SHOOTING BY WHITE SUPREMACIST AT THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

An gunman opened fire at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. today, firing several shots and killing a security guard. The Washington Post report highlighted the fact that children were among the terrified victims visiting the museum when the shooting occurred.

The man who committed the crime is eighty-eight years old, and a long-time white supremacist. He wanted his very last act on earth, it seems, to be killing Jews at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This event certainly signals that anti-Semitism is still alive and well in the United States. The fact that the shooter is elderly, and has spent much of his life nourishing his own hatred and that of others by writing racist literature, gives me pause. His life's work was creating hate.

In such cruel and hateful agendas, I find my belief that no one is beyond the love of God compromised. The hatred expressed in this act of terror is a reminder of the sheer evil any of us are capable of. It is especially heinous when we commit evil which we mistake for righteousness.

OPEN DOOR COMMUNITY

Based on my interests, one of my former Emory professors recommended that I go to the Open Door Community. I heard a call in his words, and I went last night. Open Door Community is part of the Catholic Worker Movement. As such, it was founded by a group of lay Catholics, and is not officially part of the Roman Catholic Church. Weekly Eucharist is celebrated by a lay person, and all are invited to the table. The most notable figure of the Catholic Worker Movement is Dorothy Day. The key tenets of Day's ministry were pacifism and nonviolent direct action. The communities in the Catholic Worker Movement take justice seriously. Social services are provided daily at the OD: food, showers, medical care, worship, as well as a participation in a community courtyard and other living areas. People have access to foot care one day each week. I am not sure what foot care includes- I assume socks, shoes, and nail trimmers. A spa experience is probably a bit too extravagant for the folks running the OD, although it is notable that a spa for pets opened up just down the street.

When I arrived at the Open Door, I walked under a hand-painted banner, and passed a "Free Troy Davis" sign. I rang the door bell and was welcomed into the living room. I filled out a name tag, and joined in conversation. Admittedly, I was more interested in listening to conversation than speaking. There were divinity students from around town, homeless folks, live-in volunteers, people from the streets of Atlanta, transients. There was an icon of Jesus with dark skin on the wall, and various photos and quotations having to do with justice around the room. We were multi-racial and multi-cultural, spanning economic and social location. There appeared to be a core group of white men and white women in their 50s, Roman Catholics, who have participated in the OD for many years. Personally, I was struck by the sincerity and empathy people had for one another. Everyone who spoke to me used my name.

When it was time for worship, we went into the sanctuary (another room in the house). The altar was dressed in kente cloth. The chalice was pottery, with words of Jesus imprinted in the clay: "I was hungry, and you fed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink." We used a hymnal without notes (only words). The songs we sang were mostly Afro-American spirituals, but I noticed while we were singing that the song "Let it Be" by the Beatles was on the next page.

The sermon was about God being the only one who can help our souls, and thereby liberate us from addiction. The man who preached was black, in his forties, had a Baptist background, and had just returned from a trip to Israel. He stated in his sermon that we are all simultaneously addicts and those who walk with addicts. He quoted Carl Jung and Paul Tillich, and bound together those who have been hurt by addicts with those who are addicted.

During the prayers, various members of the core group asked for prayers for the prison inmates on death row. One person said they asked their friend (who is on death row) if they wanted the community to pray for anything in particular. The friend said that he was watching a Cribs on MTV, and was concerned by the wants of some people in our society. He wanted us to pray that people understand the difference between wants and needs. He also wanted us to pray for forgiveness, because God forgives us, and wanted us to be able to forgive one another.

A lay woman from the core group broke the bread and blessed the wine. She used justice-oriented language. We passed the bread and cup around the room, giving communion to the person sitting next to us. I remembered he last time I participated in communion in this way. I was at a different church, and I was sitting next to Desmond Tutu.

Dinner is served at the OD following the service, at 5 pm. If you are interested in coming to the Open Door, it is located at 910 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta, GA.

