Christmas Isn't Just A Day

When the song of the angels is stilled, 
When the star in the sky is gone, 
When the kings and princes are home, 
When the shepherds are back with their flock, 
The Work of Christmas begins: 
To find the lost, 
To heal the broken, 
To feed the hungry, 
To release the prisoner, 
To rebuild the nations, 
To bring peace among brothers and sisters, 
To make music in the heart. 
Then indeed we shall be blessed! 
—Howard Thurman

Peace Be With You

A young man recently tried to explode a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, OR. North and South Korea seem to be at very high tension. Violence continues in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israelis and Palestinians seem as far from peace as ever. And now we enter the season of Advent, which is when we’re supposed to talk about peace and love, but end up having arguments about decorations, hear complaints about keeping “Christ” in “Christmas”, fight each other in shopping malls and dread the inevitable family tensions that seem as ubiquitous as Santa Claus himself.

So, where’s the peace?

I don’t have a quick and easy answer, unfortunately. Peace is hard. It takes work. It takes patience. It takes a tenacious commitment on the part of all parties to love and respect one another in spite of the differences that are present. Peace is not mere tolerance (although tolerance is a start), but it can only really take root when we see each other as fully human, and respect each other’s vulnerability enough to not take advantage of it.

Peace also takes an acknowledgment and confession of the wrong we have done. If I cannot admit how I have hurt another, how can I expect them to be at peace with me? 

Frequently, there’s also an imbalance of power in a conflicted relationship - whether between co-workers, couples or combatants. Whichever party has less power (political, economic, physical, etc.) needs an assurance of safety and self-determination in order for peace to be realized.

And all of this is needed in spite of the reality that conflict is inevitable. Peace is not a destination, it is a commitment. When conflict arises, if committed to peace, we will interact with each other in an honest and mutually respectful way in order to find a mutually agreeable solution.

Okay this seems hard. How are we supposed to do this with any measurable impact?

It seems to me that the only answer to this is, “one step at a time.” It starts with our relationships between each other - between spouses or partners, co-workers and neighbors. Our children are watching how we deal with conflict with one another. Rather than avoiding it or escalating it, we could try communicating with each other, working through it together. Our kids will see this and learn from it. 

And peace just may become a little more possible.

It Gets Better - But We've Got to Make It So

Why the GOP is Wrong for America

Reality is our friend folks. Especially if you are a public servant, charged with instituting public policy on behalf of the voters, reality is our friend.


But here's the hard part for Republicans - there are actually multiple realities going on concurrently in America.


The GOP would be fine governing a small state, where everyone is upper middle class, educated enough to support themselves, heterosexual, conservative Christian and supportive of patriarchy. Oh, and your ancestors had to have immigrated here between 1620 and, roughly, 1920. I'm happy to acknowledge that this world-view is reality for some Americans.


The GOP wants us all to believe that what I just described is not actually just one segment of America, but is the sum total of who we are. I hate to break it to the Republican leaders, but there are gay people in our country, who might want the freedom to get married one day. There are people of color in our country for whom the traditional system hasn't worked so well, and we might need to fix some things to give these folks a shot at the freedom you're so fond of. There are women in this country who would like the freedom to exercise their own moral agency. There are poor people who want desperately to do better for their family, but might need a little help to get there. There is an enormous budget deficit in our country, and there are many Americans who can easily afford to help us out with it.


So to the GOP, I ask, why do you only complain about the Executive overreaching when the President wants to help working Americans, but not when women's rights are being infringed? Where're your Tea Party libertarians when the government tells us who we can or cannot marry? And where's your rhetoric on freedom in relation to the immigration conversation?


To my Republican friends, we tried your short-sighted, wealth-centered economic policy before. You sold it to a lot of people, and convinced them to vote against their own economic interest using moral issues that have divided our country. Reagan created an economic disaster in the '80s (where Mr. Cheney learned that "deficits don't matter") that Clinton cleaned up in the '90s. W. Bush created the mess we're in now, that Obama will get us out of in the '10s. Over the last several decades, Democratic economic policies have been far and above more successful. Look at the facts folks, they speak for themselves. 


