What Though My Joys and Comforts Die

our lives are filled with moments.  some of them are pleasurable, others not so much so.  we try to connect these fleeting experiences into meaningful stories, so that there is a relationship between one moment and the next.  we tell ourselves that one event leads to the next.  sometimes, one is the cause of the next, but, for the most part, there is a randomness to life.  we cannot control what follows from one moment to the next. 

for example, i may be engaged in conversation with another person.  i may think that a comment i make prompts a certain response from the one with whom i'm speaking, but i cannot predict with any certainty what my conversation partner may say based on what i've said before.  our response to one another can lead the exchange down paths that may not have been intended when we began talking.  a comment may lead to an angry or an agreeable response, or it may end the visit altogether.

 

it is the nature of our interactions to be beyond our control.  we cannot control the flow of a conversation, much less the flow of our lives.  perhaps, it is this very inability to control what happens next that causes us to try to exert more control over our lives, thinking that in doing so we can move events in the way we believe we want them to go.  perhaps that is why some theistic religions teach that there is a divine being that is in control and that whatever happens does so because of a plan that is being carried out at the direction of that being.  this belief is an attempt to make sense of the randomness of life, rather than admitting that life is beyond our control.

when someone is stricken with a dreaded disease or when someone dies, we often hear that this is "god's" will, part of the divine plan.  we are told that the illness has a reason which we may not understand, but, if we will accept the divine will, we will learn from what has happened.  in the same way, we hear people saying that someone dies because "god" is calling that person home because "god" needs the deceased more than we do.  these views help those who espouse them to deal with tragic events rather than admitting that these unfathomable disasters are random acts that come to the good and the evil without discrimination.  as jesus said, the rain falls "on the just and the unjust."

as i sat at breakfast the other morning, watching the wind buffet the tree branches outside my window in one direction and then in another, i thought that we cannot control life any more than we can control the direction of the wind.  it goes where it will, and so do our lives.  may we learn to accept what life brings, using our minds to solve the problems with which it confronts us and being thankful when good comes our way.  may we not attribute the good or the evil to a supreme being that has caused it all or that we are the cause.  may we live in the knowledge that life is what it is in spite of our attempts to control it.  shalom.

 

I Want to Be More Loving

christianity has become distorted in this country, having turned into something that is not recognizable as the expression of the life and teachings of jesus.  the basic tenets of loving one another and forgiving others when we are wronged have been lost in political rhetoric that divides us.  most christians here see those who are "outside the fold" as being evil or, as is the fashion now for anyone who disagress with us, these others are condemned as "woke," whatever that means.  so many who purport to be christians are caught up in the us-versus-them way of thinking that all that jesus stood and died for are forgotten.

christians condemn those they don't understand and refuse to try to walk a few steps in their shoes.  members of the lgbtq community, the non-religious, and followers of other religions are disparaged without ever learning what life is like for them.  women are seen as second-class citizens whom god has ordained to be controlled by men.  women are seen as subservient creatures whose purpose is little more than procreation.  these "others" are railed against from the pulpit and the christian religion marches in lockstep with right-wing politics.  freedom of expression is curtailed, books are banned, and a bent toward authoritarianism is extolled as a virtue.

this is not to say that all christians subscribe to this perverted view of christianity, but so-called evangelicalism has become the dominant strain of christianity, as less politicized churches decline.  many of the same criticisms can be leveled at other religions when fundamentalism is dominant.  we see this in judaism, islam, and the buddhism of myanmar.  in most cases, these religious expressions are male-dominated and insist that those who think differently, look differently, and live differently are the enemies of "true" religion.  these outliers are to be feared and suppressed.  they are a danger to the young, and children must be protected from them.

i am fearful of this expression of any religion, including my own.  sometimes, i wonder if i should call myself a christian, not because of my religious beliefs, but because i don't want to be identified with this perversion of christianity that has become the dominant strain of christianity in the usa.  religious leaders wonder why young people are leaving the church, but one only has to look at the narrow, exclusionary, us-versus-them practice of christianity in many denominations and congregations to understand why those with open minds and open hearts don't want to have anything to do with christian churches.

may we turn from religions that view others as enemies and infidels.  may we embrace openness to other ways of thinking and being.  may we seek to understand those who appear to be different from us, remembering that in truth we are all very much the same.  may we condemn those who would separate us into warring camps and accept our common humanity.  shalom.

