Hopeful Message from Brooks

I am encouraged by this article, A Natural Alliance - New York Times. Columnist David Brooks makes several comments that, in moments when I'm able to muster some hope in the current political climate, carry with them the potential for positive change. Some highlights that I appreciated:

"My third thought, which may be more profound than the other two, is that we can have a culture war in this country, or we can have a war on poverty, but we can't have both. That is to say, liberals and conservatives can go on bashing each other for being godless hedonists and primitive theocrats, or they can set those differences off to one side and work together to help the needy."

"Millions of evangelicals are embarrassed by the people held up by the news media as their spokesmen. Millions of evangelicals feel less represented by the culture war-centered parachurch organizations, and better represented by congregational pastors, who have a broader range of interests and more passion for mobilizing volunteers to perform service. Millions of evangelicals want leaders who live the faith by serving the poor."

"Serious differences over life issues are not going to go away. But more liberals and evangelicals are realizing that you don't have to convert people; sometimes you can just work with them. The world is suddenly crowded with people like Rick Warren and Bono who are trying to step out of the logic of the culture war so they can accomplish more in the poverty war."

For some reason in the last several weeks I've come across people whose opinions I respect and who are able to look to the future with hope and confidence. Thankfully, I've been able to hear them and take what they've said to heart. I don't want healthy skepticism to sink into cynicism out of which there is seldom a ladder up. My hope is that Brooks and Spong, both of whom have expressed optimistic, constructive messages recently, are right.

Race, Gender, and Church Memories

Reading Small Glimpses sparked some recent church memories of my own. I was raised Southern Baptist but have not considered myself to be one for at least nine or ten years now. I haven't been one for longer than that, but just didn't realize it at the time. I record that here as a reference point for what follows. My family and I have been attending a United Methodist church for the last year or so. We attend there for a number of reasons. It's literally around the corner from our house which makes it truly a community church. Our children also attend the same public schools as their church friends. The staff is great. Gender isn't an issue in who does what. The fellowship is great. They are a church that invests in the community and beyond with their labor and their money. It's not perfect, but who would want to attend the perfect church?!

Anyway, the memory I wanted to bring up occurred last year in the fall. It was announced from the pulpit by our pastor that the message would be brought that day by a visiting higher-up (I forget his title) from the district. She introduced him and he took the podium. He was an African-American man and gave a great message. I was almost brought to tears as I realized that this was the first time in my life that I had been in church when a denominational administrator had been introduced and they were a person of color. I looked at my children and felt so grateful for this chance for them to see our female pastor introduce an African-American guest speaker as an accepted, normal practice in the church. The church of my childhood, youth, and adulthood has been the most racially segregated part of my life up until around 8 years ago. It was also the one place where roles were limited by one being a female of the species. Neither of these situations should exist in the church. I'm grateful to have lived out of that environment long enough to develop a sense of how ridiculous, how un-Christlike, these traditions have been.