the old bill

kn/exion goes commercial

With all the buzz about the next great Superbowl commercial, I thought we probably needed our own kn/exion commercial - so here it is: knexion_commercial.m4a

At kn/exion this week we will celebrate [sort of] the dual processes of breaking down & building up, of disintegration  and reintegration, getting it together and watching it crumble.  Ironies abound.  Breaking bread makes a community whole.  Crumbing egos lead to an integrated self. 

We'll do it with a sense of lightness, though.  Touched with respect and grace. 

Worship begins around 8.  Come for coffee around 7:30.  Email me if you'd like child care.  Click on the poster for a larger view.

trekkies, Jesus & gay marriage

I love this stuff. Somehow on a trekkie site they've been arguing/chatting over Jesus & family.  How great is that.  Not sure how the trekkies found their way to that topic, but glad to be a part of the conversation.  I am preparing to do a men's retreat in rural manitoba next weekend on same sex marriage & related stuff, which got me to finishing a piece on the bible and homosexuality - my own take on the topic.  I've posted it in the back room.  The two pix grow out of that discussion.

While doing that I picked up a copy of Good as New: A Radical Retelling of the Scriptures by John Henson [looks very interesting].  He deals with the problematic Romans 1:26-27 like this:

God let them go on to pursue their selfish desires.  Women use their charms to further their own ends.  Men, instead of being friends, ruthlessly exploit one another. Their stressful lifestyle makes them ill. [Ro 1:26-27].

And he adds a footnote to these verses:

These verses have been shamefully used as a basis for the discomforting of those with a same-sex orientation.  Undoubtedly Paul had uppermost in his mind the callous exploitation associated with the sex-trade centred in his day in the pagan temples.  he was not addressing the issue of loving same-sex relationships.  Our translation strives to refocus on Paul's concern with the ill treatment of one human being by another, of which sexual abuse is one example, the persecution of minorities another.

I can say amen to that!

Gay marriage leads to human-donkey romances

James Dobson offers more enlightenment on why same-sex marriage is bad:

1. It will lead to "a man marrying his donkey". Frightening as this may be, this threat is perhaps  mitigated by the relatively small number of donkeys in homes in america.

2. It will traumatize children, many of whom significantly eat the same brand of peanut butter,  Allowing gay/lesbian couples to marry means 300 - 1000 sexual partners in the home.  Imagine the variety of peanut butters.  Smooth. Crunchy.  Maybe even cashew butter or organic.  The only flaw in this argument, Dr, Dobson is that marriage is a commitment to ONE PARTNER.

3.  It will result in outlawing moral training in foster homes. 

4. It will bankrupt the health care system. Covenanted monogamous gay couples will be spreading HIV willy-nilly through. . . handshaking?

5. It will lead to a ‘mandated’ re-writing of the bible. That this is a concern for Dobson intrigues me since his views on the family are not really biblical in the first place, and often seem to contradict Jesus views on family. . Perhaps he’s concerned others might re-write it differently than he has.

6. It will create millions of motherless and fatherless children. Uhmm. Methinks Dr, Jim skipped a class or two on human reproduction in med school.  Maybe on  HIV as well.

7. It will lead to more floods [as in the days of Noah…].  cf. New Orleans.

Thanks to Jordon for drawing attention to this. 

vicious editorial in free press

On Sunday, July 3 the Winnipeg Free Press printed one of the most vicious and vile op-ed pieces I have seen in years.  Written by David Krayden, projects director for the Defend Marriage Coalition  it shows the level of hatred seething beneath the seemingly benign exterior of much of the so called pro-family movement. 

Martin will pay dearly for his utter disregard for Canadians and complete contempt for true Canadian values. The prime minister has sown the seeds of his own destruction with this bill. It will be harvest time when we kick this corrupt bunch of social re-engineers out.
 
The day after this tragedy unfolded, it seemed every major Canadian daily newspaper had found a committed homosexual couple to happily feature on its pages. It begs the question that if these committed couples -- rare in the homosexual lifestyle -- could remain so without the institution of marriage being desecrated, just why was Bill C-38 necessary at all?

Same-sex marriage legislation will certainly exacerbate the existing strains on religious freedom in Canada, further devalue marriage as an institution, and advance the larger left-lib agenda that encompasses greater access to drugs, prostitution and sexual experimentation.. . . . Meanwhile, people of faith will continue to be impeded by the Liberal police state.

One of the more comedic moments  [occurred] when Winnipeg MP Pat Martin stood up and declared that since the United Church of Canada was in favour of Bill C-38, everybody could stop worrying about freedom of religion. The United Church resembles little more than a Soviet-style state church that is content to discard any Biblical principal on the road to secular humanism.

Same-sex marriage has spread like a plague because provincial governments are afraid of these judicial nabobs who autocratically promulgate laws. It's time to say no to these unelected, unaccountable legal avatars and their radical social agenda.

