ASH WEDNESDAY
by Paul A. Tidemann, Pastor (retired - sort of)
I attended an Ash Wednesday service this week at the church where I am a member. I sang in the choir. Pastor Lois preached a fine sermon and in it she reflected on why so many people show up for such a service. She got some laughs from the congregation. That was good. She had some helpful things to say about how we might live in Lent as we anticipate in 40 days the glory and wonder of the new life proclaimed in the Christ resurrection at Easter. In fact, her sermon seemed like one good thing that came from that hour-and-a-half experience of Ash Wednesday.
I should add at this point that Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Saint Paul, Minnesota, where I am a member, is a really fine church with a great mission that includes being Reconciling in Christ (welcoming of GLBT people), open and involved in interfaith activities, a global mission vision and involvement (especially in Guatemala), concern for justice issues, including racism, and a fine tradition of worship and superb music. It has great pastors and lay leaders. It is also Lutheran and so it follows the Lutheran liturgical year which brings me back to Ash Wednesday.
The service began with the choir singing a choral version of Psalm 51. The music of that Psalm was beautiful, but the words of that Psalm are hard to take.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in sin, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Did you know that this Psalm was written after King David was confronted by the prophet Nathan for having committed adultery with Bathsheba?
A week or so ago I began working on a memoir of my experience in ministry with gay and lesbian people which culminated in the decision of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in August 2009 to allow gay and lesbian persons to be ordained and serve as pastors and rostered lay leaders in the church.
As I began that work I dug out a tape recording of a speech which my mother gave to a regional conference on sexuality which was sponsored by the then Lutheran Church in America. It was held at the San Jose Retreat Center in San Antonio, Texas. My mother, Bernice “Bee” Tidemann, was asked to reflect on her experience as a mother of gay sons. I transcribed that speech. She focused primarily on what happened with my brother, James, who died at age 31 in 1973 having drank himself to death. The issue was that James was living at a time when few of us understood homosexuality (I hate that word - it was a word that was devised in the 19th century to describe the “condition” of those with same-gender orientation). James knew he had these feelings and attempted to try them out and felt very ashamed about his sexual encounters.
My mother quoted from a diary that James kept, which we did not discover until after he died. In one place he wrote: “I developed a DEEP feeling of guilt, and a fear that my parents, my friends, teachers, or employers would find out my sin. The result, of course, would be their shock and distaste, resulting of course in my ostracism. Yet I have seemingly done all my own punishing all these years. I didn’t feel I deserved the love of my parents, nor did I feel I deserved the recognition as a child that my brothers did.”
I’ll go on about that whole matter in another place, but I raise it here because having listened to my mother talk about all of this back in 1985 was brought back to me in March, 2011 as I listened to her and then, a few days later, attended the Ash Wednesday service.
“I was brought forth in sin, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” says King David. Was my brother, James, brought forth in sin, conceived in sin by my mother (and father)? Good God - no! James was a wonderful person who wanted to spend his life helping others and graduated from college with a degree in social work. But he could not get beyond what he thought God (and people, even us in his family) perceived about him.
I was asked by the Chicago police to come to the bar where he died and identify him. It was a lousy experience. I suppose that my experience at the March 9, 2011 Ash Wednesday service would not have been so stark for me had I not listened to my mother speak, via a recording, just ten days before.
There was another part of the service that bugged me. We had a reading from the prophet Joel chapter 2, which read, in part,
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near – a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.
Having served a congregation which had a significant number of African American members I thought again about how our translations of Scripture must sound to the ears of those who are called “black people.” “A day of darkness and gloom” – “Like blackness spread upon the mountains ...”
These people, too, have been oppressed with the attitudes of society, and the church, that have declared that they are not fully human and maybe, too, that they were conceived in sin. In fact, if you go back to the story of Noah in the Hebrew Scriptures in Genesis 9, you read:
“The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled. Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave." After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.” (Genesis 9:18-29)
Did you know that Christian preachers declared that this was the reason that black people were placed in slavery because their ancestor, Ham, was black and was banished into slavery by his father and that the whole black African race was descended from Ham?
It was for this reason that I used to offer translations of Scripture, like the one from Joel, that attended to the issue of racism and the used of words like “black” and “darkness” which were framed in a pejorative light. I would have offered the Joel passage this way:
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near – a day of shadows and gloom, a day of clouds and thick shadows. Like gloom spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.”
I have one other set of feelings that arose from my experience with the Ash Wednesday service. It has to do with the history of patriarchy. I have come to understand that the patriarchal system in society was devised to keep the poor people, the working people, and women in a subservient role. Part of this is present in the whole history of slavery, but it is broader than that.
The history of the church has had its moments in which the use of Scripture and the preaching of the preachers was devised to “keep people in their place,” to keep people from rising up against their leaders, who were few in number, but powerful. Preachers sought to convince their listeners that they were sinful, awful people and needed to bow down before God and keep their place in this world as working-class types, being thankful for what crumbs came their way.
What I have called the over-emphasis on sin in the theology of the church has been devised to keep the oppressed in place. We are living in a time of great upheaval in the Middle East and even next door to us in Wisconsin. The young people, the working people, are rising up and saying “we will not take this oppression any longer. Down with dictatorship and with the few who hold power over the many.”
We need to be mindful of all of this as we frame our worship and our teaching in the church. I continually asked myself what my friends in the pews were feeling and experiencing as they came to the church. I sought to listen to the whole of the Biblical message which far more emphasizes the goodness of God’s creation, the original blessing (thank you, Fr. Matthew Fox) of humanity, the love and grace of God which never ends and which is constantly present to list us up out of our gloom and hopelessness.
I love the whole sermon which Paul Tillich preached, titled “You Are Accepted,” but I quote just this portion of it:
“Sometimes, at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted! If that happens to us, we experience grace.”
Do I deny the reality of sin? No. But I find help words, again, from Tillich, in which he said,
“I should like to suggest another word to you, not as a substitute for the word "sin", but as a useful clue in the interpretation of the word "sin", "separation." Separation is an aspect of the experience of everyone. Perhaps the word "sin" has the same root as the word "asunder". In any case, sin is separation. To be in the state of sin is to be in the state of separation. And separation is threefold: there is separation among individual lives, separation of a man from himself, and separation of all men from the Ground of Being.”
We need to stop beating people over the head for what the church perceives to be their individual acts of sin and work, instead on how we can use God’s grace to help us overcome our separation from ourselves, from others, and from God.
