[the cross in the closet]

"Timothy Kurek, raised within the confines of a strict, conservative Christian denomination in the Bible Belt, Nashville, Tennessee, was taught the gospel of separation from a young age. But it wasn't long before Timothy's path and the outside world converged when a friend came out as a lesbian, and revealed she had been excommunicated by her family. Distraught and overcome with questions and doubts about his religious upbringing, Timothy decided the only way to empathize and understand her pain was to walk in the shoes of very people he had been taught to shun. He decided to come out as a gay man to everyone in his life, and to see for himself how the label of gay would impact his life. In the tradition of Black Like Me, The Cross in the Closet is a story about people, a story about faith, and about one man's "abominable" quest to find Jesus in the margins."

(from the back cover)

This book was a fascinating read, and is enlightening in terms of how a person is able to not only gain a deeper understanding of others and to make a space in his or her heart for them, but to have love where before there was hatred and rejection. Definitely recommended.

Online preview available.
BlueHead Publishing (October 11, 2012)

p.s. Summer has given more opportunities to read, so I've been recommending books lately. In the next months, I plan to share quotes from Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited along with more new cartoons.

cartoons about serial killers

How do you decide when a cartoon or joke is harmless, or when it hurts people? Of course, the same cartoon can amuse one person, offend another person and confuse yet another. But overall, are there principles or ways of determining where a cartoon stands?

Take this cartoon from Matta as an example:

Should a serial killer be offended by this? Does it make fun of him or her? Or it is simply a funny idea which happens to be about serial killers and their weapons? After all, it's not like one of those jokes that starts with a line like "Serial killers are so disgusting that ...."

one true voice

Whose voice will be heard by the parishioners?

How true is that voice?

How can we listen to one another, and together as the body of Christ with the leading of God's Spirit discern what is true?

[single stories]

There often seems to be an aversion to hearing the stories of others. I'm not referring to hearing the stories of a poor widow in the Sudan, of a homeless family in Toronto, of our friend's weekend camping adventure. No, our aversion is to the stories of those whom we dislike and whom we often despise, those whom we see as being sinful and out of line, those whom we see as being beyond hope or unregenerate.

We like to hear one side of the story. It keeps things nice and tidy for us; it avoids disrupting our world.

But it is narrow and limited. And it negatively impacts those whose stories are not being told.

Richard Beck, in his review of Michael McRay's Letters from Apartheid Street, refers to these single stories and how hearing the other stories – or, to put it differently, the stories of others – counters the effects of the single story:

Reversing the dynamics of dehumanization, Michael describes this as a process of rehumanization (pp. 25-26):

...the danger of the single story. Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie warns of the danger of single stories--that is, stories which depict only one side to a person or event. Such stories, when repeated often, convince the audience that the description within the story is the whole truth...

 ...I must confess...I have a single story of soldiers...

 ...I want to take seriously Jesus's call to love my enemies...[But without] another story to add to the original, though, I cannot create a fabric of humanity in which to clothe them. I have needed a story to re-humanize the Israeli soldiers occupying this land...

Michael finds this second story in conversations he seeks out and recounts with some of the Israeli soldiers. It's a wonderful example of how you, practically, go about learning to love your enemies.

From http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.ca/2013/06/letters-from-apartheid-street.html, (quoting from Letters from Apartheid Street: A Christian Peacemaker in Occupied Palestine by Michael McRay. Emphasis added.)

[jesus freak: feeding, healing, raising the dead]

"I came late to Christianity," writes Sara Miles, "knocked upside down by a mid-life conversion centered around eating a literal chunk of bread. I hadn't decided to profess an article of doctrine, but discovered a force blowing uncontrollably through the world."

In this new book, Sara Miles tells what happened when she decided to follow the flesh and blood Jesus by doing something real. For everyone afraid to feed hungry strangers, love the unlovable, or go to dark places to bless and heal, she offers hope. She holds out the promise of a God who gave a bunch of housewives and fishermen authority to forgive sins and raise the dead, and who continues to call us to action. And she tells, in vivid, heartbreakingly honest stories, how the ordinary people around her are transformed by taking up God's work in the world.
Sara Miles offers a fresh, fully embodied faith that sweeps away the anxious formulas of religion to reveal the scandalous power of eating with sinners, embracing the unclean, and loving the wrong people. Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead is her inspiring book for undomesticated Christians who still believe, as she writes, "that Jesus has given us the power to be Jesus."

(description from Amazon)

This book by Sara Miles has been a fascinating read, full of real people and experiences, and I recommend it to you. It's an easy read and challenging at the same time.