 

My Country to Have and to Hold

this week, we've watched as our democracy continues to be threatened.  in tennessee, the republican majority in the state house of representatives expelled its two youngest black members.  these young men represent 140,000 constituents in the cities of memphis and nashville, leaving those who elected them without representation in the tennessee house.  the reason for their expulsion was their participation from the house floor in a protest over the state government's refusal to act on gun regulation in light of the killing of three children and three staff members at a private school in nashville.  undoubtedly, their actions disturbed the "decorum of the house" and prevented its members from continuing their work.

their behavior was inappropriate, even if their fervor to persuade the tennessee legislature to act to pass reasonable gun restrictions was commendable and right.  there were other consequences for their actions that could have been imposed short of the drastic step of expelling them from their elected positions.  what is equally disturbing was that the only white representative who participated in leading the protest from the house floor was not expelled.  she narrowly escaped the fate of her fellow protestors by one vote, but the failure of the house to punish her in the same way smacks of racism.

the willingness of republican majorities in many states to act in ways that deny those with whom they disagree the right to express their views is anti-democratic and unamerican.  as one democratic member of the tennessee house put it, we live in a country that exists because of radical protest.  our founders fought and died to establish a country based on the idea that government exists to serve the people and that those who make up the government are responsible to those who elected them.  if the constituents of those who elected the expelled representatives believed that their actions were wrong, the proper way to remove them from office was at the ballot box, not by the tyranny of a republican majority in the tennessee house.

in state after state where legislatures are in republican control, electoral maps are drawn up so that a republican majority can continued to be elected.  the votes of democrats and minorities count less than those of their white republican counterparts in these gerrymandered districts.  for instance, in wisconsin, republicans can control their legislature with only 44% of the vote, despite the fact that more often than not democrats win in elections that count the state-wide vote rather than the district-by-district vote.  other republican-controlled legislatures have done and are doing the same thing by splitting demoratic-majority districts so that their inhabitants cannot elect candidates to the state legislature.

by and large the courts have sided with legislatures that engage in extreme gerrymandering, because the courts hearing these cases, including the federal supreme court, are dominated by those with conservative, right-wing views.  these courts hold that elections are in the hands of the individual states according to the constitution, even when such control disenfranchises millions of citizens.  in the past, the legal view that each person's vote should carry equal weight made it difficult for state legislatures to engage in redistricting plans that prevented minorities from having their fair share of representation.  that view is no longer the dominant one, making one-person-one-vote less likely to prevail in court battles.

may we return to the principles of democracy that protected the rights of all, including minority parties and races.  may we insist that a tyranny of the majority not prevail in tennessee or anywhere else in our country.  may our people awaken to their responsibilities to vote and hold their representatives accountable and prevent them from assuming dictatorial powers.  may we truly become "one nation," as we pledge when we recite the national pledge of allegiance.  shalom.   

To Know the Truth That Sets Us Free

there is a phrase from our declaration of independence that is ingrained in the minds and hearts of every american--"all men are created equal."  this phrase, written by a slave-holding viriginia aristocrat and our country's third president, is difficult to understand.  there is little doubt that the word "men" was used in the universal sense, like the german word "mensch," to include all human beings, regardless of skin pigmentation, gender, or station in life.  we americans often confuse jefferson's declaration with the constitution.  in the latter document, there is an outright denial of the equality phrase, when our governing charter says that some humans are only 3/5 the value of others because of their status as slaves.  the recent indictment of donald trump speaks to our belief that all are equal before the law.  even a former president is not immune from prosecution for crimes he is accused of committing.  

we wonder if it is true that all are created equal.  we know that there is no equality of socio-economic standing.  we know that some are born with handicaps that others are not afflicted with.  jefferson goes on to say that all are born with "certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  this was written when a large part of the population, including many who served jefferson at his home without their consent, did not enjoy liberty, nor were they free to pursue happiness.  the question is, how do we insure that all have access to equality in our society.

one way of looking at the declaration's equality phrase is to regard all as equal in the sight of the Creator, despite the circumstances of their birth.  from that perspective, those born into poor families are equal to those whose families are wealthy and those born with disabilities are the equals of those who exhibit no handicapping conditions.  it makes no difference if a child is gay, straight, or trans.  if this is true, the current campaign to discriminate against many of our fellow citizens is immoral and a violation of our understanding of what it means to be an american.

may we live as though we believe that all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  may we not be so quick to judge and use our prejudices as an excuse to persecute those whose lifestyles are different from our own.  may we not take money from public education or hamstring the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn in the name of "parental rights."  may we not condemn others because we don't understand their inner lives and the outward expressions of those lives.  shalom.