Ramblings of Daniel Ross-Jones
Politics
Blame not the victim
Jul 27th
I had a lunchtime conversation today that degenerated into an argument about people living in poverty, specifically as it relates to food choices. It didn’t start that way, and talking through cultural understandings and expectations meant that likely we were not to end up on the same page regardless. It wasn’t a heated conversation; no nasty words were shared, and the two of us ended up walking away from the table laughing about something else altogether. But it was the type of thing that gets stuck in my craw for the rest of the day.
Rather than continuing to talk in abstract, I’m working on a fairly reasonable example of Person Doe, a single parent working two jobs for a total of 60 hours a week at minimum wage, raising their 12-year-old child in Chicago. Person Doe is the subject of this blog post from here on out.
Person Doe works two minimum wage jobs, 30 hours per week each. Chicago’s minimum wage is $8.25 per hour, $1 higher than the U.S. federal minimum wage. Person Doe grosses $495 weekly, $2,145 monthly, or $25,740 annually. Assuming federal witholding of 15%, state witholding of 3%, Social Security witholding of 6.2% and Medicare witholding of 1.45%, Person Doe takes home $368.03 weekly, $1,594.81 monthly, or $19,137.69 annually in net pay.
The 2009-10 Federal Poverty Guidelines as determined by the Department of Health and Human Services for Person Doe’s two-person family are $14,570. Therefore, Person Doe is earning just a hair over 175% of the poverty guidelines. This can be seen as both good and bad.
The average monthly rent for a two bedroom apartment in Chicago, according to one rental service in the city, was $1,842 in June of this year. A one bedroom didn’t fare much better, at $1,192, but we’ll assume that Person Doe has opted for the one bedroom unit. According to the US Census Bureau, more than 19% of Chicago residents spend more than 50% of their monthly income on housing alone; those who spend 30% or more of their monthly income on housing represent 37.9% of the entire city population. (The general, accepted rule is that one should spend no more than 30% of their monthly income on housing.) For the sake of argument, we’ll also assume that Person Doe has found one of the rare city apartments with all necessary utilities (heat, water, electric, cooking gas, trash/recycling) included, and that they do not subscribe to either pay TV or Internet services.
After housing costs are removed, Person Doe has $402.81 remaining for the month.
For transportation to and from work, Person Doe uses the CTA and a monthly system pass, costing $86. For Junior Doe, a $5 annual school riding permit for CTA is purchased. Subtracting those from the monthly cost leaves Person Doe with $316.38 remaining.
Person Doe and Junior, in spite of their urban living and suggestions for personal safety, opt only to have a basic landline telephone rather than cell phones. This service from local phone company AT&T costs $10 monthly; there is now $306.38 remaining for the month.
The biggest necessity that has been unfulfilled has been food. Because Person Doe’s income is between 130 and 185% of the poverty guidelines, Junior qualifies for the reduced-price school lunch — a cost of $.40 each school day, or $8 in a four-week month.
But of course, people say, this situation must qualify for SNAP — the program formerly known as food stamps. Not so. Even though after all these other necessary expenses are deducted, in an example that is both very real and one in which people find themselves every day — because Person Doe grosses more than the allowed $1,579 for a household of two, no additional social programs are available to them. Person Doe, working 60 hours a week at two jobs at the minimum wage in Chicago, utilizing public transportation services, living a no-frills lifestyle, taking care of a 12-year-old child, is not eligible for SNAP benefits or other social service programs provided by the State of Illinois because their monthly income is too high.
The system is miserably, unbelievably broken. People who are working, who are attempting to pull their own weight, have to make the decision between simply existing and eating. (This example leaves out the entire question of health insurance altogether, mind you.) Person Doe is working. Person Doe is not simply sitting on the sidelines, watching this orchestrated injustice play out around them. Yet Person Doe is left with just $298.38 to make the rest of ends meet: purchasing school supplies for Junior, clothing for the two of them, and their basic food needs. Nevermind if one of them gets sick and they need to purchase simple, over-the-counter remedies. Nevermind if something breaks that needs to be fixed. Nevermind the need to keep a clean house, do laundry, or any of the myriad “hidden” costs in a household budget. Nevermind the entire opportunity to save money for a rainy day. To put food on the table and make all other things work, Person Doe has less than $300 to make it happen.
The average grocery bill for a family of two? $367, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. That means Person Doe is officially $68.82 in the red.
To those outside the United States, and those inside the country who are puzzled by regular eating habits: this is the reason why so many Americans reach for the 10 for $10 processed TV dinners canned meals. This is the reason why $1 double cheeseburgers and $1 large Cokes at McDonald’s are a staple dietary item for so many people. When it comes down to it, there’s a reason junk food is called “filler,” and why the regular processed diet will prevail over organic convenience foods that cost even $1 more.
To those conservatives in the United States (and elsewhere) who believe the economic markets must be followed, or for those who still chalk this situation up to “personal choices” or “personal responsibility,” I ask a simple question: what do you say to Person Doe? What suggestions do you have for them? Or are you so ensconced behind your veil of privilege you refuse even to acknowledge the possibility that not only does Person Doe exist, but there are hundreds of thousands — millions, even — of Persons Doe who are victims of your own ignorance?
