New U.S. Citizens Welcomed in Iowa

"Now, I wish to speak to you as United States citizens, which you now are,” said U.S. Sr. District Judge Robert Pratt in Iowa this week as he welcomed ninety-eight people from thirty-three countries, such as Burundi, Vietnam and Cameroon. (The ceremony was held outdoors in a parking lot this year.)

Pratt said: You may hear voices in this land say that there is only one true American religion. Do not believe it. As an American, you may freely and openly be a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim, or you may adhere to any other religion, or you may be an agnostic or an atheist.

You may hear voices in this land say that there is only one true American way to think and believe about political matters, economic matters and social matters. Do not believe it. As an American, you may freely and openly adhere to political, economic and social views on the right, on the left, or anywhere in between.

You may hear voices in this land say that there is only one true American set of values. Do not believe it. As an American, you may openly hold beliefs and values greatly different from those of others — even if those of others are shared by many and yours are shared by few.

Simply stated, there is no single American way to think or believe. Indeed, conformity of thought and belief would be contrary to the underlying principles of this great nation.

The First Amendment: How Do We Exercise Freedom of Religion for All?

Lifelong Learning North Iowa Area Community
 College September 17, 2019, Constitution Day  

About 90 people came and engaged in wonderful conversation                                                                                         

 Norma Cook Everist, professor

Brief History of Freedom of Religion
 and U.S. Relationship of Religion and 
Government (“Church and State”)

1.    Disestablishment occurred gradually,
 state by state, over a 50-year period in
 the new United State of America.

2.    Disestablishment meant denominationalism
 and promised inclusion of all religions.

3.    Debate remains to this day as to the
 meaning of “separation of church and state.”

1^st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: 
Congress shall make no law respecting an
 establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
 free exercise thereof; or abridging the
 freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
 right of the people peaceably to assemble,
 and to petition the Government for a
 redress of grievances.

1.    The establishment clause: The nation
 gives privilege to all religions without
discrimination.

2.    The free exercise clause: Religious
 freedom means that I and my neighbor
 both have religious freedom.

Various Positions on Religion and
 Government

1.    One Religion Dominating the Nation
and Over the Government

2.    The Government Dominating All Religions

3.    One Religion Privileged Above 
All Other Religions: A State Religion

4.    A Civil Religion: The Symbols,
 Shrines, Holy Days, Rituals and 
Creeds of Nationalism Linked to a Religion

5.    Institutional Separation and
Functional Interaction: Healthy Pluralism  

Kinds of Separation  

1.    Structural Separation

2.    Absolute Separation

3.    Transvaluing Separation

4.    Supportive Separation

5.    Equal Separation

Time to Talk with each other

1.    Why do you think that the no
 “establishment” clause” is important
 and how can we help understand
 and support all religions without
 discrimination?

2.    How does “functional interaction”
 take us beyond just “being nice” or 
saying “this is a free country” to caring
 about the problems of the world and
 the needs of our neighbors?

Encountering Religious Diversity

1.    Religious diversity has continually shaped
American society, starting with the
 indigenous peoples.

2.    We can make common commitments and 
accept new callings.

3.    We cannot really know another’s belief, but
 we can ask and respect and work together.

Religion in Public Schools

1.    God is not forbidden in the public schools
. Each student comes as a person with a
 belief system and perhaps as a member 
of a faith community.

2.    We need schools to be safe, trustworthy
, places to be different together, not
 places of fear.  

3.    We need schools to teach how the
 natural world functions; we do not look
 to science to answer religious questions.

4.    The schools approach to religion
 should be awareness and instruction
 not indoctrination or conversion.

5.    There should be equitable access
 to public/community quality education
 for all regardless of race, religion,
 social-economic background, etc.   

Current Challenges of Religious Freedom
for Living in the Public World Together

1.    Faith Communities Tax Exempt Status:
 Speaking on Political Issues, Telling
People How to Vote, Preaching on
 Social Statements

2.    Commerce in the public arena: 
religious freedom as a justification
 for discrimination against serving
 certain customers

3.    Religious freedom of employers
 and the restriction of the rights of 
employees

4.    Religious restrictions of
 child-placement
 agencies in regard to foster 
care and adoption

5.    Opening Municipal and 
Legislative Meetings

Time to talk with each other

1.    Share examples of public schools
 teaching about religion and being
 a place for people to appreciate
 religious diversity.

