The Word in Focus

On Mockingbirds

Dr. Larry Taylor

A Mockingbird woke me up this morning. Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) get a bad rap.

Amateur and professional ornithologists don’t particularly care for them because they are ubiquitous. Their range now covers most of the continental United States, and they are expanding steadily northward due to their aggressive territorial nature and ability to adapt to urban sprawl.

Artistically minded observers of nature aren’t particularly fond of them either because the males will perch for hours mimicking every bird call they’ve ever heard, as well as squeaky gates, and even barking dogs. They are not very original or creative. As a song says, mocking birds “have no new song to sing”. I left my keys in the ignition while I opened my car door recently, only to hear a perfectly pitched “beep...beep...beep” coming from a nearby tree after I removed them.

But I like Mockingbirds. I admire their beauty. Just because you’re common, doesn’t make you ugly. And, I admire their memories. I certainly couldn’t repeat back everything I’ve heard, said, or sung in the last 24 hours, much less everything I’ve heard in my life. Mockingbirds have an amazing ability to absorb and repeat information. They generally sing/chirp each phrase they’ve heard several times, then move nonstop on to the next, not repeating any for hours on end. A talent like that would skate you through medical school.

I wonder … when it comes to beauty, nature, ideas, people … how many of those beautiful things, natural phenomena, opinions, and persons do I dismiss because they are commonplace or not entirely original?

Helen Keller (1880-1968), the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college, who went on to be an outstanding author, activist, and lecturer, as well as personal inspiration to millions, told the story of a young man who walked for 20 minutes in the woods. Keller used to sit in the forest with her hands outstretched until song birds would land on her fingers. She would gently feel the vibrations of the bird’s throat, and thereby experience birdsongs. Upon his return, she asked the young man what he had seen on his walk.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” she replied incredulously. “I am deaf and blind and I cannot spend five minutes in the forest without seeing a thousand things!”.

Am I like the young man, missing the grace around me?

Mockingbirds are people too.

© 2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.

In God’s Presence is Fullness of Joy

Dr. Larry Taylor

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 ESV)

In God’s presence is fullness of joy. But what does it mean for me to be in God’s presence?

There is a sense in which I am always in the presence of the Lord.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:7-10 ESV)

Charles Lindbergh apparently learned the lesson that God is (thankfully) always with us. We cannot escape his presence. After his solo flight from New York in May of 1927 in the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh, a farm boy from Minnesota, instantly became the most famous person in the world. Lindbergh was then plummeted into despair when his son was kidnaped and murdered in 1932, and never seems to have recovered from public rejection when, probably duped by Hitler’s propaganda machine, he opposed U.S involvement in Wold War II. The aviator spent his final years on the least inhabited and least accessible part of the island of Maui, as far away as he could get from the press corps. He died of lymphoma in 1974 and his grave marker reads: Charles A. Lindbergh Born: Michigan, 1902. Died: Maui, 1974. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea… The ellipsis at the end of the inscription is perpetually eliminated by authors, but makes all the difference. Lindbergh was not saying, “I decided to dwell way out in the ocean”. On the contrary, he was quoting Psalm 139, and in context, the inscription essentially means, “I came way out here to escape the public and the press, but I could not escape God, who is as much in Hana, Maui as He is in Dallas, Texas.”

God is always with me; I am always in his presence no matter where I go or what I do, but I am not always full of joy. In fact, I rarely experience “fulness of joy”, which implies joy so complete that nothing could be added to it. So, the author of Psalm 16 must be referring to something different by his reference to being “in your presence” than the author of Psalm 139 is referring to when he speaks of “your presence”.

In the Psalm 139 sense, I am always in God’s presence, but in the Psalm 16 sense, I can only claim to be in God’s presence if my joy is complete and full.

The author of Psalm 16 must be referring to a deeper, more intimate “presence” -- a presence I have only rarely experienced. I think the Psalmist must be referring to a deep, transforming, mystical awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit, such as I have only found when I have cloistered myself away for days or weeks, alone, silent, focused on nothing but God, prayer, and Bible. In the few times in my life when I have done so, I have indeed experienced what I would call “fullness of joy”. An ineffable peace enveloped me, frustrations and problems melted away somewhere in the third or fourth day of fasting and praying, and I could sit perfectly still inundated with indefinable, breathtaking joy. I need to go on more personal prayer retreats.

