Interview with Ken Wilson on ‘Letter to My Congregation’

March 03, 2014 by

AMERICAN attitudes toward our gay and lesbian relatives, friends and co-workers are changing so dramatically that the Pew Research Center ranked this shift as the first historic milestone among 13 changes that researchers identified over the past year.

TODAY, two major evangelical voices—and two highly respected observers of American religious life—are joining in the launch of a new book: A Letter to My Congregation. The four are …

  • KEN WILSON, author of this book-length letter, which he wrote to his large congregation in the Midwest to explain why even devoutly evangelical Christians should welcome gay, lesbian and transgendered men and women.
  • DAVID P. GUSHEE, based at Mercer University, where he is a theologian and author widely read in evangelical congregations. Most significantly, Gushee decided to publicly change his stance on this issue in the opening pages of Ken Wilson’s new book. (His Wikipedia entry.)
  • PHYLLIS TICKLE, a scholar and journalist who is highly respected for her books, magazine articles and lectures about trends in American religious life. (Her Wikipedia entry.)
  • And, TANYA LUHRMANN, based at Stanford University, where she is a leading anthropologist studying religious movements—including the Vineyard denomination in which Ken Wilson is a pastor. (Her Wikipedia entry.)

Tickle, Gushee and Luhrmann explain why they are supporting Ken’s efforts in a series of introductions to his new book—and you can read all three introductions on our new resource page for A Letter to My Congregation.

In this daring and compassionate journey of faith, the Rev. Ken Wilson apparently becomes the first pastor of a large evangelical congregation in America to so publicly reverse centuries of condemnation of gays and lesbians—and bring his congregation with him in welcoming gay and lesbian members at all levels of the church.

With the launch of this book, many people nationwide are asking: How did Ken Wilson do this?

In today’s interview you will learn: He did it by slowly and carefully studying the Bible, praying about these matters and talking with families in his congregation. The result, according to early online reviews of his book, “adds incredible freshness and insight” to a debate that threatens to tear churches and families apart. Reviewer David C. Sinclair writes that Ken “shows us a way forward that embraces our differences. … And, most importantly, he cogently argues for unconditional inclusion as we seek God together.”

ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm talks with Ken Wilson in …

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR INTERVIEW
WITH KEN WILSON ABOUT
‘A LETTER TO MY CONGREGATION’

DAVID: The Pew Research Center reports that we’re at a historic turning point on this issue, based on their tracking of data nationwide. But, beyond all that data, what have you seen from a pastor’s point of view? Can you see and feel the change among the people you encounter everyday?

KEN: Yes, 10 years ago, as an evangelical pastor I didn’t know gay people and a lot of the people in my congregation would have said they didn’t know gay people—but that has shifted dramatically. Now, most people say they have at least one gay friend. And, even more importantly, for young people this is a non-issue. Of Millennials who leave the church, a large number leave over the church’s exclusionary stance on LGBT people. Young people just can’t understand that exclusion. They know plenty of LGBT people personally and they don’t want to be part of a church that excludes their friends.

Now, this has become a big issue for parents who have children who are affected by this in various ways. They’re losing their kids over this question, whether those kids are LGBT themselves or they know and care about someone who is. The question for men and women in the church becomes: Do I care so much about the ideology of this issue that I’m willing to lose my children over this? This is an issue where parents and their children are absolutely affected everyday in local congregations.

I had a small group of people from our church who reviewed an early version of this letter with me. We went around the room and asked each person to tell us: What’s my personal stake in this conversation?

Every single person had a gay friend or loved one or family member and each one told the group—often with tears in their eyes—how much this mattered to them. This included people who accepted gay relationships and people who still had moral questions about gay relationships. We all were affected. This really is a historic change.

DAVID: I’ve been a journalist covering religion in American life for nearly three decades and I believe it’s accurate to say that you’re the first pastor of a large, evangelical church to go public about such a dramatic change on this issue with your congregation coming along on the journey. Millions of readers know that Rob Bell and Brian McLaren have changed in their public stance on this issue, but that was after they had left their congregations.

For readers wondering about this claim, I want to clarify: We’re talking about large, traditionally evangelical congregations and pastors who have gone so public in reversing their LGBT policies with their congregations. I’m not seeing them, at this point. If you’re out there reading this, please email us at [email protected]

But, having said all of that, let me ask: Are you aware of anyone else we should mention here?

KEN: I’ve been looking, too, and I am aware of some other evangelical congregations across the country that are moving in this direction. I don’t want to name them because they’re still on this journey and they’re not wanting to go public right now. And, just like you, David, I’d love to find and talk with others who are on this journey. I’d love to learn from them about how to do this—and how we can help others to do this.

‘The eyes of the world …?’

DAVID: Since David P. Gushee is also putting his name on the line with this book, the two of you were invited to speak at the California LGBT film festival, called Level Ground, last week. The festival was covered in the Los Angeles Times and other news media. Do you feel the eyes of the world are upon you?

KEN: No, I don’t feel that way and I don’t want to focus on the psychological pressure. My first responsibility is to lead my church through this transition successfully. Yes, I know there is a lot at stake here. There are many evangelical pastors out there whose hearts are inclined to go in this direction, but they can’t even begin to talk about this. I think once we can demonstrate that, yes, it can be done—then I think there are going to be many evangelical congregations that will follow. Before long, there is going to be a strong and growing expression of evangelicalism in America that is making space for gay people.

DAVID: How do they start? I can imagine a lot of readers of this interview—and readers of your book—wanting to know: How did Ken do it? How can I start this process?

KEN: The first thing is to convince pastors that they should give themselves permission to start asking the questions. There are so many pastors and other church leaders who want to do that, but they are inhibited from even starting the process. They see this as a “loser” issue for them. They don’t see any way to build a coalition around this—no way to build a consensus in their congregation. So, they don’t even start lifting up the questions that their hearts want to ask.

DAVID: You found the courage. Now, you have opened up the conversation in your church to a point at which you realize how deeply many families care about this issue. But we’re talking here about the very first, private steps—the first moral questioning. Give us a little sense of how that began for you.

KEN: Well, for me, I asked myself: Why am I willing to make so much space in the church for people who are remarried after divorce—despite the Bible’s very strict teaching against that—and I’m not willing to make space for gay and lesbian people? And I kept asking myself: Why does this particular moral stance of the church about LGBT people cause so much harm?

‘Is this really the teaching of Jesus …?’

DAVID: Let’s talk about the harm. In your book, you make an eloquent appeal: We can’t keep waiting on this issue. We can’t keep kicking these questions down the road. Every day, real people are being harmed by the church’s rigid condemnation.

KEN: When I started pondering these questions, I realized that this particular stance of the church really is harmful. When a married man in a congregation has an adulterous affair with another woman—and he’s confronted about it—we don’t have suicides as a result. But, we do have teenagers committing suicides at higher rates when they are part of congregations that have these exclusionary teachings about homosexuality. Is this really the teaching of Jesus when our exclusion of people is contributing to a rise in suicide?

DAVID: These are tough questions for evangelical leaders to ask. There’s a lot of fear around even raising the questions, isn’t there?

KEN: The church is an anxious system. It’s organized around the most anxious members, including those who threaten to leave if exclusionary policies aren’t upheld. In fact, pastors become so anxious about these members that we tend to overestimate how many in the congregation share these views.

‘My worst fears …’

DAVID: You were afraid, right?

KEN: I had a lot of fear about this! I dreaded it! And, you know what? My worst fears have not been realized. Not even close to my worst fears. Yes, I have lost some key people and, yes, we have lost some income over this and it has affected attendance—but not nearly as badly as I had expected.

If you’re a pastor, it’s easy to exaggerate the fear. As pastors, we have to find ways to duck out from under this big cloud of fear that surrounds this issue.

‘A healer’s heart …’

DAVID: This took time. This book describes a journey with your congregation that began years ago. How long ago?

KEN: Phyllis Tickle is a big part of this story from the very beginning. Our Vineyard church in Ann Arbor began working with Phyllis Tickle on prayer about 10 years ago. Our church helped Phyllis to promote praying The Divine Hours and we became an online host for the Divine Hours. She visited our congregation in 2005 and, as I got to know her, she became a personal confidant. I would send her prayer updates as I began experiencing a significant shift in my own prayer life. Eventually, my wife Nancy and I were invited to their home outside Memphis. And that’s how I met Dr. Sam Tickle, Phyllis’ husband, a leading doctor in the Memphis area and, some years ago, one of the first to begin treating people in the AIDS crisis.

A a result of all this, Sam and Phyllis had a lot of gay and lesbian friends and they took us to a church that was filled with gay and lesbian and transgendered people. It was as if someone had gathered a congregation of sexually excluded Christians and I was just taken aback by the clear presence of Jesus in that assembly of people. The cognitive dissonance I was experiencing—as a traditional evangelical pastor—was just through the roof! I credit Dr. Sam Tickle with really helping me in this journey. He was so obviously a compassionate and caring physician and Christian and he related to people with a healer’s heart that was just infectious.

DAVID: Everyone on the cover of your book played a role in this journey, including Dr. Tanya Luhrmann, the famous scholar and researcher. Tell us how your paths crossed.

KEN: Tanya is a world-class anthropologist who had done research on how evangelical spirituality mediates an experience of God. She studied this in Vineyard churches and I became aware of her work. I read her book When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God and I thought it was brilliant. Her book helped me to be a better pastor and I got to know Tanya herself through a gathering of Vineyard scholars, where we both talked about her book.

‘Describing a journey
and inviting others …’

DAVID: You found many of Tanya’s ideas to be very helpful, especially the questions she raises about how a person can communicate a personal spiritual journey to others. You also worked with a prayer exercise Tanya provided and, in the midst of that exercise you found your method: writing a letter.

KEN: How would I communicate all of this? I thought a lot about that. And, I decided to write out the whole process of what I was going through as a pastor struggling with these questions. Through this letter, my struggle could become a representative struggle for others. I wasn’t writing an argument. I was describing a journey and inviting others to accompany me.

DAVID: Then, I also want to ask you about David P. Gushee, who dramatically decided to go public with his own change on this issue in the opening pages of your book. How did that come about?