That could be a wonderful gift of Ash Wednesday.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Israelis & Palestinians
One of my activities is leadership in the Saint Paul Interfaith Network. Check out our website at www.spinterfaith.org. We just completed a series of 3 October Monday night conversations on Israelis and Palestinians. The first two sessions featured, first, two Palestinians, the second, two Israelis, and the third, an opportunity to listen to Ronald Young, who heads up the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East. Check their website at http://www.nili-mideastpeace.org.
I represented the church of which I am a member, Gloria Dei Lutheran in Saint Paul, Minnesota as we were a sponsor of this series along with Mount Zion Temple in Saint Paul, and the Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley, Minnesota. About 160 persons attended each session.
At the last session three of us, representing the sponsoring groups, gave a brief response and what follows is the response which I offered:
I am a Christian who has been a Lutheran pastor for 46 years. My parents were people with a strong social conscience and, in particular, made it clear to me that what happened to Jewish people in the Holocaust was an inexcusable tragedy. So, when Israel was founded as a nation in 1948 this seemed right to me. In 1994 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to which I belong, issued a statement on Jewish Christian relations which says, in part, “Grieving the complicity of our own tradition within this history of hatred, moreover, we express our urgent desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people. We recognize in anti-Semitism a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us.”
Especially in recent years I have also come to know what has happened to Palestinian people who have lived on that land for something like a couple thousand years. There are Palestinians there who are Christian and there is a Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land headed by Bishop Munib Younan. The Lutheran body to which I belong has a strong relationship with that church and with Bishop Younan. In addition, our Lutheran church has said, in part, “Palestinian Christians and Muslims have suffered the loss of their land and dignity, disruption of their livelihood, and lack of human rights. This land is sacred to three monotheistic religions, whose adherents have the right to safe and unfettered access. On the positive side, this common cause offers opportunities for interfaith collaboration. In terms of global politics, what happens in the Holy Land can either help resolve conflict in the Middle East or expand it into even more deadly conflicts.”
I believe that God stands on all sides of the conflict in the Middle East, in the Holy Land. To suggest that God favors one side over another is untenable. We are all God’s people, created in God’s image and created with God’s desire for peace and unity. Therefore I think that it is critical that while we may disagree on various aspects of this struggle, that we honor the people whose feelings and opinions differ from ours.
It is my hope that Israelis and Palestinians will find a way to live together in some way. In addition to the religious differences, there are also important economic and political issues that need to be addressed. I think that we need to encourage our own United States government to use its good offices to encourage peace in the Middle East and to use our financial resources in ways that assist all the peoples of what we call the Holy Land.
In the United States I think we have a very vital task before us to listen to one another. If we can do this, there may be a chance that we will learn some things we had not thought of before. I am deeply concerned about the situation we face in the United States in terms of interfaith misunderstanding and the unwillingness of so many of our people to appreciate the gifts of those whose religious, ethnic or racial tradition differs from ours. That is why I am involved interfaith work through the Saint Paul Interfaith Network and why I think this Israeli Palestinian series has been so important.
I am grateful for the work which Ron Young and others have done through the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East. Anything that we can do to support that effort will be helpful. I commit to seeing to it that our Lutheran church supports that effort in every way.
I represented the church of which I am a member, Gloria Dei Lutheran in Saint Paul, Minnesota as we were a sponsor of this series along with Mount Zion Temple in Saint Paul, and the Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley, Minnesota. About 160 persons attended each session.
At the last session three of us, representing the sponsoring groups, gave a brief response and what follows is the response which I offered:
I am a Christian who has been a Lutheran pastor for 46 years. My parents were people with a strong social conscience and, in particular, made it clear to me that what happened to Jewish people in the Holocaust was an inexcusable tragedy. So, when Israel was founded as a nation in 1948 this seemed right to me. In 1994 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to which I belong, issued a statement on Jewish Christian relations which says, in part, “Grieving the complicity of our own tradition within this history of hatred, moreover, we express our urgent desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people. We recognize in anti-Semitism a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us.”
Especially in recent years I have also come to know what has happened to Palestinian people who have lived on that land for something like a couple thousand years. There are Palestinians there who are Christian and there is a Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land headed by Bishop Munib Younan. The Lutheran body to which I belong has a strong relationship with that church and with Bishop Younan. In addition, our Lutheran church has said, in part, “Palestinian Christians and Muslims have suffered the loss of their land and dignity, disruption of their livelihood, and lack of human rights. This land is sacred to three monotheistic religions, whose adherents have the right to safe and unfettered access. On the positive side, this common cause offers opportunities for interfaith collaboration. In terms of global politics, what happens in the Holy Land can either help resolve conflict in the Middle East or expand it into even more deadly conflicts.”
I believe that God stands on all sides of the conflict in the Middle East, in the Holy Land. To suggest that God favors one side over another is untenable. We are all God’s people, created in God’s image and created with God’s desire for peace and unity. Therefore I think that it is critical that while we may disagree on various aspects of this struggle, that we honor the people whose feelings and opinions differ from ours.
It is my hope that Israelis and Palestinians will find a way to live together in some way. In addition to the religious differences, there are also important economic and political issues that need to be addressed. I think that we need to encourage our own United States government to use its good offices to encourage peace in the Middle East and to use our financial resources in ways that assist all the peoples of what we call the Holy Land.
In the United States I think we have a very vital task before us to listen to one another. If we can do this, there may be a chance that we will learn some things we had not thought of before. I am deeply concerned about the situation we face in the United States in terms of interfaith misunderstanding and the unwillingness of so many of our people to appreciate the gifts of those whose religious, ethnic or racial tradition differs from ours. That is why I am involved interfaith work through the Saint Paul Interfaith Network and why I think this Israeli Palestinian series has been so important.
I am grateful for the work which Ron Young and others have done through the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East. Anything that we can do to support that effort will be helpful. I commit to seeing to it that our Lutheran church supports that effort in every way.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Birth Day!
July 1, 2010
I had a lot of wonderful birthday greetings today, many of which came via Facebook. Thanks to all! My birthday day always starts at 7:18 a.m. the hour that I was birthed 72 years ago. Someone bought a silver bell with an ivory teething ring for me when I was an infant and the bell has a clock on it which was engraved with the hands at 7:18. Pretty neat!
My day was good – some money came in to support the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana and I took that to the bank and sent off thank you cards. I worked on notes from the meeting of our Saint Paul Interfaith Network team that is planning a November four-week dialogue series entitled “Western, Eastern and Indigenous (Native) Religious Traditions: Dispelling Misunderstandings.” We will invite representatives to speak from Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Native peoples.