Feed My Sheep
Jan 24th
In 2011, I will graduate with a master’s degree. With a cumulative $94,000 in educational debt, $60,000 of which applied toward master’s-level education, I can anticipate an average $30,000 cash salary[1] for my eventual position (which requires the master’s degree I will have obtained as the minimum). The average cash salary in the United States for a position requiring a master’s degree is a little more than $61,000.[2] If my degree is classified as a professional degree, as many agencies do, the gap becomes wider, as the average cash salary for that educational standing is $100,000.[3]
The organization I represent is part of the largest family of organizations in the world. Collectively, we operate the largest system of education, health care, human rights advocacies, community centers, and more. We promote values-driven lifestyles, protect the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and respond to crises both natural and human-made. My organization alone raised more than $250,000 through its Web site in less than one week for direct aid to the victims of the recent Haitian earthquake.[4]
Foundational documents, leaders and philosophers representing my organization and its wider family challenge myself and others affiliated to call our governments to attention of those on the economic margins by legislating just and fair minimum wages, family leave benefits, health care distribution, and more social justice initiatives in response to our core beliefs. Personally, I have participated in countless direct advocacy and letter-writing drives connected with my organization leading up to the first increase of the federal minimum wage in the United States in a decade.
Here’s the irony: myself and many of the rising leaders in my organization – necessary flow for any healthy structure – are receiving a better deal from that very government than our own organization.
My educational debt is guaranteed by the U.S. federal government. Approximately one-third of the total amount is financed through the Stafford Subsidized Loan Program. The government, during periods of loan forbearance and deferment absorbs the interest on that portion of the debt. The majority of the remaining two-thirds is financed through the Stafford Unsubsidized Loan Program, which provides lower interest rates than comparable private loans, capitalizing on the government’s economy of scale and encouragement of higher education.
After I graduate and begin to work, my cash salary will likely be at a level that I will qualify for the Income-Based Repayment Plan, that caps monthly payments at a set percentage of discretionary income, around 10% or lower. It was established by Congressional legislation in 2007 and designed for those, like myself, who are pursuing careers in lower-salary areas like non-profit leadership, education, or public service.
My vocation is one that my federal government claims is “in demand” in many of its branches, most notably in the defense forces and prison bureau. If I were willing to offer at least five years of active service in the military following graduation, I would receive roughly 20% higher cash salary pay versus my organization, and also federal loan forgiveness, much higher retirement pension contributions, more generous fringe benefits, and experience the old adage, “the military takes care of its own.” If I were to walk down to the recruiting center right now and enlist, the benefits would grow as the government would pay for the remaining cost of my education, I would begin receiving a commissioned salary while in school, among other benefits.[5]
While I am in school, as my income for 2009 was roughly $8,000, I receive direct government assistance from the State of Illinois in the form of food stamps – about $200 each month, or $2,400 annually. I utilize government-funded public health clinics as I can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs to even visit my own organization’s medical centers.
So here’s my question: why is the government supporting me more than my own organization, the United Church of Christ, when I am in training to be a pastor? And beyond that, why does the UCC say that’s OK?
The UCC, along with the majority of mainline Protestant churches, appeal to what the Roman Catholic Church calls a just-wage doctrine. The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, in a letter to Congress supporting an increase in minimum wage, summarizes the doctrine simply: “Wages must be adequate for workers to provide for themselves and their families in dignity.” Under this theology – one which, I might add, is the predominant theme in progressive Christianity and floated freely in the classrooms of our theological schools, including my own – to appeal to free markets and open trade in the commercial, private sector is to idolize a false god.
So why does the church – the UCC or of any other stripe – fail to apply its own doctrine internally? Why is it that as the cost burden of theological education has systematically been shifted from denominational funds onto student tuition over the past 25 years? Why is it that base salary for mainline Protestant ministers in one state has effectively remained stagnant in the past decade while the cost of living in that state has increased roughly 20%?[6]
In John 21, Jesus and Simon engage in a conversation where Simon is commissioned by Jesus to “feed my sheep…take care of my lambs.” While far from perfect, it appears that when it comes to at least one sector, the government is taking far greater strides than those organized who affirm Jesus’ words.
[1] Source: Wisconsin Conference, United Church of Christ
[2] Source: United States Census Bureau, 2006
[3] Ibid.
[4] Source: United Church of Christ
[5] Source: U.S. Navy
[6] Sources: Wisconsin judicatories (UCC, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist), U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce.
On the Health Care debacle
Aug 18th
Contrary to some people’s opinion, last time I checked I was still a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party. (Well, OK, they don’t generally issue membership cards anymore. But you get the sentiment.) And, speaking as a Democrat, I want to say this:
We need health care reform immediately. That is a given. There is absolutely no reason why we should be in the position of having the most advanced health care network in the world yet have it be the least accessible. The arguments of rationing health care, of a particular brand of natural selection, the fear that the government will tell Grandma she can’t have a life-saving surgery, they’re all blowing smoke up our collective bums. The private sector already does that! Since deregulation in the 1970′s and 1980′s, we have been systematically and socially conditioned to fear the government and trust private interest. Nowhere is this more despicable than in health care. We are trusting our very lives to people whose sole interest is making such obscene amounts of money it is nothing less than criminal.
Last December, I went in for my annual physical. I’m insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, part of the largest network of health insurance in the U.S. While according to my policy preventative care is covered, BCBSIL informed me that particular visit was not. They didn’t specify why, and when I even called they didn’t provide any rationale. They simply told me the visit was not covered and now I needed to pay.
In January, I went in to the doctor again, this time because of a massive sinus infection coupled with strep throat. (I don’t normally get sick, so when I am immobilized in pain, I know its time to go in. Besides the fact that strep scares the living crap out of me.) My insurance this time covered half the cost, though it was processed as being out-of-network. Again, according to my policy, I was at an in-network facility, but BCBSIL justified it by saying that since I went to the urgent care operation — which, unbeknown to me, is outsourced to a different provider, even though it is in the same office — it was out-of-network and I was responsible for paying the higher coinsurance.