©2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.

Thoughts about ignorance

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
-- William James

Still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.
-- Paul Simon

The word “ignorance” carries negative connotations for most of us, primarily because it is sometimes used as an attack, or almost a curse. None of us wants to be called “ignorant”. The word is used as a synonym for “stupid” or “foolish”.

Nevertheless, “ignorant” really means simply to lack knowledge. All of us are ignorant in a whole host of subjects, and there is nothing to be ashamed of or wrong with that. It is simply a fact of life.

In my case, I am not an expert in any field, but I know more than the average person about some subjects -- planting churches, sailing, lacrosse, psychology, history, theology, Biblical studies, the biological sciences, political science, and sociology, for example. Then there are a slew of subjects about which I have rudimentary knowledge -- astronomy, football, soccer, farming, economics, trigonometry, Islam, and African colonization, to name a few. Finally, there are thousands of subjects about which I am ignorant -- plumbing, architecture, medieval French history, Swahili, etc. The same is true with all of us. There are things we know well, things about which we know something, and things about which we know little or nothing. All perfectly normal and universal.

Ignorance is not a problem. The problem is willful ignorance. Willful ignorance may be due to intellectual laziness, to refusal to consider other points of view, or to bias or prejudice. Willful ignorance is the “my mind’s made up; don’t confuse me with the facts” syndrome. Willful ignorance hurts people, divides people, holds people in bondage. The truth sets us free.

A child who grows up being taught that white people are superior to black people is understandably ignorant, but if he refuses, as an adult, to learn the facts and remains a racist, we hold him accountable. We can understand and sympathize with a person who continues to smoke because she is addicted to nicotine, but nowadays, there is no excuse for not knowing that cigarette smoking is dangerous. We laugh at fringe fanatics who insist the world is flat or that the Apollo lunar landings were staged, but when willful ignorance is responsible for oppression or destruction, it is no longer a laughing matter.

We have a responsibility to ourselves and others to read and study all sides of issues, to approach topics with open minds, to find out why others believe differently than we do, and be willing to adjust our thinking, change our minds, and adopt new behaviors based on new information. Doing so is the essence of being teachable. We have all met people who haven’t had a new idea in decades, whose opinions never change, and who are thoroughly set in their ways. Being unteachable is a denial of our humanness, a stifling of our God-given potential.

Indeed, I would go so far as to say that we have a moral obligation, that it is a spiritual discipline, an act of obedience to our Maker, to be continually ridding ourselves of ignorance, to be growing, learning, stretching, adjusting, rethinking. Jesus is the incarnate Word, the Logos, of God, the Word made flesh. God created us as rational, thinking beings, in His own image. An irrational Christianity, or an anti-intellectual Christianity, is an oxymoron, a contradiction of terms.

Economic Hard Times

Economic Hard Times

Dr. Larry Taylor

19 June 2008

Most of the people I teach and counsel are poor. For them, a worsening economy means losing what few jobs were available in the community, going without nutritious food in order to spend what little money they have on medications, taking half the prescribed dosages of prescribed drugs, and driving as little as possible. For others, who were on the edge of poverty before gas and food prices soared, it means bankruptcy, losing the family home, and going on public assistance. I am sensitive to the plight of those around me; in fact, I am in the same boat and share all the same issues. I would never want to say anything that might leave the impression of being insensitive to the very real needs of the poor and the almost poor.

Nevertheless, a sovereign God has allowed the current economic downturn for a reason and desires that we as a nation learn some lessons from it. The answer, therefore, is not to simply ignore the lessons and find more oil by drilling holes off shore and in the Alaskan wilderness. The answer is to first learn the lessons.

