Facial language fails with masks

Today I learned it is very difficult to scowl wearing a mask and have people get your message. The church I attend is still closed, so when we're in Columbus I attend St. Andrew Catholic, which is only a mile away. This has never happened before, but there were 4 men chatting 2 by 2 in the entry and in the back of the sanctuary. Usually, in my experience, Catholic churches are very quiet and people go there to worship not to catch up on the local news. I love the architecture, but the acoustics are poor with a lot of echo, so having someone talking (that sound seems to travel) makes it especially difficult for others to hear. I tried turning my head and scowling at them, but they either didn't get the message or they figured out I was a visitor and they had rights. I would like to tell them that  many churches in the U.S. are not open and they should appreciate what they have.

Can I get an AMEN?

The church is proving what the non-churched have said for years. We're invisible, irrelevant and unnecessary. Time to change that. Time to reopen.

"The church is not a building." How many times do we have to hear that!

"It's not loving to risk infecting people." It's also not loving to ignore other types of pain in the community.

"We've got more people at our Bible studies on Zoom than we ever had before." Great. Let's fire most of the staff and just buy everyone a new computer and blanket the neighborhood with Wi-Fi. Probably cheaper than maintaining our buildings and parking lots.

I've heard all 3 excuses from pastors. . . this week.

Let's stop living up (down) to the unbelievers' expectations.

Lutheran Church of South Sudan

Our Sunday School class today had the opportunity to hear Rev. Jordan Long, President of the Lutheran Church of South Sudan, and to hear about some REAL persecution which in turn is spreading the gospel to the refugee camps of millions of Sudanese who have fled the violence to neighboring countries. During their civil war 2.5 million were killed, and now that they have their own country (primarily Christian) and aren't fighting the Arab Muslims who oppressed them, they are fighting each other! All politics is based on family and tribes, he said, and it is that way in all of Africa.

Three members of our church had traveled to South Sudan to observe and learn about opportunities there for service. They are endless! But as I listened I recognized the problems in our own country--how even in times of peace there will be people who sow doubt and anger in order to obtain or keep power. Their tribal system reminded me how our powerful Democrat and Republican "families" and tribes in D.C. or the state capitals don't want to give up their power.

The Lutheran Church of South Sudan has started a seminary, and because there are 64 languages spoken in that small country, all instruction is in English, which is also taught in the high schools. Sometimes we Americans don't appreciate the beauty or unity of having a single language--and there are even trouble makers among us, especially academe, who claim it's xenophobic and racist to be unified that way.

Five years ago they had a handful of students meeting under a tree, and now have buildings and 2700 students. They are moving ahead with western partners for pure water, "welcoming" bath rooms, and computers for their computer room in the seminary.

http://lutherancss.org/about.shtml

The churches and BDS

IF you attend a liberal, mainline church (can be either Catholic or Protestant) you'll hear about BDS (boycott-divestment-sanctions) as a response to Israel. It's plain and simple Arab anti-Semitism and you've been snookered. Its advocates swarm on college campuses, social media and late night TV. Liberals particularly seem to love BDS. The objective is the killing of Jews and returning those who are left to the statelessness of pre-1948. I don't know exactly how they got such a foothold in academe, the founder, Omar Barghouti attended university in the U.S., so we must have birthed him. Can someone shake the money tree?

Which churches?

Here’s the ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a merger of 1988 of 3 major Lutheran synods. download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/PNW_elca_bds.pdf?  Our church, UALC is no long in that synod.

Here’s Church of the Brethren, UCC, Disciples of Christ,  UMC, Presbyterian Church (USA)   https://disciples.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016DNSStatement-on-Anti-BDS-legislation-Aug-22.pdf

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/121645/chutzpah-omar-barghouti-daniel-greenfield

Lutheran potlucks

Advice to a young friend still in an ELCA congregation--get out while you can

The recent battle in ELCA was supposed to be about ordained ELCA gay pastors being released from the celibacy vow. The 2009 vote to OK "committed relationships" (it's been in play and voted down since 1988) won't stop there. Obviously, this inclusiveness conference your pastor is attending is the next step. And it won't stop with gay marriage or anything similar, because polygamy and sex with minors are waiting at the door for approval. Lutherans who mistakenly believe all this will go away if we are just "loving and accepting" of differences are badly mistaken. If it were me, I'd find a believing church while you are young enough to establish new friendships and outlets for service. Our new synod is North American Lutheran Church, headquartered at UALC--about 400 churches right now. It will grow, but ELCA is moving to make it more difficult for congregations to leave. Get out while you can.

