"Just Me," Just a Few, Can Begin to Make a Difference

There were just 42 of us, sitting around tables at St. Mark’s Community Center in this small Midwestern city of about 60,000 but we all knew why we were there. This was only the second meeting of the newly formed Dubuque “Culture of Nonviolence Coalition.” Mary, the chair of the steering committee, invited us to go around and introduce ourselves and tell if we were from a group: Dubuque Peace and Justice, NAACP, B.V.M. “Just Me,” Franciscans, Quakers, “Just Me,” Rescue Mission, Unitarians, Loras College (Roman Catholic), “Just Me,” Wartburg Seminary (Lutheran), Sisters of the Presentation, “Just Me,” Family Services, Sisters of Charity, Sinsinawa Dominicans, Free Church, Riverview Center, and more …  Many who identified their affiliation as “Just Me,” came because they cared as individuals.  Others knew each other from ecumenical, interfaith and justice networks.  My husband and I had heard about the meeting from one of the many nuns in the room.

We knew why we had come: to address at the local level the national issue of the culture of violence. Gun violence is closely tied to a culture of all kinds of violence. It would have been easy to not meet. After all, it was Super Bowl Sunday.  After all, relatively speaking, one could say gun violence is not a big issue here; our city is the 4^th safest city in Iowa, which USA Today named the 9^th most peaceful state in the union.  But the fact is people all over this nation are realizing that gun violence anywhere calls for citizen participation everywhere. And a culture of violence pervades every corner of this nation.  

The chief of police had been invited to address the group.  The local sheriff came too. Each with decades of service, they provided information the group needed to assess the local situation.  While the murder rate is not high here, changes in state gun laws have changed the culture.  At the state level the seemingly simple change of a verb from the sheriff “may” issue a concealed carry permit to the sheriff “shall,” which went into effect two years ago produced these results: Number of concealed carry permits in Dubuque County: 2008: 122; 2009: 119; 2010:125; 2011:2007.  In January of 2013, 270 permits to carry were issued.  Before the change in law the sheriff could assess if a person was a constant substance abuser or had significant mental health issues.  Now the danger a person carrying a gun could be to the community needs to be legally proven beforehand.

The police chief noted that of course not everyone who has a permit carries a gun around all of the time. Often it’s a matter of “I got a permit to carry because I can.”  He noted carrying a gun around is a big responsibility.  He locks his own guns in a safe.  A few people need permits to carry because of their work, but that number is few.  Both men emphasized the importance of gun safety, and of the need for actual  physical training in how to use a gun.  But now one can in “3 easy steps get certified” by taking the Iowa Concealed safety Training Course  on-line.  A one-hour on-line  training course is not sufficient preparation for a concealed pistol permit, both men emphasized.

The group engaged the guests with questions for over an hour.  We wanted to know.  We wanted real information so that we, together, could act responsibly and helpfully.  By the end of the afternoon it was no longer “just me,” but people informed together.  Not only was the Culture of Nonviolence Coalition grateful to dialog with the law enforcement leaders but it seemed they also were pleased to have come. They both said, “It’s really about social connection, helping people get along better together.  It starts with grass roots efforts.”  Otherwise fear begets fear and perception of my neighbor being dangerous prods one to think, “I need a gun, too.”

The meeting was over at the appointed time of 4:30. Still time to watch the Super Bowl.  We could now all go back to our regular lives. Dubuque would be safe enough.   But, not so fast.  The 42 people in the room had no intention of leaving things at that.  They would meet again.   The steering committee would guide the group.   Should we invite our state representatives next time?  Yes, both a Republican and a Democrat.  We need to focus locally and it’s crucial we watch carefully what’s going on at the state as well as the national level.  And this is the “Tri-State” area.  How do gun permits issued in Iowa affect guns being available in Wisconsin and Illinois?  Towns, rural areas, cities, individuals are never “just me” or even “just us.” We are connected.  We need each other everywhere to work towards and sustain cultures of nonviolence.

But Can’t We Just Avoid the Conversation About Gun Violence?

We’re told not to expect much change anyway. And why do we need another divisive issue in the church. Nothing will change! Unless. . . .

Don’t expect. . . .

But we must dare to expect this time. We the people need to be active because we really do have the opportunity to change our culture of gun violence.  We continue to hear that now is the time for a “Conversation” about gun violence.  This blog is called “Conversations on the Church’s Vocation in the Public World.” “Conversation” is actually a pretty safe word.  Can’t we at least have that?  But, “It won’t make any difference,” we hear and believe.   President Obama in his press conference January 16, invited all kinds of community people, including pastors, to take a lead. Now is the time.

King marched and we the people marched during the Civil Rights Movement, a few of us at first.  Most thought it would be impossible to change a culture of segregation which was a “way of life.”  But the movement grew.  Issues remain: racism, classism, voter suppression laws.  But we as a nation changed.