2.    Which issues of religious freedom 
and religion and government challenge 
you today? Select one to talk about
 together.

Other Important Freedoms in the First 
Amendment (all in the same sentence)

1.    Freedom of Speech

2.    Freedom of the Press

3.    Freedom to Peaceably Assemble

4.    Freedom to Petition the Government
 for a Redress of Grievances 

Cherokee Nation to Send Delegate to U.S. Congress

      The Cherokee Nation will exercise its treaty rights and send Kimberly Teehee to Washington D.C. as its first-ever delegate to the U.S. Congress, marking a new strategy in the ongoing fight for the survival and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples in the United States.

        “This journey is just beginning and we have a long way to go to see this through to fruition,” Teehee said. “However, a Cherokee Nation delegate to Congress is a negotiated right that our ancestors advocated for, and today, our tribal nation is stronger than ever and ready to defend all our constitutional and treaty rights.”

       Confirmed as a delegate by the Cherokee Nation Council on August 30,  Teehee grew up in Oklahoma and cut her teeth in politics in the 1980s, interning for Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to become principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. She previously worked for President Barack Obama’s administration as the first-ever senior policy adviser for Native American Affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council, and has over a decade of experience in Washington, D.C. She has advocated for environmental justice, tribal self-determination, economic growth, health care and education — issues that impact all of Indian Country. 

         Coming at a time when Immigration issues dominate conversation, it is appropriate to focus on political victories for Native Americans.  In November 2018, Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk Nation) and Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) became the first Native American women elected to Congress. Kimberly Teehee will be the third Indigenous woman to represent Indigenous nations in Congress. Unlike Davids and Haaland, however, Teehee will not have the right to vote when the House is in open session. She will, however, be able to participate in committees as a voting member and bring legislation to the floor. This is an important distinction to make: Haaland and Davids are elected members of a congressional district, operating from within the U.S. representational system. Teehee stands as a delegate of a sovereign nation; it is the power of treaties which recognize nation-to-nation agreements that make Teehee’s presence in Congress possible.

       “I think more broadly, we want affirmation that our treaties are still in full force and effect,” Chief Hoskin told Truthout. “You can say that in a theoretical sense, but to actually do it, we’re demonstrating in a real concrete way that the treaty is still alive, it’s a living and breathing document.”

           More than 500 treaties have been signed between Indigenous nations and the colonial United States government, considered under the U.S. Constitution to be the “supreme law of the land.” In the early days of occupation and white settlement, treaties were used to mark land boundaries as well as establish political, economic and military agreements between Indigenous peoples and growing numbers of settlers and colonial powers. Ojibwe scholar Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark reminds us that, “Indigenous nations primarily saw treaties as living relationships, diplomatic processes that enabled the expansion of intricate kin-based networks situated within a relational paradigm that saw the world as a deeply interconnected and interdependent place.” In other words, treaty documents outline responsibilities and obligations that have been agreed upon by the United States government and which it is required to honor and uphold. A treaty is not a relic of history, but an ongoing, living set of relationships.

[This News from Truthout]

Apollo 11 Went Back to Where They Came From: the Earth

Go Back to Where you Came From. The earth!  July 24, 1969, was the day the Apollo 11 crew returned to “where they came from”: the Earth. One day later, July 25, 1969, our son, Kirk Andrew, was born. Each of our children has a “birth story.” 

News media have covered extensively the anniversary of the moon landing; however the picture the astronauts took which remains a favorite is their view from the moon of the earth.  They saw the amazing beauty and knew, of course, the complicated issues on our planet.

The 50^th anniversary week’s coverage was almost overshadowed by the exclusionary words of the president of one nation on this planet to four of its citizens, saying that they should go back to where they came from.  No matter that they are citizens of the same nation as he.  Where should they go? From the moon, the astronauts could see no national boundaries. On July 24 the world celebrates the men’s return to the whole earth. 