HOMOSEXUAL CLERGY MUST LIE

A story about an ex-Archbishop in the Catholic church in the New York times today. Had to hide his homosexuality. Paid a former lover $450,000 to keep quiet about the affair. The man the Archbishop had an affair with claimed it was date rape. So much suffering in the church, on so many levels. First, the people who faithfully gave their money, likely thinking that their money would be used to help the poor, or save souls. Second, even if this was not a case of abuse, the system makes abuse possible and likely to be covered up and denied. Third, the Archbishop who was told by his church that being gay is a sin since he was a child, but succumbed to loneliness, and misused trust and money.
Tragic.

How long will it take the Church to stop demanding that people lie about their sexuality?

GOD IS A LIBERAL

I've seen the bumper sticker that says, "God is not a Democrat OR a Republican."

The wisdom expressed in this ubiquitous fashion is that God is above our political persuasions.

I agree. After all, God is not even American.

But God is liberal.

As charged as the words Liberal and Conservative are, I am not expressing what I believe to be God's politics, and yet may nonetheless influence politics and other aspects of daily life.

I began thinking that God is liberal in a meditation on the word "Om." In the major religions of the world, there is an ubiquitous, sacred word in each used to denote, "Yes." There may be more than one word, and the meaning may vary; literally "yes," as in an answer a question, or acceptance, "Let it be so." There are perhaps more than one word, but there is at least one word, and it is positive, affirmative, and points to a God whose answer tends to be Yes. I am currently interested in "Om" and "Amen."

Om, popularly known in the West through meditation and the practice of yoga, originally meant "yes." Om has a positive, healing meaning, and points to the yes-tendency in the universe. The word affirms a universe that tends toward life, creativity, possibility. Not only the word, but the sound also, Om is considered sacred. I find it very interesting to note that Om is still used to denote "yes," in war-ravaged Sri Lanka.


Jews, Christians, and Muslims use the word Amen, which means, "Let it be so." While it does not retain the exact meaning of Om, Amen affirms the positive presence of God in the universe. Amen affirms belief in a God whose joy it is to to say yes to us; to create and save and sustain life. Using the same prayerful word, there is an underlying, though often unaccepted, oneness among these three religions. A oneness between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is quite a remarkable claim, considering our bloody past. Yet, it simply is. There is tremendous potential for healing in this one word.

The result of believing that God is liberal is that we may become liberal. We are free to say yes. Conversely, if we believe God is conservative, we are justified in being closed. When we limit those who belong, we find that God has also limited those who belong. Has God not increased those who belong?

Yes to loving others.
Yes to food for the hungry.
Yes to call.
Yes to the pain that call may cause me.
Yes to the universe.

To be liberal is the tendency to be open, rather than closed. What captures me in these sacred words of the world's religions is that they are similar affirmations. It isn't merely an act or actions, but the tendency, habit, or disposition of God to create and recreate, and whisper yes into every living thing. In prayer, this means that God is inclined toward yes. Who are we to say no?

HOPE, AND GOODNESS

Martin Luther was in a pub, drinking beer and discussing theology. Someone asked him, "If the world was ending tomorrow, what would you do?"
Luther said, "I would plant a tree."

Today, people are dying from a strange new virus. The story above inspires me to pull myself away from fear and anxiety, and to reflect on my belief that the world is infused with the will toward life, and that creation is essentially good. Planting a tree, an act of hope, affirms that. God is still here.

I will now go and plant my metaphorical trees.

SWINE FLU, FINANCIAL CRISIS, AND PIRATES, OH MY!

Sometimes current events emerge in such way that they radically shift our perspective. Under normal circumstances, discussing the mysteries of the Trinity, or arguing the modern relevance of the Nicene Creed, might seem worthy enterprises. It is practically stupid, for those of us who are theologically inclined, to focus on these non-essential issues when a new illness begins infecting people.

Theology must shift during crisis, but does religion have anything to offer?