The “Abolitionists” is on PBS these weeks.  In the 1820’s slaves had become the largest economic asset in the country. Blacks, in great danger, raised their voices but white America, with an institution so deeply embedded culturally, politically and economically, could not imagine turning monetary assets into compatriots.  Slavery was a religious issue. People spoke and wrote and led and fought and so we have the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution.

Many did not expect Barack Obama to be giving a Second Inaugural speech this January 21, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Many did not expect him to be elected four years ago. How could one have expect an African American to be president?  But he is, despite efforts to nullify him and and his executive orders. Still people say, “Don’t expect too much from what he said in his press conference.” “He won’t get things through Congress.”

Unless. . . .  Unless we the people become actors in our own drama of change beyond expectations.

Walking through centuries old cemeteries one sees grave stones of small children who died of disease. Families then could not expect all of their children to grow to adulthood.  The same is still true in many nations around the world. But through research and work, we as a nation now do expect our children to grow up; so we experience tragedy when lives are cut short by mass murder.  But I have heard this week, “Of course we can’t stop all the shootings.” Have we come to expect nothing can change a culture of gun violence? On the streets of some cities young people themselves think they may die of gunshot wounds, perhaps in a drive-by shooting, before they reach adulthood.

Not many decades ago in the United States it was expected that when children returned to school in the fall, some classmates would be missing because they had died of polio during the summer. We stopped polio. That change is true almost all over the world except for a few countries. The World Health Organization recently announced a nationwide Pakistani polio vaccination campaign has been temporarily suspended because at least eight Pakistani health workers were shot to death as they administered the vaccination to children. We worked, and are working, to change the expectation that children die from the epidemic of polio. What about the epidemic of gun violence?

At the time of President Obama’s press conference January 16, 900 Americans had died “at the end of a gun” since the deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary school. How many more have died in the days since? Don’t expect much change unless in each community, in each extended family, in each faith community at the local, state and national level, we the people are determined to work together to change a killing culture.  Death and life are issues that Christ calls us to care about. Christ’s death and resurrection free us to be agents of life in a death denying, death-defying culture.  

We can expect gun laws to have little effect unless we pay attention to the ongoing legislative process. About ten years ago then Kansas Representative Todd Tiahrt was able to place amendments (the wording of which was approved by the NRA) in a congressional spending bill that significantly weakened law enforcement efforts to prevent gun crimes and prosecute gun offenders. While some components of the Tiahrt Amendments were improved in 2007 and 2009, several damaging provisions continue to tie the hands of law enforcement. Background check records are still destroyed within 24 hours. ATF still does not have the power to require dealer inventory checks to detect lost and stolen guns. Cities and states are still restricted from using trace data to fully investigate corrupt gun dealers and traffickers.  What can we expect? We can insist that Congress confirm the appointment of a director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The NRA will literally call the shots unless. . . .

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day my husband and I will attend a breakfast here in Dubuque at the Grand River Center overlooking the Mississippi River.  We have done this for years. It began as a small group, then moved to local Loras College dining hall. Now families, high school and college students, business people and more gather. People are participating in not just a day but a weekend of service all over the city. We will not take guns to the River Center. Likewise a small group of people has begun to organize here, energized in part by nuns, to help this community address issues and causes of violence, all kinds of violence. The group will gather for the second time February 3.  What should we, together, dare to expect? To work, to walk, to “like, share and tweet,” to organize, to persuade congressional representatives and senators who say they will simply vote against anything. Nothing will change.  Unless. . . .

Dignity? Violence? What Images Do We Have of Ourselves?

 

A joint session of Congress met Friday, January 4, to certify the results of the U.S. presidential election held last November 6^th.  Tellers read the results of the states and the District of Columbia one by one:   “The certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Connecticut seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that Barack Obama of the state of Illinois received 7 votes for president and Joseph Biden from the state of Delaware received 7 votes for vice president…” “The certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Kansas seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that Mitt Romney from the commonwealth of Massachusetts received 6 votes for president and Paul Ryan from the state of Wisconsin received 6 votes for vice president.”   No guns. No violence. It was dignified, even inspiring in its quiet way. The outcome, of course, had been known; the win was substantial: 332 votes for Obama/Biden to 206 for Romney/Ryan.

Three Fridays before a different set of numbers.  Guns. Violence. We know those numbers, too: 20 children, 6 adults killed in Newtown Connecticut.

The Task force on gun violence President Obama appointed, being led by Vice President Biden, is to address the issues of mental health resources, keeping society from glamorizing guns and violence, as well as tightening gun laws. Will they as a task force, will Congress, will we as a nation truly engage the images we shape for ourselves and change what needs to be changed? 

