primitive religion

And as time has passed, it seems that many of us have not gotten past primitive religion....

There are exceptions, of course, going both ways -- some even more primitive, and some more Christ-like.


You may have heard about the recent death of Fred Phelps, the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, a church known for picketing at the funerals of gay people and soldiers, a church infamous for its "god hates fags" website.

As the news came out, there was a whole range of reactions, from those who proposed picketing his funeral in a similar manner to what his church had done, to others who hoped that Fred would finally understand God's grace.

My heart was most touched by what his granddaughter Megan Phelps-Roper, who left WBC a few years ago, tweeted:

An eye for an eye does leave the whole world blind.

Hatred for enemies leaves the whole world broken, no matter how we try to disguise it with "I love them but I don't love their sin".

Megan understands that Jesus has his arms wide open to all of us. Love and grace and mercy abound for everyone.

who would jesus stone?

.... and we all know forever is a very long time.

Jesus stoning people? Rather an outrageous idea, don'tcha think?

What inspired this sick cartoon commentary on Jesus and the effects of playing Xbox, was the message which a church in New York City put on its sign this month (March, 2014), a message which is not funny in the slightest:

Jesus would stone homos, the sign says. It then quotes four verses and concludes with, "Stoning is still the law."

Would Jesus really stone gay and lesbian people? Let's use their four verses of choice to consider the answer:

Here's a breakdown of the verses, each with a summary and a comment by me:

Matthew 5:17-19

Jesus speaks about not abolishing the law but fulfilling it.

Jesus did not get rid of the Old Testament law about stoning... (fairly clear) but came to fulfill it (the meaning of this is up for discussion). Doesn't support their premise.

Leviticus 20:13

Putting to death men who have sex with men.

Fairly clear verse, but doesn't tell us what Jesus would do, especially considering that Jesus broke other Old Testament rules, like working on the Sabbath, associating with sinners, etc.

Deuteronomy 17:5-7

About stoning people who do evil things and worshiped the stars, sun and moon.

Strange choice of verse, as it does not mention same-sex relations, and there are other verses about stoning which could have been included. Again, does not tell us if Jesus would stone people who do evil things.

John 8:1-11

Ironically, this is the passage about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bringing the woman caught in adultery to Jesus... and you might know the rest of the story (if not, read it here).

Perhaps they included this passage because Jesus did not object to stoning, but said that whoever is without sin should throw the first stone, thus supposedly legitimizing stoning and suggesting that he (being sinless) could have stoned her?

And that's what makes this choice of verse so ironic, because the Jesus who the pastor of ATLAH claims "would stone homos", the Jesus who is without sin, did not stone the woman! Claims like those made by ATLAH are projections of their own hatred and bias, in religious disguise and with false Biblical justification.

The idea of Jesus stoning anyone is simply inconsistent with his life. And if I have to choose between verses and the life of Jesus, I'll take the life of Jesus anytime.

[shared meals as the message of jesus]

By simply sitting at table with those widely regarded as morally contemptible, Jesus earned the scorn of the Pharisees and other strict observers of Jewish custom. By sharing meals with those considered by the religiously righteous to be outcasts and sinners, Jesus challenged "the central ordering principle of the Jewish social world." As Geza Vermes puts it, Jesus "took his stand among the pariahs of the world, those despised by the respectable. Sinners were his table-companions and the ostracized tax collectors and prostitutes were his friends." The meals Jesus shared with the outcasts were not, therefore, simply the occasion for the delivery of his message. They were the message. They served as "prophetic signs" meant to manifest the meaning of Jesus' ministry. They involved what Borg speaks of as a "radical relativizing of cultural distinctions."

Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads, Gil Bailie, p. 213

This is the Jesus I want to follow.


Violence Unveiled is a fascinating book about myth, gospel, culture, mimetic theory and much more. I will be rereading it, and perhaps quoting more from it later. From a writing perspective, what I especially appreciate about it is that when Bailie refers to other literature, philosophers, and so on - which he does often, he provides quotes and context so that a reader like me is not at a loss.

lent

[progress of human rights in canada]

It's easy to see the shortcomings of others, and to ignore one's own failings.

This is noticeable, for example, in the American focus on commemorating the Nazi holocaust while ignoring its own holocaust.

