Voting Rights, Justice, and Faith

Voting Rights, Justice, and Faith

by | Oct 14, 2020

U.S. law is deeply embedded with systemic racism. It is also deeply embedded in the history of faith communities.

That’s why, since the murder of George Floyd, I have been hosting “The Uncomfortable Conversation Series.” In these hour-long discussions, spiritual leaders are engaged in deep listening and heartfelt discussions. Each conversation has subject matter experts sharing their views on various aspects of racism. The legal system, healthcare, access to food, and the voting process are all woven by racist policies.

With the presidential election less than 30 days away, “Racism, Redlining, Re-Districting and Voting Rights” couldn’t have been a more timely topic for October’s Uncomfortable Conversation. My guests included David Daley, best-selling author, and senior fellow for FairVote. David is a nonpartisan champion of electoral reforms, widely recognized as one of the leading national authorities on voting rights and partisan gerrymandering. Gilda Daniels also joined me, Assistant Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is a voting rights expert and former Deputy Chief in the U.S. Dept. of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section. Gilda served in both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Voting and Faith

You might ask what voting has to do with faith. Or what faith leaders can say about voting. I did.

Professor Gilda Daniels, the daughter and granddaughter of Baptist preachers answered me this way. “I quote this scripture in my book: 2 Timothy 3:5, ‘Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.’ Using that analogy toward our democracy, we have a form of democracy. Still, it is not operating into its full power as long as it continues to suppress and prevent people from participating freely and fairly. I do not see any difference between talking about Jesus, liberation, and freedom. He came to set the captives free from discrimination.”

If our form of government re-encaptivates people through voter suppression, which you can learn about in the video, then that’s not the last word for the Christian. Jesus promises something better, something bigger, something freer than the system as it is.

You might ask what voting has to do with faith. Or what faith leaders can say about voting. Read more here: Share on X

As we move toward an election that will set the course of our country for decades to come, I invite you to listen to this discussion with my knowledgeable guests. Afterward, respond with your action to further the ministry of Jesus, who came to set the captives free.

And don’t forget to vote.

It’s More Blessed to Receive than to Give

It’s More Blessed to Receive than to Give

by | Sep 21, 2019

Last year, I had the opportunity to hear Ed Wingfield, one-time Executive Director of the former Denver Urban League speak on leadership. “Using our current models of leadership, if we’re not careful, a few heroes will rise economically in our community. But no one else will advance. We’ll be in the dubious position of creating victims, so that we can rescue them.”

 

As I listened to him speak, I realized his was a familiar story. We in the church do that too. Most church mission trips are designed to create a level playing field for the “underprivileged” or underserved. Yet adopting the attitude that “we will rescue you because we are great and competent and able—while you are not”—doesn’t level the playing field. It perpetually tips it. Rather, level playing fields come from empowering people to discover their own greatness, competency and ability.

 

With the summer mission trip season upon us, it’s time to re-imagine mission trips. That means discovering the blessing of receiving, not giving. 

 

Years ago, I had been on several mission trips to Rosebud Indian Reservation, home of the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota of “Dances with Wolves” fame. We would paint homes, do minor repairs, and in the evening learn about history, customs and if we were lucky, experience a sweat lodge. We were excited to paint homes and make a difference for “underprivileged” people. We felt good about it. 

 

But I didn’t know how our efforts actually came across until Chesie Lee, an ally and advocate for Native American empowerment let me in on a little secret.  Chesie, who co-facilitated the creation of the Wind River Native Advocacy Center together with members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, told me a common response to the question: “Who wants to have their house painted this year?” is typically “Nah, I’ve had mine painted 3 years in a row.”

 

All that house painting was for us, not the people who lived in them.  In other words, our focus on giving wasn’t really meeting needs. Yes, we felt blessed to give, but it placed those on the receiving end in a dependent, less-than, victim role.

 

Chesie had seen this dynamic play out over and over.  Several years ago, when she served as the Director of the Wyoming Association of Churches, she realized that mission trips designed to “help” Native Americans didn’t necessarily help. Playing rescuer to Native Americans was ironic since the church had been instrumental in creating the victimization of Native American populations to begin with.

 

Chesie saw that Instead of organizing traditional mission trips to the Wind River Reservation, in which churches would come paint or repair homes, she could invite church groups to come to the reservation to learn from the Native Americans. She could switch the paradigm from rescuer-victim to co-equals.

In this way, Native Americans would be granted the gift of agency. Of moving away from the role of invisible, underprivileged people to real live human beings with something to offer to others. These trips would be for mutual education and uplift.

 

It was a tough vision to communicate. Many churches resisted the idea that coming to receive would be as worthwhile as coming to give. The few who did come discovered something of a new connectedness and a different view of history. They discovered something of the Kingdom within.

 

As you plan summer mission trips this year, ask yourselves these questions:

  1. Will our mission trip create long-term empowerment for those we aim to serve? Or will it leave them dependent on us?
  2. How can this experience be mutual in nature?
  3. What are we willing to receive from the people we are there to serve?

