Bob's Blog

Because the tulip is my wife’s favorite flower, she loves to come home with bouquets of  them to brighten up our townhouse: yellow bunches in the spring, purple double-petal blooms in the summer, and even red ones mixed with boughs of green pine in December.  And they always do their job – boldly transporting the beauty of God’s creation from the outdoors, to the indoors.

But they also do something else.  They bring a bit of redemption to one of the church’s most misunderstood theological doctrines: Tulip Calvinism!  For the past 500 years this belief system, conceived in a world burdened by the harshness of life and born in the heart of a Church obsessed with purity, has marred the national flower of the Netherlands.  So it’s time for the Church to finally grow some bulbs that will give rise to a new way of thinking about Tulip, and let a few of the old beliefs whither and die.  And this is particularly true of the “T” in Tulip, which stands for “Total Depravity.”

I heard mention of Total Depravity far too many times at a recent Presbyterian conference.  And while I understand the tendency to want to emphasize the depth of human sin when talking about things like racism, misogyny, and xenophobia, I fear it does more harm than good, and radically distorts the truth of God’s creation.

Building upon the Roman Catholic understanding of creation’s fall, Calvin purported that the brokenness of humanity means that every aspect of human nature is touched, tainted, and enslaved by sin.  As a result, people are not only never able to freely choose to follow God, or to live the way of Jesus, but we are too broken, too evil, too . . . depraved . . . to experience the oneness that exists between Creator and creation!

Now it has been said that the one theological doctrines that requires the least proof of it’s existence is the doctrine of sin.  It’s consequences abound: from the destructive nature of hatred and war, to the traumatic injuries of poverty and injustice.  Most of us are more than willing to acknowledge sin’s presence and power in the world because it is all around us.  It brings harm and hurt to our lives all the time.  However the doctrines of original sin and total depravity often blind people to another more important doctrine: the Doctrine of Original Blessing.

Matthew Fox — expelled from the Dominican order of Roman Catholicism because of his ‘protests’ against ancient Christian teachings which he believes to be flawed, and who is now ministering in the Episcopal Church — has been attempting to deconstruct AND reconstruct Christian teaching about sin for decades.  And his concept of “Original Blessing” is the doctrine that deserves more of our attention and focus.  For before any mention of sin, brokenness, a fall, or eternal separation, Scripture references human beings as the ‘very good’ creation of God.  And nothing has, will, or can, ever change that reality!  Not even sin.

This was the message of Jesus, and it is what makes the grace he came to reveal so amazing.  In spite of the Church’s centuries-old teaching about original sin, God is a God of love and mercy.  And the Spirit of God dwells in each one of us.  There is a “Divine Spark” in all humanity, and Jesus reveals that when fanned, that spark has the capacity to burn brightly within us.  It is a spark that can fuel the making of choices and decisions that eradicate racism, that reject misogyny, and that refuse to embrace xenophobia.

The human race is not a broken, eternally lost species, that has the capacity to do good on occasion: when widows and orphans, when the blind and the lost, when prisoners and refugees just happen to get lucky.  The human race is the very good creation of a loving and grace-filled God, that has the capacity to evil when we deny or reject the movement of the Spirit.  We are not bad people with the capacity to do good.  We are good people with the capacity to do bad.  And the sooner we realize this, the better we will be able to live into our identity as members of the great human family.

Why is this important?  Because humanity has spent far too much time living up to the belief that we are nothing more than “sinners in the hands of an angry God.”  And if this is what we truly believe about others and ourselves, then is it any wonder that we live so fearfully, and angrily, and violently?  We have lived into this identity and well for more than 2000 years! We have given into fear and greed because we have believed that we are nothing more than fearful and greedy people.

But what if we shifted out thinking a little bit?  What if we began to understand ourselves and others as the very good creation of a gracious and loving God?  Could that change us?  Might that begin to change the world?  Is it possible that a shift away from original sin and toward original blessing might alter the way we live our lives, and give way to a little more kindness and compassion?

Well how about we give it a try?  The centuries we’re spent talking about original sin and total depravity have not helped us.  So maybe Calvin got it wrong!  Maybe the Church still has a little more reforming ahead of us.  Maybe, the Spirit isn’t done with you just yet!  I know she’s not done with me.  For the more I understand myself as the very good, and dearly loved creation of a merciful God, the more faithful I become!  Am I perfect?  Of course not!  But I live more like Jesus when I nurture the seeds of original blessing before original sin.

How about you?  Give it a try.  See what happens. Perhaps the Spirit of God might truly be able to do with us, and in us, more than we hope, dream, or even dare to imagine.

Most people who know me well know that I am a huge fan of Amy Grant.  A friend introduced me to her albums when I was in college almost 40 years ago, and since that time she and her music have ministered to me in important and meaningful ways.  I know that sounds cheesy — like a grown man who still has a crush on his childhood babysitter — but Amy’s music has always spoken to my soul.  Her lyrics are raw and real, and parts of her faith journey have been very similar to my own.  So yes!  I have all of her CDs, and I’ve seen her in concert almost two dozen times, including a concert just last month in Alexandria, VA. This last concert was particularly enjoyable; and as I listened to songs that I know by heart, and that I have sung in the car over and over and over again, I found myself wondering how my congregation might respond to a “Gospel According to Amy Grant” sermon series.

