The Rev. Chuck Currie

President's budget doesn't reflect our values

Today I've joined Sister Simone Campbell, leader of "Nuns on the Bus," in co-authoring an op-ed published in The Hill critical of the budget choices under consideration in Washington:

"As faith leaders, we have spoken out consistently about the moral bankruptcy of Republican federal budget proposals over the last 2 years, and we have supported President Obama’s commitment to protecting the poorest Americans from cuts to crucial programs like food stamps and Medicaid. The president's just released budget, however, falls short of the moral vision many faith leaders have for this country and the president's own ideals as embodied in his second Inaugural Address. While the Obama administration’s 2014 budget has some admirable measures and is far superior to the House GOP plan, it does not go far enough in promoting the common good and protecting the vulnerable."

President's budget doesn't reflect our values.

Fluoride Is A Public Health, Equity Issue

As a minister and father of eight year old twin daughters, health and dental care is a top concern.  Making sure that low-income children have every advantage should be a top priority of our city and right now that just isn't the case.  Portland, one of only two major cities in the nation without fluoride in the water, is a community where "21% of children suffer from untreated dental decay – that’s forty percent more than fluoridated Seattle Metro."  We can change all that by voting yes on 26-151 this May.  

The CDC calls fluoridation one of the top public health achievements of the last century, and for Portland this is an issue of equity - which is why not only the medical community backs fluoridation but so does the Coalition of Communities of Color. 

I've heard the arguments against fluoridation:  It's a conspiracy backed by big money, it will kill dogs and plants, fluoride is bad for kids, kids can get free dental care instead at public health centers and schools, etc.  You listen to these arguments and cannot help be reminded of those who deny the science that clearly shows a link between human activity and climate change.  The organizers of the campaign to stop fluoride are denying the reality of the scientific consensus that exists on this issue - that fluoride is safe - and arguing that their personal right not to use fluoride trumps the needs of children in our community suffering from a public health crisis.  And where is this free, universal dental care I keep hearing about?  

Good people can come to different conclusions on difficult issues but Portland has been ill served by the official campaign against fluoride which has used outright lies and fear to fuel their campaign.  

The Sins Of Kermit Gosnell

Here's a question making the rounds: is there enough media coverage of Kermit Gosnell, the physician charged with murdering babies in an abortion clinic? The answer is no (though as Salon's Irin Carmon notes there was much coverage when the story first broke in 2011). And we need to do everything in our power to make sure that women have access to safe and professional clinics - unlike Gosnell's - that the GOP and their allies are trying to shut down.

Ari Rabin-Havt writes:

Kermit Gosnell, currently on trial for murder, appears to be a monster. There are no adjectives strong enough to describe the horrors that a grand jury says took place at the Women's Medical Society...

The Women's Medical Society's "real business," the grand jury report explicitly states, "was not health; it was profit. There were two primary parts to the operation. By day it was a prescription mill; by night an abortion mill."

To achieve his ends, "Gosnell's approach was simple: keep volume high, expenses low - and break the law. That was his competitive edge."

Conservatives are making the argument that "the reason the media and pro-abortion politicians are ignoring Gosnell's trial is because Gosnell was an abortionist. Seven of his victims were killed after they had been aborted, and one died after she had aborted. Why would people who believe in legalized abortion want to shed negative light on bad things that happen during legalized abortions?"

But these were crimes, not "bad things that happened" within legal structures. What the grand jury established is that Gosnell preyed on poor women, performing illegal abortions in unsanitary conditions. Those on the right have spent ample pixels reciting all the abhorrent practice, but have failed to note the critical component - that the actions they cite are illegal.

Every bit of evidence points to this man's guilt. 

What would make the stituation worse? Forcing women back into the allies and dark rooms of pre-Roe vs. Wade where medical care was not safe or accessible.  That is exactly what the GOP wants:

During the first three months of 2013, legislators in 14 states introduced provisions seeking to ban abortion prior to viability. These bans fall into three categories: measures that would prohibit all abortions, those that would ban abortions after a specified point during the first trimester of pregnancy and those that would block abortions at 20 weeks after fertilization (the equivalent of 22 weeks after the woman’s last menstrual period, the conventional method physicians use to measure pregnancy). All of these proposals are in direct violation of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Legislators in 10 states have introduced proposals that would ban all, or nearly all, abortions. In eight states (AL, IA, MS, ND, OK, SC, VA and WA), legislators have proposed defining “personhood” as beginning at conception; if adopted, these measures would ban most, if not all, abortions.

Kermit Gosnell does appear to be a monster, a criminal.

We need to make sure the GOP does not create a market for more people like Kermit Gosnell to take advantage of women seeking professional care.

At the same time, we need to continue to work together - whatever our views on abortion - to reduce the need for abortion by making comprehensive sex education available, by expanding the availability and affordability of contraception, and by expanding funding that support mothers and families that decide to keep children (along with adoption programs).  No one should be forced into deciding to have an abortion because of financial considerations.      

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has long maintained that:

Whereas, women and men must make decisions about unplanned or unwanted pregnancies that involve their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being; and …Whereas, abortion is a social justice issue, both for parents dealing with pregnancy and parenting under highly stressed circumstances, as well as for our society as a whole; …

Therefore, be it resolved, that the Sixteenth General Synod:

• affirms the sacredness of all life, and the need to protect and defend human life in particular;


• encourages persons facing unplanned pregnancies to consider giving birth and parenting the child, or releasing the child for adoption, before abortion;


• upholds the right of men and women to have access to adequately funded family planning services, and to safe, legal abortions as one option among others;


• urges the United Church of Christ, at all levels, to provide educational resources and programs to persons, especially young persons, to help reduce the incidence of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, and to encourage responsible approaches to sexual behavior.

These are the principles that should guide our thinking in this difficult area.

Doomsday vs Resurrection

NPR asked this week: is Doomsday near? Read my response today in The Huffington Post:

"We can turn the darkness around us in the brightness of noon, as the Prophet Isaiah said, if we live out the core principles of compassion and peace that are shared by the world's great religions."

Doomsday vs Resurrection.

The Kingdom Resurrected

This morning the people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church celebrated Easter in Portland together in Sunnyside's historic sanctuary.  It was a beatiful morning with wonderful music performed by members of both congregations and much lay member participation.  Below is the text of my sermon.

The Kingdom Ressurrected

We come to this place this morning – gathered as two church communities, as family and friends – to celebrate the Resurrection.  Even in times when humanity has walked away from God the reality is that God has never abandoned God’s creation, with which at the beginning God declared to be “well-pleased.” The moment of the Resurrection of Jesus stands in history as the most profound example of God saying to the powers and the principalities of the day that not even death can silence God’s call for us to be a people of reconciliation, compassion and mercy.

Even today we experience the Risen Jesus in worship, in prayer, and sometimes even in personal moments of revelation. Jesus is still calling to us, like he did to those frightened first disciples, to spread the good news that the Kingdom of God is already here and that hope born out of our experiences with God demands that we seek a create a world where justice, kindness and humbleness overcomes evil and turns the darkness around us into the brightness of noon.

This is a time of rebirth and redemption. 

Theologians and lay people debate to this day whether or not Jesus was physically raised or whether the disciples (and later Paul) interacted with the spirit of Christ. Like Marcus Borg and others, I think that debate asks the wrong questions. It doesn’t matter. What matters is in ways that may very well surpass human understanding Jesus revealed himself after the cross with the ones he taught and loved, and that his spirit still moves many today in wondrous ways.