What are those lessons? This list is by no means exhaustive, but certainly God wants to teach us:

1. To put God and his work first. After they returned to Israel from captivity, the ancient Jews were content to build houses for themselves while the temple of God lay in ruins. Haggai the prophet rebuked them and encouraged them to put God first, and the people feared God and obeyed. Those were hard economic times when basic needs were not being met, but the people learned to tithe, sacrifice, and give money and time to God’s work anyway, and God blessed them and met their needs. In these hard economic times, we need to not neglect our churches, pastors, evangelists, and missionaries.

2. To live simpler lives. We need to learn from the Amish, Brethren, Mennonites, and those who lived through the Great Depression how to get by on less, how to really economize. Do we need to run the air conditioning 24/7? Drive three blocks to the next stop? Leave our vehicles idling while we run into the gas station food mart? Do we need a $5 cup of coffee? Wouldn’t a whole chicken serve as well as pre-cut boneless breasts?

3. To be good stewards. We Americans are 4% of the world’s population, yet we create 24% of the carbon based pollution that is warming the climate and disrupting the weather. Any trash collector will tell you that we Americans throw out tons of perfectly good, usable stuff every day. Every piece of plastic ever made will be on this planet forever, yet we keep filling landfills with recyclable items. We keep driving pick up trucks, SUVs, and RVs that get single digit fuel milage. Coal fired electric plants keep filling the atmosphere with mercury and carbon dioxide. We take food out of the mouths of starving people in the developing world to make ethanol. Industrial farms pollute our waterways and subterranean aqueducts. With a great deal of justification, the world sees us as wasteful and greedy.

4. To be generous. Dorothy Day said, “If you have two coats, one of them belongs to the poor.” God is calling us as apprentices of Jesus to share “all things in common” to have those without homes share our homes, to have poor people around our dining room tables daily, and to begin thinking about all the stuff we have that we don’t really need, but which could bless others. He is calling us to community.

May God give us the grace to obey.

Copyright © 2008 by Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.

Is the Bible All We Need for the Solution to All Our Problems?

Is the Bible All We Need for the Solution to All Our Problems?

Dr. Larry Taylor

10 June 2008

“All We Need is the Bible for all our problems.” A well meaning believer said those words to me a while back in the context of rejecting my suggestion that counseling and medication might help her chronic depression.

“Really?” I replied, “Does the Bible contain all the information needed to fix your car when it breaks?

“Are you opposed to going to a physician when you are sick because all you need is in the Bible? If so, you’d best join the Christian Scientists.

“Does the Bible contain all the calculus needed to build a bridge?

“All the biology needed to protect the environment?

“All the chemistry needed to manufacture an aspirin?

“Does the Bible teach you how to break a horse?

“House train a puppy?

“Grow flowers?

“Make spaghetti?

“Build a cotton gin?

“Play lacrosse?

“Fix a salad?

“Build a textile mill?

“Did Edison learn how to make a light bulb by reading the Bible?

“Was the cure for polio in the book of Deuteronomy?”

Of course not. While it sounds pious, the statement “all we need is the Bible for all our problems” is absurd when you think about it.

All truth is God’s truth. Another way of saying the same thing is to say that everything that is true comes from God. And, obviously, God reveals his truth in several ways. Some of what is true is revealed in the Bible. Some of what is true is revealed in nature, science, history, mathematics, through experimentation, or through thought. God gave us brains and expects us to use them. As we explore all avenues of learning, we grow and increasingly better understand the universe God created.

Where do we get the idea that psychology is a pseudoscience without validation? Psychology is the study of human behavior. Industrial psychologists plan ways to make business more efficient. Marketing psychologists suggest ways to sell products. School psychologists test children and devise ways to help them learn. Practicing clinical psychologists help people understand themselves and function more healthfully. Psychology is just as valid as ophthalmology. We do not hesitate to get our eyes checked and get glasses if we can’t see well. Why should we hesitate to seek counseling so we can have a better marriage or less anxiety in our lives?

I think the answer is manifold. Most people have a vague idea that Freud started modern psychology and was an atheist, so they fear that psychology is inherently atheist. But if you need heart surgery and the best surgeon is an atheist, who cares? You know there is a God even if she doesn’t.