Too much?

Perhaps!  But the notion of such a series has gotten me thinking about all the different versions of the Gospel that exist in our nation today, and how many of them do not bear much resemblance to the Good News that Jesus proclaimed.  Many versions seem way off track; and some, the ones whose adherents seem to be the most vocal right now, are downright frightening!  They seem to be lacking in anything that could even be considered close to the “good news” found in Christian Scripture.  And this is  particularly true of the version being offered to us by Donald Trump.

Our president claims to be a Christian: and a Presbyterian at that.  So naturally he would like us all to believe that he has a worldview that is rooted and grounded in the Gospel.  There is little evidence that Trump is a very religious person: he is neither a weekly church-goes nor a daily Bible-reader!  And I’ve never heard him refer to himself as a Christ-follower: that kind of a declaration would likely involve him thinking a little too theologically.  And thinking too deeply about anything doesn’t seem to be his strong suit.  So for the sake of this blog, let’s just accept his claim to be a ‘Christian.’  And let’s also remain open to the possibility that if this is indeed the case, that his faith will be evident in his worldview and revealed in his politics.

But is it?  Is his faith evident in the work of this administration?  Such questions have me wondering what exactly is the Gospel according to Donald Trump?  The Gospel according to Amy Grant reveals adherence to way of life that is full of grace and mercy, and that surrounds all people with divine love and forgiveness.  If someone were to look at my life, I would hope they would discover that the Gospel according to Bob Melone embraces the goodness of creation, calls us into community with one another, and encourages us to always side with the lost and the least.  But what about the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?  What is . . . the Gospel according to Donald Trump?

My answer is “I’m not sure there is one” — at least not if we understand the Gospel (big ‘G’) to be about the Good News of Jesus Christ!  Trump might indeed have a gospel (small ‘g’) — a guiding principle that shapes his life — but it is nothing at all like the big “G”  Gospel proclaimed by Jesus.  Which is why so many of us are so confused about his support among Evangelical Christians: women and men who believe that siding with him is like siding with the “Good News.”

Some might easily be deceived into believing that the Gospel is all about things like growing the economy; and since Donald Trump appears to be doing that, he is in line with the ways of Jesus.  But is growing the economy really a Gospel value?  Is strengthening an economy in which approximately 1/10th of the population will always be living under the poverty level really reflective of the ways of Christ?  Is encouraging economic policies that only serve to deepen the wealth gap in our country in any way reflective of the teachings of Jesus?

Others appear to have been led to believe that adherence to the Gospel involves taking a strong stance on behalf of America around the world — for after all, America is God’s ‘city on a hill,’ and a ‘beacon of light’ to all the nations.  Trump is certainly attempting to do that!  But once again, is that really a Gospel value?  How is cozying up to dictators, and failing to condemn the evil practices of tyrants in places like North Korea and the Philippines, in any way reflective of the teachings of Jesus?   How is anything that even smacks of an “America-first” ideology reflective of a Christ who came for ALL people, and who calls his followers to make disciples of ALL nations?   And how does the notion of American exceptionalism stand alongside the anti-empire message that is so central to the Christian Gospel?

Still others might say that Trump’s stance on immigration reflects a commitment to a faith that respects the rule of law and that honors governing authorities.  Surely those are Gospel values, aren’t they?  And in normal times the answer would certainly be yes!  But these are not normal times; and those Gospel values are in direct conflict with another set of Gospel values, namely those calling us to care for immigrants and aliens.  So when this happens, a good theology teaches us that we are to always err on the side of love.  Therefore followers of Jesus have no choice but to reject any law or Executive Order that seeks to do anything but call us to care for and show hospitality to immigrants.  Christ-followers can and will have differences of opinions on a variety of issues, but the treatment of immigrants is not one of them.  Scripture is very clear on that subject, and there’s really not much room for debate.

Finally, there is yet another group of people, perhaps the most outspoken of all, who will say that Donald Trump’s pro-life policies reveal his commitment to the Gospel. But while Donald Trump may be pro-birth, he is NOT pro-life . . . not by a long-shot!  Last year, there were approximately 650,000 abortions in America, and the Trump administration wants to reduce that number by making abortions illegal.  But is that all it means to be pro-life?  In 2018 there were also more than 690,000 children who spent at least a portion of the year in foster care; and it is estimated that more than 15 million children in America live in poverty.  More than 3.9 million children in America do not have health care, and 1 in 5 American children go to be bed hungry on a regular basis.  Surely a “pro-life” president would be concerned about these matters as well, and would be attempting to do something to reduce those statistics too!  But Trump is doing nothing to address any of them.  How can a President of the United States who wants to wear the “Pro-Life” label continue to avoid addressing all these other important matters of life, and death?

