Gay Priests

Okay, this may come as a shock to some people, but there are gay Catholic priests. And for a long time, the church has accepted celibate gays as priests--the rules for celibacy apply to both gay and straight priests. And gay priests serve their people well, or not so well, regardless of their sexuality.

That being said, the policy initiative rumored to be making its way through the Vatican--the banning of gay priests from the ranks makes me so angry I could spit.

Because:

BEING GAY DOES NOT MAKE YOU A PEDOPHILE!!!

If the church really wants to put a stop to pedophila, it needs to make sure that PEDOPHILIA is not tolerated. They could throw out all the straight priests, or all the ones with brown hair, and it still would not address the real issue, which is: the hierarchy that let these guys get away with PEDOPHILIA all those years were protecting priests, not parishioners.

In this article from Slate, the writer suggests putting an end to "careerism," which he believes motivates some bishops to hide problems like pedophiliac priests, rather than to deal with them. That could be part of the solution.

But I think the sad truth is that smart abusers almost always choose victims that people probably won't believe. All churches, and indeed all organizations that are entrusted with children, must recognize this and take steps to plan for it.

But re-closeting or throwing out the gay priests is worse than useless. It perpetuates ignorance, and makes life worse for gays everywhere.

/end rant

Thank you, Mr. President!

The beginnings, the tiniest inklings, of Bush actually realizing that the real problem with our energy policy is the consumption side, not the production side.

To Conserve Gas, President Calls for Less Driving

By DAVID LEONHARDT, JAD MOUAWAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: September 27, 2005

With fears mounting that high energy costs will crimp economic growth, President Bush called on Americans yesterday to conserve gasoline by driving less. He also issued a directive for all federal agencies to cut their own energy use and to encourage employees to use public transportation.

See the link for more.

Sermons to be posted, soon

Hey folks--In August and September I did a bunch of preaching, but have been slacking off on posting them to my sermon blog. Tonight will be the night, so watch that space....

In other news, I'll be helping lead a contemporary worship service in Canton on Saturday, and I'm a little nervous about it, because I'll be trying out a different style of preaching--less of me reading from a written document, more of me improvising stories from an outline. I've done this kind of thing before once or twice, and I'm hoping it will make the service feel accessible, informal, and relevant, but it feels like a relatively new skill, so I'm nervous. Fortunately, I've chosen a very narrow topic, one that will be easy to cover in 8-10 minutes: "Finding Meaning in Life."

I'll feel less nervous with friends in the crowd, so if you're around Baltimore on Saturday, you should come to service. You'll already know at least one person. :-) 3200 Dillon Street, Baltimore, MD 21224.

Hurricanes and Environment

On Monday's The Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry shared his theory about why there are so many hurricanes this year: "God is basically being kind of a dick." Also, "We generally had it coming."

Unlike Rob, I don't think that God is punishing us with these hurricanes. Nature has its own needs, processes, and ways of doing things, and it's not always about us. The mundane explanation is that we're entering a new fifty-year or so cycle of weather where hurricanes are just going to be more common than they were during the previous fifty-year cycle.

But I have been thinking a lot about how we treat the environment, lately, because of the hurricanes and the corresponding rise in gas prices. Most people I know get where they're going by car. It's how Baltimore & suburbs are mostly structured. In fact, if we wanted to go to the baseball game from Columbia (tonight--Red Sox vs. Orioles--Go SOX!) using public transportation, we'd have to drive twenty minutes to get to the light rail. Public transportation around here is slow, inconvenient, and usually not worth it unless you're using it to commute. (And by commuting, I mean going into the city between 7 and 9am, and out of the city between 4 and 7, preferably to city or state government offices near the Inner Harbor. Also, it's best if you can drive to the park-and-ride lot.)

Katrina and Rita, as I understand it, are not as big as they are because of global warming, but I think that if we want to avoid future catastrophes and the loss of more coastline, New Orleans should be an object lesson in how serious global warming can become. If ocean levels rise, New Orleans won't be the only city underwater. Unfortunately, the time to act was probably in November 2000 (sigh). Oh yeah, and then in November 2004 (sigh).

But at any rate, this is a society-wide problem, not just a president problem. It would be nice, of course, to have political leadership that actually took risks for a more environmentally conscious energy policy (or for that matter, was willing to face reality), but to quote an old bumper sticker: If the people lead, the leaders will follow.

So, enough of trying to dominate and control oil and keep things the way they are. It's time for some initiative, some sacrifice for the common good, and some good old-fashioned American ingenuity. It's time to recognize that our car-dependent lifestyle has to change, and to make a new way for everybody to get around.

Pray for Texas!

Hi folks,

Sorry I haven't been a diligent updater the last week or so. I think that thinking about Katrina has taken some of the wind out of my sails. Please excuse the pun.

Anyway, now it looks like Houston is going to get some high winds and some bad water. Please pray for everyone there, especially for the people who were already evacuated out of New Orleans to Houston.

Amy

PS Would anyone in the area be up for a prayer vigil?

9-11

After 4 years, there are some lessons from 9-11 that we have learned, and some that we haven't. Hurricane Katrina brings them both into stark contrast.

First, the political machine that heated the anger and revenge-seeking that led us into war in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to be the same one that was unwilling or unable to quickly address a natural disaster in the United States when it affected poor black people. A lesson we haven't learned, then, is how to hold our government accountable to true Christian values.

On the other hand, the generosity and concern of private individuals and groups in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has been an object lesson in what makes America strong. September 11th brought us together as a nation. Part of that togetherness was fueled by a common enemy. But part of that togetherness, as we now see, facing Katrina's aftermath, is the recognition of what is most important: care for family and community and the needs of those affected by tragedy.

I hope that what we will go on to learn from Katrina is that poverty and racism have real consequences in the lives of real people; they are not old-fashioned abstractions that have been mostly eliminated. Poverty and racism are the two towering sins that ultimately led to the deaths of thousands in New Orleans. It is clear that such a large storm with such power would have killed at least some people, but the compounding effects of neglect by the government and limited resources among the poor multiplied those consequences horrifically.

Here is my prayer:

God of wind and water, give us strength for this latest trial. Warm our hearts to the task of recovery, and give us endurance for the road ahead. Bring an end to injustice, and let your reign begin on earth. Amen.

A Solution to One of Our Problems

A new approach to reducing the rate of Michael Brown appointments in the government. Enjoy.

Devastation

I've been reading about New Orleans today. It's hard to take from so far away--there's a sense of helplessness that is exacerbated by the fact that the federal government has been so slow to move, our illustrious president included. This is one of the worst natural disasters in American history, and it takes 4 days to get National Guard troops there?

It's sad, too, to realize that much of this is as bad as it is because the city was built and maintained in a sort of defiance of natural forces. The levees were built to prevent flooding by the Mississippi, but the lack of flooding destroyed the deltas and barriers in the ocean that could have protected New Orleans from some of its damage.

What is hard to see, too, is that the most vulnerable people are the ones to die first. I saw a picture of a woman crying next to her dead husband. He died Tuesday because he had lung cancer and ran out of oxygen. An eighty-nine year old woman sat outside the convention center in the sun, wilting from heat and exhaustion. These are the people who couldn't get out of the city to start with, and because of that their escape will be the longest and hardest.

Where is God in all this?

This is where I see God now:
In the prayers of the whole country and the world.
In the hundreds of thousands of offers of help and acts of kindness.
On the coast and in the cities, suffering with the dead, the dying, the poor, the sick, the grieving, the homeless, the hungry and the thirsty.

Matthew 25 tells about the end of time, when Jesus speaks to his followers:

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory... Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'