Others have a hazy notion about psychoanalysis with its penis envy and Oedipal complexes, which all just sounds weird. It is weird, but there’s a lot more to psychology than that stuff.

Still others have heard anti-psychology sermons or read anti-psychology books, all of which are founded on profound ignorance and misinterpretations.

And, still others just fear that somehow they are betraying their faith by going to a counselor or taking medication for a “mental” condition.

Relax. You are not betraying anything. God gave us physicians, medications, marriage counselors, surgical procedures, psychologists, pastors, and good books because he loves us and wants, through those people and things, to help us live a full, happy life.

Copyright © 2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide

Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Do Not Exist?

Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Do Not Exist?

That there are people in positions of authority as religious leaders in the 21st century who apparently believe, and actually teach that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not exist, is as incredible as the fact that there are still people who insist the world is flat. Absurd and incredible as it is, however, such mental illness debunkers do exist, and, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, there are people who listen to them.

Schizophrenia is a complex physical illness that develops as a result of the interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental stressors. Much research across disciplines indicates that all of us have genetic weak links. For one person, it may be a predisposition to high blood pressure. To another, it may be a predisposition to develop diabetes. And to about 1.1% of the population, it is a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. That does not mean that every person predisposed to high blood pressure will develop it, or every person predisposed to schizophrenia will become psychotic. If a person predisposed to high blood pressure eats carefully, exercises regularly and lives a healthy life style, he may never develop cardiovascular problems, but when stressors from the environment, such as worry, anxiety, obesity, and a high sodium diet are added to the mix, problems result.

Similarly, when a person predisposed genetically to schizophrenia grows up in a cold, distant environment, uses cannabis, or has a mother who contracts Rubella during pregnancy, he is likely to develop schizophrenia in his young adult years.

The human genome project was lead by a devout evangelical Christian scientist named Francis Collins, and as a result, researches have found some of the genes that predispose people to schizophrenia. Multiple copies of the COMT gene are implicated, for example. The combination of genetic mutation and environmental stressors results in an abnormal brain. Our brains communicate thoughts and messages across brain cells called neurons. In order to move my foot, my brain has to send messages down the intricate network of nerves in my spinal column to the muscles that control foot movement. Every thought and every physical action is the result of brain cells sending messages. Those messages are electrical, which is why they can be measured by an electroencephalogram, but there are spaces, gaps called synapses, between the neurons. To bridge the gaps between cells, the electronic impulse changes into a chemical impulse, jumps the gap, then changes back into an electronic impulse. A whole soup of complex chemicals such as serotonin help transmit the messages.

In a person who inherited a predisposition to schizophrenia and was raised around extenuating factors, like Rubella, family dysfunction, or cannabis usage, the chemicals in the brain become unbalanced, and the brain does not work the way it was designed to work. Hallucinations (hearing, seeing, smelling, or feeling things that are not there) develop. Thought patterns disintegrate and the person talks or acts “crazy”. People with schizophrenia may have bizarre delusions, such as believing that neighbors can control their behavior with magnetic waves, or radio stations are broadcasting their thoughts aloud to others. They may also have delusions of grandeur and think they are famous historical figures. People with paranoid schizophrenia may believe that others are deliberately plotting against them. They may also have disorganized thoughts, or make up nonsensical syllables. Most schizophrenics have what we call a flat affect, i.e., their faces show no emotion, even in situations where a normal person would feel intense sorrow or joy.

All of these symptoms are physically caused by genetic defects and abnormal brain chemistry. Schizophrenia is a physical disease of the brain and must be treated medically by a qualified psychiatrist who prescribes medications that correct the out of balance brain chemistry and return the patient to normal thinking without hallucinations or delusions. Most schizophrenics must stay on their medicine, just like a diabetic must continue with her insulin.

Similarly, bipolar disorder, formerly called manic-depressive psychosis, is caused by some of those same neurotransmitters (the chemicals that transmit messages across the gaps or synapses between brain cells) being out of balance in a different way. Like schizophrenia, some people are born with a genetic predisposition to develop bipolar disorder, then when stressors affect them, the weak link snaps, and the neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine, become unbalanced. A person may have too much of these chemicals, or too little, or the ratio of one to another may not be right.