So what exactly is the Gospel According to President Trump?  There isn’t one.  At least not one having to do with the Gospel that Jesus came to proclaim.  Donald Trump doesn’t know that Gospel, and he apparently has no desire to get to know it.  In fact, if his administration has revealed anything to the American people over the past two years, it is that he has rejected that Gospel. His language, his treatment of people who disagree with him, his attitude towards women and people of color: they all reveal Trump’s cluelessness when it comes to faith, the way of Jesus, and the heart of Christianity.  Donald Trump’s only gospel is a small “g” gospel, and it is the gospel of greatness.  And his version of greatness has nothing at all to do with the way of Jesus.

As a result, Trump’s spiritual bankruptcy needs to be named; and his version of the Christian faith needs to be questioned, challenged, and ultimately declared to be the heresy that it is!  And this is true of the gospel of his followers as well. There is NO Gospel according to Donald Trump — at least not for anyone who understands the Gospel to be the good news of Jesus Christ.

So if by chance you’re a church-goer, and you are either not hearing your pastor challenge the gospel of Trump, or not hearing your pastor offer a different gospel than the one being proclaim by this administration, then you need to find a new church!  And if you don’t believe me, might I suggest you simply reread the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Because it’s all right there: clear as day.  See for yourself: the Gospel of Jesus is nothing at all like the gospel according to Trump!

“Whatever happened to . . .” books abound!

“Whatever happened to faith?”  “Whatever happened to truth?”  “Whatever happened to justice?”  “Whatever happened to worship?”  “Whatever happened to the human race?”  Some people even want to know “whatever happened to penny candy?”

But as for me, I want to know whatever happened to decency?

Author and cultural commentator David Brooks recently wrote that a “decent society rests on a bed of manners, habits, traditions and institutions.”  But today, it appears as though the goal of a “decent” society is all but gone.  Manners are labeled ‘old school’ and seem to have been discarded with the all those big ‘ol cathode ray tube television sets; and traditions appear to have been forgotten, only to be replaced by whatever is easy, practical, and convenient.  Respect is nothing more than a 1967 song by Aretha Franklin; and a courtesy is merely that which we can get for free.

In considering the state of decency today, Brooks quickly references our current president, proclaiming “Trump is a disrupter. He rips to shreds the codes of politeness, decency, honesty and fidelity, and so renders society a savage world of dog eat dog.”  And I agree!  Wholeheartedly!  But as true as his words may be, Donald Trump is at the same time both the problem, and a symptom of the problem.  He continues to lie, cheat, and even in the eyes of many of his supporters, behave in ways that are unbefitting of the President of the United States.  But the absence of morality and respectability is overlooked by far too many, as they deem other objectives and agendas to be more important.  Which is why America’s problem is far greater than Donald Trump!  America’s problem is all the people that continue to support him– those who fail to condemn his lies, his treatment of those who disagree with him, and his mockery of the Christian life.

America’s problem is that we are becoming a nation willing to sacrifice morality and respectability on the altars of partisan power. And when a culture or society does that, decency is threatened. Standards are lowered and expectations are forgotten, and behavior becomes so personal and privatized that goodness and rightness become secondary matters.

But sadly, few people seem to be talking about this today! There are those who are ready to impeach the president because of his obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation; and others are quick to proclaim the ineptness of his countless cabinet appointments, many of whom are unfit for their respective positions.   Some of us are quick to speak out against his positions on child separation at our southern boarder, abortion rights, gays in the military, climate change, Obamacare, the Iran deal, the emoluments clause in the constitution, the role of a free press, and on and on and on.

But as important as all of those issues are, no one seems very interested in talking about decency. No one seems to have found the courage to address the issues of morality and respectability. Of all the political issues dividing our nation today, nothing is more disconcerting than the divide over the importance of decency; and yet no one seems to be willing to tackle it: not even the Church – the very community gifted with the task of growing a more decent world. So I’m encouraging Presbyterians to change this reality!

I’ll likely continue to speak out against the politics of the current administration.  But more than being one to PROTEST, I also want to ATTEST!  I want to attest to the value of decency.  I want to lift up the importance of honesty and truthfulness.  I want to call us back to ways of living that are respectful, and courteous, and polite!  I want to stand not just on the side of love, but on the side integrity as well. We need not stoop to the level of 45, and can at the same time promote both whatever political philosophy we espouse, AND decency!  It is possible to do both; and people on both sides of the aisle can replace Trump’s politics of hate with a politics of love, and in so doing bring decency back to our country.

Some values are higher than political values; and decency is one of them.  As the very good creation of God, decency is a mark of the Spirit on every human soul; for if I might dare quote Christopher Hitchens, “human decency is not derived from religion.  It precedes it.”  So let’s tap into that part of our created nature.  Let’s become more mindful of the Spirit’s mark upon each one of our lives. And let’s remember that being a great society, begins when we learn to be a decent society!