Question number one: What difference does it make who tells you no, rejects your claim, or creates the network? Here are my examples, on the largest health care network in America, of experiencing just that. Both of these instances were in large hospital systems. Both of these instances were with the same insurance provider, the same individual. So what difference does it make that BCBSIL told me no, but if a government administration tells me no, then somehow it is more obnoxious?
Here’s the second given: I don’t very much care how reform is accomplished. There are some who are outraged over the past couple of days because the Obama Administration has been signaling it is ready to consider other alternatives to single-payer coverage (Medicaid). Before I delve further into this, let me state for the record that yes, I do believe a universal health care system is the most long-term, sustainable, cost-effective, efficient solution. I believe that it is an embarrassment that we don’t have this already. It is yet another indication of how far behind the rest of the First World we are, even as we attempt to prop ourselves up as a global beacon. But that all aside, the answer isn’t in who pays the bills, the answer is in how the system is governed and regulated.
And we return back to the late 1970′s, early 1980′s once again. The mantra of the decade was Deregulate, Deregulate, Deregulate. If we just deregulate everything, competition will flourish and the market will take care of everything. Government oversight is unnecessary, an obstacle to trade, and generally harmful for business. The individual is king, and will speak with her or his pocketbook. If individuals want better health care, they can pay for it. If individuals want better schools, they can pay for it. If individuals want better products, they can pay for it. Deregulation was good for jobs (more competition means more business means a greater workforce), deregulation was good for government (shifting the burden off government meant a trimmed budget and payroll, which meant fewer taxes and more liquidity in the economy), deregulation was good for individuals (more choice, more options).
Yeah, except that’s not exactly how it worked out. You see, history has an awesome way of repeating itself. Remember how the 1920′s lead to a Great Depression? The stock market crashed because no one was paying attention. No one thought they needed to pay attention — it wasn’t government’s role to oversee. (And we had myriad more regulations then than 2007.)
Deregulation is not entirely bad. I, for one, love Southwest Airlines and my cheap airfare. Without deregulation, Southwest would still be prohibited to establish a hub in Illinois as they have done. I do think we have too many airlines in general and the market is saturated, but that’s a discussion for a different time. But when you fire the overseers, when you allow the market to dictate policy, you greatly expand the gap between the have-nothings and have-everythings. And that is where we’re at with health care.
Private insurance carriers have no reason to cover everyone. Why should they? Its a drain on their resources. Instead of making a $14 billion profit, they might be forced to make “only” a $10 billion profit — or worse yet, an $800 million profit. That’s going to seriously cut into margins. </sarcasm> So, to protect their assets and financial position, private insurance says, “No, we won’t cover you because you have acne.” Or if they are going to cover you, they’ll charge a severely increased premium so that it remains effectively out of reach.
If health care reform only accomplishes expanding the accessibility of health care, allowing more people to be covered with private insurance, bringing some controls and regulations back to the system that requires it to function in an ethical, responsible manner, I will die a happy person. I will congratulate the Administration on a job well done. More control and oversight is the Chevrolet solution instead of the Cadillac solution of single-payer.
I do not fear the government. I may distrust it from time to time, I may disagree with Administrations that come and go, I may even exercise my Constitutional right to lodge my protest in a civil manner with my representatives whom I have elected, but I do not fear it.
I do fear people who make my life decisions without my interests in mind, but only the interest that my hard-earned money makes them.
Reasons U.S. infrastructure terrifies me
Jun 23rd
We’re still receiving information about yesterday’s deadly crash on Washington, D.C.’s Metro system. Having spent some time there (and almost relocating there a little less than a year ago), I’ve become familiar with the service, and a couple of things are coming up in my memory:
- Every time I’ve ridden a Metro train, I’ve found it to be quiet and clean — a feature that is not shared by its Chicago brethren.
- Almost every time I’ve ridden a Metro train, I couldn’t understand the train operator’s announcement of upcoming stations and I’ve had to be extra vigilant paying attention.
That’s what I remember the most; well, that and the cool blinking lights along the sides of the platforms that indicate a train is approaching. (Last time I was there, though, it seemed like these have fallen into disrepair or are being phased out of use. Its a pity. I love unique things like that which add a certain intangible benefit to otherwise utilitarian aspects of civil engineering.) My heart goes out to the families of those who died, and I hope for a speedy recovery for those injured — both of physical and mental injuries. Its a shame that it always comes to something like this to hopefully get people to listen to this loud, echoing announcement:
AMERICA! YOUR COUNTRY IS CRUMBLING!
As I ride around on the Chicago L — a system which, for those who wonder about these things, doesn’t even have the “outdated” safety systems or “failing” relays that are being scrutinized on Metro but instead relies solely on operator driving skills with minimal automatic-kill devices to stop the train when approaching a dangerous system — I can’t help but notice it in my own city. Train stations showing their age over the past century or more. Steel elevated tracks that appear ready to collapse at any moment from decades upon decades of rust and deferred maintenance. Rail cars being used far beyond their warranted and designed lifespan. New technologies literally sailing over our aging, antiquated system.
Driving north on Lake Shore Drive this morning, I once again encountered a pothole of death, swerving to miss its deep trench of exposed rebar. Driving over it at a controlled 5 mph would have been hazardous; had I been unable to swerve or apply the brakes at even the posted 45 mph (let alone my flow-of-traffic 55 mph) I would have had some serious damage. My hometown ties still hold strong and I can’t get the images of the collapsed I-35W bridge in the Mississippi River out of my head. Between that and living through the massive Marquette Interchange reconstruction in Milwaukee, I now instinctively look at the underside of bridges as I pass under them, and more often than not I cringe as I see the tired, worn out concrete dropping its calling cards for someone to repair it.