I get that there are Conservative people in this country, and we need you to be a part of the conversation. But if you could stop lying about how your policies are better for the economy, or how you want a smaller government, I'd really appreciate it.

Stanley Cup Pride

The other day, I protested with several dozen clergy colleagues at the Hyatt Hotels stockholder meeting. Turns out, they're making money hand over fist, but are quite reluctant to share their profits with the workers who're making it all possible. 

There were some news cameras there, but given the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley cup excitement, very little of the protest was shown on the Chicago news stations.

I thought Noam Chomsky was right. Sports is indeed the great distraction, drawing the public's attention away from the pain and injustice of our brothers and sisters. 

But today, at the Chicago Gay Pride Parade, there was the Stanley Cup, which the Hawks had flown back from the NHL draft early, in order for it to make an appearance in the parade. 

So for that, I say praise God! It warms my heart to see the Chicago Blackhawks use the excitement of the Stanley Cup to draw attention to important justices issues. 

With all due respect to Noam Chomsky, sometimes the world of sports gets something really right.

Bring on a Liberal Media

When presented with facts that make your world view untenable, do you criticize the source as biased? Or do you take the opportunity to reexamine your world view? It seems that Conservatives' obsession with accusing the mainstream media with a 'liberal' bias has scared the media away from reporting actual facts that contradict the conservative narrative of the world.

Fox News is legendary for its misinformation and ridiculously opinionated coverage. But when CNN completely abandons actual news, it's rather sad. Using viewer Tweets as 'news'? I'm sorry, but watching CNN while Tweeting does not mean you are qualified to comment on the news.

In a democracy, whoever controls the information controls the people. Democracy is only possible with a liberal media. To be 'liberal' means that one is open to various points of view and many sources of information. When the media is not liberal, it's not doing its job. To complain about this as 'bias' is much more likely a stubborn unwillingness to admit we might have been wrong about something. 

When Jesus was presented with facts that contradicted his world view, he was, yes, liberal enough, to change his position (Mark 7:25-30). We'd all be wise to follow his example. 

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

I need to preface this by saying that I have deep respect for the piety and practice of the Roman Catholic faith. I cannot however stand by silently, while my fellow Christians defend the abysmal failures of Roman leadership.


Today, on Good Friday, a priest claimed the status of victim for the Pope and the Church in regard to the abuse scandals. Moreover, he had the nerve to quote a Jewish friend, saying that the confrontation of the Church is akin to "the most shameful acts of anti-semitism."


This is absurd. Anti-semitism is baseless bigotry based on sectarian hatred. Questions of the church hierarchy about actual abuse cases, in which Catholic priests unquestionably raped and molested people, is not remotely comparable with anti-judaism. 


The Roman Catholic church cannot have their cake and eat it too. You cannot have a hierarchy, where power is concentrated more and more as you rise to the top, without having responsibility go along with that power. 


The claim is that the Pope, then Cardinal Ratzinger, didn't know what was going on. If you're going to say that bishops and cardinals and popes should be taken more and more seriously as they rise through the hierarchy however, then they need to take more and more responsibility for the people over which they preside. I don't care what he knew or didn't know, I care that his office was responsible for it, and they didn't do their job.


As pope, his authority and responsibility go hand in hand. A letter of apology doesn't cut it. If the pope is truly sorry, then he needs to initiate real, lasting, systemic change in the way clergy relate to parishioners in the Catholic church. Anything short of that is an insult to Jesus Christ and us, his followers.

Yay Liberals!

It's been a tough week. Glen Beck started things out by telling people to run away from our churches because we believe in social justice. Then I read yesterday that State Board of Education representatives in Texas are rewriting history because they disagree with some of the facts in it.

Friends, there is little doubt that we live in tumultuous times. Between the Tea Party people, the Glenn Beck fans, Sarah Palin and their ilk, there are some dangerously conservative people in this country who are out to destroy the gains we've made toward a more decent (dare I say Christian?) society. 