 

This summer consider how you can experience the blessing of receiving by allowing others to give.  Alternatively, you can re-paint homes that don’t really need it.

 

Adapted from the forthcoming book Dream Like Jesus, by Rebekah Simon-Peter, Market Square Publishing, 2019.

The Voice: Lessons for the Mainline Church

by | Dec 16, 2016

I’m not much for reality TV.  But many a Monday night I can be found in front of the TV watching aspiring vocalists sing their way into the hearts of America. Yup, I am hooked on The Voice. The live finals were last week. Like millions of other Americans, I stayed up way too late waiting to see who won.

What I love most about the show are the blind auditions. At an early stage in the game, a dizzying array audition for a spot on a team where they’ll be coached by a pop culture superstar like Adam Levine, Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keyes or Blake Shelton. Unlike American Idol or America’s Got Talent, these coaches initially can’t see the singers. Their backs are turned to them as they audition. They don’t know the singer’s age, height, weight, attractiveness, fashion style, body shape, skin color, or story. They’re simply responding to the singer’s voice.

A lucky few dozen make the cut. Over the course of the season, they adopt fancy clothes and learn stage moves. But it’s always the unique quality of their voice that takes center stage.

There’s an important lesson here for the mainline Christian church. We have a unique and compelling voice.  Now more than ever we must claim and develop it.

For too long others have used their voices to speak for all of Christianity.   On the one side, we have people who preach fear and hate under the guise of love.   And exclusion under the guise of faith.   On the other side, we have those who preach abundance without accountability. And grace without growth.
We in the mainline church have been endowed with a unique voice. It’s time for us to sing our own song—loud and proud.
We know who we are. We are the church of the community. If your church is like most mainline Christian churches, you perform funerals no one else will touch. You offer love where others offer judgment. You dole out food and financial assistance and flood buckets like nobody’s business. You welcome in the weird, the worried and the waylaid. Everybody gets a hug.

That’s well and good. But are you using your full range? Are you hitting all the notes you can? Are you drawing upon all the color and depth available to you?

When we’re at our best, you can’t beat our preaching, music, Bible studies, outreach, justice-work and pastoral care. It’s informed by head and heart; personal piety and social justice; Gospel and world. At our best, we’re tops at critical thinking, nuanced theology, and the ability to offer more than stock answers. We even know how to change our minds! And our hearts.

We have a history of ultimately getting on the right side of social issues: from the treatment of debtors to addicts, and the poor to the mentally ill. From slavery to women’s right to vote. From the equal humanity of all ages and races to equal civil rights.

All of this contributes mightily to the richness of our voice. At our best, we’re not knee-jerk people.

This is more important than ever in a season highlighted by Trump.   Knee-jerk reactions aren’t going to cut it. If the incoming President means to make good on campaign promises to deport millions, scapegoat immigrants, isolate Muslims, and a host of other indignities, then no voice is more important than ours.

This is our chance to really belt it out! To sing our rich and nuanced song.  No more bowing out while others portend to showcase the faith on our behalf. This is our chance to strut our stuff: love and rational thought; mercy and prophesy. No need to lower our voices if ethnic profiling is proffered as good social policy.  Or if the almighty dollar seems to trump the common good. Yes, there’s a downside to our primarily white, middle-class, well-educated constituency—at least in North America. We’re a bit stodgy. We’re not terribly diverse. We’re on the older side. We’re not all that hip.   We disagree amongst ourselves on human sexuality, interpretation of the Bible and other areas.   I take us to task on a lot of this in other posts.
But here’s the upside: We have privilege. We have power. We have connections. We can use all of that for the greater good. If we use our unique and compelling voice.

Mainline church, don’t be afraid to audition. Sing your song—loud and proud. If we give it our all, I’d say we have a really good chance of winning this season.

Not sure how to engage these conversations?  Join me at Discipleship Ministries for a webinar on Why Churches Should Discuss Politics: How to Talk Politics in your Church Without Being Unchristian on January 23, 2pm Central Time.  Information

Resolve to Evolve: Get Authentic!

by | Jan 8, 2014

As promised, here is the first of my top 5 or 6 tips for people of faith who are resolved to evolve this year!  Here’s tip #1:  Get Authentic.  