We removed upgraded destroyed our rail infrastructure. We have miserably failed to maintain its replacement: the Interstate highway system. Our attempts at efficient bus transportation has been equally poor. As we moved further and further from city centers, we brought along our cars, trucks, and SUV’s. We required our investment funds to be spent on new infrastructure — new roads, new water mains, new sewage lines, new energy construction — rather than attempting to maintain existing structures. We created fictitious balanced budgets on the back of generations to come as we deferred maintenance, expecting less and less and instead requiring more and more of the future.
And this is why U.S. infrastructure terrifies me: because, try as much as our “leaders” might, they can’t indefinitely expand a definitive lifespan. We will continue to have tragic accidents like Washington experienced yesterday until We The People stand up and say that we’ve had enough! On Thursday, despite all of the previous doomsday scenarios from the CTA and RTA, here in Chicago I believe we will likely experience the end of those “comfortable” cutbacks of deferred maintenance. Our insistence on economic unsustainability has reached its endpoint. To prevent resources from being stretched too thin, to appease the suburban NIMBYs (and, yes, to support a bloated administrative structure hellbent on the politics of patronage) we will once again see a proposal that will cut transit service to those who need it the most. To maintain service without a significant investment in capital improvements would be asking for an accident. And without that significant investment, the RTA and its agencies cannot continue to operate the system at its current scale.
The answer is not privitization or continuing 1980′s style American capitalism. Its not raising user fees, fares, tolls, etc. We can’t even, for the short term, expect balanced budgets for our capital expenses. We’re so far past each of those things its impossible to see them in the cracked, broken rearview mirror. Its time to stop bailing out Corporate America and start focusing our energies on rebuilding the America that no one likes to see, no one likes to talk about: the part of America that moves us, that affects our everyday existence.
One of my mentors in college used to talk about “ugly projects,” the types of things that no one wants to donate money for or slap a dedication plaque on, but things that have to be done because if they fail everyone notices. In college, these were things like boilers, water heaters, lavatory fixtures, sidewalks, steam distribution pipes, electrical wiring, network equipment. Brand new, they are truly an investment. Well-maintained, they are assuredly (though consistently) expensive. To repair often costs more than their initial cost.
Its about 20 years past time for those ugly projects. We don’t have another 20.
On current events and pop culture
Apr 21st
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the lone surviving and captured pirate that attacked a U.S. ship in humanitarian service earlier this month, arrived in federal court today in New York. In a sick twist of irony, his arrival here fulfils a life dream to visit America.
If the charges against him play out, he could be facing mandatory life in prison here in the U.S. On the surface, it seems like justice is being done; but my heart ached as I read the AP story, imagining life in Somalia. Certainly there is no excuse for threatening others’ lives, but here is a teenager — a child, really — who in another sick twist of irony is the result of the misfortune of birth location. Geographic location, social location, time location. I cannot fathom what this young man is feeling today, is thinking today. When he arrived in the U.S., what was that like for him? What did he see at the (presumably) air force base when he landed? What did he think about that? I’m sure he wants and needs his family and close friends here with him. Should he be locked away for the rest of his life, will someone make that happen so he can see them ever again?
In our perfectly good, perfectly admirable quest to empathize with the victims of crime, we all-too-frequently forget the life of the accused and the people around them. “They deserve what they have coming,” we say. “They’re just a bad seed,” we characterize. “They should have known better,” we rationalize. But these are people — living, breathing human beings, existing with the same flesh and blood as ourselves. How quickly we are willing to throw away one of our own in the name of justice. How is that just? How is that right? How does our social nature destroy those very individuals whom we seek to save from themselves?
At the same time we read about Miss California’s opposition to same-sex marriage. I don’t want to participate in the chastizement of Carrie Prejan; she spoke her opinion, and as much as I may disagree with it, she has not only the right to hold it, but I believe she demonstrated an enormous amount of character and respect to herself by speaking it to such an unfriendly audience. Think about it: there is a disproportionate number of gay men who watch the Miss USA Pagaent than in the general population, one of them hosting the show. Do I wish she thought differently? Absolutely. But speaking as one of the 10%, we must be careful as we cry out against majority opinion in the name of American rights and liberties to not exercise the same displays of hatred, of rejection that have been directed toward us. If we are going to claim first amendment freedom of expression to be proud of who we are, we must never infringe on another’s freedom to do the same thing in a peaceful manner.
LTSS president rescinds invitation to minister with standing
Sep 25th
Pastor Katrina Foster, an ELCA pastor in good standing, is no longer welcome to preach at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (Southern). She’s a graduate of the Columbia, South Carolina, seminary – 1994. She’s also a graduate – 1990 – of Newberry College, a college of the ELCA. (The college & seminary are about 45 minutes apart from each other.)
Both institutions often invite alumni to return to speak to students about how having graduated from Newberry and Southern prepared them for their successful lives in the world and for their response to their call to ministry. Alumni who are also pastors are also routinely invited to preach for chapel services at both institutions.
Such invitations were offered to Katrina in early 2008. She was invited to Newberry College during the week of 15-19 September to present the Fine Arts Lectures which meant presenting 2 public lectures, teaching 3 classes and preaching in the College Chapel for Wednesday morning services. After informing Southern that she would be close to campus, an invitation was made to visit the seminary, stay on campus, eat with students and faculty, sit in on classes, meet and talk with students and preach at the seminary’s Friday chapel worship. These arrangements and constant coordination for them were done through Rev. Dr. Tony Everett, Professor of Pastoral Care. Dr. Robert Hawkins, Professor of Worship and Music and Dean of Christ Chapel at the seminary, coordinated the text she was expected to preach on for the Friday service. Her visit was well and widely known.