KEN: I met David Gushee in 2006 through another issue we were working on. We were in a gathering of evangelical leaders with top-level environmental scientists—people like E.O. Wilson—to talk about climate change and environmental concerns.

So, I had known David and I had worked with him on that environmental issue. He is the co-author of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, which is a top book in evangelical seminaries. I liked that book, too, but the one section I thought was weak in Kingdom Ethics was the section on homosexuality. I called David and I said, “I love your book, but I have questions about this one section. It feels to me like you’re just rehearsing the traditionalist views.” And I asked him, “Where are you on this—now?”

He told me that someone close to him had come out as gay and his views were changing. I sent him the manuscript of my letter, then, hoping that he might say something like: Well, I don’t agree with Ken’s conclusion, but this is a legitimate part of the conversation. That was as much as I could hope.

DAVID: Instead, you got a shock.

KEN: It was a shock! His reply was: “What can I do to help you?” And, then, he wrote such a powerful Foreword to the book. I mean, I was feeling way out on a limb here and it was such a blessing that he came forward and was so supportive of this. I’m a pastor. I’m not the kind of scholar that Dr. David P. Gushee is. And yet he stepped forward and has been so supportive of the whole thing.

‘Who wants to go up against 2,000 years …?’

DAVID: The Pew Research Center captures the historic opportunity we all have, right now, to help people make a transition on this issue. In just 10 years, Pew reports, Americans have gone from less than half of us saying “homosexuality should be accepted by society” to 60 percent today! Then, there’s another dramatic jump when the question is asked another way: “Is same-sex marriage inevitable?” Then, more than 7 in 10 Americans say: Yes.

Those two answers show us millions of Americans who are in turmoil on this issue. Millions know this change is coming—but still can’t find a way to accept LGBT people as a part of society. One of the brilliant strategies in your book is to say: Church members don’t have to be united in our personal moral conclusions—but we must unite in welcoming people into the church. Am I saying that correctly? You’re not demanding that everyone immediately agree on moral acceptance, but you are saying that it’s time for the church to fully welcome LGBT people.

KEN: Right. The problem is that so many people in the evangelical community—and in the faith community in general—want to find a way to accept and include gay and lesbian people, but they have serious questions based on their faith tradition. Who wants to go up against 2,000 years of Christian consensus on an issue? But, already, many people do know that our hearts are telling us something else. People are realizing that, even if they don’t fully understand how to think through this issue, there’s a more serious question we’re facing: the do-no-harm test.

‘What is the Good News of Jesus?’

DAVID: Yes, Pew explains this shift in American experience. This has become personal for Americans nationwide. Pew reports that a huge number of people—7 in 10 Americans—say they know “some” or “a lot” of gay or lesbian people. In other words, we know who we’re hurting if we condemn gay and lesbian people. They’re our friends, our family.

KEN: Right, we’re talking about a lot of people! And, this issue is the tip of a much, much bigger iceberg, which is the branding of Christianity—ever since the rise of the Religious Right—as this movement of people who primarily are “against things” and, even worse, as a movement that is “against people.”

Christianity is losing followers in America because of this. What’s at stake is more than just individuals with gay friends. What’s at stake here is how Americans make friends with Jesus. The bigger question is: How can the church promote human flourishing? Have we reduced the message of Jesus to a rigid list of things that people are forbidden to do—or, worse yet, to a list of people we’re mad at? Are we just a movement that stigmatizes and excludes people?

We’re really asking is: What is the Good News of Jesus? What does Jesus stand for?

DAVID: These are the emotionally wrenching questions you’re hearing from families, as a pastor, right?

KEN: Exactly. I began to realize this when parents started coming to me privately as their pastor, telling me that a teenage son or daughter thought they were gay. I saw how much fear, how much distress—and how much harm—was happening in these families. I began to realize: Something is wrong with this picture.

Parents were having to choose between their faith and their own children. This was a profound problem! Of course, some parents tried to adopt the approach of “loving the person but hating the sin,” and that might sound like a nice bromide if you’re not actually living in these relationships. In real lives, in real human relationships, that is such an alienating thing to say.

The truth is: There are gay young people in all congregations, whatever the congregation teaches about homosexuality. So, we’ve got a dangerous situation here when we condemn and exclude people. Just look at the data on suicide rates. As a pastor, I began to realize: This can’t be the fruit of the Spirit. There’s something wrong here.

‘The Gospel is an invitation.’

DAVID: You’re sure to draw a lot of criticism, along with all the appreciation that’s sure to come your way, as well. What final thought do you want to leave with readers—critics and supporters of your work?

KEN: I hope that people who care about the church will ask themselves: Don’t we care about the harm being done to vulnerable people? Do we really want to sacrifice our children? Is that the message of Jesus? Or, is the Gospel an acceptance of us that is so powerful that it is life changing? And, as a result, we want to invite others into the company of Jesus. I think the Gospel is an invitation.

LEARN MORE ABOUT KEN WILSON
AND ‘A LETTER TO MY CONGREGATION’

VISIT our resource page for the new book, which includes all three introductions by Gushee, Tickle and Luhrmann … plus much more! Order a copy of the book, right now, from Amazon (via links with this interview)—or use the links in the resource page to order from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or other online retailers. Bookmark our resource page for the book, because—in coming weeks—we will be adding free Discussion Guides.

PLEASE share this interview with friends. You are free to republish this interview as long as you include the credit line (see the italic line at the end of this post). Or, you can share this by using the blue-“f” Facebook icons or the tiny envelope-shaped email icons.

ALL THIS WEEK, read more about the latest research into changing American attitudes on these issues in the OurValues.org project, hosted by University of Michigan sociologist Dr. Wayne Baker.

(Originally published at readthespirit.com, an on line magazine covering religion, spirituality, values and interfaith and cross-cultural issues.)

The N.T. Wright interview on the inspiration of Paul and Psalms

December 2, 2013 by

N.T. Wright is writing like a man on a mission, now that he has left his role as bishop to devote his remaining years to producing books that he hopes will inspire individuals and strengthen congregations. At the moment, he is publishing his longest book (1,700 pages bound into two volumes weighing in at 5 pounds) and one of his smallest books (a mere 200 pages, less than 10 ounces and small enough to tuck into a coat pocket).

Both books will be eagerly snapped up by the host of N.T. Wright fans around the English-speaking world.

ON PAUL

Paul and the Faithfulness of God:
Rowan Williams, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion from 2002 until his retirement in 2012, describes this massive work with these words: “N.T. Wright’s long-awaited full-length study of St. Paul will not in any way disappoint. From the very first sentence, it holds the attention, arguing a strong, persuasive, coherent, and fresh case supported by immense scholarship and comprehensive theological intelligence.”

David Crumm, Editor of ReadTheSpirit, adds to that review: “Rowan Williams’ praise is well founded, although not every reader will find the entire book exciting from the first sentence. Certainly—clergy, educators, small-group leaders and men and women who love Bible study will enjoy this landmark in scholarship. More importantly, Wright uses this book to argue against those evangelical activists who use Paul as a source of one-line ‘proof texts.’ Today, Paul would be shocked by some of the ways his letters are quoted out of context, Wright tells readers. Paul never intended to serve as a finger-wagging disciplinarian. His vision was far, far larger, Wright argues.”

ON THE PSALMS

The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential:
Once again, let’s turn to Rowan Williams: “A characteristic blend of learning, personal insight and spiritual perception. This book will be of enormous help to Christians who want to know how to make fuller use of one of the greatest scriptural resources for prayer.”

David Crumm of ReadTheSpirit says: “Buy this for your friends who rarely set foot inside a church—and for your friends who flock to megachurches with an electrified sound track of pop praise songs. Both will discover the world’s greatest collection of sacred hymns with a friendly yet passionate guide—Wright himself—to make the introductions.”

Tom Wright’s opening lines in the Psalms book: “This book is a personal plea for the Psalms, which make up the great hymnbook at the heart of the Bible, have been the daily lifeblood of Christians, and of course the Jewish people, from the earliest times. Yet in many  Christian circles today, the Psalms are simply not used. And in many places where they are still used, whether said or sung, they are often reduced to a few verses to be recited as ‘filler’ between other parts of the liturgy or worship services. In the later case, people often don’t seem to realize what they’re singing. In the former case, they don’t seem to realize what they’re missing. This book is an attempt to reverse those trends. I see this as an urgent task.”

David Crumm spoke with Wright via telephone during one of Wright’s recent U.S. tours …

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR INTERVIEW
WITH N.T. ‘TOM’ WRIGHT
ON PAUL AND PSALMS

DAVID: The story behind this big new book on Paul is as dramatic as the arguments you make in the book itself. You gave up being a bishop to finish this book! Tell us about the decision.

TOM: That was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make professionally or personally. It was a huge joy to be the Bishop of Durham. That’s where I come from and I really loved being back there. I loved doing that work. Then, in 2009, I had a four-month sabbatical and went to Princeton to finish writing this book on Paul. I thought I could finish most of the book during the sabbatical, then I could go back to Durham, be bishop for another four or five years—and retire at that point. But, by Christmas of 2009, I had written a lot and researched a lot—and I was thoroughly enjoying the work—but I wasn’t able to get far enough toward completing the book so that I could just keep being Bishop of Durham and then expect to wrap up the final parts of the book in a weekend here and there.

The choice was very difficult. My wife and I were aware that this huge project was just sitting there unfinished. I either had to decide that this project was just a hobby until I later would retire as bishop—or we were going to have to consider moving elsewhere, soon. At the same time St. Andrews was knocking at my door, looking for a senior New Testament person for their staff. All the lights turned green in that direction and we were astonished at how well everything worked out. I know my decision shocked a lot of people, including some of my friends. But the move enabled me to finish this and other writing, as well. (For more on the chronology of these moves, see our N.T. Wright Resource Page.)

DAVID: So, the next question is: Can readers dive into this book on Paul, or do they have to read the three previous books in this overall series? Starting with this book, they will miss the full sweep of your previous three volumes in the series, but they clearly can find a lot of new insights here with Paul. What do you think?

TOM: Yes, I think someone can pick up this book and read it from start to finish, without first reading all the others. Think about it! (laughing) It’s enough to ask someone to read these 1,700 pages! It would be just too daunting to suggest that they have to start by reading a couple thousand pages of other books before they can even open this one on Paul. Sure, this book stands on the shoulders of my earlier books. But this one, I hope, is worth reading even as a freestanding book.

