Unexamined Privilege

About a month ago I had a conversation with a friend. I'm not sure how it came up, but he commented about a same-sex couple that he had seen at a concert in a church, and said that he was offended when one of them put her arm around the other. When I looked puzzled, he said that he would never put his arm around his wife in a public place.

I didn't seriously challenge his statement simply because I couldn't think of what to say except that it didn't bother me when couples showed affection in public. It was only later that I realized that my friend was ignoring one important fact - that he could show affection to his wife in public without anyone taking offense. He and I and all married heterosexuals have in our society the unearned and far too often unexamined privilege of showing affection to our spouses in public. Like so many other pieces of privilege, this is usually unexamined until we see someone else who is not like us doing the privileged thing.

I believe that we are called by God to examine the unearned privileges we take for granted. Not that we necessarily have to give them up, but that we might see how important it is for others to be able to enjoy the same privileges.

Several years ago I was given the opportunity at a conference to identify some of the privileges that I as a heterosexual have that gay and lesbian friends don't have. As I thought of the privilege of marriage, of celebrating at our wedding the love which my wife and I share, tears began to form in my eyes as I thought of the gay and lesbian couples that I knew who had been denied that privilge and joy.

That situation is changing, slowly. I overheard a couple at coffee hour after church during my vacation this summer mention their three weddings. I asked them why three and they told me that the first and most important was an exchange of vows and rings with just the two of them and God present. The second was a civil ceremony in Canada, and the third was a glorious "high church" celebration in their parish.

I am so thankful that things are changing. I'm writing this while on sabbatical in Massachusetts, where same-sex couples can be married. I will return in December to the parish in East Aurora, New York, a state where the Governor has ordered that all state agencies must recognize all legal marriages. I pray for the day when the Episcopal Church which I love will decide that the covenant of marriage is for gay and lesbian couples, as well as for folks like my wife and me.

The President Just Doesn't Get It

When the President of the United States speaks at the United Nations and makes no mention of the Millennium Development Goals, the kindest thing that I can say is, not that he doesn't care, but that he just doesn't get it. I will not argue that terrorism, the subject of his speech, is not a problem. It is, but the problem of poverty throughout the world, with all of the attending problems of inadequate education and health care, is so much more important. Rather than using his "bully pulpit" to address the threat of terrorism, how much more encouraging would it have been for him to use the opportunity to call for renewed and deeper commitments to the MDGs.

But if the President doesn't get it, at least some of us in the Church - and elsewhere - do get it. As a Christian I understand that my work towards the meeting of those goals is a way that I can participate in the missio Dei - God's mission in the world. And because God is not limited to calling only Christians to this work, I can work with sisters and brothers from other faith traditions, or no faith tradition, to accomplish these goals. It's God's work and it is not my place to tell God who can and cannot be called to share in that work.

Beginning at least with Jimmy Carter, former Presidents have made significant contributions to this country and to the world. I pray that when President Bush is no longer carrying the burdens of the office that he would see the world not simply as the battleground for a war against terrorists, but as a place where women and men of all sorts and conditions are working together to meet the Millennium Development Goals. And when he gets it, I pray that he will commit himself to the work of meeting those goals. That may seem like an impossible prayer, but in a week when Christians remember the calling of Matthew, a tax collector for the hated Romans, I am encouraged to believe in and expect miracles.

The Lambeth Conference

I have been encouraged by what I am hearing from US bishops who are attending the Lambeth Conference, as well as by the comments of Brian McLaren who addressed the bishops on the challenge of making disciples. (Susan Russel has posted on her blog Bishop Kirk Smith's comments on McLaren's presentation.) There appears to be a recognition, even a celebration, of the diversity of the bishops of the Anglican Communion.

What is discouraging is both the exclusion of the Bishop of New Hampshire and the boycotting of the Conference by leaders of the GAFCON movement. Bishop Robinson has been taking his exclusion with his usual graciousness. The GAFCON response to the presence of US bishops who consented to or participated in Bishop Robinson's consecration has been far from gracious. Not only have many of the bishops involved in GAFCON boycotted the Conference, others who are attending refused to receive Communion at Sunday's Eucharist. Both actions are quite literally communion-breaking.

Andrew Goodard of the Anglican Communion Institute has written a scathing critique of the GAFCON response to the proposed draft of the Anglican Covenant. After reading Dr. Goddard's analysis of the GAFCON response, I have come to the conclusion that the leaders of GAFCON have no interest in a covenant that would help to hold the Anglican Communion together, but only in creating an “Anglican Communion” that is confessional - with a confession that is reflective only of their theology and understanding of Scripture.

I pray that I am wrong about that, as I value my relationships with Anglicans from the Global South, with Anglicans from all over, especially with those with whom I disagree. I value being part of a Communion that is not theologically monochrome, a Communion where we can disagree in love about important matters. If there are those who are unable or unwilling in such a Communion, I pray that they will find a place where they can grow in Christ, but I believe that the Anglican Communion will be poorer without them, and I suspect that their lives will be poorer without us.

The Risk-taking God

The RCL lessons for the past two Sundays (July 13 & 20) underscored the very risky nature of God's mission. A sower who scatters seed on good soil and bad without distinction and a land-owner who allows weeds to flourish among the wheat - what a revelation of God's profligate love for us! And what a challenge to the Church to be as wildly risk-taking in sharing the Good News with others.

There is no support in the parable of the sower for applying cost-benefit considerations to the Church's work. We are called to share the Good News as freely with those whom we would judge as "poor prospects" as we do with those who appear most likely to respond. And we are to resist the temptation to judge whether folks are wheat or weeds, leaving that judgment to God. I am even tempted to see in the parable of the weeds among the wheat a hint that perhaps growing up with weeds all around is good for the wheat! Certainly practicing what John Stott once called "rabbit hole Christianity" is not faithful discipleship. Isolating ourselves from anyone who is not a Christian - or our kind of Christian - for fear that we will be soiled by contact with them seems to indicate a lack of faith in God's ability to protect us from the evil one. (John 17:15)

I believe that the Church is being called to take risks in its ministry and to trust patiently the One who has called us.

Recommended Reading

Tobias Haller, BSG has written a wonderful essay about the importance of meeting with those with whom we disagree. He ends the essay:

As to the Gospel, it is in how we relate to those with whom we disagree that we reveal our likeness to Christ, who came to us and was among us while we were yet sinners, who was in fact most commonly found meeting with the sinners as opposed to the righteous. The “mind of Christ” which we are called to have in and among ourselves was the mind that brought him to us empty of glory, in order to save. Christ himself did not delay his coming to us until we were suitably redeemed: the whole point of his coming among us, while we were at odds with God, was to bring us what we lacked — unity in him, and forgiveness. It is not the healthy that need a physician, nor is it the unanimous who require a meeting.

During my upcoming sabbatical I will be visiting congregations in New England to learn how Episcopalians are learning to treat with respect those with whom they disagree and are continuing to meet at the Lord's Table.