Grab a mop, suckas.

Being a committed participant in society sometimes means that it's okay to get dirty-- it's a good thing to stand by your opinions and beliefs, and that is harder said than done.

You want something to be done? Pull up your bootstraps and get involved-- make change happen if you want to see it in your lifetime. It's not enough to sit and point fingers and be such a whiney nimrod.

Obama spoke in New York on October 20th of 2009. The following quote is just too good to not pass on. I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat, or one of those fancy Republican tea-bag break-off folks who rambles on about civil liberties, our founding fathers and an ambiguous understanding of the Constitution... this is true of any situation in which we are confronted with a messy situation.

"We understand exactly who and what got us into this mess. Now, we don't mind cleaning it up. I'm grabbing my mop and my broom, and we're scrubbing the floors and trying to neaten things up. But don't just stand there and say "you're not holding the mop right". Don't just stand there and say "you're not mopping fast enough". Don't accuse me of having a "socialist mop". Instead of standing on the sidelines, why don't you grab a mop? Help us clean up this mess and get America back on track!"

Wipe your whiney tears and do something that matters.

Response from Pastor Walter Kallestad

At the end of September, I emailed Pastor Walter Kallestad of Community Church of Joy in Glendale, AZ to inquire about the theological and potentially political reasoning behind his church leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA recently made the decision to recognize and support the ordination of homosexual clergy into the ministry of the church. Some churches, such as CCOJ have decided that this is unacceptable and that the decision was made outside the fundamental beliefs of Christianity.

Read my original question to Walt here.

His brief (and ambiguously relevant) response came yesterday, the 8th of October.

Dear Ian - I encourage you to re read Genesis 1,2,3. God's created order has a perfect plan for marriage and family. For anyone to redesign God's desires and designs is just plain wrong. Since the fall God has sacrificed everything to reconcile and redeem ALL creation.

Blessings,

Walt

This just stinks of ambiguity and misconception.

I believe what he meant by "Genesis 1,2,3" is actually Genesis 2: 24... again, what I would call "sound byte" scripture: a single sentence taken out of context found in a book full of diverse and conflicting ideas.

Furthermore, I asked for an explanation based on the teachings of Jesus, the very guy we Christians claim to follow, and all I got was a suggestion to read the first three chapters of the old testament? Really?? Jesus was merely a twinkle in God's eye at that point!

So, dear readers and committed participants, here's my question to you:

• What do you think about this issue and decision from a personal belief perspective (regardless of your faith background)?
• What would your response to this perfunctory message be? What questions would you ask at this point?
• As a participant in culture-- theological, popular, political-- what does his response actually say in regard to my initial set of questions? Does this give us any insight into how or why we should justify turning our backs to people who are simply biologically different than me?

I look forward to responding, and will post my return as soon as it is composed. Chime in with your questions if you'd like them addressed in my retort.

A letter to Pastor Walter Kallestad of Community Church of Joy

Recently, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to recognize gay marriage and allow the ordination of homosexuals in committed relationships. There are a certain number of small thinkers who have made a stink of this, and a noisy minority of ELCA churches are talking about leaving the church, claiming the ELCA's recent decisions to extend a Godly love to all as a main reason for their divorce from the synod.

One such church, Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona has recently decided that a divorce would suit their congregation rather than trying to learn how to love.

Is nothing sacred any more?!

Here is a letter I just sent to Pastor Kallestad. I look forward to his response.

--------------------------------------------

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Good evening, Pastor Kallestad,

I just read the unfortunate news about Community Church of Joy's decision to divorce from the ELCA. I appreciate the attempts at an explanation on the church's website, but am left confused, as most of the scripture used as a tool of human justification was used without much consideration of context.

Regardless, I would love to hear a more candid, real explanation from you if you're willing to engage in such conversation. I read your quote from the ELCA News Service, "There is such a different direction that the ELCA has chosen, a path they're traveling on, and we really believe that it just was not consistent to where God has called us. And so we're parting".

After having read the three documents released on your website, my question stems from my understanding of the ELCA's direction and of what Jesus actually said himself in Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

As a people of faith, how could I even begin to use any secondary scripture to justify turning my back on people who are different than myself? Does this Godly love Jesus refers to only stretch to fellow Christians and to the state of Israel? Is this love applicable to only heterosexual sinners? I understand there is such a thing as "sound byte" scripture (Romans 1:27 for example) which, when used alone, is used to explain the sin in what is considered "unnatural" according to popular human culture.

But even in that case, the biblical and historical context reveals a deeper message. See Romans 2:1:

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. Heterosexuals, homosexuals, blacks, whites, hispanics, jews, christians, muslims... we're all sinners. And yet, God loves us all just the same, whether we like it or not. There is nothing any of us can do to escape this love, grace and forgiveness.

Please help clarify this issue if you can. I would much rather have respect for the thought behind this conversation and divorce (er... "God's calling") than be left wondering why Christian culture in America feels like we can justify bigotry and angry politics with a loose, misunderstood scripture.

Blessings to you and the people of CCOJ,

Ian McConnell

Minneapolis, MN

ian.mcconnell@comcast.net

On Bob Collins' "Lutherans step back from the edge"

Woody Harrelson cracks me up

Apparently Woody Harrelson is being sued by a TMZ photographer for damaging his primary camera and pushing him in the face at La Guardia airport on Wednesday evening. He had just arrived back in New York with his daughter after wrapping up the filming of "Zombieland", his latest project.

Besides the obvious discussion about the paparazzo's respect of the privacy of celebrities and their families, Harrelson's statement about the situation, found in this CNN article, is particularly hilarious and TOTALLY worth talking about: 

"I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland', in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character. With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie."

My love for Woody has just grown exponentially. That is awesome.

This speaks for itself... AMERICA!

This sticker is faded, just like the idea behind it.

xoxo,

a "saved" american.

Reality exists in the Gray: an open thread

To be a committed participant is to be able and willing to engage in open debate and argument.

To engage in open debate and argument is to have a keen understanding of not only your own take on the issue but those opposing yours.

To have a keen understanding of both the black and white of an issue in debate is to, in reality, think somewhere in the gray zone that is lost in the media's form of debate.

Therefore, my question to you is this: as a committed participant in society, do the pundits on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc hold any value or weight of importance? If so, how should we effectively sort through the information being fed to us by these traditional media outlets? If they do not have value or importance to you, where do you get information from all angles in order to truly be equipped for real discussion and debate?

'Tis a frustrating quandary.

Participate by sharing your thoughts in the comments section, if you feel so inclined.