The issues are complex. Granted. I offer no simple solution. But I do know this: “What was the motive?” isn’t the only question.   Real life violence is not merely a mystery novel.   Surely each of us is a mixture of motives not easily decoded. And the question, “What ‘triggered’ the assailant?” with its ironic verb, only conceals long term causes.

Likewise we must not be satisfied with “studies-do-not-show” arguments meant to settle the issue.  In the field of statistics there is a vast difference between “cause and effect” and “correlation.” And even when studies show “no direct correlation,” usually only one or a very few factors can be researched in any given study.  We need to look honestly at the image of guns and violence in our society, and really see the formative effect of having guns in the home and of our addiction to ever more violent films and games. Games also play us.  Statistics provide some information, but not enough understanding.

What shapes us as individuals and as a people may be hard to quantify but is observable. How are we formed? What environments, images and actions will we choose?

On another Friday, Dec. 21, President Obama spoke at the Memorial Service for Senator Daniel Inouya at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.   The heart of his message was an ordinary yet profound story of his traveling at the age of 11 with his mother, grandmother and sister on vacation on the “mainland,” watching television in motels at night when the networks were all showing the Watergate hearings. Barack Obama remembers as a boy seeing Senator Inouya, from his home state of Hawaii, with dignity and wisdom playing a part in restoring democracy to a nation on the edge. Obama said, looking back, that those images began to shape his formation of being a public servant.

Formation may include one event (in my case the death of my father at age 11), or many, of vacations with family, or no vacations, living on one street or another, what we see on the way to school.  We are shaped by one another, and formed in community.  In a culture which statistics show is becoming “spiritual but not religious,” the images these past weeks of the power of faith communities and interfaith services should not be underestimated.  Faith communities to have a role in creating places of love and care and inclusion.  Acceptance, respect, care. We can choose these.

What we see and experience has a formative affect on who we become, what we do, our purpose and mission in life. There are enough real-life struggles of poverty, illness, abuse, that we need each other in order to create supportive, nurturing communities, not invest in violence or commit ourselves to combative ways of relating.

The news image that we saw Jan 4 was not that this democracy once again made a transition, as it does every four years, without guns, without violence, but “Republicans getting their troops ready for battle for three more fiscal fights.”  We heard this might “sideline” other concerns such as fixing immigration and infrastructures, working on clean energy production and climate change, as though this is all a sporting event with eyes fixed only on the final minutes of the game. The Violence against Women Act was allowed to expire. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor flatly refused to bring the Senate bill to a vote unless stripped out was protection for Native American women raped on tribal lands by non-native men. Violence is accepted; dignity denied. What are our commitments and their formative effects? How are we shaping each other?

Where do we go after the Shootings in Newtown?

At the one week anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, a community school, the church bells toll across the country, and the media satellite trucks slowly leave Newtown. Where will they go next?  Will we as a nation continue to focus our attention on the epidemic of gun violence or has our addiction to violence grown so serious that we cannot even recognize it?

President Obama spoke compassionately and eloquently at the Interfaith Service last Sunday and again to the Washington Press on Wednesday. 

An impertinent reporter’s question made the evening news.  Coverage did not include the president’s words that in the 5 days following the massacre, people had died all over this land each day: a police officer gunned down in Memphis leaving four children without their mother; two killed in Topeka; three people shot inside a hospital in Alabama; and a 4-year-old victim of a drive-by shooting in Missouri.  “Where have you been?” we should ask ourselves.  Where have the cameras gone since Newtown?

The memorials have been helpful for a grieving nation. Here in our town our church held a prayer service open to the public and all sorts of people, previously strangers to one another, came. The nation has learned how to bring candles and Teddy Bears to memorials.  What else can we do well together?

PBS New Hour shows in silence at the end of broadcasts the names and pictures, as “they became of available,” of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week  they showed in silence the names and pictures of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.  What would it mean if every week they showed the names and pictures, as they became available, of those killed by gun violence in this nation?

Where will the cameras go to help us not to forget, to help us recognize our own addition to gun violence and to give us the courage to act?

To South Chicago? To Midwestern smaller cities? To the mountain states? Everywhere!  

I’ve listened this week to stereotypes of “other” parts of the country.  “Rural” to some implies people who love having guns.  “Urban” or “Inner City” implies “dangerous,”  non-white.  And yet the mass shootings at schools have as often been by white males in suburban or ex-urban  settings.   

Our family lived for nine years in an inner city area in Connecticut, our children attending a community school. The school was at that time “legally condemned” which meant they did not have to provide a safe playground or music, the arts, physical education, etc.  So we in the neighborhood worked together to provide these things for everyone’s children.   While schools and school safety has increased in some places since then, the gap between the rich and the poor has intensified.  Do you “move to a safe place where there are ‘good’ schools”?  We’ve learned that gun violence happens everywhere. And we need  good,  safe community schools for everyone’s children wherever they live.   President Obama has continued to say, “all children.” 

