October
2006
Pondering Our God…
Through a variety of experiences: conferences I’ve attended, sermons I’ve heard, discussions I’ve had or meetings in which I’ve participated, one theme seems to have woven itself through each conversation– “What does it mean to say we believe in and worship a loving God?”
Sunday afternoon, a group of Southern California activists gathered in Studio City for a half-day conference: “Passion to Serve/Power to Transform.” During the opening session, four people from four different faith traditions shared with the conference attendees how their faith informs their commitment to seeking justice in a broken world.
What struck me Sunday afternoon was the intense love that all four individuals have for the poor, the oppressed, the “least of these” around the world. Each emphasized that their deep faith, their understanding of a loving God, and their responsibility to live as faithful followers of their religious tradition, motivates and empowers them to seek systemic societal change (justice rather than charity) in an effort to alleviate the oppression experienced by so many of God’s children. Wow! Communicating LOVE above all to the oppressed in our society!!!
It made me wonder why it is in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), that so many are still fighting over whether or not to love (and thus allow ordination of) gay and lesbians into the ministry of Jesus Christ. And in Orange County, ten Presbyterian Churches are leading the fight to maintain this unloving prohibition. I have read and re- read the Gospels, which provide a detailed overview of the life and ministry of Christ, yet I find nowhere in any of those four books where Jesus says a word about gays and lesbians. My denomination continues year after year to fight over what it means for ministers to be “pure” and to live by ordination “essentials” established in our Book of Order (written by fallible humans, mind you). Ironically, the PCUSA seems rarely to fight over how we all as “ministers” (Christ’s disciples) should integrate into our lives Christ’s mandate to “love our neighbors as ourselves.”
On Saturday morning, I attended The Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment’s “Caring for Creation” Conference in Tustin. Keynote speaker, Author and lecturer, Matthew Fox, reminded attendees that as people of faith we are called to “be a lover of people we don’t know” and followed that statement with an observation: so much of the hate we see in America today (hate radio, hate politics) is all done in the name of a “loving God.” His observation made me ponder once again…does the God in which we believe condone such hatred and exclusiveness? The God I believe in certainly does not.
Matthew Fox reminded Saturday’s audience that “to love others requires compassion” and that the only way to develop compassion is to “deal with the beasts from our past.” Not doing so, Fox said, is what creates conservatives. Compassion and love is the stuff “progressives” are made of.
While the thrust of Fox’s talk was on the sacredness of nature and the responsibility of faith communities to ensure the sustainability of God’s creation (the Earth), Fox reminded us that all the great movements of our culture have depended on faith-based communities to lead. It was the love, compassion and commitment to justice by people in faith communities that helped end slavery, led the Civil Rights movement and gave momentum to the U.S. Labor movement.
So I wonder, as Bono, U2’s lead singer asks, “Where is the Love?”…particularly in American Christianity? I see it in the Progressive Christian movement and in those I’ve met these last several months through my new work with PCU. As followers of Christ, as people who believe in a loving, inclusive, God, LOVE is the motivation for all we do. I am inspired by each one of YOU who have become involved in the Orange County chapter.
As we demand economic justice for underpaid service workers, pursue social justice for Christian gays and lesbians, or fight for environmental justice in an effort to ensure that our planet is not destroyed before future generations have the opportunity to enjoy it, let us continue to proclaim to those around us that our primary motivation for our commitment to these issues is that we are Progressive Christians. We worship and obey a God who loves all of creation. We love because we follow Jesus, the great inclusive lover of all of humanity.
This is the witness of Progressive Christianity…let us continue to shout it out loudly in Orange County!