Reconciling Ministries Network

Can The Church Repeal Its Own DADT Policies?

by Rev. Gilbert Caldwell

President Obama in his State of the Union address, expressed his commitment to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the military that prohibits Gay Americans from being open about their sexual orientation as they serve in the military. His open declaration of "working with Congress and the military..." to repeal "DADT" prompted these thoughts:

1. I remembered, as I have done before, my relatives who in their efforts to avoid the legally enforced stigma of being black, "passed" as being white. The attitude of a society that limited the rights of persons because of their racial history caused indescribable trauma among those who were "passing" and family and friends who were expected to be silent accomplices to their deception. As the military begins its process of ceasing to exit persons because of their sexual orientation, will the UMC be led to do the same? Why does the Church keep denying persons when it says denying persons is wrong?
2. I thought of comic strip character Popeye, who said of himself; "I am what I am, and that's all that I am." How foolish that our society and our military would impose a Popeye-like limitation on military personnel who are Gay by suggesting, "That's all that they are and no more". Popeye may have self-limited himself, but how could a society, a military or a Church, deny themselves the opportunity of being enriched by the multiplicity of gifts of persons, by excluding and/or limiting them because of their sexual orientation?
3. And, I dare to remember those words in Exodus 3: 14, 'I AM THAT I AM", words ascribed to a God who provides a definition of Self, that is beyond debate.

The section of the State of the Union address that launched the official challenge of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by President Obama brought forth a memory of racial history, a remembering of a comic strip that brought joy to many of us, and a continuing awareness of a God who must weep and sometimes laugh, in response to our human foolishness.

Many Congresspersons and others applauded enthusiastically when the President expressed his intentions. Many, many United Methodists are ready to applaud with enthusiasm when our denomination rids itself of our "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Book of Discipline language. What new voices will join the voices of those of us who year-after-year have said with our words and our actions; "It is time for the United Methodist Church to stop 'passing' as being OPEN, when it is not?"

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The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is a retired United Methodist Minister who lives in Asbury Park, N.J. He was active in the Massachusetts unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and participated in the civil-rights movement throughout the nation. In 2000, he, with others, organized the RMN Extension ministry United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church (UMOC), an organization committed to the full inclusion of LGBT people in every aspect of church and society. His recent book, Something Within: Works by Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is available from Church Within A Church.

UMCOR Joins on-the-Ground Relief for Haiti

Redistributed from UMCOR News

A UMNS Story by Linda Bloom

The United Methodist Committee on Relief and a host of other faith-based groups are on the ground in Haiti as they determine how to assist earthquake survivors.

With more than $2 million in donations received by Jan. 20, UMCOR already has provided emergency grants to the Methodist Church of Haiti and GlobalMedic, a Canadian relief agency, to address immediate needs.

An assessment team led by UMCOR’s Melissa Crutchfield was gathering in the Dominican Republic Jan. 20 and preparing to enter Haiti. She is accompanied by five others with the relief agency, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Communications.

Other United Methodist-supported organizations, including Church World Service, Action By Churches Together International and Stop Hunger Now, also are responding with aid.

Paul Jeffrey, a United Methodist photojournalist and missionary on assignment with ACT, watched a Mexican rescue team free Anna Zizi from the home of the parish priest at Port-au-Prince's Roman Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption.

“The rescuers were crying afterwards,” reported Jeffrey. It was a welcome opportunity to feel joy amid such devastation, he said.

ACT has deployed a “rapid support team” to Haiti, which will work with members with offices already in Haiti. UMCOR is a pending member of the new ACT Alliance.

Despite rescue efforts, few survivors were being pulled alive from the rubble a week after the earthquake struck.

The Reuters news organization reported that 75,000 bodies were buried in mass graves and that Haitian officials say the toll could be between 100,000 and 200,000. An organization called Partners In Health said 20,000 people are dying daily “who could be saved by surgery,” according to a Jan. 20 story in The Wall Street Journal.

