Category: Politics (Page 12 of 23)

The Midterm Zombie Apocalypse – From the Daily Office – November 5, 2014

November 5, 2014 / eric / 2 Comments

From the Apocalypse of John of Patmos:

The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness; people gnawed their tongues in agony, and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Revelation 16:10-11 (NRSV) – November 5, 2014)

The Republicans won control of the Senate. Facebook and other social media this morning are rife with Democrats and other self-styled progressives writhing in agonized self-blaming (or furious finger-pointing). You’d think the fifth angel’s bowl was poured out yesterday on the United States and that we’d been plunged into darkness.

Pah!

Last night my Education for Ministry group did a theological reflection on an image from culture. (EfM folks will have a better understanding of what that means. If you aren’t an EfM participant, I can’t really go into the EfM model of theological reflection here: I recommend you find an EfM group in your area and enroll.)

Our image: Zombies. We talked about the old “voodoo” horror movie model of zombie; the George Romero “living dead” movie version; the AMC television program “The Walking Dead” version; and the new Syfy Channel “Z Nation” version. Zombies, apparently, have changed over the years from living people under the spiritual control of an evil voodoo shaman into dead corpses reanimated by a virus which (I didn’t know this because I don’t watch the television programs) infects everyone! So, everyone dies and everyone comes back as a zombie! Now there’s a metaphor for something; I’m not sure what and I’m not sure it’s spiritually edifying, but there it is.

Zombie Attack

Anyway, we had great fun deeply considering the world of zombies then moving from the culture source into the Christian tradition source, the personal position (belief) source, and the personal experience (action) source. When we reached the end of the evening and came to the application exercise – “How will I apply this reflection? What will I now do?” – one of our thoughts was, “Just go home and shoot myself in the head.” Apparently that prevents one’s coming back as a zombie.

I had no idea I would wake this morning to so many liberal friends and colleagues having that same sort of reaction to the midterm election!

Chill out, folks! The world has not been plunged into a zombie-filled darkness filled with creatures gnawing at their tongues and covered with rotting sores.

One party has taken control of the Congress by a narrow margin in the upper house, but it is a party at war with itself. I think it will actually be fun to see if Mr. McConnell (presumably the new majority leader) can control his caucus any better than Mr. Boehner has controlled his. The split between old line Republicans and the new “Tea Party” Republicans may just grow wider and hamstring the legislative branch even more so than it has done for the past four years. Furthermore, even if they unite, the Democrats hold enough votes to defeat things by fillbuster (an old GOP tactic they will now have to contend with on the receiving end) and a Democratic president still holds the veto power. (See this analysis by the UK’s The Guardian newspaper.)

It’s not John’s end of the world! Nor are Zombies flooding the streets.

I hope that something good can come of this. The New York Times this morning editorializes that there might be greater opportunity for compromise than there has been. Personally, I think they’re wrong; I believe we are in for two-years of mind-numbingly pointless political theater. My prayer is that it is not also spirit-numbing!

The “zombies” in John’s vision did not “repent of their deeds.” My hope and prayer is that we, the “zombies” of the 2014 midterm election, whatever our party or political persuasion, will do so. We are where we are (and we would be here if the Democrats had held onto the Senate, by the way) because, as a nation, we have allowed ourselves to be tribalized and polarized. To a certain extent, when it comes to politics, we are all “zombies,” infected by the unrelenting virus of our political positions and unwilling (perhaps by this time unable) to see any positive in the positions of others.

We need to repent and return to the ways of civility, negotiation, compromise, and actually getting the work of society done.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Political Rainbow – From the Daily Office – November 4, 2014

November 4, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From Ecclesiasticus:

Look at the rainbow, and praise him who made it; it is exceedingly beautiful in its brightness. It encircles the sky with its glorious arc; the hands of the Most High have stretched it out.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 43:11-12 (NRSV) – November 4, 2014)

Today in the US is the midterm election. I live in a decidedly “red” state with very little chance than any state office or congress seat currently held by the GOP will go to another party, partly because the Democrats chose a less-than-stellar gubernatorial candidate, partly because of gerrymandering, and partly because the Republicans simply predominate in most of the rural ad small-town electorate. Nonetheless, I will go to the polls and cast my “progressive” ballot and hope that elsewhere in the country things may be different.

