Results tagged “African American president” from Marilyn Sewell

It was predictable--conservative Episcopalians have decided to just by golly go off and sulk and have their own church.  They can't stand the idea of gay clergy.  When Gene Robinson was ordained a bishop (wearing a bullet-proof vest, as I remember), bishops representing around 14 dioceses met to explore the possibility of a new Anglican church in North America.  Only 4 dioceses have actually broken away, however.  Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader of the breakaway movement, explained "there's some people standing back to wait and see if we pull this off, which I think we'll do.  Then others will join us--parishes, and maybe dioceses."

Dream on, Bishop Minns.  You are the last of a dying breed--the same guys who didn't want to ordain women and who didn't want to ever, ever change a word of the Book of Common Prayer.  Time is not on your side, ethical evolution is not on your side, and for sure youth are not on your side.  A case in point: California voted against gay rights in this last election--but when you look at who voted which way, you see that it was the older folks who said no to gays and the younger ones who said yes.  It's just a matter of time. 

And don't forget that we just elected a young African American President.  How does this event relate to the question at hand?  Well, things are changing.  It's not all old white men anymore, in their dark suits.  It's women and people of color and gays and young people.  It's all of us.  I like what Jim Naughton, canon for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and a liberal blogger, wrote in response to the viability of this new church: "I think this organization does not have much of a future because there are already a lot of churches in the United States for people who don't want to worship with gays and lesbians.  That's not a market niche that is underserved."

Listen up, Christian churches everywhere!  Why are churches often the last to extend love and acceptance to all who enter their doors?  Who is this Jesus that I read about in the New Testament who loved and accepted prostitutes, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, women, children, lepers, rich people, poor people, etc., etc.  Where is the church's prophetic voice?  The church should be the first to speak out for the disenfranchised, Bishop Minns--not the institution to keep people out, but the one to broaden the circle and invite people in. 

Jesus asked us to do one thing, and one thing only: he asked us to be on the side of love.  In our personal lives, we all measure up to this standard imperfectly.  But with love as the standard and goal, systemic discrimination has no place in Christian churches and institutions. 

And my prediction?  Love will win the day.  It's just too beautiful to disregard.  Let's watch and see.

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When the announcement BARACK OBAMA ELECTED 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES floated across the television screen, many people could hardly believe that it was true--despite pollster.com and all the reassurances they had had before Nov. 4.  How in fact could an African American have been elected as our President?  At that moment Democrats and Republicans and Independents alike all knew that something extraordinary had occurred, and that our country could never be the same again.  That something was a message of healing, a message of unity.  Even those who fought bitterly against Obama during the campaign, including and especially John McCain, acknowledged that a new day had arrived.

Think what happened just 40 years ago in Grant Park in Chicago, the same place where Obama made his rather subdued acceptance speech.  Forty years ago, the country was split wide open over Vietnam and Civil Rights.  The Democratic Party was divided as well, and during their convention television cameras witnessed Chicago police bloody hundreds of youthful demonstrators.      

We had little chance for unity at that time, for we were far from resolving the differences threatening the body politic.  Those differences have been playing out all these long years, and now we just might have a chance at unity.  This economic crisis has made all of us understand how interdependent we are with one another and with other countries.  And then global warming is not something one political party or even one country is going to solve alone.  How bad does it have to get before people must acknowledge that we really are all in this together, and that when one suffers, all suffer?  Perhaps we are getting there. 

That's the upside to trouble--it's quite a leveler.  When the common house is on fire, you don't ask what color the fireman is, or what race he belongs to, or what religious beliefs he has, or who he sleeps with, or what political party he votes with.  You just need to put that fire out, and you're just as grateful for a Muslim hand as for a Southern Baptist, and you don't care whether he's gay or straight.

Barack Obama embodies the unity that we all long for.  He is from a black father and a white mother; he has lived in several countries and is respectful of other ways and cultures; he is young enough to be hip, but old enough to be wise; he has known what it is to be poor and he has learned how to move among wealth; he is a community organizer (bless his heart, as Sarah Palin might say), and he can bring people together for a common purpose, out of their own expressed need.  Does not this largeness of spirit and experience make Obama well-suited to bring us together?  Is this not, in fact, what democracy is all about? 

Naturally, everyone will not respond to his leadership.  I imagine that either end of the political spectrum will be disappointed, for he will not be extreme enough for the far left, and of course the far right already is appalled that we have elected "a socialist."  But let us give him some space and support him in his efforts to do what he can with the unholy mess he has inherited from the past eight years.  Keep him in your thoughts and prayers, won't you please.  And do your part on the ground to help him succeed.

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