This is noticeable in my life as I thought that Canada - my country - has been doing okay while our neighbour to the south has been pretty messed up. And then on the weekend, I came across the Canadian Human Rights Commission website and read through our own history.... which is pretty horrible.

For a sobering starting point, read this summary of what things were like in Canada in the early 1900's.

While the CHRC site also covers the negative aspects in our history, the highlights which I summarize here show how many of the human rights we take for granted in Canada have become a reality only semi-recently.

1918: Women received the right to voted federally (Caucasian women only)
1922: Married Women's Property Act (married women are allowed to own property)
1929: Women are legally considered persons.

giving up chocolate for lent

Giving up chocolate for Lent is hard if you are a chocolate lover. Other people choose to give up eating meat, or Facebook, or an activity of some sort or other. The idea is to remove something which distracts us from God and from preparing for Easter.

What about the deeper things which are often so much a part of us that we hardly are conscious of their existence? Or those things we are aware of and should give up, yet have no idea how?


Check out the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent.

new "welcome" statues to reflect canada's history

Canada opens its arms wide
Gov't Sees New Role for Our Country as Asylum for the Oppressed

The Canadian government announced today that it will be actively opening its doors to those in other countries who are experiencing discrimination, and expediting their entry into Canada. Officials at Immigration Canada say that the plans had been discussed for some time, and were finalized earlier this week.

"It's time that Canada, a pioneer in human rights, sets an example for the world by embracing those who are unwelcome in their countries of origin, and who are in many cases oppressed. We are not just talking about those seeking political asylum, but also and specifically about men and women from sexual minorities whose lives are in danger," said Prime Minister Harper. He emphasized that rather than just talk, this initiative provides real support and help to individuals and families.

Along with getting the word out worldwide about our welcome and the new immigration procedures, the government plans to erect large statues at key points along each of our borders. The statues will face towards the border, with their arms open to the world, and will feature key Canadians.

Welcome Statues

As Canada is already a diverse country, the proposed welcome statues will be the most visible part of this new initiative for most Canadians.

According to sources, the concept is to show the diversity of Canada while also connecting to real Canadians and to key points in our history. Final decisions have not been made, but some of the people said to be on the shortlist include Viola Desmond, Lily Shinde, Louis Riel and k.d. lang.

Viola Desmond, a black Canadian living in Halifax, was arrested in November of 1946 for sitting in the whites-only section of a theatre. She was subsequently charged and convicted of tax evasion (as the whites-only section cost more, she had not paid the additional sales tax!) This took place nine years before the more well-known bus incident with Rosa Parks in the U.S.. Ms. Desmond was posthumously pardoned in 2010.

arizona

As anti-discrimination  legislation is slowing making its way across the U.S., the backlash often takes the form of claiming that such things infringe on one's religious freedom.

Several cases have gotten into the news: a wedding photographer who was sued after refusing to take photos at a same-sex wedding, a Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, and Christian bed and breakfast owners who did not want a gay couple staying at their B&B and ended up in court.

So there are demands for exceptions to the non-discrimination laws, so that a person of faith is not obliged to do things against their conscience and faith.

I get this, sort of.

jesus vermin

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.’

 (Matt 25:40 NIV/robg)

---

Background, from Reuters:

Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday (Feb. 18, 2014) called homosexuals "vermin" and said his government would tackle them in the same way it fights malaria-causing mosquitoes.

The latest comments from Jammeh, who last year branded gays a threat to humanity, coincide with a renewed crackdown on same-sex relationships in Africa, where homosexuality is taboo and illegal in 37 countries.

In recent months, Nigeria has outlawed same-sex relationships and Uganda has voted for life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.

"We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively," Jammeh said in a speech on state television to mark the 49th anniversary of Gambia's independence from Britain.

....

Can you imagine Jesus saying such things? Or treating another person like that?

I can't. Not for one moment.

f bomb

As our priest said in the sermon this past Sunday, quoting C.S. Lewis:

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.

but for the grace...

 

"There but for the grace of God go I...." How often have you heard someone say this, when seeing or hearing of someone less fortunate, someone in trouble, someone who's messed up their life?

What does it mean? It means that I could easily be there where they are, except for God's grace which has kept me out of that situation.