 Our family this July 25^th lovingly celebrates our youngest son’s 50^th birthday. May the citizens of the earth celebrate the family of nations and love one another.  May we not try to rid ourselves of those we disdain, but give ourselves to each other, seeking justice and each other’s welfare, that the beautiful sphere seen from the moon might truly hold the beauty the astronauts beheld.

Chants Can Encourage White Supremacy

"Send her back." "Go back to where you came from." It's not just a matter of toning down the talk. No matter how hard, we need to engage those who are picking up these chants. Otherwise the chants themselves increase the belief in white supremacy. People of color love this country and belong here. Only Native Americans could have--should have--told my white immigrant ancestors to "leave" these shores.

Nancy Pelosi spoke clearly, carefully, courageously yesterday. She is acting wisely to go slow on impeachment, knowing Trump would turn the Senate's clearing him into his win. The time will come. In the meantime, we all need to be wise, very wise, and pay attention to what this administration is doing on all fronts to harm this nation and world. Our words and work do matter.

I Remember D-Day: Words for Us all to Remember

So many words to remember from the 75th anniversary of D-Day (and some to forget). Angela Merkel, invited to participate, said that this military operation eventually also brought the German people liberation from the Nazis. It led to the reconciliation of Europe and 70 years of peace.

Queen Elizabeth, before whom others bow, rose to say thank you to a man who risked his life on the Normandy beaches. I remember her as a teenager actively participating in the war effort.

Utah Senator Mitt Romney stressed the word "Allies" saying that alliances are crucial. We must support the United Nations and NATO, and work together now as we did then. Even more so.

I was in kindergarten when D-Day was announced. I remember the "war plant" in Des Moines and the "brown outs" at night. And I remember being surprised when after WW II ended in 1945, radio broadcasts were about things other than war. I pray for and work toward a world of reconciliation, thank-yous, alliances, and peace.

30th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square: I Was There Two Years Later

Today is the 30^th anniversary of  the Tiananmen Square protests. The events of June 4, 1989, continue to haunt the Chinese. Each year as the day approaches, security is stepped up across Beijing and the rest of country and journalists are barred from the vicinity of the square.

I walked through Tiananmen Square freely in 1991, warmly welcomed yet watched.  Part of a globalization of theological education trip some Wartburg seminary professors were one of first groups to visit the square, two years after the massacre. At that time we walked freely.  We could tell our stories.  Today, Tiananmen Square is one of most heavily monitored locations in the world. Security cameras cover every inch of the square, and identification must be provided just to visit.

Much has changed in China since our visit; I remember the swish of bicycles through Beijing, people’s primary mode of transportation. However the growing suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests is not progress.

There has never been a definitive death toll from Tiananmen Square. Disputed estimates range from a few hundred to over 10,000.

The Chinese government, in fact, continues to maintain that no one was actually killed in the square itself, despite the event being best known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre throughout the rest of the world.

The Chinese government's generation-long censorship of the subject appears to have had its intended effect despite the event being known throughout the rest of the world. In planning her book, "The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited," journalist Louisa Lim asked 100 students at four Beijing university campuses if they recognized the iconic photo of a man staring down a tank taken in the square on June 5, 1989. Only 15 students could identify the picture. Some asked, “What country is that in?”

I invite you to mark this 30^th anniversary with me because there is no remembrance of those who died in Tiananmen Square those days, no statue of the anonymous young man who bravely stood up to tanks, not even a small plaque to note the day. This is a reminder that each country needs to remember own oppression, its wrong-doings, its atrocities, and to teach rather than suppress them. In so doing we will learn how to be a free, really great nation. 

I Love a Parade

I love a parade. Watching a parade. Being inside a parade. This morning the 81st annual North Iowa Band Festival Parade units—116 of them—lined up on the streets all around our blocks.

 I remember this parade from my teenage years here in Mason City, Iowa. Yes, this is Music Man’s River City, 76 trombones and all.

Son and Daughter-in-law Joel and Rachel and their children Jennaya and Jackson were IN the parade announcing the high school summer musical.

We were first on our condo deck watching the line-up, and then, of course, on State Street AT the parade.

