Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket our core value of respecting the dignity of every human being

Published
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Brad
on November 18, 2008
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Protest at Christ Church planned for Friday, November 21st at 2:45 by Westboro Baptist Church. 

Yes, that is correct.  The group which has threatened to protest Grosse Pointe South and their production of the play “The Laramie Project” has now added Christ Church to its hit list and verbal protest.  This is primarily in response to the Vestry’s and my statements of support of South and particularly of our core value that “we respect the dignity of every human being.” 

A good friend of mine once told me, “You can’t take out of someone’s head with reason what reason didn’t put in there in the first place.”  These children of God who are members of Westboro Baptist Church are among the most misguided and bigoted persons I have ever encountered in my life.  One look at their primary website and you will see just how absolutely unreasonable they are.  Their rhetoric is so vile that this site is blocked by our filters at Christ Church.  To engage these people face to face in a debate would be a futile attempt at placing reason into someone’s head that is completely unreasonable.  So we will not attempt any form of engagement or arguements.

However, we will provide our voice with a simple and clear message from our Baptismal Vows.  We are providing stickers with the phrase “I respect the dignity of every human being” to anyone who would like them.  Wear them and share that simple message.

I strongly urge that you do not engage the small group from Westboro.  They are intentionally provacative and would like nothing better than for us to lower our behavior below that which Christ calls us to.  How interesting, isn’t it?  I suspect the evil one is at play here.  If you wish to come to Church on Friday do so peacefully and with inner strength which will aid you in resisting any inappropriate response to hateful things which will be said to you by those protestors.  For we are even called to respect their dignity while being absolutely convinced that their beliefs are not of God.

Peace,

Brad+

Never Again….

Published
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Brad
on November 4, 2008
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Not again, never again….

 

History is peppered with tragedies of proportions that are beyond description.  The Holocaust certainly ranks among the most tragic and its survivors and those who grieved over that enormous tragedy created a mantra of “Never Again.”  The wiping away of genocide from the face of the planet has been a hope since the end of Nazi Germany.  Yet such tragedies have continued to occur.  Samantha Power, in her work “Never Again: The Worlds Most Unfulfilled promise”  writes, “Genocide has occurred so often and so uncontested in the last fifty years that an epithet more apt in describing recent events than the oft-chanted “Never Again” is in fact “Again and Again.” The gap between the promise and the practice of the last fifty years is dispiriting indeed.”

 

Bosnia in Europe, and Rwanda/Burundi in Africa, where atrocities resulting millions of genocidal deaths are proof that humanity is still capable of heaping unspeakable acts upon our own brothers and sisters. Humanity is near to witnessing another such tragedy in the region of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi yet again.  

 

As one who now claims residents of Burundi as brothers and sisters I emplore you to first pray for that region.  I also beg that you live out your prayers in action by writing our congressional leaders and insist that they exert the appropriate pressure on those agencies both within the United States as well as within the United Nations to be proactive in heading off a repeat of the ethnic violence of 1994 in Rwanda.  

 

Never again.

 

Peace,

 

Brad+

Can you imagine (again)…

Published
by
Brad
on October 23, 2008
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Friends,

Can you imagine giving more to Christ Church than you presently are giving? Can you imagine writing an article that begins with that question? It is fragile ground I walk upon; this I know. But I had a conversation with one of you this past week which has inspired this short challenge for each and every one of us who call Christ Church our spiritual home. Note: If you do not truly feel this parish is the place and community that is your spiritual base for your relationship with God and with Christ, than this brief article will only appear at best as something interesting and at least non-consequential.

Can you imagine giving more to Christ Church than you are presently giving? Harriett and I support the following communities or organizations in this order: Christ Church, Camp Mikell, Kanuga Conference Center, General Theological Seminary, St. Jude’s Hospital, Young Harris College, The University of Georgia, Brenau College, other (local museums, public radio stations, non-profit organizations, political campaigns, friends in need, etc…). Of our total giving depending upon any given year, 80 to 90 percent of that total comes to Christ Church. And presently our estate planning directs that the church will receive 20% of the value of our estate. As my children reach adulthood and will be less dependent upon my resources, the percentage that the church will receive will be inverted and my children will receive 20% with the church receiving 80%.

Why? Because Christ, God, the Holy Spirit is 100% of the source of my being. Because the church baptized me, the church confirmed me, the church married me, the church baptized my children, confirmed my children, buried my mother and will bury me. I am happy to give to my universities; but I only spent a total of 4 years of my life in those institutions. My universities, the public radio stations I listen to, the other lesser important institutions of my life are valued by me. But they are not that community, they are not that institution, they are not that body of faithful that serve as the conduit for Christ that has promised to feed my soul for the remainder of my earthly life and beyond.

So, can you give more? For some of you it will mean giving less to other organizations, as it does for me and my family. We are happy to do so because of the blessings God gives us through each of you.

I urge, perhaps I challenge, you to sit down and consider a reallocation of your giving so that Christ Church is clearly in the highest percentage of the total.

Peace,

Brad+

Can you imagine….

Published
by
Brad
on October 16, 2008
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Can you imagine a more difficult time to begin the conversation about giving money to support the Annual Fund in support of ministry at Christ Church? Can you imagine trying to engage people around the idea of separating them from a portion of their income? Can you imagine asking people to consider an increase in their annual giving when the market has tumbled several hundred points at the time of the writing of this article? Can you imagine….

Well, my fellow disciples, if we only allowed our imagination to explore within those parameters than the expected outcome or the degree of our imagination would be very limited indeed. But that isn’t our story. Christian giving is determined by far more than just the climate of the financial markets. But how do we make decisions when things seem so volatile?

Harriett and I made a decision long ago that the easiest way for us to determine “how much” we gave back to God from what God had given us was to think of it in terms of proportion. What proportion or percentage was significant enough that it truly reflected our thankfulness to God. ALL of it was of course the answer. We have to give ALL of it back. Well, that isn’t very practical now is it? So, before we could get to what percentage (and into what dollar amount did that translate) to give to the Church, we had to come to terms with what giving ALL OF IT back to God meant. In a nutshell, it of course meant that everything we did with our money should indeed reflect what we knew to be true about God. It is a bit like the rules I have for my children and their use of email/Facebook/etc… “Don’t do, say or look at anything you wouldn’t do if I were standing over your shoulder and reading what you were writing.” This truly does impact how you spend your money (and time and talent!). So by being aware of how we used our resources we believe we offer God our blessing.

Now, back to figuring out a percentage to give. 10% is of course a scriptural figure. (There are even higher percentages depending on how you interpret some stories). But we are not Biblical literalists so giving 10% “JUST because the Bible says so”, did not seem logical or spiritual to us. But we paid attention to that figure. We paid attention to it and wondered, “Does 10% reflect a significant amount that comes close to how we feel about God?” “Is 10% of our income, primarily to the parish mind you, enough of a stretch that it then causes us to think seriously about the 90% we spend on the rest of our lives?” We came to the conclusion that it does. I know some people that do not feel that significance until they reached a level of 20% of their income!! Wow! I know some people that feel 5% provides the right balance for them. I also know many folks who have unconsciously chosen 1% or less and nearly to a person they have never considered their giving as a response to God.

I’m not giving you any easy answers am I? I don’t intend to. What I intend to do is more than encourage you to consider this journey as a spiritual one. And I urge you pay attention to the percentage of your annual income that you give, primarily to your parish, as a response to your relationship with God. You figure out what the percentage is for you. Just be conscious about it.

Peace, Brad