Not much of a team player....

21 Coptic Christians were apparently beheaded by ISIS.

This is horrific.

Please, make no mistake, I am offended and disgusted and devastated by these deaths and I am seething with anger at ISIS.   A great number of people that I know on Facebook and elsewhere have posted their outrage and anger.  Many of them have appealed to me directly because these are Coptic Christians who have been killed, as if I should be particularly offended because they are Christians.

Please, dear friends, do not take offence:  I don’t care that they are Christians.  I care that they are human beings who have been slaughtered.

For me, being a Christian isn't about being in a club or on a team.  It is the way that I have found God through Jesus Christ and recognized the sacredness of life and my responsibility to all of creation.  The Kingdom of God is NOT an option.

For me, recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, is not my way of saying that my God is better than yours or saying that my conduit to God is WAY more important than yours because he is the “SON” of God.   By calling Jesus the son of God, I recognize that God is immanent in the human experience, not distant; by calling Jesus the son of God, I attest to the fact that I don’t NEED any other revelation, it is complete for me.  By calling Jesus the Christ, I acknowledge that he is the one anointed to reveal God, to bring salvation to (at least) me.   I don’t need to deny your access or reference to God. 

So, I am outraged that 21 Coptic Christians have died at the hands if ISIS terrorists.  I am also outraged that Islamist Extremists have also target Hindus and Baha’i and Buddhists and Jews and Atheists.  I am outraged that Islamist Terrorists have killed MORE Muslims than any other single group... strangely many of us seem to be able to ignore the slaughter of those with whom we do NOT share a creed or tradition.   

Killing is people is wrong.  We all know that.  As a Christian, I know that and I’m given guidance and support as I try to honour that sacredness in others.  But please… don’t tell me that I should care more about certain people because we often share a creed… let me be outraged, angered, grieved and distraught because human beings have been senselessly murdered…. And let me be inspired and directed by my faith to make the world, not more “Christian”, but more compassionate and humane for everyone. 

End of my rant...  God bless those who have died and their families and communities. 

Forgive me, another Rob Ford Blog

So, I’m going to write another blog about Rob Ford.

As I go forward, let me make the following admissions:

1.       I  don’t live in Toronto, so I have never voted for or against Rob Ford as Mayor. 

             (I live in Pickering and work in Toronto, so I have a vested interest if not a vote)

2.       I believe that Rob Ford is an over the top bully.

3.       I believe that Rob Ford is a liar.

4.       I consider myself a Christian

5.       I am prepared to forgive Rob Ford

6.       And… I secretly like to eat peanut M&Ms while watching trash television.

That last point has nothing to do with this blog, I just really wanted to get it off my chest.  

 (I feel so much better)

Please note that I don’t make any claims that Rob Ford is an drug addict or an alcoholic – I really don’t know – he talks like one, he makes excuses like one and he acts like one… but so do some sober people, so I can’t really say. 

Oh, and I don’t care.

Really…

Rob Ford has invited me to NOT care about his alleged addictions. He has emphatically told us (the public) to butt out… so, I am butting out.  Consequently, I don’t care.

Now, some would take that as a cruel “non-Christian” stance.  We should care about each other.  God loves us all and Jesus loved the little children, etc.  But I’m not sure that “Love” and “Care” are the same things.   Almost without exception, Jesus invites the people he heals to be part of the healing.  “Do you want to be healed?” he invariably asks.  When they say “Yes” they are engaged and part of the healing, sometimes they are invited to do more – but they are always engaged.  When they decide that they don’t want to engage, Jesus lets them walk away… he doesn’t stop loving them, but he stops caring because they do not wish to be cared for.  Jesus respects them as adults and lets them decide for themselves… In love, he lets them go.  I feel the same way about Mr. Ford.  In love, I am letting him go. I do not wish him ill, I take no pleasure in his pain… but I am respecting his wishes and no longer caring.

As long as I’m on a rant/roll here…
I noted that Doug Ford suggested that Denzil Minan-Wong was “No Christian” in his continued conflict with Rob Ford…Implying that a Christian would let bullying and bad-behaviour go un-challenged.   I noted also the Billboard of unknown origin that stood on the Gardiner Expressway for a few days in support of Mayor Ford included the phrase:  “let the one who has never sinned, throw the first stone”.  It’s too easy to mock the spelling mistakes or the un-authorized use of a Municipal Logo, so instead I will comment on the text.  

Is anyone really suggesting that we all need to be perfect before we are allowed to be critical?  Does my speeding ticket or the time that I had 10 items in an “8 Items of LESS” cashier line, mean that I can’t speak out against poor behaviour and/or bad government???  “Let the one who has never spelled incorrectly, wag the first finger!!”  (See, you know that I wouldn’t that one alone, didn’t you?)    

I have been told by good “Christians” that as a “Christian” I should forgive Rob Ford and leave him alone.  I think that the problem here is a fundamental misunderstanding of what “forgiveness” means, in a Christian or any other context.  Forgiving is not forgetting… When you forgive somebody, you don’t pretend like nothing ever happened; life does not go back to the way it was before.   Forgiving is when you “let go” of someone or something, it’s when you face the future and stop looking backward; it is when you stop kicking  someone in hopes that it will make you feel better or make up for the pain that they have caused.   I can forgive Rob Ford and still not believe that he should be Mayor.