What I hope most (and pray for) is that at some time in our national political future there will be a rainbow! That there will be an end to the rancorous, uncivil, winner-take-all, scorched-earth, no-compromise politics that has characterized this country for the past two decades, or longer…. When did it start, this deluge of polarization? I think it’s probably always been there at the fringes, but it seems to me it began moving to the center during the Nixon administration, arrived center-stage during the Clinton years, and has simply parked there ever since, the way a weather system can park over an area for days (in this case decades) at a time, bringing wave after wave of torrential downpour.

One of my favorite poems about rain is The Rainy Day by Rabindranath Tagore, who paints a dismal and scary picture of a village in monsoon season:

Sullen clouds are gathering fast
over the black fringe of the forest.
O child, do not go out!
The palm trees in a row by the lake
are smiting their heads
against the dismal sky;
the crows with their dragged wings
are silent on the tamarind branches,
and the eastern bank of the river
is haunted by a deepening gloom.
Our cow is lowing loud, tied at the fence.
O child, wait here till I bring her into the stall.
Men have crowded into the flooded field
to catch the fishes
as they escape from the overflowing ponds;
the rain-water is running in rills
through the narrow lanes like a laughing boy
who has run away from his mother to tease her.
Listen, someone is shouting for the boatman at the ford.
O child, the daylight is dim,
and the crossing at the ferry is closed.
The sky seems to ride fast upon the madly rushing rain;
the water in the river is loud and impatient;
women have hastened home
early from the Ganges
with their filled pitchers.
The evening lamps must be made ready.
O child, do not go out!
The road to the market is desolate,
the lane to the river is slippery.
The wind is roaring and struggling
among the bamboo branches
like a wild beast tangled in a net.

My feeling is that our monsoon of incivility, our rainy season of political polarization has had a similar effect on our national village; our sky is sullen, our roads are desolate, our lanes are slippery, and madly rushing political “rain” has made the river of democracy loud, impatient, and dangerous. My hope and my prayer is that it will end and we will see a rainbow.

My main thought for the day is contrary to Tagore’s, however: “O child, do go out!” Go out and vote!

Rainbow over Farm Landscape

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Divisive Prayer – From the Daily Office – November 3, 2014

November 3, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From Luke’s Gospel:

Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.”

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Luke 12:51-52 (NRSV) – November 3, 2014)

Ballot Box This isn’t what we want or expect to hear from “the Prince of Peace,” but here it is! Jesus is not going to let us “make nice” and “all get along.” He insists that we acknowledge and confront the reality of interpersonal conflict, that we admit that even good news can bring division.

Tomorrow America will go through its regular spasm of national political division and pretend that it is otherwise, that what we do on the first Tuesday of November is a demonstration of unity when we all know it is very much the opposite. In these times of what seems to be ever increasing polarization, families are divided over politics, “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (v. 53) We make a joke of it and try to laugh it off, but we all know families (perhaps even our own) where there is discord and disagreement over electoral politics.

Here’s an exercise in frustration: using Google (or whatever your favorite search engine may be) look for the words “election day prayer” on the internet. There are many prayers and many of them begin with lovely words asking God’s blessing upon us as “faithful citizens,” as “brothers and sisters,” but then in amongst the glowing words are the red-flags . . . “cries of children unborn,” “evils of abortion,” “sanctity of marriage,” “Christian nation” on the one side, “reproductive rights,” “marriage equality,” “nation of many cultures” on the other. Prayers ostensibly seeking God’s blessing on national unity phrased in the very terms of division and discord.

I may be prejudiced, but I can think of no better prayer for an election than that found in the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States (or of this community) in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 1979, page 822)

“Five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.” We are divided by politics and when the votes are counted one side or the other will “win,” at least until the next election. Whichever it may be, let us indeed pray that “the rights of all may be protected.” Amen!