It will take all of us, President Obama said, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, law enforcement officers, mental health workers, pastors, gun owners, all of us.  It will take courage. What images have we seen? Yes, we are told we see “guns flying off the shelves” at Walmart.   But I’ve also heard of buy-backs going on all across the country: a city in New Jersey; a small town in Illinois; local neighborhoods; even churches and stores.  Thousands of guns have willingly been turned in.  Will news cameras show us this? 

We have to believe that this nation that has 5% of the world’s population and ½ the guns can change if we want to be an example in the world. We have to believe that we can cure ourselves from the epidemic of gun violence that plagues this country. And we can start, as President Obama said, with what the majority of Americans want, banning the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.  He called on Congress to confirm the appointment of a director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, something they have refused to do for 6 ears.

Or we could go the other direction, buying  bullet-proof backpacks for our children, arming teachers. Foolish!  The epidemic grows. Fear begets fear.

Guns beget guns.

And ads for semi-automatic weapons to the contrary, guns don’t make men more manly.  The power to shoot more and faster does not make one stronger or wiser.  Men also beget life. It’s not about shooting,  but nurturing life.   Can we shape communities of compassion and care, claiming together the blessed power of giving and preserving life, all life, everywhere? What will we see?

Holy Days and Holidays: What Do You Believe?

Four days in a row mark diverse holidays and holy days: Dec. 6, St. Nicholas Day; Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 71 years since the attack and the U.S. entry into WW II; Dec. 8, the beginning of Chanukah at sunset; Dec. 9, the Second Sunday in Advent.  In this pluralistic society amid many traditions, people might ask themselves, “What do I believe?”  Behind the decorations, “In whom or in what do I trust above all things?”

Years ago, when our oldest son, Mark, was only 3 ½, a woman in a shopping mall abruptly approached and loudly said right in his face, “Have you been good?” Was she assuming he feared if he were bad he would receive coal rather than a gift from St. Nocholas for Christmas?  We were trying to teach Mark the unconditional love of a gracious God. What would he believe?

How do we remember Pearl Harbor Day?  Some remember that actual day.  Others have only heard about it. War intrudes in the midst of holidays. What do we believe about bombs? And war? And veterans? And a path toward global peace today?

Chanukah, “Festival of Lights,” celebrates the miracle that the oil for the Jewish Menorah, only enough for one day, lasted for eight.  In what do people believe today? In the gifts given? In the miracles? In the God of miracles?

Advent Sundays prepare for the coming of Christ. During Advent’s time of waiting, who is this Jesus in whom people believe?  When our youngest son, Kirk, was seven, his turn to select a daily Scripture to read for evening devotions fell on Christmas Eve. He picked the long chapters 18-19 from John’s Gospel on Christ’s suffering, sentencing and death. Had Kirk made a mistake? But we listened. Somehow he believed, even then, you can’t have the baby Jesus without Good Friday and Easter.

That’s not to say this should not be a season of joy, even fun! However, centering on one’s basic beliefs helps focus gift-buying. Even Santa is put in perspective.

Middle son, Joel, now a grown man, teaches public high school music. He, of course, doesn’t proclaim or teach religion, but he invites students in the midst of the music, to quietly consider their own beliefs.  “Where do you place your trust?   What do you believe about the world? About each other?  About the poor? About….?”

By avoiding distractions and resisting that stress, going deeper into one’s beliefs can guide our devotion and our actions.

LIVING IN COMMUNITY WITH OUR ABILITIES AND DISABILITIES

It was a November evening, 1982, while my husband, Burton, and I were delivering Thanksgiving baskets in downtown Dubuque when I suddenly felt overwhelming fatigue. I became ill with what at first seemed like flu but from which I never recovered. The illness, later diagnosed as myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS), has many physiological and neurological complications. Today, still with no known cause and no known cure, it affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

I have a disease; I am not my disease. How do I mark the 30^th anniversary of living with a chronic illness?  With sadness or celebration? A good way is to have a convocation on “Living in community with Our Abilities and Disabilities.” Many people with CFS become homebound, isolated, but supported by the caring and respectful community of Wartburg Theological Seminary, I have been able to continue fully serving here and in the broader church and world.

Once a month for many years Wartburg holds a convocation, following a shortened Thursday worship service. At the November convocation student speakers  were people who have some sort of disability, or who have a friendship with a person who has a disability.  Lisa Heffernan, WTS M.Div. Senior began, “We share these stories and perspectives to encourage the community to think about how we all live together in this community as people with and without disabilities. Our definition is broad: we will be talking about disabilities in terms of physical and visible disabilities (like mine), physical disabilities that are unseen, and disabilities or conditions that can either be considered mental, cognitive, or emotional. Not only that, but we will be also talking about specific issues that come along with different disabilities and how we might view them within our life together at WTS. The question we might consider is: How do we as a student body, staff, and faculty live together faithfully in this place, with our gifts and limitations, recognizing each person as a child of God and a vital part of the body of Christ?

