It All Depends Whose Hand It is In

I came across a telling statistic about the two Americas that Brian McLaren talks about in his discussion of the recent George Zimmerman verdict in Florida (see the posting below).  You can understand why there are at least two distinctly different views about the proliferation of guns (and their use beyond sport and home defense).  Consider the following:

According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention a white person in this country is five times more likely to commit suicide with a gun than to be shot with one.

If you’re an African American in this country then you are five times as likely to be shot and killed by someone than to use a gun to kill yourself.

In other words, if you are white, the gun you own for defense poses a much greater risk to you than a  gun in the hands of someone else in your neighborhood.  If you are black, the gun in the hands of someone else in your neighborhood poses a much greater risk to you than the gun you may own for your defense.

Let's make it as simple as possible:  if you are black and healthy and whole then guns poses a real risk to your life in the hands of someone else.  If you are white and healthy and whole then guns don't pose a significant risk to you at all (since only unhealthy, broken folks are tempted to take their own lives).

No wonder people look at what happened on a dark street in suburban Florida in very different ways.

One Nation--Two Very Different Perspectives

     I read a thoughtful commentary this afternoon from a pastor/author whom I respect and find insightful.  He was thinking out loud about the Zimmerman verdict in the Trayvon Martin trial.  He started out by affirming the legal process we have in place in this country, but he quickly moved to the idea that there is legal justice and a spiritual/moral justice.  Sometimes the two are not in sync.  Brian McLaren thinks that this is one of those times.
    McLaren believes that there are two Americas who are reacting to the single not guilty verdict this week.  This is how he puts it.

One America now has more reason to believe that their sons can be presumed guilty until proven innocent without a reasonable doubt when they’re walking down the street armed only with Skittles and an iced tea.

The other America now has more reason to believe that they can get away with murder, or something close to it, as long as the victim is young and black and wearing a hoodie.

One America now has less reason to believe that their sons will have equal protection under the law.

The other America is more secure in its right to “stand its ground” and will be even more determined to carry concealed weapons – and use them.

One America is threatened by the “reasonable doubt” that protects the other.

One America watches as the other America expands their gun rights while reducing protections for its own voting rights.

The other America sincerely believes their own gun rights are more threatened than their counterparts’ voting rights....

One America is scandalized that an armed adult would assess as a threat an innocent, unarmed teenager walking down the street.

The other America is scandalized that anyone would consider the armed adult as anything other than innocent and justified in that assessment.

Members of both Americas are coming together to form an emerging America that wants something better for all Americans. That emerging America wants us to deal deeply and honestly with our largely untreated, unacknowledged American original sin: a cocktail of white privilege, manifest destiny, and racism – in both its personal and institutional forms.

That emerging America believes that the best world is one where people multiply plowshares and pruning hooks, not swords and spears. Or in contemporary terms – one where people multiply community playgrounds and parks, not guns and drones.

That emerging America wants to bring people of all races, religions, regions, parties, and classes together in a common pursuit: a nation and world where there is equal liberty and justice for all.

     I think Brian McLaren is right.  I think more and more there are at least two different ways of looking at everything that happens in our nation.  I think some of it is the fault of 24 'news' programming (on TV, the radio, and all over the internet) which pretends to inform, but instead does all that it can to transform and reinforce the ideology of its viewers.  I think a lot of it has to do with the lingering wounds of race, class, and gender--wounds that we thought were nearly healed, but have become infected all over again.  I think the way politicians put the success of their party and their partisan goals ahead of the success of the entirety of the American people.  A lot of our problems flow from the lack of a shared commitment to the Common Good. And, as you might guess, I think our failure to take Jesus seriously enough--our unwillingness to look through the lens of his life, death, and resurrection--has helped polarize this nation in a way that it has not been for a long, long time.

    I will admit to not knowing the details of the trial--I have not followed the proceedings and therefore have no opinion whatsoever on the verdict that was rendered.  But I believe McLaren is on to something in pointing out that there is a huge split in how we Americans are trying to make sense of these events.