I love the Mason City Band Festival, 4 days of civic celebration, everyone outside together. This morning, no cars on our blocks, just people walking. And bands and floats, even a few horses, and varieties of people all in a line. No carrier boats lined up for a war with no reason, no guns piled up for sale.

It was safe to be outside together. We did not fear being outside. We did not fear or hate each other. We celebrated one another.  I loved this parade.

Should We Encourage People to Bring Their Guns to Worship? Or What Should We Do?

Faith communities are asking how to safely gather for worship in the wake of increasing shootings and bombings. Do we encourage our people to bring guns to worship? Do we hire security teams to guard us? Do we work for peace and justice in the world? Are we called to become places of “sanctuary”?

While some congregations may deny the issue exists, e.g. “That couldn’t happen here in our nice community,” others are becoming preoccupied with security plans: “We have a robust group working with law enforcement, including a fence and cameras.”

We want people--all people--Jews, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and more, to come to their holy places of worship feeling safe and secure. The challenge: Can we be safe inside by daring to go outside? The Gospel for the 2^nd Sunday of Easter showed us the disciples met behind locked doors in fear. Jesus came, stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.”  This coming week we hear the disciples went out. Jesus: “Feed my sheep.” “Follow me.”

Motive Yes, we need our worshipers’ eyes and ears used for precaution, but also to see the troubled one. How can we know who will enter a house of worship with a gun or bomb? So often we hear, “The motive is unclear.” I think the “motive” will always be unclear. The issues are complex. The person is complex. There are traits and signs, even profiles of a person who commits a shooting, but not just one type of person, or shall we say, stereotype. Each of us has the capacity to hurt, harm, even kill another. There are not “good people with guns” and “bad people with guns.” However, we can have caring concern for those who seem lonely, frustrated, angry, and as a community, reach out to them, not just after a tragedy, but every day. 

Mental Illness  Likewise so often we use the phrase, “A ‘crazed’ person.”  Mental illness is a broad and serious issue in our society to which we need to give much more attention. However, not every person who kills people in a house of worship is mentally ill, nor are all people who are mentally ill dangerous.  Many of us are mentally ill as are our family members and people who are strangers to us. People of faith have a calling to care about everyone with mental illness and to provide more care facilities and health workers.

It Can’t Happen Here  So what about the issue of  “I never thought it could happen here.”? Then where?  I live in a small city in the upper Midwest. After returning from almost every trip to a large city or to a coastal region, someone asks me, “Weren’t you afraid?” I respond, “No.” There are murders in my state, in my town. There is abuse in the homes on my block. We fear “those people” We are plagued with homophobia, anyone not “like me.” I also am capable of fearing and and hating people very near to me who look just like me. So, yes, HERE.

For 12 years our family lived among “others,” in terms of race and economic class. As we became acquainted, as we lived through stressful, and yes, even difficult times, we learned to care and depend upon and love each other. I often felt the most safe among those most different from myself.  Likewise, when traveling in some (even dangerous) places on other continents, I have had experiences of feeling far from home, but the most safe.

Violence and Guns  All of that is not to say danger from shooting and bombings in houses of worship is not real.  It is. I wrote twenty years ago about the rise of terrorism. One lone shooter can kill dozens. One mass shooting can multiply fear a hundredfold. So what should we do? We need welcoming places not to become armed camps. Yes, we need to take reasonable precautions and use safety measures. In this nation of ours we have become wedded to implements of violence as a way to stop violence. Arming parishioners is not the answer.  Encouraging parishioners to bring their guns with them to worship, and, even worse, to encourage them to purchase weapons so they have one to bring, will not make houses of worship more safe. All kinds of studies show how many people are killed in this country on purpose or accidentally with the proliferation of guns. Martin Luther King showed that nonviolence and nonviolent responses are most helpful in the long run in creating a “beloved community.”

A Community of Communities  But what about those most vulnerable? Muslims?  And also Jews?  (The religious right claims there is a war on Christians and encourages the sale of guns.) Rather than increasing this nation’s high rate of gun sales and ownership, we have the opportunity to increase our image in being a community of faith communities.  