This results in wildly abnormal mood swings, from the manic phase with disorganized thoughts, obsessive activity, and aggression, to deep, suicidal depression. Like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder is a physical disease of the brain that can be successfully treated with medication that restores the neurochemical balance.

One of the reasons Christianity is repudiated in some circles is because there are grossly ignorant people who in the name of Christianity attack psychology (which is simply the study of human development and behavior) and insist that mental illnesses, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, do not exist. The absurdity of such a position is beyond description. It is like saying there is no such thing as cancer, or that ichthyology is a deception because fish really aren’t there. Any person with any sense scoffs at such ignorance, but sadly, some also associate it with followers of Christ.

© 2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.

Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy

21 May 2008

The Bible instructs us to confess our failings to one another that we might be healed, so in that spirit, I offer this confession.

I grew up a child of the late 60s on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a college professor. The combination made me politically liberal. I supported Eugene McCarthy when he ran for president, opposed the war in Vietnam, registered for the draft as a religiously motivated conscientious objector, joined the Church of the Brethren, one of the tree historic pacifist churches, worked for civil rights, read and followed Martin Luther King, Jr., and sported a “Make Love Not War” bumper sticker on my 1971 Volkswagen bus. Others were much more radical. I never joined the SDS or advocated campus violence, but I was a genuine liberal.

Years later, now a pastor, I moved to Colorado and then to Southern California and became a hard core ultraconservative, partly because the right wing agenda was all I heard in the circles in which I travelled, and mainly because I have always had a desperate internal longing to fit in, which historically made me chameleon like. (First confession.)

During my ultraconservative effort to gain acceptance, I fed my soul with a steady diet of Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson, and grew bitter and angry at the godless world around me. President Clinton’s Lewinsky affair left me seething with contempt for him. I hated him and all his policies, refused to even listen to his voice, mocked him, and scorned him publicly. (Second confession). As one who professes to follow Jesus, I’m not supposed to hate anybody.

I rejected all things Clinton, but an even more longstanding whipping boy for me was Ted Kennedy. If I hated Clinton, I really hated Teddy. Ever since Chappaquiddick received international notoriety in 1969 when Mary Jo Kopechne was killed in a car driven by Kennedy that plunged into the water off the Dike Bridge, which connects Chappaquiddick with Martha’s Vineyard, I have despised him. Kennedy, as I’m sure you know, did not report the incident until the following morning, and Kopechne's body was later recovered from the submerged vehicle. Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury and received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended.

More personally, I had contact with Ted. I spent summers in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, just across Vineyard Sound from Martha’s Vineyard where Mary Jo died, and just down the road from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. We sometimes saw the Kennedy yacht from a distance. We raced our sailboats in Hyannis just off shore of the compound, and Ted and I entered the same regatta on Martha’s Vineyard a couple of years before Chappaquiddick. I tell people I raced against Ted Kennedy, but that’s pushing it. We sailed different classes of boats. He came in second or third in his class; I came in something like 197th in mine. But we saw him in his blue blazer with the gold buttons, his white deck shoes and red ascot, an ever present drink in one hand, and a babe young enough to be his daughter on his arm. We all knew Ted was a lush -- a rich, privileged, womanizing alcoholic.

Of course, there were other reasons to reject the Kennedys. Joe senior was a bootlegger who somehow managed to come out of the Great Depression filthy rich and with the ambition to buy the presidency for his son. Joe junior was killed in World War II. Daddy’s money gave the presidency to John, during which he had multiple affairs in the White House. After his assassination, Bobby was in line as the heir apparent, but he too was assassinated, which left Ted. As an ultraconservative, Liberal Ted represented all that was wrong with America in my mind. I despised him. (Third confession.)

