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The Reformation Project

Regardless of one's view on same-sex marriage, today signifies a historic tipping point in civil rights in this nation that closely follows the seismic cultural shift that has been happening in American culture and many sectors of the Church in recent years.

Today the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act opening the way for marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Last week the largest ex-gay ministry in the U.S., Exodus International, shut down, after several years of slowly conceding that reparative therapy does not work. On Lisa Ling's Our America, the director of Exodus offered an apology for the spiritual suffering and psychological damage that their ministry has caused so many people.

Another event is happening this summer, and I find the timing with these other events anything but a coincidence. Fifty individuals will be convening for a conference in Kansas City for The Reformation Project. 

The Reformation Project is a Bible-based, Christian non-profit organization that seeks to reform church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The conference will be like a Bible boot camp. From the website:

There, we will equip them with the tools and training they need to go back to their communities and make lasting changes to beliefs and interpretations that marginalize LGBT people...

Crucially, the aspiring reformers that we train will not be seeking to change their churches by asking them to ignore or look past the Bible. The Bible is not anti-gay. It never addresses the issues of same-sex orientation or loving same-sex relationships, and the few verses that some cite to support homophobia have nothing to do with LGBT people. Careful, persistent arguments about those passages have the power to change every Christian church worldwide, no matter how conservative their theology. The mission of The Reformation Project is to train a new generation of Christians to streamline that process and accelerate the demise of homophobia in the church.

I am pleased to say that I am one of the fifty Reformers that will be convening for this gathering.

The words of Mordecai from the Book of Esther have been echoing in my spirit the past few months with regards to The Reformation Project and other advances in this arena (4:14):

For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Reparative therapy and other charismatic deliverance techniques for same-sex orientation and desires have not worked and most Christians are now recognizing that. A different kind of deliverance is now arising that will help stop the years of emotional and spiritual abuse--even death--that Church teachings have unwittingly caused.

We are living in a prophetic moment where enternal purposes of inclusion and unconditional love are being made more clearly manifest.

For me, this is a move of the Spirit for such a time as this. I cannot stay silent any longer.

 

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Confronting Exodus

When 'pray the gay away' doesn't work

Bringing India & Pakistan together through technology

I absolutely love this video from Coca-Cola on bringing people together in India and Pakistan.

I undertand it's marketing, but if Coca-Cola gets it, why can't we? Furthermore, why won't we?

We need more creative reconciliation initiatives in the world like this one using Small World Machines. 

As one of the voice overs says, "It is more about how similar we are as opposed to how different we are." 

As for me, I've got my Coke Zero in hand and am reminding myself the importance of reaching out to those who might be very different than me.

 

God Loves Ugandan Orphans

My Welsh friends Keren and Mark Riley of ReUnite have been living in Uganda the past several years resettling orphans to their families of origin.

I'm very impressed by their work. They are people of faith who are doing an amazing work among "the least of these", orphans. If not for their efforts, many displaced children would end up overseas and never see their families again.

This short film shares one of their success stories which I found very moving. There is definitely Good News coming to--and out of--Uganda!

 

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Christian Extremism & Martyrdom

My coping strategy this week in light of terror, violence, and continued political divide

I have remained mostly silent on the subjects of terror, violence and gun control this week--mainly, because my heart has been so overwhelmed.

I was asked yesterday by a mental health professional what I thought of the Boston bombings and how I was responding.

I replied I woke up on Wednesday feeling very anxious. I think there is a lot of internalized fear and anxiety in our country, and I was experiencing part of it.

I believe American society has been carrying a good deal of internalized fear since 9/11 and part of the polarization and rage in our society is because we just feel so powerless over random violence. We still don't know how to handle this "new" world, so we take it out on each other. 

Of course, I'm shocked by the bombings. I'm grieved. I have prayed for the victims in Boston.

Someone last night asked me how I'm praying. I'm meditating and releasing healing, peace, and restoration to the families of victims, to victims themselves, and to our country at large. I'm praying for the perpetrator(s) to be found.

I'm praying for those suffering in West, Texas this morning. I'm praying for the politicking going on regarding gun control. I contacted one of my senators to voice my opinion.

I'm asking for rational thought and conciliatory action, that we can all come together, that our pain won't further divide us.

I'm mostly just feeling the anxiety, the fear, the pain and releasing it spiritually, when my tendency otherwise might be to stuff it, medicate it, or deny it. I even went for run to get myself centered.

It's important to feel fully right now, deal with it in our own way, and do our portion for healing, help, and recovery.  That looks different for each one. But it's important we experience it and do our part.

