Tolerated

In my last appointment in Hanover, there were many Salvationists who lived in Germany who were refugees from war-torn places in Africa. Several of them were from the Congo. Their status as refugees was precarious, to say the least.

One of our soldiers, who was Congolese by birth, but had the fortune to become a German citizen, had some relatives who lived in his town, about a half hour south of us. They were all soldiers in The Salvation Army, but were not permitted to travel to Hanover for church services because it meant that they would have to leave their Bezirk (similar to a county).

They didn't have a visa to stay in Germany. In fact, they were one step away from being deported to their country of origin. These refugees had a Duldung. If you mention that to any person who knows German, you will normally see them wince or shake their heads. Duldung means "toleration." These people were "tolerated" to be in Germany. It wasn't a very easy thing to live under a Duldung. One had to register each month with the local police station and immigration office, where it will be reevaluated. One would be allowed to work with a proper work permit, but the employer would have to register each month and verify that their "tolerated" employee was still there. Most employers were very reluctant to hire someone with a Duldung.

With all the paperwork and inconvenience, who could blame them? I felt supremely sorry for these refugees who were simply tolerated. They couldn't work. They had to rely on the State for assistance, and they were under constant threat of being deported back to their country, where things were not always secure or safe.

We are in a world that has been trying to teach tolerance. Now there are those who view tolerance with a wary eye. They view tolerance as being subversive, compromising, or simply beneath them. They have no room for tolerance in their lives. So they show no tolerance. They do not tolerate people of other beliefs, other political views, or other sexual orientations. They show no love.

However, I also do not like the idea of tolerance. This word, which can sometimes have a positive connotation, has a negative one for me. I want to be accepted. I want to be loved. I want to know that I am valued and appreciated for who I am.

I do not want to be simply tolerated.

Jesus said to his disciples, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." (John 15:12) I believe he speaks this to us today, too. Unfortunately, the opposite happens instead and has been boiling to the point where people are leaving the Church. Who could blame them? When people are merely tolerated and not loved, why should they stay?

Are we creating an atmosphere of love and acceptance where we worship? I'm not talking about the songs we sing, how we worship, if we lift our hands in praise, or if we recite liturgy. Do we accept people in our midst? Do we offer friendship to them, no matter who they are or what they look like?

Do we tolerate, or do we love and accept?

Theologically Bad Scripture

One of my favorite musicals is Godspell. It is a modern day telling of the Gospel of Matthew (mostly, with elements of Luke thrown in there, too). One of the most beautiful songs in this musical is "On the Willows." It is taken from one of the most gut-wrenching psalms in the Bible, Psalm 137 (NASB).

137 By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down and wept,
When we remembered Zion.
² Upon the willows in the midst of it
We hung our harps.
³ For there our captors demanded of us songs,
And our tormentors mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

⁴ How can we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
May my right hand forget her skill.
⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
If I do not remember you,
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom
The day of Jerusalem,
Who said, “Raze it, raze it
To its very foundation.”
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,
How blessed will be the one who repays you
With the recompense with which you have repaid us.
⁹ How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock.

The last verse slapped me in the face when I first read it. This is not a Psalm that one teaches in Sunday School to our children, but let's face it:  There are so many passages in Scripture that are difficult to deal with and to explain to young people. We have incest, polygamy, infanticide, genocide, public executions, and physical mutilations; these are all condoned by Scripture in some way or another.

It is often helpful to look at this Scripture in its context. In the year 586 BC, Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians, including the Temple built by Solomon. This was a huge psychological blow to the Israelis. They had assumed that Jerusalem was some magic "safe place." Although the rest of the country was being conquered around them, no one thought that Jerusalem itself would be conquered.

Not only did the Babylonians conquer Jerusalem, they also sent the inhabitants into exile and put other displaced people in Judah in its place (the foundation of the Samaritan people). The Babylonians did this for 2 reasons. The most obvious reason was to confuse the exiles in a country that was not their own. They would have to either survive or die in exile.

The second reason for sending the Israelis into exile was to separate them from Yahweh, their God. The Babylonians felt that if you separated the people from the land, their gods could not seek revenge on them. However, in order to honor the gods of that land, they had the new inhabitants learn about their gods and how to worship them. (Again, this was the beginning of the Samaritans.)

This unknown Psalmist is crying out from her/his agony. He/she had just witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem. Their neighbors, the Edomites, were having a bit of Schadenfreude at the Israelis' expense. Worse than that, the Babylonian soldiers in a bit of disturbing sport, were killing the stragglers along the route to Babylon, including the babies.

