It’s Time to Resist

The haters are out in force, emboldened by repressive Republican state legislatures and hate groups disguised as political action committees.

I’m talking, of course, about the widespread assault on the rights of LGBQT and transgender people, not to mention drag queens, not to mention freedom in general.

Hate enforced by law is the tactic employed by Republicans in many states. Many of these new rules are much harsher than the “don’t say gay” nonsense in Florida. It’s almost illegal now to be transgender in some states, and don’t look to anyone in government for help – or anyone in medicine either, because they could be prosecuted for helping you.

The book banners are all about running libraries, especially when it concerns books that offend them. It’s OK if they tell their kids not to read certain things. It’s not OK for them to deny other parents and kids the right to read what they want. Such censorship is simply evil. Got that? Evil.

In Florida, that bastion of oppression masquerading as freedom, one public library has restricted reading of Amanda Gorman’s presidential inauguration poem “The Hill We Climb.” Why? One reader wants it removed from the shelves entirely. Responding to the news, Gorman said, “I am gutted.” That’s the purpose of the attack, you must know. First you gut them, then you watch them die.

Terrorists forced Target to cut back its gay pride displays. Terrorists? How else do you describe people who damage store goods and threaten employees who try to stop them? Remember, some of these are the same folks who claim the right to carry loaded assault-style rifles in Target stores.

Chick-fil-A faces boycott threats for having a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) page on its website. Here you thought Chick-fil-A was conservative. Not conservative enough, apparently.

Sales of Bud Light have plummeted since the beer brand partnered with a trans influencer in a beer promotion. “Manly men” can’t drink the same beer as her. Real men, meanwhile, drink whatever they want. (Notice how I’ve resisted the urge to insert Josh Hawley comments here? Resisting is really hard, though.)

Meantime, some people who claim to be Christian want to boycott the popular TV series “The Chosen,” which is more or less about the life of Christ. Why boycott it? Because a promo for the series included a behind-the-scenes look at one scene, and a crew member had placed a small rainbow flag on a piece of equipment that was off camera. The producers say cast and crew come from a variety of backgrounds, and their off-camera views are their own. Not good enough for the purists, naturally.

Let’s not forget the flap over Dodgers Pride Night. In Major League Baseball, everybody gets their night in the spotlight – even the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This is a drag group of “nuns” who use their gag act to raise money for charity. First the Dodgers invited them. After objections from some major mouths, the Dodgers disinvited them. Now they Sisters are back on the schedule for June 16. I wonder if any of them drink Bud Light, eat Chick-fil-A, shop at Target, or watch Jesus and friends on TV.

I could go on, but surely by now you see how seriously silly this has gotten. Those on the right, who used to wag fingers at libs for being so easy to offend, are now the ones so easily offended, and they screech for attention. I think I’ve given them more than enough of that. But you have to know about their attacks on others so that you can resist them. Many of them have always operated under the cover of darkness, but when they come out in the open in daylight, you know the forces of evil are on the march. It’s time to openly resist.

Taking and Receiving

“When Jesus wanted to explain to his followers the meaning of his death, he didn’t give them a theory; he gave them a meal.”

So N.T. Wright says in his book How God Became King (p.238). He’s right, of course. Whether we call it Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist, this meal defines who we are as followers of Jesus.

Of course, Jesus never gave full instructions on how to share the meal; just to “do it in remembrance of me.” Christians have fought over the details for nearly 2,000 years now, and I suspect we’ll march on to eternity squabbling over how the bread and wine (or grape juice) should be shared with whom under what conditions, and so on.

Lately, though, I’ve been bugged over the issue of taking versus receiving. It may be a minor point to most everyone else, but to me it’s a big deal.

The issue comes up because several weeks ago I was asked to preside at communion in two different churches on the same Sunday morning – part of a two-point charge when the pastor was away.

I observed the same thing at both churches: Some people received communion, while others took it. I served both because I had not instructed people ahead of time that I would not be serving the takers, only the receivers.

I make no moral judgments here because what people do in church is what they have been taught to do, and in my opinion many people have been poorly taught. Preachers, this is on you.

I’m also speaking solely to United Methodists and others who serve communion by intinction. That is, the celebrant gives a piece of bread to the person and the person dips the bread in the cup and then consumes the wine-soaked morsel of bread while stepping away.

It’s the attitude of the person receiving the bread that concerns me. Some people approach the celebrant with one hand slightly cupped or two slightly cupped hands held together. The celebrant can then drop the piece of bread into the cupped hand or hands. No skin contact occurs.

Others, however, approach with one hand held out with three fingers pointed upward to receive the bread. The celebrant must then carefully place the bread within those three fingers. Skin contact occurs frequently. But sanitation is really not the issue.

What’s wrong with the three-fingered approach? To my mind, it’s grasping. We do not grasp for a sign of God’s grace. We receive it in gratitude with outstretched hands. Again, we do not grasp for it; we receive it.

There’s a world of difference between grasping and receiving. I have sometimes in the past and do now promise to myself to always in the future inform the congregation beforehand that when I am serving communion you must hold out you hand to receive the bread but you must not hold up three fingers to take it because I won’t serve you until you get it right and we’ll stand there all day until you stop grasping and start receiving.

I’m retired now and may not have many more opportunities to serve communion, but whenever we do, people are going to receive not grasp at grace.

Next time communion rolls around at your church, check the bulletin or newsletter or screen. It probably says something about “taking” communion. Don’t believe it. We receive God’s grace. We don’t take it.

And it may be a small symbolic thing, but I’m going to enforce it.

Not the End Yet

I have never much appreciated the work of Bart D. Ehrman, so why did I sign up to receive his latest book on the date of its publication? I’m speaking of Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End.