Distributing Water

UMCOR’s partnership with GlobalMedic will focus on the distribution of clean drinking water, says the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, an UMCOR executive. It also will provide medical attention to earthquake survivors.

GlobalMedic is deploying paramedics, water technicians and a doctor to assist the sick or injured, UMCOR reported. A water distribution hub will provide 65,000 people daily with clean drinking water.

Working through local nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations network in Haiti, GlobalMedic also will distribute 110,000 sachets of PUR water purifiers, 5 million Aquatab water purification tablets and 110,000 oral rehydration sachets.

The supplies are being shipped into the Dominican Republic, and then transported by ground into Haiti, Hazelwood said.

One of the tasks for the UMCOR team in Haiti this week will be meeting with Gesner Paul, who leads the Methodist Church of Haiti, to assess how best to work with church members there.

Organizing Volunteers

Mission volunteers from The United Methodist Church have been a strong presence in Haiti for years, so another priority is organizing for future volunteer teams.

“We know the (immediate) need is for medical volunteers,” Hazelwood said. “We’re looking at trying to centralize the volunteer process.”

Bishop Joel Martinez, interim general secretary of the Board of Global Ministries, is advising volunteer teams not to set out for Haiti immediately. “The time for volunteers will come, and their assistance will be crucial,” Martinez said.

Church World Service has sent in Don Tatlock, its Latin America and Caribbean program manager, to coordinate its efforts in Haiti.

Recovery has been slow, Tatlock reported. "People are still sleeping outside in makeshift tents on street sides, parks or any open area," he said. "In some neighborhoods, you see signs written on sheets asking for water and food."

Church World Service relief kits and blankets are being distributed in Port-au-Prince, and the agency’s partners in Action by Churches Together are bringing in water and sanitation equipment.

Tatlock said a European psychosocial team supported by Church World Service also was arriving in Haiti to work with disaster survivors and first responders. "The situation is so horrifying that there is concern of post-traumatic stress syndrome for members of search and rescue teams," he said in a report on the agency’s Web site.

Food Aid Flown In

A planeload of 80,000 pounds of water, medicine and medical supplies organized by Stop Hunger Now is being distributed in Haiti, says the Rev. Ray Buchanan, the United Methodist pastor who is the food aid group’s founder and president.

He also has talked to Mission of Hope, the partner group in Port-au-Prince that received most of those supplies, about a previous supply of pre-packaged meals. “They told us that since the earthquake, they’ve been feeding 50,000 a day using the meals we sent in December,” Buchanan added.

Stop Hunger Now still has five containers of bottled water and three containers of more than a half-million meals ready to go to Haiti. “We’re currently doing our very best trying to find military transport,” he said. “We’re working with the Army, Air Force and the Navy.”

Meal donations have come from a variety of sources, including a Jan. 18 packaging event in Lynchburg, Va., organized by the Rev. Larry Davies, the United Methodist district superintendent there. The effort, which resulted in 210,000 meals, “really touches the heart of what Stop Hunger Now is trying to do,” Buchanan noted.

Volunteers also are needed in the United States to help assemble health kits and other relief supplies for Haiti at UMCOR’s two supply depots – Sager Brown in Baldwin, La., and UMCOR West in Salt Lake City – as well as other church-owned regional warehouses.

Those interested in volunteering at UMCOR West can contact Director Brian Diggs at (801) 973-7250, or e-mail WestDepot@umcor.org. To volunteer at Sager Brown, call (800) 814-8765.

UMCOR is encouraging church members to collect health kits for distribution in Haiti.

Gifts to support UMCOR's Haiti Relief efforts can be made to Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance #418325. Checks can be made to UMCOR with "Advance #418325 Haiti Emergency" in the memo line. Checks can be put in the church's offering plate or mailed to: UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. The entire amount of each gift will be used to help the people of Haiti.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

A Response to Comments

by Rev. Gilbert Caldwell

It is is in writing/speaking and reading/listening, that I have found God is able to take us to places we seldom visit. A recent commentary on one of my blogs prompts the following. I will print an excerpt of the commentary and offer my response. (In Response to Comments From -Lessons for United Methodists from Mayor-elect Annise Parker and Strom Thurmond)

"Are you sure that Strom Thurmond did not take what he wanted from Carrie Butler and then..."

