On New Cornerstones, Old Wineskins, and Good Seeds Sown Poorly

 I have been thinking considerably about creating a co-denominational body that can provide an equitable path to ordination/ a credentialing body for people who currently face barriers due to discrimination (sex, gender identity, orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, nation of origin, etc.) in their home denomination. This might be very similar to the Extraordinary Candidacy Project in the ELCA, but with a wider and more ecumenical focus.

I believe we need to prioritize finding leaders who are more Christlike in their treatment of the poor, the hungry, the sick, those in prison, the foreigner, the outcast, and the dying. We need to prioritize leaders who care more about people's basic needs than they do about defending the institutional church-- especially in times and places where people have been harmed or abused by the institutional church.

For years in seminary and ministry, I've heard variations of the saying, 'All you need to succeed in ministry is a penis and a pulse.' Granted, this was spoken in clergy circles within a binary cisgender framework, but it has proven too painfully true for too many gifted candidates for ministry:

To borrow from the parable, sometimes these 'good seeds' were deliberately sown into the rockiest places, thrown to the birds, or thrown out altogether, so that they would have no opportunity to grow or thrive.

Meanwhile, too often, people who should not have been in ministry, but who were advanced because they occupied the preferred skin suit, have done enormous harm by preying on the people they were called to serve.

And I believe we need to create a new ecumenical movement or entity into which each mainline Protestant denomination (or at least the inclusive, diversity-welcoming congregations and leaders thereof) can begin to dismantle their 'old wineskins' and become something new.

Each mainline Protestant denomination came to this country as a White European Immigrant movement; each of these denominations got a boost due to the Baby Boom and White Flight; and none of these things are solid ground--instead they have proven to be a crumbling foundation of sand. Each mainline denomination has already begun to talk about institutional collapse, because we are in a new reality, a new world that does not in many ways resemble the world of post-WW2. (And in many ways, nor would we want to go back to that time).

The stones which were once rejected can become the New Cornerstones.

Those who were forced to be 'last, lowest, and least,' may now be called to move up.

Behold, God may yet be calling us and leading us to make all things new.

And while I think, 'who am I to dream such things?' I also am reminded--who was any Reformer to do so? And what did they go through in order to do what they did?

Give Us That Country Club Jesus

 Give us that Country-Club Jesus

and that Country-Club Gospel
with that Country-Club Commission
to bring in the people
with the 'right' pedigree.

You know the ones--
the ones who can write the big checks
for our aging building
who can park their fancy new cars
in our empty parking lot
who have nice architectural homes
in enviable neighborhoods
and fashionable clothes
and all the right connections
with all the influential people, and
whose children are magically silent
at all the right times
but they look so nice,
dressed up, picture-perfect
like accessories in the pews
and make us feel good about ourselves
and magically never have needs.

And then perhaps they'll bring
their Country-Club friends, too--
with their own big checks
for our aging building
and their own nice cars
for our empty parking lot
and their own fashionable clothes
from all the right stores
and all their right connections
to influential people
and their own magical children
to make our church look less old.

But God,
it's all going wrong:
You keep sending us people in poverty
people who are hungry
people who are homeless
and foreigners
and unwed mothers, and
people with disabilities
and people with problems
that make us feel uncomfortable
and they probably can't even afford
to donate anything for our building.

And they bring regular children
who make noise at all the wrong times
and who wiggle
and who are not in picture-perfect dress-up clothes
and who make us feel old and tired.

And God help us if they bring their friends
with their beat-up old cars
or no cars at all
and no fancy clothes
and no influential connections
and no architectural homes
in enviable neighborhoods.

They'll probably let their kids
play basketball in our parking lot
and run around on our lawn
and they might scuff the paint.
God, we really can't have that.

Jesus, why do you keep sending us
all these undesirable people?
Don't You know
this isn't going to work?
Haven't You ever attended
a Church Growth seminar?

This just isn't going to get us anywhere.
And if we welcome them in,
then maybe others of us will leave
and go to some other church
where we don't have to worry about
these things.

Le Anne Clausen de Montes, 2024

I Confess I Sometimes Wish...