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

A Third Tongue – From the Daily Office – October 29, 2014

October 29, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From Ecclesiasticus:

Slander has shaken many,
and scattered them from nation to nation;
it has destroyed strong cities,
and overturned the houses of the great.
Slander has driven virtuous women from their homes,
and deprived them of the fruit of their toil.
Those who pay heed to slander will not find rest,
nor will they settle down in peace.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 28:14-16 (NRSV) – October 29, 2014)

In law school I learned that slander is the spoken form of defamation; defamation in print is called libel. I doubt the translators of Ben Sira were making any such fine distinction; Ben Sira certainly does not. The Greek original reads, Glossa trite, meaning “a third tongue.” The British Greek scholar G.T. Emery translates this text not as “slander” but as “unrestrained talk of a third party,” which carries no particular suggestion of falsehood or defamation; gossip could be the subject, as well. In any event, our current preferred translation suggests some element of prevarication.

Which brings me to political advertising and clergy relocation . . . .

I don’t know if it’s still the case but several years ago, right after the Roman Catholic Church’s troubles with pedophilia and child sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy became big news, it became mandatory for Episcopal Church clergy seeking new callings to be background checked. One company in particular seemed to corner the market on these reviews and were used by nearly every diocese of the church; maybe they had a contract with the national hierarchy (I really don’t know). The covers of their reports had a box, a big red-flag check box, labeled something like “has been accused of sexual misconduct.” If that box was checked, it was unlikely the clergy person’s file would even be opened or looked at for a new position; their file would be tossed into the rejection stack without even a cursory review.

Note that the big red-flag check box’s label didn’t say “proven” or “shown” or “convicted” or anything of that nature, just “accused.” One unrestrained, possibly even untrue flap of “a third tongue” and one’s service as clergy was essentially done. I knew people who fell victim to slander of that sort. Accusations of misconduct are serious and should be looked into, but accusations are simply that – unproved assertions – and until proven they should be treated with great care.

The same is true of political advertisements. Elections in our country have become a farce (in my humble opinion) because of political advertisements run without regard to truth or verification. Anonymous groups run overwhelmingly negative ads making suggestions about “the other side” which may or may not be grounded in fact. They are like great big red-flag check boxes labeled “is accused of inflammatory nonsense we don’t ever have to prove,” and that’s enough to sway the electorate.

Is this any way to run a church? Is this any way to run a country? Ben Sira would suggest otherwise – our “great houses” are apt to fall if we continue to do so. Possibly they have already fallen and we just haven’t noticed.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Fear Not – From the Daily Office – October 27, 2014

October 27, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From Ecclesiasticus:

Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Be brave, it will not make you burst!

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 19:10 (NRSV) – October 27, 2014)

Ben Sira’s admonition is set in context in a discussion of gossip, but in the United States today it could also apply to the silly, ignorant, unthinking panic that has attended the arrival of the ebola virus in our country.

Today’s morning headlines include news of yet another state adopting rules and regulations requiring a 21-day quarantine for any person arriving from certain west African countries. I don’t know what to make of this nor do I care for the precedent it sets. Incarceration without due process, which is essentially what this is, probably has more chance of spreading than does the virus from which it allegedly is protecting us.

Ben Sira’s advice about gossip – “question a friend” (v. 13) and “question a neighbor” (v. 14); in other words, check it out! – is equally applicable here. Get the facts! Know what you are saying! Know what you are doing!

We are in the midst of an epidemic, but it is not an ebola epidemic. It is an epidemic of mindless, ill-considered panic and prejudice which (continuing another disturbing trend in our society) ignores science and good medical practice. This epidemic is not a medical issue; it is a spiritual problem. It is an epidemic of fear ignoring the constant reassurance of scripture: “Fear not.” (Here’s a website that’s collected a bunch of verse references for this.) As Ben Sira says, “Be brave.”

Have you heard something that made you afraid? Check it out and “let it die with you. Be brave.” Don’t help the panic pandemic to spread.