My point was that too often we in the Church and beyond "use" the gifts of LGBT persons and same gender loving couples and yet condemn them for being who they are; human beings who have the same gifts and graces, perfections and imperfections and if they are people of faith; love God as deeply as any of us do. Thurmond "used" Carrie Butler, and then had the audacity, to block legislation that would benefit Carrie Butler and all of us who are African Americans. I have LGBT friends whose gifts are "used" by preachers and churches, even as those preachers and churches, condemn them because of their "incompatibility". I sought to suggest in my blog that there are similarities in the way Thurmond related to Carrie Butler, the servant who was the mother of his child, while he demeaned black people as a group. I have seen this same kind of relationship with individual LGBT persons in the church,accepted and affirmed, while from pulpit and pew they and those like them are demeaned.

"But the nerve of you to use God to further your agenda and line your pockets"

I respond in reverse order to this critique. The writer must be aware of income that I have that has not yet reached my pockets. If he could identify the source and amount of that income,I would appreciate it. It has not yet reached my pockets, my wallet nor my bank account.

It is strange that my being an ally/advocate of gay rights in church and society, becomes "your agenda". Does this suggest that my critic believes that the justice agenda, whether for blacks or for LGBT persons or for women, or poor people, etc. is not an important aspect of God's agenda? The Broadway play titled; "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God", is descriptive of my relationship to/with God. "Using" God is to box with God, and history has shown us that those who "used" God to support slavery, segregation and the subjugation of women, boxed with God and lost!

"How dare you trivialize the fight of minorities and compare it to the fight of the LGBT group."

The writer has trivialized the long struggles of minorities when he suggests that comparisons with other struggles is an act of trivialization. My history of black advocacy and my writings have indicated that there is no equivalency between slavery, racial segregation and the discrimination faced by LGBT persons. But the fight/quest for justice is not an exercise in comparisons, it is an effort to affirm the dignity, rights and humanity of all of God's people.

"Please don't say racism is dead."

It is difficult for me to understand why the writer suggests that the death of racism is something I believe, or have written. Martin Luther King, Jr. said of segregation; "It is dead, it is just a question of how long some folk want to make its funeral." I believe that the existence of legally sponsored racism or heterosexism is so at variance with God's intent or the intent of our Constitution, that neither of them has legitimate life. But, sadly in the church and in the nation, there are people who seek to prevent their burial by prolonging their respective funerals. Thus, LGBT persons and black persons are harmed and hurt by these two "isms". They are perpetrated by persons who have some peculiar need to hold on to their racism and/or heterosexism, not realizing that they are living with the awful odor of an attitude/assumption/action that is dead but not yet buried.

"Media disrespect of our President"

There are those in the media who disrespect our President and that disrespect is so obvious that most Americans can see it. Media "talking heads" who have labeled President Obama, "a racist" or who claim "he hates white people" say much about  themselves and nothing about President Obama. My critic in his writing states, what I too believe; the election of President Obama may have made racial history, but it did not erase our racial history, much of which is negative. There are issues with which I have disagreement with our President. But when any of his critics resorts to racial bias or prejudice to under gird their differences with him, they weaken the legitimacy of their disagreement.

I am writing this after a speaking/preaching engagement in Brooklyn in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday. My critic's response reminds me of those 8 clergyman in Birmingham who took out an ad criticizing Dr. King, expressing the wish that he and the Movement would leave town. I have remembered the richness of the words and thoughts that Dr. King included in his Letter from Birmingham Jail addressed to those clergymen. I obviously do not have the gifts we saw in the life of Martin Luther King. But, my hope is that my responses may serve to soften the anger that was revealed in the comments of my critic. I, possibly unlike my critic, have sought to allow the wounds that I have experienced for 76 years because of my blackness, to help me become a "wounded healer", sensitive not only to my wounds, but to the wounds of others. I have felt that if I cannot be sensitive to the harm and hurt that others who are not black, experience, I cannot expect others to be sensitive to the harm and hurt, I have experienced.