Walter Wink once wrote: 

Killing Jesus was like trying to destroy a dandelion seed-head by blowing on it. It was like shattering a sun into a million fragments of light.

It is the power of that light that calls us today to be a Resurrection people, a people who in community and enveloped in the spirit of love reach out to build up the Kingdom of God so that all people might have new life. 

Let’s remember that Jesus came to shake up the world. The Gospel of Luke chronicles the beginning of his ministry:

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

Jesus was a teacher, the Son of God sent to help bring the world back into right relationship with our Creator. He wanted us to learn from him, to follow him, to see the world in new ways. But why did his death have to be part of the lesson? One possible answer comes from Barbara Brown Taylor, the Episcopal priest, scholar and author. She writes in this excerpt from her book Home By Another Way:

Jesus probably died right side up, since all four gospel writers agree that there was a sign above his head. That being the case, he probably died of suffocation, as his arms gave out and his lungs collapsed under the weight of his sinking body. Blood loss is another possibility. Heartbreak is a third. Whatever finally killed him, it came as a friend and not as an enemy. Death is not painful. It is the dying the hurts.

Another thing that was finished was the project he had begun, way back when he first saw what kind of explosion it would take to break through the rock around the human heart. Teaching would not do it. Neither would prayer nor the laying on of hands. If he was going to get through, he had to use something stronger than all of those, and he had to stake his own life on its success. Otherwise why should anyone believe him?

That project that Jesus came to start was the building up of the Kingdom of God, what The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would call the Beloved Community.  Taylor continues:

Self-annihilating love was the dynamite he chose. “No one has greater love than this,” he said on the last night of his life, “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Having explained it to his friends, he then left the room to go do it. Less than twenty-four hours later it was over.

Jesus did not go to the cross as part of some vengeful God’s need for a sacrifice. He went to the cross because the Roman authorities saw the Kingdom of God as a threat to the Empire of Rome. Crucifixion was a crime reserved for enemies of the state.  Jesus went knowing what his fate would be but believing there are ideas and principles worth dying for.

We read in Matthew 22:36-40 as Jesus is asked by a Roman sympathizer:

36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Jesus kept company with women, with lepers, with the poor, with tax collectors and with children, and said to them that the Kingdom belonged not to the rich and the powerful but to the lowly and the outcasts. His way threatened to turn the Empire upside down and the religious authorities who conspired with Rome to keep their positions and their comforts were quick to try and hand Jesus over to the cross. This is where, tragically, the myth built up that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. But all religions, including our own Christian faith, have had leaders who have abandoned God for the favor of emperors. In reality, we need to remember that not only was Jesus was Jewish but that so were his supporters.

The Greatest Commandment challenges us still - and the reality of the Resurrection, in whatever way we might understand it, forces us to wrestle with the idea that there are no real endings…even in life (Jesus did not die when he died, and neither do we).  But there are many possibilities for new beginnings.

What we need is a Resurrection attitude in which we can envision the world in the new ways that Jesus envisioned when he proclaimed the Kingdom.  And we need to be willing, as Jesus was, to carry our crosses in the pursuit of this better life.  Eternal life may great us when we die but Jesus taught that the Kingdom was in the here and now and that it was an ideal worth dying for. 

As a people of the Resurrection, we need to work toward new life that protects our environment that we have been given stewardship over so that God’s children in generations to come inherit the sustainable earth we have been gifted. 

As a people of the Resurrection, we need to work towards an end to gun violence – and violence of every kind – and follow instead the path of Jesus, who practiced non-violence.  This work of ending violence must extend from our neighborhoods to every corner of the earth.

As a people of the Resurrection, we need to be concerned, like Jesus was, with children and the elderly, with those living in poverty, and all those on the margins.  This calls us to join the struggle for equality for all people in ways both big and large, to be concerned about freedom for people everywhere, to be concerned about education for boys and girls, to demand safe streets to walk on along, and for paths that people can walk that lead from hopelessness to hope. 

Some will say that such hope for the world is too idealistic or the work to hard.  But I have experienced the Resurrection.  I know there is hope where darkness exists because I have experienced the Risen Christ in my heart, through our Scriptures, and in moments of worship such as this.

And I’ve seen moments of Resurrection in our world.  It happened when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison to become a president.  It happened when people – just like us – tore down the Berlin Wall as the armies of the world’s superpowers stood down.  Those were moments of Resurrection, life pulled back from death, and in each of those moments – just like each time a volunteer feeds a hungry child – the Kingdom is born anew and the life of Jesus reaffirmed. 

No, Jesus did not die on the cross.  His life endures.  We are the inheritors of his mission.  Let us proclaim today: 

18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because (God) has anointed (us) to bring good news to the poor. (God) has sent (us) to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ 

Amen.

Don't Leave Homeless Children Behind

My oped this morning in The Salem Statesman Journal:

"There are at least 90 students experiencing homelessness at North Portland’s Roosevelt High School. That shouldn’t come as a surprise in a state where as many as 20,000 students were homeless at one point during the past school year."

Don't leave homeless children behind.

Thank The Religious Right For Marriage Equality

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza argued this week that support for gay marriage is surging because more people know gay folks and because of the influence of television (and popular culture in general).  I think we should give credit to the Religious Right. 

In Oregon, we have been forced to debate a series of anti-gay ballot measures put forward by conservative Christian organizations since 1988. Those conversations – perhaps more than any other factor – have forced Oregonians to consider what it means to discriminate against those who are neighbors and family members. People “came out” to oppose these measures and that meant for the first time many of us met gay people (or realized we already knew them). It forced churches and other faith bodies to reconsider traditional teachings on marriage in the much the same way the Civil Rights Movement forced many churches to reevaluate Scripture – which had been used to justify slavery and Jim Crow, by some – and that process has lead many to conclude that God’s overarching call for love and compassion trumps ancient understandings of relationships (or even misinterpretations of Scripture). In a very real sense, part of the surge in support for marriage equality comes as direct – but obviously unintended result – of the anti-gay marriage movement (and anti-gay movement more generally).

Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberton and Albert Mohler may be America's greatest advocates for marriage equality - though I'm sure they didn't mean it to turn out this way.

P.S. Live in Oregon? Join the people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church for Easter in Portland.  All are welcome.

Ryan Budget Offers Vision of Morally Bankrupt America

My latest in The Huffington Post:

"America can and should be better than Paul Ryan envisions it. Our nation should be a place where we are our brother's keeper, our sister's keeper. We are not a morally bankrupt nation, and so we must oppose Paul Ryan's proposals."

Ryan Budget Offers Vision of Morally Bankrupt America

People Of Faith To Washington: Fight Poverty! #APlaceAtTheTable

Today at Sunnyside Church members took time following worship to write letters to members of Congress and the White House encouraging our national leaders to do more in the fight against poverty as part of Bread for the World's annual Offering of Letters. 

This is a wondeful way to engage congregations to the fight to end poverty in America:

Each year, Bread members write to their members of Congress, advocating for policies that help end hunger in the United States and around the world. Often, letter writing is organized in churches and taken up as an offering before sending them to Congress. But we encourage all people who care about hunger to write to their representatives and senators, whether in groups or individually.

Click here to learn more.  Send your own letter now.

Easter In Portland 2013

The people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church invite you to “Easter In Portland” – a special joint worship service of the two congregations, which will be held in Sunnyside Church’s historic Portland sanctuary (3520 SE Yamhill Street) on Sunday, March 31st at 10:30am. An Easter Egg Hunt for children will precede the service at 10am. All are welcome. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching that morning will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am (except Easter – when the service will begin at 10:30am ) is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, an affordable day care program, a neighborhood “swap shop,” and Camp Fire programs.