Please Do Not Feed the Fears

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Shut Up! – From the Daily Office – October 24, 2014

October 24, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From Ecclesiasticus:

Do not find fault before you investigate; examine first, and then criticize. Do not answer before you listen, and do not interrupt when another is speaking.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 11:7-8 (NRSV) – October 24, 2014)

I should have taken a course on the Deutero-Canon when I was in seminary! Really! I’m just astounded at the amount of really good advice there is in this one book, The Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach, the Liber Ecclesiasticus. Of course, there’s a lot of nonsense, too. You could build a good sermon on the “prosperity gospel” from some of the stuff here . . . but mostly there’s just good common sense.

Like these two verses. They remind me of things my parents said, things like “Get the facts” and “Shut up and listen” and “Don’t interrupt.” Good advice that people in our society seem to have forgotten.

Have you listened to any of the joint interviews that journalists sometimes try to conduct with representatives of opposing camps? I listened to one not long ago on NPR regarding the anti-abortion legislation passed in Texas that requires a pregnancy clinic’s physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within some specified distance. A representative of the so-called “right to lifers” and another from the so-called “pro-choice” side were both miked . . . and you couldn’t hear what either had to say because they were so busy trying to shout over each other. Neither would shut up and let the other get a word in edgewise.

My late brother was an avid sports fan (he writes in an apparent non-sequitur). He would get so wrapped up watching football and basketball games on television that he would forget where he was and who he was with. I recall one family Thanksgiving gathering when we were watching some game (between who in what sport I have no idea). My brother got so excited at one point he yelled at the top of his lungs, “Run, you son of a bitch! Move that fucking ball!” My mother was not pleased.

I do not get that excited about sports. I get that excited about politics. That’s why I don’t discuss it with friends and parishioners. That’s why I don’t attend election night poll-watching parties. I tend to cut loose with exactly the same sort of excited utterance to which my brother was prone while watching football.

When I heard the report on the Texas legislation, I was driving to a clergy conference — wearing a Roman collar. I was by myself, but it was a nice day and the window was down. The conversation (I use the term very loosely) started and soon the talking-over and the shouting-down began. At some point I became so annoyed with the interviewees that I yelled at them (well, at my car radio, actually), “Shut the fuck up!” I hope no pedestrian or passerby heard me.

But if they had, I now know that I could point to the Book of Sirach and assert very affirmatively that it is a biblical injunction. “Shut up!” even, perhaps, the more aggressive phrasing. It’s right there! Right here, in the 11th Chapter of Ecclesiasticus!

So, folks, want to prove to us that you pay attention to scripture? Want us to really believe that you follow its injunctions when you try to enforce them on the whole of society, on our friends and neighbors who don’t share our faith? Then pay attention to Jesus, Son of Sirach.

STFU Please

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Toleration – From the Daily Office – October 23, 2014

October 23, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From Ecclesiasticus:

Do not get angry with your neighbor for every injury, and do not resort to acts of insolence.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Sirach 10:6 (NRSV) – October 23, 2014)

Today is the feast of St. James of Jerusalem, also called James the Just, also known as the brother of our Lord. He is revered as the advocate of tolerance for Gentile converts (see Acts 15:12-19). Of note is the apparent fact that he was not a follower of his famous brother until after Jesus’ Resurrection; one imagines that getting a visit by a deceased-but-risen relative who claims to be the Son of God would be a hell of a conversion experience.

Anyway, this lesson from ben Sira is not from the lessons for James’ commemoration, but its admonition to patience and toleration for the foibles of one’s neighbors, even those which might cause injury, seems fitting to the day. Unfortunately, fitting or not, patience and toleration are not the trademarks of our age, are they?

We live in an era of social conflict which is, if not created by, supported by the social media we thought would overcome such divergence. Library shelves are filled with science fiction novels in which instant and wide-spread communication was predicted to be the panacea for political confrontation, the mechanism which would foster peace and mutual respect, the technology which would usher in utopia. Those rosy speculations have all turned out to be bullshit, however.

Along with the social media has come an increase in “tribalism,” in purity tests for membership in social groups, in litmus tests for political candidates, in raised voices shouting past one another. And the social media technology of algorithms making machine-logical decisions about which messages their human consumers would be fed is pushing the tribes and social groups further apart, raising the volume of the shouting. Some cloud-based calculator is deciding whose voices I hear, whose pictures I see, whose news-feed I read; that coldly logical “thinking machine” is deciding that I only want to hear the voice, see the pictures, and read the news that bolsters my prejudices, and so that’s what I hear, see, and read. Whatever the “other” tribe is hearing, seeing, and reading, I’m not . . . and what I am, they’re not. And so we have no meeting in the middle or anywhere else.