The day culminated with a nice evening out with Janet and my sons, Pete and Chris at the Nicollet Island Inn in Minneapolis. It's always a great place to go because, among other things, Chris and Pete used to work there. Chris had the longest tenure there from 1990 to 2000 (as he says, off and on) as a chef-type in the kitchen. I am proud and pleased with what great conversations we all have. Tonight we covered the foibles of politics, the issue of whether a gay or lesbian person should be outed or not, theological conundrums in the church, whether Columbus brought racism to the Americas (read "Rape of Paradise" by Guyanese Jan Carew), what I will do in this impending 73rd year, whether persons can communicate with those who are gone from this life -- just to name a few.
I have always liked birthdays! I probably have my mother to thank for that. She always made a big deal of birthdays. Each year she would have a different theme: cowboys, Indians, cars, etc. She would send invitations colorfully hand-drawn to a group of boys and invited them to come dressed for the occasion. But I was also often reminded of my baptism which took place on August 21, 1938 at Salem Lutheran Church, Albert Lea, Minnesota, with my grandmother, Lillian Hayek, my godmother, Marguerite (Petey) Jansma, my godfather, Uncle Harold Tidemann and Pastor Milton Haker. Thanks to God and to all! Paul
I had a lot of wonderful birthday greetings today, many of which came via Facebook. Thanks to all! My birthday day always starts at 7:18 a.m. the hour that I was birthed 72 years ago. Someone bought a silver bell with an ivory teething ring for me when I was an infant and the bell has a clock on it which was engraved with the hands at 7:18. Pretty neat!
My day was good – some money came in to support the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana and I took that to the bank and sent off thank you cards. I worked on notes from the meeting of our Saint Paul Interfaith Network team that is planning a November four-week dialogue series entitled “Western, Eastern and Indigenous (Native) Religious Traditions: Dispelling Misunderstandings.” We will invite representatives to speak from Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Native peoples.
The day culminated with a nice evening out with Janet and my sons, Pete and Chris at the Nicollet Island Inn in Minneapolis. It's always a great place to go because, among other things, Chris and Pete used to work there. Chris had the longest tenure there from 1990 to 2000 (as he says, off and on) as a chef-type in the kitchen. I am proud and pleased with what great conversations we all have. Tonight we covered the foibles of politics, the issue of whether a gay or lesbian person should be outed or not, theological conundrums in the church, whether Columbus brought racism to the Americas (read "Rape of Paradise" by Guyanese Jan Carew), what I will do in this impending 73rd year, whether persons can communicate with those who are gone from this life -- just to name a few.
I have always liked birthdays! I probably have my mother to thank for that. She always made a big deal of birthdays. Each year she would have a different theme: cowboys, Indians, cars, etc. She would send invitations colorfully hand-drawn to a group of boys and invited them to come dressed for the occasion. But I was also often reminded of my baptism which took place on August 21, 1938 at Salem Lutheran Church, Albert Lea, Minnesota, with my grandmother, Lillian Hayek, my godmother, Marguerite (Petey) Jansma, my godfather, Uncle Harold Tidemann and Pastor Milton Haker. Thanks to God and to all! Paul
Friday, June 4, 2010
College Graduation 50 Years Later!
I graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1960. A couple of years ago I was asked to take over the role of Class Agent. (Sounds like the CIA or something!) I soon came to realize that our 50th Year Reunion was coming up in 2010, so I have spent the last year, in the company of about 18 other classmates, preparing for this reunion which took place May 28-29, 2010 at the college. It turned out to be a wonderful event!
One of my tasks was to offer a response at the 50 Year Club Luncheon held at Noon on May 29 when our class was "inducted" into the 50 Year Club of Gustavus. We first listened to Thomas Young, Gustavus Vice President for Institutional Advancement, give a fine and fun talk on what was happening 50 years ago in the state, the nation and the world, and on campus and then welcoming us into the 50 Year group. What follows is the response which I gave. It spells out some pieces that were important parts of my life in those college years.
RESPONSE FOR 1960 - 50th ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON
Gustavus Adolphus College - St. Peter, Minnesota
Saturday, May 29, 2010 – 50-YEAR CLUB
Paul A. Tidemann, Class of 1960 - Class Agent
I think there has been a mistake! It was just five years ago that we were fully engaged as Gusties on campus! We remember seeing really old people walking around campus when we were getting ready for commencement. Why, we even remember that our commencement speaker was the Rev. Paul C. Empie, Director of the Lutheran Council U.S.A. You all remember him, right? He did raise the question about whether organized religion might be unethical. Sounds like a pretty current issue!
I was walking around on campus a couple of weeks ago and noticed all the younger people around, but I wondered what they thought when they looked at me - a guy just five years older than them! In our first years we ate our meals in the basement of Uhler Hall, but, as I recall, we got to experience the new Dining Services in our senior year. It is also neat that Christ Chapel is finally finished and that the Class of 2010 has experienced it now for two years!
Of course, we had compulsory chapel and if you missed more than 10 times in a semester you had to go in and apologize to the Dean. Some of us remember chapel in the Little Theatre building. It had a slanted floor and a few of our classmates were involved in the marble gig when, across the back row or two, folks brought marbles to let loose during Dr. Wilhelm Linss’ sermon, knocking their way against the metal seat legs and bouncing against the stage. And who could forget those who put thumb tacks on the piano hammers the day Esbj was preaching making the piano sounded a bit more like the Flame Bar. Esbj, who put up with a lot, looked pretty grim that day!
Has anyone managed to get an A in Dr. Lloyd Hollingsworth’s Handball Class? You had to beat him in handball to get an A. I know I almost did it! – Not!
I noticed the radio tower north of the campus and I think that station is now called KRBI. That stands for Krough Really Builds Individuals! But we did not have a tower for our campus radio station which was called KGAC and which has now been co-opted by Minnesota Public Radio. We broadcast through the electrical circuits of the college!