TOM WRIGHT: A REBUKE OF PROOF TEXTING

DAVID: There are sections of this new book that will be daunting to general readers. But there also are sections that are very quotable. I marked a lot of them in my copy of the book. Let me zero in on one immediately. You take aim at proof-texting evangelicals who want to chop up Paul into a set of individual rules to be followed one by one.

Let me read a section from your book. You write, “I marvel in particular that many commentaries, which one might suppose to be committed to following the argument of the text they are studying, manage not to do that, but instead to treat a Pauline letter as if it were a collection of maxims, detached theological statements, plus occasional ‘proofs from scripture’ and the like. I take it as axiomatic, on the contrary, that Paul deliberately laid out whole arguments, not just bits and pieces, miscellaneous topoi which just happen to turn up in these irrelevant ‘contingent’ contexts like oddly shaped pearls on an irrelevant string.”

That’s fairly pointed language. Proof texting isn’t the way to read Paul!

TOM: Well, of course, we can say that there are places in Paul’s writing where you can put in a thumb and pull out a plum. There are lines in Paul where he sums up some of his arguments, for example. But the point I am making in that section you just read is: Let’s be sure that, if you’re reading one sentence, that we also see the context of the paragraph, and the context of the entire letter. By relying exclusively on a single verse, we can tend to distort the big picture. And the big picture is that Paul was developing a whole new way of looking at the world, at God and at everything else.

‘LAUNCHING CHRISTIAN PUBLIC THEOLOGY’

DAVID: The larger argument that runs through these 1,700 pages is that Paul was a theologian, not just a finger-wagging problem solver. Even though Paul didn’t sit back and write out a huge theological masterwork—you argue that Paul really did see himself as revealing a much bigger picture of Christian theology. People who are obsessed with the individual rules miss the bigger picture.

TOM: One of the great strands that runs through this new Paul book is that Paul was launching Christian public theology. This was not a private project. He was launching a worldview that could hold its head up so that people could look deeply into this theology and say, “My goodness. This makes sense.”

DAVID: Here’s another shocker for some of your evangelical fans: You argue very strongly in this new book that Paul was not a world-rejecting theologian. In other words, Paul believed that this world is the one God is perfecting. Christianity is not about simply saving your soul, grabbing a ticket to heaven somewhere over yonder—and this world be damned. That wasn’t Paul’s viewpoint.

TOM: It’s ironic and amusing to me that some American evangelicals have this as a cultural marker. It’s ironic because America—of all the countries in the world—is so wonderfully supplied with resources and has so many rich people living there. The evangelical community itself has often been quite well to do and powerful. Yes, there are many poor evangelicals, but there also are many wealthy and influential ones as well. So, why reject this world? To me, that’s an irony.

But, you are correct: I want to say very clearly to readers that, no, we are not merely passing through this world. That idea is a complete misunderstanding of the whole New Testament. That idea of rejecting this world goes back to the Middle Ages when this present world was a dark and gloomy and terrible place and the only thing you realistically could do was to say your prayers and hope for a better world elsewhere. But why should this remain a 19th or 20th century evangelical hangup?

If people are still claiming that God is not interested in this world, then I say that kind of preaching would leave Paul wringing his hands! God’s purpose is to renew the world—not to replace it!

DAVID: Let me read a few lines I marked, sprinkled through this book. Here’s one: “The reign of God’s restorative justice and healing peace is meant for this world, not for some other.” Here’s another one: “Paul believes that he is living in the world over which Jesus, the Messiah, already reigns as Lord.” And here’s one more, even stronger: “Paul did not see himself as simply snatching souls out of this world’s wreck in order to populate a Platonic heaven. In the light of Paul’s statements in various places about his hope for the whole creation, we should take seriously what he says about God reconciling ‘the world’ to himself.”

In one of my favorite passages in your new book, you use the British metaphor of teatime. You say that faith is not about dreaming of teatime in heaven, somewhere else. It’s about actually getting out the china and preparing the tea and sandwiches, every day, in this world.

TOM: That’s exactly right.

Now, the danger of saying this is that people must see what I’m writing here in the context of the entire New Testament. People may think I’m preaching the old Social Gospel. “We’ve heard that and it didn’t work,” they will say. “Oh, he’s just saying we should be nice to each other and take care of the poor.”

I want to say to them, “Well, one reason the old approach to the Social Gospel didn’t work is that we tried it in the wrong framework. If we let him, Paul will show us a far larger framework of what we should be about in this world.”

Actually, one of the most exciting things I experienced as Bishop of Durham was to work with people in ordinary churches who were out in their streets and community doing the things the church should be doing. I’m talking about ordinary little churches on the street corner—sometimes with just 50 people on a Sunday morning. But they were true followers of Jesus and they were doing things because that’s what followers of Jesus do: They were helping out in old people’s homes, they were visiting prisoners, they were feeding people.

It’s when people gather and follow Jesus like this that other people begin to ask: Who are these people? Why are these people doing these things? Why aren’t they just sitting at home and watching the television like other people?

This is how Christianity spread two millennia ago. It happened when people began asking these very questions: Who are these people living like this?

The thing that really matters is the actual transformation of human communities by the self-sacrificial love of those who are grasped by the sacrificial love of God in Christ. That’s the inauguration of God’s new world. I’m certainly not preaching an old line about shining a little candle in the darkness to make one feel better. I’m talking about something bigger: Rays breaking through in our world that show the sunrise is coming.

POINTING TOWARD ROMANS 14

DAVID: I’ve been asking you about provocative passages in your book, but it’s easy to see that you really do intend this new book on Paul to serve as a healing manifesto. In asking these questions, I’m pointing out what I see as a major opportunity with this book: Sure, your more conservative American fans will invest in this big new book. But I think there’s a whole lot of refreshing, deeply insightful analysis here that mainliners and Catholics will find fascinating, as well. I think, at this point, your—shall we say—your religious-political viewpoint is beyond the typical American categories. To some, you continue to read like a conservative; to others, you read like an American liberal.

I think the foundational touch points in scripture are fascinating, too. One of the passages from Paul that you refer to at least a half dozen times through this new book is Romans 14. This is where Paul urges Christians not to let disputable issues divide them.

TOM: Romans 14 is addressing the Christians in Rome, knowing that there are several different house churches there, quite probably from different cultural backgrounds. Some were Jewish Christians who believed that they must keep every detail in the Torah and that they must not keep company with people who didn’t see it that way. Then there were Gentile Christians who were saying: Well, this is a whole new thing, so we can ignore those Jewish Christians down the road. In Romans 14, Paul is skillfully addressing these issues.

DAVID: You make several references to the way you translate 14:1. In your own earlier book, called the Kingdom New Testament, you translate it as: “Welcome someone who is weak in faith, but not in order to have disputes on difficult points.” This is part of an argument that comes full flower, later in Chapter 14, when Paul writes—and, again, this is your translation: “Do not, then, pass judgment on one another any longer. If you want to exercise your judgment, do so on this question: how to avoid placing obstacles or stumbling blocks in front of a fellow family member.”

TOM: In Romans 14:1—and I do have the Greek in front of me as we are talking—Paul is describing disputes about matters with different judgments in the community. The point he is making is that people should get together and not use differences of opinion as a point of squabbling.

Now, I need to say: For Paul there are some lines in the sand, or red lines we might call them, but part of the tricky thing in reading Paul is finding where he actually says there is a line that no one can cross and remain within the fellowship of the Messiah people.

In this section of Romans he was more concerned about ending divisions that came down to squabbling and discrimination over differences of opinion. He wanted people to see beyond those squabbles.

DAVID: In this book on Paul, I should point out: You don’t really dive deeply into these specific disputable issues. In other words, in these 1,700 pages, you don’t go on to sort out the further interpretation of these passages as it relates to Paul’s specific moral code. That’s for another book. This book is about Paul’s larger theological worldview. He wanted people to stop squabbling about disputable issues because Paul’s goal was a far larger community coming together as, to use your phrase, “Messiah people.” The first step, in Paul’s view, was welcoming people so they could form this people Jesus was calling into being.

Now, I also need to step back for a moment. I know you’ve got at least a couple more big volumes in this overall series yet to come. And, we should mention, as well, the first three books in this series. Let’s do it as three short questions and answers. So, give us a little summary of Part 1, which was The New Testament and the People of God, back in 1992. It still gets rave reviews from your readers. There are now 40 reviews on Amazon and 38 of them give it 4 or 5 stars. And—this is key—people are still posting glowing reviews on a book that’s been out for more than 20 years! So, in a line or two, what’s it about?

TOM: In that first book, I tried to cover things I wanted my students to know before they started a serious study of the New Testament. This book is a sketch of 1st century Judaism and what early Christianity was all about.

DAVID: Part 2 was Jesus and the Victory of God. Again, rave reviews on Amazon: 50 out of 52 reviews give it 4 or 5 stars. Summarize it?

TOM: This is a full-scale attempt to put Jesus of Nazareth in a historical context and to ask the questions: What were his aims? What did he think he was supposed to be doing? Why did he die? What did he mean when he said God’s Kingdom is arriving?

DAVID: Part 3 was The Resurrection of the Son of God. This time 62 of 69 reviews are 4 or 5 stars. Again, can you give us just a line or two describing it?

TOM: This book asks: What exactly happened on Easter morning? But in order to address that question, we have to look at beliefs about what happened across the ancient world, the ancient Jewish world and the emerging Christian world.

TOM WRIGHT PLEADS FOR THE PSALMS

DAVID: Finally, I want to ask about the new book on Psalms. I think this little book is going to be very popular with a lot of readers. But the most striking quality in this book is passion. You really are pleading for the Psalms here, right?

TOM: I have been shocked over the last decade or two because in my country and I think in yours, too, some of the most vibrant and lively Christian churches seem to be giving up on the Psalms. Some of these churches have very lively worship songs they like to sing. But, in my view, biblically rooted Christians should place the Psalms absolutely at the center of worship. Yet, Psalms are nearly forgotten in many places.