Here are three quotes that are samples of what Sara is teaching us through what God has done in her life and the lives of those around them. The bulk of the book, however, is about real life experiences:

In stories that still have the power to scare us, Jesus tells his disciples to live by the upside-down values of God's kingdom, rather than the fear-driven values of human society. He shows how family, tribe, money, violence, and religion--the powers of the world--cannot stand against the love of God. And he tells us that we, too, are called to follow him in breaking down all worldly divisions that get in the way of carrying out his instructions. Sure, it's impossible to feed five thousand people, make a deaf man hear, bring a dead girl to life, as long as you obey human rules. So do it God's way instead, Jesus teaches. Say yes. Jump right in. Come and see. Embrace the wrong people. Don't idolize religion. Have mercy. Jesus' tips cast a light forward, steering us through the dark.

(p. 3)

The truth is that suffering can become the foundation of faith, if we're not scared to touch the sore places with love. If we don't hide ourselves away in fear, but get close enough to others to feel God's breath on our skin. Everything that hurts the body of Christ can let us know, past doubt, that new life is possible--not by forgetting evil, but through, in terms that are both religious and secular, truth and reconciliation.

(pp. 122-123)

Yet all religions, at one point or another in their evolution, tries to proclaim their single, inerrant consistency. All religions, even the most liberal, were  tempted by the reactionary impulse to freeze faith in place. Because, as Jesus teaches, it's easy to be threatened by the reality of the complicated, messy, syncretic, God-bearing truth that becomes incarnate among us and makes things new. We'd rather have a dead religion than a loving God.

(p. 137)

jesus freak: feeding, healing, raising the dead by sara miles

(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010)

[jesus and the disinherited, by howard thurman]

"First published in 1949, Jesus and the Disinherited is a brilliant and compassionate look at God's work in our lives. As we struggle today with issues of poverty, racism, and spiritual disengagement, Howard Thurman's discerning reading of the message of renewal through self-love as exemplified in the life of Jesus resonates powerfully again.

Challenging our submersion into individual and social isolation, Thurman suggests a reading of the Gospel that recovers a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. He argues that within Jesus' life of suffering, pain, and overwhelming love is the solution that will prevent our descent into moral nihilism. For although scorned and forced to live outside society, Jesus advocated a love of self and others that defeats fear and the hatred that decays our souls and the world around us."

(from the back cover)

Howard Thurman was at college with Martin Luther King Sr., and it is said that Martin Luther King Jr. carried this book around with him. That along with the title is what caught my eye about this book. In a little over 100 pages, he says so much about this topic and discusses it in ways that I have not come across before. I will be reading it again, as soon as it is available from the library. Definitely recommended!

Jesus and the Disinherited
Howard Thurman
(Beacon Press, 1981).

[update]

Hi:

Sorry for having less posts lately. This is primarily because the summer family schedule has been very busy and there's been little time. As well, the video which I created took a lot of time and work and there are several books I'm reading (watch for quotes in the future).

Don't worry -- I am not experiencing a creative block. I have a lot of cartoon ideas which I have not drawn yet. Just need time to do so. And I'm doing initial work on a new article.

If you're new to the blog, check out the many amazing cartoons which were posted over the past year and a half -- use the archive or the categories on the right to find what interests you. Or check out this excerpt of a conversation between Bono and the author of Bono: A Self-Portrait in Conversation.


rob g

[key books related to exclusion and embrace]

Here are some key books which I've been reading related to the themes of this blog:

Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation*
Miroslav Volf
Very profound!
Academic. I read it through twice and still only understand a quarter of it. However, I am regularly re-reading portions of key chapters to better understand it.
Description
Quotes on this site


Where the Edge Gathers: building a community of radical inclusion*
Yvette A. Flunder
(Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 2005)
A remarkable book written from Bishop Flunder's experience in building a church of and for people at the margins.
Description



generous spaciousness: Responding to Gay Christians in the Church.*
Wendy VanderWal-Gritter
Phenomenal!
Accessible, personal, well-thought-out.
Description.








Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality*
Richard Beck
Amazing!
Accessible.
Description
Quotes on this site

[you will know them by their fruit...]

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:35-40, NIV.

It seems that a lot of us Christians missed this particular saying of Jesus, as our gay and lesbian neighbours sure haven't been feeling the love. A just-released survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans found that a high percentage of LGBT adults say that the evangelical church is unfriendly to them.

[what and Whom]

E. Stanley Jones writes about the centrality of Jesus, and about division and unity. While he is speaking in the context of India in the early 1900's, his words are very relevant today:

This Christian spirit scattered here and there in many hearts in India must express itself in some kind of corporate relationships. Some kind of a church will be the final outcome. We will put our Western corporate experience at the disposal of the forming church in India and we will say to her, “Take as much as you may find useful for your purposes, but be first-hand and creative and express Christ through your own genius.”