What Does Albert Mohler Have In Common With Al Qaeda?

My latest on The Huffington Post:

Mohler is no Osama bin Laden but clearly there is a place where Mohler's Christian fundamentalism and the Islamic fundamentalism of the late bin Laden find common ground.

What Does Albert Mohler Have In Common With Al Qaeda?

Pastors Day at the Capitol: Tea Party Jesus Visits To Fight For "Religious Freedom"

The Oregon Family Council (OFC) called my office this morning to see if I’d be joining their "Pastors Day at the Capitol." This is where they bring “Tea Party Jesus” to the politicians.

On Facebook, the OFC has stated that the “Oregon Family Council serves over 2,000 Churches and over 40,000 families from across the state who come from a broad spectrum of denominational backgrounds within the Christian community” and that as a 501 ( c ) non profit they “are not affiliated with any political party. Party platforms or points of view play no role whatsoever in our evaluation and recommendations on ballot measures.”

What they fail to mention is they also operate a political action committee that gives 100% of their money to GOP candidates.

What ballot measures have they endorsed in the past? Those that benefit the wealthiest Oregonians at the expense of those Jesus would have called the “least of these.”

Their stances have been opposed by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, our state’s association of churches and other faith leaders who view public policy through Christian theology and not just a political agenda.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a Christian organization but rather a political machine to support GOP candidates and causes.

At their "Pastors Day at the Capitol," the OFC claims to be coming to protect religious freedoms under attack:

Our religious freedoms are under direct assault on many fronts today. This year’s event is a must for every pastor and church leader from around the state. Local and national experts on religious liberty will be in attendance to address where we stand in regards to our religious freedoms and how we can preserve these freedoms for future generations.

The most hotly debated issue concerning "religious freedom" has centered around President Obama's health care law - passed with the strong support of the National Council of Churches - and the argument that it infringes on religious liberty has been rejected by nearly all.

Sally Steenland, Director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress, notes this is part of a national movement that has nothing to do with religious freedom:

…conservatives are setting up religious-liberty caucuses in states across the country. One of the goals of this effort is to pass laws with broad exemptions allowing those who oppose reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, and other measures of gay and transgender equality the ability to opt out of antidiscrimination laws and policies without being sued. This is not a new political strategy. It turns out we’ve been down this road before. In fact it is a road that has deep and all-too-familiar ruts from similar fights decades ago.

During the civil rights battle in the 1960s, for example, segregationists used religious justifications to oppose interracial marriage and integration. God created the races to be separate, they argued, which was why he put them on separate continents. To support any kind of race mixing—whether in stores, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, churches, or businesses—was a sin. Civil rights opponents denied they were bigoted. On the contrary, they were simply following biblical teachings and obeying God’s will. Forcing them to abide by civil rights laws would be a grave violation of their conscience and an assault on their religious liberty.

Fortunately, segregationists did not get the religious exemptions they desired.

It is important that people of faith stand up to political groups like the Oregon Family Council and their agenda that in the name of Jesus seeks to shift ever further economic policies so that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, while at the same time they advance proposals to discriminate against people all in the name of religious freedom.

I told the caller I won’t be attending the Oregon Family Council’s "Pastors Day at the Capitol." Instead, I’ll be joining with people of faith to oppose their plans.

The Progressive Pope?

The elevation of Cardinal Ratzinger to Pope in 2005 was met with disappointment by many inside and outisde the Roman Catholic Church.  As a hard core conservative theologian, Cardinal Ratzinger was a less than ideal choice to unify Christians.  Has Benedict XVI's record, while no one will argue it hasn't been conservative, been more balanced?  Faith in Public Life's John Gehring argues the answer is yes:

Photo credit; http://www.vatican.va

A pope largely viewed in the media as a staunch conservative for his opposition to gay marriage and abortion also trumpeted views to the left of most Democrats in Congress when it came to economic justice and the environment.

In his 2009 encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict denounced the “scandal of glaring inequalities” and called for a more just distribution of global wealth. A defining theme of Benedict’s papacy – especially after the 2008 global financial crisis – was an uncompromising critique of economic systems that subjugate the human person to the demands of profit. In his World Day of Peace message just last month, he lamented “the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism.” Along with “terrorism” and “international crime,” the pope named unfettered markets as a threat to stability and peace. It’s an understatement to say you won’t hear that kind of talk from most U.S. politicians who rely on Wall Street largesse to finance campaigns. While free-market fundamentalists lobby for greater deregulation of markets and corporations, the Vatican’s justice and peace council during the Benedict era called for a “minimum, shared body of rules to manage the global financial market” and a “world reserve fund” to support countries hard hit by the economic crisis.

Benedict has also been called the “Green Pope” for defining environmental stewardship in stark moral terms and his frequent warnings about climate change. More than any of his predecessors, this pope has articulated a clear theology behind what he calls the “covenant between human beings and the environment.”  In 2011, the day before world leaders from 194 countries met in Durban, South Africa to chart the next steps to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gases, the pope used his weekly noon blessing to urge the international community to “agree on a responsible, credible and supportive response to this worrisome and complex phenomenon, keeping in mind the needs of the poorest populations and of future generations.” He told a Franciscan environmental group attending the Durban conference that “there is no good future for humanity or for the earth unless we educate everyone toward a style of life that is more responsible toward the created world,” according to Catholic News Service. 

It is worth noting that the Vatican under Pope Benedict also endorsed President Obama's call for gun violence prevention efforts.

There is much that good people of faith can disagree with Pope Benedict on: his attacks on the rights of women and gays and lesbians, and the failures of the RCC under his leadership to deal with the child abuse scandal.  This pope has not been the best friend to the ecumenical movement.  Yet all people deserve to be judged on the totality of their work and life.  I also remember Cardinal Ratzinger as a strong and vocal opponent of the Iraq War that began 10 ten years.  Let us keep him and the people of the Roman Catholic Church in prayer during this time of transition.  

Dew Drop Clock from The E. Ingraham Company

In the house of my grandparents, C.O. "Rock" Bright and Frances Bright, was a Dew Drop Clock from The E. Ingraham Company, built sometime in the late 1880s.  My uncle has it now.  It originally belonged, as I understand it, to my great-grandmother, Nina Gravening Bright.

This clock was special. Something about the age fascinated me.  My grandfather had also put a lot of work into restoring the wood work. The sound echoed throughout the house and the "tick-tock" at night would be the only noise you'd hear and the sound I would fall to sleep to.

I recently found a clock just like it from a dealer on EBay.  When you purchase something like this online - and I've been searching for a number of years - there are many worries.  But this has turned out to be a story worthy of Antiques Roadshow.  The clock I purchased was in excellent condition and with just a bit of restoration by one of the few clock repair stores in Portland that specialize in this area the clock is up and running.  All the parts are original - as you can see from the photos below - which adds value to the clock.  My hope is that this will become a piece that is passed down in our family just as the other clock has been and that my daughters enjoy it has much as I did the one in my grandparent's home.  

My house now has that familiar sound that reminds me of my grandparents. Priceless, really.