This explains the terrifying verse:  "How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock."

It explains the verse, but does it condone it?

One thing to bear in mind is that the Psalms are not always theologically sound. They are full of emotion, pain, anguish, joy, happiness, longing. So while many times they express truths that speak of the goodness of God (like in Psalm 8), there are others, such as this Psalm, that speak more of the heartache of the Psalmist and not something one should use to condone infanticide.

Other Scripture passages are often taken out of context, to be used to support one's particular view, without even looking at it in its broader context, including historical, archeological, and even theological. Luke 22:38 is often used by those advocating for loose gun laws to support their claim that it is OK to kill in self-defense. They choose to ignore the vast majority of sayings by Christ, including turning the other cheek, loving your enemy, and Jesus' own example of not defending himself from his crucifixion.

Another prime example is Psalm 109:8. This verse has been used by many conservative Christians for their "prayer" for President Barack Obama:  "Let his days be few; Let another take his office." However, I hear no one pray Psalm 109:9 for him:  "Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."

The constant danger is that we try to make Scripture speak what we believe rather than let Scripture speak for itself. This is irregardless of our worldview. We need to bear in mind the culture, time period, and most importantly the language of the time. Even native born Greek and Hebrew speakers have a difficult time understanding those 2000 year old texts. Think about it. Remember the first time you read Shakespeare? It wasn't exactly the easiest thing to read and that is not even 400 years old, let alone 2000. Maybe something that we can learn from Islam is that they only consider the Qur'an to be holy and authentic in the language that it was written in:  Arabic. Much is lost in translation in Hebrew and Greek.

So what do I do with Psalm 137? I realize that this was written out of a pain and hurt that I can scarcely begin to imagine. I realize that the writer experienced a loss few of us have endured. I also realize that he/she was wrong in wishing the deaths of innocent Babylonian babies. At the same time, I understand that he/she wrote this Psalm to God, expressing the hurt and anguish that the whole nation was going through. This is the proper context of the pain. This is the one to whom we should cry out our frustrations, pain, and anger:  to God.

He can take it.

Review of "Torn" by Justin Lee

I am very much a latecomer to reviewing this book. Others have done so and perhaps more eloquently than I have done. However, this is a book worthy to read and worthy to review.

This book is very much semi-autobiographical. It is a testimony of one young man's struggle to find himself and still remain in the faith he grew up in, the faith in which he continues to maintain.

Probably one of the reasons that this book is so engaging is the fact that it is personal. Justin Lee tells his own story, his struggles, and his thought processes. Telling your own story draws the reader in more powerfully sometimes than telling the testimony of someone else.

What do you do when you suddenly realize that you are attracted to the same sex, but your Church says that this is a sin? He explored and tried everything. What is perhaps interesting is the fact that Justin never had a same-sex encounter when he discovered he was gay. He talked to his pastor, who got him involved in their church's double secret Homosexuals Anonymous group. This was a sad affair of men trying to help each other out, trying to even find a semblance of heterosexual attraction. That didn't work.

He then went to several ex-gay ministries. He calls them "ex-gay" because they in no way even try create a sense of heterosexual attraction for their clients. They are simply trying to get rid of the unwanted same-sex attractions. These organizations seem to say that it's the upbringing of a broken home and a distant father that leads to same-sex orientation. However, Justin had a loving father and a good home upbringing. Nothing was further from the truth. At one of these conferences, he even met a gentleman (and father of someone who was in the LGBT Community) who said that he came from a broken home with an absent father. For all intents and purposes, he should be gay, but he was straight. So where was the logic in that argument?

What saved Justin, though, was the fact that he found community. He found other LGBT Christians who longed for community, especially as Christians, which they weren't finding in the Church. Thus the Gay Christian Network was born.

Probably one of the most poignant moments in the book is where Justin Lee describes his realization that he is gay with the struggles of Job. It is not his own struggles that matter, but the response of his community of faith. Thirty-nine chapters in Job deal with the theologically false statements of Jobs' friends. I had always concentrated on Job's plight and the response from God. Basically, Job states, "I'm innocent! Why are you punishing me?" and God's response is, "I'm God. Who are you to question me?" However, the majority of the book deals with the negative response of the friends and how Job must be wrong, not even once entertaining the idea that there was another answer.

We in the Church who have tossed out our LGBT siblings are Job's three friends.