Now that Senator Kennedy has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and now that I’ve given up (for the most part) my chameleon nature and returned to the progressive classical liberalism I really believe in, I’ve been motivated by media reports to rethink his life and legacy. To my shame, I now realize that the man who was once an alcoholic has been sober for years, thanks to 12-step programs, and the man who was once a womanizer has been a faithful husband for decades. As a Christian, I of all people am supposed to believe in redemption, in the possibility of change, yet for years I held Mr. Kennedy to account for sins of his past -- sins for which he has long since repented. Even Chappaquiddick. The man is genuinely sorry about what happened. He was drunk and dazed, stumbled out of the water and went home. It was a bad thing to do. I’ve done things just as bad. And for crying out loud, it was almost 40 years ago.

Moreover, although I do not agree with some of Senator Kennedy’s stances (like abortion on demand, for example) it is not an exaggeration to say that virtually every advance in social welfare, health care, education, and civil rights in this country over the last four decades owes its existence to the senior senator from Massachusetts. His influence has been greater than many presidents and the lives of every single American, and many others around the world, are better for his service.

Ted, I’m sorry I scorned you. Please forgive me. Fight hard. Get better. Go sailing.

©2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.

The California Supreme Court Allows Same Sex Marriage

15 May 2008

It’s not yet the end of the world, nor even of civilization as we know it.

True, the California Supreme Court today overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage, making the Golden State the second in the Union to legalize same sex marriage. True, the citizens of California voted to ban gay marriage. True, California is the largest state in the nation, so this decision will have a greater impact than the similar one in Massachusetts. True, it is questionable that it is a good idea for a court to redefine something as basic as marriage that has carried the same fundamental meaning for millennia. True, there is a radical minority of gay activists that put on vulgar displays. True, children can become confused about their sexuality if they are prematurely exposed to sexually laden ideas. True, it is the consensus of conservative Jewish, Christian, and Moslem scholars that homosexual activity is wrong. And, also true, Hollywood and Madison Avenue seem intent on portraying homosexuality as mainstream, normal, healthy, and good.

But it’s not yet Armageddon, in spite of the ubiquitous plethora of histrionic emails and mass mailings that literally began about 10 minutes after the 3-2 decision was handed down. It’s not yet the end of humankind, in spite of the emotive protestations of conservative radio hosts and the thundering denunciations certain to resonate from pulpits this coming Sunday.

All of that notwithstanding, legalizing same sex marriage will not destroy traditional marriage. Actually, evangelical Christians, whose divorce rate is higher than the national average, are doing a pretty good job of destroying marriage without any help from gays and lesbians. Is marriage “under attack”? Yes it is -- adultery, divorce, domestic violence, and serial polygamy all attack the traditional concept of marriage. Let’s not pin the blame on the gay community.

But, it is argued, here we have another example of the “liberal courts” undermining the will of the people by overturning a democratically enacted piece of legislation. I understand the frustration, but our three branch system of government is uniquely designed with checks and balances to right injustice. Sometimes high courts need to overturn the will of the people, if the will of the people is unjust, as, for example, in popularly supported Jim Crow segregation and voting laws. We can argue over whether or not this popular vote to ban same sex marriage was unjust, but the argument that state supreme courts have no right to overturn a referendum is weak. Many of the same individuals decrying this decision by the California Supreme Court would be delighted if the U. S. Supreme Court would outlaw abortion.

The basic evangelical argument is that gay marriage is wrong because it is contrary to the scriptures, and therefore should not be made legal by any court or legislature. As much as I wish it were otherwise, however, we do not live in a Christian nation theocratically ruled by biblical principle. Many of our fellow citizens are not Christians, and many who are differ in their interpretation and understanding of the biblical teaching about homosexuality, marriage, divorce, abortion, and a host of other issues. If we were to attempt to legislate a Christian nation, which brand of Christianity should we use? Fundamental Protestantism? Roman Catholicism? Lutheranism? Who should decide what is right and what is wrong? James Dobson? Rush Limbaugh? Pope Gregory? Openly gay Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson?

And, if we are going to pass laws and constitutional amendments banning unscriptural practices, should we not also ban divorce, revenge, unforgiveness, prayerlessness, pride, gluttony, selfishness, consumerism, and failure to attend church? We cannot and should not seek to legislate morality. Change has to come from the inside out, from the hearts of people touched by grace, not from courts or legislation.

