The Beautiful Heresy- Christian Universalism

Several of my more liberal/progressive friends are wringing their hands over the fact that the public option may not be part of any health care reform we get this year.  They feel like they're being defeated, abandoned or both. I think it's a little too early for us supporters of a public option to start panicking.

I am a supporter of a public option.  But, it's not the end, it's a means to an end.  The end we are trying to achieve is affordable, accessible health care for everyone in the country.  One way to ensure affordable coverage is to encourage more competition.  Competition is great at driving prices down and keeping businesses honest.  The public option is a great way to ensure competition in the health care insurance market.  But, having a government run option for health insurance isn't the goal, it's a way of reaching the goal.

For the record, I am still in favor of a public option because it seems to be the simplest, most effective way to make sure we have at least one major provider who is competing with the best interests of the clients in mind.  I haven't heard a better idea.  A public option that was forced to survive based on the premiums it collects would be a benchmark that others would be forced to compete against.  But, if the public option is displaced by a better idea that gets us to a market where everyone can afford health insurance and everyone has access to buying health insurance, I will not be upset that we "lost" a public option.  Let's keep our eyes on the finish line.

This is the best 40 minute talk I have ever heard on religion and G-d.  Karen Armstrong puts into words pretty much exactly where I am on G-d and religion now.  The first few minutes describe pretty much what I think about G-d.  I found it particularly fascinating when she talked about how the scientific age has given rise to two relatively new phenomenon- atheism and fundamentalism.  I hope both my atheist and fundamentalist friends will give this a listen (that means you, Jon).

Since Obama announced his candidacy for President, I've been involved in as many political debates as I have theological debates.  It's no secret that I am an Obama supporter.  As an Obama supporter, what I've found amazing is the people who criticize Obama no matter what he does.  I think they would criticize the way he ties his shows.  Anyone still remember the flag pin flap when Obama was called non-patriotic for not wearing a stupid lapel pin (that his opponenets don't wear all the time either)? Friends who berate Obama without ceasing like to point out to me that the "left" did the same thing to George W. Bush.  And they are right.  One thing that has become increasing apparent to me through these discussions is how much the point of view we bring with us impacts how we judge a thing.  Most of us would like to think we are objective, that we can look at an issue with clarity and say that this is a good or a bad thing.  But, that "beginner's mind" as Buddhists call it is a rare and elusive thing.  Beginner's mind is looking at a thing fresh and new without preconceived notions.  Unfortunately, many of us don't even seek after it.  We go along slaves to our prior conditioning without even realizing it. The vast majority of us, in the vast majority of situations judge that situation pretty much reflexively based on prior conditioning.

Confession time.   I disagree(d) with George W. Bush politically pretty strongly.  He's a conservative.  I'm a liberal.  What typically happens in that situation is when the person on the other side of your philosophical aisle does something, you tend to immediately view it as the wrong move.  Conversely, when someone who is on your side of the aisle does something  you give them the benefit of the doubt.  Even if you don't immediately understand why it was the right thing to do, you assume it must be because of the person who did it.  I have to confess, I did not give George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt.  I tried.  And there were many good things he did while in office.  But, if I'm being honest, for me to praise something he did, it had to be pretty clearly "good" in my eyes.

What really got me thinking about this in the last couple of days was the administration's plan to change the student loan program.  Currently, the program is handled mostly by the federal government paying subsidies to private lenders to give loans to students.  The administration is proposing having the federal government make the loans to students instead (they do made a minority of the loans now) and "cutting out the middle man".  The loans are a sweet deal for the lenders and the federal government says they can save over $80 billion over the next 10 years by making this move.  Immediately several Republicans/Libertarians/Conservatives jumped all over this calling it a massive expansion of federal power and a takeover of the student loan program.  They held this up as an example of why the government should stay out of health care.  (huh?) I read their claims with some amazement.  Shouldn't they be happy that the federal government is making an attempt to save money?  Shouldn't they be happy that the federal government is pulling out of a program where they are paying subsidies to private institutions?  Obama promised to pay for his programs by eliminating federal spending waste in other areas and he makes a proposal which seems pretty clear it will save money and the reaction is that the government is overstepping its bounds.  Without going into the gory details of the discussion that followed, what I found fascinating is that I believe if the Bush administration had made this same proposal those same people would have been thrilled.  There are, of course, two sides to this story.  You can look at it either way.  It's an expansion of federal government because they are going to make the student loans themselves.  Or, this is the federal government proposing a concrete way to save money and it's less involvement in the private sector leaving market forces to determine how banks deal with student loans (if they do at all).  Same story.  Same set of facts. But, two very different ways of looking at them.  And, unfortunately, the way we choose to look at them often depends on how much we like the person or the party proposing the action.