And what follows from this, is the unspoken conclusion: God's grace hasn't been there to keep them out of the situation.

Does this mean that His grace is selective -- it chooses some and not others? He gives grace to some and leaves others in the dirt? That He might be everywhere, but doesn't always take a supply of grace along? Spelled out like that, what do you think? Is this what you believe?

How about this idea instead:

[hold on to the center]

Miroslav Volf, speaking about I Peter, says it sums up "the New Testament teaching about how a marginalized group of Christians ought to be situated in the world"

Here's an excerpt from the part where he talks about the sectarian character of the church:

Often people think in terms of sect, or church, of someone who's really close to the power or to the margins of the power.

...

What I found interesting in 1 Peter is how it cuts across -- how it completely muddles these distinctions. I think it muddles these around the central commitment to Jesus Christ.

And so it's not that I orient myself over and against the social groups by drawing boundaries, but rather, I am oriented around the center and boundaries fall as they might, as they will.
And the difference ends up being much softer then, as I don't have to shore up the boundaries to be distinct; I can hold on to the center and it guarantees sufficiently my distinctness.

Wouldn't that make a big difference? Wouldn't that help us move away from the dominant view of the church and Christians as being against rather than being for something?

View the entire 8 minute video: Honor Everyone, which includes discussion of differences, being on the margins, honoring everyone, and clashes between religions and between the sacreds, etc.

See also Adam Ericksen's article about being secure in oneself rather than one's identity being found in hostility toward the other.

[a more personal look at prisoners]

Two interesting projects which help us to see prisoners as real people, and which present them with dignity and respect.

REFLECT: Convicts' Letters to Their Younger Selves

Boston-based photographer Trent Bell, whose work is well-known in the architectural and interior design realms, got involved in a more personal project after a childhood friend -- a man with a family and a successful career -- was convicted of a crime and sentenced to 36 years in jail.

The project involves large-scale portraits of prisoners with the words of letters they would write to "their younger selves" superimposed on the portrait.

To read the words, click on the photo for a larger version.
Read an article with four of the twelve portraits.

---

Parting Words: The Visual Story Of Death Row Prisoners' Last Words

California-based photographer Amy Elkins' project came out of corresponding with prisoners on death row. When one of these men was executed, she did more research online and came across extensive information about executions in Texas (which carries out over 1/3 of the executions in the U.S.) and about the prisoners who were executed.

Her project involves taking the mug shot and portions of their last words, and incorporating them into unique photographs.

To read the words, click on the photo at the right for a larger version.
View more photographs online.
Read more about this project and about the conditions of prisoners.
Read the Huffington Post article about her project.

close to my heart

dots and stars

We spend much of our time giving gold stars to people of whom we approve, who are doing the right thing and wearing the right clothes and believing the right beliefs. And we give grey dots to people who don't fit in, who are different, who make mistakes, who aren't as talented as everyone else.

God, on the other hand, is occupied with better things:

For a cool story book related to this, check out Max Lucado's book You are Special. (pics and summary).

[global morality gap]

A global morality gap.

I'd never heard of the term until I read a recent article in the Spectator. It suggests that there is a significant gap in morality between two parts of our world, and that this distinction may be as or more important than other distinctions (such as First World / Third World, developed / developing, etc.) that are more commonly talked about.

This gap is between the part of the world that has been enlightened, that believes in human rights and all that we can be, and the part that maintains strict moral codes, where men are not equal to men and women are definitely less, where might is right and non-heterosexual is wrong. The part of the world where police are not your friends, where citizens are ten to one hundred times more likely to be murdered than citizens of Europe, and other nightmares are commonplace.

The author suggests that the gap is only going to get wider. Whether that is true, I don't know. On one hand, many countries in Africa are currently enacting extreme laws especially in regard to gay people. On the other hand, Nigerian author Binyavanga Wainaina, who came out recently, is hopeful that though there will be a difficult time ahead, lgbt rights "have traction". And while the western world is very keen on human rights, there are extreme elements within it which would be happy to see many of those rights removed and a more fundamentalist control re-established.

Read the whole article and give it some thought.