It's also important we keep a normal schedule. The media reports can distract, preoccupy and consume us. It's okay to change the news channel, turn NPR off the car radio, or not engage Facebook or Twitter.

Monitor how much you take in. Know when to unplug. The soul can only take so much.

Most importantly, take care of yourself and each other. That's what we really need right now: to be present for each other. To lean on, support, and love. 

That's how I'm coping this week.

God Loves Uganda

This week I went to a screening of the documentary God Loves Uganda at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. The film "explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with both creating schools and hospitals and promoting dangerous religious bigotry.  The film follows evangelical leaders in America and Uganda along with politicians and missionaries as they attempt the radical task of eliminating 'sexual sin' and converting Ugandans to fundamentalist Chrisitianity" (synopsis).

It spotlights Lou Engle and the International House of Prayer's efforts to evangelize Uganda and see their view of sexual immorality legislated out of the country. Lou and other prayer missionaries gave open interviews in the documentary.

I first heard some of this rhetoric from Lou over ten years ago when I sat in a closed door meeting with him and several young leaders. It was 2004 in Pasadena, CA, and he was strategizing how to raise up an army of young people to effect his view of social change. Part of that was to pull young people out of the university systems and get them to the stadium Call events and International House of Prayer in Kansas City, then send these young people around the world.

What concerned me was not the evangelistic zeal or even passionate stadium events. These individuals really love God and their hearts are coming from an extremely pure place.

What concerned me was the lack of theological understanding and how it could adversely effect not just their movement but other nations and peoples.

Much of the ideology coming from IHOP and various related groups is based on dominion theology. Put simply, dominionists teach that the insitutions of this world should be taken over by people who represent their Christian viewpoint. Government should be modeled after Biblical laws to the exclusion of secular law. If this happens, the land is blessed. If this does not happen, the land is cursed and various disasters could ensue.

I believe this to be at best, reckless and at worse, a very dangerous ideology as the result is the rejection and even destruction of anyone who does not share their particular Christian worldview.

My friend Tina and I connected with the director of the film and his team. Roger Ross Williams is an Oscar winning director. He spoke about how he has developed a warm friendship with some of the IHOP missionaries in the documentary.  He and his team are endeavoring to shine a light on what is happening in Uganda and build a more thoughtful, rational conversation in America and Africa.

He and his team also stated they are not against Evangelicals. In fact, high regard was given to the evangelical heart of reaching the poor and the suffering. What is being exposed at present time is the ideology that can result in the subjugation and deaths of people who believe differently.

I highly recommend viewing this film if it comes to your city.

 

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A Christian Comes Out for Marriage Equality

Devon Skeens, a straight Christian, recently came out in support of marriage equality. Afterwards, he was accused of being gay and not being a Christian.

It's interesting to me how many straight Christian people are coming out of their own closets of fear, finding their voice, and speaking what they believe--regardless of the religious vitriol that may come their way from other Christian friends and family.

Here is his logical and thoughtful response. 

 

 

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Equality is a Given

Losing Religious Cliches

Equality is a Given

There's been a lot of talk of equality the last couple of weeks. A lot of struggling, striving, arguing, debating. A lot of speaking up and speaking out. So much passion and sometimes not very civil.

Facebook and Twitter went red with equality signs. I saw them in places I wouldn't have expected. I saw responses I wouldn't have expected as well.

Red crosses were displayed as a statement against equality closely followed by crosses merged with equal signs announcing both could be possible.

I don't know how this debate will end. But I've been endeavoring to pay attention. To listen closely. To hear more deeply. To listen to the angst of the human heart on both sides of the divide. I've tried to listen more and speak less.

Bridging the Divide, Post-Election Attitudes in Amerca

By the reaction of a few people around me, you would have thought he had committed the unpardonable sin.

A couple seated at an angle from me grimaced and commented under their breath to each other. One woman shot up electrified. You could feel the spirit shift from openness to one of resistance and even contempt.

The response wasn’t completely pervasive. I heard a few voices whisper Amen. But it was clear that attitudes were divided, much like the nation.

That was the response in a prayer service for the nation that I attended post-election. The prayer in question was one blessing Congress, the President, and the Nation, invoking grace that we might come together.

Honestly, I felt the same unease. I knew it best to keep my prayers silent in my heart, lest a prayer of blessing for President Obama or Speaker Boehner be seen as intolerable by those around me.

How did we get to this point? How could our nation, our communities, and congregations end up in open hostility? How can Christians disparage our elected officials, whether Republican or Democrat, when the Scriptures admonish us to bless instead of curse and never repay an unkind word with a more unkind one?

