Category: Theology and Ethics

I don’t have any special insights into the mass shooting at Club Q (an LGBTQ+ nightclub) in Colorado Spring last Saturday (November 19, 2022), but here are a few things from my theological perspective.

I’ll start with Guns. America’s idol worship of guns is what made it possible for one assailant to kill five people and injure another eighteen. Some ancient gods demanded human sacrifice. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, does not. The way the Second Amendment is currently being misinterpreted by many people in the United States (including a majority on the Supreme Court)  makes guns into idols. And they are idols that regularly result in human sacrifice. The death of human beings made in the image of God: our siblings. I’m not opposed to hunting; I’m not opposed to shooting sports; I am opposed to the way we have allowed the weapons of war to make our communities into war zones.

Another obvious factor is the rise of hateful anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric out of the mouths of people who should know better. I had a woman (not a member of College Avenue UMC) come into my office raging about the possibility of the UMC becoming LGBTQ+ affirming in our doctrine and discipline. She then asserted that school teachers are “grooming” children to make them trans. I don’t believe this woman had any actual contact with Manhattan schools, but someone in the news had convinced her that teachers—teachers like my mother and my parishioners—were grooming kids. 

That utterance is in the running for the most inane thing I have ever heard. It would be hilarious if it were not for the potentially deadly consequences. There are mentally ill people who hear these things, who don’t realize that the folks on the TV are simply lying for ratings or votes. (I do think that some of the folks who are lying for ratings or votes have lied so long or become so full of hate that they have come to believe their own lies.) Whatever the motive of the liars, some people fall for them. And then the lies become deadly. 

The man who went into Club Q must account for his sin. But those who egged him on, those who lied for ratings, and those who lied for votes have also sinned. They all need to accept responsibility, accept the consequences, repent, and “come to Jesus.”* And those of us who have said little or nothing must take courage and speak up.

*Please note I’m not condemning people who hold traditional beliefs about human sexuality in general. I’m talking about those who hold such beliefs and spew hate and lies. Unfortunately, there are LGBTQ+ affirming people who are also full of hate and willing to embellish the truth to achieve their ends—they also need to repent and “come to Jesus.” Regardless of our theological beliefs, we who claim to follow Jesus are called to always speak and act out of love (as best we can) and truth (as best we understand it).

I originally posted this on July 3, 2018. Given recent developments, I thought it was worth reposting now and I added a few recent thoughts at the end.

This past Sunday I tried to speak faithfully to the intersection of our love of our country and our love of God, putting emphasis on the dire importance of placing our love of God above everything else including our rightful love of country (despite its flaws, there is a lot to love.) Roger Olson comes at the same topic from a different viewpoint in a recent blog post.

Some highlights:

Patriotism is love for one’s country without blinders about its flaws and defects.  Patriotism seeks to actualize the highest and best ideals of one’s country which can sometimes look like disloyalty to nationalists.

and

Patriotism is honest about the country’s failures and urges leaders to push on toward better achievements of its founding ideals.  Nationalism rejects all criticism of country as almost (if not exactly) treason.

and

Patriotism regards America as a gift from God and thanks God for it, but it equates “America” with ideals such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression and equal justice for all.  It is realistic in knowing that government and society do not always live up to those ideals.  When patriots wave the flag they are fully aware that it symbolizes and represents wonderful ideals and not every decision and actions government makes.  When nationalists wave the flag they are using it as an idol to sanctify whatever America does.

and finally,

Patriotism looks to the future and hopes for and works toward the country’s achievement of its ideals.  Nationalism looks to the past and defends everything the country has ever done as necessarily good and right just because the country did it.  Thus, patriotism loves the country for what it can be; nationalism loves the country for what it has done–regardless of morality.  Nationalism exempts country from moral accountability; patriotism holds country morally accountable because it loves it.

Under these definitions, I am a patriot who agrees that nationalism inevitably slides into unfaithful idolatry.

A few additional thoughts in 2022.