People say it all the time, particularly when they are attempting to display an openness to other people’s perspective on something.  In an attempt to acknowledge that one person’s impression is just that — ONE person’s impression — and to make room for other opinions, they are quick to proclaim that there are always . . . “two sides to every story.”

But there are NOT two sides to every story!  There are MANY sides to every story.  In fact, there are likely as many sides to a story as there are people recounting the story.  Because we all see things differently, what we remember and recount and how we interpret and translate events, will vary from person to person.  And so sometimes, perhaps often, this phrase is needed to remind us that we do not live in a ‘black and white’ world, and that differences abound.

But lately, this phrase is being used to excuse, justify, and condone perspectives that are not just different, but that are downright wrong!  And no where is this more evident that in conversations about the new Netflix series “When they see us.”

Too many people have begun to claim that Ava Duvernay’s account of what happened only gives . . . one side of the story.  The young boys who were accused of the rape in Central Park in 1989 were NOT questioned without their parents.  They were NOT coerced into making false statements or confessions.  DNA evidence that exonerated the boys was NOT overlooked.  And they were NOT targeted, arrested, and charged because of the color of their skin.

Fortunately, over and over again these statements are being refuted, and evidence is revealing them to be nothing but lies!  So while the prosecutor in the case, Linda Fairstein, continues to try and offer  a ‘second side’ to the story, her ‘side’ is wrong!  It’s not another perspective.  It’s not another way to view what happened.  It’s simply wrong!  The systemic racism that led to the imprisonment of five innocent boys cannot be denied or dismissed simply because someone believes that there is “another side to the story.”

“The Civil War was not about slavery, it was about states’ rights.”  “Hitler’s reign was not about exterminating the Jewish people, it was about uniting all the Germanic people of the world and restoring Germany’s greatness on the world stage.”  “There were good people on both sides of Charlottesville’s “Unite the Right” riot of 2018.”

None of these statements are accurate ‘sides’ to any of the stories they are referencing.  And just because people hold to them, passionately and vociferously, doesn’t make them true or acceptable.  In the words of Booker T. Washington, “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good,” just because someone claims it to be an acceptable perspective.

Just as love is love is love; so too wrong is wrong is wrong.

In her book, “The Death of Truth,” former New York Times Book Critic Michiko Kakutani writes “the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.”

We are living in dangerous days;  where truth is regularly being exchanged for lies, and where where there being many sides to a story is leading people to blindly accept the unacceptable!  In my version of Romans 1: 29-32: “we’ve embraced evil: by thinking the Civil War and Civil Rights legislation have repaired America’s systemic racism; and we have hated God, by hating — by lynching, by profiling, by redlining, by criminalizing — siblings who do not look like us.  We’ve been foolishly led astray; and our faithlessness deserves to die!”

No!  There are NOT two sides to every story.  There are many sides.  And some of them are wrong.  And wrong, is wrong, is wrong.

I’ve been working on this abortion blog for months now, but in light of recent actions in Alabama and Missouri I’ve decided to start over . . . again.  My goal when I began was to encourage dialogue on the issue, and to offer words that would challenge people on both sides to engage in respectful and meaningful conversation.  But as has become the case so often in recent years, the extremism that has resurfaced on the Right is only legitimized when we credit it as worthy of discussion and debate.  And that I will not do.  Recent talk of ‘human rights’ and ‘heartbeat’ bills are so radically frightening that I refuse to engage in any kind of conversation that will in any way condone or legitimize the absurd!

The Alabama bill bans all abortion except “to prevent a serious health risk” to the woman; and makes performing an abortion a Class A felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison.  It was approved by 25 white, male, state senators, and sets the stage for a Supreme Court battle to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision which declared that until the “age of viability” a fetus does not have the same rights as you and I.  The Missouri bill also criminalizes any and every abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected – which is somewhere between 6-8 weeks.  That bill provides for absolutely no exceptions, and was approved in the House by a vote of 110 to 44.

Advocates for both of these bills would have Americans believe that they are “pro” life, standing on the side of morality and upholding the sacredness of human life.  But any in-depth study of the pro-life movement reveals great hypocrisy over both what it means to care for the lives of infants, children, and women; and which ‘heartbeats’ are considered to be sacred.

In fact, there are people on all sides of this issue who value human life, and we all acknowledge the significance of the human heart beat.  The difference however is that we in the pro-choice movement believe that beyond a woman’s ability to have control over her own body, the rights of a fetus and the heartbeat of an embryo are not the same as the rights and heartbeat of those who have been born.  Until a fetus can survive on it’s own, outside of a woman’s body, it is part of a woman, completely dependent upon her, and therefore subject to all the rights and decisions of that woman!  She controls the fetus, and because it does not have it’s own individual identity, while it is indeed living, it’s life is not the same as the life of it’s mother, and thus it is not entitled to the same rights.  It’s really as simple as that.  When it can survive on it’s own, that is a completely different story, as Roe vs. Wade made clear.