What's my point?  One of the things I'm trying to do is break through the conditioning to see things more clearly.  The first step in that process recognizing that you bring all of this baggage with you to every situation.  Obama's only been in office a few months.  But, he's made a few blunders that I've called him out on and, even though I support him overall, I'll continue to try to keep a critical eye when I look at the things he's doing.  Keeping it real, of course I'll continue to give him the benefit of the doubt. I tell people I am a a liberal by description not by definition.  I don't always take the liberal position on a topic.  But, my beliefs tend to put me on the liberal side of most issues.   For my friends on the other side, I'd just like to suggest that you try not to go with  your first reaction to everything proposed by the Dems/Liberals and Obama.  Take some time.  Think through as to whether or not the proposal is a good or a bad thing based on the merits of the proposal rather than the person proposing it. Join me in trying to discover that beginner's mind.

Yesterday, we took our first trip to see Pops since he began living with Joyce and Kenneth a couple of months ago.   I last wrote about him back in May (The 36 Hour Day) when we saw him at home and realized we were going to have to find a place for him to live long term.  After a month at Eastern State Mental hospital where he was miserable and after weeks of searching for a suitable place, a miracle occurred (and I do not use that term loosely).  We had just about given up hope of finding anyplace really good in either Ohio or Kentucky.  No nursing home wanted someone who wanted to and was physically able to wander off.  The mental hospitals are no place for an Alzheimer's patient.  The ombudsmen in Kentucky had given us little hope, etc., etc.  Then, we found out about Joyce and Kenneth.  Joyce and Kenneth are in their mid-50s and 60 and have been taking in men who need a place to stay for 35 years. It's not a job to them, it's a calling.  And Joyce and Kenneth are angels.  Angels are messengers from G-d and that is what they are.  You have never in your life met two nicer people.  I only met Joyce face-to-face yesterday.  But, she's one of those women that when you talk to over the phone, you can feel the sincerity in her Kentucky accented voice.

The trip down was the trip from hell.  A two hour delay on I-75 due to an overturned truck and a mishap with the GPS made a 3 hour trip take 5-1/2.  But,  the trip was worth it.  Pops was doing so much better yesterday than the last time we saw him. Of course, the Alzheimer's is progressing and his cognitive functions are not what they were.  He looks and acts like an old man now.  It's like someone turned on a time machine in the last 9 months.  But, he was not agitated. He was not paranoid.  He smiled and laughed and was part of the conversation.  Pops, when he's in the city is like a caged animal.  We all dreaded what he would be like in a nursing home.  Even though his memory is failing, I'm sure he was miserable in the mental hospital, missing the rolling green hills he's used to.  He always wanted to live out on land (even more isolated than the home he built for his family).  Kenneth and Joyce have about 30 acres and three farms.  He teases and jokes with them (as he has always done).  We could tell that he loves them and they love him.   He goes with Kenneth out to the farm.  He can always go out in the yard and look around at the woods and fields he loves. Pops is in a place that's a little slice of heaven for him.  And that is really cool.

A couple of weeks ago, a loony pastor by the name of Steven Anderson preached a sermon on why he hates Barack Obama. He made it clear that he doesn't just dislike Barack Obama or disagree with his policies.  He said, unequivocally that he hates the man, wants him to die and leave his wife a widow and his children orphans and he wants Barack Obama to burn in hell.  What would cause a man to say such a thing, not with shame but with pride?  According to the pastor himself, it's this thing we call The Bible.  I listened to the pastor's sermon. All one hour and six minutes of hate-filled ranting and raving.  I've also heard clips of other sermons of his sermons in which he declares his hatred for gays (faggots as he calls them).  (listen to the clip below beginning at :40 seconds in).  This guy reads the same Bible I read.  Mine tells me to love my enemies and pray for them that persecute me.  And, he uses it to justify praying for the death and damnation of a man who is serving our country.  What disturbed me most about his sermon was not his hatred for Obama.  What disturbs me is he claims to be a Bible scholar and backed up every single point he made with scripture.  He's got a willing flock of followers who listen to him based solely on the fact that he preaches from the Bible.  If the Bible offends your sensibilities, your sensibilities must be wrong, according to Pastor Anderson.  He's not preaching hate, it's the Bible.  He's just preaching the Bible. And the Bible has to be right.  Right?