Katrina was ordained in December 1994. She is on the roster of ELCA clergy in the Metropolitan New York Synod. For the last 13 years, she has been the pastor of Fordham Lutheran Church in Bronx, New York, a congregation that describes itself as “a welcoming place to an amazing array of people. We come from Africa, the Virgin Isles, the Caribbean, Central America, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and different parts of the United States. Many of us are immigrants or first generation American. We are single parent families, widows, gay and lesbian families, young, old, somewhere between, well educated and some who have difficulty reading. One thing we all share in common: our trust and faith in Jesus’ love for us and our faithful response to this love.” This, a church that serves its community well: the two blocks the church occupies are the only drug-free ones in the neighborhood. This, a church that is about to begin a $22 million redevelopment project to better serve the community and the church’s ministries. This, a church that is growing. This, a pastor presented the ELCA’s Dr. Richard Lee Peterman “Good Steward” award, in recognition of her gifts for stewardship, and held up as exemplary at synod assembly. All subjects that should be of interest to the seminary’s students…
Katrina is also an out ELCA pastor, living in a committed, long-term, same-gender relationship with Pamela Kallimanis, together raising their daughter, Zoia. Katrina was among the 82 LGBT ministers who introduced themselves to the larger church at the 2007 Chicago ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Her story and a picture of her family were published in “A Place Within My Walls,” the devotional booklet distributed to voting members and visitors at the assembly.
Until Thursday, September 18th, everything went as arranged and coordinated over the months. Katrina went to Newberry, South Carolina, last week, participated in the Fine Arts Lecture series, taught classes, preached at the Wednesday service in the College chapel. On Thursday, the e-newsletter for the seminary went out, reminding all that Katrina would be visiting the seminary, meeting with students, and preaching on Friday.
Thursday morning, Dr. Everett informed Katrina that the invitation to preach on Friday had been withdrawn by the President, Rev. Dr. Marcus Miller shortly after Drs. Miller and Everett had announced to the class they co-teach that Pr. Foster would be arriving on campus that day to meet with students and preach the next morning. Subsequently, that evening, she had a conversation with Dr. Michael Root, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Systematic Theology, who said the reason that she had been dis-invited to meet and preach was that, because of her self-declared non-compliance with Vision and Expectations, she would not now be admitted as a student-candidate for ordination, and so would not be allowed to preach.
Friday morning she met with the president of the seminary, who was upset that the dis-invitation of her had resulted in lots of calls and emails to him, protesting the action. He was dismayed, thinking that she was causing a controversy, instead of quietly accepting his dismissal and going home. She wasn’t causing the calls and emails. His action had.
Rev. Dr. Miller told her he had not known she was to preach until the e-newsletter on Thursday, despite announcing it in the class he was co-teaching on Thursday morning. The time spent on arrangements from early in the year to last Thursday and that one of the classes she was going to visit at the seminary, whose students she was going to meet, was the class that Dr. Miller team-taught with Dr. Everett, raise questions about what actually caused Dr. Miller to rescind the invitation.
Emily Eastwood, Executive Director, LC/NA, said, “In an environment where bishops have been encouraged by the 2007 Churchwide Assembly to exercise restraint or to refrain in matters of discipline, in the environment of the decades-long struggle over the issues of LGBT people and the church, in an environment where the ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality is going before the 2009 Churchwide Assembly and is in draft with hearings being held all over the ELCA, in an environment of dwindling membership numbers, reduced benevolent giving and shrinking numbers of congregations, you would have thought that someone at the nexus of LGBT, LGBT family, rostered pastor, growing congregation with increasing ministries, award-winning stewardship, and redevelopment to the benefit of church and community would be precisely the someone an institution trying to graduate real-world pastors would want its students to meet.”
The president of Southern Seminary can be contacted at 803-786-5150 or by mail at President, Southern Seminary, 4201 North Main Street, Columbia, SC 29203.
This indignation is bull
Jul 31st
The Olympics in Beijing start in a couple of days. Athletes from around the world will gather to compete, to demonstrate the individual physical heights we can accomplish as humanity. I’m not a hugely athletic person — and the summer Olympics have absolutely no sports that I care to follow — but I’ll still catch the opening and closing ceremonies, and since there is a fellow Anoka High grad competing, I’ll follow the wrestling events this year.
But it sounds like no one in the Western world is going to — or supposed to — enjoy the events this time around. From cries of cultural imperialism on behalf of the West thrust on the East, to being upset that the International Olympic Committee awarded the games to a communist government with a spotty-at-best human rights record, the general undertone of this year’s games is that of suspicion, of injustice.
At best, this level of indignation is bull. And it only goes downhill from there.
I’m sorry, but I’m not going to feel guilty about cheering for the U.S. team. I’m not going to feel as if I am somehow communicating that the U.S. is culturally superior to the rest of the world. I’m not. I’m simply cheering on my team, my nation, my fellow Americans.
I’m not going to boycott the opening ceremonies because of China’s human rights record. And what’s more, if you’re really that upset at their government, then you should avoid buying Chinese-made goods, avoid benefiting from the burgeoning Chinese economy. That means everything, from the product you use in your hair to the ballpoint pens on your desk. Do you receive promotional materials or “freebies” from places? Better check where those were made. Do you enjoy authentic Chinese food? Double-check the importation information. What about the parts in your car? In your computer?
I’m not going to protest the summer games because of China’s pollution problem. We, as Americans, simply modeled this behavior and continue to do so as we now come to the stark realization that we ripped up our rail infrastructure, we destroyed our fresh water supplies, we continue to fear nuclear and renewable energy sources. The people in Beijing live in dense structures, perform many of their daily routines on foot, and many do not even have access to a passenger automobile. In comparison, here we work for the “American dream” of an acre or two of land, 2.5 vehicles per household, far away from centers of commerce and trade.
