Ponderings

Discernment is a Quaker discipline that can be used to help one make a decision. The process is simple, the one facing the decision gathers with a handful of friends who ask questions. Believing that the direction we seek lies within, the questions need to be open and genuine. The friends are not to ask questions that are leading nor questions to which they already have an answer. Through this process of inquiry, a person is enabled to both identify and claim their path.

I was reminded of this discipline at a recent Governing Body meeting and I wonder if it might be the missing piece in our quest for purple.

Although my own political passions are primary colors, the people with whom I live and love are different shades and (yes) enjoy different primary colors. As my kids move through adolescence, they are trying to identify and claim their unique perspectives and are not necessarily claiming my colors. We’ve had interesting debates on, say, the candidates for Senate in Missouri. I’m discovering that my powers of persuasion are not magic as my kids find their voice. Although I would never directly tell them they’re wrong, I used to be able to talk them into my position.

So after I kidnapped the kids and made them go with me to see Jesus Camp, I promised them (and me) that I would listen, ask genuine questions and listen, afterwards. Because our pattern is to persuade, it took us a while to get the hang of asking truly open questions and waiting for responses. But the wisdom and insights of my kids amazed me. They saw and claimed as truth things that I didn’t, and in our questions we saw new things and our visions diverged at various points. It was truly one of the most delightful evenings I can remember. Although I think I may be raising a Buddhist Republican and a legalistic Democrat, I cannot help but be amazed at the integrity of their perspectives.

Because they are my children and I adore them, I find myself able to accept as genuine perspectives that are not my own. I cannot deny the authenticity of their visions. But can this trust move beyond the safety of my dining room table? What if I dared to trust that our still speaking God is alive within not only my allies but those I would name as foe? What if public discourse was honest questions rather than diatribes? What if instead of debates we had small group gatherings?

Discernment isn’t easy or quick. Discernment does not lead us all down the same path, but the wisdom of discernment when embodied may well color our path purple.

A friend received an anonymous envelope this week with a cartoon tract inside. He was very offended and brought it to show me.

I winced as I flipped through the cartoons, remembering a time in my younger life when I was first introduced to cartoon hate speech. Back then it was comic books that showed the Pope as the anti-Christ, now it is hateful misrepresentations of Muslims. This little tract which purports to invite devotion to Jesus is filled with the vile suggestion that Muslim children are raised to be suicide bombers.

Without having seen this tract, I would be hard pressed to believe that such poison was published much less purchased. But clearly it is. And clearly someone took the time and spent the money to send these tracts (with full postage) to strangers.

I went to the website referenced on the tract. It is filled with tools for witnessing to Jesus Christ. At the website you can also read about the apostacy of the Roman Catholics and the evil of the Masons. But the section reserved for the Muslims is unmistakable.

Having just come from the website, I find myself feeling ill. I wish I could feel anger; I write well with a touch of anger. But I’m caught between the urge to throw up and the one to cry. And too a cold sense of dread.

Dread that our religious bigotry is leading us nowhere good. Dread that this vile pamphlet will find it’s way into the hands of a Muslim child. Dread that the loathing directed towards American Christians might not be misplaced after all.

And I don’t know what to do with this piece of evidence. Do I save it to prove the existence of this hate speech? Or do I destroy before it can promulagate more hate?

Maybe the anger will come in the morning…
but tonight I just feel sick.

Dear friends,

We receive a lot of bulk mail at church that lands quickly in the recycle box. I learned early in ministry that a postmark of Waco TX best not be opened. (There are a LOT of fundamentalist publishers in Waco!) So I’m not sure what moved Terri to read this particular postcard before tossing it,
maybe that it was local. But when I came back to the office, she pointed it out as a must read.

It’s an invitation to a live simulcast entitled “Defending our First Freedom” and it is happening this Sunday night in Arnold. After announcing the event and my welcome, it reads: “More and more we are seeing governments which condone homosexual behavior then being forced to condemn Christians who publicly identify with the Faith. No one can any longer question that the advancement of the homosexual agenda is a threat to religious liberty.”

I guess I am a no one because I question the threat.

As more and more states rush to add constitutional amendments to “protect” marriage from gays and lesbians, I cannot imagine what possible condoning is being done by governments; governments in Canada, perhaps, but not in the land of the free and the brave. And even if the government were protecting the rights of women who are raising children together, I fail to see how that would be a threat to someone else’s religious liberty. These are things that would be worthy further discussion.

Also worthy would be the victimized posture of the writer. The event is a presentation from the Family Research Council, an unapologetically religious, conservative, and current-administration-supporting group. The candidates supported by the FRC control both the legislative and executive branches of government- and soon even the judicial branch! How can the people with all the power still claim to be the oppressed?

But what I really want to know is when Faith got a capital letter. Given the style of writing, I would have to surmise that the capitalization makes the noun proper. Nouns that are “proper” are unique or one-of-kind. The Faith, then, is a particular kind of experience as opposed to faith which is common. I am a Christian, but no one has let me in on the secret of Faith.

Maybe that’s just as well.

The first two chapters of Job are our Old Testament reading for Sunday. I started to read the text with no small amount of dread. The Job story is a familiar one, the embodiement of theodicy, Kushner’s “Why do bad things happen to good people?” It’s filled with misery and unanswered sorrow.

So I was pleasantly surprised by our selection for this week which is the introduction to the ancient odyssey. The introduction is a conversation between God and the sons of God, one of whom is playing the role of adversary. God is celebrating that in God’s garden there exists one truly righteous man. God is bragging. The role of the adversary is to challenge the assertion. And so the story begins.

Amazingly in this tale there is no suggestion that the adversary (whom we know as Satan) is evil in intent. Even more shocking, the adversary acts with the full assent of the God character and is clearly functioning as a servant of God. There is no dualism, the God character is fully in charge. And there is no evil villian, just the gnawing question of where God fits into the human drama.

Can God really be responsible for tragedy? Can we hold the divine mystery accountable for not only blessing but also bane?

More importantly, can we let go of the notion of a Satan character? Can we let go of our need to scapegoat and blame in order to leave the God character looking clean?

Sadly this lection is not shared by the Lutherans, the Roman Catholics, or the Episcopalians. The “Revised Common Lectionary” (which includes Job 1-2) is the one that most denominations follow, but this is one of those Sundays where several folks have chosen optional readings. For them the dualism of God-Satan can remain unchallenged, but not for us.

And I can’t help but believe that we will be the better for it.