    Prayer seems in order (prayer always seems in order to me).  We continue to pray for peace through the fullest kind of justice.  We pray for the Martin family, for Trayvon's friends, for his church.  We pray for George Zimmerman and his safety.  We pray for those who live in an almost constant fear that they or the ones they love will be victims of violent crime.  And I pray that this leads us to a new dialog about how we might bridge the gap between these two Americas--how we might find a moral clarity that will help us affirm the many things that bind us together.

For the whole article check out:

http://www.redletterchristians.org/trayvon-and-george-a-tale-of-two-americas/

Just A Tree Until It Sprouts An Actual Apple

    In worship we’ve been looking at some of the most misunderstood and misapplied passages in the Bible.  And when the sermon series is over I am confident there will be dozens of passages we never got to.  In my own devotional life I’ve been going over the gospels again with an eye toward the things I can understand and apply—the teachings of Jesus that he expects me to put into action in my daily life.  The fact that this is the third time I’ve tried to go back and put together a comprehensive list of these ethical, moral, and spiritual imperatives is probably an unfortunate sign that I prefer my teachings hypothetical and intellectual.  Alas, I soldier on ever hopeful.

     This last week I came across a warning Jesus gives in Matthew’s gospel against false teachers:  men and women who claim to speak on God’s behalf but end up leading their audience astray.  How can you tell whether someone who speaks of God is a true or false teacher?  Jesus says, “You’ll be able to tell them by the fruit they bear: you don’t find grapes growing on thorn-bushes, do you, or figs on thistles?  Well, in the same way, good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit.”  As a ‘God teacher’ myself this has particular resonance for me.  And yet it’s bigger than that.  Jesus is pointing out an essential truth intended for all God’s children.

      For a long time Christians have thought of faith as an act of intellectual assent: a life-changing “I believe” after which we fill in the blanks according to which branch of the Family Tree your church springs from. 

      There have been reform movements that said agreeing with some propositional truth wasn’t good enough.  Many of those movements came to believe that it wasn’t enough to believe with your head—you needed to include your heart as well.  They believed that in order to be an authentic follower of Jesus you had to have a moving emotional experience of God’s forgiveness and love.  Your head can be filled with the most profound theology, but if your heart wasn’t “strangely warmed” as well, then you needed to go back to the drawing board.

      Please don’t get me wrong.  Faith most definitely involves the heart and the head.  I used to teach a class in parenting teens and the curriculum always went back to what they called “the think-feel-do cycle.”  How you see the world determines how you feel about that world, and how you feel will shape and guide what you do as you live in that world.

I just find it very interesting that Jesus doesn’t concern himself with the content of these false teachers.  He doesn’t worry about whether their appeal makes us feel one way or another.  Instead Jesus just says, look at what they do—look at what they get done.  If you want to know what is in the heart or head of a teacher, look at the results—the fruit—of what they do and say.

      Passages like this always give me pause and lead me to evaluate my own life.  It’s reminiscent of the old question:  “If loving God and loving people were against the law, would there be enough observable evidence to convict you?”  If you were a tree, and a group of botany students were tasked with identifying what kind of tree you were—based solely on the results of your actions (or fruit you bear)—what kind of tree would they choose?

      I’m one of those people who wishes that good intentions and generous impulses could count for more than they do.  I’m always being prompted with an idea for a quick note, an act of support, a gift of appreciation, a random act of kindness, but I never seem to complete the prompt by actually mailing the note or delivering the gift.  In my mind I’m a thoughtful, considerate, generous person because I’ve felt grateful, wanted to be generous, and have considered the desires of others all the time. 

      The problem is that I have very little tangible evidence of those kind thoughts and helpful impulses.  My heart and head are light years ahead of my visits, check stubs, and trips to the mailbox.  And Jesus warns me that the disconnect between thinking, feeling, and actually doing is a real problem and that I need to address that problem very soon.

Maybe I’m not the only one.  It’s possible that you are every bit as well intended as I.  Maybe you struggle almost as much as I do with following through.  If so, I suggest we pray for each other.  No, I mean you email me and I email you and we encourage one another on a weekly basis.  “Done anything fruity this week?”

         Tim