 I am prone to neither violence

nor vengeance,

but I confess I sometimes wish

that whatever has happened

to the civilians of this conflict,

and especially to its children

would happen

to the people who insist

they deserved whatever they got.

It is sheer criminality,

a monstrosity

to believe civilians and children

should suffer so much

because they belong

to the 'other side.'

The only real sides

in any armed conflict

are those who work for peace:

justice, equality, inclusion, human rights

and those who work for war:

violence, destruction, suffering and death.

Le Anne Clausen de Montes, 2024

I'm Already Against the Next War

For future reference,

(In case you were wondering,

or had any doubt)

I'm already against the *next* war.

Wars are a stupid waste

of people's lives

and our earth.

They rarely settle any conflict well,

and the people who bear the brunt

are rarely the people

who had anything to do

with the conflict

in the first place.

Once Again, on Islamophobia and Antisemitism...

Once again,

Islamophobia is not an antidote

to Antisemitism, and

Antisemitism is not an antidote

to Islamophobia.

It is fair to critique the actions, statements, and policies of political and military leaders.

It is deeply unethical to blame all members of a religion, ethnicity, race, nationality, or language group, for the actions of their political and military leaders, or to suggest that innocent civilians deserve to be harmed, or even eliminated from their homes without just compensation, due to the actions of their political or military leaders.

I sure wouldn't wish to be held accountable and harmed for the actions of some of the political leaders in my own country -- especially the leaders I didn't even vote for.

And honestly, I wouldn't even wish such harm to the people who did vote for the leaders in my own country whose actions, statements, and policies I abhor.

Nazi Is As Nazi Does...

Nazi is as Nazi does.

Klan is as Klan does.

Bigot is as Bigot does.

Peace is as Peace does.

Love is as Love does.

Where We Sow War...

Where we sow war,

And seed the ground

With the bodies of children,

We shall never reap peace.

The People Who Are Bleeding NOW

The people who are suffering now

The people who are bleeding now

The people who are imprisoned now

The people who are dying now

***Matter MORE***

Than any ancient history

Any ancient map, or

Any ancient Scripture.

If we believe people living now

Matter less than ancient times

We have lost our moral compass.

As A Former Humanitarian Worker (in Gaza)...

As a former humanitarian worker who spent time in Gaza (as well as the West Bank, Israel and Iraq for the bulk of my time) and hearing the news about the World Central Kitchen workers... it's been a rough week, to say the least.

Of course, the killing of humanitarian aid workers by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is nothing new. To date, 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7th, and the UN and several other international agencies have said this has been the deadliest war to date for humanitarian aid workers since such records were kept.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-04-02-24/h_56a5326b5a20d73f2c230f452c37c5b1#:~:text=The%20ongoing%20war%20between%20Israel%20and%20Hamas%20has,in%20any%20other%20conflict%20since%20at%20least%201997.

It has also so far been the deadliest war for children, according to the UN and other international sources, since such records were kept. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/is-israels-gaza-war-the-deadliest-conflict-for-children-in-modern-times

And I do get that in large part, people who haven't lived there, day in and day out, just really do not understand.

Seven international humanitarian aid workers from the World Central Kitchen were killed by the IDF, in targeted drone strikes to their clearly-marked vehicles, leaving their clearly-marked aid warehouse. Seeing the photos of the wreckage, with the holes from the missiles going right through the car-roof-sized agency logos, is simply nauseating.

The official story is that the military leaders forgot to communicate the aid workers' movements to the soldiers in charge of the drones. In response, many international aid agencies have paused operations in Gaza, and people are starving, and without water, electricity, healthcare, fuel, or shelter.

(And yes, while everyone knows that what Hamas did was utterly appalling-- 1,200 Israelis killed and 129 civilian and military hostages still being held-- Israelis are not starving, without water, electricity, healthcare, fuel, or shelter. This is an important humanitarian distinction). Meanwhile, 3,500 Palestinians are being held hostage by Israeli leaders as 'Administrative Detainees,' (held without charges or due process), according to Israeli human rights organization Ha'Moked: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/world/middleeast/palestinians-detained-in-israel.html#:~:text=More%20than%203%2C500%20Palestinian%20detainees%20are%20being%20held,the%20war%2C%20but%20Israel%20has%20increased%20its%20use.