I like creative new music and it’s wonderful when churches have people writing these new songs, but I don’t think there’s ever been a serious Christian movement in the last 2000 years that didn’t place the Psalms at the core of worship and devotional life. I look at the present context, which is Psalms missing in many churches, and I am saying to readers: What is wrong with this picture?

DAVID: It’s more than a matter of history. Most importantly, as you point out in your book, the Psalms contain the whole range of human emotion—crying out toward God in all conditions of life, right?

TOM: There’s no emotion we can feel that the Psalms don’t already have in spades. This allows us to bring anything we can conceive in our human lives today—whatever challenges we face—and find them voiced in the Psalms long before us. If we forget the Psalms, we are aiming toward shallow, transparent Christianity.

DAVID: Well, our readers will get the point after that kind of comment. You feel very strongly about this.

TOM: My publisher at HarperOne, Mickey Maudlin, says we should be asking: What would Jesus sing? Maybe we can get more people asking: “WWJS?” I’ve actually used that line in talks. The Psalms are Jesus’ hymnbook. These Psalms are songs Jesus would have sung and that Jesus wants us to sing with him, today.

DAVID: Finally, I’m sure our readers would like to know: What’s next?

TOM: Well, I still haven’t finished what I regard as the backup book for the Paul project, which also will be from Fortress Press: Paul and His Recent Interpreters. I was going to finish it this past summer, but the copyediting for this massive 1,700-page book took all summer. There already are references out there to this next book, but the truth is: It isn’t finished yet. That will come soon, but it’s been delayed.

Then, I’m supposed to be doing a commentary on Galatians for Eerdmans. There are a whole lot of things I’m hoping to do further down the track.

DAVID: Well, we’ll keep in touch. Our readers will stay tuned.

Want more on N.T. Tom Wright?

Visit our extensive N.T. Wright Resource Page for summaries of his earlier books and links to earlier interviews with the Bible scholar.

(Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion, spirituality, values and interfaith and cross-cultural issues.)

VeggieTales reminds kids of Chrisian reason for the season

November 23, 2013 by

Either you’re a VeggieTales family—or you’re not. That’s certainly true, after more than 40 original Veggie Tales videos and a host of other TV shows featuring these big-eyed, big-hearted vegetables. This year, VeggieTales is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its first direct-to-DVD film, Where’s God When I’m S-Scared?

Most families know what to expect: Lots of colorful vegetables bouncing around on their rear ends (everyone knows that vegetables don’t have legs!), singing silly songs in high-pitched voices (hey, millions love it when the Muppets do it, right?)—and drawing biblical lessons at every turn of the plot (they’re such universal Christian lessons that it’s hard to imagine any denominational friction).

What’s new in the 43rd VeggieTales?

The producers have convinced the bearded old “Si” from the super popular Duck Dynasty TV series to appear as the on-screen Narrator in VeggieTales: Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas. Overall, he’s an odd casting choice—certainly not as memorable as Burl Ives as the Snowman/Narrator in the original TV special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The bearded Narrator aside, Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas is a pitch-perfect slice of VeggieTales silliness. Sure, the jokes are puns worthy of groans—the Veggies themselves are in on the joke. After about the third “turnip” joke in this new movie, even the turnips are groaning. Sure, the songs verge on nonsensical, but they’re called Silly Songs.

In this new tale, the conflict turns on which is more important for Christmas: Glitzy lights at a shopping mall—or the love of God as shown in Jesus’ birth? It’s hardly a “spoiler” to tell you: Jesus wins.

One of the sung refains starts:

“Oh, Christmas shines most bright and true.
“When you give the love God gave to you.”

The Silly Song in the middle of the video is about Larry managing to completely cover himself in Christmas wrapping paper. The refrain:

“Somehow when I was packin’
“I got caught up in all the wrappin’”

No, it’s neither Cole Porter nor Elton John—but I defy you not to start tapping your toe halfway through the Silly Song.

Have you got children—or an entire family—on your holiday gift list that would enjoy such high-spirited, goofy fun? Click on the image with today’s story and visit the movie’s Amazon page.

REVIEWED BY ReadTheSpirit EDITOR DAVID CRUMM.

Jane Wells on Hunger Games: ‘Hunger isn’t science fiction!’

November 16, 2013 by

By DAVID CRUMM,
Editor of ReadTheSpirit

WANT to help the most vulnerable in your community? Want to do it by energizing teens and young adults to work with you on goals that most congregations already share? Read on …

THIS WEEK, millions of Americans will buy tickets to Hunger Games: Catching Fire. If you missed it, see our extensive story last week on the huge popularity of this book-and-movie series by Suzanne Collins. That story also includes an interview with author Jane Wells, who wrote the new book Bird on Fire, an inspiring Bible study that shows you how to take the fiction-fueled excitement in your community—especially among young people—and refocus that energy on goals we share: Combatting hunger, homelessness and violence against society’s most vulnerable.

A few days ago, in southeast Michigan (where Jane Wells lives and our ReadTheSpirit home office is based), Jane demonstrated how this kind of outreach can work in any town. She was welcomed by the very active Monroe Family YMCA to host a public forum on three tragic problems facing communities nationwide: Hunger, homelessness and contemporary forms of slavery.

As Editor of ReadTheSpirit, I attended and am reporting, here, on what happened. (All of today’s photos were taken by ReadTheSpirit Publisher John Hile. If you care to share this story with people in your area, you can feel free to share these photos, as well.)

MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

“LOOK BENEATH THE SURFACE: Human Trafficking is Modern-Day Slavery,” was the warning splashed across leaflets and posters distributed by Michigan State Police Trooper Tresa Duffin. She works statewide on campaigns to end forced labor and related forms of abuse enslaving thousands of men, women and children across the U.S. (Worldwide, our earlier story reports, there are millions of slaves.)

“Trafficking” does not refer to transportation, Duffin explained, although victims may find themselves shuttled between cities. The term refers to people bound into labor, often in the form of prostitution. Merriam-Webster defines “human trafficking” as “organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited as by being forced into prostitution or involuntary labor.”

There are slaves in every major metropolitan area, Duffin said, so people in the Midwest should not assume that this isn’t a local issue. “In fact, Michigan is ranked No. 16 in the United States for human trafficking,” she said. Why? “There is a major highway hub in southeast Michigan. There are international borders with Canada. We have a lot of agriculture and that also attracts people trafficking in forced labor.”

There are many ways that individuals, congregations and community groups can get involved in stopping slavery—and in rescuing men, women and children caught in the system now, Duffin explained. In one program, for example, money is raised to buy hotel-sized bars of soap with a toll-free hotline on the wrapper that reaches a national anti-slavery help center. “We distribute these to hotels before big events come to town like a Super Bowl or other major event—times when we know that girls will be sent into hotel rooms. About the only place these girls have privacy is in the bathroom. We’ve had a number of girls call for help—and they’ve been rescued—because of the soap program.”

Wherever our readers may live across the United States, Duffin urges you to learn more at the nationwide anti-trafficking website, based in Washington D.C.

What else can congregations do to combat slavery? Lots! Read our earlier interview with David Batstone, a pioneer in the Not For Sale campaign that draws thousands of volunteers from college campuses and congregations, each year. Want to attract more teen-age and young-adult involvement in the life of your congregation? Get Jane Wells’ Bird on Fire now and organize a discussion group this winter.

FAITH-BASED FEEDING

Jeff Weaver, president of GodWorks! Family Soup Kitchen, told the audience about taking on hunger in Monroe. This is one of Michigan’s oldest small cities with significant blue-collar neighborhoods and also rural areas surrounding the town’s historic downtown. Hunger is a dire problem, even in such a well-established community.

Helping to combat hunger is easier than most people may realize, Weaver said—that is, if people organize their congregational and community-wide efforts in smart ways.

In this process, Job No. 1 is debunking the myth that soup kitchens are needed mainly for older men with chronic problems. “The face of the hungry in our area? It’s a family portrait,” Weaver said. “Now, more than 65 percent of the people who come to our soup kitchens are families. One of our biggest challenges is—we continue to run out of high chairs at some of the places we serve meals. That image right there tells you why you should get involved.”

ENDING HOMELESSNESS
IS A FAMILY ISSUE

Brad Schreiber, who works with programs to help the homeless, stressed the same point. He held up a photo of one homeless man in southeast Michigan—an elderly man with a shaggy gray beard and a baseball cap. “If you think that this is the picture of homelessness, you’re wrong. The picture you should have of homelessness is a 7-year-old girl,” Schreiber said.

He listed alarming statistics about the growing wealth gap in America and the rise in poverty to such an extent that many families find themselves homeless, sometimes quite unexpectedly and even if someone in the family has a job. America’s growing wealth gap and the plight of our “working- poor” families is a topic often covered in the OurValues project, a department within ReadTheSpirit magazine headed by University of Michigan sociologist Dr. Wayne Baker.

Schreiber is now a successful graphic artist, but he shared his own story of finding himself homeless earlier in his life. Through no fault of his own, his income ended and, like millions of Americans, he was living paycheck to paycheck. He suddenly found himself without a place to stay. “This can happen so easily these days,” he said. “People who never expected to be homeless can find themselves in this situation.”

He described four pillar institutions in the Monroe area that shelter various populations of homeless people, each night. Relying on data mainly from those organizations, local leaders in this effort now have calculated that “35,191 nights of shelter were provided in the last two years in this area. Now, that’s a staggering number!”

The evening ended with Jane Wells reminding the audience of ancient calls to help the vulnerable—coming from Isaiah and other passages in the Hebrew scriptures as well as coming from Jesus in the New Testament.

“I hope you will find a way to take action,” she said.

GET INVOLVED THROUGH BIRD ON FIRE

GET STARTED! Get Jane Wells’ Bird on Fire now and organize a discussion group this winter. Her book connects the extremely popular novels and movies with biblical stories. Jane Wells makes it clear to her readers—young and old—that some of the terrible conditions they learn about in the dark, fictional world of the Hunger Games echo real-life experiences, today, for millions. Drawing directly on faith traditions, men and women can tackle these injustices, right now.

If you do use this book to spark renewed energy in your congregation, please email us about it at [email protected] and tell us what you’re doing. We want to share these stories with our readers to inspire others to take action.

This week, as millions enjoy Hunger Games: Catching Fire in movie theaters, remember Jane Wells’ slogan:

“Hunger isn’t science fiction!”

(Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion, spirituality, values and interfaith and cross-cultural issues.)

The Jane Wells interview on how a Hunger Games Bible study can fire up your congregation—and help others

November 10, 2013 by

Where are The Hunger Games taking Americans?

TO THE MOVIES: On November 22, a tidal wave will overwhelm movie theaters for the second blockbuster in the film series, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. How big is this? In a word: Huge.

  • Ticket pre-sales are massive: Catching Fire tickets are a lion’s share of all tickets people are pre-purchasing this month. Fandango reports the sales pattern is record setting.
  • The first week will be enormous: In its 2012 opening weekend, the first Hunger Games movie zoomed to third place in all-time U.S. rankings of opening-weekend ticket sales.
  • And, this series has staying power: Since 2012, that first Hunger Games movie has shot past Spider-Man, Jurassic Park and the Lord of the Rings and now is No. 14 in all-time total ticket sales in the United States. (The top three on that list are Avatar, Titanic and Avengers.)
  • Millions still are reading: The three novels remain extremely popular. The first volume remained on the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists for two years! With new movies, book sales will rise again.

WHERE else can The Hunger Games take Americans?

TO CHURCH and INTO THE WORLD to help the most vulnerable men women and children among us. That’s if author and columnist Jane Wells succeeds in her new campaign. Today, through this author interview, we’ll tell you how to join in the movement.

In Jane Wells’ new book—a Bible study for congregations, called Bird on Fire—Jane explains why The Hunger Games is such a hit with readers and moviegoers. Themes in this series of novels and movies tap deep into biblical history, including the lives of Esther, Gideon and David. The main symbols in Hunger Games echo powerful images established hundreds of years ago when mainline congregations first were sweeping across the American landscape. Bringing this new Jane Wells Bible-study series into your congregation not only will draw a crowd—but also can energize young and old to pitch in on popular campaigns to help our world, today.

INTERVIEW WITH JANE WELLS
ON HER HUNGER GAMES BIBLE STUDY, CALLED BIRD ON FIRE

DAVID: Who are these millions of fans? I expect that a lot of our readers are going to be very interested in organizing a group to go through your Bird on Fire book, but their first question will be: Who should we invite to get involved?

JANE: The movies and books first were popular with teens—teenage girls specifically—but now they also have crossed over so that a lot of adults have read the books and are planning on seeing all of the movies.

DAVID: The first Hunger Games was classified as Young Adult, or YA, fiction. How can such a genre make the leap to adult fans?

JANE: Here’s the key—YA novels leave out the gratuitous sex and violence, but the best of YA novels still deliver all the depth of character and drama we expect in great novels. So there are huge numbers of adults who love these stories—and welcome a chance to enjoy a series without the more explicit sex and violence. A lot of readers not only don’t miss the gore that we find in a lot of crime and suspense novels today—they actually welcome a chance to avoid it! I love well-written YA books for that reason, and I’m certainly not alone. Now, I do realize that a lot of YA fiction doesn’t live up to the standards set by authors like Suzanne Collins. But, in the best of this genre? It’s terrific reading.

DAVID: Well, we just published an interview with HarperOne’s Mark Tauber, who is expecting to rack up serious sales this winter with C.S. Lewis editions. And, of course, a lot of Lewis books are what we would call YA today, although a lot of the people buying and reading those books are adults.

Given the super popularity of R-rated books like 50 Shades of Grey and thrillers oozing blood and guts, what’s the appeal of books that are only PG-13 at most?

JANE: It’s all about the characters. And that’s why, in my new Bible-study book, I connect readers with similarly strong stories about heroes from the Bible: Esther, Gideon, David and more. Millions of us love The Hunger Games, because we care so much about these characters! When we first meet Katniss Everdeen—the main hero in these stories—we care about her immediately.

DAVID: Suzanne Collins’ fictional world is usually called “dystopian”—the dark opposite of a utopia. For a long time, such stories have been extremely popular—and some of these novels are now literary classics: George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 are two great examples. These dystopian tales also are gripping on the big screen. Think of Blade Runner, which still has a vast cult following more than 30 years since its original release. In The Hunger Games, we meet Katniss in the middle of a similarly unjust and terrifying world, right?

JANE: We do. We learn that, when she was only 11, her father died in a mine explosion. After that, her mother sinks into this deep depression. Her family is on the verge of starving to death. Katniss learns to hunt and gather food just to keep her family alive. Then, she winds up having to compete in this life-and-death competition—the “hunger games” that become the series title—in which young people fight to the death for the viewing pleasure of the powerful people who run this terrible world.

DAVID: Once again, Suzanne Collins is borrowing this whole plot from thousands of years of literature. We only have to think back to the ancient tales of Theseus—stories that suddenly are getting a revival this winter thanks to JJ Abrams (see Jane’s Faith Goes Pop news item on Abrams’ new project). In one version of the Theseus myths, the evil King Minos of Crete conquers the Athenians and orders that, every nine years, seven Athenian boys and an equal number of girls must battle the Minotaur—which meant certain death for the king’s viewing pleasure.  Theseus is the hero who agrees to risk life and limb in these deadly games. That’s just one direct parallel to Collins’ tale and there are many more similar tales through the history of world culture.

In fact, Collins has been widely accused of borrowing the plot of Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale, which was translated from the Japanese into English in 2003—five years before her first book was published. She denies that she borrowed his plot—but, her novels are so similar to events in Battle Royale that the accusations continue to be raised. I noticed that Target stores just started selling DVD sets of the Battle Royale movies, with English subtitles, just in time to cash in on the latest Hunger Games movie craze.

JANE: Yes, these kind of stories have found audiences for thousands of years.

The best thing Suzanne Collins did in writing The Hunger Games was the creation of Katniss Everdeen as her main character. I’ve read a lot of books in this genre and I don’t recall a character quite like her before this. Yes, there have been lots of girls as main characters and even girls as heroes. But, here, it’s almost coincidental that Katniss is a girl. In this kind of novel with a girl as a main character, we usually see the writer paying a lot of attention to the hero’s gender. But, Katniss isn’t “girly” at all. And, Katniss doesn’t use her femininity to “play” anybody. She uses her skills, her mind, her strength. She really doesn’t spend any time thinking about what it means that she’s a girl. She’s a person who simply refuses to put up with the kind of hazardous, scary, unjust world in which she finds herself.

DAVID: There are some distinctive issues concerning her gender, though.

JANE: Yes, one way that she is distinctively female, as a character, is that she is motivated by not wanting to bring her own children, someday, into the world she finds around her. Her gender also shapes her story because the laborers who must work in the mines do appear to be mostly men in Collins’ world. But overall, Katniss is this very strong hero who goes out and risks her life for justice. I think that Katniss—as this bright and heroic and skillful and motivated young woman—is a different kind of character than we’ve seen before.

FROM HUNGER GAMES TO THE BIBLE: KATNISS AND ESTHER

DAVID: Katniss may be unique in contemporary YA fiction. But, as you point out immediately in your book, Bird on Fire, there are ancient heroes who mirror Katniss’ courage and wisdom. One of them was Queen Esther, the starring hero of the Bible’s Book of Esther.

JANE: Yes, as I thought about Hunger Games and my strong response to these stories, I remembered that this is the same basic skeleton of Esther’s story. According to the Book of Esther, a decree goes out in the ancient Persian empire for a high-stakes competition that the king stages to show his power over the people. He calls for beautiful young girls from across his empire to come before him in this competition to find a new wife.

DAVID: Our readers probably know the basic story. For centuries, Esther was a classic subject for painters. Then, Hollywood produced at least four different movies from this story; and, now, there’s even a VeggieTales version for kids. This story also is retold each year in the Jewish festival of Purim.

JANE: In the first part of Esther’s story, she wins this competition. But the story doesn’t end there. She is chosen to be a wife for the king, but then the question becomes: What will this woman do with the power she she got through these experiences? That’s where we find Katniss in this second movie, Catching Fire. In the first book, she won her competition. She survived. She could, then, fade into the background and enjoy everything she has won. That’s the same moral question Esther faces: When she sees great injustice taking place around her, can Esther sit back and remain silent and live in comfort for the rest of her life? In Esther’s case, if she remains silent, her uncle will die and a lot of other innocent people along with her. Katniss faces similar moral choices.

DAVID: There are a lot of reluctant biblical heroes. In  your book, you also compare Katniss to Gideon, among others.

JANE: Yes, you’ll find a lot of Bible references in Bird on Fire. I liked drawing comparisons with Gideon because, like Katniss, he was this young person from this small town who was called to face a challenge. Eventually, he did it—Gideon went out and destroyed some idols in his town—but that wasn’t the end of his story. Like Katniss, he was called on to face bigger challenges after that. I like Gideon’s story, because he answers the question: Can one little person make a difference in a big world? Gideon also reminds us that, just because we win one battle, that doesn’t mean God is done with us.

JOHN WESLEY’S BIRD AND SNAKE LOGO

DAVID: Even the Hunger Games symbol of a bird in a circle resonates down through religious history, right?

JANE: I love this part of the story. When I was writing this book, Bird on Fire, I was remembering the logos on the novels and the pictures associated with the movies, too. The movie images add flames with the bird. And I realized that these symbols are from my own denominational background: the Church of the Nazarene. Our logo shows a bird with a flame behind it. There are lots of similarities in these images. In both Hunger Games and my church, the bird represents freedom. In my church, we say it’s freedom through the Holy Spirit. There are other similarities, too—including the flame that represents purifying fire. I was amazed as I got to thinking about this.

Then, David, you and I got to talking about these themes—while I was still working on this book—and you pointed out that John Wesley used a bird-and-encircling-snake symbol to decorate his beautiful chapel in London. It represents a verse that I don’t think many Christians recall out of Matthew 10, when Jesus tells his followers: “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

I don’t remember seeing any churches that kept the snake symbol that Wesley used, but I think Wesley was right to display it in his chapel. It’s such a wonderful reminder that, as Christians, we are not supposed to turn off our brains. We are given minds to think; it’s a God-given gift. We’re supposed to be analytical and critical of the world around us and to carefully evaluate what we see around us in light of truths we see in the Bible. Very powerful.

GOING INTO THE WORLD:
AS PEACEKEEPER?
OR PEACEMAKER?

