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New Podcast!

15 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by laceduplutheran in Podcast, Politics, Theology

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Tags

guns, Podcast

Friends, my good friend Moses Robson Kavishe from St. Paul Lutheran in Carlisle, PA and I created a new podcast that we’re going to do on a regular basis. It’s called “Everything’s on the table.” And since everything is on the table, we decided to start right in with a controversial issue – gun violence. We attempt to take a different look at it. You can find the first episode at a new website – www.pastormatthewbest.com. If you have an idea for a topic, you can leave it in the comment section of the website or e-mail topicsonthetable@gmail.com

You can find this specific episode at the following address:

https://pastormatthewbest.com/2018/03/14/blessing-assault-rifle/ 

Thanks and blessings to you all.

Guns

16 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by laceduplutheran in Humanity, Society, Theology

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

culture, death, faith, God, guns, Jesus, life, trust

Guns.  The mere mention of this topics causes a rise in anxiety level for many people.  Many others automatically start thinking of one-liners, defenses, attacks, and more – they know there is going to be a fight.  Still others are so attached to these issues that they become a part of their very identity and used as part of how they describe who they are – any discussion whatsoever on these topics is considered a questioning or an attack of the person.  Isn’t it interesting that something that can be used for violence creates anxiety, fear, and anger at the mere mention of the word?

And still others, although a much smaller minority, if I had to guess, hang their head in sadness over the intense division that we face in the United States.  How exactly are we “united?”  What exactly are we united about?  I don’t see it.

Two days ago there was another shooting in a school.  The next day there is debate about guns.  There is debate about whether it is appropriate to have a debate about guns.  There are some who call for “common sense” or “reasonable” gun control.  I don’t like those terms.  I think they do more damage than are helpful.  Image being on the other side of any issue and you hear your opponent talking about “common sense” or “reasonable” legislation on your hot button issue.  How do you like just being called unreasonable or without common sense because you don’t agree with your opponent?  How does that advance us any closer to a solution?

There are others who will raise the standard of the Second Amendment and claim that the way to deal with shootings is to arm more people in the schools.  The argument is that since many schools are gun free zones, all it means is that they are sitting ducks.  Is arming more people the answer?  Is increasing the potential or the means for more violence a way to deal with the threat of violence?  Is becoming more militarized a good direction for our culture?  What are the unintended consequences of such an action?

We are completely missing the issue at hand.  We seem to think that material solutions solve all of our problems.  We seem to believe that if we just pass this one piece of legislation, then people will stop doing evil things.  If we just arm everyone, then there will be enough deterrents to make it stop.

And we miss something deeper.

That the material solutions – legislation, guns, or anything else, are only one small part of the equation.  They will remain small as long as we continue to turn a blind eye on the non-material – the spiritual.  That doesn’t mean we should just sit around and wait for the next tragedy that is coming.  That doesn’t mean we just express “thoughts and prayers” as though that’s all that needs to be said.  Prayer isn’t some passive thing that we do, something that gets us off the hook from a responsible response. Prayer is supposed to cause us to get up and do something.  Otherwise, it is just empty words, from empty faith.  What’s the point of having a faith that doesn’t cause us to be so uncomfortable and inconvenienced to do something?  What is the point of having a faith that doesn’t afflict us in our comfort?  It’s worthless and it isn’t faith at all.

Our culture is a culture of sin, brokenness, and mistrust. I don’t mean this in the traditional, conservative, religious-political way.  I’m not arguing that we are sinful because we engage in this or that activity.

Rather, we are sinful.  Period.  As a result things happen because of that brokenness.  Sin is ultimately about broken relationships.  I think there are four broken relationships that impact everything else – our broken relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and with the rest of creation.

If we think we can mend these broken relationships by using only material things, we are mistaken – fatally.  Sin always ends in death.  Death of a relationship, death of a life, death of hope, death of meaning.

I don’t know the answer to problem we face regarding gun violence.  I do know that it goes beyond a piece of legislation though.  And it does involve legislation too.

But, if all we do is pass another gun law, we are fooling ourselves if we think that will stop the violence that happens in our nation.