I’m not going to be suspicious of the media reporting from a country which censors its information. How is overt censorship any worse than a government that purposely lies to its people and the wider world? A population so disengaged and lazy to check facts for itself and taking E! television as high-class reporting?
I might give some credit if this indignation weren’t complete bull. So go off, protest the games. Stand on street corners and decry the awful affects of globalization and the industrial complex. Do your “grassroots” blogging and reporting. Just don’t you dare let me catch you doing it as you sip from a cup, wearing shoes, underwear and clothing, holding signs marked with ink, all made in China.
As I leave in love…
Jul 22nd
Note: This post is of a highly personal, religious nature. It is also exceptionally long. It is not censored in any way for “civil conversation.” You have been forewarned.
Folks who know me will attest that one of the myriad adjectives used to describe me, one could be church rat. My parents raised me with a healthy dose of involvement in the church, not just out of a sense of baptismal obligation, but I also assume that it was a side-effect of being involved themselves. At any one given time during my childhood, church was a minimum two-day-a-week activity, and at various points throughout the year would swell to week-long initiative.
My earliest memories of church and religion centered around a feeling of true peace, of being surrounded by indescribable support and power. When my mom or dad would bring me along to our St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church for meetings, I would always wind up in the sanctuary at some point, laying on a pew and looking around at all the elements of the room: the strong, imposing presence of the cross, physically providing the support for the entire structure. The wooden trusses, continuing the feel of the natural, wooden creation surrounding the building to the indoors. The colors of the stained glass windows on either side and in the balcony, casting a dancing light on the space. The sound of the building “thudding” as it settled and the wind blew outside.
St. Andrew’s at Christmas 2007
I could attempt to explain what I must have been thinking then in my current, adult context, but I won’t. I have more respect for myself and my childhood development than to do that. I don’t have any idea what exactly I was thinking or why I was drawn to that place, but I jumped at the opportunity to spend those moments there, in the still quiet place, in the awesome presence of God.
Of course, I didn’t just stay in the sanctuary. I would cause the ruckus that every child does, and there are many stories of “that Ross-Jones boy” sticking his nose into things and doing stuff he shouldn’t, causing chaos around the building. But it was at an early age that I began to truly become active in the church — participating in every Sunday School program, singing in the children’s choir and playing piano for youth Sundays, attending every Vacation Bible School and Day Camp for years and then helping out with the younger kids once I grew too old to be enrolled.
Any day of the week was a good day for a living room worship service. My dad helped me to build a “pulpit,” and I acted as musician, preacher and sound technician. My first congregation consisted of stuffed animals and the family cat — even if she did end up sleeping through my sermons.
I thought it was the best thing since shredded cheese because I had the opportunity to participate in not just one but two churches in my hometown — our family church at St. Andrew’s and the children’s and youth programs at Salem Lutheran Brethren Church — which then grew to three when the Grand Rapids Christian & Missionary Alliance Church merged its youth programming with Salem. That meant three times the fun!
While the other boys aspired to be firemen, policemen, lumberers, miners, doctors, and all the other vocations on the minds of the children of Minnesota’s Northland, I had two professions in mind: a minister or a news reporter.
My childhood faith was basic: Jesus loves me, this I know. That faith has carried me through 23 years of existence.
I didn’t question that premise. I didn’t question much of anything until Confirmation. I had a basic formula for living, for being in relationship with God and my neighbor. (And I knew that when the Bible says neighbor, its not just talking about the people who live behind us but instead everyone.) I knew there were some differences in faith, because other kids went to the Catholic church, the Presbyterian church, the Solid Rock, Assemblies of God, Full Gospel or Fellowship of Believers churches. In town we also had two other Lutheran churches — called Missouri or Wisconsin Synod — and another ELCA Lutheran church. Add to that mix Episcopal and Methodist, Nazarene and Baptist churches. But the differences to me were in the way they gathered. They dressed differently, they had different music during worship. That was the difference to my 12-year-old mind.
Jesus loves me, this I know. Love God. Love your neighbor. This was Christianity to me then, and this is the same Christianity that propels me today.
Micah 6:8 asks the rhetorical question, “What does God require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your Lord?” It is a passage sometimes used by various groups advocating for change, especially social-political groups who are seeking to provide a Biblical basis for their action. But often times it is misused and construed in a way so as to emphasize one of its three commissions over the rest — most frequently the call to “do justice.”
But it is far more challenging, more profound than that. Believers should always speak out about the injustices that plague life around them, and there are plenty of examples in every context where the community of God gathers. That justice must be counterbalanced by mercy, by a recognition that God’s justice is always higher, always better than human justice. A mercy that demonstrates God’s rich and powerful, all-encompassing love for creation, for it is all things are created by God, and God loves all that God creates.
Walking humbly with our Lord, however, throws many of us for a loop. Its a challenge. When we get caught up in the action, we forget our approach. The end does not always justify the means.
I started Confirmation, and that wide-eyed, innocent, childlike faith left me. A lifelong process of reconciliation, of paradox, of searching, of frustration, of anger, of peace had begun.
I officially joined Plymouth United Church of Christ in Milwaukee on an April Sunday in 2007, severing my lifelong membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But in all reality, I left the Lutheran faith of my upbringing as a response to my deep love of God and creation, and the assurance of Christ’s love for me empowered by the Holy Spirit, sometime in 1998 during Confirmation. And today, that same love compels me to continually pray for the Spirit to work in the life of the ELCA, that God’s love for all God has created reign down that all may freely serve as God has anointed. (1 Corinthians 7:17)
As certain as I am of that basic faith, of the simplicity of my childlike conviction, I am certain that God has created me in God’s image for me, and that image includes an altogether boring characteristic that western society has long marked as sinful, as something for which repentance is absolutely necessary, and above all an insurmountable affliction that until the last 30 years was marked as a mental disorder necessary of therapy and conversion.
