote the following nearly 5 years ago following the horrific responses of Christian leaders regarding Sandy Hook. It seems relevant now:

"I have had enough!! To these ignorant evangelical megalomaniacs: As a young Christian and an evangelical, theological mutt I am tired of the fake victimization from Western church leaders in power. It is absurd in the light of true persecution around the world. What do we give up in this country for our faith!? I have not had to give up that much and that I have had to, honestly, really was not worth my time. So, we are persecuted in America because we are called out when we are ignorant and unyielding.

I stand for righteousness, but I stand for and in love. My righteousness in Christ means nothing without love. Check the Gospel backwards and forwards. The Pharisees ticked Jesus off with their inability to operate in love. Empty religiosity and arrogant pomposity that ignored fleecing the poor in the very temple courts!! So Pat Robertson, Mike Huckabee, et al all of you that have lost touch with the heartbeat of the gospel, I plead with you, "Wake up and Study to be quiet!!" Prayer before speaking and wisdom and awareness are vital. We can't get away with continually speaking out of turn. Wear the mantle of a prophet, speak as a prophet but live and work like Christ. Kids did not die because we forgot God in schools, kids died for we forgot God in our homes we gloss over the least of these. So my message to you my brothers and sisters, let's be more Christ-like. Be blessed FB!!"

September 04, 2016: 

The Western (ultra-conservative) Church gets a lot wrong when comes to public life. Consequences that come from your behavior are generally not persecution. Persecution is strife that comes because of your faith or some other characteristic.

With that being said as a passionate Christian, that loves the Bible and loves even the hard sayings. I am disgusted by Kim Davis's behavior (and others). Her argument that issuing a marriage license (a core responsibility as the elected county clerk) to a homosexual couple violates her faith. When did the Bible ever say that the behavior of others dictated your salvation? The Bible does say to work out your own salvation. The Bible does say to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Her behavior smacks of religious insecurity. You took an oath to stamp the seal of the county of Rowan, Kentucky. If you had the true courage of your convictions you resign and you pray for the next step. Religious freedom does not mean one religion gets to dictate over others. To the contrary, to be Christ-like we serve those not like us and speak the truth in love.

My final soapbox point, wouldn't it be wonderful if the church divested from bad politics and invested in service? Demonstrated that pro-life extends far beyond gestation. That we stop majoring in the minor things and minoring in the major things. We care about souls. We care about the gift of salvation that is freely given to all that receives. God is less concerned about the state you come to him, but that you come.

October 21, 2012: 

Putting on a prophetic cap: If Christians cease to be the voice of the voiceless and the active hand of God in the world. What good are we? We are reduced to being the "crazies" that people think we are. We become the Pharisees, yeast-laden with religion but no true relationship. I read (and subsequently posted) a CNN blog about to some Christians President Obama is the "wrong" type of Christian. Begs the question what is the wrong type of Christian. I don't have an answer but I believe Christ and the Bible lays out a good model for the life of a Christian: Love God with all you are and Love your neighbor as yourself. "Truly he has shown you oh man what is Good: that you do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God". If we lose sight of that we are nothing more than a social club. Be blessed FB!

MLK Day in the Midst of the Age of Trump

King is more than a dream.

I sit here to write this forgetting that in my flurry of inspiration a couple of years ago, I had already written this piece about #ReclaimMLK (http://letterstoyoungworshippers.blogspot.com/2016/01/reflection-on-dr-king-in-era-of-post.html).

Dr. King, Jr. received his holiday fourteen years after his death and now thirty-two years ago. (We share a birth year in a way). I was furious back in 2016 (our last year with the first black president, even though I did not want to accept that fact). I was furious for so many valid reasons (Flint, Michigan still doesn’t have water and more officers have been acquitted or escaped charges.) I am still pissed about all those things. But, I am writing this the evening after our so-called president, 45, decided to call Haiti, African and African-Caribbean countries, “sh*tholes”. There is no more infuriating irony of this president, that he reveals his racism and racist political perspectives before key moments of black remembrance (see his comments about Frederick Douglass), the damn inescapable fact that 45 is going to stand and lay claim to the dream of King. He's going to lay his grubby, "sh*thole" hands on King's legacy. But, not only him, senators, representatives, governors, mayors, DA's are going to join in this bastard's chorus about the dream of King as they work to undermine black people's progress (But see, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steve-alford-kansas-marijuana-black-people_us_5a53e133e4b01e1a4b18a12b?section=us_black-voices).

I want our King back!! You can't claim Martin or Fannie Lou or Rosa or Ella or Billie or none of them until you see us as fully human and fully American!!

The third Monday of January, we set about remembering Dr. King, the drum major of a movement. But, let me tell you this, King was not the only one in the band for justice. He stood on the shoulders of a long legacy of men and women who bled, cried, died, were kidnapped, bombed, broken, beaten, sprayed with water hoses, lynched and so much more. King’s shadow is long and broad. His blood still cries out from the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis and still shakes the mantle of time nearly fifty years.

So, what do I have to say now? I am glad you asked. First, if you support the theology of Trump (looking at you all you charlatans of the gospel), you do not get to hold the legacy of MLK. If you support a theology that doesn't demand your own death to self for the cause of justice you CANNOT touch the legacy of MLK and our ancestors. This bodes the question, “What am I willing to do in this era to move the dream forward?” My answer is this, I am committed to radical compassion. Compassion places a target on your back because you are willing to take the hit for someone else. It is deeper than empathy...it is letting your heart break for someone else and then stepping up to do something.

King said it this way, “I choose to identify (yes, King had a choice—he was middle-class as a child) with the underprivileged, I choose to identify with the poor, I choose to give my life of the hungry, I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. […] This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means sacrificing, I’m going that way. If it means dying for them, I’m going that way, because I heard a voice saying, “Do something for others.”

Second, I am committed the work. I am committed to digging into the chaos to fight of justice. I am committed to consolidating political power of black people and other people of color. I am committed to coalition building. Practically, from using the explosive event of the Black Panther premiere to register people to vote to elevate fresh and new candidates. This is the best birthday gift I can give to King on his 89^th birthday. I am on the quest for justice and righteousness and “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired.”

I am going to close with the words of Paul (2^nd Corinthians 4:7-18):

⁷ Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power^g may be from God and not from us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; ⁹ we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry the death of Jesus^h in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to deathⁱ for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life in you. ¹³ And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke,^B,j we also believe, and therefore speak. ¹⁴ For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus^k and present us with you. ¹⁵ Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving^l to increase to the glory of God.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not give up.^m Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner personⁿ is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our momentary light affliction^o is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.^p 18 So we do not focus on what is seen,^q but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Don’t give up, Don’t give in, Don’t stop dreaming the dream, your dream.

Ernest