It doesn't end with gay pastors

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been sparing over its sexuality statement for 20 years (1989 the task force was formed), and in August 2009 the liberals won--by a tiny margin. The English in the document is so obscure you'd never get out of Writing 101 if you tried this at the college level. Now hundreds of Lutheran churches are leaving as soon as they can secure their buildings and pensions and work out the business relationships with new umbrella organizations through which they can continues missions, teaching and publication. As I have often pointed out to my clueless (and holier than thou) friends, it wasn't going to end with gay marriage, or ordaining gay pastors in "loving committed relationships." Polygamists and man-boy love advocates were waiting in line for us to lower the bar.

So I hate to say "I told you so," but I will. Obama's nominee Chai R. Feldblum, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Council, is a lesbian who believes any number, any mix and match, makes a family and a household. Read her story at InsideCatholic.com

Obama has flip flopped on so many issues, his backing off of marriage between a man and woman is no surprise.

Feldblum's advocacy of the homosexual lifestyle is quite startling, given the fact that she teaches at a Catholic law school. As a matter of fact, she is seen in this video arguing not only that the government has a duty to promote homosexuality but also proclaiming, "Gay sex is morally good."

Since President Obama nominated Feldblum on September 15, his outreach to the homosexual community has rapidly accelerated. His keynote speech to the Human Rights Campaign on October 11 contained all the positions advocated by his EEOC nominee: "You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman."

Obama's declaration "to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act" reflects Feldblum's commitment to employ the power of government to encourage the growth of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender social units, thus presenting a direct challenge to traditional marriage."

My only question is what is this woman doing at a Catholic school? A question we soon won't be able to ask because it is hate speech to believe what God said in Genesis 1-2. Hate speech legislation isn't about protecting minorities from violence--that happens most in their own communities--it's about shutting up and outlawing anything you don't want to hear, including the truth.

When the word "HOPE" means something

Yesterday I came across the web page for Hope Lutheran Church in Aurora, Colorado, an evangelical, confessional, liturgical, Bible-believing Lutheran church and member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It also has a web master who knows how to design an easy-to-navigate web page and a pastor with a heart for communicating the Gospel from the pulpit, from Sunday school, and with decently current technology. So many churches (and libraries, businesses and schools) seem to have cartoonists and quasi-lunatics on contract for web design with a cacophony of colors, hidden links, and wiggling widgets. I was looking through their key to the events of Holy Week, and now the names and places really jump out at me after so recently visiting Jerusalem, the Upper Room, Caiaphas' home, the Mount of Olives, and Gethsemane. There are many Christians who want to focus exclusively on a "social justice" message for Jesus, but 1) one-third of the Gospels are devoted to one week of his life, and 2) all the moral and ethical values Jesus taught had already been given to the Jews long before his birth. He wasn't needed for that message; he was needed for our salvation.

She didn't die without a verb

You may recall (or not) I've written a poem about the obituaries--and how sad it is that some die without a verb. Pastor Petersen at Redeemer Lutheran in Fort Wayne knows his scripture and his verb phrases

". . . reported that Vivian has been relieved of this life's burdens and gone early to the reward of faith in Jesus Christ. She has come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord."

It doesn't mean her parents aren't grieving. I have two sons buried in Illinois; wish I'd known then what I know now. But the resurrection is coming.

Digging for the pony

In a former life when I was a Democrat I wrote a few speeches for a member of the governor's cabinet. I know how to write jargon and doublespeak and how to read it. I am making it through the draft Social Statement on Human Sexuality (ELCA, March 2008) line by line because I'm supposed to speak on it to a group tomorrow. I'm very conscious these days both of the word TRUTH and the biblical concept of TRUTH because of our current small group Bible study. In this draft statement, the word TRUTH appears only once, in a Bible quote (John 1:14).

