Faithful Philly Forum

In recent weeks, Penn students could find members of the “World Mission Society Church of God” walking about the campus to let students know about their beliefs. Such events bring up an interesting talking point: “How are we as Christians to evangelize or to engage in mission?”  One thing I’ve learned is that mission can be or should be synonymous with dialog.  We have to be willing to listen to people and not only listen, but to learn as well.  In doing so, we will find ourselves and our faith enriched.  So often we get caught up trying to teach and preach to everyone, but this is a completely narrow way to go about mission work.  Of course we can still proclaim our beliefs, but we should also keep in mind the validity of the religion of others as well.  One question that I want to end with is offered by Paul Knitter (a professor at Union Theological Seminary), “Does Jesus have to be solely or only in order to be truly?”

It is pretty amazing that some people can justify smearing the church of  a presidential candidate they don’t like, in this case Barak Obama. As a seminary student in Chicago, I remember making a journey to south Chicago to Trinity UCC where we were introduced to this congregation’s work and passion for justice in the city (and beyond). My professors lifted it up as a model of a socially engaged congregation. I was impressed. The General Minister of the UCC denomination, John Thomas, who has already delivered anti-war petitions signed by nearly 70,000 Christians to legislators and the president (and been arrested for it), is now speaking adamantly against such  vicious lies. It appears that in this current climate it is now acceptable to bash God and pronounce the ideocy of any believers in the Divine. Peacemaking Christians must not cower. These times call us to speak up and counter harmful actions and words with truth.

Poor Jesus. For all the people who truly heard his message there were so many more who did not get it. Even among the people for whom he worked miraculous healing. One day it was two blind men who were given sight, at least of the material kind. He asked them to keep quiet but they ran off shouting the news. Another time he healed ten men and women with leprosy and only one of them turned back to praise this work of profound, incarnate, power and love.
Buddhist monks incarnate the hopeful, outraged, spirit of love and march in the streets of Myanmar. People notice for a minute when the monks are brutalized, but then they rush off to shout about other things. And see Frank Rich’s op-ed piece in the NY Times on Sunday. The US is using torture techniques developed in Hitler’s Germany. Where is the outrage? Daily we are called see and hear the Incarnation and that which would destroy it … to notice and to choose.

And now it’s Lent.  A quick reading of the newspaper tells us that there are actually people who hunt small animals with assault weapons, and that when a prominent hunter protests he is assaulted and ostracized by gun lobbies;  prosecutors appointed by the Bush administration are instructed to prosecute people, or not, as political punishment or support – and then fired if they don’t do what they’re told.  Recently we have read about prisoners being placed in solitary cells with the windows blocked for more than three years and then considered sane and able to help with their own defense!  The deadly emissions to the environment will remain the same for the next 10 years we are told, even as sugar Maples in the North are threatened and honey bees have gone a little crazy and are somewhere unknown,  lost.  The first prosecution of someone at Guantanamo is announced after four years.  And yes, we are still at war in Iraq.  Yes, we are still there.

It is Lent and we wander in the desert. Of course, there is hope - the anti-war voice is being heard, the outrage over violations to our own sense of human decency and to our Constitution  is being more widely expressed. There are good people everywhere doing good things and winning some “battles” – (we will have a monument in Philly that acknowledges Washington’s salves!)  Jesus wanders in the desert with the wild beasts, and the angels look after him.  Will they look after us?

If you have a moment for something thought provoking, check out Andrew Sullivan’s essay on religion and current politics. Very compelling stuff. He extends it on his own blog to be the base of his conservative political world view–basically that we need to protect ourselves from the hubris of certainty. God does play a wonderful trick on us when some of us (like me) are made certain of our own progressive vision of the reign of God–and then find ourselves nodding in solidarity with a conservative blogger. Perhaps the impulse to nod is teaching more about the reign of God than anything else. What Sullivan ultimately invites us to do is to risk open conversation about our faith–to not let the extremes of absolute belief and absolute non-belief hold control of the conversation about faith.