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The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is a retired United Methodist Minister who lives in Asbury Park, N.J. He was active in the Massachusetts unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and participated in the civil-rights movement throughout the nation. In 2000, he, with others, organized the RMN Extension ministry United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church (UMOC), an organization committed to the full inclusion of LGBT people in every aspect of church and society. His recent book, Something Within: Works by Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is available from Church Within A Church.

A Prayer for Haiti

by Dr. Pamela Lightsey

O God, we have been stunned once again by an event
Which seems so unnatural and yet is called "natural disaster."

We have no words to answer the "why" which we feel,
No wisdom to explain away the unexplainable areas of life.

Keep us from attributing this event as a heavenly reprimand,
Or from a certain haughtiness that tempts the distant soul.

Give us to be compassionate and gentle, servants to those in need.
Remind us of your gracious love in the midst of sorrow,
And your ability to work miracles when hope is faint.

We pray for those who suffer in Haiti even now
And for those who await rescue.
For relatives, for the children,
For mothers and fathers,
Sisters and brothers,
Grandparents, aunts and cousins.
For the survivors who question what more they might have done.
And for those who must keep on keeping on, in spite of.
For the leaders,
For those who bring aid
And those who await news.
Strengthen and encourage them we pray.

Now unto you, O God, we take the burdens of this hour and place them in your divine care.

For all you do and are doing, seen and unseen, we give thee thanks, Eternal God of All Creation.

Amen.

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Dr. Lightsey is an accomplished and dynamic scholar, speaker, professor and preacher! She currently serves as Dean of Students at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Her work in the areas of children and youth ministry, leadership development and church growth earned her the coveted Denman Evangelism Award from the United Methodist Church.

Failed to be an Obedient Church

by Joey Heath

We have failed to be an obedient church. That phrase from the prayer of confession is one I have been thinking about quite a bit recently. Whoever wrote the prayer of confession knew what they were doing because we have failed to be an obedient church. If you look at the history of the church here in the United States we have been failing...well pretty much our entire history. We allowed one of the worst forms of slavery every seen in history to happen in our country and parts of the church supported it. We claimed that women were not deserving the of the right to vote, the right to be placed at equal status with men and not subjugated to them, doing the same jobs making the same pay, and to be treated as equals in their own homes and we based it on scripture. We took land and displaced native populations and claimed it was God who gave us Manifest Destiny. We claimed that the races should be not be mixed and that God had ordained the separation the races based on the Bible. Most recently we have broken and turned away LGBTQ people claiming that they are less than and not deserving because they live “perverted lifestyles” saying that we “love the sinner, but hate the sin”.

Many Evangelical leaders want to say that we are in a moral decline here in the United States and that we are doomed. I would suggest that based on our history we have always been in moral decline. Now I would agree with Evangelical leaders on one point, there is an increasing number of people not going to church. Look at our sanctuaries on Sunday mornings, how many are half empty? I say it is because we have failed to be an obedient church. We spend far too much time sitting in our pews just getting our tickets punched. How much time do we spend telling others about this amazing God we worship and love? How much do we share that Jesus came not just for those sitting in church but for everyone? In fact it was Jesus in Luke 19:10 who said “For the Son of Man has come to seek out and save the lost”. What does this mean? Well If we are truly trying to live our lives like Jesus then we should be finding those who have forgotten or never truly felt the love of God and showing it to them. We should be seeking out those that are hurting, particularly those who have been hurt by the church. We should be doing everything we can to be instruments of God's love to world.

So why does the church have a bad image to the world? Because we have failed to be an obedient church. We have failed to reach out to the lost and offer the light of Christ. We have failed to see the hurting and offer the comforting hand of Jesus. How will you reach out to the lost and the hurting? How can we as the church act like the church that God wants us to be? How can we be obedient?