This could go on and on - but here are a few other quickies: the Art Barn, the Chester Myrum Fieldhouse where Anne Shumate sang!, Whitey Skoog’s first year as basketball coach and Bill Nordstrom who was a mainstay in basketball and in Don Roberts’ baseball squad; Ma Young’s great food and tough supervision; Philip Knautz’ Gustavus Choir (and we remember his death just a few weeks ago); North Hall, the bookstore next to South Hall; Steve Lundgren playing the roles of Othello and Jonah; Mel Hammarberg as editor of the yearbook and seminar-presenter yesterday on his research on Mormonism Today; our great nurse classmates who had a gathering a couple of days ago and many are with us today; twin homecoming stars - Lin Eckman, queen, and Lou Eckman, as attendant; our senior football stars Dick Rood and Rollie Hanks, co-captains, and Bob Swiggum, Bob Fenske, Dick Johnson, Bill Beck, Dick Loomer, Tom Carlson, Bob Krough, Pete Nyhus, Ray Olson, and Quentin Carlson, under Holly’s great coaching led to an undefeated conference season and the eighth championship in the 50's; several of us sang in the Choir, played in the Band and in the Orchestra; a couple of us were on the debate squad with our mentor, Prof. Bill Robertz; and, finally, our classmate Jim Anderson’s Dad, Ren Anderson (public relations director, and his mother, Sylvia, who really ran that office; and, of course, our classmate Dave Carlson’s Dad, Dr. Edgar Carlson, president of Gustavus for 24 years! Then let’s add one more gift of ours to the college: Dennis Johnson, who was sports editor of the Weekly and the Yearbook, became an ordained Lutheran pastor, and later served as Vice President for Church Relations at Gustavus, and became President of Gustavus for the years 2002 and 2003! If you have not heard his story, ask him, about how he and Carol were walking up the Hill in March, 1998 when the tornado was coming and quickly gathered everyone they could find into a shower area in Lund Arena for protection while the tornado roared overhead. Gustavus owes a lot to Dennis for his leadership following the tornado. And our Class owes him a lot for years of service as our Class Agent!
Yes, it has been 50 years - really! We are pleased to be the class which has broken a Gustavus record for more than 50% attendance at this reunion. We are glad to have met the challenge to the class of 2010 by surpassing our pledge challenge of $1,000 which the 2010 Class more than met! (Our Reunion Committee made this happen with a total gift oif $1,400!) We also went above and beyond the goal of $25,000 to activate our Class Endowed Scholarship for new students which now stands at $34,150. And, we are really happy to have presented President Ohle a check to Gustavus for $300,500 as our 50th Reunion class gift. Virtually 70% or 146 persons in our class are donors!
I could go on for another hour blowing our 1960 horn about persons and events, but let me say a few things about the heritage of Gustavus. I say these things as a non-Swede, for my ethnic heritage is Danish, Czech and German! I was being pressed to consider Wittenberg over Gustavus. I may have been influenced a bit by my pastor in the mid-1950s in Bloomington, Illinois, the Rev. Dr. Harold Skillrud, who, with his wife, Lois, is celebrating their 60th Anniversary of graduation from Gustavus – and besides, I have Minnesota roots having been born and lived my first 12 years in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
Gustavus is a college which has influenced a lot of people, has given growth of mind, body and spirit to so many through its 148 years. There are lots of notable people who walked these halls and walkways - persons like poet/author Bill Holm, Minnesota Governors Luther Youngdahl and Harold LeVander, Judge Paul Magnuson, historian James McPherson, theatre director David Esbjornson, sculptor Paul Granlund; and Minnesota Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher. But, you know what I think is even more remarkable are the persons who came here and graduated, who came from small towns, tiny high schools, small farms and whose lives have been quiet witnesses to the importance of everyday people and places. Many of them went back to or resided elsewhere in places perhaps not seen as noteworthy, but which are part of the gift of this nation and this world.
Gustavus was the place where my mind, heart and spirit broke out of their overly-pious, parochial and somewhat narrow confines. I was mightily influenced by the international, global experiences in politics, national affairs, and issues of justice and broadened Christian understanding that I experienced here as I attended public lectures and presentations beyond the classroom which were perhaps the forerunner of what are now the amazing Nobel Conferences.
Gustavus was a place where I found how to be more myself and to know that I did not have to measure up to someone else’s standards in order to be cared for.
So, this class of 1960 is honored to take its place in the 50 Year Club of Gustavus Adolphus College. We hope that our witness and influence as alumni will inspire others to come here to study and that our support will continue to undergird the life of this college.
I’m used to saying AMEN at the end of a sermon - which this was not - but I say AMEN because what that means it “So be it!”
One of my tasks was to offer a response at the 50 Year Club Luncheon held at Noon on May 29 when our class was "inducted" into the 50 Year Club of Gustavus. We first listened to Thomas Young, Gustavus Vice President for Institutional Advancement, give a fine and fun talk on what was happening 50 years ago in the state, the nation and the world, and on campus and then welcoming us into the 50 Year group. What follows is the response which I gave. It spells out some pieces that were important parts of my life in those college years.
RESPONSE FOR 1960 - 50th ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON
Gustavus Adolphus College - St. Peter, Minnesota
Saturday, May 29, 2010 – 50-YEAR CLUB
Paul A. Tidemann, Class of 1960 - Class Agent
I think there has been a mistake! It was just five years ago that we were fully engaged as Gusties on campus! We remember seeing really old people walking around campus when we were getting ready for commencement. Why, we even remember that our commencement speaker was the Rev. Paul C. Empie, Director of the Lutheran Council U.S.A. You all remember him, right? He did raise the question about whether organized religion might be unethical. Sounds like a pretty current issue!
I was walking around on campus a couple of weeks ago and noticed all the younger people around, but I wondered what they thought when they looked at me - a guy just five years older than them! In our first years we ate our meals in the basement of Uhler Hall, but, as I recall, we got to experience the new Dining Services in our senior year. It is also neat that Christ Chapel is finally finished and that the Class of 2010 has experienced it now for two years!
Of course, we had compulsory chapel and if you missed more than 10 times in a semester you had to go in and apologize to the Dean. Some of us remember chapel in the Little Theatre building. It had a slanted floor and a few of our classmates were involved in the marble gig when, across the back row or two, folks brought marbles to let loose during Dr. Wilhelm Linss’ sermon, knocking their way against the metal seat legs and bouncing against the stage. And who could forget those who put thumb tacks on the piano hammers the day Esbj was preaching making the piano sounded a bit more like the Flame Bar. Esbj, who put up with a lot, looked pretty grim that day!
Has anyone managed to get an A in Dr. Lloyd Hollingsworth’s Handball Class? You had to beat him in handball to get an A. I know I almost did it! – Not!