1. Since Christ is and will be Lord over all Earth, “Christian nationalism” is not only unavoidably unfaithful, but an inherent contradiction in terms.
2. Patriotism includes things like paying your taxes, casting informed votes, and serving on juries. Nationalism includes things like storming the Capital building, threatening elected officials of both parties, and wounding and killing Capital police when you don’t like the results of an election.
3. Christians must take great care to ensure their patriotism doesn’t slip into nationalism.

Olson, Roger E. “Remembering the Difference between Patriotism and Nationalism.” Patheos.com—Roger E. Olson: My Evangelical Arminium Theological Musings. July 01, 2018. Accessed July 3, 2018. http://bit.ly/2KGR5ms.

In case you aren’t familiar with our Guiding Values and Inclusion Statement, below is a description of the community we strive to be.

At College Avenue United Methodist Church, we strive to live in ways which respect the dignity of others, communicate compassion, convey hospitality to others, promote spiritual growth, strengthen our sense of community, and enhance our discipleship. We affirm God’s grace is available to all, without exception, and we welcome the full inclusion of all God’s people to participate in all aspects of the church’s life and ministry. We stand against the exclusion of any people, and believe that we can love one another even though wemay not think alike. The love of God is shown in the living example of Jesus Christ, and we commit ourselves to advance this Christian message of inclusion and justice.

As we begin the school year, I’m reminded of the hymn “Praise the Source of Faith and Learning” by Thomas H. Troeger. The final verse is an apt prayer that we might regard faith and learning as complementary, not oppositional.

As two currents in a river
fight each other’s undertow
till converging they deliver
one coherent steady flow,
blend, O God, our faith and learning
till they care a single course,
till they join as one, returning
praise and thanks you, their Source [1]

I regret that I can’t quote the entire hymn here (due to copyright), but it can be found as number 2004 in The Faith We Sing.

[1] Thomas H. Troeger, “Praise the Source of Faith and Learning,” in The Faith We Sing (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), 2004.

When we recited the Apostles’ Creed last week, you may have noticed that the words “I believe” were nowhere to be found. The reason for that is that we’re using an updated translation that translated the original Latin word “credo” of the creed as “I commit myself,” “I set my heart upon,” and “I place my trust in.”

The best concise explanation I can find for this change comes from church historian Diana Butler Bass:

“To believe” in Latin (the shaping language for much of Western theological thought) is opinor, opinari, meaning “opinion,” which was not typically a religious word. Instead, Latin used credo, “I set my heart upon” or “I give my loyalty to,” as the word to describe religious “believing,” that is, “faith.” In medieval English, the concept of credo was translated as “believe,” meaning roughly the same thing as its German cousin belieben, “to prize, treasure, or hold dear,” which comes from the root word Liebe, “love.” Thus, in early English, to “believe” was to “belove” something or someone as an act or trust or loyalty. [1]

[1] Diana Butler Bass, Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2013), Kindle, 117.

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
— Matthew 2:18 (NRSVue)

There was a horrible slaughter at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas yesterday. There is very little left to be said about the school shootings that plague us, but there is a great deal to be done. Tears are appropriate, thoughts and prayers are good, but action is required. There are many of our representatives from whom action is long overdue.

There’s been a story in the news about a clergy person in another denomination who baptized people with the wrong pronoun (“we” instead of “I”). I don’t know enough about that other denomination to weigh in according to their theology, but in the United Methodist Church this would be a non-issue. Here are a few of the reasons.

1. I may have baptized you, but God did the heavy lifting. And for this I am thankful, it would be really hard for me to screw up a baptism because God’s doing the majority of the work. To think I could do so by using the wrong pronoun would be to take too much credit for what is primarily an act of God.
2. I do follow the traditional rubric of “Name, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”. But this is not a spell from the fictional world of Harry Potter that won’t work unless it is said in just the right way. This is a sacrament, the grace of God is at work and the Holy Spirit will not be turned aside by a simple mistake on the part of the pastor. Furthermore Jesus said to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)— but he never gave us an exact wording with the proper pronouns.
3. What happens if more than one person does the baptism? Jenny and I have done a lot of them together. I don’t remember ever saying we, but it certainly would have been appropriate.

I’ve got more, but I’m going to stop there.