My own experience and view as a person with a physical and visible disability has greatly changed and improved since coming to seminary. In this place, I am accepted and valued as the person God created me to be—completely and fully. Before coming here, I never had the experience of being in a community where people would seek to have me involved in all aspects of life, no matter how tricky doing so might be. The best brief examples I can give are the time that my class was having a gathering at Pulpit Rock our middler year…on the 2^nd floor. Without me even having to ask them to do so, 4 of the guys in my class lifted me up those steps, just so I could be there with my class.  I was scared, but they wanted me there, and I wanted to be there. So they helped me out. The other side of this is that these same friends challenge me to be more fearless and independent. This is the same thing I hope I do for them. We care for and challenge one another. And we include one another in all areas of life here. There are things that are difficult to make that happen sometimes, but I’m finally in a place where my disability doesn’t feel like a barrier to having an active life.”

Aleese Kenitzer, WTS M.Div. Junior, continued:  “I have a significant hearing loss in my right ear. It has been my responsibility to assure that my disability does not affect me in school or in ministry, but it is extremely helpful when people are aware of the fact that I do not hear well, and make an effort to improve communication. But often, I have either witnessed how people do not understand how an impairment affects one’s lifestyle, or have witnessed the response of 'well, people need must scream for you to be able to hear.' Neither one is true, and both of these actions exclude those who cannot hear well. It is common for those with hearing impairments to be excluded because they cannot hear and understand what is happening around them, or excluded because of those who overcompensate.”

Dave Fier, WTS M.Div. Junior came next,  “I have a genetic learning difference called Soto’s syndrome. I was blessed to be my current height of 6ft 4inches in fifth grade I haven’t grown since. One of my many challenges is it takes me along time to process information.  “Fear not,” I say. This difference has also affected my coordination and some of my physical abilities. “Fear not,” I say.  Another difference I have been blessed with is to have a heightened emotional and artistic sense.  “Fear not,” I say.  God blessed me with this difference and I wouldn’t have life any other way. Most importantly I am child God. I am a brother in this community of many. The real question is how can we all learn and grow together.”

Tami Groth, WTS 2^nd year M.A. Diacaonal Ministry, lives with two disabilities: “My medical history includes both clinical depression--a chemical imbalance which impacts both your emotions and your ability to think correctly--and celiac disease, an auto-immune disorder where gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley, attacks my body. These conditions are not related, but their effects can compound one another. When you cannot automatically join in something as basic as sharing bread with others, it is easy to feel isolated, and isolation can make you wonder if depression is returning.

I fight these issues by creating inclusive community however I can: by making food I can eat to share with others, by meeting others in their own needs, and by sharing what I have learned as I have educated myself about my conditions. Sometimes accommodating everyone’s needs seems like more than we can cope with--the list feels endless. But the joy of seeing someone feel like they can now be a part of a community is boundless, and it always makes me determined never to assume that what works for me works for all.”

Lee Gable, WTS M.Div. Senior, added, “ My friend lives with multiple chemical sensitivity related to fibromyalgia plus complications.  The air she breathes and any surfaces or fabrics she is in contact with are potential sources of pain.  Even your hand lotion can affect her.  She must be aware of what is around her.  She uses air purifiers to hold back the multiplicity of scents and carefully researches and uses products to help her environment not be a source of pain.” 

If you don't see her in church, ask about what is going on or send a card.  Ask the her if she wants to be on the prayer list.  Please don't be offended if she has to get up and move away from unseen conditions that cause unseen pain.  As a child of God living with conditions she would not have chosen for herself, my friend only asks, 'Don't define me by my illness.'”

 So how can we be compassionate, accommodating others, without being exclusive? 

 Megan Reedstrom, WTS M.Div. Senior, concluded the presentations.  “I have been asked to talk about friendship because I have the pleasure of calling Lisa Heffernan one of my very best friends. Through our friendship I have become much more cognizant of accessibility and its importance and how frustrating it is when people abuse or misuse things like accessible parking. And through two road trips we have taken together, I've learned that traveling with someone who uses a wheelchair is not that different than traveling with someone who doesn't. We just allow a little extra time for travel, and do a little extra planning to make sure the places we are headed are accessible. The most important thing I have learned in all we have done together as friends is that we are far more alike than we are different.”

 
Many graduates of Wartburg and all of our seminaries live with disabilities and serve throughout the church in the world. Some are:

Rev. Phil Wangberg, who uses a wheelchair due to cancer of the spine, is pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church, Albuquerque, NM.

