Praying for Marriage Equality in NYC

Friends, as most of you have long known, the Supreme Court will soon be taking up two marriage equality cases, one concerning the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and the other on California's Proposition 8, the constitution amendment that stripped same-sex couples of their freedom to marry back in 2008.  The court has scheduled oral arguments to begin on March 26th and March 27th, with a final ruling expected in June.  Although the court could make a wide variety of rulings on the two cases, there's great hope that we could win the struggle for marriage equality this spring.

In such hope, people of faith in New York City are gathering every Saturday evening at Saint John's Lutheran Church at 81 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.  While the weekly vigil will be held from 7-9pm, its designed to be a free flowing style of worship where folks can come and go as they please.  Various stations will be placed throughout the Saint John's sanctuary, where folks can pray for the Supreme Court Justices, pray for those who wish to deny same-sex individuals their civil rights, celebrate those who are married, and remember those who have died before they could enjoy the right to marry, etc.  An additional station will offer the opportunity to brainstorm additional ways we can take action to forward the cause of nationwide marriage equality.  For more info, you can find contact information for Pastor Mark Erson on the Saint John's website, or simply comment on this post.

Additionally, if you're someone in or outside the New York area planning a similar pray vigil, I'd love to hear about it. 

God's peace,
Dustin 

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Public Theologians Advocate on Behalf of PA General Assistance

Wow, I'm live-blogging from the start of Lutheran Day at the Capitol and it's really exciting to see so many Lutherans from throughout Pennsylvania living out their baptismal call to do justice!  In addition to working on issues combating a pay-day lending bill, protecting Pennsylvanians from a proposed food-stamp asset test and strengthening the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, another major issue we're working on today protection PA's General Assistance Program.

The General Assistance program supports the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians who have no other income. It is truly a program of last resort that is in danger of being cut from this year's PA state budget. The only people who can receive GA funds are:

- Disabled or sick adults without children,
- Domestic violence survivors, many of whom have just fled their abusers,
- Adults caring for someone who is sick or disabled, or for an unrelated child,
- Adults participating in alcohol and other drug treatment programs, and
- Children living with an unrelated adult.

We're trying something new with this particularly advocacy issue by recording advocacy videos, putting them up on YouTube,  and tweeting them to @GovernorCorbett and other legislators... please see some of our best ones below.  If you're interested in helping out, check out www.pacaresforall.org for more information, record a video, posted it to YouTube (LAMPa can help with that if needed) and tweet it to @GovernorCorbett.  Be sure to use the #KeepPAGA hashtag and let LAMPa know about your video by tweeting us @LAMPaADVOCACY.  Thanks so much friends!













If you're here today at Lutheran Day at the Capitol, please see Dustin to record a video before you go home!

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is a Masters of Divinity candidate in his second year of study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Psalms of Ascent & the Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict

Just a little something I wrote for my First Testament course at LTSP:
 

The specificity of the Jerusalem psalms puts the contemporary conflict between Israel and Palestine into conflicting perspectives.  On one level, these psalms indicate why it is so hard for some Israelis to accept nothing less than complete control over the Holy City and an opportunity to rebuild the temple.  Jerusalem is meant to be a unified city, “built as a city that is bound firmly together” (Psalm 122:2), and thus split control proves difficult.  Jerusalem generally and the temple specifically is not only the place on goes to worship, but is in fact the place where God has chosen to take residence up on Earth: “This is my resting place forever; here I reside, for I have desired it” (Psalm 131:14).  One can easily imagine a pilgrim singing Psalm 123:1’s “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” while looking up at the Temple Mount and literally thinking she or he was singing praise to the face of God.

On the other hand, the songs of ascent also pray for peace in the Holy City: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you.  Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers” (Psalm 122: 6-7).  Perhaps God is doing new things in our contemporary context, creating peace for the Holy City.  If we prayerfully discern this is so, then continually working to rebuild the temple and thereby perpetuating violence is in vain: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain” (Psalm 127: 1-2).