So much for peace and mutual respect, so much for toleration and utopia.

We need to turn off the machines; we need to divorce ourselves from the algorithms; we need to start listening to one another without the filter of calculating machines. We need to be less angry about perceived (often mis-perceived) injury. We need to heed James’ call to toleration.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Leftist? Rightist? – From the Daily Office – October 16, 2014

October 16, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Gospel of Luke:

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Luke 9:23-26 (NRSV) – October 16, 2014)

So ….

I left off writing these things publicly, but found that not writing them put a crimp in my spiritual life. I write them for my own spiritual well-being and if they are of assistance to anyone else that’s all well and good, too. I thought I was stressing out under the self-imposed pressure of writing one everyday, but I think now the stress was from trying to be “gentle” with my words so as not to offend anyone. However, since I now realize that I am writing them for myself, I don’t need to worry about that. If someone reads what I have to say and is offended by it, they can choose not to read another thing I write. That’s their responsibility, not mine. (Frankly, I think that’s part and parcel of the attitude demonstrated by Jesus in the last sentence of this selection. “I say what I say. If it resonates, follow me. If not, we part company.”)

OK . . . introductory remarks done with . . . this morning someone in an internet discussion group did the drama-queen leaving act. “TEC [the stupid current trendy abbreviation for the Episcopal Church] and this group have veered too far left, so I’m leaving.” You could hear the door slam as they left (and picture them standing outside with their ear pressed to it listening for the reaction).

What do people mean when they apply the terms “Left” or “Right” to the church? Do people even know what those terms mean, period?

These terms are political terms translated into British and American politics from the French Revolution of 1789 during which members of the National Assembly divided themselves by where they sat in the chamber, supporters of the king to the president’s right, supporters of the revolution to his left. They were first introduced into British politics in the 1930s to label politicians according to their position on the Spanish Civil War — those who supported Franco’s Nationalists were “the Right,” those who supported the Republicans were “the Left.” From Britain, these terms made their way into American political discourse, but what they actually mean in the political arena today is pretty muddled.

Which means, of course, that when they are applied to the church they basically mean nothing! Or, rather, they mean “the church is doing that with which I disagree.” For example, when someone opens the distribution of Holy Communion to the non-baptized (something I disagree with, by the way), is that a “Leftist” or a “Rightist” thing to do? I don’t really know; I suspect that, depending on what one thinks those terms mean, one can construct an argument for the application of either one.

What a ridiculous waste of time!

When judging a church denomination, parish, diocese, organization, ministry, whatever . . . isn’t the question not whether it is “Leftist” or “Rightist” but whether it embodies and follows the gospel? Whether it and those people who claim membership or activity within it have denied themselves and taken up their cross and followed Jesus? And when we make that discernment, exercise that judgment, aren’t we called to do so with the greatest possible amount of charity, allowing the possibility that others may perceive the gospel mandate differently from ourselves? “Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13;13) That’s neither “Leftist” nor “Rightist” in my thinking.

Here’s my final thought on this subject . . . OK, it’s not my final thought; I’ll probably have more to say or write at some other time . . . but for now, it’s the concluding bit of what I’m writing today.

Any time I am tempted to label someone else in the church or some church group or some theological or ministerial activity, to say “That’s Leftist” or “That’s Rightist,” I remind myself of the question asked by one of America’s best popular theologians, the late cartoonist Charles Schultz speaking through the character of Snoopy:

You Might Be Wrong

Keeping that in mind, my hope is that Christ will not be ashamed of me.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Anglo? Israel? What Is Truth? – From the Daily Office – August 20, 2014

August 20, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Psalter:

“Greatly have they oppressed me since my youth,”
let Israel now say;
“Greatly have they oppressed me since my youth,
but they have not prevailed against me.”
The plowmen plowed upon my back
and made their furrows long.

