Thats my opinion
Thats my opinion's JournalI just got a strange message
which only said, "you shouldn't be seeing this." And a request to report it here? What is this about?
A post-Christmas reflection
We’ve done it for another year. While the liturgical calendar mandates that Christmas lasts for twelve days, let’s face it: when the football game ends sometime on the evening of Christmas day, for most Americans it is time to get over it. All the presents have been opened, and in a couple of days what is left of the live trees will be on the curbs ready for the trash hauler. Shortly the credit card statements will arrive and the merchants will tell us whether Christmas was a grand success or financial disaster. And isn’t that what the whole thing has been about—or at least much of it? But maybe not for everybody.
Not for Howard Thurman. After serving on the faculty of Howard University, he founded the “Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.” in San Francisco. His final post was as and Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University (1953-65). But perhaps he is best remembered for his poetry.
For Thurman, as for many millions of others, the message of religion, particularly Christmas, is the entrée to a life-changing encounter with the Holy, and that means with the world. The mystery surrounding Jesus’ birth is far more than the telling of a beautiful story of angels, shepherds, wise men and a star hung over the manger. So what do we do when the last carol is a fading memory and the remnants of the feast have been safely refrigerated? Here is how Thurman put it:
When the Song of the Angels Is Stilled
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.
From The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations by Howard Thurman.
Friends United Press, 2001 edition
Here lies the critical difference in how people see religion. For some it is the belief in the story’s truth. For others it is a hope in life beyond the grave. For still others it is a mystical vision. But for many it is a call to bind up the world’s wounds. And that is what it was for Thurman and is for most of the Christians I know. It doesn’t bother me that probably for lots of religionists it is truth, hope or mystery. People see what they see. But what gives me hope each year when the angels have gone and the star is dimmed, is living with and knowing about Christians all over the world who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of peace, justice, compassion and the vision of a better world. That is what the story of the Christ child is at its core, and that is the heart of Christianity. Thurman’s vision is what goes on these days in seminaries, in thousands of congregations and in millions of homes, even as the decorations are being taken down and safely put in their boxes.
Have a blessed new year even as you are a blessing somewhere and to someone.
bigotry abounds
The United Methodist church in our city produces a large Christmas display each year. Last year it was a modern homeless family in the manger. This year it depicted three life-sized couples each holding hands--before a representation of the manger. Two women, two men and a heterosexual couples. Christmas night vandals destroyed the images of the two gay couples. Outrage in the community and in support of the church is rampant. We will gather to witness the rebuilding of the display. The bigots are not yet unidentified. Most of the churches in our area are welcoming to GLBTQ people. They are about the only places in town that are open and affirming.
Bah! Humbug!
WHAT’S WITH THE HUMBUG? (12/21)
In earlier years I often got my knickers in a twist fuming about the commercialization of Christmas. “Santa has replaced the manger child! Ain’t it a shame? Grumble, grumble, grumble!” The issue has not gotten any simpler. The whiskered man in the red suit still increasingly dominates the season, and the manger has been increasingly replaced by the mall. But an important change has taken place in me. I am devoted to the story of the manger child. And while I still tend to avoid the malls and the hectic shopping sprees, I now spend more time and energy listening to those I casually encounter as they talk about childhood memories, family gatherings, the empty place at the Christmas table and ways they plan to do something for needy people they don’t even know. Some of those to whom I listen find themselves regularly in church. Some just show up at Christmas, and perhaps Easter. And others never darken the church door. But regardless of their religious practice, or even their religious attitudes—or lack of them—there is something about the carols and songs, the decorations, the colored lights framing the eves of houses or viewed through picture windows, the manger scenes and even the plastic snowmen silently performing their sentry duties on neighborhood lawns.
Some people sing out “Merry Christmas” to friends and strangers alike. Others say “Happy Holidays,” but it’s the same message. “No matter who you are, we are neighbors on this troubled planet, and at least for this short time, we have each other.”
Sometime during these days many of us will either see a production or listen to a reading of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, and take pity on Ebenezer Scrooge with his dismal “humbug.” And if we run across someone who also sneers at the season because it is too religious or not religious enough, we will smile, perhaps invite them in for a hot drink and recall the words of Scrooge’s nephew when confronted with his lonely, old, grumpy uncle.