When I pastored churches, I knew most of the people in the  congregations I served–quite a few pretty well.  We had conversations with some level of  transparency on my part, and on theirs.  Later, it surprised me to learn that all these folks I knew didn’t really know each other!
Never mind that some of them had been going to church together for decades.
They knew of each other, and about each other.  But they didn’t really know each other.  They weren’t genuinely friends.
Now that I work with churches in a variety of ways–leading retreats, teaching workshops, and coaching leaders–I can see that my congregations were not unique.   Just because people worship together doesn’t mean they feel safe together.
That’s kinda strange, don’t you think??   We bring people together to study, worship and work.  And even change the world.  Without the kind of resilient bonds and relationships that make that do-able.  Especially when conflict rolls around.
Would things change if your “community of faith” was truly acommunity?  I mean, what if we truly knew each other–our weaknesses and our strengths?  What if we were transparent with each other?
Jesus and his disciples hung out A LOT..they traveled together, ate together, debated together, fished together, partied together, fought together, learned together, made up together.  They shared living space.  Over time, they not only knew of and about each other, they were friends.  That was a lot of time for transparency, authenticity.   Tell me that didn’t have something to do with why they were so effective later on after Jesus died!
I listened to an interview recently about people who are spiritual but not religious.  It pointed to another aspect of authenticity that religious people can learn from.  It turns out those who identify as spiritual want, even more than those who are religious, to pose and savor good questions, to take on the status quo, and to freely express themselves in the process–without having to conform to pre-set norms.  It’s in this process that they come alive, and experience the Divine.
My own belief, and my experience, is that as we are more truly ourselves–without trying to look good, follow the rules, or go along to get  along–that God becomes most real.  These epiphanies often happen in conversation with others.
So, for those who resolve to evolve in, here’s my suggestion: create the space and the permission where people can be authentically themselves.   I’m thinking something like youth group for adults! 
Why does Youth Group have the potential to be so transformative?  And so hard?  There’s no set agenda!  You never know what students might bring up, or what personal problem or societal issue will become the topic of discussion.  You never know who is going to cry.  Nor who will shine.  And how the group will bond, and come to experience God.  But one thing you can count on:  they will tell the truth, as they see it.
What if we set up those sorts of experiences for adults as well as youth?  Experiences which let us truly get to know each other:  the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Here’s what I say:  Let go of the pre-set agendas, and set the stage for transparency, tears, revelations, honesty.   Kinda like Jesus did.
In his book Missional Renaissance, Reggie McNeal writes that for churches looking to go missional, people development must take priority over program development. Authenticity is a must for people development.
This year, as you resolve to evolve, resolve to get to know each other–at a whole new level.  And do it more than just once a year.  Plan a series of experiences that reward play, self-revelation, and self-awareness.  In a word:  authenticity. By all means, do it intergenerationally, whenever possible.
Some ideas:

  • Plan a retreat together.
  • Go out to dinner together or have potlucks.
  • Hike or ski together.
  • Share your spiritual journeys.
  • Do a project that groups or pairs people up and requires them to get to know each other.

If you’re looking for a retreat that builds a sense of the common good, and helps people truly get to know themselves and each other, click here to check out For the Common Good!
By the way, thanks to all those who answered last week’s fun question about Mr. Banks.  We had a tie for the free book:  congrats to winners GW Bill Warren and Deb Polanski!
Stay tuned for next week’s tip!

Ministry: Comfort and Challenge

by | Sep 30, 2013

What kind of ministries does your church engage in?  Are they inner focused or outer focused?  Are they comfort-oriented or challenge-oriented?
In order to survive and thrive, churches need a balance of ministries that both support the church itself (inner focused) and extend the ministry of the church beyond its own four walls (outer focused).
In addition, they can be geared toward one of two different approaches.  The first approach is a ministry that overcomes challenges by shaping and influencing the larger world (challenge ministry).  The second approach is by offering comfort to and improving the lot in life of those who are facing challenges (comfort ministry).
For instance, operating a food pantry or soup kitchen may be a comfort ministry.  Your church distributes food to those who have lost their jobs, are on the verge of homelessness, struggle with addiction, are chronically mentally ill, or are fleeing violent situations.
A challenge ministry might address root causes of homelessness, addiction, the vulnerability of the mentally ill, domestic violence, war or a floundering economy.
Here’s another example.  Many churches gladly rise to the occasion of comforting those hit by natural disaster—whether flood, hurricane, tornado, mudslide or earthquake.  You may have ministries that create flood buckets, collect first aid supplies, or rebuild homes or churches in the face of these types of disasters.
A challenge ministry would deal with natural disasters at a different level.  It might address the source of natural disasters by cleaning up garbage dumps that clog urban drainage systems or by planting trees in deforested areas thereby preventing mudslides.  It could also address root causes of poverty by challenging corporations that exploit the natural resources of poor peoples.
Finally consider the quintessential prayer ministry.  Perhaps you have a prayer ministry that focuses on supporting and uplifting those facing cancer.  You might also arrange rides for those who need chemotherapy or radiation and make sure there are meals prepared for them upon their arrival home.
On the other hand, your church may create a challenge ministry that seeks to clean up the local toxic waste site, the contents of which are leaching into the ground and contaminating your drinking water thus contributing to cancer.
Now consider the ministries of your church.  How many are comfort ministries?  How many are challenge ministries?  List them.
Likely your church is heavy in one area and light in another.  What types of ministries can be developed to balance that out?  Who might you approach about these ministries?  Think outside the box here!
Challenge ministries are important for they are a reflection of God’s power to right wrongs, and to bring justice to unjust situations.  Churches in decline often find that moving from a focus on comfort to challenge re-invigorates them.  It gets them back into the heart of God’s concern.