fine print

What does it mean when a church says "everyone is welcome?" Or if an event brochure says that "Anyone and everyone... can come and enjoy!"?

Does it really mean anyone and everyone? Or are there exceptions?

I think there are some reasonable exceptions: for example, the person who comes to church only to hassle and intimidate their ex-spouse, or a satan-worshipper whose only reason for attending is to disrupt the congregation.

But what about the man who has poor social skills? Or the woman who tends to ask awkward questions during the discussion time? Or the young person who is defiant? Should they be excluded?


Whom would you be willing to exclude?

Ironically, many of the people who are on the "more likely to be excluded" end of the spectrum, are the kind of people Jesus hung out with...

chic

[mea culpa]

I would like to confess my prejudices which are known to me:

1.
The other day I heard the mental health hotline joke, which someone read from the web. It starts like this:

You have reached the mental health hotline.
If you have obsessive compulsive disorder, press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have multiple personality disorder, press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
and so on...

Then when they got to the line about dyslexia, I thought to myself, how would someone who has dyslexia feel about this? And only later did I ask myself, why didn't I ask myself that when I heard the line about OCD or co-dependency or MPD? Is it okay to make fun of people with mental health issues but not those with learning challenges? It seems that part of me at least partly thinks so some of the time (I say some of the time because if someone was actively and agressively making fun of someone with a mental illness, I would of course object. But many of our prejudices are more subtle in how they show their face).

2.
I came across an interesting article called Everything I Need to Know About Hospitality, I Learned from Molly Weasley which I was going to share on Facebook. I clicked on the author's name to read other articles she had written, and discovered that she is Mormon. And then I became reluctant to share the article.

In thinking about this, I determined that if the author was Jewish I would not have hesitated, and probably not either if she was Muslim. So why hesitate because she's Mormon?
 
3.
Finally, I realize that I have prejudices against a particular ethnic group. I would be okay interacting with an individual from that group, but that I hold misperceptions or stereotypes about that group. Some of this may have come from the Winnipeg neighbourhood where I lived during childhood, where there were many people from this group and where it bothered me that many of the men drove a particular sporty car (no, not a Lamborghini :-) while their families lived in run-down houses. I don't think there is a problem in being concerned about how people use their money, but retrospectively, I think that I judged them for it and that I did not understand the importance of the cars in their particular culture.

How about you? In what ways are you prejudiced against others?

Where's the line between friendly joking about something and hurtful joking?

closets

[not a joke]

In February 2012, Relevant Magazine posted an article called What Diversity Should Look Like by Matt Chandler. In discussing how differences make a community stronger, it looked at righteous and unrighteous, rich and poor, and race and ethnicity. After reading it, I posted a comment. Here is a screenshot of that comment with the subsequent reply from another reader, and my question back. Didn't hear back...

the decline of jesus

In honour of National Coming Out Day, I offer the following:

The Jesus I know, the Jesus I see in the Bible, identifies with the least of these. In His time here on earth, that would have been women, lepers, tax collectors and people classified as "sinners" by the religious people. In our modern 21st century culture, lgbt people are often the least of these... and Jesus would identify with them, walk with them, become one of them.

If someone is offended by this, perhaps he or she hasn't grasped how radical Jesus was in his day. Radical to the point of offending religious people. Perhaps they do not understand how Jesus broke social stigmas continually... and yet today, some Christians seem more interested in maintaining a religious status quo than following in Jesus' steps.

Become one of them?? Hmmm. Reminds me of the Apostle Paul saying that

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

I Corinthians 9:19-22 NIV

Hugh Hollowell speaking about My Jesus is a 23-year-old lesbian:


The Jesus I Know from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.



Some words of clarification: After reading this post, someone suggested that it would be helpful if I clarified some things about the cartoon and the commentary. So here goes:

Remember that this is social commentary. So I'm mixing together the following here:

• an idea -- Jesus was gay -- which floats around in a few places in society (for the record, I don't believe this)
• the passage about the sheep and goats in Matthew 25, where Jesus says, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (verse 40)
• Jesus being called a drunkard and a glutton, and being called a friend of sinners
• Jesus giving up his power and his rights and becoming nothing
• the idea that we need to identify with those who are poor and oppressed and powerless, and not be afraid to be mistaken for one of them
• our contemporary culture where lgbt people are oppressed and at the margins.

So the result is the cartoon,with the idea that we see Jesus in the least of these ...

join the protest

Why do we not protest outside of seafood establishments? Why do we not excommunicate parishioners who dare to bring a shrimp ring to a church get together? After all, the Bible is pretty clear about seafood, and if we say we believe the Bible is the truth....

Obviously, we make choices about what parts are important and what parts aren't, what passages still apply to us and what passages don't.

So if we're choosing anyway, what stops us from choosing love?

Read another post about "why not choose love instead of hate."

[Ku Klux Clowns in East Tennessee]

Here's a great story of how hatred was met with humour:

Word had begun to spread that a group of white supremacists, including members of the KKK, were converging here in Knoxville, TN, holding a rally in a park downtown. It was in the news and papers. Many locals were pretty upset by the public display of racism and hatred. Even though many of the folks connected to the hate-group were coming from other states, they had obtained a permit to gather and publicly proclaim their hate-filled message of White Power.

But they had no idea what was coming.

A group of locals had decided neither to cower away in fear nor to fight fire with fire…. Instead they decided to meet hatred with humor.....

Read the rest of the story by Shane Claiborne.