I am a gay man. The scientific term is homosexual. Unlike “normal” people, I am attracted to — and subsequently will fall in love and make a life together with — other men.
Researchers, sociologists, theologians all argue about why roughly 10% of the population finds themselves in my position. Some say it is a conscious decision one makes, based on various mitigating factors often in one’s childhood. Others point toward the existence of homosexual animals in zoos and the wild. Yet others believe in a dynamic state of sexuality, that one’s same-sex attraction is a “phase,” and that that person will simply progress to the mainstream heterosexual orientation.
Certainly in the year 2008, that characteristic alone should not be emphasized over all the others. And the church has made great strides in the previous three decades to reformulate its pastoral response in a manner which is authentic to God’s love for God’s creation. That improvement, however, does not extend to the whole church. Nearly all U.S. Christian denominations have long-established policies which maintain either either separate-yet-unequal status for persons of my orientation, or outright bar gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender (GLBT) persons from holding positions of leadership. Of the mainline protestant denominations, only one — the United Church of Christ — fully and officially allows GLBT clergy to be called and served in its congregations. (The smaller and relatively unknown Metropolitan Community Churches, a denomination started in the 1970′s with a specific outreach to and a majority constituency of gay and lesbian persons, also has no restriction, although the MCC is not considered a mainline denomination.)
The ELCA’s current policy states that, “persons who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.” (Visions & Expectations) Essentially, a gay or lesbian person is told they are welcome to serve in the professional ministry of the Church, yet they are not allowed to enjoy the same lifelong companionship an intimate relationship with another person brings that heterosexual pastors enjoy.
“And God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.” -Genesis 1:31
Its a challenge, living under the assumption that God makes all things as God intends, and that God makes all things good. Some cynically call it overabundant optimism, and others fear such an outlook is ripe territory for Satanic action among the righteous. Both sides of the discussion of the role of GLBT persons in the church use the exhortation that good creation does not equate with good behavior. Of course, their arguments digress at that point, as to whether or not one’s sexual orientation is created, that is a static, unchanging characteristic, or a behavior, that is something under one’s own control and free will.
But its ironic, isn’t it, that we in the church refer to one’s call as a divine institution. We honor God’s call for our lives in our vocation, our actions, our families. Submission to this call is the behavior, but the call is summoned by God. (See Jonah 1)
Behavior is a result of free will. God has endowed God’s human creation with the ability to choose for itself, the knowledge of what is good and honorable against that which is evil and degrading. (Cf. Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-19) Behavior results in God’s pleasure or necessitates our repentance. Using theological terms, one might say behavior is acts of the flesh, separate from actions of the soul.
Creation, however, cannot be modified by behavior. (For anyone who doubts such things, I present the draining of humanmade Lake Delton in central Wisconsin early last month.) It can only be masked, to varying degrees of human success.
One who is created heterosexual in God’s image, who makes a lifelong commitment to a person of the opposite sex, has certain endowed blessings given to them. Likewise, one who is created homosexual in God’s image, who makes a lifelong commitment to a person of the same sex, has certain endowed blessings given to them, but not the same as those who are heterosexual.
One who is created heterosexual who forces an action of behavior over their creation and desires a homosexual relationship will likely succumb to actions of infidelity to their lover. It is the same with a homosexual person, yet God’s word of love for God’s creation has been misinterpreted toward the homosexual person, and indeed the action of behavior over and above the glory of creation is stressed.
A so-called clobber passage, used to support the religious persecution of GLBT Christians, comes from the purity laws of Leviticus — chapter 18, verse 22 says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination.” It is surrounded by commands against incest and bestiality and admonitions against sex during a woman’s period. One fails to recognize, however, that the purity laws are not designed as the social code for contemporary, modern society. The purity laws compose the Old Covenant with Israel, God’s people.
A sampling of other purity laws include restrictions on burnt offerings, apparel, dietary restrictions, and more. In fact, one is unclean for a period following sexual relations of any kind, and according to the purity law should be segregated from the rest of society so as not to defile their purity for a period of one day. (Leviticus 15:18, 31-32)
I can’t speak for anyone other than myself. I can’t attest to the accuracy or validity of the latest research efforts, the most recent discoveries, the progression of studies surrounding human sexuality. I can only speak for what I know, which is my own experience. I can point to no time in my life since puberty — and really not having any reason to reach into the depths of my memory before then — that I did not fully and consciously recognize my homosexuality. Likewise, I can point to no life-shattering event in my past that would affect my attraction today. My parents enjoy a healthy, loving relationship and celebrated 25 years of marriage earlier this year. Performances, games and meets, any event was a family function growing up, even minor ones, and with few exceptions both of my parents and my sister would be in the audience — that is, if they weren’t involved in some way themselves.
I was never abused. Except for the “standard” friction between a 23-year-old man and his mother and father, I enjoy a healthy relationship with my family. I excelled in most things, and while I was a loner throughout much of my elementary and middle school careers, I deeply cherish a number of strong, close friendships and an even wider range of great acquaintances.
My life has not been without its share of problems, but I will not go into them here, if only for the reason that they are no longer relevant and simply contributed to the shaping and molding of my personal strength of who I am today.
In short: I am convinced that I am God’s creation as I am, for I have made no behavioral change to cover up something that is completely natural — created in God’s image — for me.
Jesus loves me, this I know. Love God. Love your neighbor. This is my simple belief.