People Of Faith #DemandAVote For Gun Violence Prevention #NowIsTheTime

Yesterday supporters of President Obama's gun violence prevention measures - including people of faith - rallied across America to demand that Congress vote on the proposals.  I spoke at the Portland press event. Over 70% of NRA members support President Obama's call for universal background checks.  This isn't a fight between the White House and gun owners but a fight between Americans and a radicalized NRA leadership that has lost touch with their membership. A few of those out-of-the mainstream voices tried to shout down speakers yesterday - one of them yelling a racial slur - but the vast majority of Americans reject such views and believe that in a democracy it isn't the loudest voice but the strongest ideal that should win the day. 

Statment in Support Of Universial Background Checks Delivered

by Rev. Chuck Currie at Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Feb 22, 2013

Last month I joined President Obama and Vice-President Biden at the National Prayer Service in Washington, DC as part of the Inaugural celebration. There we prayed for an end to violence in America. Certain issues sometimes divide people of faith but there is strong agreement from the National Council of Churches, representing Protestant and Orthodox Christians, and the U.S. Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops - along with the larger interfaith community – that we must support common sense proposals to reduce gun violence in America. Our schools, houses of worship and movie theaters are places we should expect to be safe. In these places we worship, we learn and we are entertained. But in recent years all these places -- along with shopping malls and restaurants and public parks -- have in moments of terror become killing fields as people with often great mental instability who have access to weapons meant for battlefields open fire on innocent crowds causing mass deaths. President Obama has proposed several important measures, including universal background checks for those purchasing guns, which would make America safer. People of faith support efforts to reduce gun violence. NRA members, many of who are people of faith, support universal background checks. I call on all members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation – both Democrats and Republicans – to put the common good of our nation and the safety of our children before the out-of the-mainstream demands of a radicalized NRA leadership that is out-of-touch with their membership.

(Download PDF of statement)

Organizing For Action call on Congress to support plan to close background check loopholes. twitter.com/MikeTurnerKXL/…

— Mike Turner (@MikeTurnerKXL) February 22, 2013

Praying For Change With The Portland Police

My latest on Blue Oregon:

The shooting of a patient at Portland Adventist Hospital by members of the Portland Police Bureau, a shooting that cost the patient his life, deserves a careful review. Portland police may have been 100% justified in their actions but Portlanders have every reason to be suspicious of a bureau in constant chaos.

Praying for Change With The Portland Police

Pray For Kansas - And Faithful Choices

In Kansas, where Dr. George Tiller was assassinated at his church by a "pro-life" advocate, a former colleague of his is trying to re-open his clinic.  People of faith should pray that Julie Burkhart is successful.  Women should have the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions. Domestic terrorists should not have the final world.

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has long maintained that:

Whereas, women and men must make decisions about unplanned or unwanted pregnancies that involve their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being; and …Whereas, abortion is a social justice issue, both for parents dealing with pregnancy and parenting under highly stressed circumstances, as well as for our society as a whole; …

Therefore, be it resolved, that the Sixteenth General Synod:

• affirms the sacredness of all life, and the need to protect and defend human life in particular;
• encourages persons facing unplanned pregnancies to consider giving birth and parenting the child, or releasing the child for adoption, before abortion;
• upholds the right of men and women to have access to adequately funded family planning services, and to safe, legal abortions as one option among others;
• urges the United Church of Christ, at all levels, to provide educational resources and programs to persons, especially young persons, to help reduce the incidence of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, and to encourage responsible approaches to sexual behavior.

There are those that would like the public to believe that opposition to abortion is the only Christian position but the United Church of Christ is joined by the United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church USA, Presbyterian USA and other faithful Christian denominations in supporting choice.  The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is an interfaith organization many of our churches belong to.

In the end, we should all work toward to goal of reducing the number of abortions.  We need comprehensive sex education in our schools - and our churches - and for contraception to be universally available.  For low income mothers and families we need to make every resource available to make sure that children are healthy and well taken care of.  There's an irony that so many hard core "pro-life" activists oppose aid for children living in poverty.  On this, Christians ought to find common ground.  

The Corruption Of Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. had everything but apparently wanted it all.  He may well be bi-polar and suffer other illnesses but none of that excuses his apparent criminal conduct.  Former Congressman Jackson said he stood for the people - those who had no voice, as his father had before him - but somewhere along the road he lost himself and decided that personal enrichment was more important than public service. His legacy will be that of another corrupt Chicago politican.  I cannot, however, fully disown him.  Not because of party or politics but because of faith and church.  I adore The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., and both father and son are part of my academic community.  My prayers are with them and I hope that former Rep. Jackson can find some measure of redemption for his sins.  

People Of Faith Stand Up For Marriage Equality #OU4M

Oregon voters will be asked to consider marriage equality in 2014 - and this time people of faith will be leading the charge.

This morning Oregon United for Marriage launched a campaign to qualify a measure to make marriage equality the law of the land.  A packed church hall was the site of a diverse faith leaders breakfast where clergy and others became some of the first to sign the petetion.

"As religious leaders, we stand in solidarity with Oregon United for Marriage," said the Rev. Tara Wilkins, pastor of Bridgeport United Church of Christ and executive director of the Community of Welcoming Congregations. "Many of our religious traditions support the freedom to marry, and we believe the time is now to make it legal for gay and lesbian couples to marry in Oregon." Rev. Wilkins notes that the proposed initiative protects religious freedom, and no religious community will be forced to marry same-sex couples. Over 250 clergy and faith leaders have already signed on in support of the Freedom to marry in Oregon. "Marriage is about families and the freedom to marry reflects our values of treating all of our congregants the same, said Rev. Wilkins".

When the General Synod of the United Church of Christ endorsed marriage equality in 2005, they noted:

Rev. Chuck Currie signs the petition for marriage equality.

The message of the Gospel is the lens through which the whole of scripture is to be interpreted. Love and compassion, justice and peace are at the very core of the life and ministry of Jesus. It is a message that always bends toward inclusion. The biblical story recounts the ways in which inclusion and welcome to God's community is ever expanding -- from the story of Abraham and Sarah, to the inclusive ministry of Jesus, to the baptism of Cornelius, to the missionary journeys of Paul throughout the Greco- Roman world. The liberating work of the Spirit as witnessed in the activities of Jesus' ministry has been to address the situations and structures of exclusion, injustice and oppression that diminish God's people and keep them from realizing the full gift of human personhood in the context of human communion.

In that spirit, I signed my name to the petition this morning as a United Church of Christ minister serving two Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church.

Some religious leaders in Oregon will obviously oppose marriage equality.  But they can no longer claim to speak for God or for the church universal.  A generation ago many churches used the Bible to oppose interacial marriage.  They were wrong then.  Many Christians today believe it is wrong to use to Bible and the teachings of Jesus, which call for inclusion and justice - to oppose marriage equality today.  

The Rev. Dr. Walter John Boris of the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ speaks out in support of marriage equality.

Repairing the Breach in the Union

My latest in The Huffington Post:

"The faith community has an important role to play in advancing an agenda that addresses the important moral issues faced by our nation. We have a big job ahead of us but there is hope."

Repairing the Breach in the Union: A Respone to the President's Address 

 

Support The Violence Against Women Act! #VAWA

People of faith across America rallied in support of the Violence Against Women Act - which passed the Senate with strong bi-partisan support.  But the Act faces an uncertain future in the U.S. House.  Who could be against efforts to stop violence against women? These men.

Tell the House to pass the Violence Against Women Act.

President Obama: Please #TalkPoverty In #SOTU

President Obama is set to soon deliver his State of the Union Address.  We need the president to follow-up his powerful Inaugural Address with a serious discussion about how to reduce poverty in his message before Congress.  That is what I shared with President Obama in a letter earlier this week. You can send a message to the president as well.