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Psalm 129:1-3 (BCP Version) – August 20, 2014)

Multivocality Depicted as Speech Bubbles Truth, United States Senator Hiram Johnson observed in 1917, is the first casualty of war. When war becomes nearly universal is truth in danger of being fully obliterated? I don’t think so; I think truth will ultimately survive and prevail. My faith is that the Truth will no doubt prevail, but for the moment, I am speaking neither of grand philosophical concepts nor of the One who made the audacious claim, “I am the Truth.” (Jn 14:6) Rather, I speak simply of factual accuracy and of the intellectual integrity of those who communicate; that truth is suffering some mighty hurtful body blows at present.

Following up on Senator Johnson’s observation several decades later, linguist William Lutz (best known as the editor of the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak) suggested language as an alternative “first casualty of war” because, he said, “with language goes the truth.” In a 1992 essay in English Today, Lutz argued that in times of war and conflict language becomes corrupted and turned into “an instrument for concealing and preventing thought, not for expressing or extending thought.” (The First Casualty)

I was reminded of Johnson and Lutz this week when Missouri’s Republican lieutenant governor, in response to the civil unrest in Ferguson following the killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, by a white police officer, suggested that those with grievances (and they and their complaints are many and legitimate) should turn not to the streets but to the “Anglo-American jurisprudence tradition.” Almost immediately a fire-storm erupted on social media and in the left-leaning press accusing the man of being a “white supremacist” because of his use of the term “Anglo-American.”

I was particularly astounded to see religious journalists, pastors, preachers, and essayists, friends and colleagues whom I respect, jumping on this bandwagon. I suggested in a couple of Facebook discussions that “Anglo-American” is not a white racist buzzword, that it is a term of art to those who study or have studied (as the Missouri politician and I both have) the law and the history of the American judicial system. It refers to the historical reality that our system and our preconceptions of fairness, equity, and justice stem from origins in the laws and processes of England and English jurisprudence (the “Anglo” part) imported to and further developed in this country (the “American” part). I have no doubt that our judicial system (and our entire society) embody a systemic racism that must be addressed, but vehement criticism of the Missouri lieutenant governor for use of a longstanding and venerable term of art is not the way to do it. As I pointed out, I have used the term “Anglo-American” myself on many occasions in briefs, oral arguments, and lectures, and I have never used it to mean “white supremacy,” so I give the Missouri politician the benefit of the doubt.

As I thought more about it, it took me back to my college days in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Southern California. Those were the heydays of La Raza Unida, LULAC, the United Farm Workers, and other Chicano labor and political organizations. (Does anyone even use the terms “Chicano” or “Chicana” any longer?) In the rhetoric of the day, any non-hispanic caucasian was an “Anglo.” It didn’t matter where in northern Europe one’s ancestors may actually have come from — Ireland, France, and Germany (my own heritage), Poland and Ukraine (my then-girlfriend’s background), or Scandinavia (my roommate’s family), we were all “Anglos.” What had previously been a prefix referring specifically to the English became an all-inclusive term for white people in general. The racial and ethnic conflict of the day corrupted the language; truth suffered. Apparently, the corruption still taints almost a half-century later.

Then this evening’s psalm — “let Israel now say” — and I am confronted with my own failure to embrace multiple word meanings, my own tendency to corrupt language and to distort truth! I hear the words of the psalm, “Greatly have they oppressed me since my youth,” and I hear them as untrue in today’s world. Israel (the modern nation state) is not oppressed; it is the oppressor! I hear Israel’s metaphoric claim that “plowmen [have] plowed upon my back,” and it rankles me! It is Israel with her air force and her bombs who is “plowing upon the backs” of others! I must divorce myself from my modern irritation for it is not the psalm but my reaction to it which is untrue. The word Israel is a word of many meanings, for some of which the psalm is true; for others, not.

Who is this “Israel”? What does the name mean?