David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World @ LTSP

On February 7th the LTSP community was privileged to hear David Beckmann, a Lutheran pastor and President of Bread for the World, speak at our first convocation of the spring 2012 semester.  The talk was an encouraging yet sobering update on what has occurred in the struggle to end global food insecurity since the publication of Mr. Beckmann’s book Exodus from Hunger in 2010.  Through Exodus’s inclusion in the “One Seminary; One Book” campaign, the LTSP community has learned a great deal both about hunger and what role public theologians have in leading our world out of what is very solvable crisis.  Much like in his book, Beckmann discussed how solving hunger can be a bi-partisan issue, evidenced by the fact that Bread for the World has both former Republican Senator Bob Dole and former Democratic Senator Tom Harkin on it’s board.”  He also stressed that public theologians have a responsibility to help faith communities see citizenship as stewardship and considering offerings of not only money and food but advocacy actions that work towards changing the system that causes hunger in our world.

While a great deal of work has already been done towards ending food insecurity, Mr. Beckmann discussed how given the current political environment, we need to help defend the “circle of protection” around the poor and vulnerable of our society.  Although maintaining church food banks is a great start, they only contribute 6% of what federal assistance programs currently do towards feeding hungry people.  As state and federal politicians continue attacking the federal safety net of food stamps, school breakfast and lunches, tax credits and other programs, the faith community must stand, the faith community needs to lend its voice to those who do not have one.  Here are only a few ideas of what folks at LTSP and elsewhere could do to help in this effort:

1. Pick up a copy of Exodus from Hunger and read it to educate yourself on the issue if you have not already done so (it’s a really easy book).
2. Check the websites of Lutheran Advocacy Ministries of PA and Bread for the World to learn more about current legislation and issues.
3. Write, call or visit your local, state or federal representatives as indicated on those websites… even if you’re against their position, the people who work in legislative offices are generally pretty nice. Help folks at your congregations and field sites realize how important advocacy is as part of their faith.
4. Let’s get creative on the LTSP campus! Figuring out how to do a well-publicized hunger fast during part of Lent might be a great start.

By engaging in these actions, we can both ensure that hungry people are fed and that we are doing our best to be the Church, Christ’s body on earth.

God's peace,

Dustin

A Lutheran Seminarian @ the MLK Memorial

I've had an amazing opportunity this January break to check out a bunch of things I otherwise wouldn't have had time to.  Wired Beans Cafe and the LTSP archives were definitely some amazing discoveries, but my most profound experience over the last couple weeks was experiencing the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC.  Thanks to some of my old fraternity brothers I had free lodging in the district, so I figured MLK Day would be great opportunity to check out the new memorial.  Returning to DC is always sort of a pilgrimage for me, and this time was no exception.

After a great night visiting with friends from Camp Calumet the night before, I woke up at a friend's place on Capitol Hill and decided to walk to the memorial since it was a pretty warm day out.  I even had the opportunity to check out the Smithsonian's Botanical Garden on the way. Eventually after walking down the national mall and past the empty reflecting pool, I was able to find the memorial by the huge crowds around the shore of the DC's tidal basin.  It was definitely a perfect space for MLK surrounded by the cherry trees, and the MLK sculpture itself gazes out over the water (perhaps symbolically) towards the Jefferson memorial.

While I didn't think the central sculpture was particularly amazing, many of the quotes around the rest of the memorial were extremely thought provoking, especially "I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality and freedom for their spirit."  All to often us Lutherans think about advocacy and social justice as important but limited by our belief that we cannot create an ideal world.  While we indeed cannot make things absolutely perfect in this world due to our sinful natures, we're saints too and thus can greatly improve from its current state.  The basic goals MLK set forth in the above quote are not only something we should strive for but can in fact attain with God's help.

My other favorite part of the memorial was the other people there visiting.  There were park rangers, some Occupiers but also a large number of families, both black and white.  I overheard one young mother telling her child about civil rights, comparing Dr. King to Moses in the Bible.  A few folks, one who told me he personally knew MLK, were quite emotional, with one even crying that the dream had not yet been met.  I don't love the central sculpture itself, but I do greatly appreciate that it looks unfinished, because Dr. King's dream has indeed yet to be fulfilled... we are not finished reaching the dream.  In this regard, it was helpful to read President Obama's interpretation of the controversial quote on one side of the memorial, which reads "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."  President Obama points out that interpreted in the context of the whole speech, the quote is a call to service, stating that we can all become drum majors for justice.  In a time when some states are trying to once again restrict voting rights, as folks of all backgrounds are crying out for jobs, and as elderly folks are refused foodstamps in Pennsylvania, we need those drum majors for justice more than ever.