I noticed the radio tower north of the campus and I think that station is now called KRBI. That stands for Krough Really Builds Individuals! But we did not have a tower for our campus radio station which was called KGAC and which has now been co-opted by Minnesota Public Radio. We broadcast through the electrical circuits of the college!
This could go on and on - but here are a few other quickies: the Art Barn, the Chester Myrum Fieldhouse where Anne Shumate sang!, Whitey Skoog’s first year as basketball coach and Bill Nordstrom who was a mainstay in basketball and in Don Roberts’ baseball squad; Ma Young’s great food and tough supervision; Philip Knautz’ Gustavus Choir (and we remember his death just a few weeks ago); North Hall, the bookstore next to South Hall; Steve Lundgren playing the roles of Othello and Jonah; Mel Hammarberg as editor of the yearbook and seminar-presenter yesterday on his research on Mormonism Today; our great nurse classmates who had a gathering a couple of days ago and many are with us today; twin homecoming stars - Lin Eckman, queen, and Lou Eckman, as attendant; our senior football stars Dick Rood and Rollie Hanks, co-captains, and Bob Swiggum, Bob Fenske, Dick Johnson, Bill Beck, Dick Loomer, Tom Carlson, Bob Krough, Pete Nyhus, Ray Olson, and Quentin Carlson, under Holly’s great coaching led to an undefeated conference season and the eighth championship in the 50's; several of us sang in the Choir, played in the Band and in the Orchestra; a couple of us were on the debate squad with our mentor, Prof. Bill Robertz; and, finally, our classmate Jim Anderson’s Dad, Ren Anderson (public relations director, and his mother, Sylvia, who really ran that office; and, of course, our classmate Dave Carlson’s Dad, Dr. Edgar Carlson, president of Gustavus for 24 years! Then let’s add one more gift of ours to the college: Dennis Johnson, who was sports editor of the Weekly and the Yearbook, became an ordained Lutheran pastor, and later served as Vice President for Church Relations at Gustavus, and became President of Gustavus for the years 2002 and 2003! If you have not heard his story, ask him, about how he and Carol were walking up the Hill in March, 1998 when the tornado was coming and quickly gathered everyone they could find into a shower area in Lund Arena for protection while the tornado roared overhead. Gustavus owes a lot to Dennis for his leadership following the tornado. And our Class owes him a lot for years of service as our Class Agent!
Yes, it has been 50 years - really! We are pleased to be the class which has broken a Gustavus record for more than 50% attendance at this reunion. We are glad to have met the challenge to the class of 2010 by surpassing our pledge challenge of $1,000 which the 2010 Class more than met! (Our Reunion Committee made this happen with a total gift oif $1,400!) We also went above and beyond the goal of $25,000 to activate our Class Endowed Scholarship for new students which now stands at $34,150. And, we are really happy to have presented President Ohle a check to Gustavus for $300,500 as our 50th Reunion class gift. Virtually 70% or 146 persons in our class are donors!
I could go on for another hour blowing our 1960 horn about persons and events, but let me say a few things about the heritage of Gustavus. I say these things as a non-Swede, for my ethnic heritage is Danish, Czech and German! I was being pressed to consider Wittenberg over Gustavus. I may have been influenced a bit by my pastor in the mid-1950s in Bloomington, Illinois, the Rev. Dr. Harold Skillrud, who, with his wife, Lois, is celebrating their 60th Anniversary of graduation from Gustavus – and besides, I have Minnesota roots having been born and lived my first 12 years in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
Gustavus is a college which has influenced a lot of people, has given growth of mind, body and spirit to so many through its 148 years. There are lots of notable people who walked these halls and walkways - persons like poet/author Bill Holm, Minnesota Governors Luther Youngdahl and Harold LeVander, Judge Paul Magnuson, historian James McPherson, theatre director David Esbjornson, sculptor Paul Granlund; and Minnesota Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher. But, you know what I think is even more remarkable are the persons who came here and graduated, who came from small towns, tiny high schools, small farms and whose lives have been quiet witnesses to the importance of everyday people and places. Many of them went back to or resided elsewhere in places perhaps not seen as noteworthy, but which are part of the gift of this nation and this world.
Gustavus was the place where my mind, heart and spirit broke out of their overly-pious, parochial and somewhat narrow confines. I was mightily influenced by the international, global experiences in politics, national affairs, and issues of justice and broadened Christian understanding that I experienced here as I attended public lectures and presentations beyond the classroom which were perhaps the forerunner of what are now the amazing Nobel Conferences.
Gustavus was a place where I found how to be more myself and to know that I did not have to measure up to someone else’s standards in order to be cared for.
So, this class of 1960 is honored to take its place in the 50 Year Club of Gustavus Adolphus College. We hope that our witness and influence as alumni will inspire others to come here to study and that our support will continue to undergird the life of this college.
I’m used to saying AMEN at the end of a sermon - which this was not - but I say AMEN because what that means it “So be it!”
Monday, April 19, 2010
Too many people locked up
Every time I turn around I hear about someone who is being locked up - in jail or in prison. We call these places "correctional institutions." Anyone who knows anything knows that there is very little "correction" going on in our prisons and jails. In fact, the chances are that when persons are imprisoned they tend to learn more ways to live inappropriately in society. One might go into prison being not such a bad person and come out with an even greater social deficit.
Consider this: The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The U.S. incarceration rate on December 31, 2008 was 754 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. The USA also has the highest total documented prison and jail population in the world.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): "In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults."
2,304,115 were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails in 2008. By comparison in 2006, the incarceration rate in England and Wales was 148 persons imprisoned per 100,000 residents; the rate for Norway was 66 inmates per 100,000 and the rate in New Zealand was 186 per 100,000. In Australia in 2005, the rate was 126 prisoners per 100,000 residents.
Then consider what it is costing to "warehouse" these people. One statistic says that on average it costs $22,000 per person per year. That is probably way low.
There is another sad statistic and that has to do with racial disparity. Racial disparities in incarceration increased in the 1980s and 1990s as the number of blacks sent to prison grew at a faster rate than the number of whites. Between 1979 and 1990, the number of blacks as a percentage of all persons admitted to state and federal prisons increased from 39 to 53 percent. Although the admissions for both races, in absolute numbers, rose sharply, the increase was greatest for blacks.
Consider this: The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The U.S. incarceration rate on December 31, 2008 was 754 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. The USA also has the highest total documented prison and jail population in the world.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): "In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults."