Diaconal Minister Rich Mohr-Kelly, who is visually impaired, serves in Pittsburgh, PA neighborhood ministry and at Stewart Avenue Lutheran and Birmingham UCC Congregational Churches.

Rev. Kathryn Bielfeldt, who is blind, served for over 21 years as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church of Campbell Hill, IL and added on part-time service to 2 other congregations in the Wartburg Parish of Southern Illinois. She recently retired.

Rev. Chris Kinney, who has quadriplegia due to MS, Oakdale, MN, currently does supply preaching, advocacy, mentoring, and short-term counseling

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:27)

After the brief presentations, students, faculty and staff of the whole community engaged for most of the hour in conversation around tables addressing these questions:

Questions for table discussion:

1.      What is your personal experience and/or experience with others who may have disabilities of various kinds?

2.      What do you think “living in community with our abilities and disabilities” looks like?

3.      How are disabilities perceived in the church today? Are some disabilities more “acceptable” than others?

4.      How might a disability (seen or unseen) isolate us or others as we try to live together in community?

5.      What sort of language is helpful (or not helpful) when speaking about persons with disabilities?

6.      What good things have you seen churches do to work toward the inclusion of people with disabilities in communities and/or congregations?

7.      How can we as a community work toward openness and full accessibility? Not because we “have” to, but because we want to include all of our brothers and sisters in Christ into the life of this community and the wider Church.

 

Some helpful resources: (provide by Josh Melvin, WTS, 2^nd Year M.A.)

The ELCA’s Social Message on Disability: http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Messages/Human-Disabilities.aspx

“Hearing DISability, Seeing disability” by Josh Melvin http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs064/1102843057919/archive/1110800107155.html

Avalos, Hector, The Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies, Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.

Bishop, Marilyn E., Religion and Disability: Essays in Scripture, Theology, and Ethics, Sheed & Ward, 1995.

Black, Kathy, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability, Abingdon Press, 1996.

Block, Jennie Weiss, Copious Hosting: A Theology of Access for People with Disabilities, Continuum, 2002.

Carter, Erik W., Including People with Disabilities in Faith Communities: A Guide for Service Providers, Families & Congregations, Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co., 2007.

Cone, James H., God of the Oppressed, Orbis Books, 1997.

Creamer, Deborah Beth, Disability and Christian Theology Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities, Oxford University Press, 2009.

Eiesland, Nancy L., The Disabled God: Towards a Liberatory Theology of Disability, Abingdon Press, 1994.

Eiesland, Nancy L., Human Disability and the Service of God: Reassessing Religious Practice, Abingdon Press, 1998.

Ferguson, Danyelle, & Parsons, Lynn, Disabilities and the Gospel: How to Bring People with Special Needs Closer to Christ, Cedar Fort, Inc., 2011.

Govig, Stewart D., Strong at the Broken Places: Persons with Disabilities and the Church, Westminster John Knox Press, 1989.

Pinksy, Mark I., Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability, and Inclusion, The Alban Institute, 2011.

Reinders, Hahs S., Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008.

Reynolds, Thomas E., Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality, Brazos Press, 2008.

Shapiro, Joseph P., No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, Three Rivers Press, 1994.

Waters, Larry J., Why, O God? Suffering and Disability in the Bible and the Church, Crossway, 2011.

Webb-Mitchell, Brett, Beyond Accessibility: Toward Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Faith Communities, Church Publishing Inc., 2010.

Yong, Amos, The Bible, Disability, and the Church: A New Vision of the People of God, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011.

 

To Vote for Your Neighbor is Not Fraud

To impersonate someone else at the polls is voter fraud; to vote for the sake of someone other than just yourself is to care about your neighbor.   Voter suppression laws enacted in state after state this year have been a solution in search of a problem. Voter fraud was not the issue. Keeping large groups of people from voting and thereby trying to influence the outcome of the election was the strategic goal. Although some voter suppression laws have been curtailed by court rulings, many remain in place. Some new strategies will be implemented.  Election officials may make ongoing changes to early voting availability, including locations and hours.  Putting out confusing information if not outright misinformation, and scrutinizing details on voter I.D.’s may cause havoc on Election Day.  Your neighbor may not be able to vote.  How do we vote, not in the neighbor’s place, but for the sake of the neighbor?

People who cannot or can no longer drive, people who are poor, people of color are vulnerable. Likewise college and university students. On our Wartburg Seminary campus, many students have a driver’s license in one state but are in residence here in Iowa. We have provided voter registration twice here on campus. Students can vote early. And I urge them to do so. “Absentee ballot” does not necessarily mean you are out of town on Election Day. You may be in classes all day and thereby choose to vote early by mail. That also provides a shorter line on Election Day for someone who has to get to work.  That’s a way to vote for the sake of your neighbor.