Similarly, this notion that the beating heart of an embryo is the same as the heartbeat of you and me, is simply not true.  And it’s not true because we do not have the same hearts.  We will one day, but at six or eight weeks, that is simply not the case.  The ‘heart’ of an embryo has not yet even developed chambers, and thus is not the same as the heartbeat of us who are born.  Again, we pro-choicers acknowledge that one day it will — but that is not the case in the early stages of a woman’s pregnancy.  It’s heart is simply not like the heart of an living adult, and thus it’s heartbeat cannot be equated with the heartbeat of a living adult.

And herein is the issue!  No one disagrees that life begins at the moment of conception!  The question is whether or not that life — a life that has not once taken a breath, that very breath that God used to call humanity into being — is different from yours and mine.  And it is!  In fact it is very different.  Life is NOT life!  The life of a puppy is valuable.  But if I accidentally hit that puppy with my car on my way home from work, I am not going to be thrown in jail for murder.  The value that we place on a puppy’s life is different than the value placed on mine.

Sperm are living.  The plant in my office that I forgot to water last week WAS living.  But those ‘lives’ are not worth the same as mine.  And while neither a puppy, nor sperm, nor potted plants are the equivalent of human beings, the point is that there are different forms of life, with differing value and worth.

Further, because the life of a fetus is not only directly dependent upon, but actually part of the body of another living being, it simply cannot be granted the same rights a living and breathing human being.  The woman in whom the life was conceived has her own rights – rights granted to her by both God AND by our constitution – and her rights must always supersede the rights of an embryo or fetus that is unable to survive apart from her.  She alone is the only one who should be permitted to decide what is done to, in, and with her body.  For while human life may begin at conception, human beings are not human beings until they are able to survive apart from their mother. So until at least until some point in the second trimester, women need to be left alone with decisions that are theirs alone to make.  And to believe otherwise is neither moral, nor ethical.  Those are actually standards that the ‘Right’ gave up several years ago.

All life is from God.  All life is sacred, and good, and beautiful.  But all life is NOT equal.  And abortion must not be used as a rallying cry for those seeking to unite a political party that has lost any sense of cohesion, or for a political party that has lost all sense of morality.

The time has come for America to put a woman in the White House.

No, we should not elect people to the highest office in the land on the basis of their gender, but neither should we fail to elect people on the basis of their gender!  And that is what has happened in our country for the past 230 years.  Americans have refused to send a woman to the White House simply because she was a woman: and that must change!  So it’s time to elect a woman.

But what if she’s not the most qualified candidate?

First off, let’s stop kidding ourselves into believing that we only elect the ‘most qualified’ candidates to the presidency.  If we learned nothing from the election of 2016, we learned that!  Never the less, as of May 2019, each and every woman who has declared her candidacy for the presidency is as qualified as anyone else.  All of the leading contenders have enough legislative, administrative, international, political, and relational experience to qualify them for the office.  They are visionary, knowledgeable, and charismatic leaders, capable of moving one of the world’s greatest democracies into the next chapter of the American story.  So qualifications are simply not an issue.

But what if she’s not able to handle the pressure of the position?

To this question, I have one response!  They give birth!  My wife and I have begun watching “Call the Midwife” on Netflix, and episode after episode I see women doing the unimaginable — that which women have been doing since the beginning of time — giving birth!  When it comes to dealing with pressure: the pressures of life, of challenges and struggles, of issues facing both local families and the various nations of our world, women are no less or no more capable than men!  And if the women in your life have not revealed this to be the case, then you need to get out and get to know more women!  While I’m tempted to lift up countless studies that reveal this to be true, most people asking this question are likely people who do not want to to believe ‘studies’ – so I won’t go there.  Suffice it to say that fear of women not being able to handle the pressure of the presidency is also a non-issue!

But what if I prefer one of the men who are running?

Mayor Pete is no doubt an attractive candidate; and as a gay man his election would break all kinds of barriers.  Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are about as appealing a candidate as an old White guy can hope to be these days.  And Cory Booker’s “Obamaesque” personality makes him a tempting option as well.  But none of these men, or any of the others running, are any more attractive or appealing than any of the woman running.  Their proposed programs and platforms are not all that different than those of Kristen Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, or Kamala Harris; and each of them would likely surround themselves with some of the very same qualified and capable underlings.  While the American President is certainly more than a mere figurehead, in the end, Presidents can only accomplish what their party allows them to accomplish.  A Democrat is a Democrat!  And so who we prefer, or who we “like”, needs to become secondary to a more important message that needs to be sent to our nation, and to our world.

But what if you I just don’t think a woman can handle the responsibilities of the position?

If you’re honestly asking that question, then all I can say it you shouldn’t even be voting!

“Buts” abound.  I know.  But never the less, the time has come.  And considering the misogyny of the White House these days, who better to take HIS place, than HER!  So that is who I will be standing with — HER!  Whoever SHE is!  The time has come for us to put a woman in the White House.