We liberals have a lot to be proud of! It was liberals who fought to abolish slavery, liberals who brought women the vote, liberals who fought the Civil Rights movement and soon, it'll be liberals who make health care a right, not a privilege. 

And Christians have been deeply involved in every one of these liberal, social and economic justice-seeking movements. Why? Because tells us to. Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, care for the sick, clothe the naked. In short, Jesus wants us to help people who are poor, weak, oppressed - people who cannot help themselves. 

Political conservatives in this country have a long history of protecting the status quo, helping the rich get richer and denying any help to those who really need it.

So let's go liberals! Yay for social and economic justice! And praise the God we know in the justice-preaching man from Nazareth.

Put Your Tea Where Your Mouth Is

All right Tea Partyers, if you're serious about individual freedom and democracy, I encourage you to get behind the movement to amend the US Constitution. 


In the recent Supreme Court decision, Corporations were granted equal rights with individual citizens. The purpose of the bipartisan McCain-Feingold law of 2002 was to limit the involvement of wealthy corporations in the outcome of elections. Individual citizens have a right to make an informed choice between candidates for office, and these decisions should not be influenced by undue pressure from huge corporations whose bottom line will be directly affected by legislators.


I know that lobbyists already have more influence than is good for our democracy. But do we really want commercials during election season coming from Oil and agri-chemical companies? Do we really want more advertising that squeezes out independent media voices?


Hey Tea Party people - if you're serious about protecting our freedom and our democracy, put your money, or tea, where your mouth is and fight for something that will actually protect individual voices and freedoms. Support a change in the Constitution that will actually give all of us a more equal voice in our government. 

Do Kids Deserve a Sabbath?

I've been involved in some kind of youth work in churches for several years. I have heard so much about 'over-scheduled young people' that it is really a cliche for me now. Between sports, school, work and a social life, church often comes near the end of too-long to do lists.


But this post isn't about trying to get more kids to come to church (though I'm certainly not opposed to that). I want to know what happened to us adults, that we parents, coaches, teachers and administrators have forgotten about the old notion of sabbath - of taking some time off (Exodus 20:8-11). Or are we all okay with running our kids into the ground?


I heard of a high school freshman having a soccer game starting after 9PM on a Sunday. In talking with a local school official, she said that there are hockey practices for elementary students that end after 10PM on school nights.


Out of curiosity, I glanced at the Illinois child labor laws for comparison. Turns out, kids under 16 aren't supposed to work after 7pm. It seems that in those labor laws, school is actually prioritized above work. 


Shouldn't school also be prioritized above sports? How are kids supposed to concentrate in class when they don't get home from hockey practice or a soccer game until 10:30 at night?


I'm all for encouraging kids to participate in activities outside of school. I know not everyone is an academic. I also know that in some parts of the world, a basketball game at midnight is a lot better than some of the alternatives. But I also know that kids who're able to get a good night sleep are going to be a lot more successful in anything they do.

Remember Haiti

Please pray for the people of Haiti, and give what you can to help our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Where Would Dr. King Be Today?

I spent the afternoon in Joliet, IL. I heard the story of 70 workers who were fired from the Bissell warehouse for wanting to form a union.

One woman worker was 8 months pregnant, and was given no concessions by her employer, having to continue hard labor. Two workers can spend 5-8 hours to empty a 52' container, getting paid $16 each for the whole job. Since they're all temps, none have health insurance, no vacations, no holidays, and no guarantee of a job if they get injured and need time off before coming back to work. Women often get paid over $2 per hour less than their male colleagues. There are a few jobs that are closer to the living wage of $15/hour, but as you get higher in pay, the workers get more male and lighter in skin color.

The Warehouse Workers for Justice, in cooperation with interfaith religious and community leaders, are calling for a boycott of Bissell cleaning products. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but if we can all focus on Bissell first, it'll be a step in the direction of greater justice and mercy for all of God's children.

This my friends, is exactly where Dr. King would be today, because he cared so deeply about how we treat the least among us.