There are many groups already seeking to exploit the California ruling. Hysterical appeals for money are flooding in, and political interests will attempt to use the fear and hysteria to win votes and paint opponents as radical liberals. Innuendo and slander will abound. Victimization and fear will increase.

Victimization makes us feel special. We are the persecuted. Victimization binds us together for survival, which makes sense for followers of Jesus under Caesar Nero, Jews in early 20th century Poland, Tutsi in late 20th century Rwanda, or African slaves in antebellum South Carolina, but evangelical Christians in modern America enjoying the highest standard of living in the world are hardly victims of persecution.

Fear raises money and elects candidates. Messages will attempt to make us all afraid -- afraid of some unseen “radical homosexual agenda” that is, we are told, seeking to infiltrate our schools, corrupt our youth, spread sodomy and bestiality, destroy marriage, and thereby exterminate society. The nation and everything decent and good will come crashing down if we don’t give money, write our representatives, and homeschool our kids. Candidates will soon spend millions to try to convince us that their opponents are on the side of society’s demise, and regardless of issues like the economy, war, and poverty, we must vote for the champions of traditional marriage. For God’s sake, we must be one issue voters, they will tell us.

What’s a 21st century American Christian to do? The same thing our first century brethren did -- ignore hysteria, reject fear, panic, injustice, and hype, be kind, pray, serve the hurting, love others (all others), turn the other cheek, go the second mile, give freely, own nothing, forgive those who trespass against us, and live godly lives, demonstrating to everyone around us that we love them because God loves them -- just as they are, no strings attached.

Reverend Wright One More Time

Reverend Wright One More Time

Dr. Larry Taylor

30 April 2008

In spite of my efforts to give Reverend Wright the benefit of the doubt, and, unlike the mass media, read his previous statements in the context of the sermons in which they were preached, he is clearly now Reverend Wrong. I stand by what I said earlier, but his comments this past week are both outrageous and indefensible. Clearly, his remarks do not reflect the views of black churches or African-American Christians.

It is difficult to imagine why he would make such statements publicly and now, but several possible motives come to mind. Perhaps he has been bribed or blackmailed by people who don’t want to see Barack Obama nominated for the presidency. Perhaps he is angry at Obama for disinviting him into his campaign 15 months ago. Perhaps he’s a genuine nut. Most likely, however, he is a egocentric narcissist who cannot stand retirement and saw an opportunity to thrust himself onto a national stage. He would not be the first pastor of a megachurch to love the public forum.

Whatever the motive, it remains clear that his views are not and never have been those of Barack or Michelle Obama. Some (white) evangelicals have called Barack to task for not leaving the church a long time ago. Although a portion of American evangelicalism habitually abandons one church for another, there are many Christians (and in my experience, most African-American Christians fall into this category) who see church membership as a lifetime commitment, much like marriage. The Obamas’ church on Chicago’s south side has 8,000 members. It is a predominately African-American family of believers who worship and serve the community together. It is not centered on the cult of senior pastor personality. Barack and Michelle have simply been committed to a community of faith, not to Jeremiah Wright.

Of course, they were fond of Rev. Wright -- under his preaching Barack became a follower of Christ, Wright presided over their wedding and the baptism of their daughters, but in a church of 8000, they were not best buddies. Moreover, Rev. Wright is primarily an exhorter. His sermons are generally not theological or doctrinal, they are exhortations to action in a community filled with gangs, drugs, and violence. To pick apart Rev. Wright’s theology, then ascribe it to the Obamas is unfair. Even in a small church, most parishioners do not know the difference between social prophetic postmillennialism and premillennial dispensationalism.

Jeremiah Wright is not Barack and Michelle Obama’s pastor -- he is retired from the pulpit in Chicago -- and Barack has repudiated his comments and renounced his ties to him. In my mind, it no more fair to judge Obama by the former pastor of his church than it would be to call Abraham Lincoln an atheist because he did not belong to a church. The best way to deal with Jeremiah Wright is to ignore him.