Via the Half in Ten Campaign:

Use social media to inspire President Obama to: (1) speak out for struggling families during his address, and (2) protect critical programs that reduce poverty in his budget request to Congress. February 12th is the President’s first State of the Union address in his second term. The fiscal showdown didn’t end on January 1st. Instead, Congress kicked the can down the road and many of the most important programs that support struggling families in our country are still under threat. So, let’s take to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to support the President’s statements on cutting poverty in his inaugural address and ask for continued support of low-income programs in the state of the union and budget proposal. Together we can show the White House why these programs are so important, and who has inspired us to support them.

The Half in Ten Campaign is support by the Juctice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ, along with many others in the faith community.

Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_State_of_the_Union_Address

Sweet Cakes Bakery: The Great Wedding Cake Controversy

A Portland-area bakery recently refused to sell a wedding cake to a lesbian couple based on their religious objections to same-sex marriage. As I told KOIN-TV this weekend, the response wasn't Christian but discriminatory.  

Let's be clear: homosexuality is not a sin.  Bigotry is.  A generation ago - when Barack Obama's parents were married - interracial marriage was illegal in many states and businesses refused to accommodate interracial couples.  These private businesses often used the Bible to justify their discriminatory acts.

This incident is no different.  Oregon law protects gays and lesbians from discrimination.  A private business has no right to discriminate against someone based on their sexual orientation.  The Oregon Department of Justice is now investigating.  They will determine whether or not a crime has been committed.

But certainly a sin has been committed by the owners of Sweet Cakes Bakery.  Their website says they make cakes for "any occasion."  Unless you are gay, apparently.  What they have done is no different from those who a generation ago turned away interracial couples.  As a minister ordained to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I find no place in Holy Scripture that justifies such discrimination.  My hope is that the owners of the bakery have an opportunity to prayerfully reflect on this issue and repent. 

For The Love Of All Creation: A Sermon On Genesis 1:1-2:4a for Pride Month 2011 from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

JPANet: Act to end gun violence!

This week I'm at Chicago Theological Seminary where not far away Hadiya Pendleton was killed on Tuesday as we sat in a doctor of ministry course. One of my CTS classmates, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, lost his son to gun violence in 1999. How many more kids? Now is the time to act.

Action Alert from the Justice and Witness Minitries of the United Church of Christ  

Despite the unrelenting and terrible toll taken by gun violence year after year in the United States, Congress has done distressingly little to address what has become a major public health threat.  While tragic incidents of gun violence like the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin draw national headlines, in many communities across the country, the impact of gun violence is a day-to-day reality.

Members of the faith community have long advocated for sensible, responsible policies to end gun violence. The 20^th UCC General Synod spoke prophetically on this issue with a resolution entitled “Guns and Violence,” which invited UCC members and congregations to advocate for legislation to strengthen licensing and registration of gun sales, strengthen regulations of gun dealers and ban semiautomatic assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips.

The faith community has come together many times in the aftermath of gun tragedies to urge lawmakers to pass laws that prevent gun violence and this week we do so once again. Tested by our grief, resolute in our faith we remain committed to continuing this drumbeat.

Take action! Write or call your elected officials and tell them that it is time to take concrete steps to address gun violence.

God, Guns And The Church - The Darkest Valley from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

I'm Not Mark Driscoll

I'm not Mark Driscoll.

You'd think that would be obvious.

Driscoll is the Seattle mega-church preacher (with a Portland satellite right down the street from Sunnyside Church, one of the two congregations I pastor) who tweeted out on Inauguration Day:

"Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know."

It is hard to imagine a minister being so hateful.  Driscoll doesn't even represent most conservative evangelical Christian thinkers.  Back in 2010, I joined Christian leaders in releasing a letter that read in part:

As Christian leaders— whose primary responsibility is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our congregations, our communities, and our world— we are deeply troubled by the recent questioning of President Obama’s faith. We understand that these are contentious times, but the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for public debate.

President Obama has been unwavering in confessing Christ as Lord and has spoken often about the importance of his Christian faith.  Many of the signees on this letter have prayed and worshipped with this President.  We believe that questioning, and especially misrepresenting, the faith of a confessing believer goes too far.

This is not a political issue. The signers of this letter come from different political and ideological backgrounds, but we are unified in our belief in Jesus Christ.  As Christian pastors and leaders, we believe that fellow Christians need to be an encouragement to those who call Christ their savior, not question the veracity of their faith.

Yesterday morning I attended the National Prayer Service that President Obama, Vice President Biden, the First Lady and Dr. Biden participated in. Many of the people who signed this letter where in attendance as well.  Not all of the people at the service voted for President Obama but none question the president's faith and all of us, regardless of important differences, believe that faith should bring us together in the pursuit of justice.  Faith shouldn't be used to tear us apart.

Twice in recent months people looking for Driscoll's Portland church have attended Sunnyside Church by mistake.  One woman demanded a rebuttal to the sermon.  Another man walked out yelling obscenities.

My theology is very different from Driscoll's. God's love for us is radical and God's hospality great.  We are called to build up the Beloved Community. Driscoll reads Scripture differently.

If you're looking for a place to worship in Portland where all are welcome - where you are encouraged to think for yourself and not bound by the leadership of a minister who preaches what you must believe - visit Sunnyside Church or University Park Church anytime.

Barack Obama's Beloved Community

My latest in The Huffington Post:

From my vantage point on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol Building you could see soldiers and veterans, gay couples and immigrants, women and men, young students and seniors loudly applaud the president's message and vision.

Barack Obama's Beloved Community


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Building The Beloved Community: A Sermon To Celebrate The Ministry of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This sermon was deleived by The Rev. Chuck Currie at a special joint service of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church in Portland, Ore. on Sunday, January 20, 2013.  Our Scripture readings were Amos 5:21-24 and Isaiah 11: 1-9. 

You can download the audio of the sermon here:

Download MLKRevChuckCurrie

(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).

The text is below:

This Sunday – this special day when we celebrate the life and ministry of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – we have cause to celebrate.

Tomorrow our nation will witness the inauguration of Barack Obama to a second term as President of the United States of America, the first African-American to hold that position.  He lives in the White House, a grand symbol of freedom, but a building created with slave labor.  How far we have come.

Rev. Chuck Currie and Speaker Tina Kotek

This morning Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek joins us in worship.  We are proud she is from North Portland.  But it cannot go unrecognized that in a state that has been Ground Zero in the debate over gay rights for the last 25 years that Speaker Kotek is the first lesbian to lead a legislative body in our nation.  How far we have come.

What political party Barack Obama and Tina Kotek represent is unimportant to us this morning. 

It is unimportant what political party Tim Scott of South Carolina belongs to. What is important is that this month he becomes the first African-American to represent a Southern state since Reconstruction in the United States Senate. 

The walls of injustice are tumbling down.  Frances and Katherine, my daughters, can dream any dream thanks to Harriett Tubman, Susan B. Antony, Hilary Clinton and Tina Kotek.  Our children have opportunities that once seemed impossible because of discrimination of all kinds.  Change has come. 

We read in Scripture today that what impresses God is not the grandness of our buildings or the pomp and circumstance of worship but the boldness of our vision, and the focus of our actions in building up the Kingdom of God, which Dr. King called the Beloved Community.

Whatever progress we have made has been hard won and while we have every reason to celebrate we also have every responsibility as the church to bring light to dark places and there is still too much darkness in this world.

