Scriptural Basis
Matthew 9: 10-17 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
I was intrigued today by a post on JoeMyGod. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council made the remark that President Obama is ignoring the bullying of Christian students.
Here is the full text of the quote on Joe Jervis' blog post.
Tony Perkins is referring to the White House Bullying Conference. A conference hosted by President Obama and the First Lady to talk about the harmful affects of bullying in America's schools. In his remarks, President Obama spoke of the responsibility we all have of working to protect children and youth from bullying based on being different, including but not limited to a students sexual orientation.
When I posted the post containing the remarks by Tony Perkins on my Facebook page today, a friend of mine Ronald Allen Schulz wrote the following in the comments.
What Ronald has written is a very true statement.
Among the most unfortunate things to happen to Christians, is that we have become so creed-o-centric, that many assert Christian as if it is a religion of privilege. For many in our society who face religious based bigotry from Christians/Catholics to other religions (Judaism, Islam for example), different sexual orientations and/or gender identities/expressions, Christianity is a religion of privilege.
One of the goals of Christianists is to get as many of their people elected into our government (State and Federal) so that an elitist Christian ideology can become the laws of our land. No progressive/liberal or any other way of thinking or behaving would be tolerated. We are seeing this in the countless legislative efforts all across the country against women's reproductive rights, the collective bargaining rights of workers, actions against marriage equality such as the GOP House deciding that they will defend DOMA and so on.
These by themselves are harmful. But, they are part of a bigger problem. It is a move to make the principles of Christianists, the laws and ways of every person in America. In other words, Christianity has a monopoly on truth, and therefore everyone must be forced to understand and do what Christianists believe is correct. Any individual or institution that is outside of the Christianist ideology is out of luck and out of their rights and freedom from political and religious based oppression.
The conversation that took place between the pharisees and Jesus over fasting, is an example of what happens when people assert religious "authority" as privilege. "Your actions are not the same as mine. Therefore, you must be doing something wrong."
Privilege is also being asserted when the pharisees question Jesus about who he dines with. "Why are you eating with those people."
Think this doesn't happen in Christianity today? Think again!
In an online post on Right Wing Watch, a former Episcopal Priest who is now an anti-gay activist said the following:
The Episcopal Church is no longer Christian, because we have recognized that we are not so privileged that we have the authority to deny LGBT individuals a place at our communion rails. That is what Youseef is pretty much saying.
Lent and the cross are not for asserting privilege and prejudice. Just because we are fasting and praying as we prepare for Easter, does not mean we have one over other individuals who are not quite like we are. If anything Lent and the cross are the opportunity for us to look privilege in the face and realize that we do not really have any at all.
None of us really has any more privilege to justify the use of our faith as a reason to scapegoat anyone else. If any thing Lent and the cross are a time and place for us to come to God in prayer and fasting with the prejudices of our hearts and ask for God's grace for the conversion needed to change them. At the cross there is no privilege. Even Jesus "though in the form of God, Christ Jesus did not cling to equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was born in human likeness. Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2: 6-8). The greatness Jesus gained from God, came because Jesus became a servant to all who were marginalized. Including the LGBT person, the woman, and so many more marginalized and left aside. Even the dead got a face and a name through the grace of God in Jesus.
Exactly what right do any of us who are Christian have asserting privilege? Do we have privilege? Yes, but it is not found in justifying prejudice, cruelty and violence. Our privilege that we should exercise (not assert as if we are better than others) is to love others with the love with which Jesus Christ loved all of us. To love others with a sacrificial love that sees God's holy imprint in each person, including those who are different from ourselves. To recognize that it is not okay to sit idly by while several LGBT and questioning youth took their lives because they were bullied in their schools. To see that targeting Muslims through a congressional hearing is wrong because it fuels religious and racial bias. To stand in solidarity with the union workers of Wisconsin who just lost their bargaining rights today, with the stroke of Gov. Scott Walker's pen.
Lent and the cross are about recognizing that all of us have been given the gift of God's grace. Our sins have been forgiven. But, our work does not end with our own encounter with the God of love. Our work continues as we use this time of penance, fasting and prayer to recognize God's beauty in those who are struggling to overcome injustice, oppression and destruction.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Amen.
Prayers
Matthew 9: 10-17 (NRSV)
And as he sat at dinner* in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting* with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
The Question about Fasting
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,* but your disciples do not fast?’ 15And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’
Blog Reflection
I was intrigued today by a post on JoeMyGod. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council made the remark that President Obama is ignoring the bullying of Christian students.
Here is the full text of the quote on Joe Jervis' blog post.
"The Left tends to spin the issue of bullying as a uniquely homosexual problem. They hold up tragic incidents like Tyler Clementi's suicide to push for school-based curriculum and other initiatives that give homosexuals a platform for normalizing their behavior. Even the government's Stop Bullying website is dominated by information about LGBT bullying. This is the liberals' way of turning a serious problem into an opportunity for greater censorship of those who disagree with their behavior.
"In the White House materials, they turn a dialogue about bullying into a conversation about protecting homosexuals. The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Alliance (GLSEN) is featured in the government's resources with a generous plug from President Obama. The debate has also created a window for homosexual Kevin Jennings, the embattled 'safe school czar,' to spread his propaganda in the classroom--and on the White House website. Does the anti-bullying initiative extend to young people with Christian beliefs, who find themselves the subject of a teacher's ridicule on subjects like sexuality or science? If it doesn't, then America is only exacerbating the problem."