Then, a couple of days ago in church we were talking about Christianity versus all of the other 9,999 religions out there and how we should be able to be committed to our faith without having a feeling of superiority.  After the sermon, during talk back time someone brought up that it was great to  finally be able to back up with scripture what she felt must be right.  That there is nothing wrong with people having faiths other than Christianity.  But, for many of us, for most of our lives, the Bible has been used to tell us there is only one (narrow) way to the Father and if you don't find Jesus in this lifetime, you're damned to hell eternally.  Many of us have been held in bondage to totally disgusting and perverse ideas for decades because "the Bible says so".  No matter how wrong an idea may seem, if it's in the Bible, it must be true.  I heard Louis Charles, author of Jesus Religion, speaking the other day and he said something that I could relate to.  It was something like "What was used to bind me, had to be used to unbind me."  He could not escape a narrow, legalistic, way of thinking no matter how bad it seemed to him, until he could prove in the Bible that it was OK to do so. 

Last night I was watching a National Geographic program on the Koran.  Fascinating program, BTW.  One thing one of the scholars said really struck me.  He described the Koran as a supermarket of ideas.  You can go there and find pretty much anything you wanted.  If you want to be religiously intolerant, you can find justification for it.  If  you want to be religiously tolerant you can find justification for it.  If you want to punish people, you can find verses that say Allah punishes and that you should cut off their arms and hands in His name.  If you want to forgive, the very next verse gives give you justification for forgiveness saying  you should forgive anyone who seriously repents. The Koran condemns suicide; but, the very same Koran says that he who dies in a war for Allah will go immediately to heaven and have 72 virgins waiting for him.  We may criticize the Koran.  But, the Bible is no different. The Bible is full of beautiful, amazing wisdom.  But, it's also laced with xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, contradictory ideas and can be used to teach that people are merely evil worms that G-d can barely tolerate. Many Westerners think the Koran is a dangerous book. And, it is.  But, so is the Bible. 

If the Bible told me to kill, I'd say "No".  If the Bible told me that women were inferior to men, I would hope that I would realize that is simply wrong.  If the Bible told me that G-d created mankind with the full knowledge that He'd eventually torture most of them eternally, I hope I would be able to break free from that.  If the Bible told me to pray for the death and damnation of another human being, I'd call it a vile book.  Thank G-d, the Bible does not tell me those things.  But, for many people it does.  And because the Bible says so not only are these things OK, they're "righteous". 

Now, I really don't hate the Bible or the Koran or even the Constitution of the United States (as I've been accused of).  What I hate is the worship of a book or a collection of books or a piece of paper over common sense and listening for the Voice of G-d within ourselves.  What I hate is idol worship.  Worship of the Bible- Biblioatry is idolatry.  Many people have made an idol out of the Bible (a collection of books written by dozens of men over thousands of years). For them, the Bible is the Great Big Book of Everything.   Pastor Anderson advocates checking  both your brain and your heart at the door.  In his sermon he speaks of an argument he had years ago where he was proved wrong with a verse from the Bible.  For him, that was it.  Case closed.   I loved my visit with the Muslims a couple of days ago.  But, their obedience to a book scares me.  The Bible was written at least 2,000 years ago, the Koran 1,500 years ago, the Constitution of the United States over 200 years ago. As brilliant and/or inspired as the authors were, they were only human.  They saw (as Paul said) through a glass darkly.  They brought their own prejudices and world view to their writings.  They could not possibly foresee circumstances that we face millenia or centuries later.  Why do we place so much faith in something that supposedly G-d whispered to their hearts then over what G-d is whispering to our hearts now?

I'm sure you're familiar with the (snippet of a) Bible verse, "Come, let us reason together." Isaiah 1:18.  Instead of reasoning, last night  I broke bread with our Muslim neighbors. Last night, I had the privilege of attending the Iftar dinner at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.  During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until sundown, having no food or water.  There's more to Ramadan than that.  But, I'll keep this short.  At sundown they break the fast with an evening meal called Iftar.  Annually, the Islamic Center reaches out to the community by inviting Jews, Christians and others to join them for this evening meal and last night, the family and several people from Nexus went to the dinner.