Dr. King was more than just a civil rights leader. That would by itself be an honorable legacy. But he was a Christian minister, a prophet even, who challenged the church to build up the Kingdom of God. That's radical. That's transformational. And for those of power and privilege it was terrifying because in the Kingdom the last come first. The Holy Spirit worked through King to break-up the evil of white supremacy and to lift up the needs of those oppressed by economic systems that failed to address the condition of poverty. The task of the church, in this day, is to continue that ministry in new ways and to continue -- as Jesus did himself -- to confront oppression wherever we find it: to set the captives free.

The Civil Rights Movement was grounded in the teachings of the Hebrew Prophets who remembered when the people were slaves in Pharaoh’s land, and both their escape from captivity and deliverance to the Promised Land. 

When Africans were ripped from their homeland and brought into the colonies, and later the United States, their masters often forced them to convert to Christianity.  We have in our history books a copy of a baptismal rite used for slaves in South Carolina that shows slaves were forced to vow obedience to God but told not to take the stories of God’s liberation from captivity seriously.  But it is impossible not to hear the stories from the Hebrew Scriptures and the promises of Jesus and not be transformed.  The Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of slaves and within the Christian faith they found hope and promise – a hope that sustained and guided them through the Civil War - and their decedents into the great Civil Rights Movement.  This was not what the slave owners of South Carolina, my ancestors, assumed would happen but God is more powerful than any human system of oppression.

In what is commonly called Jesus’ inaugural sermon he quoted from the Prophet Isaiah:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (Luke 4 NRSV)

That is still the task of the church today. 

Too many people live in captivity:  caught up in on-going systems of racial oppression that still exist despite our progress, kept down by gender discrimination that allows us to place limits on what women earn or what jobs they might hold, trapped in broken immigration systems that don’t “welcome the stranger” but imprison and deport.

Children are captives of underfunded schools that ought to be cathedrals.  Sick people are captives of a system that puts profits before people.  All of us are captives of human caused climate change, gun violence and violence of every kind, along with oppressive poverty that stains our land.  And if we truly believe that war is contrary to the will of God we need to be peacemakers in our time.    

We are still not the Beloved Community that Dr. King dreamed of.

The church universal is not doing enough to build up the Kingdom.

This isn’t new. 

Dr. King preached just a year before he died that:

"... when the church is true to its guidelines, it sets out to preach deliverance to them that are captive. This is the role of the church: to free people. This merely means to free those who are slaves. Now if you notice some churches, they never read this part. Some churches aren't concerned about freeing anybody. Some white churches face the fact Sunday after Sunday that their members are slaves to prejudice, slaves to fear. You got a third of them, or a half of them or more, slaves to their prejudices. And the preacher does nothing to free them from their prejudice so often. Then you have another group sitting up there who would really like to do something about racial injustice, but they are afraid of social, political, and economic reprisals, so they end up silent. And the preacher never says anything to lift their souls and free them from that fear. And so they end up captive.”

He went on to preach:

You know this often happens in the Negro church. You know, there are some Negro preachers that have never opened their mouths about the freedom movement. And not only have they not opened their mouths, they haven’t done anything about it. And every now and then you get a few members: 'They talk too much about civil rights in that church.' I was talking with a preacher the other day and he said a few of his members were saying that. I said, 'Don't pay any attention to them. Because number one, the members didn't anoint you to preach. And any preacher who allows members to tell him what to preach isn't much of a preacher.'

If we want to be true to our calling as Christians we need to address the challenges of our time with courage and conviction, unafraid of whether or not we are winning any popularity contest.  

So we have to say to those in power that it is morally unacceptable that 20,000 children were homeless in our school system last year.  No one should live a third world life in a first world nation. 

We need to stand up to the NRA and rouge sheriffs doing their best Bull Connor imitations by saying that federal laws don’t apply to them when we need laws that protect us from gun violence. 

Our political leaders need to know that growth cannot come at the expense of our health – and so as people of faith we must challenge policies that will negatively impact our environment, including those that disproportionally impact communities of color.

And I want Sunnyside Church and University Park Church to be leaders in the fight for marriage equality in Oregon because until everyone has their civil rights protected none of us is truly free.  

Dr. King said:

"More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

What was true then is true now.  We are the inheritors of the dream.  But the dream is not yet fulfilled.  So God calls us to action.  Dr. King died the year before I was born.  But his words are for every generation.  As we leave this place let it be in a spirit of social action that keeps the building of the Kingdom front and center in our lives.  Faith without action is empty.  Faith combined with action can transform the world.

Amen.      

Live Tweeting The Inaugural @RevChuckCurrie #inaug2013

I'll be arriving Sunday night in Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration on Monday of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  I've also been invited to attend Tuesday morning's National Prayer Service with the president and vice-president.  You can keep track of the visit at http://twitter.com/RevChuckCurrie. This will be only my second inaugural (the first was for Bill Clinton in 1993).  I'm deeply honored to have been invited by the Presidential Inaugural Committee to attend. And I look forward to seeing what the American people can accomplish with President Obama in this term to create jobs, decrease poverty, confront global climate change, reduce gun violence - and bringing our troops home from Afghanistan in a way that uplifts the human rights of the Afghan people, particulary women.  There is a big agenda ahead of us.  President Obama and Vice-President Biden have my prayers as they prepare for Monday.   

Response to Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton On Gun Violence Prevention #orpol

I am deeply concerned that Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton  and other law enforcement officers are informing the public they will not enforce laws meant to reduce gun violence enacted by Congress or executive order of the president.  Most concerning is that some local sheriffs have promised to prevent federal officials from enforcing laws in their respective counties.  In a democracy our government has a system of checks and balances.  No where does the constitution provide Sheriff Staton authority to determine the constitutionality of a law.

The Multnomah County Board of County Commissioners should immediately pass a resolution that cuts off funding for Sheriff Staton's salary if he refuses to do his sworn duty and uphold the Constitution.  Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum should also investigate whether or not carrying out these threats is a breach of law. These threats certainly undermine our democracy.      

President Obama's common sense proposals to reduce gun violence are supported by the National Council of Churches and other faith bodies, along with many law enforcement officials who respect the rule of law and want to keep police officers safe from well armed and dangerous criminals.  Our schools, malls and houses of worship should be safe from violence, and Sheriff Staton should run for or seek appointment to a judgeship if he wants to interpret the law (though without a law degree he does not have the most basic qualification for such a position).

Rev. Chuck Currie

Oregon Sheriff Tim Mueller Undermines Democracy; Response Required #orpol #p2

Linn County, Oregon Sheriff Tim Mueller says that he won't enforce U.S. laws he deems unconstitutional, specifically laws that meant to reduce gun violence, and that he'll stop federal officials from doing their sworn duty in Linn County as well.  That's a threat to democracy which requires a response from the state of Oregon.  I'm hopeful that Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum will defend the people of Oregon in this matter.

 

You can read the text of this letter below:

A Prayer For Our Oregon #orpol

Invocation as prepared for delivery by The Rev. Chuck Currie for the January 14, 2013 opening session of the Oregon House of Representatives and swearing-in of new Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek.

Let us pray.

Gracious God,
we come to you this day as Oregonians of different faiths, traditions, and political beliefs.
Our communities are both large and small
but our love for this place is great.

In a house divided we know failure is possible
but we ask for wisdom this day and for unity in the midst of division.
We ask for help in letting our love for Oregon overcome our differences
and for guidance in forging a future that lifts up the common good.

On this day we lift up to you all those who will take oaths to serve Oregon
in the midst of difficult times, both Republicans and Democrats.
We especially lift up new Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, and her wife Aimee Wilson.
Give Speaker Kotek, her family, and the families of all those elected to serve the strength to endure the challenges of public life.