DAVID: There are stark moral questions in The Hunger Games. One of them is the question of what it truly means to be bringing peace into the world. Today, we have a great deal of respect for men and women who agree to be what we call “peacekeepers”—folks who put their lives on the line in some of the world’s most combustible hot spots. But in the novels, “peacekeepers” are bad.

JANE: In The Hunger Games, peacekeepers are just tools of the Capitol, the evil force ruling the world. The peacekeepers are concerned with maintaining the status quo, which means keeping people compliant. The peacekeepers keep President Snow in power and, if that means shooting some people to accomplish their mission, then so be it. For these peacekeepers, the classic excuse is: “We’re only following orders.” Their power is absolute and deadly.

I think it’s fascinating to discuss how “peacemakers” can be quite different than the “peacekeeper” model we find in The Hunger Games. I would recommend that readers look at the books by Daniel Buttry, especially his Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Dan does a great job in that book of reporting true stories about people who have taken huge risks to make peace. Some of his stories come from the civil rights era, when people literally were willing to lay down their lives.

I want people to realize: Yes, the civil rights era is now a generation or so removed from our time, but there still are huge gaping holes in society that we need to address today.

DAVID: I’m impressed with the guests you’ve invited to take part in your book launch this week, here in Michigan. (Care to go? See information below for details.)

You could have planned all sorts of things for the book launch, but you’ve deliberately chosen to highlight contemporary slavery and hunger issues, including food insecurity, at your launch event. Our readers know—from our past coverage including our interview with David Batstone of the “Not for Sale” campaign—that many congregations nationwide already are joining in the grassroots movement to end modern slavery.

JANE: The message is simple and powerful: If you’re a fan of The Hunger Games, you should realize that these problems exist in our world, today. Millions of American children face hunger every day. Millions live in “food insecure” households, meaning that these families struggle to put enough food on the table and don’t always have enough to provide meals.

A large portion of children across the country now are signed up for free or reduced-price school meals. Think about the heartbreaking situations in homes each summer or over holiday periods when these kids don’t have those school meals and may be making do with one meal-a-day at home—or less. It kills me as a mother myself to think about my own kids. How can we stand by and know that there are so many kids out there living in homes where parents can’t provide food?

The demand on food pantries and feeding programs is growing. We all need to ask: How can we help out? Yes, we can donate bags of food occasionally. But there may be other ways we can help. This isn’t a novel. It’s real life today for too many families.

Hunger isn’t science fiction.

DAVID: I love that line and I think it could make a terrific handbill or poster for a small group planning to discuss your new book. Take a color picture of your book cover, put it on the handbill, then headline the page: “HUNGER ISN’T SCIENCE FICTION.” Then, invite people to the discussion series. Or, you could make up handbills with the other theme: “SLAVERY ISN’T SCIENCE FICTION.” That’s also something you’re urging people to discuss.

JANE: Slavery isn’t directly in the title of Suzanne Collins’ series, as “hunger” is, but forms of slavery also run through her novels. And, as a lot of congregations already know, slavery is still a problem in our world today.

DAVID: According to Wikipedia’s overview of “contemporary slavery“—the United Nations estimates that there are 27 to 30 million slaves in today’s world.

JANE: When I began looking into this problem, I was shocked me to discover that there are more slaves in the world today than ever before in history.

DAVID: The sheer numbers are enormous and the forms of slavery are many. There are child slaves, sex slaves, huge mining and industrial operations in many parts of the world that are run entirely with slave labor—the list goes on and on.

JANE: Most slaves today are laborers and, by the nature of their work, they’re not tied up in closets or locked away in secret places. They’re often working in plain sight. I live in a farming area of Michigan and, even in our state, there are questions about how migrant farm laborers may be used or abused. In some cases, farm laborers can find themselves financially bonded in such a way that they’re powerless. They can become slaves, even in the middle of America. That’s why I invited a Michigan State Police officer to speak at my launch event, a woman who works on new laws and regulations to help combat human trafficking.

When you finish reading The Hunger Games—or when the movie is over—I want you to ask yourself: What am I called to do in our world right now?

MORE PERSPECTIVES ON THE HUNGER GAMES

We welcome many perspectives on The Hunger Games. In coming weeks, we will be establishing a Resource Page to help our readers find a wide array of thought-provoking materials on this theme. One of the first additions is a sermon by the Rev. Bob Roth, a peace activist and campus minister, titled Redemptive Violence? An Alternative Perspective.

MEET JANE WELLS …
LET HER HELP YOU TO FIRE UP YOUR COMMUNITY

FIRST, please support Jane’s work by buying her book. Learn more and find easy links to purchase the book in our ReadTheSpirit Bookstore.

DO YOU LIVE NEAR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN? Jane is devoting her book launch to helping fans see the connection between Hunger Games and dire needs in our communities today. She is pulling together the YMCA—as well as advocates of combating both contemporary slavery and hunger. From 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, November 14, Jane Wells will appear at her local YMCA along with one of Michigan’s leading investigators into patterns of modern slavery—and a regional leader in interfaith feeding programs. The event is free and open to the public at The Monroe Family YMCA, 1111 West Elm Avenue, Monroe, MI.

AROUND THE WORLD: We know that, since we began ReadTheSpirit in 2007, our active readers circle the globe. You live in communities from Australia to Panama, from New England to Los Angeles. If you purchase Jane’s book and organize a local discussion group, please email us at [email protected] and tell us what you’re doing. We’d like to share your news with the rest of our worldwide readership. AND, if you’d like to arrange to bring Jane to your corner of the world—email us and we’ll be happy to put you in touch with this author. Please note: Her schedule fills quickly, so plan ahead!

(Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion, spirituality, values and interfaith and cross-cultural issues.)

Redemptive Violence? An alternative perspective …

November 8, 2013 by

THE HUNGER GAMES is a major culture milestone, thanks to Suzanne Collins’ novels and the blockbuster movies coming out of Hollywood. Read The Spirit publishes Jane Wells’ Hunger Games Bible-study book, Bird on Fire. We welcome a wide range of viewpoints—because we are encouraging groups nationwide to discuss these science fiction tales that are so widely celebrated in our culture. This alternative perspective comes from the Rev. Bob Roth, the Chaplain/Director of the Wesley Foundation (campus ministry) at the University of Michigan.

On April 13, 2013, Roth gave this keynote address at the 2013 Keep Making Peace conference in East Lansing, co-sponsored by the Wesley Foundation at Michigan State University.

From The Hobbit To The Hunger Games:
Redemptive Violence?

The Rev. BOB ROTH

Keep Making Peace, people!

I believe I have enough of a sense of those who have come to previous Keep Making Peace events, and of those who are here today, that I don’t think I need to convince you that popular culture has become more and more violent. Those watching and those participating in video games are exposed to more graphic, sustained violence at younger and younger ages. That part you already know.

My task today is not to suggest that a steady diet of movie and television and video violence makes young people shoot up schools. Nor that this culture makes them do anything horrific in the short term or in a reflexive way.

I do want to lift up an idea called “the myth of redemptive violence” and suggest how it lays the groundwork for participation in every manner of present and future wars. I invite you to consider whether the vision of the Prince of Peace—and that of the church tradition of peacemaking—offer an alternative view of human nature, where history is headed, and the ethics of killing other human beings. Does Jesus mean it when he says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (John 14: 27)

Before we go too far with this critique and alternative vision, let me affirm my belief that more strong female role models in popular culture are urgently needed by girls, by young women, by all of us in the human family. Let me say that I do get it that The Hunger Games protagonist Katniss Everdeen is strong and smart and resourceful and resilient and a survivor. Far more of a survivor than her own mother, whom she berates for weakness and yells at for being what appears to be clinically depressed. And I would have to affirm that Jennifer Lawrence is a great actor and I will probably go see Silver Linings Playbook.

So, in case you just joined us, in the blockbuster book and movie Hunger Games, a totalitarian regime in a sci-fi future holds killing games every year in which each of 12 districts has to offer up two 12-to-18-year-olds in a fight to the finish where 23 of 24 will end up dead. These games have gone on for 74 years to remind the masses whose in charge. As we watch a couple short clips, consider one kind of strength, one kind of resourcefulness. This is survival of the fittest, and the fittest are some of Hollywood beautiful youth…

(Two film clips from Hunger Games are shown, featuring Katniss visiting violence on her foes.)

In the second clip the heroine Katniss commits what she calls a “mercy killing” as she narrates the scene first-person in the book. Sort of like Dr. Kevorkian, but just a little less kind and gentle. Is that the image of what it is to be a strong woman that you want girls to have throughout their lives?

This is situation ethics on steroids. Hunger Games asks you and me to imagine this dystopia. Imagine this is where history is headed. Now, what can we do when it goes there? Therefore, suspending disbelief, imagine that things will go there.

Let’s take a look at one more clip from another recent blockbuster. Let us consider what has become common fare and in the early the 21st century. Not just in “horror” movies, but films aimed at children and youth. I saw The Hobbit at a $1.50 showing at a theater in Allen Park. Families took advantage and I sat amidst dozens of 4-to-10-year-olds throughout the theater with their parents or possibly older siblings. Here is what these little boys and girls watched.

(Film clip of The Hobbit is shown.)

If you watch The Hobbit at 7 or 8 or 9 years old, you will need three cinematic installments of Hunger Games by 11 or 12. Online reviews of 3rd The Hunger Games book celebrate that there is clearly more graphic violence than in book one. And that’s saying something, because even Stephen King’s blurb on the back cover of the first book reads, “A violent, jaring, speed-rap of a novel…” So when the 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games movies come out, the violence will be duly amplified.

The myth of redemptive violence

The myth of redemptive violence says that war is a never-to-be-questioned fact of life.

Past, present, or future: kill or be killed. The only redemption is through violence.

Walter Wink, in Engaging the Powers writes: “Violence is the ethos of our times. It is the spirituality of the modern world. It has been accorded the status of a religion… Its followers are not aware, however, that the devotion they pay to violence is a form of religious piety. Violence is so successful as a myth precisely because it does not seem to be mythic in the least. Violence simply appears to be the nature of things. It is what works… It is embraced with equal alacrity by people on the left and on the right, by religious liberals as well as religious conservatives.” (p. 13)

Biblical scholar Wink traces the myth to at least the story of Eluma Enish in 1250 b.c.e. It lives though the present day, and maybe is as dominate and pervasive today as ever before. Wink writes: “Jesus taught the love of enemies, but Babylonian religion taught their extermination. Violence was for the religion of ancient Mesopotamia what love was for Jesus: the central dynamic of existence.”