Much happened after 9/11 in terms of Christian/Jewish/Muslim dialogues, real efforts to learn about our neighbors’ faith.  But in the recent escalation in the climate of hate, we have grown more dangerous to one another in our speech and in our actions.  We dare not continue on this path or we will simply fear going outside at all. We do not want to fear gathering together with those of our common faith, nor to gather as a pluralistic people. Rather we want to both worship in our sanctuaries and provide sanctuary. More on how to have safe sanctuaries and provide sanctuary in the public world in a blog coming soon.

Voting Matters. Every Single Person Matters

We voted yesterday! First day polls are open at our County Court House for absentee ballot voting. Our neighbors, new to Iowa, voted, too. It was a friendly, welcoming process. No voter I.D. required. All was in order, carefully done. Now we are free on November 6th to help others go to the polls! Democracy means that we all work to make sure everyone is able to vote!

Commentators wonder which way the final vote on the Supreme Court nomination will swing in the Mid-terms.  Will the Republicans be more fired up? Will the Democrats' determination to change things hold? We cannot know, of course. But I do know these things: We absolutely have to make sure that those people whom others want to keep away from voting are supported.  How many names are being erased? What can I do? Who needs an I.D.? What can I do?  Whose polling place has been changed without someone knowing about it? How can I let them know?

What can I do locally to make sure that information is correct and widely known?  Whom can I tell that their vote matters and that they matter? That they really matter? 

I Wondered Why My Family Members Had Not Been Taken Away From Their Homes

As a child after WW II I remember our finding out that Japanese Americans had been taken away from their homes and placed in internment camps for “national security” reasons. Even then, young as I was, I wondered why my family--aunts and uncles--immigrants from Germany, had not been taken away from their homes.

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Proclamation issued by the U.S. president September, 2017, placing entry restrictions on people from mostly Muslim majority countries that government department reviews concluded presented national security risks.

In 1944 the executive order to lock up Japanese Americans had been based on one general’s report who gave the reason that “racial characteristics” of Japanese Americans predisposed them to assist Japanese forces and that it was impossible to distinguish loyal and disloyal members of that racial group. The war department and navy intelligence disagreed, saying things should be handled on an individual basis and not on a racial basis.

Nevertheless, over 100, 000 Japanese Americans were locked up. Japanese Americans fought the legality of the executive order, particularly a Mr. Korematsu, all the way to the Supreme Court, but he lost the case in 1944. In 1982, forty years after that executive order had been issued, a lawyer found government documents in dusty boxes showing there was no military reason to show Japanese Americans were a national security threat. Mass detentions and persecutions based on ethnicity and “inability to assimilate” were false to the core. The lawyer found Mr. Korematsu. He went back to court. It took a long time, but in 2011, the Justice Department finally made a confession of error in regard to the Japanese Internment camps

Today, the third version of the Muslim ban, is carefully worded, to say there are national security concerns, no bias; this time no religious bias. Have we not learned? Today, the bias is not hidden in dusty boxes, but open in speeches and tweets. Nevertheless, it has been disregarded by the Supreme Court. Thus the First Amendment of the Constitution is disregarded.

As I child I noticed the discrepancy between the way Japanese Americans and German (and Italian) Americans were treated on the basis of the way they looked.  Today I am deeply concerned in the discrepancy between the way people are treated on the basis of what they believe.

Justice Sotomayer yesterday read the minority dissent out loud, citing the flawed 1944 Korematsu Supreme Court case. “The United States of America is built on the Promise of religious liberty,” she said. “The Establishment Clause guarantees religious neutrality.” She added,  “The Court’s decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle.” This third version has “morphed into a proclamation punitively based.” This new “window dressing cannot conceal an unassailable fact. . . the strong perception that the Proclamation is contaminated by the impermissible discriminatory animus against Islam and its followers.” Sotomayer also said that the ban on Muslims entering the country now “masquerades behind a façade of national security concerns.” The First Amendment “embodies our nation’s deep commitment to religious plurality and tolerance.”

Chief Justice Roberts renounced Justice Sotomayer for citing the 1944 erroneously decided case.  Before yesterday Korematsu’s individual conviction had been overturned and he had received an apology from the Justice Department but the ruling still technically stood. However yesterday Chief Justice Roberts issued a one-line sentence finally overruling the Korematsu Supreme Court ruling.