The differences that divide believers are deep and the Holy Spirit has worked to convict people to come to different conclusions in God’s living, stillspeaking word. I can do no thing but speak to my conviction, to my conclusion, to my belief. In love, I commend those who approach God’s word with a differing set of values than my own. I appreciate their conclusions are as real and powerful to them as they are to myself.
Spirituality and religion is not a vacuum. One of the greatest disservices to the life of religion was in the 17th and 18th Centuries and the social belief that religion can be separated from one’s life and action and compartmentalized in a fashion as to sterilize the actions of a government. God creates and endows each person with their own, internal values and through the gift of free will and intelligence, each person will achieve unique beliefs. “You’re only as unique as everyone else.”
Luther’s role in the Christian Reformation was as important then as it is today. His conclusions, his approach to faith, were just as true for the congregations that centered around his theology in the 1500s as in the 2000s. But just as then, not everyone agrees, and I discovered that my disagreement with the Lutheran church extended beyond its inhospitality toward me.
Nowhere is this disagreement more apparent than in sacramental theology. Most Protestant churches subscribe to two sacraments, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion/the Eucharist. The basic belief for those who subscribe to sacramental identity is that through these actions, the direct presence and blessing of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is among the believers assembled. In the waters of Baptism, a new covenant is established between God and the baptized. Through the bread and wine of Communion, Jesus’ life and death is made real through the celebration of the meal. (Please note, these are vastly wide overviews, and each denomination holds differing reasons why and how each happens.)
The Lutheran church, in the area of Communion, teaches consubstantiation — although it is important to note that Lutherans themselves abhor the term and factor it as ineffective to fully describe the presence of the Divine through the meal. In contrast to the Roman Catholic belief in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine fully and wholly become Jesus Christ’s literal body and blood and that the remnants of bread and wine in the celebration are mere accidents of physicality, consubstantiation teaches that Jesus Christ is fully present “in, with, and under” the elements of bread and wine.
This never sat well with me. Jesus Christ died already. His death and resurrection as the atonement for humankind was for all time. It felt like on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, in St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Jesus was dying and living again, over and over.
Likewise, the traditional Lutheran view on baptism is as a prerequisite for salvation. One’s soul is joined with Jesus Christ through the “magic words” and the water. It is this reason that Lutherans traditionally baptize infants, rather than participating in believer’s baptism.
But Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” This view of baptism as the means of salvation seems like both a work and a new law in place. It was either the work of my parents on my behalf when they brought me in front of the font in February of 1985, or maybe it was my own work in May of 2000 when I stood in front of the congregation and was confirmed. Either way, this didn’t sit well with me.
But how important is the theology and doctrine? Where does this fit in my simple conviction of Jesus’ love for me?
Over the past two years, God has been working great things in my heart, softening me and equipping me for God’s call to serve as minister in God’s church. And that call is to serve not in the church that enabled me to know God, to embrace Jesus, to be brought up in the faith that shapes and molds how I view the world. That church is now my neighbor. My call brought me to the United Church of Christ, first out of an issue of practicality, second out of an eventuality of belief, but above all out of love.
I love my new church. I can’t pretend I know everything about it. Our relationship is young, and just as my earliest years in the ELCA, we must have the time where I’m causing chaos and leaving a trail of destruction, because we don’t quite know how to act around each other just yet.
I love the people. Amazing people who are responding to God’s work upon their hearts. People who act out of love for all of God’s creation and serve as cheerleaders in equipping servant leaders for ministry. People moved by God’s prophetic work toward a more just, merciful world. People who simply are looking for a place to belong, a community to call their own.
I love the promise: compelled by Jesus’ prayer that all may be one (John 17:21), the UCC vows itself that no matter who comes into our community, no matter where that person is in their life of faith, they will be welcomed, embraced, accepted and affirmed for who they are as a daughter or son of God.
But it is a love for my home church that compels me to pray for it daily, that its promise may be fulfilled. For all practical purposes, I will fully separate from the ELCA on September 23, 2008, my last day of employment with the Greater Milwaukee Synod. My ties with the ELCA after that date will no longer be outwardly apparent, but in my heart they will exist forever.
It is out of love that I plan to attend the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, to be a presence with those working for full inclusion of GLBT persons in the life of the ELCA. It is out of love that I hope I witness there the affirmation for all people in God’s creation.
After all, the Christian faith is a simple one with powerful ramifications:
Jesus loves me, this I know. Love God. Love your neighbor.
The catch-22 of Air Quality Alerts
Jul 6th
The Wisconsin DNR has issued an Air Quality Watch for Milwaukee County, and all of the Lake Michigan shoreland counties, for today. This is what they say:
The watch is being issued because of the forecast for elevated levels of ground level ozone. Ground level ozone is formed when pollution from power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and volatile organic compounds chemically reacts with hot temperatures, high humidity and atmospheric stagnation.
As always, we’re recommended to stay indoors and/or cut back on strenuous outdoor activity. That’s all fine and good, since today I was planning on spending a majority of my time cleaning, packing and the like — even though it is a beautiful day outside.
But here’s the problem: these things are issued as a result of pollution, originating from “power plants.” So my question is, is it better to stay indoors with your windows open, further exposing yourself to the hazardous levels of ozone, or to turn your air conditioning on, thus contributing to the problem by increasing the load on the power grid?
If I keep my windows open, and I’m indoors today doing moderate activity (cleaning, lifting, laundry, etc), I’m still breathing in the polluted air from the outdoors. (Additionally, at some point my body would much prefer the cooler air the a/c brings!)
But I feel somewhat responsible turning my air on. The increased loads in the summertime are brutal on the energy grid to begin with, so adding more isn’t necessarily working in the right direction.
I feel like I need solar panels on top of my apartment building…