The WCF workers' deaths caught the attention of the world, but it's been so many more, and this is a pattern that has gone on for years. Decades, actually.

Most people who visit short-term simply do not see or understand the daily realities of the Occupation.

I still believe these folks *can* learn, by reading the reports and testimonies from *both* the Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations who have been working there for years and decades: Rabbis for Human Rights, B'Tselem, Gush Shalom, Ha'Moked, the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, Breaking the Silence- Israel, the Women in Black, and so on.

... if they want to, and choose to follow through...

I am deeply disappointed in friends who would never give credence to anything reported on Fox News, or anything our own Authoritarian MAGA movement leader says in the United States, and who consider themselves progressive on every other issue imaginable... and yet they fall for right-wing extremist propaganda that even most Israelis wouldn't accept. Even the Ha'aretz newspaper (the most widely-read English/ Hebrew Israeli news source) states in its daily update, Israel at War:

"The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic [Israeli] political and social crisis in decades, due to legislation promoted by the Netanyahu government aimed at dramatically weakening Israel's judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel's most right-wing government ever."

(Hmm...Sound like anybody we know here in these United States?)

Why any decent person would admire Netanyahu or believe anything he says or does is beyond me. Again, his own people know better--and that's why they've been out in the streets by the tens of thousands protesting his government since last summer. That's why the families of the hostages are among the most vocal for his removal from office.

And yet people in the United States fall for him, and everything he stands for,

hook,
line,
and
sinker.

Along with all the pro-war propaganda from the weapons lobby.

Working for nonviolent resolutions to conflict just doesn't sell as many megabucks, megaton bombs.

And they ignore not only the Israeli human rights and peacemaking organizations, but also U.S. Jewish peacemaking organizations, like Peace Now and A Jewish Voice for Peace.

Ugh. Will they ever learn?

Every Abrahamic Religion...

Every Abrahamic religion

(and likely every world religion)

has feminists, progressives, secularists,

moderates, fundamentalists, nationalists,

and even violent extremists.

There are Muslim feminists,

just like there are Jewish feminists

and Christian feminists.

There are secular Jews,

just like there are secular Christians

and secular Muslims.

There are progressive Christians,

just like there are progressive Muslims

and progressive Jews.

There are moderate Muslims,

just like there are moderate Jews

and moderate Christians.

There are nationalist Jews,

just as there are nationalist Christians

and nationalist Muslims.

There are fundamentalist Christians,

just like there are fundamentalist Muslims

and fundamentalist Jews.

There are violent extremist Muslims,

just like there are violent extremist Jews

and violent extremist Christians.

Most people within each of these religions

are perfectly decent people,

who mean no harm to anyone,

and who are kind and care about

their neighbors and communities.

Let's not defame each others' religious traditions

as if we were really so different from anyone else.

And if you've never heard of a Muslim feminist,

or a progressive Jew,

or a Christian nationalist,

try Google.

A Series of Uncaffeinated Events...

 In a Series of Uncaffeinated Events this morning, I not only managed to pour the milk directly into the jar of instant coffee crystals, but also managed to cook half a container of chocolate frosting in the microwave for as long as I normally warm up my coffee (90 seconds instead of 15-20 seconds). The resulting effect an hour later is that I basically made homemade tootsie rolls... not bad...

I decided to fill the rest of the (half-empty) jar of instant coffee with water, shook it up, and put it in the fridge as 'coffee concentrate'... also not too bad...

How's your morning going?

Christianity Without Nationalism

 Heard this morning but didn't catch the original speaker:

"Christian Nationalism has been fed to us so long, that many of us now simply mistake it as 'Christianity."'

--

Christian Nationalism is utterly contrary to everything Jesus taught us about love of neighbor, love of enemy, equity between men and women, care for the poor, the foreigner, the prisoner, the sick, people with disabilities, and so on.

We as pastors and faith leaders must help our people to see beyond all this. We must be able to speak to a vision of Christianity without Nationalism, a Christianity that follows unabashedly in the footsteps of Jesus, letting go of all our faulty human divisions.