Tag: Racism

It is not true

Steven Woolley3 Comments

The anti-racism training I attended last week did not live up to my expectations, and I offered my editorial opinion about that in my previous post. However, our times of prayer and meditation were filled with spiritual meaning, and I was most appreciative of a litany taken, as I understand it, from The Iona Book of Worship (Wild Goose Publications). I think it’s worth sharing:

It is not true that this world and its inhabitants are doomed to die and be lost;

This is true: For God so love the world that he gave in only son to that everyone who believes in him shall not die but have everlasting life.

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction;

This is true: I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred shall have the last word, and that war and destruction have come to stay forever;

This is true: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given in whom authority will rest and whose name will be prince of peace.

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil that seek to rule the world;

This is true: To me is given all authority in heaven and on earth, and lo, I am with you always to the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the church, before we can do anything;

This is true: I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, and your old folk shall dream dreams.

It is not true that our dreams for the liberation of humankind, our dreams of justice, of human dignity, of peace, are not meant for this earth and this history;

This is true: The hour comes, and it is no, that the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

Anti-Racism Training

Steven Woolley3 Comments

I attended an anti-racism workshop held at my former parish last Saturday. The curriculum was well structured, a very model for adult education. The instructor was a pro, well versed in the subject and obviously gifted in teaching adult groups. For all of that I found it stale and vaguely offensive. There was little about it that was different from similar workshops I’ve attended over the last twenty or thirty years. The working assumption of the curriculum was that we are all white, mostly male, and largely ignorant of the systemic racism built in to our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. As it turned out, we were mostly white, female and, with a few exceptions, reasonably well informed. The usual gang attended. Those who, perhaps, should have been there, were not, as usual. What was once fresh and challenging now seemed more like rubbing one’s nose in one’s inherent racism as a congenital disease more rampant in Northern European white Americans than anyone else. The instructor ended with the nationally prescribed conclusion that to really do something about our racism we needed to get more black members to join our church.

It seemed a little silly considering the very few who live in our community. It conjured up an image of trolling for a dark skinned persons and dragging them in to sit with us in our rather traditional Episcopalian congregation so that we could congratulate ourselves on our fine catch. The words rude and arrogant came to mind.

On the other hand, our community is ethnically and economically diverse with a considerable amount of shared ignorance and prejudice spread among us.

Maybe I’ve been thrown off track by attending too many Eric Law workshops and reading too many of his books, but it does seem to me that, at least for us, the issue has more to do with the need to learn about, learn to respect and learn from the cultures, traditions and ways of living in community that are represented in the diversity of our valley. I also think that any congregation desiring to welcome that diversity into its midst must do so through the humility of radical hospitality. Radical hospitality is difficult because it means that power relationships within the group will be changed, and giving up the systems of power with which we have become comfortable is very threatening.

If my former congregation became a congregation of radical hospitality serving the neighborhood in Christ’s name, it would look a lot different. The church is surrounded on two sides by low income rental housing – some with younger, often non-traditional, families and some limited to the more mature in age. The younger families tend to be among the working poor. The more mature tend to be the retired working poor. Up and down the adjacent streets are the homes of the solid middle class and a few of the wealthy. If the congregation was radically welcoming it would be filled with people new to Christianity, new to Anglicanism, but rejoicing in ‘their church’ as a place that is truly theirs, and not a place where they were simply welcomed as visitors. They would not be big pledgers. They would take up residence in pews ‘reserved’ for old timers. They would assume a variety of leadership roles and do new things without the advise and consent of the patriarchs and matriarchs.

Would we be worshiping in Spanish? Probably not. Would there be dozens of dark skinned persons in the pews? Probably not. Would the elders of the congregation still be respected and have a voice? Yes. Would the current ranks of extremely well educated upper middle class members still have some important role in decision making? Yes.

Sins of the Heart

Steven Woolley1 Comment

Ah, it is good to be back in Mark, and for the coming Sunday we have his dandy list of no-no’s that have their origins nowhere else but in our own hearts: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly, these come from within and they are what defile us. Oddly enough I have a few friends who have claimed that it’s all God’s fault. He was testing them with these temptations and they were just too weak to refuse. They wonder why God would do such a thing, but they have no doubt that it is God’s doing. I think maybe we see a bit of that with more than a few politicians as well. I recall trying that excuse myself in younger days, but was fortunate to have some stern voices advising me otherwise.

However, self satisfaction has to be placed very deep in the back of a closet on a high shelf. How many ways are there to commit fornication? Put another way, how many ways are there to sell one’s self for a few bucks, and how many ways are there to try to buy the favors of another? How many ways are there for us to apprehend for ourselves something, anything, that is not ours to have or use? How many ways are there to murder another in small bits and pieces with our words and actions? How many ways are there to “cheat” on our friends, co-workers, neighbors and loved ones? You get the idea; I don’t have to go through the whole list. The point is that these are very common sins of which we are all guilty in one way or another.

Isn’t that what James is getting at in his opening words, that we have to be a lot more intentional about being doers of the word and not just hearers who deceive ourselves?

Thanks be to God that it’s not entirely up to us. A bit later on in Mark we will come to those wonderful words of reassurance that if it was up to us we would never make it through that narrow gate: if it was up to mortals, no one would make it, but with God all things are possible.

I don’t have to be perfect, but I do have to be intentional. As a practicing curmudgeon, that is not always easy, but I shall try.