We have a culture that doesn’t value life – gun violence is a symptom of this.  It’s just one symptom though.  And treating the symptom doesn’t result in a cure.

We willingly consume food that is detrimental to our health and our bodies.  We do it because they cost less money – our money is more valuable than our bodies and our health.

We willingly consume entertainment that glorifies violent death and destruction of people and creation.  We consume this same entertainment that sees others as pawns in a game and useful agents meant to offer us pleasure.  We do it because we need a way to relax.

We willingly make abortion an option for women who, for whatever reason, feel that terminating a pregnancy is the best option for them.  We do it because paying someone to get rid of the problem is easier and cheaper than surrounding a woman and her family with the resources and care she needs to bring new life into the world.  That would take a lot of work, and require a change in our culture.  Besides, it’s fun to get caught up in arguing about the exceptions.  We don’t have the time or energy to talk about how to create an environment where better options exist.

We willingly create and participate in a “health” care system that is really more focused on sick care rather than health care. We do it because focusing on health takes more effort, requires us to be vulnerable, and has upfront costs.  And it would require us to change.

We willingly fight about “issues” in the abstract because if we really thought about the impact of those issues on real people, it would be too much to bear.  It’s so much easier to fight about issues, than deal with people’s lives.  We might feel guilty or shameful for what we support and oppose.

We willingly fight about immigration and foreigners in this country and what laws should be in place and how many of “them” should be allowed in.  Is it 5,000,000, is it 1,000,000, is it 0?  Does it matter?  Those are just numbers on a screen – not actual lives.  It’s easier to keep things in the abstract.  It’s easier to build an expensive wall so that we don’t have to even look at our neighbors – we can feel safer, even if the wall does more to trap us in our own yard than keep others out.  But gosh, we need to feel safe because we are fragile and live in fear apparently.

We willingly fight about race – a human construct that on the surface is ridiculous, sinful, and screams brokenness into our culture.  We aren’t willing to hear from those who have been oppressed because our experience has been just fine, thank you very much – so what are they possibly talking about?  It’s easier to fight about race, than to listen.  Listening would mean we would have to be open to change and then actually change.

I could go on.  But I don’t have to.  In each of these “issues” we, our culture, are oriented towards sin and brokenness.  We are oriented towards death.  We devalue and dehumanize our opponents and make them enemies because we have made being right and being comfortable an idol that we worship.  We fear change because of what it will cost us.  We don’t want to be uncomfortable or inconvenienced.  We would rather talk.  We’d rather scapegoat and blame others for the problems we face.  We’d rather be lazy and take the easy way out of the responsibility that is right in front of us.

Two days ago was Ash Wednesday.  I love Ash Wednesday.  It is a day in which I am reminded of the prevalence of death.  Death is smashed right in my face, on my forehead.  It’s not just ashes of something that was alive that is now dead.  It’s not just the reminder that I too will someday come face to face with death.  It is the recognition that we live in a world that is oriented towards death – it is besieging us constantly.  It is in our face, on our screens, in the words we choose to use, in our digestive systems, in our skin, in our relationships, and our money.

It is in the idols that we worship.

But Ash Wednesday is more than just a reminder of how prevalent death is – it is also the declaration of something else.  It is the declaration that we cannot over come death on our own.  No matter what we do or how hard we try, we will not defeat death. There is one only who has defeated death – Jesus.

Jesus brings a promise – a powerful promise.  A promise of resurrection.  But in order to experience resurrection, we have to experience death.  That could mean literal death of our bodies.  But it also means death in other ways – death of organizations, relationships, jobs, etc.  And death of things that we hold really close to us – our identities with human made constructs and ideas, our passionate desires to be right and to be recognized as being right while others are wrong, our focus on separating people in to those who are with us and those who are against us.  These need to die before we can experience resurrection.

I pray we have the openness to kill these things that need to die.  Yes, kill them, before they kill us.

The Good News of Jesus is that death does not have the final say.  It is merely a stop on the way.  We fear death because we think it is an ending – a permanent ending.  Yet, Jesus says no.  Jesus promises resurrection – renewed, restored, and transformed life.  Better life.  Better than we could ever imagine.

Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him.  We know what our crosses are – the things that we are clutching so dearly.  The things that will ultimately kill us.  The cross is an instrument of death.  Are we bold enough to allow it to do its job?  Are we bold enough to actually trust Jesus’ words and promises?  We we bold enough to allow these things that we clutch to die?

Or do we fear resurrection?  Do we fear what transformed life would be like?  Do we fear not being in control?

A promise has been made to us.  Do we trust it?  If so, how do we respond today?  How will you respond today?  I start with prayer and it pushes me out of my comfort zone to go and see the humanity, the very essence of life, that is around me.  It pushes me out with open eyes in uncomfortable ways in inconvenient times to see what is around me and to respond.  To bring life, hope, grace, and forgiveness because these have been given to me.  It is my prayer that you become so afflicted by violence, tragedy, homelessness, drug addiction, prostitution, human trafficking, porn addiction, alcohol abuse, racism, sexism, nationalism, and other sins that besiege us that you respond.  It is my prayer that you are made so uncomfortable and inconvenienced by these things that the only option you have is to respond to eliminate these things in your context.  It is my hope that your thoughts and prayers are not empty, but that they pour salt in your open wounds and cause you to get up and go.

Church and Guns

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by laceduplutheran in Church

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Church, concealed carry, guns, Thom Shultz

This nugget of an issue has been catching my attention lately.  I heard about a story (sorry no link) of pastors in the western US who are obtaining concealed carry permits and have some sort of shooting club together to practice.  All so they can carry during church.  The idea being that they would be able to “protect” their congregation in the event of some kind of attack in their church.

Thom Shultz posted a pretty good article that touches on the subject.  He carefully traversed the topic without declaring a side.  The point of the article was to get people to think about some questions about security in church – not a bad thing to think about.

I’ve been thinking about this for a little bit now.  Here’s where I am right now.

I have no doubt in my mind that there are people who have concealed handguns in church, during worship.  I’m not worried about these people standing up and starting to shoot people.

I am concerned that someone would think that they need to pack heat in church.

I know the realities of the world too.  It’s dangerous out there.  I get it.  The church is supposed to be a welcoming beacon in the midst of the messy and chaotic world.

Here’s another concern I have.  Are pastors going to start having the reputation of carrying weapons?  Will that make pastors targets if someone wants to do something in a church?

How does a pastor carrying a weapon in worship match up with the Gospel message that they are claiming to preach about?  Are the two compatible?  How does it match up with the idea of dying to self?  Aren’t pastors supposed to be more vulnerable – in order to build trust with people?  I wonder how that will be effected if pastors are known to be carrying a handgun.

Will those that want to confess to a crime or violent act or who seek counsel from a pastor for something terrible they did, or are planning to do still continue to seek out a pastor, or will there be a bridge of trust?

Security is an important issue to talk about in the church.  But my hope is that the solution is not to arm pastors with handguns.  I think that creates more problems than it solves.

Guns…

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by laceduplutheran in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

being right, correct, debate, guns, listening, statistics, stats, US

Guns, violence, debates – stats, stats and more stats – stats that show more gun deaths in the US than all the wars in the US combined.  Stats that show that if you take out the four leading gun death cities in the US (which happen to have the strictest gun laws in the nation) we go from the fourth most violent nation to the fourth least violent nation.  Stats, stats, and more stats.  Or as Mark Twain once said – lies, damn lies and statistics.

I’ve read people’s comments that it’s patriotic to enact gun restrictions because it will protect fellow citizens.  I’ve read comments about how we register drivers, why not guns.  I’ve read things about people saying that gun restrictions are “common sense.”

I’ve also read comments that state that guns are different because we have this pesky thing called the 2nd amendment and you can’t just register guns when owning a gun is a right, not a privilege granted by the state.  I’ve read comments how the government is trying to take away people’s rights to defend themselves.  I’ve read things that people say that arming more people would be “common sense” since criminals would know that people could respond with force to protect themselves.