It’s one of my favorite scenes from the movie “Hook” – the 1991 Disney classic starring Robin Williams as Peter Pan.  Captain Hook, played by Dustin Hoffman, kidnaps the children of the boy-who-never-wanted-to-grow-up-but-did, forcing Peter Pan to return to Neverland in order to rescue them.  Upon arriving, Peter seeks help from the Lost Boys, but they are hesitant because they don’t recognize the adult version of their friend — that that is until one of the boys, Pockets, touches Peter’s face and looks deeply into his eyes.  With surprised innocence, he proclaims “Ohhhhh, there you are Peter!”

There is something profoundly beautiful about the emotions that well up inside of us when we find something that we thought was lost, or when we discover that a perceived absence can be overcome if we just take the time to look hard enough.

That’s how I feel about the Church these days.  At first glance, it seems no where to be found.  Devoutly religious people who claim to be on the side of Jesus, continually deny his teachings and betray his love.  The Franklin Grahams of the world speak, and we do a double-take because of the absurdities being proclaimed.  White Evangelicals continue to stand behind the President, putting political goals and ambitions ahead of Gospel essentials, and revealing their uncompromising worship of empire.  One of the largest Protestant denominations in America continues to deny the LGBTQ community “a place at the table”; and a Christian school in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio expels two young girls upon discovering that they have two different fathers.  In so doing, both betray the One they claim to have “invited into their hearts.”  Further, Sunday morning worshippers decline in numbers; and while many Americans claim to be spiritual, involvement with local congregations fails to be bear that out.  While God is certainly not dead in America today, sometimes it seems like the institutional Church is!

So while the Easter Spirit of resurrection is still fresh in our minds, perhaps we need to look a little harder.  For the Church is still here.  Like God, it’s NOT dead; and it’s presence is one of the only things that can give us hope for these days in which we are living!

First, the Black church remains a cornerstone in many Black communities, and continues to offer support and encouragement to a people who have been suffering at the hands of White supremacy and privilege for generations.  While Whites continue to grieve over the 11:00-12:00 hour on Sundays being the most segregated hour in American life, the Black Church laughs!  That hour of segregation is the least of their concerns; and Black clergy continue to call their people to remain faithful to the Christ, in spite of the White bastardization of his Gospel.  The Black Church has been the lynchpin in Black communities since colonial days and they remain alive and well across our nation: supporting their families, speaking truth to power, and mobilizing people to be agents of transformation.  So if we want to see a vital church, we might start there!

Second, we might also want to look for the small denominational churches, rather than the large independent mega-church!  For decades, American’s have been tempted to determine a church’s value based on the three “Bs”: butts, buildings, and budgets!  The more people, and the bigger their buildings and budgets, the more successful and faithful they must be, right?  Wrong!  For while many are indeed led by charlatans, offering a perspective on the Gospel that has been so popularize it bears little if any resemblance to the radical message proclaimed by Jesus, I refuse to add my voice to the chorus of people who condemn the mega-church movement.  Many are doing great things for the Gospel.  But many small churches are doing great things for the Gospel as well!  They too are growing passionate and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.  They have not given in to simplistic teachings of the Bible, and they aren’t afraid to push back against the superficiality of America’s Christian subculture.  They embrace intergenerational forms of outreach and mission; and while their worship spaces may not be overflowing on Sunday mornings, they care for one another in ways that the mega-Church’s small group ministry never will!  When it comes to Churches, size DOESN’T matter!  And while one isn’t necessarily better than the other, the small church is much easier to find that the large mega-church.  So don’t write them off, and keep looking to them for ‘kindom’ work.

Finally, look for Church leaders on the margins!  While Scripture makes it clear that Jesus was drawn to the those on the social margins of his day: the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden; his refusal to identify with the religious establishment might also reveal an affinity with teachers and religious leaders on the margins as well.  And here in America, that realization has never been more important than it is today!  Like first century Judaism, the religious establishment in America today has also let the Church down.  The leadership of Roman and Evangelical churches continues to deny the gifts of women for ministry, while at the same time covering up the sins of pedophile clergy and denying the blessing of same-gender love and marriage.  Their passionate pursuit of wealth and power exposes their selfish hearts and should cause us all to question their Gospel perspectives.  Today,  the words of Jesus today are being best interpreted and translated by those writers and teachers on the margins: those who have not been afraid to challenge the religious establishment, and those who have refused to accept the false teachings of a racist, sexist, homophobic, and exclusivist Church.  We are likely to find the most authentic and accurate accounts of the Gospel if we look to the work of writers and speakers, musicians and artists, who are living on the margins of the religious landscape of our day!

There are plenty of reasons to bemoan the state of the Church in America today.  But it it NOT dead.  You just have to look a little harder.  You have to be willing to run with the women to the tomb — to that place of death and decay — and then stooping down, and perhaps squinting, look hard for signs of life.  Because just as the Christ is alive, so too is God’s Church.  It’s here, and it’s the only hope for our world!