…

While we cannot tell what may be the final outcome of this expression of the Christ of the Indian Road on the part of his followers in India, we can see at this distance certain things that will be avoided and certain things gained if they center everything upon Christ.

If India keeps this vision clear, she will be saved from many of the petty divisions that have paralyzed us in great measure. For at the central place of our experience of Jesus we are one. It is Christ who unites us; it is doctrines that divide. As someone has suggested, if you ask a congregation of Christians, “What do you believe?” there will be a chorus of conflicting beliefs, for no two persons believe exactly alike. But if the question is asked, “Whom do you trust?” then we are together. If the emphasis in our approach to Christianity is “What?” then it is divisive, but if the emphasis is “Whom?” then we are drawn together at the place of this Central Magnet. One has the tendency of the centrifugal and the other the tendency of the centripetal. He is the hub that holds together in himself the divided spokes.

dogma

Our dogma – what we believe about God and faith – is important. Yet depending on how we believe it and how we prioritize it vis-à-vis our relationships, our dogma can also be violent. Think of religious wars, church splits, conservative Christian parents rejecting their gay teenagers....

Miroslav Volf writes the following:

"...This brings us to the second implication of the encounter between Jesus, Caiaphas, and Pilate ...: the self of the other matters more than my truth. Though I must be ready to deny myself for the sake of the truth, I may not sacrifice the other at the altar of my truth. Jesus, who claimed to be the Truth, refused to use violence to “persuade” those who did not recognize his truth. The kingdom of truth he came to proclaim was the kingdom of freedom and therefore cannot rest on pillars of violence. Commitment to nonviolence must accompany commitment to truth otherwise commitment to truth will generate violence." (Exclusion and Embrace, p. 272. Emphasis added.)

From my perspective as well, relationships trump dogma. That doesn't mean I have to give up my beliefs; it does mean that I don't force them on others, I don't judge their faith or actions by their compliance (or not) to my dogma. I hold my dogma loosely. I believe in brutal unity.

How about you? Have you seen or experienced the effects of people holding their dogma tightly and valuing it above their relationships?

In Brian's words,
Is it so important to be right that alienation is an acceptable price?

flavour of the church

What kind of place is your church? What does it feel like? What words come to mind when you think about it? And what do you hope that it will be?

I've been giving this some thought in regard to what I hope my own church will be like. Here's what I came up with:

p.s. I made this image using www.wordle.net. You can make your own there very easily, for free.

beacon of love

St. Paul's, the church we attend, is at a new point in its life as a parish. Various conversations have been taking place regarding our future. However, it seems that a lot of the discussion that has transpired so far has resulted in many good ideas about what we might do. What I'm more interested in—what I think needs to happen first, and what this video is all about—is an exploration of who we want to be and who we want to become.

This presentation shares some of my thoughts, ideas and questions as to what the next part of our journey together might look like. The presentation is done "pecha kucha" style -- 20 images with 20 seconds to talk about each one. As a lot of the images are cartoons from this blog, I recommend that you view the video full screen in order to be able to see them properly.

I invite you to share your comments and feedback with me. More importantly, if you are part of St. Paul's, take time to pray, think and dream about what kind of a church we should be and become. Make your own video, draw pictures, make a list on a sheet of paper — record your thoughts and dreams somehow or other, and share them with the church leadership.




View full-screen for best results.

pop art: polar melting

Not quite the usual theme of this site, but in continuing my experiments at work, I came across Coke's polar bear can and this seemed a natural "pop art" piece to make. And it is clear and to the point.

[four key suggestions from Gandhi]

E. Stanley Jones, a missionary to India, tells of this conversation he had with Gandhi. While it is in the context of reaching out to the Indian people, it is equally applicable to reaching out to our friends, neighbours and colleagues here at home.

In conversation with [Mahatma Gandhi] one day I said, “Mahatma Gandhi, I am very anxious to see Christianity naturalized in India, so that it shall be no longer a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India’s uplift and redemption. What would you suggest that we do make that possible?”

He very gravely and thoughtfully replied: “I would suggest, first, that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live more like Jesus Christ.”

He needn’t have said anything more—that was quite enough. I knew that looking through his eyes were the three hundred millions of India, and speaking through his voice were the dumb millions of the East saying to me, a representative of the West, and through me to that very West itself, “If you will come to us in the spirit of your Master, we cannot resist you.” Never was there a greater challenge to the West than that, and never was it more sincerely given.