We gathered in their community room and met our hosts.  On the tables were pitchers of water and  plates of dates.  Dates are traditionally the first thing they eat to break the fast, at the appropriate moment. I had considered fasting myself yesterday just to see what it was like and to really get the feel of breaking the fast. But, it was opening day for the Bengals and I had to have wings during the game. You can only be expected to give up so much for spiritual purity. But, what I found interesting in just the few minutes sitting there staring at that pitcher of water is I really wanted a drink of water.  I felt a lot thirstier than I knew I really was simply because the water was sitting there and I knew I couldn't have it.

It was a little odd pulling into the Islamic Center.  They have a large gate into the property.  It's a beautiful Center with a community center, a mosque and a school for children (of all faiths) up through eighth grade.  But, with the relations with the Muslim community over the last 8 years now, when I saw the gate my first thought was "Security.  The gate is there to protect them from us."   I hate to admit it but seeing all of the Middle Eastern looking men, many with long beards and wearing the traditional long robes and prayer caps made me a little nervous.  How sad is it that I associate men wearing those outfits with terrorism.  I was ashamed of myself.  But, it's something I cannot deny.  The images burned on my brain from not only the news but from popular media tell me that this is what terrorists look like.  The young man who came to sit at the table with us was not very talkative at first.   It did make me just a little nervous.

After an introduction, we were invited to take a tour of the mosque. On the way over the director of the school gave us a hard sales pitch on why we should send the girls there.  But, I'm pretty sure that won't be happening.  We were surprised to learn though that they teach the Lakota school curriculum (our local school district), there is free transportation for students in the district and it's not solely a school for Muslim children.    The mosque is a beautiful place with stained glass and Arab calligraphy all around.  We saw on the prayer rugs in the mosque while our tour guide gave us a very quick, very brief overview of Islam.  Then, we were invited back to the community center for a reading from the Koran and some words from Catholics, a Rabbi and others.  I was most impressed to learn that when the center was dedicated 15 years ago, the Rabbi who spoke to us last night was invited and attended.  I was impressed to learn just how involved the Islamic Center and CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) were involved in interfaith efforts in the Cincinnati community.  CAIR sometimes gets a bad rap because they, like the ACLU, are often involved in civil rights affairs. 

After the speeches, since one guy who was supposed to speak didn't show, we had some time before we could actually eat.  You don't break the fast around sundown.  It's timed down to the minute. So our hosts had to wait before they could eat.  So, we had some time to talk to the young man who had joined us at our table.  We learned that it was actually a sacrifice for him to be there as his wife and young sun were celebrating Iftar somewhere else.  I felt honored that he had chosen to spend his time with us, strangers and "non-believers" (even though I have Muslim friends and now know Muslims do not consider Jews and Christians at all).  We talked for a while then it was time for the evening prayer and the breaking of the fast. We all ate a date to break the fast.  Then, some of us began eating and some of us followed our hosts back into the mosques to observe their prayers.  The prayers only take a few minutes and it was really cool to actually see them being done.  I didn't participate with the prayers or the prostrations (standing, bending to touch your knees and kneeling alternatively). But, the girls and Ty did (upstairs in the balcony where the women were).  The prayers are in Arabic.  I was reminded of the old Catholic masses in Latin. Since the Imam leading the prayer faces the wall leading the prayers in Arabic rather than English, the language the people actually speak.  After prayers it was time for the feast and it was a wonderful feast of hummus, a tossed salad, several types of rice, a casserole (not sure if it was eggplant or not), chicken, roasted lamb, etc. etc.  

The girls loved the whole evening.  They loved wearing the hijab (the scarves Muslim women wear to cover their heads). They took great care picking out their outfits for the evening.  We learned the women wear the scarves because their hair is considered to be part of their beauty and it's a modesty issue.  I have to say the women we saw there were very beautiful and had gorgeous hair (my wife said so, so it's OK for me to say it too).  When we left, Kayla gave her top reasons for being Muslim.  The beautiful mosque, the Ramadan feasts and wearing the hijab.  I'm pretty sure that was the right order.

It was an enriching experience attending. If you ever have the chance to tour a mosque or an Islamic center, I would encourage you to take it.  Personally, I didn't learn a lot about Islam that I didn't already know because I do have some Muslim friends and I read this great book "A Deadly Misunderstanding" on Islam and the misunderstandings most Christians have of it.  But, I'm glad I went and that Ty and the girls got to go and I plan to participate with other events with the Islamic Center in the very near future (beginning in two weeks).  Very cool!