How can I say this? How can I with enormous confidence say this? On page 238, Justin's probably harshest critique of the Church is as follows:  "Because most churches currently teach that gay sex is contrary to God's will, we'd expect that at least those churches would support their gay members in living a celibate life. In practice, unfortunately, that is usually not the case."

My own denomination, The Salvation Army, accepts that same-sex orientation is not a sin, but that same-sex marriages are outside of God's will. (This Position Statement is one that I personally reject.) I know from personal experience that there is absolutely no support for LGBT members to lead a celibate life. There have been no workshops at Congresses (denominational gatherings), no special groups established for young adults/teens at our Youth Councils, no special classes at our Training Colleges for ministering to the LGBT community. When I was at our Training College, we had a gay speaker come to us from Exodus International, but we all know what happened to that organization. They stopped their "reparative" therapies and then disbanded.

I should, however, give one caveat that there are those at our College for Officer Training who have been involved in the Marin Foundation and have done ministry during Chicago's Gay Pride Parade. I applaud that. Other than this aforementioned ministry done at our Training College, there is no official ministry to our own members who self-identify as being a part of the LGBT community.

We may say that LGBT people are called to live a celibate life. We do nothing to support them in this on a denominational level. There may be some officers here and there who have taken it upon themselves to help at an individual level, but these people are unknown to me. I can only speak on what happens at a denominational level. In this we are hypocrites.

In our group, the Progressive Salvationist, we have a dialogue relating to how we can best be a support for those in the LGBT community, especially those in our denomination. This has been a wonderful community of mutual support.

There is a ray of hope:  Dialogue. Real dialogue. This is what Justin Lee recommends. Sitting down and actively listening. This is an art form that most have forgotten, especially in the age of Social Media when all we do is react to posts instead of acknowledging and listening. (I am guilty as the next person in this.) Listening involves waiting for someone to finish, acknowledging what he/she said, and then talking when they are ready.

Conversation. Dialogue. This is what can heal the Church so that we aren't Torn anymore.

Broken

I was once very proud.

A proud American.

Proud in my intellect.

Proud of my heritage.

Proud of my calling.

Then things changed, as they always do.

My country is now my residence. I feel tolerated at the most. "If you don't like it here, you can always leave." I have heard that a number of times.

I was proud of my intellect, until my best friend showed me up in it and put my knowledge to shame (a humbling, awe-inspiring, and altogether good thing).

I was proud of my lineage:  Fourth generation Salvationist, fourth generation officer in the Salvation Army. My ancestry was awesome:  Norwegian, Scottish, Irish, German, French, Cherokee. Then I realized that I could not lay claim to any of that. The accomplishments of my ancestors cannot save me or make me who I am.

I was proud of my calling, then I realized that God did not want me proud. He wants me humble.

So he humbled me. Dare I say it? He humiliated me. He broke me. He allowed me to be sent back to the United States under less than comfortable conditions. He allowed me to experience suffering in my return. He allowed me to experience shame, regret, indecision, loneliness.

I held on to the shattered pieces of my life and cried. I gave them up. I am broken.

He is leading me to a new life:  New friendships, new ministry, a new calling. He has granted me a vision that keeps me going.

I realized that my knowledge is worthless without God's love.

I realized that my calling is worthless without God's love.

I realized that my heritage and my citizenship is worthless. My identity in God is what matters.

I am broken, but God is the cement that keeps me together.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. -- Philippians 3:7-8

A Saccharin Gospel

Jesus Daily

Probably one of my biggest social media pet peeves is when friends and family share an obnoxious picture, with phrases such as, "Click like if Jesus is your Savior. Keep scrolling if you don't care." Another one says, "Type '1' if you can't live with out Jesus! Type '2' if you don't care." Finally, a regrettable, "Jesus, I pray for my unsaved family and friends!!! ***Say "Amen" if you pray for the unsaved going to Hell."

Those posts irritate me to no end.

God's Not Dead

Several weeks ago, the movie, God's Not Dead, came to theaters. I have not seen the movie and am not planning to see it. Mr. Peabody and Sherman was better for my children and I to watch, than the rants of a Straw Man.

Shortly after the movie was released, I began to see tons of Facebook posts and Tweets from people simply stating, "God's Not Dead." Apparently this was plot point in the movie at a Newsboys' concert, where people began sending text messages to others, telling everyone that God's not dead.

A Saccharin Gospel

First of all, I don't think it's our responsibility to state whether or not God is dead. God can take care of himself. We do not need to defend him.