In deliberations both big and small, we ask, O God, that the Oregon House and Speaker Kotek place the needs of the “least of these” first.
Let us lift up those who are homeless, particularly our children, families and veterans.
Let us protect our environment, the creation we are stewards over, and make our communities safe from violence of all kinds.
And let this work be undertaken in the spirit of compromise and reconciliation.

In this House Chamber are women and men of great diversity who will serve with honor.
Give them the patience to hear the people’s voices.
Let them envision a future for our Oregon that includes everyone, not just the powerful.
Help all Oregonians to appreciate their service and sacrifice as they make common cause to build a future that benefits all our people.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Amen.

- The Rev. Chuck Currie is the minister of University Park Church and Sunnyside Church in Portland.

(c) The Rev. Charles S. Currie, Jr., M.Div.

Rev. Chuck Currie and Speaker Tina Kotek, 1/14/13

Memo To Cross Lobby: Contact Kurt Schrader And Tell Him To Put People Before NRA

No one should be surprised but Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader is backing the NRA and saying there is no need for additional laws to reduce gun violence. The congressman needs to hear from people of faith (and all Oregonians) who believe otherwise. You can call Rep. Schrader at (202) 225-5711 or visit http://schraderforms.house.gov/contact/ to send a polite e-mail.

Rep. Schrader is an NRA-backed Democrat. Blinded by their support and influence he fails to see the crisis we face in America today – a crisis where over 100,000 are injured by gun violence each year and over 30,000 die.

People of faith are calling on the president and Congress to act. Rep. Schrader needs to put the people of Oregon and the United States before the special interests of the NRA.

Rep. Schrader's bio lists him as an Episcopalian.  It is worth noting that the Episcopal Church USA is asking members to take a "Pledge to Break the Cycle of Violence" which reads:

As an Episcopalian committed in baptism to seeking justice and peace and promoting the dignity of every human being, I commit to being part of the solution to the violence in our culture that claimed the lives of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School and that claims the lives of 2000 innocent children through gun crimes each year. I commit to the pursuit of laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminals, prioritize the needs of at-risk children, provide care for mental illness, and address the many ways in which our culture both celebrates and trivializes violence. I commit to holding my lawmakers, my community, and my own household accountable. I commit to accomplishing these things in 2013. I commit to being the change we need.

Right now Rep. Schrader's views fall far short of this pledge. Let's encourage him to take the pledge and to support meaningful action to prevent gun violence in our nation.

Photo credit: House.gov

President Obama's Inclusive Inauguration & The Rev. Louie Giglio

Update: Rev. Louie Giglio's decision to withdraw from the inauguration seems approrpriate considering the circumstances.  I'm concerned, however, that in the age of You Tube and Twitter and we are judged on our worst moments and not the fullness of our work.  

Questions today concerning a sermon given sometime in the mid-1990s by The Rev. Louie Giglio broke because he'll be giving the benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration.  My only concern in regards to these matters continues to be what views the President holds.  

As president (informed by his Christian faith), President Obama supports gay marriage, ended "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and has fought hard to end hate crimes and to expand civil rights for the LGBTQ community. That's what matters.  

What are Rev. Giglio's views today?  I don't know but he should be provided at some point the opportunity to explain them.  He certainly does not appear to be an anti-gay zealot. Instead he has focused his ministry on ending human trafficking - the forced slave labor of young women and girls into the sex industry.  People of good faith often come to different conclusions on difficult issues but on ending human trafficking we stand united.   

I'm thrilled that civil rights hero Myrlie Evers-Willams will offer the invocation. Few in America symbolize better the fight for justice and equality.  

Like President Obama, my Christian faith calls me to fight for the full inclusion of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, into the full promise of America.

In the end, the only vision that will really matter on Inauguration Day is the one presented by President Barack Obama.  I'm fully confident it will be a inclusive vision all Americans can be proud of. 

For The Love Of All Creation: A Sermon On Genesis 1:1-2:4a for Pride Month 2011 from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday Celebration

The people of University Park Church and Sunnyside Church invite you to celebrate The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday on January 20th at University Park United Methodist Church (worship begins at 9:30 am). Our special guest that morning will be new Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek. A reception in Speaker Kotek’s honor will be held following the service where she will make brief remarks about her agenda in the Legislature and will answer questions.

View this event on Facebook.

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching that morning will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am (3520 SE Yamhill Street), is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, a neighborhood “swap shop,” and Camp Fire programs.

The regular worship service at Sunnyside Church will not be held on January 20th so that members can worship at University Park Church. 

Speaker Kotek “will be the first openly lesbian lawmaker to lead a state legislative chamber in the U.S.,” notes The Huffington Post. “We consider this a great victory for the civil rights of all Oregonians,” says Rev. Currie. “As we celebrate the work of Dr. King and reflect on his unfinished agenda for equality of all, regardless of race or creed, along with his work to fight poverty and end war, it is right and proper to honor Speaker Kotek’s accomplishment.”

Rev. Currie is scheduled to deliver the invocation at Speaker Kotek’s swearing-in ceremony at the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, January 14th. University Park Church is located is Speaker Kotek’s N. Portland district. “All of us, regardless of party or politics, can join in giving thanks that the walls of discrimination continue to tumble down even as we recognize work remains before us,” Rev. Currie said. “In a sign of the times, our members are most proud that the Speaker comes from N. Portland before anything else. That is the way it should be. Speaker Kotek is being judged by the content of her character.”

People of Faith Should Back Strong Gun Violence Prevention Measures

My latest in The Huffington Post:

"In the end, I believe that the NRA will find out that the Rev. Canon Gary R. Hall, Dean of the National Cathedral, was correct when he said: 'I believe the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby.'"

People of Faith Should Back Strong Gun Violence Prevention Measures

Looking Back On Christmas

This Sunday - Epiphany Sunday - marks the end of the Christmas season.  At University Park Church and Sunnyside Church we've been blessed the last two Sundays to have wonderful guest preachers fill-in while I've been on vacation.  The Rev. Eugene Ross, former conference minister for the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ, preached December 30th.  "Christmas - For Children?" is the topic of The Rev. Dr. Patrica Ross' sermon set for this morning at both churches.  Dr. Ross is Pastor Emerita of First Congregational United Church of Christ of Portland.  Both University Park Church and Sunnyside Church are Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church with an ecumenical spirit.

I return to work tomorrow.

Our joint University Park Church - Sunnyside Church "Christmas Eve In Portland" service was a wonderful evening that filled Sunnyside's historic sanctuary.  It was a special joy to see so many young people and families respond to a progressive Christian message.    

You can see photos photos from our "Christmas Eve in Portland" service here:

My homily from the service is also available:

Join us each Sunday for worship: 9:30 AM At University Park Church (4775 N. Lombard) & 11AM At Sunnyside Church (3520 SE Yamhill).

O’ Come, O’ Come, Emmanuel: Work to End Gun Violence With Impatience

This morning my sermon - delivered at both University Park Church and Sunnyside Church - reflected on the violent events this week in Oregon and Connecticut. You can download a podcast of the sermon here:  

O’ Come, O’ Come, Emmanuel: Work to End Gun Violence With Impatience

(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).

Now On ITunes

You can now subscribe to my podcasts on ITunes by clicking here. 

