Unpacking Ideas

Don’t rush to judgment. What does “pro-life” mean to me? Unfortunately the label carries lots of uncomfortable, distasteful baggage for me (and for others). I don’t want to be lumped in with all those other pro-lifers. My brand of “pro-life” is this: I am completely pro-life, about unborn children and everyone else, everywhere else. I believe in the sanctity of human life everywhere, for everyone’s children, born and unborn.

If we say we want to be the Church, then a good place to start is with Jesus. What did he say? What did he do? Who did he love, and how?

Consider this simple challenge: Go back to Luke’s Gospel and read it again. Forget public policy for now. Forget November’s elections for now. Ask only this: What would happen if I followed that Jesus? What would happen if the Church followed that Jesus?

Sometimes our anger is righteous. Sometimes not. When our anger is not rooted in a righteous response to injustice, where does it come from?

Apparently, there is no legal reason to prevent the construction of the mosque. Local authorities have approved the plan to build the mosque. In addition, there is substantial constitutional support to encourage the building of the mosque. Religious freedom is a big deal.

I am trying to say that the way we spend — or not spend — at the federal level seems (to me) to reveal what we value most as a nation. And so I ask questions like: If spending percentages are a clue, I wonder why we seem to care less about providing college education for more of our young people? Or, have we changed? Do we now care about other things more as a nation? Is it possible that the way we spend reveals what we really want? Is it OK that we are number 12 in the world?

As people of faith we may not agree on how to address the problem. We can debate the details. I think, though, we can agree that the current immigration system in the U.S. is broken, and has become inhumane. So, let’s fix it . Even if it might not be popular, even if it might not be comfortable, it is the right thing to do. Let’s be the Church.

My simple conclusion as a Christian was this: The policies that our Church endorses publicly ought to look a bit like the Jesus we read about in the Gospel of Luke (or Matthew, or Mark, or John). The policies we endorse as people of faith ought to protect our widows, care for our orphans, and welcome strangers in our land.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”   – The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Nobel Laureate, Peace, 1989 “What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who don’t.”   – Georges [...]

This year our team consists of 8 adults and 7 youth (representing two United Methodist churches from our community). We are heading to Summers County, West Virginia to join teams from churches in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and Pleasantville, New York. Personally, I’ll be glad to hang around a bunch of yankees for the week!

Of course I thought I understood everything in 1976. I was nineteen. C’mon, I knew everything, right? I understood everything, right? Truth is, that winter in 1976 I saw lots of things but understood very little. I can catalogue a long list of poor decisions I made in those days because I “saw” but only thought I understood the world and people around me.

In short, transformational leadership, whether we are talking about national policy or change for my local congregation or nonprofit, requires tenacious long term vision. Leaders who ask us to scuttle our long term common good in order to relieve our short term discomfort are not leading us anywhere. And we know what the Cheshire Cat said.