The word TRUST, however, or a version of it (TRUSTWORTHY, or TRUSTING, or ENTRUSTING) appears 138 times! The phrases "husband and wife" and "mother and father" do not appear at all--just references to family and parents (which these days could be any mix and match, and in this context is a collection of negative images of violence, abuse and economic deprivation). There is ONE reference to a family headed by a married man and woman as we would recognize the term on line 673 "legally married, heterosexual 'nuclear family'." On line 641 the writers say that Scripture places family as secondary to the community! (It takes a village. . .?) Maybe 9 of the 19 uses of the word gender were to "same-gendered" or "gendered." I had never heard or seen the word "gendered" before, implying it is a past participle of an active verb--and "same gender" would have the same meaning--unless of course, the implication is that this is something done to the couple by someone--someone like God perhaps?

Examples from the first page only--as there are just too many to list

Line 13-15: “This social statement addresses the question: What does it mean for us as sexual creatures to love our neighbors as ourselves and thus fulfill God’s law of love in this time and society?”

Dogs and cats, horses and zebras are also sexual creatures. God’s law is for men and women, for human beings, one aspect of which is sexuality. Humans who have lost sexual function from injury, birth defect, illness, age, or immaturity are still men and women with other defining qualities and worth and can still fulfill God’s law of love, because that love is revealed most perfectly in the cross of Jesus, where he died for all sin, including misusing our sexuality, and in his resurrection in which we share as Christians.

Line 21-22: “The past six or seven decades have seen immense changes in every aspect of human life, including human sexuality.”

Although we think we sense more changes, they are no greater now than our parents, grandparents, St. Paul, or Moses experienced. My grandmother was born in 1896 and died in 1983--she experienced a tsunami of change just in communication, travel and health care with the advent of telephone, radio, television, print media, the automobile, air travel, vaccines, modern drugs, health insurance, and nursing homes. For a woman who had all nine of her babies (all healthy who grew to old age) at home and rode a draft horse to church when they were little, I’d say that’s much more mind bending change and societal chaos than I’ll ever see or experience.

This ELCA draft does violence to our English language--verbal abuse, noun abuse, adverb abuse and adjective abuse, to say nothing of abusing our Christian faith. It is Scripture twisting and gymnastics! This draft criticizes "Lutheran historical teachings concerning homosexuality" with no footnotes (Book of Concord? Luther? Lutheran Brethren? Missouri-Synod Lutheran? Wisconsin Synod? the old ALC?). It does not analyze or reference any teaching, research or biblical criticism by known Christian homosexuals, theologians or Lutheran pastors who promote ordination and marriage for gays. It does find space to comment on and condemn children's clothing, playground bullying, consumerism, date rape, dangers of the internet, early sex education, grandparents raising grandchildren and inappropriate touching of female pastors. If you throw in the kitchen sink maybe no one will notice there is no Biblical foundation?

I didn't find anything in this document about ordination of openly gay or closeted gay Lutheran pastors--which was in the original charge in 2001, as was gay marriage blessed by the church--also not specifically addressed in this document. It's possible it is in there--as the saying goes, if you keep shoveling the **** there's bound to be a pony in there somewhere. We know and love such a man--and his synod hasn't let him go after he left his marriage. It's apparently a local choice not addressed in this document.

"This church encourages all people to live out their faith in the community of the baptized. Following previous decisions of this church, we call on congregations to welcome, care for and support same-gender-oriented people and their families, and to advocate for their legal protection."

What this document doesn’t say, refuses to say, is that marriage is an exclusive lifelong pledge of fidelity between a man and a woman sealed in physical intercourse. In Genesis 2:24, Moses says, “a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body,” and Christ in Matt. 19:6 added, “So then what God has united, man must not divide.” (Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics) It follows that Christ is talking about the marriage of a man and a woman, and he is commanding people of whatever culture and society in whatever century, that they are not to destroy marriage or pretend they have it harder than any previous era.

Marriage is not a human invention. God planned it from the beginning. He created a woman from a man's side and put them together in a perfect environment. God sent Jesus for our redemption to be born into a family of a man and woman. Since this was done in a miraculous way, he could have just as easily dropped him in the cabbage patch, but he didn't. The Bible uses marriage imagery to describe Yahweh's relationship with Israel, and Christ's relationship with the church, and when gay activists in the church enlist pastors, theologians, and sociologists to twist that to mean something else, it is blasphemy.