Tony Perkins is referring to the White House Bullying Conference. A conference hosted by President Obama and the First Lady to talk about the harmful affects of bullying in America's schools. In his remarks, President Obama spoke of the responsibility we all have of working to protect children and youth from bullying based on being different, including but not limited to a students sexual orientation.
When I posted the post containing the remarks by Tony Perkins on my Facebook page today, a friend of mine Ronald Allen Schulz wrote the following in the comments.
What an idiot. Now we're supposed to believe that elite christian right is a victim? Traditional Christians are by no stretch of the imagination an oppressed class. there is a huge difference between being scoffed at in random social pockets { primarily as a reactionary measure], and having to face the socio-political institutional religious bigotry that gay people encounter on a daily basis.
What Ronald has written is a very true statement.
Among the most unfortunate things to happen to Christians, is that we have become so creed-o-centric, that many assert Christian as if it is a religion of privilege. For many in our society who face religious based bigotry from Christians/Catholics to other religions (Judaism, Islam for example), different sexual orientations and/or gender identities/expressions, Christianity is a religion of privilege.
One of the goals of Christianists is to get as many of their people elected into our government (State and Federal) so that an elitist Christian ideology can become the laws of our land. No progressive/liberal or any other way of thinking or behaving would be tolerated. We are seeing this in the countless legislative efforts all across the country against women's reproductive rights, the collective bargaining rights of workers, actions against marriage equality such as the GOP House deciding that they will defend DOMA and so on.
These by themselves are harmful. But, they are part of a bigger problem. It is a move to make the principles of Christianists, the laws and ways of every person in America. In other words, Christianity has a monopoly on truth, and therefore everyone must be forced to understand and do what Christianists believe is correct. Any individual or institution that is outside of the Christianist ideology is out of luck and out of their rights and freedom from political and religious based oppression.
The conversation that took place between the pharisees and Jesus over fasting, is an example of what happens when people assert religious "authority" as privilege. "Your actions are not the same as mine. Therefore, you must be doing something wrong."
Privilege is also being asserted when the pharisees question Jesus about who he dines with. "Why are you eating with those people."
Think this doesn't happen in Christianity today? Think again!
In an online post on Right Wing Watch, a former Episcopal Priest who is now an anti-gay activist said the following:
Michael Youssef, the head of Leading the Way Ministries and a vocal critic of Islam, today argued that the Episcopal Church is no longer Christian and “not Jesus’ church” as a result of the church's policies regarding gay-rights. Youssef is a signatory of the Manhattan Declaration, a largely anti-gay and anti-choice screed, which also laments the “decline in respect for religious values” in American society. However, Youssef’s diatribe against the Episcopal Church shows the Manhattan Declaration’s call for “religious liberty” and greater respect for religious values remains secondary to its unbridled anti-gay attacks. Youssef’s attack on the Episcopal Church keeps him in the company of other Religious Right leaders and groups who continuously smear mainline Protestant churches that back civil rights. In a column for the American Family Associations news service, Youssef declared that the Episcopal Church’s support for LGBT equality means that the Church has “defied God” and lost its status as Christian:
The Episcopal Church is no longer Christian, because we have recognized that we are not so privileged that we have the authority to deny LGBT individuals a place at our communion rails. That is what Youseef is pretty much saying.
Lent and the cross are not for asserting privilege and prejudice. Just because we are fasting and praying as we prepare for Easter, does not mean we have one over other individuals who are not quite like we are. If anything Lent and the cross are the opportunity for us to look privilege in the face and realize that we do not really have any at all.
"Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by Christ's grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith." (Romans 3: 23-25a NRSV).
None of us really has any more privilege to justify the use of our faith as a reason to scapegoat anyone else. If any thing Lent and the cross are a time and place for us to come to God in prayer and fasting with the prejudices of our hearts and ask for God's grace for the conversion needed to change them. At the cross there is no privilege. Even Jesus "though in the form of God, Christ Jesus did not cling to equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was born in human likeness. Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2: 6-8). The greatness Jesus gained from God, came because Jesus became a servant to all who were marginalized. Including the LGBT person, the woman, and so many more marginalized and left aside. Even the dead got a face and a name through the grace of God in Jesus.
Exactly what right do any of us who are Christian have asserting privilege? Do we have privilege? Yes, but it is not found in justifying prejudice, cruelty and violence. Our privilege that we should exercise (not assert as if we are better than others) is to love others with the love with which Jesus Christ loved all of us. To love others with a sacrificial love that sees God's holy imprint in each person, including those who are different from ourselves. To recognize that it is not okay to sit idly by while several LGBT and questioning youth took their lives because they were bullied in their schools. To see that targeting Muslims through a congressional hearing is wrong because it fuels religious and racial bias. To stand in solidarity with the union workers of Wisconsin who just lost their bargaining rights today, with the stroke of Gov. Scott Walker's pen.
Lent and the cross are about recognizing that all of us have been given the gift of God's grace. Our sins have been forgiven. But, our work does not end with our own encounter with the God of love. Our work continues as we use this time of penance, fasting and prayer to recognize God's beauty in those who are struggling to overcome injustice, oppression and destruction.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you: Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Amen.
Prayers
Support us, O Lord, with your gracious favor through the fast we have begun; that as we observe it by bodily self-denial, so we may fulfill it with inner sincerity of heart: through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Friday after Ash Wednesday, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 34).
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, page 217).
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen. (Collect for Fridays, Book of Common Prayer, page 99)
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).
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