I can accept purple candles during Advent, and purple paraments during Lent; and purple hymnbooks and choir robes don’t bother me a bit.  But seasons of the church year and aids to a congregation’s music program aside, purple is a color that really doesn’t look all that good on the Church.   Like a chameleon that changes color according to it’s surroundings, the color purple makes congregations appear to be unable at best, or unwilling at worst, to take a prophetic stance on issues that are important to a society: particularly issues that Scripture and the traditions of our faith have gotten wrong for so long!

Sadly, in too many instances, purple appears to be the Church’s constant color of choice!  Perhaps it’s because article after article continues to challenge pastors to better learn how to embrace their purple congregations, or to simply accept the polarization that has been on the rise for the past two years in Trump’s “greatness-seeking” America! Perhaps it’s because so many churches are dying, and doing anything that might in any way challenge or upset the remnant would only hasten our demise.  Or perhaps it’s because we pastors aren’t able to distinguish between being partisan and being political, and as such, we think that anything that challenges policies of those in office might be perceived as our endorsing one party over another.

Whatever the reasoning, these days, churches and clergy everywhere appear to love the color purple.  Last week, even NPR’s Tom Gjelten, from “All Things Considered,” jumped on the bandwagon with an April 6 segment on “Pastoring a Purple Church.”

But before we completely give up on our blueness, or our redness, let’s take a  moment to carefully consider the nature of this new purpleness!  Before we call in the Fab Five from “Queer Eye” to help us change our image and update our look, perhaps we need to go back to our message.    

You see America has always been diverse; and churches have always had to deal with congregations full of people with differing political perspectives.  Most churches have knowingly and unknowingly understood that guiding principle: “In essential unity.  In non-essentials liberty.  In all things love.”  As a result, civility has guided our conversations; and when it came to “non-essentials”, red and blue managed to coexist.  For generations, we were able to stay ‘on message’  . . . at least when it came to the essentials, and in spite of our many differences over non-essentials.

But things are different today.  And they’re different because we appear to have forgotten our message.  All of a sudden . . . everything seems to be a non-essential: truth, honesty, integrity, humility, kindness, compassion, grace, mercy . . . and it doesn’t ever seem to end!  These are the issues dividing our country and churches today, and there is nothing non-essential about them.  They are all essential characteristics of anyone seeking to follow Jesus, and they need to be proclaimed from every pulpit, in every American church, and with prophetic boldness.  The issues dividing America today are NOT the traditional red and blue issues that have divided America for so long:  issues like the size of our government, the purpose of social programs, or the role of the military.  Americans always have and always will disagree on these issues and countless others.  And our democracy can and will continue to survive in spite of the differences that exist in these areas.

But those are not the concerns of so many Americans today.   Today, the issues of concern have to do with the way we treat people, particularly those who are not like us.  Today, the concerns facing so many Americans have to do with truth-telling, and being honest in our dealings with others.  Today, peoples’ concerns center around our society’s failure to confront the racism and sexism that plague our nation, along with countless other ‘isms’ and ‘phobias’ that continue to marginalize others.  And these issues, and countless other essential issues like them, are the very issues that resulted in the crucifixion we are even now preparing to remember.  So they must be addressed.  They can never be pushed aside, as if they simply fall into a category of non-essentials!  Rather the Church is called to confront them all, head on, and with the boldness of the Jesus who rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, irritating and challenging the empire!

Unfortunately, what saddens me more than any of this, is that when it comes to the color of the Church today, it only seems to be the White Church, that has suddenly become a proponent of the purple Church!  And doesn’t that makes perfect sense?  For it is the large, traditional, White Church, that has the most to lose.

Churches that for so long have been a mixture of red souls and blue souls, are really not interested in staying, or even becoming purple.  They’re just interested in staying White.  They want to stay together not because they honor diversity, or because they value their differences, but because they honor, and they value, their Whiteness . . . their sameness!  They don’t have people from the LGBTQ community.  They don’t have people of color.  They certainly don’t have immigrants or refugees.  So is it any wonder that don’t want to hear “politics” preached from their pulpits?  They don’t want a ‘blue’ take on the Gospel.  And admirably, so they would say, neither do they they want a ‘red’ take on the Gospel.  But they don’t want a purple take on the Gospel either.  They want the good ‘ol White take on the Gospel — one that maintains their privilege, and that honors their fragility.

Which is why purple looks so bad on the Church — because the purple is just masking our Whiteness: a whiteness that denies the Gospel, that betrays the Christ, and that offends anything and everything that is holy.

So once again I ask, please, stop being an advocate for a purple Church!  We look terrible in purple!

The picture sums it up.  Christian Churches are talking about sex, and . . . well, let’s just say we still don’t get it!

Few issues have become more problematic for the Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, and Methodist Churches in recent months than issues related to sex.  Sexual abuse, sexual sin, and sexual expression, continue to dominate the national and international gatherings of these denominations, and the conversations being had reveal why the institutional Church is dying!  Three of American’s largest Christian communities still can’t get their acts together, and the result is pain, anguish, and rejection, with little if any love, grace, or acceptance.

