Reflections
by Rev. Dr.
Tom Thresher
I I
feel we were deeply honored to have had Rev. Dr. Mel
White speaking and visiting with us on Saturday, January
22.
When you
listen to him, it is no surprise that he has become a
national leader in civil rights issues, particularly as
they pertain to GLTB (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and
Transgender) issues. I will not attempt to
summarize what he said.
I would , however, like to comment on some points that
are central to our project to let the religious right
know that they can no longer impose their interpretation
on the whole of Christianity.
The general tenor of Dr. White’s talk was, from my
perspective, fairly alarmist. He is sounding the alarm
that we must not become a theocracy; that the
“literalist” biblical interpretation must not become the
basis for the governance of our country.
Thus,
the first, and perhaps most important, progressive moral
value he suggested was that we uphold the First
Amendment to the Constitution, the separation of church
and state:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof ….”
He made
the point that we, as progressives, often laugh at the
prospect that these freedoms could disappear; his point
was that they are actually being threatened today, at
this moment.
I
believe he is right. Increasingly, we see public
discourse narrowed to non-controversial issues with only
a narrow range of opinions expressed. We
experienced this first-hand in the United Church of
Christ with the refusal of NBC and CBS to air our ads.
In many ways the religious right has successfully framed
the issues to favor their perspective; they have become
the ones telling us who we are, what is important, what
is valuable. Progressives laugh at the “silliness”
of their arguments, assuming that “no rational person
would really believe all that stuff” and either abandon
religion altogether or disregard that other view as
unimportant. But the fact is that those people
whose worldview we find offensive or absurd are, for the
most part, kind, loving individuals, who believe they
are helping to bring about the best possible world for
humankind.
We can no longer afford this complacency. We, as
progressives, hold a value that says we should honor the
worldviews, perspectives, and opinions of others.
I agree, but that does not mean that we allow the
mythic-literal worldview to dominate and control ours.
Nor does it mean that an inclusive, progressive
perspective will be persuasive to those holding
mythic-literal views of the world. If we are to
nurture a progressive, pluralist stance, such as
represented by the First Amendment to our Constitution,
we must also protect that stance from folks with less
inclusive perspectives.
While there are some social actions I will suggest we
take as a church, this does not mean that we must all
become political activists. On the contrary, one
of our major tasks as a church is to tell a coherent,
exciting Christian story that is pertinent to the 21st
century. If we have a button that invites
conversation, we must also have something to say.
I believe our church is unusually well positioned to
serve the faith in this way. I would like to see
us begin dialog groups to explore this inclusive
Christian perspective more deeply. The
women’s book group is
reading Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by Bishop
Spong; this may be a good place to begin.
For those of you more inclined to activism, Dr. White
and Soulforce are
sponsoring an event in Colorado Springs on May 1st.
The intent is for 1,000 people to surround Dr. Dobson’s
offices and declare it a “Toxic Religion Zone” to
protest his ongoing attacks on the rights of gays and
lesbians. I would like to see a strong contingent from
Suquamish UCC represented at this event. It has
also been suggested that we hold a local vigil at the
same time for those who cannot go to Colorado but would
like to support this effort.
We live in a time of basic threats to our fundamental
civil rights. The gay and lesbian issue is just
the visible edge. We live in a time of
retrenchment and fear. But we also live in a time
of great possibilities. We can break through to a new
world of understanding, and Suquamish UCC can help lead
the way.
Bless you all... Tom