2,304,115 were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails in 2008. By comparison in 2006, the incarceration rate in England and Wales was 148 persons imprisoned per 100,000 residents; the rate for Norway was 66 inmates per 100,000 and the rate in New Zealand was 186 per 100,000. In Australia in 2005, the rate was 126 prisoners per 100,000 residents.
Then consider what it is costing to "warehouse" these people. One statistic says that on average it costs $22,000 per person per year. That is probably way low.
There is another sad statistic and that has to do with racial disparity. Racial disparities in incarceration increased in the 1980s and 1990s as the number of blacks sent to prison grew at a faster rate than the number of whites. Between 1979 and 1990, the number of blacks as a percentage of all persons admitted to state and federal prisons increased from 39 to 53 percent. Although the admissions for both races, in absolute numbers, rose sharply, the increase was greatest for blacks.
I heard a speech by a judge recently and one of the things that he said was that we have to decide whether to incarcerate someone because we are mad at them, or because they are a danger to society.
I think that many are being incarcerated because we are mad at them. I think of Bernie Madoff, Tom Petters and others who have done some terrible things in taking advantage of the investments of other people. I don't know what should be done with the likes of them, but do we give them a life sentence because we are mad at them? I would not think they would be a danger to the lives of anyone.
Yes, something needs to be done to the Madoffs and the Petters' but can we find no way to establish a system in which their lives are required to be spent correcting the evils they did?
We have also a terrible social evil called racism in which persons who are part of a racial minority are often set up by the societal system to a life of despair and frustration.
Why is it that so many fewer people are imprisoned in other coountries?
Someone remarked in a group I was in that those who are jailed for DWI's would be better off if we took away their cars and driver licenses and hired a driver to get them to work or to school. Or, the idea of putting a monitoring bracelet on them might be better than jailing them. Yes, no excuse for drinking and driving. But we need to find another way.
I offer no solutions right now. Just some frustration and a hope that we can find a different way.
-30-
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
WHAT OUR KIDS PICK UP FROM US
Awhile ago I had a conversation with a friend who was pondering what their adult children had picked up from parents about the living of life. (I’m going to refer to them as our kids, even though an English professor that I had at Gustavus abhorred the use of the word "kid.") Sometimes we feel that our kids did not appreciate what we did for them. Maybe that can also be turned around and we can say that we do not appreciate what our kids have done.
So, let me say something about my kids - Peter and Christopher, aka Pete & Chris. Unlike their parents, they did not choose to pursue an education very much beyond high school. Yet, they are both extremely literate people who are constantly reading books, articles (especially on line) and paying attention to what is happening in the world - you name it, other nations and cultures, politics, economics, religious quirks in the world. I am always amazed and grateful when we get together for lunch or something and each of them have some remarkable things to say about what is going on in life as they view it.
Both their mother, Lynda, my wife, Janet and I have been people who have been very absorbed in occupations/vocations in which we have sought to give a lot of ourselves to the world in which we live. Yes, a lot of our focus has been on the Christian church as pastors and global church leaders. That’s not the only thing we have been about. You can find us in the arenas of music, reading, writing, engaging with people of other cultures and religions.
But I have been thinking about what Pete and Chris have been doing as a primary focus in life. The other day Janet and I drove by a restaurant called "Delights of India." It reminded me that when Chris was about 15 or 16 years old he worked there mostly washing dishes. That would have been at least 24 years ago. As life has unfolded for him he has been in what I call the food industry. He has worked in a great variety of places with foods of many cultures - starting way back then with "Delights of India."
If we imparted to him anything, it was an appreciation of different kinds of people and the importance of making a contribution to life in one way or another. Chris has really picked that up. I could not possibly do what he does - preparing all sorts of food in the twinkling of an eye, managing kitchens, waiting on people in dining areas with an amazing ability to give them what they want and need. He’s tried out all sort of positions in restaurants and hotels, including being a chef. He went to Zanzibar (an island in the Indian Ocean that is part of mainland Tanzania) for awhile to manage the Emerson & Green Hotel, which also meant he had to learn, very quickly, Swahili language to manage the staff. Once in awhile Janet and I would call him because she speaks fluent Swahili from her days (1964-68) in Tanzania. If you want to see what that places is like check out http://www.africa-ata.org/zz_emerson_green.htm
Currently Chris has decided to just serve people and is working at two great restaurants in Minneapolis and also at an organic meat market.
Now, on the other hand, Chris’ older brother, Pete, gives himself in a very different way. His life is imbedded in technology, in managing his own company called Linear Velocity (check out http://www.linearvelocity.com/). It’s his own gig in which he networks with corporate clients, vendors and individuals to design events they need for annual meetings of corporations, specialized programs/concerts and cultural events.
With Chris, we have to check out which restaurant he may be working at today. With Pete, we have to check out which part of the world he might be in today. For example, as I write, today he is in Potenza, Italy where he was giving a presentation to a group of Italian folk. He spoke about fundraising for arts institutions and festivals which he also calls Building Networks and Relationships. (If you want to read what he had to say, go to:
www.progettokublai.net/wp-content/petetidemann_kublaipresentation.pdf
Pete does mundane things, like setting up the audio engineering equipment needed for an event to be heard and seen by their clients or audiences (e.g. for Arctic Cat, Macy’s, Polaris). But there are other things that require both technical and cultural expertise.
He was on hand for the NBA All Star Game to make it possible for the audience to hear Elton John on the main court at half time. He goes to Shanghai every year to enable a meeting and show for Target Corporation including bringing cultural groups from Southeast Asia in for the gig.
The Zanzibar International Film Festival called on Pete to advise them on technical infrastructure.
For the following eight years he worked with ZIFF and others to expand on their vision, starting the first training and education program in technical arts in East Africa.
Festival Film Jakmel in Haiti called on Pete to manage the technical details behind a concert with international superstar Wyclef Jean. 80,000 people showed up for the concert on a beach.
I could go on and on about each of our kids. To say the least, I am proud of them. I think they picked up something from their parents and translated it into a gift of life for themselves and for hundred and even thousands of other people. They do things I could not conceive of doing, even though I enjoy good food and know more than a little bit about technology. I have not always been the best father in the world. I have sometimes been too engaged in my vocational life to spend the time I might have spent with them. But Pete and Chris have survived and thrived and I am thankful to God for them.
Some time I will write something about what my parents gave to me – which was a whole lot.