One of the assumptions of Hunger Games is that teens can quickly and easily become killers if the need and the situation arise. Ugly, vicious, arrogant killing is bad. Stylized, romanticized, sometime balletic killing, especially if it is to save oneself, one’s family, one’s own town or tribe, is justified. This kind of thinking fits nicely with drone warfare. A handsome or beautiful uniformed person (at least so judged by their own people) pushes a button and wipes out a building or a complex believed to hold someone whose own killing or potential killing is deemed to be most evil. The children or families also killed are never seen.

So, too, in The Hobbit, killing justifies killing, decade after decade, century after century. Time does not permit me to dwell long on Tolkien’s Hobbit but would only suggest the myth of redemptive violence is central throughout. Whoever your enemies are, they cannot be changed. Your only choices are to kill them, violently dominate them, or flee from them. This is true whether they are other humans, animals, or some hybrid between the two. The hybrid notion is significant, because throughout history when we believe the only way to respond to enemies is to kill or brutally occupy them and their land, we describe them as animals or beasts or barbaric. Though I will tack toward reflections on the Hunger Games here, we can come back to The Hobbit later today if you want to.

In both books and both movies, nature is a scary and dangerous place. There are beautiful exceptions to the rule, to be sure, in both. But still nature is to be seized or dominated or shot at or run from… or you won’t survive.

Long before she becomes a kids-kill-kids tribute and later an assassin, Katniss the hunter kills to get food for her hungry family without a smidge of remorse or compassion for the animal. As Katniss says about shooting canines: “We don’t hunt them on purpose, but if you’re attacked and take out a dog or two, well, meat is meat.” (p. 19) Though it would be tempting to parallel Katniss with a Native American in her familiarity with living things through the wooded area, I am reminded of an Ottawa person in Manistee who I recently heard sharing the story of killing an elk and then holding the animal and weeping. No trace of that attitude in Katniss’ killing. Throughout these books, creation is a savage place and you will be attacked. The literary foil is always: you have no choice. Whether killing animals or people, we have no choice.

Does this sound familiar? When occupying foreign lands, if we are attacked “we have no choice” but to destroy the village and everybody in it. It happened in Vietnam and Iraq. It is still happening in Afghanistan.

Author Suzanne Collins says that she first came up with the idea for Hunger Games channel surfing TV one night between a game show and footage of the Iraq War. She later went on to draw inspiration from the myth of Theseus and Minataur and the Roman gladiator games. Those mythologies, Suzanne Collins’ main sources, all hold true to the myth of redemptive violence

It is important to the idea of redemptive violence to keep looping back to the idea of an evil so bad we have no choice, whether in actual wars, uprisings, and riots, or in the books and movies that form our thinking so we will go along with every new war. For Americans, going to war in Iraq meant keeping a focus on Saddam Hussein, whom we supported during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, He was even then a despot committing horrible atrocities, but at least he was our despot. In Afghanistan, the evil so bad we have no choice was one of the 9/11 masterminds and financiers Osama bin Laden (like almost all the 9/11 terrorists a Saudi, not an Afghan). We were bin Laden’s ally during the war between Afghanistan and Russia. During that war, bin Laden was in leadership in the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen we supported against the Russians.

Movies are watched in a context. These incredibly popular movies are watched in a particular context. We are in a time of war. In Afghanistan, we are now in the longest war in U.S. history. We are in a “war on terror,” which is vast and vague and a war that is undeclared and against an idea, or a group of ideas, all of which leads us into a perpetual war, an unending war. Something new in my lifetime; something new in U.S. history.

What is the message of The Hunger Games? Marshal McLuhan’s crucial insight is no less true in the 21st century than it was in the 20th: “The medium is the message.” There is no getting around what is actually going on in the theater or in front of the television: millions of young people are pulling for Katniss to kill, kill, kill so she can survive and her family can survive. As we cheer, it becomes clear that the medium is the message.

If a movie purports to question war and killing and we have the courage as Christians in America in 2013 to discuss war and killing with our young people, then let’s really discuss killing they may well be asked to do some day. We have a powerful teacher to whom we might turn in Iraq War veteran Logan Mehl-Laituri. Logan will be with us here in Michigan in September. On Amazon.com, or wherever you go to check out books, take a look at Logan‘s extraordinary 2012 book Reborn on the Fourth of July: The Challenge of Faith, Patriotism & Conscience. It is on the book list side of your handout. (And out on the book table.)

Logan Mehl-Laituri writes, “American media is replete with romantic depictions of battle… By subtly suggesting that combat is a place we can find honor, glory, or revenge—or worse—entertainment, glamorous tales of warfare threaten to replace the hearts of flesh God has given us with hearts of stone (or maybe polished plastic). They embellish war, captivate our imaginations and condition us to disregard the incredible moral challenges that come with war. I know that for me, by the time I found myself in that ambush in Najaf, my heart had done a great deal of hardening.” (p. 35)

He goes on, “We all wanted to go to war, everyone I talked to. Some were fueled by a desire for vengeance; others simply wanted to know what they were made of, to take the kid gloves off.” (p. 37) Logan writes, “We were all fulfilling roles that we had learned in movies and video games. It was like someone back home had the Xbox controller in their hands and we were just characters, responding dutifully to a gamer‘s keystrokes and flicks of the joystick.” (p. 43).

His book tells the story of how Logan grew in faith, became deeply committed to Christ, and turned from war to peace, from violence to nonviolence. Today, he writes, “Anything I do, I try to do with patient love.” From what he saw in Iraq, from what he did in Iraq, Logan Mehl-Laituri now deals with post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. Whatever your position on the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, we owe it to veterans to give them the medical and psychological care they need when they come home and throughout their lives. And yes, we can find the money.

For years, during these prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan we were spending one billion dollars a day! It’s down some at the moment because of winding down the war in Iraq but when politicians of both parties tell you we don’t have money for food and health care and roads and education, don’t believe them. If they won’t even talk about massive shifts from these military adventures to human need, it is because they believe in the myth of redemptive violence. Imagine if we spent a billion dollars a day for even one month throughout the developing world—and in the poorest areas of American cities—for doctors and hospitals and clean water and healthy food. We would have so many friends around the world we couldn’t return all of their calls and emails!

The early church, Methodism, and Christian peacemaking today

From the very beginning, Christians sacrificed not by asking what they would kill for, but who and what they would die for. It is no small distinction! For the first three centuries—when, arguably the resurrection of Jesus Christ was most immediate and most in the forefront of Christians’ hearts and minds—Christians would not kill other human beings. Most of the apostles were martyred and would not take up arms against their oppressors, following Jesus lead: “all those who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26: 52) “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” (Matthew 5: 3) “You have heard it said ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matthew 5: 43-44)

I dare say everybody in this sanctuary knows most or all of Jesus’ words on peace and nonviolence and what he chose to do and not do when attacked. Do we really believe him? Will we follow his non-violence, truth-bearing, enemy changing way?

To say that I will kill as many people as possible so that my sister does not have to be put in the position of killing and possibly being killed has never been what sacrifice means in the Christian faith. And in The Hunger Games, the reader knows and the movie-goer knows, Katniss is not going to be killed. She is going to kill often enough in every book so that she lives on. She will slaughter and sacrifice others to save herself, her sister, and her circle of friends.

The early church was populated with martyrs who were specifically martyred for their refusal to kill or for their refusal to even be conscripted into an army. Again, check out Logan Mehl-Laituri’s book for documentation and description of these great heroes of the faith.

Then there is John Wesley and early Methodism. He asked a question during the heat of the Revolutionary War that remains strikingly contemporary today: “What then must we do to save (not to destroy) our American brethren? Do my brethren! Why what would you do, if either your own or your neighbor’s house were on fire? We should bring if in our sense, no combustible matter to increase the flame, but water and a helping hand to extinguish it.” (Works, Vol. XI., p. 120) This founder of Methodism preached that a peacemaker “steps over all these narrow bounds” of family, friends, acquaintances and party to “manifest his love to neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies.” (Sermons, Vol. 3, 1750)

Strictly speaking, John Wesley was not a pacifist but adhered to a very strict and limited interpretation of what, for the Christian, was a just war. So strict that he condemned the wars of his time and saw war itself as the No. 1 sign of human sin.

If you believe in some version of just war, can you articulate it in such a way that when a new war starts, or our country moves toward a new war, you know whether as a Christian you are being faithful to God in supporting that war? Do you believe God or military might will ultimately decide the course of history? What do you mean when you call Jesus the Prince of Peace?

Peacemakers in the church as a subculture with a subculture

The Hunger Games and The Hobbit are not counter-cultural. They are part and parcel of a profoundly violent culture and a particularly nationalistic time in history. War fantasies are not counter-cultural. And though they are successfully marketed and sold to children, youth, and yes even to young adults, they are not really youth culture. They are written, publicized in an almost ubiquitous way, and made into a franchise of clothes and toys and movies and video games and Facebook websites by … adults.

It is interesting that one of Suzanne Collins’ favorite books when she was young was Lord of the Flies. Another was 1984. She always been fascinated by how horribly wrong things might go in the future and how justified we will then be with doing horribly bad things ourselves. Human nature is understood in Darwinian terms, survival of the fittest is supposedly the best we can hope for.

In the dystopian future of The Hunger Games the situation has not only gone from bad to worse, it is fundamentally hopeless. That is, the totalitarian government has people offering up their kids to kill each other and the best the parents can come up with over 74 years is either going silent—big dramatic moment in the book and the movie—or making sure their kids learn to be good killers. Killers of other kids.

But there is another image of who we are to consider. It is the notion that we are created in the image and likeness of God, the Imago Dei, that we are fundamentally good and loving. That we are a part of a creation that is sacred and good and to be trusted.