Update: In late January 2014, thousands of French citizens marched in the streets of Paris yelling, "Jews get out of France" while giving Nazi salutes. (source). Around the same time, there were also extensive anti-gay protests related to the government legalizing same-sex marriage. Perhaps the gap is not as clear-cut as some think...

western decadence

Of course, it's not that simple, is it. The context of the cartoon, if you are not familiar with it, is the objection to "western decadence" that the Russian government has and which it is reacting against with its anti-gay laws.

While we might think of decadence as rich desserts or luxury handbags, Google defines decadence as "moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury." Moral decline is the operative part of this definition, and that is what is being objected to.

(The other context, for those who don't live in Canada or near shops selling President's Choice products, is that the President's Choice brand has an entire line of "Decadent" products, such as the Decadent Chocolate Chip cookies Obama is eating above).

two for one deal

As the Olympics approach and the torch is being carried across the country on the way to Sochi, Vladimir Putin is getting desperate...

[we are all insiders]

From an advertising perspective, I like the MEC's "We are all outsiders" ad campaign. It's kinda catchy in the way it twists the idea of "outsider" to mean someone who likes being outdoors.

MEC is playing on the reality that many in our world are really on the outside, on the margins. Are they hoping that giving being an outsider a positive spin will get them more sales? Or have they not thought beyond the double entendre?

The kingdom of God gives another spin to it all: everyone is an insider. Everyone is loved by God, Jesus spends a lot of time hanging out with outsiders, and the first shall be last.

doublespeak

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing [1]), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak)

Here's some words of the pulpit that can be doublespeak:

Speaking about gay marriage, a well-known pastor recently said, “Don’t take a term and and make it something different. Orwell talked about doublespeak, where words mean the exact opposite of what they used to mean.”

He seems to be suggesting that the way gay people use the word "marriage" is the exact opposite of what marriage "really means" or used to mean. This handy chart shows that there are very few differences between the two, making me wonder who is really the one "doublespeaking":

comparison	traditional marriage	gay marriage
two people	yes	yes
life-long commitment	yes	yes
mutual relationship	yes	yes
love	yes	yes
one man and one woman	yes	no
traditionally based on ownership	yes	no

i'd rather be skiing

p.s. On February 20, 2014, about a month after this was posted, this cartoon was the #4 result on Google Images if you searched for "I'd rather be skiing".

Imagine that! The rest of the results were mostly shirts and buttons and such which said "I'd rather be skiing".

equality for all

If you haven't been keeping up with all the news, here are some disturbing items from the past few weeks:

India:
In 1861, the British instated a law that made non-heterosexual sex illegal.
In 2009, a lower court determined that this law was unconstitutional and overturned it.
In December 2013, the Supreme Court reversed the 2009 judgement, saying that "only Parliament can change that law" and thus recriminalizing homosexuality. The fine for gay sex is once again 10 years in prison.

Uganda:
An anti-homosexuality bill was proposed which would make homosexuality a capital offense. There was much support for this bill both from Ugandan Christians and from evangelicals in the west. Due to protests, the death penalty has been removed from the bill, and it was passed with life imprisonment for "repeat offenders."

Russia:
Along with legislation prohibiting "gay propaganda", there has been an increase in anti-gay violence. And then there's people like Ivan Okhlobystin, a popular actor who is also an Orthodox priest, who was applauded for recently saying (during a "Spiritual Talks" tour), "I myself would shove all live gays into furnaces. This is Sodom and Gomorrah, I as a believer in God can not treat this indifferently, this is a live threat to my kids!... I do not want my kids to think that faggots are normal. This is lavender fascism. If a person can not choose someone of an opposite sex for procreation - this is a overt sign of mental abnormality, so they should be denied of voting rights."

Ethiopia:
Seyoum Antonius, president of United for Life, a "western Evangelical Christian organization that receives funding from the west", "has made clear that he won't quit anti-gay advocacy until Ethiopia adopts the death penalty. One of his rallying cries is, 'Africa will become a graveyard for homosexuality!'" (source). The irony of such statements from an organization of such a name does not seem apparent to everyone. This is one small example of what is happening in Ethiopia (read the whole Newsweek article).

United States of America:
While things are getting better, there is still much legalized discrimination and injustice against sexual minorities in the U.S. For example, there are still 29 states in which a person can be fired from their job simply for being gay (source). This is slowly changing for the better, but there are still citizens who would be happy to see the laws become harsher as they are in other parts of the world.