-30-
So, let me say something about my kids - Peter and Christopher, aka Pete & Chris. Unlike their parents, they did not choose to pursue an education very much beyond high school. Yet, they are both extremely literate people who are constantly reading books, articles (especially on line) and paying attention to what is happening in the world - you name it, other nations and cultures, politics, economics, religious quirks in the world. I am always amazed and grateful when we get together for lunch or something and each of them have some remarkable things to say about what is going on in life as they view it.
Both their mother, Lynda, my wife, Janet and I have been people who have been very absorbed in occupations/vocations in which we have sought to give a lot of ourselves to the world in which we live. Yes, a lot of our focus has been on the Christian church as pastors and global church leaders. That’s not the only thing we have been about. You can find us in the arenas of music, reading, writing, engaging with people of other cultures and religions.
But I have been thinking about what Pete and Chris have been doing as a primary focus in life. The other day Janet and I drove by a restaurant called "Delights of India." It reminded me that when Chris was about 15 or 16 years old he worked there mostly washing dishes. That would have been at least 24 years ago. As life has unfolded for him he has been in what I call the food industry. He has worked in a great variety of places with foods of many cultures - starting way back then with "Delights of India."
If we imparted to him anything, it was an appreciation of different kinds of people and the importance of making a contribution to life in one way or another. Chris has really picked that up. I could not possibly do what he does - preparing all sorts of food in the twinkling of an eye, managing kitchens, waiting on people in dining areas with an amazing ability to give them what they want and need. He’s tried out all sort of positions in restaurants and hotels, including being a chef. He went to Zanzibar (an island in the Indian Ocean that is part of mainland Tanzania) for awhile to manage the Emerson & Green Hotel, which also meant he had to learn, very quickly, Swahili language to manage the staff. Once in awhile Janet and I would call him because she speaks fluent Swahili from her days (1964-68) in Tanzania. If you want to see what that places is like check out http://www.africa-ata.org/zz_emerson_green.htm
Currently Chris has decided to just serve people and is working at two great restaurants in Minneapolis and also at an organic meat market.
Now, on the other hand, Chris’ older brother, Pete, gives himself in a very different way. His life is imbedded in technology, in managing his own company called Linear Velocity (check out http://www.linearvelocity.com/). It’s his own gig in which he networks with corporate clients, vendors and individuals to design events they need for annual meetings of corporations, specialized programs/concerts and cultural events.
With Chris, we have to check out which restaurant he may be working at today. With Pete, we have to check out which part of the world he might be in today. For example, as I write, today he is in Potenza, Italy where he was giving a presentation to a group of Italian folk. He spoke about fundraising for arts institutions and festivals which he also calls Building Networks and Relationships. (If you want to read what he had to say, go to:
www.progettokublai.net/wp-content/petetidemann_kublaipresentation.pdf
Pete does mundane things, like setting up the audio engineering equipment needed for an event to be heard and seen by their clients or audiences (e.g. for Arctic Cat, Macy’s, Polaris). But there are other things that require both technical and cultural expertise.
He was on hand for the NBA All Star Game to make it possible for the audience to hear Elton John on the main court at half time. He goes to Shanghai every year to enable a meeting and show for Target Corporation including bringing cultural groups from Southeast Asia in for the gig.
The Zanzibar International Film Festival called on Pete to advise them on technical infrastructure.
For the following eight years he worked with ZIFF and others to expand on their vision, starting the first training and education program in technical arts in East Africa.
Festival Film Jakmel in Haiti called on Pete to manage the technical details behind a concert with international superstar Wyclef Jean. 80,000 people showed up for the concert on a beach.
I could go on and on about each of our kids. To say the least, I am proud of them. I think they picked up something from their parents and translated it into a gift of life for themselves and for hundred and even thousands of other people. They do things I could not conceive of doing, even though I enjoy good food and know more than a little bit about technology. I have not always been the best father in the world. I have sometimes been too engaged in my vocational life to spend the time I might have spent with them. But Pete and Chris have survived and thrived and I am thankful to God for them.
Some time I will write something about what my parents gave to me – which was a whole lot.
-30-
Thursday, September 10, 2009
IT’S A HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN
I was in a gathering the other day where someone commented that these times seem to be hot times in terms of people being in disagreement. It reminded me of that old ragtime song which says:
"Come along get you ready, wear your bran, bran new gown,
For dere's gwine to be a meeting in that good, good old town,
Where you knowed ev'ry body, and they all knowed you,
And you've got a rabbits foot to keep away the hoodoo;
Where you hear that the preaching does begin,
Bend down low for to drive away your sin
And when you gets religion, you want to shout and sing
There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!"
I’m a little hesitant to publish the dialect, but it does raise a point that whether you are talking about President Obama’s speech on health care on September 9, or about global warming, or about the Lutheran Church’s decision to welcome gay and lesbian persons in same-gender relationships to be pastors and lay leaders in the church – it is a hot time!
There certainly is a lot of shouting, maybe not so much singing. I’m not sure how many have got religion over any of these disagreements, though I suspect that some have.
I have been following the health care debate and have been chagrined over some of the town hall meetings where the acrimony has really gotten out of hand and statements have been made which are really false. I was also frustrated to hear South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst, "You lie," to President Obama’s statement that illegal immigrants will not get health care in his plan. Wilson’s shout was an example of the heat that is being raised in our country without as much light as we need to have on a host of subjects.
All of this brought me to look up one of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop, you may remember lived in Greece in the period around 600 B.C.E. and is said to have been a slave, interestingly enough. His fables are little moral tales and one of them fits our situation to a T:
The Bundle of Sticks - Aesop
'An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a bundle of sticks, and said to his eldest son: "Break it." The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the Bundle. The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. "Untie the bundle," said the father, "and each of you take a stick." When they had done so, he called out to them: "Now, break," and each stick was easily broken. "You see my meaning," said their father.
THE MORAL: Union gives strength.'
As we look at our world, our planet earth, as we look at all the people and creations (animals, insects, vegetables, flowers, soil, air, rocks and trees and all the rest) on our planet, as we look the varieties of opinions amongst the human species, beliefs and thoughts, and the vast array of them, and wonder who cares for the non-human creations on earth – I wonder how we can find unity - a union, as Aesop suggested we need for strength in this universe.
Of course, as one who is still living in the joy, for some, sadness for some, anger for some of the decision of the Lutheran church to affirm gay and lesbian persons as citizens, as Christian people, and now as church leaders it raises the question of whether we can come together and determine that we will each find a way to declare God’s love and all-embracing care for everyone.