We’ve now reached the point in the “gun debate,” if we can call it that, that I have absolutely no expectation that anything will happen to impact the real challenge facing our society – a view that violence, whether with a gun or not, is an acceptable way to resolve a situation.  Why?  Because we have now started labeling opponents to our view on the situation.  This isn’t new though.  And give it a week or so and we’ll be onto the next divisive issue.  You see, opponents are obstacles, no longer people.  They are idiots, stupid, gun nuts, socialists, communists, tyrants, Bible thumpers, and dangerous – and that’s just the short list.

I find it ironic that each comment, each statement, each statistic and each label is a loaded term, verbal ammunition with the intent of neutralizing an opponent or enemy.  We aren’t shooting each other with actual bullets.  Instead we shoot those with opposing views through our words.  Those that disagree with us become “they” – that nameless, faceless group of others who are out to destroy our rights, our safety and our country.

Do we really think that by insulting someone else they will come around to our way of thinking?  Do we really think that by throwing a whole bunch of statistics at someone, we’ll somehow convince someone to give up their beliefs and ways of thinking all of a sudden?  Do we really think that those who disagree with our way of thinking are idiots who couldn’t possibly have a good reason to come to the conclusion that they did?  Did we ever stop to think that those people think the same thing about us?

Can we stop with the statistics and loaded language and labels?  You want to know why gun debates continue? It’s the same reason that we still have a race problem, drug problem, abortion debate, gay marriage debate and a whole host of emotionally divisive challenges facing our country and world.  We aren’t interested in listening, but in being right.  If “they” can’t see our way as right, then by God, they should be forced to comply or be shamed into submission.

It’s as if we thrive and feel alive when there is divisiveness, strife, conflict and death (either in a physical form or a person’s reputation).

Aren’t we called to something different?  Especially we Christians.  Aren’t we called to live and act differently.  Aren’t we called to love those who hate us, to reach out to the “other” amongst us?  To show compassion and acknowledge value in people as Children of God.  That’s kind of hard to do when we belittling one of these Children of God isn’t it?

We can spend a great deal of time and energy bickering in political debate and feel righteously justified in belittling those who don’t “get it” – whatever the “it” happens to be.  Or we can live differently.  The political class will continue to divide and debate.  It’s fun to debate and to think that by debating we are changing the world and furthering the truth.  It’s fun to get wrapped up in our emotions and feel like we have righteous indignation because we are defending the truth.

However, all the debates in the world do not help a single person.  What if we started acting on our beliefs instead of trying to force others to live by our standards?  What if we started showing compassion to for those that we disagreed with?  We can still disagree on many things, but what would happen if we actually listened to the reason why someone holds a different view?  What would happen?

What would happen if we left the fear, anger, and self-righteousness behind and said “I don’t have all the answers, but I want to learn.”  What if we became sure of one thing – that we didn’t know what the right answer was, but we had some ideas that might be helpful.  What if we started to believe that someone with an opposing viewpoint might have a good idea or point and that working together, we might come to a common solution that neither side even imagined, but was better because it held up what both sides valued and actually worked towards a common goal.

Are we really concerned with solving the problems and challenges we face – like gun violence – or are we more concerned with being right and having things go the way we want them to?  A great many people have died in the past at the hand of someone more concerned with being right on any given issue, than with actually tackling the issue.  Enough already!

Another Shooting

02 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by laceduplutheran in Humanity, Politics, Society

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

community college, guns, policy, shooting, violence

By now, you know there has been another shooting at a school.  This time at a community college in Oregon.  It’s tragic.  The questions will start to come fast and furious – they will all start with why?  And there won’t be good rational answers that we want, that we say we need.  In the end, it will still make no sense.

Then there will be calls for action to prevent something similar from happening again.  Will the country erupt into another debate over guns?

We’ll try to do something without understanding why that something happens at all.

The problem, as I see it, is that we’ll attack the problem in our usual way – going primarily after the stuff that allows things like to happen – ie guns.  And that’s not to say that the guns shouldn’t be a part of the conversation or the solution.  The challenge is preventing the focus from being solely on guns.