In some states new laws have taken away voting on the Sunday before Election Day when traditionally African Americans, as a sign of citizenship and freedom after the Voting Rights bill was passed during the Civil Rights Movement, would go together after church to vote. For people with limited personal mobility, that was an act of communal care, not a “voting block.”   Some students on our campus are organizing car pools to go to the polls together before or on November 6, thereby encouraging one another and making sure that all have a ride.  That’s a way to vote for the sake of your neighbor.

As a professor I do not tell students for which candidate to vote, but I can and do raise the subject of the vocation of citizenship. Last Election Day I offered to give students and their spouses a ride to the polls, and even to take care of their children.  One student spouse told me later, “I didn’t call you for a ride, but I might not have voted had you not sent that offer.”  That’s a way to vote for the sake of one’s neighbor.

Voting for the sake of your neighbor is what the right of citizenship is all about. Citizenship is more often taken for granted than examined. It’s not just a matter of exercising my own right as a citizen, but being a citizen for the common good, not only for the country, but for the sake of the world. One is not called to be a citizen in isolation. 

One hears often, “What will the candidate do for me?”  People should ask, “Whose interest is this supporting?” “Who will benefit if this policy is implemented?” “How will people different from me be helped or harmed if this candidate is elected?”  It’s a matter of vocation, paying attention to those who are suffering and using one’s wisdom and to see how they can be best served.  In public policy, priority needs to be given to the good of the community. In the October issue of The Lutheran magazine, Darrell Jocock, Gustavus Adolphus College, has an excellet article on vocation as an invitation to become a channel for God's activity in the world by putting the neighbor first. He gives examples of Luther's involvements in public service.

 It’s not too late to gather people to have informed discussion, to sort out the truth from misleading statements, yes, even at church in an adult forum. (Youth will also benefit from seeing adults do this and from having such conversations at church themselves.) Such informed discussion can empower people for action towards fostering justice and working towards equality.  Vote for the sake of the neighbor to restore relationships and mend the world.

Registering and voting early is essential.  College and university students, and anyone who has moved recently, such as people who rent their residence, may be issued only a provisional ballot at some polls on Election Day. Many of these may not be counted.

In spite of voter suppression efforts, stalwart people have been out registering people one by one, and informing them of their rights, helping them obtain newly required I. D’s. Some of these workers remember when they, or their parents or grandparents, could not vote before the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Thousands of people marched and many died so that others could vote then, and today.  Vote for the sake of them.  Vote for the sake of the voice and vote of those who come after you.

Running Together Rather than Being Chased by Fears

It was a beautiful day for a run. All stood at the starting line amidst the fall colors. One last instruction: “Be careful on the first turn. It is tempting to start out so fast that you catch the heels of the person in front of you, causing someone to stumble. A whole bunch can go down. Ready? Off you go.”

It could have been a fall day on a college campus, but this was an elementary school in a small Iowa city. Third graders, eight-year-olds, prepared to run and walk their first mile! They had previously practiced once around the track which was the path around their playground. This would be 4 ½ times around. And they made it!

Ten years from now they will be 18-year-olds setting off on tracks of their own. What I watched last Friday afternoon, I would like to see ten years from now. All outside together in the world, prepared, fully participating according to their individual gifts and abilities. No one needing to drop out.

This is the season of specials on television, and on-line about our nation’s schools. There are dire predictions. And fear-based headlines: “Is college really worth it?” “The nation’s schools are in crisis.” We used to be first. We need to be first. We have to be first. Run as fast as you can! There are indeed statistics to which we need pay attention, but it is easy to let fears cause us to stumble.

Pell grant money saved, for now. But tuitions continue to rise. Since the beginning of the great recession people are charging less to credit cards and saving more. But defaults on student loans are a reality. Will we make it around the first turn without being knocked down?

Don’t misunderstand me. The challenges are great. We need college students who choose teaching as a career. We need more teachers who can answer the call of a lifetime…for a lifetime. We need communities and states who honor, respect and support teachers and community schools. Public schools where are all welcome.

I worry when competition is the answer for everything. I cringe when blaming teachers’ unions continues to be the fashion. And the gap between money spent on schools for students of wealth and students living in poverty continues to grow. The new segregation.

Yes, innovation is welcome, but I notice that a four-minute TV segment on a charter school’s creative idea ends with “We want this to be a model for every school in the country.” One says what we need is “Grit.” (Yes, we all need persistence and resilience, but does building in some “failure” as a response to “giving a blue ribbon to everyone” really fit students who need self-esteem?) Another says the answer, the only answer, is “technology.” (Yes, we need technology in every school for every student, but also “innovative” ways to help develop face-to-face social skills.) Another says….

And a voucher system for elementary education is just as dangerous an idea as a voucher system for health care for the elderly.