I don't know what our congregation (UALC) is waiting for--it took this sexuality task force seven years to write a mish-mash and hodge podge and submit it to the people of God as a serious work. Every paragraph looks like the sentences were drawn from a hat of former reports and pasted to a page. It is an insult to our common sense and a travesty of our faith. It's time to go. It really is. These people will not back down; they'll just wear us out.

Taking a breather

I've just been stumbling my way through the ELCA Task Force on Sexuality draft statement. We were told that this report is better than the previous ones. More balanced. I'm stunned. Just stunned. Using the "FIND" command, I located the word "social" 118 times: Jesus 10. Commitment 31: Husband and/or wife 0. Society 21: Luther 14. Relationship 98: marriage 48. That should tell you something.

social forces
social location
social context
social influences
social legitimization
social influence
social scope
social framework
social institutions
social order
social trust
social trends
social conventions
yada, yada

Also, deeply, profoundly and humbly are favorite adverbs, and the report writers seem to sincerely believe that we live in special and unusual times with problems never before faced in the history of the human race. These times are so special and unusual that, "Scripture cannot be used in isolation as the norm for Christian life and the source of knowledge for the exercise of moral judgement." (line 417) Not to lose heart, dear readers, the writers go on to tell us that Scripture can shed light and can speak to us.

Also, did you know the reason God created human beings, according to the task force, was so they could be in relationship with each other? I immediately opened Genesis and didn't find that anywhere. Whether you think there is one account or two in Genesis, it's pretty clear he created them to fill the earth and subdue it. The closest you come to that is God created a woman to be a helper for the man. The man had been given some mighty strict instructions on not trying to be God even before God created the woman. Even so, the writers skip right over that MAN and WOMAN part.

Some parts sound like a sex manual with a cut and paste from a Dale Carnegie course:

"Erotic interest between adults open to romantic relationships can be a desired part of growth of trust and intimacy."

"The purpose of marriage is not solely to legitimate genital relations but to create long term durable communion for the good of others."

By page 36, they finally get to their charge--homosexual couples in the church and pastorate.

"It is only within the last decades that this church has begun to deal in a new way with the longing of same-gender persons to seek relationships of life-long companionship and commitment and to seek public accountability for those commitments. In response, this church has drawn deeply on its Lutheran heritage to dwell in Scripture and listen to the Word of God. This listening has brought biblical scholars, theologians, and rostered and lay persons to different conclusions. After many years of study and conversation, this church does not have consensus regarding loving and committed same-gender relationships. This church has committed itself to continuing to accompany one another in study, prayer, discernment, and pastoral care.

In such a situation this church draws on the foundational Lutheran understanding that the baptized are called to reflect God’s love in service to the neighbor. This social statement is grounded in the evangelical gratitude for the Lutheran tradition where with St. Paul we believe that, along with all other sinners for whom Christ died, we are made acceptable to God through the righteousness of Christ, not our own (Romans 3:21-26; 5:1-11). In our Christian freedom to serve the neighbor and to make the world a more trustworthy place, we are called to seek responsible actions that serve others. This church, both those who regard same-gender sexual relationships as sinful and those who do not, calls for mutual respect in relationships and for guidance that seeks the good of each individual and of the community."

How Google can help clean your bathroom

The Internet isn't a library, but like library stacks, it can be a lot of fun to browse. Ten or twelve years ago when I would attend a professional conference, we'd hear comments like "The Internet is like having a key to someone else's garage," or "The Internet is like a library with everything on the floor." It's come a long way with incredible finding tools, especially Google. But I still love serendipity and browsing, the same thing I do in libraries. Here's this morning's trip and I started with a book:

For morning devotions I've been reading "Keep a quiet heart" by Elisabeth Elliot. Flipping through the back I noticed the 266 essays are actually culled from Elliot's newsletter, "The Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" published 6 times a year, for $7.00/year. I flip to the front and see that my paperback copy was published in 1995, so I figure it's unlikely the newsletter is still in publication. I've actually met her when she gave a talk at our church many years ago on finding God's will for your life. But I get up from my comfortable chair and sit down at the computer--for two hours!