Actually, Ehrman’s book says very little about Armageddon. It’s mostly about the book of Revelation and the twisted history of its interpretation.

That’s why I wanted to read it. Revelation is a longtime interest of mine, and I like to know what others say about it. Erhman says nothing new or surprising, but he says it the same way he says just about everything: in a breathless, sensational, gee-whiz, Discovery Channel way that often sounds quite cynical.

He presents a straightforward account of how Revelation came to be the darling of crackpots and how its dreadful misinterpretation has infected public and private life worldwide. If you’re new to serious Revelation studies or want to be weaned off “end times” trash, this is valuable reading.

Then he gets into how he thinks Revelation ought to be interpreted, and here he gets into trouble.

After chiding fundamentalists and evangelicals for taking the bizarre symbols of Revelation too literally, he starts taking everything way too literally himself. John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, repeatedly warns his readers not to take what he says literally. Things are not this, he says over and over, only “like this.”

Even early on (page 31), Erhman snidely remarks that God apparently has body parts – and extremely wooden interpretation of John’s visions in chapter 5 of Revelation.

Ehrman’s jaundiced reading leads him to misread the lion and lamb symbolism. “The book is not about a lion that becomes a lamb; it is about a lamb that becomes a lion,” he says (page 160). No, no, no. You totally missed the point there.

Finally, he dismisses Revelation as revenge porn. “In the end, the right people will get what the wrong people have now” (page 172). He concludes: “…in my view, the God of Revelation cannot be the true God” (156).

The Jesus of Revelation is not the Jesus of the gospels, he says (206). The gospels present a unified portrayal of Jesus as the model of service to others. “I do not need to provide a full discussion of this here – that would require an entire book” (186).

I want to read that book, Bart. But this one and all the others like it, not so much.

Profiles of Courage and Cowardice

These are some recent profiles in courage and cowardice.

* Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, stands up to the Southern Baptist Church by appointing and standing by a female pastor. The SBC, a bastion of patriarchy, kicks the church out of the denomination.

Saddleback will do fine on its own. The SBC continues its slide into its own manmade version of hell.

* Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas is censured by the state partly because, among other things, he supports new gun safety laws after the Uvalde school shooting in his district.

He also opposes House GOP immigration proposals and stands up for same-sex marriage. And you thought it was tough towing the Communist Party line.

* Walgreens decides not to distribute abortion pills in Kansas and other states because of pressure from antiabortion politicians.

The Food and Drug Administration decided in January to allow brick-and-mortar drugstores to carry mifepristone, part of an abortion drug cocktail that is now thought to account for more than half of abortions in the United States.

In 20 states, Republican state attorneys general warned Walgreens of legal action if it carried the drug. In these states, an attorney “general” means one that defends only certain interests – and they’re probably not yours.

* Meantime, senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshal are quick to blame “woke” banking for the failure of that big California bank. More likely, the bank failed because of a Trump deregulation proposal that Marshal supported. (Hawley wasn’t on board the GOP doom train at that time.) So forget “woke.” Blame Marshal and his cronies for the bank failure. The opposite of woke, they’re asleep at the wheel.

I could go on like this all day. You can get in on the fun. Create your own list of profiles in courage and cowardice.

Revival

Random thoughts on the Asbury Revival:

This event is like a rain barrel. Looking into it, mostly what you see is your own somewhat distorted reflection. Consider the ecstatic reaction from some and the vitriolic reaction from others. It’s not that “You have to be there.” It’s that wherever you are, you’re going to see from that point of view, and nothing is likely to change your mind.

Yes, it’s God working in the lives of these people. What God is doing, I can’t say.

The real test of any revival is what happens afterward. If the lives of the people involved are not significantly changed, there was no revival, just a momentary emotional high for those involved. Emotional highs are fine. But revival ought to mean repentance – that is, change of mind and heart.

The revival started Feb. 8 at Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. It is a Christian college with Methodist roots. It’s across the street from Asbury Theological Seminary, which trains pastors for ministry in the United Methodist Church.

It started after a regular chapel service. Some students just stayed rather than moving on. They sang songs. They prayed. They wept. They shared testimonies. When somebody started preaching, they listened. It appears to have been a joyful but not overly dramatic event.

The university basically shut the revival down as of Monday afternoon, Feb. 20. Students only from now on. Apparently the university and the town are overwhelmed by the public response. It also looks to me like the typical reaction of university bigwigs to any spontaneous activity of students that attracts attention: “Shut it down!”

Some people wonder why it’s happening at Asbury. Well, it’s happened there several tunes before, most recently in 1970. You have to recognize that Asbury is a religious university. A revival is far more likely to happen there than at a secular land grant college. It’s a cultural thing. To have a “revival,” there must be something present for you to revive. It’s an organic thing. The Holy Spirit travels where the Spirit wills, but revivals don’t just happen randomly.

No question that American churches need a revival. Many are reeling from the effects of the epidemic. Many people who stayed home to stay safe are now staying home for other reasons. Maybe they prefer live-streamed worship. Maybe they have concluded that they don’t need church anymore.

Yes, American churches need a revival. The toxicity of “evangelical” political involvement has turned off millions. Talk of “Christian nationalism” makes many people sick to their stomachs. (It’s a total contradiction. John 3:16 does not say, “For God so loved America that God gave God’s only Son…”)

Hovering in the back of everyone’s mind: A restless and uncertain present, and shaky visions of the future. A horrible war in Ukraine. Vicious dictators in Russia, North Korea and China. Threats of worldwide terror. Threats of worldwide calamity because of climate change. American politics in torment. George Santos is all too typical.

Yes, we need a revival. Yes, we need God. Maybe some real good can come from this Asbury thing. That’s what I’m praying for. How about you?

If you want to check it out, try this website: https://www.asbury.edu/outpouring/