But now I’m sounding dire. Yes we need to recognize the problems; we need also to appreciate places and people who are working hard together. I have seen teachers and administrators creatively working together on professional development, charter and neighborhood schools collaborating, community colleges, states universities and private colleges together shepherding students through their education. I see the graduate school where I teach building a teaching-learning community that is life-giving, and which connects on-line learners with daily life on campus.

Last Friday, every single child in that third grade class was out there together, under the supportive, watching, caring eye of their gym teacher and two paraprofessionals. There were the children who took off fast and ran as quick as a rabbit the whole mile. There were some children with special needs: Autism, Down syndrome. There were children who walked together, friends. All had been prepared to walk, jog, or run as they could. A girl living with a chronic disease did a wonderful job of pacing herself by running and then walking, running and then walking. They were fit and able, as they were capable of being.

Yes, we have a competitive society that schools us all to beat out the person ahead of us. Hurry, hurry or you will be left behind. But I saw no one cheering because they had beat out another. All did their best. All received their times. No not a “give everyone a blue ribbon day.” No ribbons at all. They didn’t need them. The students had purpose and were growing in endurance. They did their first mile last Friday. Miles to go before they sleep. It was a beautiful fall day. Beautiful!

What Does the Middle East Have to Do with Sunday School?

What does the Middle East have to do with Sunday School?And what do controversial political issues have to do with church? An observable answer might be, “Not much.”  And that, I contend, is not good. (I’m speaking as a Lutheran who could be called a “mainline” Christian.) There are, of course, wonderful exceptions: churches where people of all ages talk about global events, engage the Scriptures, pray and are equipped for ministries that matter in a complex world in need of understanding, justice and healing.

However, often well-meaning people are simply too busy.  Sunday School teachers prepare lessons and lovingly teach children but just as lovingly try to shield them from global realities.  And adults, stressed out from work, seek a church-going experience that is a refuge from the world. We believe religion and politics “don’t mix,” so we pray in general for “our leaders” and “world peace” and all we have to say from the pulpit is that political adds have become too negative.

Don’t get me wrong.  Those benign postures are preferable to right-wing positions that picture Christianity as a militant American nationalism.  In fact, while a vicious video clip production that insults and demeans Islam has been the catalyst for anti-American demonstrations in the Middle East and beyond, that is only one piece of a much broader, constant barrage of “Christian” anti-Muslim messages that Islamic countries have been hearing increasingly. The message that to be Christian is to be against any other religion is being taught. And adults in such churches are being told how to vote, and many are continuing to be fed the fabricated story that the president of the United States was not born here, is the “other,” and is secretly not a Christian but a Muslim and therefore anti-American. 

 

Such hate is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hold a very different interpretation of the Christian Gospel.  Yes, one reads in the New Testament that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light and that one can hear in that passage that Jesus is the only path to salvation. But judgment is to be left to God. There is danger in fear of the stranger. You see, Jesus continually reached out to those beyond the narrow religious confines of his own faith, Judaism.  Christianity is more than a set of “values.” Jesus is the light of the world.  Jesus loves everyone, heals all in need. Jesus cares about justice, and the poor; he always cares about the poor. Christianity is a religion with doors wide open. And Christianity is never to be aligned to just one national identity. Christ suffers with those who suffer. Christ’s death and resurrection set people free to love the neighbor, not to simply guard their own freedom.

This is not to justify the violence that took the lives of the U.S. ambassador in Libya and three other U.S. servant citizens.  Nor the violence in the Middle East and beyond where yet more people die. This is not a commentary on Islam.  My words here are about Christianity, its message and mission.

So, what does the Middle East have to do with Sunday School?  I hope everything.  I call for the media to recognize that “Christian” is a broad term, not to be associated only with fundamentalist right-wing Christian churches.  I call for mainstream Christian Churches to not be hesitant to speak up. No, don’t tell people how to vote.  That’s rightly against the first amendment. But help us dig more deeply into the Scriptures and help parishioners claim their own voices in the public arena, and to learn about world religions and to love all the world’s people. 

Ray Suarez in The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, wrote, “As a kid standing for the recessional hymn, I dutifully sang, “In Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” He added, “What I was not taught was that God had chosen America as the instrument for his will in the world.”

In my book, Open the Doors and See All the People, I write about a Lutheran pastor on Long Island, NY, a Wartburg Seminary graduate, who over 15 years ago helped diversify her congregation’s all-white worship leadership team to include an Iranian deacon and a West Indian assisting minister. Together with other religious leaders in the community she helped form an Interfaith Network and developed a “school of religion” where they engaged in “caring, sharing and comparing.” When 9/11 happened, they were already prepared to come together in an interfaith prayer service 1000 attended. She says, “Our deep anxiety continued, but our faith was deeper still. We have learned to cherish people…all people.”