Consider South Africa where the majority black Africans led by Nelson Mandela and others ultimately decided for non-violence and when through non-cooperation and undermining the brutal, evil regime that denied them civil liberties for so long they took power. They opted for truth & reconciliation trials instead of retribution. A wonderful historic echo of India 50 years earlier when Mahatma Gandhi led millions of Indians to freedom in their own Panem without firing a shot. Back out of the hospital a week ago, Nelson Mandela just turned 95. Praise God!

Consider Russia, and the fall of the iron curtain in Eastern Europe. If we go with the myth of redemptive violence we can say the only reason those countries changed is that we had thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at them threatening genocide. Russians, and Poles and Germans tell another story, one of massive non-cooperation and strikes and the prevailing persistence of the human spirit. For decades they met in the basements and back halls of churches. When they regime had the weapons of violence, they had the weapons for faith and truth, of light and love. The Holy Spirit working love and truth through people is more powerful than any bomb, than any torture, than any nuclear threat.

Still think non-violent peacemaking doesn’t work? Consider Liberia just within the last ten years, where the dictator Charles Taylor was brought down by a coalition of Christian and Muslim women called the Liberian Mass Action for Peace. Public protests, work stoppages, hunger strikes, and when the Muslim and Christian men just would talk the woman said, “o.k., no sex until you back to the peace table.” Oh, then they scurried right back into those peace negotiations and before long ousted the President Coin of Liberia, Charles Taylor. Please look at the handout you received and find the title of the book Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership in non-violently bringing peace and freedom to Liberia.

On your hand-out are listed the books of longtime Harvard prof Gene Sharp: they are filled with hundreds of historic examples on massive non-violent change. They are not taught in our schools as children and youth grow up and only occasionally—so far!—in our churches.

The Rev. Dr. Gene Ransom who was the Wesley Foundation Chaplain/Director at UofM in the ’50’s and ’60’s was a Christian conscientious objector during World War II. Served 5 years of community service instead of killing others. We have a rich tradition, United Methodists! We have to tell our stories, and live our lives so others have stories to tell.

Hope for the future, the Prince of Peace, God’s New Creation

The Prince of Peace is our hope and the hope of our future. JESUS—not the metaphor, not an abstraction, not a philosophized archetype. No, the Jesus who actually was born, lived, died, and was resurrected and turned human history on its ear. The Jesus who is God, now with us in the person of the Holy Spirit—in history, in the events of our time, and the wonderful in breaking New Creation (Wesley called it!) that is unfolding even now, seen and not yet seen.

WHO is going to tell the great stories of faithful people toppling totalitarian regimes without firing a shot? The church. Only the church will do it. We will have to tell the stories, write the books, march for peace, and… make movies!

I implore you, friends, let us stop saying “may the odds be ever in your favor” and start saying “the peace of Christ be with you!”

Peace be with you! Peace be with you! Peace be with you!

‘Thanksgiving,’ a sample sermon about Abraham Lincoln

October 19, 2013 by

By DUNCAN NEWCOMER

(Note from ReadTheSpirit: In this historic year of Lincoln remembrances—the Rev. Dr. Duncan Newcomer  is writing a series of columns about the legacy of our 16th president. Read more about Duncan at the end of this column. TODAY, Duncan provides a sample sermon about Abraham Lincoln, which we welcome you to share, use, discuss and even republish.)

Suggested Bible readings
Philippians 2:1-7

“This poor word”—that’s how Evelyn Underhill refers to “Thanksgiving” in her classic book Worship.

It’s true, isn’t it? A poor word.

What do we mean by “Thanksgiving”? Is it now just the meaningless name of a holiday for food, football and frenzied shopping? Just another annual trigger for stress and guilt? Who are we supposed to thank, anyway? And, for what?

And, the biggest question: Is the most frequently forgotten guest at our dinner tables—God?

I used to teach Family Medicine residents what they called “Behavioral Science.” One lesson was this: It is better not to tell patients, “Try to relax.” Trying to relax is a contradictory effort. “Just let yourself relax” might work better.

“Try to be thankful” suffers from the same kind of disappearing act: The harder we try, the less thankful we feel.

When Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 we got off on the wrong foot with the word “thanksgiving.” While I praise Lincoln for being a secular-religious prophet, one of the problems in translating religious sentiment into civil society is the language that is used. Thanksgiving in a synagogue, church or mosque means something that is hard to translate into society, even if it’s a great idea.

The word “thanksgiving” is a better verb than noun, but it really isn’t either. The word refers to an act: We give thanks. At my childhood dinners, oddly I thought, people were asked to “return thanks.” I wondered: Who took it? And, where were they hiding it? Was “thanks” the stolen goods needing to be returned before anyone is allowed to eat?

A new custom for our secular-religious time might be to ask people to bring an object to the Thanksgiving dinner table and to symbolically offer it up, to place it before us all, or even to give it away. Not exactly a sacrificial lamb or a first-born son, this would be a giving of thanks that fits the verb form of thanksgiving.

On the other hand, as is our custom, for a person to say words as a blessing may not mean what it could. We don’t often believe that someone has the power to bless us, to give us or a meal a blessing. I remember once being asked at a Thanksgiving table to “say the blessing” while Robert Penn Warren, our nation’s Poet Laureate, was sitting right across from me. I didn’t feel, as a young seminary student, that I could bless him, or anything near him, by giving my words. I feared, also, that I was the sacrificial offering.

Evelyn Underhill describes this poor word “thanksgiving” as an act in a holy place. It is a ritual act acknowledging the glory, the power and goodness, of the Creator. We are off on the wrong foot, it seems, if thanksgiving is about us. Ideally, this is a ritual act performed before the glory of God. It is, at least, about a higher power or a mystery that invites awe. A temple, a church, a mosque—a sacred place bigger than a house and home table—seems required.

SHARING OUR VALUES;
FORGING A COMMON BOND

At the core of thanksgiving is gratitude. Brother David Steindl-Rast says that gratitude is the heart of prayer. Our own value and worth is revealed in our feelings of being grateful. At a Thanksgiving meal or gathering, consider asking people to go around the circle and share what each is grateful for.

As these different stories of gratitude are voiced, a common feeling of gratitude forms. We are hearing inner stories that we treasure because they also represent our value and our worth—given as offerings as the stories are told. This practice encourages stories that are quite different from the typical heralding of our own powers and successes, for which we pretend to be thankful. Rather, we encourage stories that we humbly and honestly lay out side by side, building a common bond.

The King James translation of Psalm 90 invites such a practice: “Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. … We spend our years as a tale that is told. … So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

As the Psalmist indicates, our individual tales weave into a story of common destiny—moving from a shared origin to a shared journey for generations. Together, we move from individual thanksgiving toward a far larger story that makes the future, and our humility, possible.

To give thanks then is the opposite of pride in one’s self. It is a form of self-humbling that comes out of a full heart of gratitude. Somehow, filling up with gratitude empties us out of ourselves. Empty of ourselves, we seem held in one large … well, one large Something Else. You can name that mystery what you will.

GRATITUDE FOR A LIFE WITH LINCOLN

This leads me to a story about the passage from Philippians and my relationship to Abraham Lincoln. This Thanksgiving I am filling up with gratitude for my life with Lincoln. It is making me thankful for, even to, Lincoln. Lincoln becomes an object of glory, of thanksgiving, for me. I’m not sure what to give—except more and more of my interest, attention, and the creativity of my responses.

I suppose I need to give thanks to God for giving me—for giving all of us—Lincoln. I start with my gratitude, which leads me to express thanks for the glory, the goodness, the greatness, of this one man. It is not that I see him as God or even as a god. But I do see the better angels of our nature so abundant in him that I am overwhelmed. The truth is, most of the people I know who read and write about him have this inner story and feeling, too.

Philippians 2:1-7 is a New Testament letter that is user friendly with Buddhism and with the mystic traditions that I know. It is about being of one mind, participation in the Spirit, and acting from humility, emptying yourself of yourself, as Jesus did. The word often used here is a Greek word, kenosis. Self-emptying.

Among Lincoln’s many values, it is his natural way of emptying himself that is the most astounding. He shows how such a spiritual quality has both personal and political power. You can be president and still be humble! Kenosis is pragmatic, for all its spirituality. As a boy, then later at the height of his power, and even as a soon-to-be-martyred president, Lincoln shed his ego self, that self we all have so much trouble letting go.

I love the story of big, strong, 13-year-old Abe Lincoln catching some of his friends—boys he grew up with—secretly making off with melons from his family’s melon patch. He easily could have beaten the boys and left them to nurse their bruises. Instead, he never stopped seeing these boys as his friends. He did startle them, but then he sat down among them—and helped them eat the stolen fruit!

At a moment when he could have vented his self-righteous power, he chose to share with mutual joy a common meal. The story is true to his nature and probably true to history. It could be seen as his first Thanksgiving meal. We see that same magnanimous nature brought to bear on the South at the end of the mighty war to restore the huge region of the Union that Southerners had tried to make off with. Lincoln never stopped seeing Southerns as fellow Americans and friends. Despite the war, they were not enemies, he insisted.

The biography of Lincoln is full of astonishing stories in which he moved beyond looking out for his own self interest—to look out for the interests of others, as Philippians describes: He emptied himself, seemingly every day in the final years of his life, and took on the form of a servant. His efforts changed the world: freeing slaves and establishing human equality as the theme of our national story. I am thankful that Lincoln remembered what America should be, re-imagined what America could become and then acted decisively to renew America.

Looking for a reason to feel awe at Thanksgiving? Try remembering how much we are all sons and daughters of his greatness to this day. I give thanks for Lincoln by reading and writing about him. Lincoln is my work, these days. I am full of gratitude that I get to feel close to his value and worth, his fulfilling humanity.

And, I am grateful for ReadTheSpirit and its readers who share with me in this expansion of self, this shared inner story, and the common destiny—one new story—made possible. I believe it is opening up a better future for all of us.

Amen.

MORE ON LINCOLN and DUNCAN NEWCOMER

In 1999 Duncan earned a Doctor in Ministry in Preaching from the ACTS DMin program through the Chicago Theological Seminary. He has prepared various community resources, discussion starters and historical columns, which you can find in our extensive Abraham Lincoln Resource Page.

You are free to use, discuss, share and even republish this “sample sermon,” as long as you credit Duncan Newcomer and readthespirit.com online magazine.