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

What Was Your Epiphany?

by James Dalton

Yesterday was Epiphany in which we celebrate the in-breaking of God into human history through the life of Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity we celebrate the discovery of Jesus by the Magi.  In some Eastern Christian traditions Epiphany is the celebration of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. As I thought about the meaning of Epiphany through the story of the Magi's I found it odd to whom God decided to reveal the birth of Jesus.  It would seem logical that God would choose to deliver this discovery to the religious leaders or maybe even some devout person who has dedicated their life to prayer and to the study of the religious texts.  Instead we are told that God chose the Magi.

As a children I was taught that the Magi were "three wise men" of seemingly well to-do stature and knowledge.  Who after riding a few days on camel arrived at the "lowly manager".  Upon presentation of their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh they broke out into a melodic rendition of "We Three Kings." (And if you've always wondered what myrrh was, it is an incense or oil that was typically used in burial rituals.  Great birthday gift, huh?)  After doing a little research I found that this description might not be entirely accurate.  According to some the Magi were a Priestly caste from Zoroastrianism, a religion based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, who were said to have the ability to read the stars and the fate that they foretold.

"So what? Does it really change anything?" some might say. In regards to the life and divinity of Jesus? Not so much. But it does, at least for me, change how I view God.  Many of us have grown up in or have been exposed to churches that maintain a belief that God only reveals truth to an elect few.  Some have been told that God only chooses those who are are of up-right stature, who go to church every Sunday, who have read the Bible cover-to-cover, or who can quote the ABC's of Salvation. These, of course, are God's favorites and to whom truth would be revealed, right? This doesn't really add up when you consider God's decision to announce Jesus birth to the Magi.

On the first day of Jesus' birth we are shown that God is doing something new and different.  Instead of revealing the birth of Jesus to the Pharisees or Sadducees, God chose outsiders. God chose a group of astrologists from a neighboring religion, whose testimony of the event would not have meant much to the temple leaders and religious leaders. God chose a group of people who would not have been allowed into the temple because of who they were.  From the very beginning of Jesus' life God was announcing that though the doors to the Kingdom had been made narrow allowing only a few to pass through, Jesus had come to break open the gates.  Jesus had come to preach good news to the poor,to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.  God was not only announcing the birth of Jesus but the beginning of a new way.  God was announcing that although you were formerly outsiders you are now accepted. This, for me, was my Epiphany.  What was yours?

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James Dalton is the Communications / Technology Coordinator at Reconciling Ministries Network.  He is currently finishing his Masters in Social Justice from Loyola University Chicago's Institute of Pastoral Studies.  He has Bachelors in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. 

What Might Be Possible?

by Ann Thompson Cook

At the turn of a year, I find myself reflecting on how far I still have to go in becoming open. Open to people who seem to me to have closed minds, open to people who draw the circle tight and exclude those I care about. The trouble is, if I can’t be open to them, I am them.

And so, standing there, I’m having trouble with the common wisdom in the movement about how we should focus our attentions on the “movable middle.” Over the years, I’ve seen too many people who seemed staunchly opposed to equality—who appeared far from movable—reverse themselves.

In fact, over the years, I’ve noticed that I’m not that good at predicting who’s movable and who’s not.

In Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen tells the story of a farmer who had beaten the odds of cancer, despite a dire prognosis. It wasn’t that he denied the cancer, he just listened to the prognosis the way he listened to the government soil experts. She explains, “As they were educated men, he respected them and listened carefully as they showed him the findings of their tests and told him that the corn would not grow in this field. He valued their opinions, but … ‘A lot of the time the corn grows anyway.’”

So I keep asking, what would it look like for me to be open to every one? What might be possible if I could see that spark of light, that bit of gold inside, no matter what meanness they had ever expressed, no matter what they were saying or doing at the moment?

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Ann Thompson Cook directs Many Voices, which later this year will launch an online, ecumenical clearinghouse of worship and educational resources for the welcoming movement. Her books on sexual orientation and gender diversity—And God Loves Each One, Dios nos ama por iqual, and Made in God’s Image—are distributed by eight national organizations including RMN.