Israel could mean

Jacob, son of Isaac, who spent a night wrestling with God and was given this new name

His genetic descendants

Those who adhere to the religion of Judaism as it has evolved from its earliest beginnings

Those like myself who adhere to the Christian faith, the “New Israel” grafted to the old (Romans 11)

The ancient ethnic “nation” of diverse tribes (twelve?) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean, through its various permutations of governance

The original singular kingdom which was one of the iterations of that “nation”

The subsequent northern kingdom which rebelled against the central imperial government and established itself as a separate entity

The modern nation state established by United Nations Resolution 181 in 1947

The land on which that nation state sits

The additional land of “Greater Israel” claimed by ultra-Orthodox Zionists

And a host of additional meanings others may list

How I hear, interpret, pray, accept, reject, or otherwise respond to this evening’s (and any other) psalm naming “Israel” depends on which of these meanings I choose to accept at the moment, and in that choice lies either truth or falsehood. If I choose to accept only one of those meanings to the exclusion of all others, I corrupt language, I betray truth.

The internet discussion of “Anglo” focused (I think) on a single, limited understanding of the term and, in doing so, distorted it and betrayed the truth. There may have been truth — the truth of white privilege, the truth of non-uniform application of laws, the truth of a sometimes failing judicial system — but there was also falsehood and distortion — the condemnation of the Missouri lieutenant govern as a racist (he may be, I don’t know, but the use of the word is hardly sufficient evidence by itself), the dismissal of the historical term is nothing more than a “white supremacist buzzword,” the rejection of the notion of “Anglo-American civilization” as an oxymoron.

Back in college, I often protested, “I am not an Anglo!” My Irish and French ethnic heritage bristles at the very suggestion. And, yet, as an Anglican Episcopalian, as an American lawyer, as a speaker of the English language (corrupted though my American version may be), and in may other ways, I am very much an Anglo. As a student and practitioner of Anglo-American jurisprudence (I am still licensed and admitted to practice in two states and before the Federal judiciary), I am an Anglo. As a user of the term “Anglo-American,” however, I am not a white supremacist but, as a white person in the “Anglo-American civilization” which the Missouri politician lauded, I am a person who possesses (and must be conscious of) white privilege. Youthful protest notwithstanding, I must accept and admit that I am an Anglo.

My negative reaction to the psalm is the same. To be certain, in one sense, the modern state of Israel is not oppressed, nor is its back being plowed, but perhaps in another sense there is truth about the modern nation in the ancient psalm. If I am to hear that truth, I must not distort the language by closing off alternative understandings.

Who are these “Anglos”? Who is this “Israel”? There is more than a single answer to each question and the answers are many and varied, and in all of the several answers there is truth.

“What is truth?” Pilate famously asked. (Jn 18:38) Jesus did not answer him, but had elsewhere asserted, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (Jn 8:32) It will only do so if we open ourselves to it. Truth is multi-vocal, and even though we may not want wish to hear all of the voices of truth, but we need to do so. To the extent that we limit, distort, or corrupt the language of our conversations, religious or political, we will be unable to hear its many voices. We must be open to truth’s multi-vocality; only then will the truth set us free.

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Of Tombs and Siblings – From the Daily Office – August 14, 2014

August 14, 2014 / eric / 0 Comments

From the Book of Acts:

[Stephen the Deacon answered the High Priest in the council and said:] “Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all; so Jacob went down to Egypt. He himself died there as well as our ancestors, and their bodies were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.”

(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Acts 7:14-16 (NRSV) – August 14, 2014)

Icon of the Martyrdom of St Philoumenos Shechem was known as Sychar in Jesus’ time. Near that land that Abraham had bought for use as a tomb, just a short walk south from the traditional location of Joseph’s tomb, is a well that belonged to Jacob. At that well, Jesus stopped to ask a Samaritan woman for a drink; part of the story of that meeting and Jesus’ conversation with the woman (the longest of all the conversations recorded in the Gospels) is today’s Gospel text (John 4:27-42).

Near Sychar the Romans built the Greek-named city of Flavia Neapolis which grew large and encompassed the ancient Jewish and Samaritan city. As the predominant local language changed to Arabic, the Greek name was retained but shortened and Arabicized, and now the modern city of Nablus is among the largest Arab cities in the Holy Land.