This event has inspired a children's book White Flour by David LaMotte, which is available in hard cover and perhaps e-book format. Check out White Flour Book for more information, plus a copy of the poem, a video of the book's author reading the poem, and more.

what we're known for

It seems these days that at least in the public realm, Christians are often known more for their opposition to people, ideas and causes than for the love they show to others. And it just doesn't fit, does it...

How have we moved so far from the loving community seen in the book of Acts?

What can you and I do to make a difference?

[on giving money to people]

In my line of work (homelessness), the one thing you hear all the time is ”Don’t give people money”. It is a truism. It is universal.

I sometimes ignore it.

(Read the rest of the story in Hugh Hollowell's article on Giving money to homeless people)

Depending on where you live and work, you may or may not regularly meet people on the street who ask you for money. What do you do? What could you do differently? How should you respond?

Here are a small collection of articles to help you think more about this matter and about the men and women who cross paths with you.

---

The first four articles (and the one above) are by Hugh Hollowell, who ministers with the poor in Raleigh, North Carolina. I like his perspective on things and often share updates on Facebook from his blog or the Love Wins blog:

1.      Q and R: Panhandlers vs Homeless People

2.
"I recently pulled out of a parking lot and there was a line of panhandlers at the stop light. Is it OK to give them money?" In this short article, Hugh addresses this question including Jesus' instruction to 'give to everyone who asks.'
Panhandlers - do I give or not?

3.     How not to be taken advantage of by panhandlers

4.      This post is not about giving money to panhandlers

5.      A related article by Jon M. Sweeney:
Can You Spare the Bread? Should You?

6.      Hear it in their own words:
http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/

sparrows

[waited all his life]

It was a nice sunny day in Rapid City when the Indians took the platform in the riverside park near the convention center. Fully dressed in their regalia, or modified forms of it, were Lakota, Cherokee, Dine, Kiowa, Paiute, Mohawk, Apache and many other Indian people proclaiming that Jesus Christ is good news sent from Great Spirit for Indian people - and believing in Him is not a "white man's thing."

The old traditional looking Lakota elder with sunglasses and a cowboy hat approached my buckaroo elder brother and ask what was going on? My brother explained that these are Indians who believe they can serve Jesus Christ and be fully culturally Native American. The old man didn't say a word at first - but there was much about his silence that caused my brother to pay attention. Just when my brother noticed the tears collecting around the bottom edge of the elder's sunglasses, the man spoke a very simple phrase with heartfelt emotion and full conviction…he simply said this: "I've waited all my life for this day."

From Eagles Wings Ministry

Can you serve Jesus and be fully culturally Asian? Black? European? Aboriginal?

Do we recognize how our culture influences our perception of Jesus? And how for those of us who are white, white privilege means that we usually do not recognize how our culture influences us?

a god like us

The idea of looking for a god who looks like us will raise red flags for some christians. It smacks of that saying: "God created us in his image and we returned the favour."

However, there are times when the dominant view of God is too far from an individual's culture and context. At a service this past summer, two Aboriginal women talked about "finding a God who looks like them." They weren't looking to make a convenient god who does what they want and doesn't interfere with how they want to live their lives. They were looking for a God who was not the great white european god.

What do you think?

How has the God you believe in been filtered and painted by your culture or the dominant culture around you?

[Ask a transgender Christian]

Christian blogger and author Rachel Held Evans has a series of posts called "Ask a...". In this series she invites questions for the interviewees from her readers in advance, and then posts the answers a few days later.

I found the recent Ask a transgender Christian particularly valuable, as I know very little about this and also because Lisa (pictured at right) talks about the role that other Christians and churches played in her journey. I was particularly pleased to hear her mention her involvement in a small church in Vancouver "where the motto is “everyone is welcome…and we mean it.” And they do." The embrace they offer is quite remarkable and regrettably rare.

In introducing Lisa, Rachel writes:

Lisa was born in Colombia, grew up in California and moved to Vancouver, BC in the early 1970s to start a successful career as a graphic designer and photographer. After living for 25 years as a devoted husband and father, Lisa was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. She says this diagnosis was both a blessing and a curse. Though it offered an explanation for her years of struggle, confusion, and guilt, it did not offer any simple solutions. It would take another ten years before she could come to terms with the diagnosis. Lisa has written her autobiography, Transparently: Behind the Scenes of a Good Life, which is available on Amazon. She has given sensitivity workshops at Gay Christian Network, companies, high schools, and churches and hopes to do more in the future.

Lisa responded to your questions with thoughtfulness and honesty. I hope you learn as much as I did.

Click here to read this interview.

Other interviews in the series include:
Ask an Atheist
Ask a Feminist
Ask a Funeral Director
Ask a Humanitarian
Ask a Gay Christian
Ask a Muslim
Ask a Nun
and many more.

colour-blind society

The cartoon takes the literal meaning of "colour" and therefore allows the speaker to like a society with black people and white people, but not (for example) red people and green people.

In the real world, colour-blindness is generally meant to indicate that a person is blind to the race of others. This is sometimes presented as a positive, but can actually be a problem. As Derald W. Sue from the Teachers College at Columbia University writes,

I have come to realize that color blindness uses "whiteness" as the default key and mimics the norms of fairness, justice, and equity by "whiting" out differences and perpetuating the belief in sameness and equality. The denial of power imbalance, unearned privilege, and racial discrimination is couched in the rhetoric of equal treatment and equal opportunity. The pretense of not seeing color is motivated by self deception. To be colorblind not only denies the central importance of racial differences in the psychological experience of minorities (racism and discrimination), but also allows the White person to deny how his or her whiteness intrudes upon the person of color.

Read the rest of this short article online:
The Color Blind Society: Whiteness as the Default Standard