How ironic.  I would like to believe that today’s decisions could prevent us from repeating tragic mistakes from the past. Can the concentration camps of my childhood really be gone? What about the belief that some people cannot assimilate? Should they? And will we always try to keep out others based on race, religion, ethnicity? What else? Accept executive orders for national security reasons? Will we continue to disregard facts because of our fears?

In Christ We Have Strength for a Long Attention Span

I have been watching this nation’s outrage over separation of immigrant children from their parents. Individuals, mayors, lawyers, church leaders—even corporations--and more have spoken and acted forcefully. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services was interviewed on TV. In the midst of this administration’s cruelty and incompetency, I have been heartened that it is still possible in this democracy for people to force at least some seemingly temporary change in government policy. Freedom of the press still exists although there are so many more layers of secrecy to be uncovered.

So what now? President Trump this morning said that Republicans were “wasting their time” on immigration and should put it off until after the November elections. We are told some children have been reunited with their parents. “Oh, good,” we might say to ourselves. “That’s a relief. Things will soon be fine again.” Really?

Will we so easily move on? After all, we are known for having a fast news cycle and short attention span. Could we be tempted by Melania Trump’s strategically ambiguous jacket back message, “I really don’t care. Do U?”

The issues of immigration are just so complex. “Zero Tolerance” sounds so simple compared to deep compassion. “Believing the Bible” on “obeying the government” seems easier than walking with Jesus in the midst of all kinds of people in pain. But Jesus kept on walking.  He went from village to village, encountering needs, facing opposition, finally to arrest and the cross.

Then disciples were tempted to turn away, give up, get on with their own lives. But the faithful women who came to the tomb with no expectations of success over deathly actions, were shown that Jesus rose again.

So we walk on with Jesus, all the way. There are so many more complexities to come: reunification of thousands; the rise of the private prison industrial complex; refugee issues not just on our southern border, but globally; violence in Central America.  And what about gun violence in the United States? And those brave high school students who this Spring were challenging change: #NeverAgain?  And? And?

In Christ we have the strength for a long attention span.

June 5 and 6 1968 and 2018: Hope in the Darkness

So many thoughts and feelings swirl around my head and heart that I don’t know where to start this June 5 and 6. Fifty years ago Bobby Kennedy won the California Democratic Primary June 5 and then was assassinated, dying June 6. Two million people lined the railroad tracks for his funeral procession from New York City to Washington D.C., all races and economic classes, honoring a man whom they saw as being able to bridge divisions, and bring hope in that dark and dangerous 1968. Over 4000 gather today in Arlington Cemetery to remember and ponder “hope.”

It’s dark in Mason City, Iowa, this morning, the kind of day one wants to just pull the covers over one’s head and refuse to feel or face 2018. What do you make of the news? A Supreme Court decision and the ongoing question of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  The Philadelphia Eagles? Invitation to the White House and presidential preoccupation with popularity. Honoring the nation and the flag by kneeling out of commitment to justice for all. Pardoning oneself or service for others? Children of immigrants and refugees separated from their parents as an incentive for their parents to not come to this country. Primary elections, here in Iowa, and yes, again on June 5 in California.

June 6: D Day 1944. A day that changed the world. Our nation together with its allies risking all in service that turned the tide of WW II. Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. In 1968, the United States struggled over the Viet Nam War and we were torn apart over racial and economic inequality.  And 2018? Do we understand what is at stake in nuclear negotiations globally? Do we believe trade wars with allies protect our “God-given” national identity? Do we comprehend the necessity of a vital United Nations as much today as after WW II? Do we daily kneel and listen and work to understand each other across racial divides?

So we wonder. Issues swirl around. Is there an absence of hope? An anxiety? An apathy? What will the November 5^th election results mean? In some places there were large turnouts; in some places fewer than 100 people in a county voted.

June 5: the 58^th anniversary of my consecration as a deaconess. That day I made a commitment to faith and service in Christ for a lifetime. What would that mean? I would not fully know. We cannot know, but God knows and continues to call us. The days have been dark before and divisions dangerous. We pray for wisdom for the choices that are before us these days and for the courage and energy to live into the challenges together.