When I Google "Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" I find a website for AA, Alcoholics Anonymous bibliography, that had quoted her newsletter's mention of Gertrude Behanna, who is apparently a well-known star among speakers on alcoholism, and I stop to read her autobiography, "God is not dead." It's really super, and I strongly recommend it if you have an alcoholic or druggie in your life.

I see that her life story was made into a movie starring Anne Baxter, The Late Liz, but skip over that tucking it away to check our library's excellent video collection (assuming it hasn't been rejected because of spiritual content).

But I got interested in her sons (of different marriages)--one a recovering alcoholic who is not a Christian and the other a priest who isn't an alcoholic, so I Google "son of Gert Behanna" since she didn't mention their names. This just brings up more references to the movie, but does link to the 27 page pdf list of videos by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This looks like something our church librarian might like, so I print it in draft, and the printer spits the 27 pages all over my office while I'm in the basement putting a load in the washer.

The last page I pick up is p.1, since it prints backwards, and my librarian's obsessive spirit asks, "Well, just how difficult could it be to check a few of these titles on the Internet to see if they are available for purchase?" The first title is "The gift of the creed," by Dr. Timothy F. Lull and Rev. Patricia J. Lull, presented to the 1993 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA (our synod). Although I find a reference to it, I don’t see availability, so I then Google “ELCA DVD” browse its list of available video products and decide it’s either too old, or was a very limited production only sent to churches.

Then I Google “Timothy F. Lull” and find out he died in 2003 after surgery. However, he was such a popular teacher at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, some of his students put together his lectures on Luther and Lutheranism and published it on Lulu.com at “The Press of the Society of the Three Trees” dedicated to the study of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. This press has published 5 titles, plus a journal, Christus Lux.

Because I collect first issues of journals, I decide to Google Christus Lux to see if it might be worth buying Vol. 1, no. 1. (It’s $15--a bit out of my range).

I notice another book by this press titled, “What’s wrong with sin,” by Derek R. Nelson--and I wonder if our church library might want this so I google the author, and find out he is now at Thiel College in Pennsylvania, a college with Lutheran ties I’ve never heard of. So of course I have to check out its web page, stopping at its library to look at an art show by a Kenyan. I stop to e-mail the author to ask if he thinks it is appropriate for a parish library of a very evangelical Lutheran church.

Then I notice it is about 6:45, so I take my printed and reassembled pdf list of the videos of the Eastern Synod of Canada and go to Caribou. While drinking coffee, I note many other videos I think would be good, like The joy of Bach (Gateway Films), The Great Mr. Handel (Gateway Films) and an interesting video on the art of choral directing by Lloyd Pfautsch of Southern Methodist University produced by Augsburg Fortress in 1988.

When I get home, I carry the laundry up to the bedroom where my husband is getting dressed. I recount to him all the fabulous things I found on the Internet this morning starting with Elisabeth Elliot’s book. His eyes glaze over.

While I’m hanging up his towels, I see the bathroom needs a good scrubbing.

Two out of three isn't bad

Yesterday I had lunch with a home-schooled eleven year old. After our Advent services at church we serve lunch, and when I was finished, I sat at a table with Mom, her son, and her male friend. The young man was so articulate and well-behaved I was amazed. He held his own offering opinions on a law suit about a gas line issue here in Columbus. His mom told me that every day she drives him to the east side so he can participate on a swim team. Obviously, she turns off her cell phone and connects with her kid during the 30 minute drive time.

I also met one of our new part-time pastors on our care team. He visits the sick, elderly and shut-ins and helps out in other areas as needed. He has relatives here, so he had actually been visiting our church for years before his retirement. We served communion together, with me giving him a few tips on how we do it, because I don't think he'd served before in our Lutheran church. He is a Southern Baptist.

Then in the evening our Visual Arts Ministry spent an hour or so shifting our supplies and equipment from a first floor phone closet, to a larger storage area on the upper floor near our hanging space. We chatted briefly with the security guard, a handsome young man named Muhammed. I'm still digesting that one.