Humbug uncle? I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!
And finally we will recall the words of Tiny Tim, who was not making a theological statement, but offering a heart-warming song of love to anyone with ears to hear and hearts softened by the season, when he said, “God bless us, every one.”
So whoever you are and wherever you find yourself in life’s journey, my word to you echoes that sentiment, and I also say, “God bless us, everyone!”
OWS, trinity church and a manger scene
Check this one out--for where religion is both a gift and a burden.
Cornel West was at our church yesterday.
Cornel West and Serene Jones spoke at our church yesterday. Jones is President of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and has just hired West away from Princeton. West is and has been a committed Christian activist. They appeared to talk about the religious involvement in the Occupy Wall Street action. Both made it clear that Occupy is not primarily or even substantially a religious phenomenon. However, substantial part of the progressive liberal community is deeply involved as supporters. Jones reported that 45 Seminary students have been in Occupy every day since it began. There are councilors to help those in trouble over the rough spots. While Occupy picks up anarchists, communists, street people and a collection of the fragile, religious leaders are on hand to help all sorts of people deal with the wounds life has handed out. Religious groups from both New York and Boston have consistently been present as part of Occupy, to help keep the movement non-violent. Many of us in the Occupy ranks are also there because we believe in the issues Occupy has raised.
A number of us from my religious community, who are part of a local Occupy action, plan to join with the Los Angeles group in generating a float and somehow marching in the Rose Parade. Working out the details is a substantial job. But we are detemined.
www.occupytheroseparade.org
As an aside, West indicated that while he is still unhappy with Obama’s lean to the center, he is horrified by any Republican alternative. My guess is he will finally support the President.
Supporting the occupy demonstration in our city
Occupy had had a small tent demonstration at our City Hall for almost two months. The City Council has been asked to remove it.
I appeared to testify before the Council as a member of the community. I had formed my opinion out of the imperative of my religious faith. Others came from other perspectives just as legitimate, but I came because that is what my faith demands. Here is a slightly edited copy of what I said.
“For some weeks I have personally observed what has been happening on our doorsteps. I have been to all the town meetings of the Occupiers and have dropped by late at night to see what was happening, and to talk with those, mainly students, sleeping out in the cold. I have observed them being polite, clean, orderly, peaceful and sincere. I have seen nothing that would constitute a violation of the law or a public disturbance. Their effort has been to talk about injustice in society, and I applaud what they have had to say. Their models are Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and other non-violent heroes of faith and action. If corporations can now sink millions of dollars—which is now called speech-- into political campaigns, why should these poor students and those with them, having only their bodies, and sleeping in the cold, be denied the freedom of speech they have exercised? I am not a lawyer, but your City Attorney has said there is nothing they have done which is a violation of the law. But out of my ethical formation and faith I believe that to deny them the right is not only illegal but also immoral.”
I would be interested in what others here have done and said either in support or in opposion to the Occupiers.
A modest proposal
I suggest we avoid at all costs the toxic nature of what continued to go on in r/t. I hope none of us want that. Even so I propose that we continue to have the points of view expressed both by believers and non-believers as legitimate. If I have been party to what some feel unsupported criticisms of atheism, I apologize and repent. (is that a religious word?)
While there is room for serious disagreement, can we eliminate all posts or threads that attempt to demean someone else's belief or non-belief? Serious questions are acceptable, but posts whose intention is to belittle, put down, judge another's belief or non-belief would be out of bounds.
That way we can have a spirited discussion across all kinds of intellectual barriers without falling into the sad old game or trying to prove someone stupid, silly or worse.
Unacceptable would be material from the Internet that put down, ridicule or provide lurid examples of the worst of atheism or belief. "Look how stupid atheism is" or,"here is another example of how evil or stupid believers are," would be unacceptable.
I think it would be dull to engage in a forum whose members were just those who held to the same general point of view. Where is the dialectic, the growth or the interest in that? I thrive on serious debate, but the attempt to dismantle someone's point of view with sarcasm, or other destructive materials or language does not move us forward. I promise to do my best, and if I am out of bounds to be called out for it. But we have the opportunity for a whole new civility with the possibility we all might learn something.
what think ye?
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