But is it any wonder?  Consider the Church’s teachings on the subject.  As far as back as the 4th century, Augustine taught that because there was so much about sexual expression that was ‘involuntary,’ and beyond a human being’s capacity to control, that it could not possibly be ‘of God.’   In the 12th century, Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher Peter Lombard claimed that the Holy Spirit actually left the room when a couple had sexual intercourse.  And for hundreds of years it was not uncommon for the Church to advocate the use of chastity belts to physically protect and constrain a woman from sexual abuse and sexual expression. (Today, Christians are more likely to use chastity rings to psychologically restrain younger women from almost all sexual activity.)

For generations the teaching of the Church was that sexual intercourse is for the sole purpose of procreation.  Having sex for pleasure, or as a means of sexual expression, was simply not an option! Women were given the choice between choosing the path of a virgin or a whore; and sexual expression outside of marriage was and remains forbidden.  And as far as homosexuality is concerned, same-sex attraction has been believed to be everything from a mental illness to a moral deficiency. For generations, the primary message of the church with regard to a person’s sexuality has been to either REpress it or SUPpress it?

Now while the causes of things like sexual abuse and homophobia are far too complex to blame on one singular issue, when it comes to the Christian Church, our teachings with regard to these issues, and others like them, have been so flawed that we need to own at least a portion of the blame for the problems confronting us today!  Almost all of these fallacious teachings have their roots in the Bible: a book written 2000 years ago, when societies knew very little about biology, gynecology, or physiology . . . and even less about gender, psychology, or sociology.

So again I ask, is it any wonder that so many segments of the Church are where they are? We need to own the problems that are before us, for we have created them!  We have been so preoccupied by sex, and for so long, that our dysfunction is clearly of our own making.  And so now, the question is, what are we going to do about it? Nadia Bolz-Weber, in her new book “Shameless,” writes “if religion has been the venue in which the power of sex is taken most seriously, could it also become the place in which a new conversation about it arises?”

My response to that question is “Perhaps!”   But if the Church is ever going to become a place where the truth about sexuality and sexuality expression can be boldly preached and proclaimed, then there are a couple of things we have to get straight right at the outset.

First, we need to remember that love is love is love! Love is OF God: and anyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. Period. This is where our teaching must always begin. And the stories of Eve and Adam in the Book of Genesis are less prescriptive than descriptive.  That means that they can never be so literally interpreted and understood that they begin to place unnecessary boundaries on who and how people love. The Bible is not a rule book on sexual expression, nor it is a biology textbook on sexual identity. And continuing to regard it in such a manner will only perpetuate the tragic errors of our past, and further teachings that are mistaken and misguided.

And second, not only are so many teachings of the Roman and Fundamentalist churches mistaken and misguided, they are unGodly, and . . . dare I say, unChristian. And if that sounds harsh, then let me offer a slightly different perspective on what is harsh. Telling people in same-sex marriages that their relationships are unacceptable in the eyes of God, and that those relationships place them outside of the salvation of God – THAT is harsh! Telling young adults who are living together that they are living in sin, and that every time they have sexual intercourse they are nailing Jesus to the cross all over again – THAT is harsh! And telling young adults that sexual activity prior to marriage results in their flesh becoming one with another person, and if and when those relationships are broken, flesh is actually ripped apart, which will lead to a scarring that never leaves the human soul – THAT, friends, is harsh! And such teachings are not only harsh, they are simply not true!  They do not in any way reflect the teachings or ethics of Jesus, and they can no longer be embraced as valid or acceptable Biblical teachings.

Before being a fallen and sinful people, human beings are the very good creation of a loving and grace-filled God.  Each one of us bears the mark of the divine, and one of the many gifts that each of us has been given is our sexuality.  We all express and live out that sexuality differently; and as is the case with so much of human diversity, our differences are not right or wrong, they are merely differences.  So if the Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, and Methodist Churches want to move beyond the struggles that they are facing today, might I humbly suggest they start by re-evaluating their teachings on sexuality.  Homosexuailty is no more a sin than left-handedness is.  Love is always from God and is never wrong.  And sexual boundaries that wind up leading to sexual sin, often need to be challenged, and in the end abandoned.

Perhaps if we start with our teachings, change will come.  Perhaps if we learn to accept homosexuality as just another way of living out one’s God-given identity, people will stop repressing their feelings, and discover the freedom of experiencing their sexuality in more authentic ways.  And perhaps if we stop confining sexual expression to the marriage relationship, people will stop suppressing their emotions, and allow Church-inflicted guilt and shame to give way to a Spirit-infused grace and peace.

We can do this Church!  We can get out of this mess that we’ve created for ourselves . . . by correcting our teachings on sexuality: teachings that we’ve gotten wrong for so long, and teachings that deny the Christ-likeness we so desire.