One Christian woman I know posted on Facebook this week that she wanted to sign the petition to secede from the Union. Really? You want to disassociate from the USA? How disloyal is that! Instead of playing in the sandbox and effecting change, you pout and take your toys home.

This last week I had to remove a Facebook post about a local, too-close-to-call election because a Christian began to lambaste the Republican candidate with derogatory epithets. 

I don’t know all the answers but I do know that we must convene with our ideological enemies. We must seek to listen, rather than being heard.

That takes time and presupposes that we are willing to sit down in an atmosphere of tolerance, mutuality, and respect.  It also requires that we stop the name-calling and blaming the other side for this or that, even if they are genuinely at fault. Blaming gets us nowhere.

Grace Nelson, the wife of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, tells the story from the 1980’s how then President Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill used to debate vociferously their views then leave as great friends heading for dinner.

I ask myself, when was the last time I had dinner with someone who believes differently than I? When was the last time I really sought to listen and understand rather than just be heard? When was the last time that I truly loved my neighbor instead of just tolerating her? 

Bridging the divide starts at home, starts at church and temple, starts with me. We need to pray. We need to bless. We need to exercise our faith and believe for the best. We need to come together.

So when are we going to dinner?

A Spiritual Response for Malala Yousafzai and all the little children of the world

Like most people, I was shocked and horrified to hear of the Taliban hit placed on Malala Yousafzai this week in Pakistan. I have added my prayers to those from around the world for her full recovery. Every child-boy and girl-deserves an education, no matter what religious extremists believe.

On her Facebook page this morning, Marianne Williamson posted the following call to prayer and intercession. I thought it one of the better spiritual responses to the political and religious war that seems to rage on and manifest in the most horrific ways:

I think about how "temporarily inaccessible to the power of the Atonement" (ACIM) a heart must be, to think it right to shoot a little girl because she says she wants to go to school. 

But it's not like with the Nazis during WW2, where if you simply got rid of them, the phenomenon they promulgated was for all intents and purposes gone. We can't just kill enough Taliban and make it all go away. There's an ideology there -- deep and entrenched and being taught to thousands of children -- that bullets alone cannot destroy.

That's why, in answer to those who think we should keep the subject of spirituality far away from politics, I think the exact opposite. We didn't say, "Spirituality has nothing to do with AIDS," and we shouldn't say, "Spirituality has nothing to do with war." There HAS to be a spiritual solution to this, or the tragedies will only get worse. We are burdening our military with a mission that we should all be contributing to. That's why we need a holistic politics. Military might is like allopathic medicine; it needs to be backed by psychological, spiritual and emotional support.

So let's do something radical: let's meditate today, and pour God's light on every extremist of any kind. Let's remember that that which is not love is a call for love. Let's spend a minimum of five minutes every day, pouring the Light and Love of a Divine Creator onto those who we are tempted to fear, or even hate. Imagine extremist groups, then send love to them like the medicine it is, to heal their minds and restore us all to sanity. For only love has the ability to cast out fear. Let us pray for a divine intercession from a thought system beyond our own. We cannot do this by ourselves. For true peace on earth, we need a miracle. Amen

I'm adding my prayers and intercession today, asking for not just an international political miracle, but a spiritual one that will turn hearts of hate and rage to that of love and peace. Would you take a few moments and do the same?

Ideological Bullying and the Culture Wars

I've grown weary of the culture wars. I feel caught right in the middle of them. Sometimes, I probably contribute from my side.

The name-calling and intolerance on each side concerns me. Yet, I am challenged with the idea of showing tolerance to people who are indeed intolerant of me or my own views.

For example, my main challenge with those on the conservative, religious right is the presupposition that if you don't agree with them, somehow you are responsible for the breakdown of society, morally bankrupt, truly un-Christian, or in danger of spending eternity without God. The rightness of the positions are so heavily weighted with absolute certitudes that it becomes difficult to engage in any reasonable dialogue with someone who believes you have become spiritually darkened and out of pity prays for your soul, destined to an eternity without God.

While I disagree with much of conservative, political views, it would never occur to me that people who ascribe to them are somehow morally bankrupt or in danger of a godless life now or for eternity. I just the think their views are not expedient for all people as I see life and God through a different lens.

My challenge with the liberal Left is that oftentimes it views those on the Right as uneducated buffoons, lacking social compassion and any sense of justice. While I have friends on the Right who are highly educated and thoughtful individuals, it would never occur to me to say they lack compassion or intellect.

I look at the extreme ends and am left feeling like I'm too spiritual for the Left and too intellectual for the Right. I'm a mish-mash somewhere in between as I feel like my intellect doesn't have to conflict with my spirituality.