God's peace,
Dustin

A Christian Response to SOPA

Thou shalt not steal... some might think that's basically all their faith might say about SOPA/ PIPA and support the new anti-piracy legislation.  From my own perspective though, it's not so simple.  I support the initial spirit behind anti-piracy legislation, but as I understand it, SOPA/ PIPA is currently written in a way that would hamper online innovation and freedom while in fact really not doing much to actually stop the pirating of copyrighted content online.  In doing so, SOPA/ PIPA would strike at heart of our evolving definition of community, and therefore our evolving definition of the church in the twenty-first century.  Jesus taught in Matthew 20:18, "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."  What we've seen over the last decade or so has been a revolution in what it means to be gathered, a revolution largely enabled by sites like Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and Twitter that are at risk of being shut down by SOPA/ PIPA.

I've often thought about how important it is for the church to get connected online, but up until the controversy over SOPA/ PIPA in the last few days, I never thought about it in the other direction... how the church must give thanks for the gift of internet freedom that allows us to gather in conversation.  Not only must we give thanks for how the internet can strengthen our existing physical faith communities and create virtual new ones, we must further give thanks for what internet freedom has contributed the cause of social justice.  As I wrote about a month or so ago, social media sites allowed millennials and other peaceful protestors this past year to enter into conversation and work to reform or rebuild many of the world's most oppressive governments and other social systems, whether in Egypt, Russia or Wall Street.  The overwhelming condemnation of Rick Perry's hateful "Strong" ad and today's response to SOPA/ PIPA further shows the political power of online viral organizing.

For those of you who wish to become better educated on SOPA/ PIPA and what it does to curb freedom online, I've found the following video most helpful:


Having realized and unlocked the power of online community and viral organizing against systems of oppression over the last few years, we should all do everything we can to protect the internet as one of our central tools in evolving what the church is and does in the twenty-first century.  For more information about what you can do, click here.

God's peace,
Dustin

A Christian Response to Rick Perry's Hateful Campaign Ad

Upon first watching Rick Perry's "Faith" ad tonight, I literally felt sick to my stomach.  Gov. Perry not only proclaimed a hateful message just to get some political attention, but he used the Christian faith to do it.  As a gay ally I felt like I was being attacked as well.  Check out the ad:


After my nausea and anger subsided, I watched the video a few more times, and I began to feel profoundly sad.  I felt profoundly sad for my gay sisters and brothers who face messages just like Perry's everyday, I felt profoundly sad for Rick Perry but most of all I felt profoundly sad that this campaign ad that was actually meant to appeal to Christians.  How astray are we that such a hateful message is associated with Christianity?  How is it possible that so many Christians will actually appreciate Gov. Perry's ad?  Most importantly, why are us moderate and progressive Christians so publicly quiet on matters of faith?  The only reason people associate extreme social conservatism with Christianity is because the rest of us don't speak up.
Now, check out this rebuttal spoof ad:


Our "magic spirit guide or whatever" has absolutely not "blessed us with special a-hole privileges."  It is so profoundly sad, yet completely understandable, that this is what many folks, especially young people, think of us Christians.  This is one reason why the Reconciling in Christ movement is so important.  The LGBTQ community has been made to feel so unwelcome by Christians for so long, that congregations need to expressly state they're open to not just tolerating but celebrating God's created humanity in its full diversity.  While RIC is a movement of Lutheran congregations and other communities, many other denominations have similar organizations as well.  I encourage you to be a prophetic witness, speak out against injustice and figure out how you and your faith community can welcome and publicly affirm the lives of LGBTQ believers.  The more we do so, the less we'll frankly seem like "a-holes" and perhaps more folks will be able to hear Christ's good news.

God's peace,
Dustin