Some of you might be thinking, "What's the matter? Don't you love God? Don't you want to share his message with everyone, even if it is through Facebook posts?" 

How many people have had a true conversion through one sharing of a Facebook post or through a Twitter tweet? I have no problem with people breaking the ice by sharing something they are passionate about, but I doubt there is much follow up with anyone.

I believe many people are sadly satisfied with simply sharing "Press 'Like' if Jesus is your savior," rather than actually taking the time to befriending someone and sharing the love of God with a total stranger. Too many people are satisfied with the bitter-sweet, Saccharin-tasting "Jesus Daily" (almost 26 million likes at last count and 103 of my Facebook friends). Too many people tweet or post "God's Not Dead," but ignore their fellow neighbors at their work, school, or community. God might as well be dead in their lives.

Do you love God? Are you convinced he's not dead? Let your life show it and not simply your Facebook profile or your Twitter account.

Thanks to Jeff Carter for the Passive-Aggressive Jesus meme!

Catharsis

What do you do when you feel under pressure or stressed?

Various things work for me and the one that works best for me is a type of musical catharsis. If I am feeling under pressure or stressed, I don't listen to music that is soothing or calms me down. I do just the opposite. I listen to music that expresses the emotion I am feeling.

Tonight was a Gravity Kills night. I will let you guess what type of emotions I was feeling at that particular moment, but it's not too difficult once you hear their music.

I tend to listen to quite a few eclectic tastes. I was listening to maNga, which is a great Turkish band that I was first exposed to during the Eurovision Song Contest of 2010. People like to describe it as a combination of Linkin Park and Anatolian style and it works.

If I am in a somber mood, nothing reveals it more than the Second Movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. In a romantic mood, Kristian Leontiou's "Shining" hits me every time.

Being an introvert as I am, it is often difficult for me to express how I am feeling. As such, people think that I am aloof or unfeeling. This is far from the truth. I am just hesitant to share those feelings for fear that they will be trampled upon. It's a weakness of mine. I'll readily admit it. However, once I do express my emotions, 2 things normally happen:  I am physically exhausted or I feel emotionally exposed. Because it's so emotionally draining, I tend to repress everything. That is quite unhealthy.

One thing I love about the Psalms is that they do the exact same thing:  They express the raw emotions that the Psalmists are going through. They are not always theologically sound, but they are the true emotions and feelings of saints who have gone before us. They knew how important it was to express their feelings to God, even if it seemed as if God were far off.

When you need to express yourself, what do you do?

The Pathway of Hope

Last year shortly before Thanksgiving, a Cleveland Walmart made a request of its own associates to donate food items so that their fellow co-workers could "enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner." What struck many people as ironic is the fact that if Walmart gave decent wages to its own employees, their employees could buy themselves a Thanksgiving dinner.

When it was investigated how much Walmart must raise its prices to ensure that at least their employees could earn $12 per hour, the answer was that each customer would only have to pay an additional $0.46 per trip. (1)

Most people were outraged that Walmart would even ask for such help, but it means more money for them if the U. S. government supplies Walmart's workers with food stamps to make up the difference.

The Pathway of Hope

 

These past 2 days I have been participating in a seminar to learn how to implement a new program/approach of The Salvation Army called the Pathway of Hope. This program is a new approach for us to do case management with a few families to help them get out of the cycle of dependence on agencies and see how we can best make them self-sufficient.

I love the concept. I embrace it wholeheartedly. I think it will be great for the people we serve. It will take time and effort, but in the end I believe it will change lives.

. . . but

I have a problem.

My own employees would benefit from the services of the Pathway of Hope. My corps in Ludington is not able to afford to pay them a livable wage. Our thrift store does not make enough money as it is to support the services we provide. There is no fat to cut off of our budget and I cannot pay them a good enough wage to make ends meet.

They deserve more! They deserve to be able to live off of the income they earn from serving in The Salvation Army.

Unfortunately, there is a conundrum. When people donate to The Salvation Army, they want to donate for direct services. Not too many people think of the overhead costs, including utilities, upkeep, and personnel. I once heard someone remark that our employees should realize that it is a ministry and that we are not in it for the money; however, when our employees have to resort to government aid to make ends meet, something is terribly wrong.

I don't have an answer. I only have questions. As I heard from one caseworker during our conference, "How can I teach someone to be self-sufficient when I can't be self-sufficient on my own?"