Over the site of Jacob’s Well stands the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Photini. The name Photini is given by Orthodox tradition to the Samaritan woman; it means “light bringer” in recognition of her bringing the light of Christ to the people of the city. The first church dedicated to her at the site was built in 311 AD.

There are two tombs at St. Photini Church. One inside houses the remains of Archimandrite Philoumenos, a priest who almost single-handedly restored the ancient church to its present modern condition. In 1979 a group of radical Zionists from a nearby Israeli settlement claimed Jacob’s Well, which is in a chapel inside the crypt of the church, as a Jewish holy place and demanded that crosses and icons be removed. A week later, on November 29, Fr. Philoumenos was hacked to death with an ax in the crypt and the church was desecrated. Although it is widely believed that the settlers were responsible, no one was ever convicted of the priest’s murder. Fr. Philoumenos was ranked among the Saints of the Church of Jerusalem on August 30, 2008, and his feast day set on November 29, the anniversary of his martyrdom.

Fr Justinus's Tomb The second tomb is that of Fr. Justinus, the priest who took over the church from St. Philoumenos and continued his work of restoration. An accomplished artist, Fr. Justinus wrote all of the icons which now decorate the nave, sanctuary, and crypt, including an icon of the martyrdom of St. Philoumenos. Fr. Justinus’s tomb is empty because he is still alive. He built his tomb himself and it is placed just outside the front door of the church; he walks past it everyday coming from his residence in the neighboring monastery to the church. It is a daily reminder of his (and our) mortality and of the dangers he (and many) face in the on-going violence or threat of violence that characterizes the Holy Land today.

If we were to read further in Acts (and we will tomorrow and the day after) we would read of the martyrdom of Stephen. His address to the Sanhedrin (perhaps one would best characterize it as a polemical sermon) so enraged his hearers that “they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him” (Acts 7:58) which resulted in his death. We are told that “devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him” (8:2) but we are not told where his burial place may have been, though surely it is in or near Jerusalem.

Nonetheless, his sermon about Jesus at Jacob’s Well in Shechem-Sychar-Nablus, the well’s location near Joseph’s Tomb and its intimate connection to the martyrdom of St. Philoumenos, and the eventual outcome of Stephen’s address are stark reminders that the Good News of God (whether that be the Covenant of the Old Testament or the Gospel of the New) is not the promise of an easy life. One would not be surprised to hear the Almighty singing the lyrics of that old country song:

I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden.
Along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometime.
When you take you gotta give so live and let live and let go.
I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.

In fact, Jesus did pretty much that when he disabused his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Mat. 10:34)

The People of God are called to be risk-takers and, sometimes, to risk even death. Christians most surely must know that; we have only the example of our Lord to prove it. But it is also true of all the children of Abraham, not only Christians but also Jews and Muslims. What is sad is that Abraham’s descendants cannot live peaceably among themselves, that it is often our Abrahamic “siblings” from whom we face the greatest danger (sometimes even more so from our brothers and sisters within the same faith group). I believe that this breaks God’s heart!

As he died, Stephen the Deacon “knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’” (Acts 7:60) So should we all pray for those who persecute us, and let us pray especially for all who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, that there may be peace among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

(Note: The icon of the martyrdom of St. Philoumenos may be photographed by pilgrims and tourists, and those photographs are to be found widely posted on the internet, the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority will not permit the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem nor the parish church or monastery to reproduce the icon. It is considered politically inflammatory and is therefore censored.)

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Father Funston is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio.

Category: Politics (Page 12 of 23)

The Midterm Zombie Apocalypse – From the Daily Office – November 5, 2014

Political Rainbow – From the Daily Office – November 4, 2014

Divisive Prayer – From the Daily Office – November 3, 2014

A Third Tongue – From the Daily Office – October 29, 2014

Fear Not – From the Daily Office – October 27, 2014

Shut Up! – From the Daily Office – October 24, 2014

Toleration – From the Daily Office – October 23, 2014

Leftist? Rightist? – From the Daily Office – October 16, 2014

Anglo? Israel? What Is Truth? – From the Daily Office – August 20, 2014

Of Tombs and Siblings – From the Daily Office – August 14, 2014

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