First, allow me be specific about the crisis as I see it. The Swine Flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, comes at an unfortunate time. Governments are broke. The United States sent 200 million dollars to Mexico today, the epicenter of the Swine Flu illness. It was but a week ago that there were "Tea Parties" at our state capitals, as Fox News rallied conservatives who do not want to pay more taxes. Now, the same people want our government to protect us. We all do. We don't yet understand the impact the Swine Flu virus will have, except that it is killing people in its epicenter.

The pirate puzzle has been consistent in headlines over the past weeks. When pirates off of the African coast hijack boats containing food and medicine, we feel righteous indignation. There is irony in the pirates' career choice. They are not merely hardened toward the suffering these supplies could alleviate. They are pirates precisely because they are suffering from poverty. These individuals are poor, though I do not wish to imply that I think the poor are immoral; one must be poor, and have a dash of greed and antisocial personality disorder also, in order to choose pirating as a career. The thought of a European cruise ship with wealthy passengers returning fire on pirates still makes my jaw drop. Irony abounds. In relation to the question at hand regarding religion, the unsettling stories about pirates add to our uncertainty, and our feeling that the world has suddenly become a less predictable place.

Swine flu, financial crisis, and crazy pirates. Does religion have anything to offer? Is religion boiled down to a simple equation: believe X (right belief), get Y (heaven)? A personal relationship with the Creator or with Jesus might help you get you through times of trouble, but that experience is not the realm of religion per se, but is more appropriately in the area of personal piety. Is religion relevant in crisis?

I think so.

Religion bears the possibility of helping us cope creatively with crisis. Liturgy and ritual restore order to chaos. For a short time, the world is a predictable place again, and it reassures us. We are reassured that God is present, interested in us. By taking part in our religious community's narrative, and we know that we are not alone, and our perspective involves those who have walked the Earth before us. The reassuring power of liturgy and ritual is true for young and old, and everyone in between.

Another way that religion helps us cope is its use of language. Religious language gives us tools to make meaning in new landscapes. Dealing creatively with religious language allows us to make new meaning when previous meaning doesn't make sense, i.e. when our context changes. Religion reaches human beings in places where other disciplines do not. This is the gift of religion. The gift is outside of the realm of personal belief, and is available to any religion.

Perhaps you are wondering whether I am conveniently overlooking the egregious elements of religion. These elements in my own religious tradition are particularly glaring to me, and have deep personal effects. I am not merely overlooking them. Religion can be the cause of much grief and destruction. It is true that religion is also something humans have always sought participation in, in response to the numinous, which is a mystery (Rudolf Otto, Idea of the Holy).

We could find, in religion, a balm to our anxiety in the days ahead.

MICHELANGELO?

The Italian government's Culture of Ministry shelled out 3.3 million euros/$4.2 million dollars for a crucifix which might have been rendered by Michelangelo. Might. Such a crucifix rendered by another artist from 15th Century Florence would cost 100,000 euros/$129,700. The problem of identifying the artist could take more time, but does this mystery need to be solved? To take a risk, I think it could it be an inhibited understanding of art (or an uninhibited publicity stunt) that led the Italian government to pay the going rate for a Michelangelo piece for a crucifix of mysterious origin.

I propose that one of the reasons Michelangelo was great was the time and place in which he lived and worked. Art does not occur in a vacuum. Indeed, one of the reasons 15th century artists in Florence could produce a crucifix mistaken for a Michelangelo piece is that they were tremendous artists in their own right. Perhaps they were even influenced by Michelangelo's work. When people with a shared interest, matched skill and talent come together, they create more than art. They create an inspiring environment. The same goes for virtually any discipline: scientists, musicians, theologians, political movements, literature, and the list goes on. We become relevant when we take part in a conversation.

Does it really matter if the crucifix is by Michelangelo? Perhaps. It is a mystery, but it clearly speaks volumes about the talent in Michelangelo's midst. Read more about this in The New York Times.