One example of this are these wonderful signs:

I get the intent here – put up a sign for all the rational people who agree that a weapon is unnecessary at an institution of learning.  We’ll all feel better about ourselves and think we’ve done something to combat the violence in the world.

The reality is that an area remains gun free until someone comes on campus with a gun.  The sign didn’t do anything to stop that person.  The sign is nothing more than shallow political spin.  The focus of the sign and the intent was for people who had no intention of ever bringing a gun on campus and probably don’t even own a gun.  They can feel good about themselves that they are following the rule and feel safe.

The problem is a sign like this tries to push reality in the world to the side.  It says – we don’t want to deal with the fact that there is violence in the world. We want to feel safe and facing violence head on doesn’t feel safe.  So we’d rather ignore reality.  That may sound harsh.  But the reality of violence in the world isn’t pleasant and isn’t something to be brushed aside in an “I close my eyes, so I can’t see it, so it doesn’t exist” fashion.

This reminds me in a way of this Sunday’s Gospel reading.  It’s about the Pharisees testing Jesus about divorce.  On the surface, the Scripture passage sounds like bad-ass Jesus slamming the book at anyone who is divorced.  Yet, the context shows this is not the case.  The Pharisees, being good religious lawyers, are testing Jesus, trying to trap him in asking him if it is legal for a man to divorce.  They see the whole situation as a game – a word game – kind of like the sign above.  Jesus gets pissed off at them, turns the tables on them and then adds something new – it’s called respect for people.  Jesus knows that divorce is legal and a reality in his time and he rightly states that the law was written by Moses because of the people’s hard-heartedness.  Crap’s going to happen.  Relationships are going to be broken – that’s a part of humanity.  It’s not ideal.  Jesus is essentially saying that the law isn’t a word game – people’s lives are at stake here – vulnerable lives.

So often when something bad happens, we focus on the stuff involved.  We want to ban stuff, as if that will solve the problem once and for all.  We ignore the intangible – the person and what goes on inside of people who would cause them to carry out such violence.  That’s more difficult and more painful.  It’s easy to label stuff as bad.  It’s much more difficult to label a person with a name, or ways of thinking, or cultural attributes, or other contributors that stem from people because we might just fall into these categories ourselves when we dig down deep enough.  Wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?  Stuff can’t talk back.  Stuff is inhuman and can be easily labeled as evil.

Another law will not prevent another shooting from happening.  Banning all guns will not prevent violence from happening again either.  Yes, I know that Britain banned all guns and doesn’t have a gun problem.  Britain isn’t the US.  There is a different culture, different relationships, different level of trust between people and institutions.  Picking up something that works there and assuming that it would work the same here is a recipe for disaster.  Policies work because of the people under those policies and implementing those policies.  Let me clarify – another law that just deals with stuff, won’t prevent more violence from happening.

I don’t pretend to know the answer.  I know this much – focusing only on the guns is a mistake.  It’s avoiding the painful reality that violence is a huge part of our American culture.  Violence is glorified and seen as a legitimate solution to our problems here.   Should guns be a part of the conversation – yup.  But I certainly hope the conversation goes wider than that.  Because even if we banned all guns and found a way to destroy every single gun on the planet, there would still be violence in this country.  Can we talk about this?  Can we actually address the violence in our culture in a way that might actually stem it?  Or are we going to get caught up and be puppets in yet another political debate that politicians use to stir emotions, raise money, divide people and ultimately yield votes for their own empowerment without actually doing anything about the problem?  I hope we choose a different path.

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laceduplutheran

laceduplutheran

I believe that God, church, and theology are approachable, enjoyable, and relevant for everyone. I write about this a lot because people need to hear it. So many people feel lost, hopeless, alone, and are searching for identity and meaning. I'm an ELCA Pastor (Lutheran) who has a background in politics, business, and the non-profit worlds. I take churchy theological ideas and words and communicate them in everyday language that people can understand, in ways that relate, and show that God, church, and theology matter a great deal. Oh, and it doesn't have to be boring either - mostly because it's the best news ever!

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