©2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.

Rethinking The Reverend Jeremiah Wright

Rethinking The Reverend Jeremiah Wright

Dr. Larry Taylor

Whether America is ready to overcome its original sin of racism and elect an African-American as President remains to be seen. What is certainly clear at this point is that few among the Caucasian majority are willing to seek to understand why predominantly black Christian churches in America sometimes give vent to frustration and anger.

Jeremiah Wright took Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side from 87 to 8,000 members in his 36 years as pastor before retiring. Otis Moss III, Trinity UCC’s current senior pastor, estimates that in his 36 years, Rev. Wright preached approximately 207,792 minutes (give or take a few seconds). Of all those minutes preaching, 15 to 20 seconds worth of out of context sound bites are all over You Tube. Rev. Moss points out that that amounts to 0.0000012 of his preaching ministry, a statistically absurd sample on which to judge anyone.

Those 15 to 20 seconds consist of a clip in which, after 9/11, Rev. Wright said, “America's chickens are coming home to roost.” In context, the remark is part of an aside and attributed to a TV commentator. The main point of that particular message is that while we may be tempted to respond to a massive terrorist attack with hatred and revenge, we should instead reflect on our own personal relationships with God.

Most of the remainder of the 20 seconds being passed around the web at the speed of light is a comment about AIDS possibly being a government conspiracy aimed at people of color. While I believe that view is wrong and indefensible, I can understand why a man who has seen his government lie in the past would urge people not to trust government, but instead to trust God. Remember, this is man not far removed from the infamous Tuskegee case in which researchers deliberately withheld treatment from African-Americans with syphilis to study the progress of the disease -- a disease that attacks the central nervous system and leads to paralysis and insanity if left untreated.

I’m in no way defending the AIDS conspiracy statement. It was wrong, but it does not, as so many white people are saying, mean that Rev. Wright is a racist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rev. Wright is a man of faith filled with love for people of all races.

For anyone who will take the time to listen to Jeremiah Wright’s messages or scan the church’s website, it becomes obvious that Rev. Wright is a powerful, loving man who has labored amongst the poor, disenfranchised, and marginalized for decades, loving, counseling, crying with, and ministering to people whose children are caught in drive-by shootings and other gang violence, whose young men are more likely to be murdered than go to college, who live in substandard housing and eat cheap highly refined foods, and often live in dangerous tenements or next to boarded up buildings -- people whose schools are substandard and underfunded and who are too often the last to be hired and first to be fired. Moreover, Rev. Wright preached for 36 years in the context of police brutality, injustice, and on-going racism. He lived through the Jim Crow era of lynchings and segregation.

Within the context of the Black American Church, preachers like Jeremiah Wright need to use the pulpit to awaken people from defeatism and low esteem, to fire them up. When they do so, they are not attacking white America or being racist, they are simply exercising the biblical gift of exhortation.

I have been in full time ministry almost as long as Rev. Wright, and mayors, council members, state legislators, and other politicians have been members of my congregations. I would hate for any of them to be held accountable for everything I’ve said from the pulpit over the last three decades.

It is to Senator Obama’s credit as a human being and a Christian that he took the opportunity of Rev. Wright’s controversial remarks to present what scholars argue is one of the greatest speeches in American history on race, and in so doing, distanced himself, but refused to renounce, Jeremiah Wright. Rev. Wright is Michelle and Barack Obama’s friend. He married them and baptized their daughters. Barack came to faith under his ministry.

It is sadly reflective of bias in America that while Rev. Wright’s remarks are played repeatedly out of context and Senator Obama is criticized for things his pastor said but with which he does not agree, no criticism is heard for Huckabee or McCain accepting the enthusiastic endorsement of San Antonio, Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee, a man who on national television calls for Iran to be nuked, and makes anti-Catholic and antigay remarks. Senator Obama is no more responsible for the remarks of his now retired pastor than Senator McCain is responsible for the absurd and sometimes dangerous remarks of John Hagee.

©2008 Lawrence Russell Taylor, PhD. All rights reserved worldwide.