I can forgive a child abuser and not allow him/her access to children. 

I can forgive a thief, but not give her/him access to my wallet.

In my judgement, Rob Ford is a liar and a bully.  He has not delivered on his promises and he has so “narcissized” his office (yes, I just invented a word) that his Mayoralty has become about him as a person and not about the agenda by which he was elected.  He doesn’t show up for work and by his own admission, he is often unfit to make responsible decisions.    

And I forgive him. 

I’m not going to keep kicking him in hopes that it will make things right or make me feel better… but he can’t be Mayor anymore: Either by legal means now, or by election next year.  And his not being allowed to continue as Mayor does not make us un-forgiving. 

If the same (admitted) behaviour was exhibited by a surgeon, you would not let her/him operate on a patient.

If the same (admitted) behaviour was exhibited by a company President, you would move to have him/her removed.

If the same (admitted) behaviour was exhibited by a husband or father next door, you would call the Police or Child Services. 

You would not “forgive” him, and let him act irresponsibly, dangerously, aggressively and recklessly with his children or spouse behind closed doors.  If you did, I would suggest that you are very “un-Christian” and care little for the more vulnerable, the potential victims.   I’m not saying that Rob Ford is abusive to his children or his wife –  I am using a metaphor - I am saying that he is dangerous and reckless with the people of this city and should only be allowed supervised access to Torontonians.

I don’t want to punish Rob Ford.  I don’t want to dwell on the past.  I forgive him and am letting go of the past.  I would gladly assist in his healing if he asked me.  I think that Jesus would approve… but I don’t think that he should continue in a position of authority or responsibility where there are vulnerable people – and Toronto is FULL of vulnerable people – that’s the very constituency to whom the government is responsible.

I invite you – nay, encourage you  - to make up your own mind about Rob Ford. Never mind me or  Saturday Night Live or the Daily Show… ask yourself if you think that he’s told you the truth often enough to be trusted; ask yourself if you would trust him to operate on or give important advice to someone you love; would you drive confidently over a bridge that he designed or built in the last three years?  Wonder if you would leave your children or your parents in his care…   and decide for yourself.  But whatever you decide, do no equate “Forgiving” with putting things back the way they once were; do not imagine that it is a synonym for “Forgetting”  and don’t tell me that continuing to take abuse is “Christian”… it simply ain’t so. 

P.S.  This song is not about Rob Ford.. and it contradicts much of what I just wait - but it did inspire this blog.

http://youtu.be/fpQNLZRcNA4

Holy, Holy Week!!

After a great Palm Sunday Service, I find my mind wandering as I drive home from church... here's where it wandered.

Holy Week.

Yes, it is… Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Easter Morning… it’s going to be something.  

But Holy?

Hmmmmmm....

What do we mean by Holy?

Growing up, holy always meant "special"... something you covered in plastic, like a Holy Relic, or Nana's furniture... something you couldn't really explain, you just knew... something that is beyond language… often something that we keep to ourselves.  (Shhhh… it’s Holy!  Don’t talk about it!)

I think of friends who were NOT allowed to read the Bible while going to the bathroom because the Bible is Holy.  (Apparently, this was a big thing for teenagers to do… sneak into the bathroom with a King James and read!!   Bobby, what are you doing in there???  You’d better not be reading Holy Scripture!!) 

I remember parts of churches and temples that the “Public” are not supposed to access (Not, here… it’s Holy!)    

So, Holy is special… but I never thought of my girlfriends as Holy (if we did date decades ago, I did respect you and thought you were special… just not “Holy”  I mean, that really doesn't sound like much fun).  Holy seems to be something that we strive to obscure; even keep away from others.   Ask yourself, why do we call it Good Friday?  Do you know?  If someone asks, do you have an answer?…. Or are you more likely to tell them that if they don’t understand, than they never will?  (yes, Ross Lockhart did explain it in last Month’s United Church Observer, but how many of us are that smart??)   

How about Maundy Thursday?  Do you know we call it that?   Is it really what the Mamas and the Papas were singing about in the 60s? (Maundy, Maundy, so good to me… Maundy, Maundy, it was all I hoped it would be…) 

Holy seems to mean something that we keep to ourselves and something that is confusing to outsiders.

But surely that’s not what Jesus meant by Holy.

This week I’m imagining Holy to mean broken open.  Like Jesus at the Last Supper, breaking open his body – literally, figuratively, metaphorically – and making it Holy.  Breaking open that we might receive, breaking it open that we might understand, breaking it open so that we might be included… the opposite of what we often do with “Holy”.    What if Holy Week was a week of 2 billion Christians being open to each other and the world?  Open to loving who we love, regardless of local customs; open to engaging with others no matter what the community at large might consider “proper”… open to not knowing some things, feeling other things and daring to share our special, secret traditions… open, if it might hurt… open, even if we might look foolish…  Open, like Jesus, not elevated like the Holy of Holies; but broken open to the world, willing to pour ourselves out for others.  

Imagine what kind of Holy Week we could have….

It’d sure be different… and just maybe, what we all need right about now.