Paul, who was a leading first century Christian in the Greco-Roman world, wrote a lot of letters and in one that he wrote to the church in Corinth, Greece, he said:
'Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.'
(1 Corinthians 12:14-26)
What this fellow was saying is that each person is an important, yes, even indispensable part of the body – whatever body you are talking about – the body of people on earth, the body of citizens of the United States, or the body of people in any religious group, including Christianity – we all need each other and we all need to listen to each other, for if we do not, out disagreements may bring us all down.
I am not naive enough to think that everyone can come to a point of agreement on any given subject. But we can agree to disagree, to honor the positions which other people hold, even to examine ourselves to see if we might, in some way, be wrong.
That is incredibly difficult. For me, as one who has advocated for the full-inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) persons in the church and in all of society, it is close to impossible for me to think that I may be wrong and that GLBT persons are bad, awful, damned people. I cannot go there in any way.
I also have a hard time wondering how some people can use the Bible as a launching pad against GLBT people. They usually talk about the same 5 or 6 passages which, for me, represent sexual behavior (gang rape, violence, man-boy sex [pederasty] and the like which I also declare to be abominable. Those who wrote the Bible 200 to 3000+ years ago had no concept of a sexual orientation given at birth. My experience with countless GLBT people in relationships is that many of them are in as loving and caring, committed relationships as I could find anywhere.
I want to say that many people who hold a radically different position from mine do so out of their heartfelt beliefs. But, the bottom line is that we have to find ways to live together in spite of our differences. There is a part of me that says that differentness in our universe is a terrific gift of God – whether our difference be race, color, sex, religion, culture, education, age, or sexual orientation.
If the hot time that we are having in the old town of our society these days is going to destroy the human race or destroy this earth, that must not be allowed to happen. Sometimes we can look to religious groups and leaders to find ways out of this. I think of Mahatma Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama, or Mother Teresa, or Jesus, or Mohammed, or Abraham and Sarah, and I say – let’s listen to how they would go after this. Let’s be committed to live together - in spite of our differences, and declare that we will not leave the body - whatever the body we are in to which we are committed.
-30-
"Come along get you ready, wear your bran, bran new gown,
For dere's gwine to be a meeting in that good, good old town,
Where you knowed ev'ry body, and they all knowed you,
And you've got a rabbits foot to keep away the hoodoo;
Where you hear that the preaching does begin,
Bend down low for to drive away your sin
And when you gets religion, you want to shout and sing
There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!"
I’m a little hesitant to publish the dialect, but it does raise a point that whether you are talking about President Obama’s speech on health care on September 9, or about global warming, or about the Lutheran Church’s decision to welcome gay and lesbian persons in same-gender relationships to be pastors and lay leaders in the church – it is a hot time!
There certainly is a lot of shouting, maybe not so much singing. I’m not sure how many have got religion over any of these disagreements, though I suspect that some have.
I have been following the health care debate and have been chagrined over some of the town hall meetings where the acrimony has really gotten out of hand and statements have been made which are really false. I was also frustrated to hear South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst, "You lie," to President Obama’s statement that illegal immigrants will not get health care in his plan. Wilson’s shout was an example of the heat that is being raised in our country without as much light as we need to have on a host of subjects.
All of this brought me to look up one of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop, you may remember lived in Greece in the period around 600 B.C.E. and is said to have been a slave, interestingly enough. His fables are little moral tales and one of them fits our situation to a T:
The Bundle of Sticks - Aesop
'An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a bundle of sticks, and said to his eldest son: "Break it." The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the Bundle. The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. "Untie the bundle," said the father, "and each of you take a stick." When they had done so, he called out to them: "Now, break," and each stick was easily broken. "You see my meaning," said their father.
THE MORAL: Union gives strength.'
As we look at our world, our planet earth, as we look at all the people and creations (animals, insects, vegetables, flowers, soil, air, rocks and trees and all the rest) on our planet, as we look the varieties of opinions amongst the human species, beliefs and thoughts, and the vast array of them, and wonder who cares for the non-human creations on earth – I wonder how we can find unity - a union, as Aesop suggested we need for strength in this universe.
Of course, as one who is still living in the joy, for some, sadness for some, anger for some of the decision of the Lutheran church to affirm gay and lesbian persons as citizens, as Christian people, and now as church leaders it raises the question of whether we can come together and determine that we will each find a way to declare God’s love and all-embracing care for everyone.
Paul, who was a leading first century Christian in the Greco-Roman world, wrote a lot of letters and in one that he wrote to the church in Corinth, Greece, he said:
'Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.'
(1 Corinthians 12:14-26)
What this fellow was saying is that each person is an important, yes, even indispensable part of the body – whatever body you are talking about – the body of people on earth, the body of citizens of the United States, or the body of people in any religious group, including Christianity – we all need each other and we all need to listen to each other, for if we do not, out disagreements may bring us all down.
I am not naive enough to think that everyone can come to a point of agreement on any given subject. But we can agree to disagree, to honor the positions which other people hold, even to examine ourselves to see if we might, in some way, be wrong.
That is incredibly difficult. For me, as one who has advocated for the full-inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) persons in the church and in all of society, it is close to impossible for me to think that I may be wrong and that GLBT persons are bad, awful, damned people. I cannot go there in any way.
I also have a hard time wondering how some people can use the Bible as a launching pad against GLBT people. They usually talk about the same 5 or 6 passages which, for me, represent sexual behavior (gang rape, violence, man-boy sex [pederasty] and the like which I also declare to be abominable. Those who wrote the Bible 200 to 3000+ years ago had no concept of a sexual orientation given at birth. My experience with countless GLBT people in relationships is that many of them are in as loving and caring, committed relationships as I could find anywhere.
I want to say that many people who hold a radically different position from mine do so out of their heartfelt beliefs. But, the bottom line is that we have to find ways to live together in spite of our differences. There is a part of me that says that differentness in our universe is a terrific gift of God – whether our difference be race, color, sex, religion, culture, education, age, or sexual orientation.
If the hot time that we are having in the old town of our society these days is going to destroy the human race or destroy this earth, that must not be allowed to happen. Sometimes we can look to religious groups and leaders to find ways out of this. I think of Mahatma Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama, or Mother Teresa, or Jesus, or Mohammed, or Abraham and Sarah, and I say – let’s listen to how they would go after this. Let’s be committed to live together - in spite of our differences, and declare that we will not leave the body - whatever the body we are in to which we are committed.
-30-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