Have we lost the battle for marriage? Have we lost the battle for the soul of this nation? Only if we go willingly to the internment camps and are not determined to bring down this government.  Martin and other anti-marriage politicians will be punished for their arrogance, contempt and dismissal.

One of the 4 founding member organizations of the group Krayden represents is the Catholic Civil Rights League, who claim to "promote the search for truth in society through sound education, open communication and respectful dialogue."  Do they consider Krayden's comments to be 'open communication' or 'respectful dialogue'? 

Maybe it's right to ensure that with the freedom of the press even views such as this are presented.  Maybe it's even helpful, it might allow people to see how toxic such views are.  He has, in a single article, defamed elected officials, the press,the judiciary and the United Church.  3 of those 4 are cornerstones of our democracy.  And the fourth, pretty dear to my heart, is about as Canadian as institutions come.  That's both our strength and our weakness. 

The article drips with hatred and threat.  What is the best response to such hatred?  To counter with more hatred, even if we try to make it more clever, more articulate, is simply to increase hatred.  So we need to pray for them, for their hatred to dissolve as they experience the wonder of God's love - a love so great it not only welcomes gays and lesbians it even welcomes bitter, wounded project directors.  It's the age-old process of conversion.  Saul still breathing threats unexpectedly inhales God's very breath/Spirit and it's a new world for him, and for us all. 

Would Focus on the Family correct Jesus?

For a long time I have been puzzled by the pro-family lobby, particularly when they start to talk about the Christian family - by which they mean the nuclear family.  It's not that I don't think family is a great thing.  I think it is, [most of the time anyways]. So great is it that I think everyone who is called to live in a family should be free to do so, and the laws should recognize them.  When family works it is astonishingly good.  I think as many Christian folk who want to can run around saying "We think the family is great, just peachy-keen, the greatest thing since not just slice bread but bread itself."  And they can add, "And we think God thinks so too"  It's just that we/they can't get there from Jesus.  The most you can say about Jesus is that he was ambivalent about family.  If he wasn't ambivalent then he was negative.  No matter how hard you try you can't make Jesus pro-family, not without lying to yourself and everyone else.   Take a look at the following:

1. With typical adolescent impertinence, perhaps, Jesus confronted by his parents for worrying them [by staying in Jerusalem] Jesus seems unconcerned and says “Why were you searching for me?  Didn’t you know I’d be about my Father’s business?’ [That’s gotta hurt poor old Joe, eh?] [Luke 2:47-49]
2. His family thought Jesus was ‘out of his mind’ and, accordingly, tried to control him [Mark3:20],
3. His own brothers didn’t believe in him [John 7:5]
4. Jesus says explicitly that he has not come to bring peace, but to bring family conflict at every level [Luke 12:51-53]
5. When someone expressed interest in following him but wanted first to say good-bye to his family, Jesus says doing this would make him ‘unfit for the kingdom of God’ [Luke 9:62]
6. He told his disciples that their own families would betray them, resulting directly in some of them getting killed. [Luke 21:15-17]
7. When told that his mother and brothers wanted to see him, but couldn’t because of the crowds, Jesus seems to almost disown his mother and brothers, saying his mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and do it. [Mt. 12:46-48; Mark 3:31-34; Luke 8:18-21]
8. He promises those who have walked away from their own families to follow him, a multiplicity of [new] family members here on earth [Mt 19:28-29 and Mark 10:29-30]  In the similar Luke 18:28-30, Jesus says there is a clear reward for those who leave their wives, parents and children in order to follow him.
9. When a woman ecstatically shouts ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you’ he retorts with ‘No! Blessed instead are those who do hear and do God’s will’ [Luke 11:26-28]
10. He tells us to not invite their family or friends to dinner, instead invite the poor [Luke 14:12]
11. Jesus teaches that we are not even supposed to call our fathers ‘father’, because God alone is our father.[Matthew 23:9]
12. Jesus specifically tells his followers that they must ‘hate’ their mothers, fathers, wives and children [Luke 14:26], stronger language than Matthew’s 'loving someone more than God' [Mt. 10:37]. 

I don't want to argue against family. Far from it, I believe in it. I am utterly committed to my call to be a husband/father/son.  I just get sick and tired of the so-called Christian Right doing all this talking about the so-called Christian family and totally leaving Jesus out of the picture.  He's got a lot to say about family, and we need to listen.  And one thing he is saying is don't idealize the thing, it's not for everyone.  Why even Paul, often cited by the pro-family lobby since they can't quote Jesus, says that the best thing is celibacy but since most people are too horny for that marriage/family is a good second best [I Cor 7].

What the pro-family groups are heralding is a cultural expression that they really, really like - and that's fine. I like it too. I just wish they'd stop putting Christian in the name, because it makes it sound like Jesus would agree with them.  And I can't find any evidence in the bible to support that.