Increasingly, Christians in North America are speaking out against such discrimination and injustice. We are tired of the dominant view of Christians being those who are bigoted and hateful. We are speaking up to say, being silent isn't good enough. We're raising our voices to say that standing by while lgbt people are put down is not good enough. We are proclaiming the good news that God loves everyone and his arms are open wide to all.

conflicted, or just double-thinking?

In a recent interview, a prominent evangelical pastor said the words in the first two panes. The words in the third pane logically followed for me, as his statements imply them.

But I then wondered what it must be like to believe in something and to also believe in someone who does not believe that same something. What options does this pastor have?

1. Give up his belief in equality and stick to his God.
2. Hold to his belief in equality and give up his God.
3. Live a conflicted life of struggle and cognitive dissonance due to believing two contradictory things.
4. Believe both parts simultaneously -- in other words, believe that you truly believe in equality, and believe in God. This is typically easier when a person is not verbalizing the fact that their God does not believe the same thing as they do.

I suspect that #4 happens quite commonly, that people believe they are good even while doing bad things, believe they are pro-life even while advocating the death penalty for murderers and lgbt people, believe they are tolerant even while they tolerate others only on their own terms, believe they are embracing of all even while they are excluding of some. And they do this without feeling any conflict about it.

Kinda like being against sweatshops, yet buying more cheap clothes produced in them. Or buying chocolate that's not fair trade, while objecting to child labour and human trafficking. Those are examples from my life. Perhaps you can think of your own examples....

Believing both parts simultaneously ties in with the term "doublethink", coined by George Orwell in 1949 and appearing in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four: 

"Doublethink is the act of ordinary people simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy and neutrality. Somewhat related but almost the opposite is cognitive dissonance, where contradictory beliefs cause conflict in one's mind. Doublethink is notable due to a lack of cognitive dissonance — thus the person is completely unaware of any conflict or contradiction."

 (from Wikipedia, emphasis added)

So what about that God I believe in who believes things I don't believe in? Is it time to reconsider whether God really does believe those things, or whether I am believing limited human interpretations that have become "gospel truth"?

the four arms of god

The four arms of God — two embracing the world, and two open to those whom we exclude when we say "for God so loved the world"....

more important things

This is how some people feel. They've listened to the listening committees, they've written to their member of parliament, they might have even protested outside some office or against a parade. But now, they would like to move on to other things, and someone like me drawing cartoons about the same topic again and again can be irritating.

I don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon.

For starters, if there are some people who are treated as less than other people, all of us are less. Desmond Tutu said: "If I diminish you, I diminish myself", and in a similar way, if others are diminished, we are all diminished. It is not enough for women to be liberated if some women are oppressed for being black. It is not enough for black women to be liberated if some black women are oppressed for being lesbian. It is not enough for black lesbian women to be liberated if some are being oppressed for being Jewish. And so on.

So I draw cartoons in a desire to increase embrace and decrease exclusion, so that all people would be welcome and embraced, and so that we will all be more aware and thinking about what we think, feel and do.

Is this the most important issue of today? I don't know. What I do know, is that matters of sexual orientation are ubiquitous. Whether it's bullying of gay students at school here in Canada or employees being fired solely due to their non-heterosexual sexual orientation being discovered in the U.S., to the greater extremes of countries around the world having or enacting laws which imprison or execute lgbt people, this is one of the key justice issues today. And because of a long legacy of Christian churches rejecting those in sexual minorities, this is a key spiritual issue. If we believe God loves everyone, why is it not more obvious??

Finally, I do comment on many other things on this blog -- check out the Categories section on the side and you'll see that the posts range from aboriginal to hell to mental illness to sex trade workers. But just as a political commentary blog deals with current political events and happenings, this is a social commentary blog and many of the happenings right now, happen to be lgbt. Thus, there is "a lot of fodder for the cannon." Not that I'm shooting at people -- it's just a metaphor, one that stems from the violence within me and within us all, the violence that Jesus came to undo and overcome and dissolve by giving his life non-violently for us all. See, I even managed to get a gospel message in this post.


rob g

p.s. Please use the comments feature to respond to this altar call.