Note: In the prepared notes for this sermon, as in the audio, I talked about the 911 call made by a student at Virginia Tech after the shootings there in 2007 but in the delivery of the sermon I inadvertently said you could listen to the call when I actually meant you could read the transcript from The Washington Post's account.  I wanted to clarify this. 

The text of the sermon as prepared for delivery is below:

Pray, Cry, Mourn & Act: Responding to Newtown #sandyhook

Another mass shooting...

It is difficult to imagine that the One whose own Passion models the redemptive power of non-violence would look favorably on the violence of contemporary U.S. society. Present-day violence is made far worse than it otherwise would be by the prevalence of weapons on our streets.

- Ending Gun Violence: A Resolution and Call to Action by the National Council of Churches

Today we must pray. And cry.  And mourn.

But we also must act. (This White House petition needs 25,000 signatures to receive a response. We can do that today.)

God, Guns And The Church - The Darkest Valley from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

Prayers For Clackamas Shooting #Clackamashooting

As the minister of Portland’s Sunnyside and University Park Churches, I urge the people of Oregon to pray this afternoon for all those involved in the shooting which took place earlier today at Clackamas Town Center. We mourn the dead, pray for healing for those injured, and lift up the service and sacrifice of the first responders.

This is a holy time. Millions across the globe are celebrating Hanukkah and Advent. We remember that we are called to be compassionate people who respond to those in need.

It is not too early to ask why a gunman – possibly with an assault rifle - was able to commit this terrible crime. Once again, I join the National Council of Churches and other people of faith in calling on our leaders in Washington, D.C. and locally to do more to reduce gun violence. Lord, have mercy.

-Rev. Chuck Currie, Minister, Sunnyside Church and University Park Church

Update: December 12, 2012

We continue to hold the victims and first responders of the Clackamas Town Center shooting in our prayers this morning. There is now confirmation that the shooter used an AR-15 assault rifle, one of the same weapons used in the Colorado mass shooting this past summer, which had previously been outlawed by the Assault Weapons Ban, which was allowed to expire under President Bush. I continue to join with the National Council of Churches and other people of faith in calling for the Assault Weapons Ban to be re-instated and for other sensible gun control measures to be put in place. Our malls, schools, churches and playgrounds should be safe and free from violence. You don't need an AR-15 for duck hunting in Oregon. During this season of Advent, I hope all Oregonians continue to pray for those involved in this horror and I call on people of faith to reach out to the president and Congress to demand action.

#clackamasshooting Sheriff Craig Roberts says shooter was Jacob T. Roberts, 22, fired a stolen AR-15 rifle 'We do not understand the motive.

— Maxine Bernstein (@maxoregonian) December 12, 2012

God, Guns And The Church - The Darkest Valley from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

Wal-Mart's MLK

My latest oped in The Huffington Post:

Is Wal-Mart trying to burnish their image by tying their company to the image of America's great champion for civil rights and workers?

Wal-Mart's MLK

"The Rev. Chuck Currie Fund"

Every once and awhile folks from outside my churches ask how they can support progressive Christianity. We've set up The Rev. Chuck Currie Fund just for that purpose. Donations will be split 50/50 between my two congregations - Sunnyside Church and University Park Church, two progressive Christian churches working to build up the Beloved Community. Donate online today. Your donations will allow us to expand our ministries and support my work with other Christian leaders across the country to promote a Social Gospel for the 21st Century. We worship each Sunday at 9:30 am at University Park Church and at 11am at Sunnyside Church. All are welcome. We'll be hosting Christmas Eve in Portland - a joint service with both congregations - in Sunnyside Church's historic Sanctuary at 6:30pm on December 24th and hope you can join us if you live in the Portland-Metro area.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Churches Must Help Nation From Falling Off The Cliff

My latest op-ed today in The Huffington Post:

Falling off the cliff would mean that we would not only stop progress toward faithful goals but that we would fall further behind as the nation returns to recession and economic turmoil.

Churches Must Help Nation From Falling Off The Cliff

Thy Kingdom Come

Thy Kingdom Come, a sermon delievered by The Rev. Chuck Currie at Sunnyside Church and University Park Church in Portland, Oregon on November 25, 2012.

John 18:33-37

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

Before we rush into Advent and Christmas we give pause this Sunday – Christ the King Sunday – to reflect again on who Jesus was and what his life meant to the world.

In our on-going Sunday night adult education group we’ve come to know that the Book of John was written nearly two hundred years after the death of Jesus and far from recording historical accounts of his life it reflects theological understandings of his ministry and existence.

Sadly, as the latest of the Gospels, it also reflects the reality that by this point in history the early Christian community is becoming separate from the Jewish community that Jesus was apart of.  With this separation comes persecution of early Christians and the narratives of Jesus death change in ways that blame the Jews more directly as a people for the death of Jesus, when the Romans where truly responsible.

Knowing all this we can sit back from our vantage point and see how it was that Pilate must have been confused about Jesus.

This lowly son of a carpenter was actually wildly popular with the Jewish people and word had reached Pilate that some referred to Jesus as King.

King?  No, must have thought Pilate, not this man in rags who travels from town to town preaching about love and acceptance, whose message of radical hospitality upset the old guard of the established religious order who had come to serve as collaborators with Pilate and his Roman occupiers.  Jesus welcomed foreigners and unclean people; he kept company with women and tax collectors.  This was no king.  Kings are like Pilate and Caesar, clothed in the best fabrics and men to be feared because of their authority and ability to exercise that authority with the armies at their sides.  Jesus preached non-violence.  How could this Jewish peasant be a king?

When Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God his words were a direct challenge to Roman authority.  The Roman Empire was based on the accumulation of wealth and power to serve the needs and interests of the emperor.  A peace of sorts was maintained throughout the empire – it was said a citizen of the empire could walk from one end to the other without fear of be accosted – but it was a peace maintained by fear.  Those on the margins that demanded more for their communities – more food, more freedom to worship, more freedom to practice their own culture – were brutally suppressed.  Jesus reached back to the words of the Hebrew Prophets and reminded the Jewish people that such a world was not what God had intended.  No, God wanted a world where everyone shared in the bounty provided, and where the least of these in society came first.  In the Kingdom of God, Pilate – who wielded his authority for the benefit of the empire and not the common good – had no place.

The church too quickly forgot the lessons of Jesus.  When Constantine converted and declared that Christianity would be the state religion of the Roman Empire the Christian faith became perverted.  At that moment, the church became an agent of the state and church officials collaborators once again.  The movement that Jesus envisioned was nearly extinguished.

But the embers of the fire continued to burn in the hearts of some.  Some men and women who heard the story of Jesus and who were fortunate enough to read his message for themselves kept alive the idea of the Kingdom of God in the midst of the Roman Empire, and the empires that followed.  Over the centuries Christians have, following in the footsteps of Jesus, worked to heal the sick and to care for the poor.  Some Christians have become great voices for freedom of oppressed peoples.  Others have lead or taken part in non-violent revolutions for social change.

We spend too much time in the Christian church debating what happens to us after we die and not enough time talking about how to improve the world we live in.  Jesus was never obsessed with death and salvation the way he was obsessed with building up the Kingdom in the here and now.

Here’s a question to consider:  Do we want to build up our membership?  If the answer is yes, the question becomes why and how.  Numbers for the sake of numbers does nothing to advance the goal of building up the Kingdom.  Larger numbers might create a better sense of community or create a social club but that cannot be out goal.  We need to aim for something larger.  We need to be evangelists for the Kingdom and work to increase our membership by drawing in people who recognize that we actually stand for something.

We pride ourselves on being places where all points of view are accepted.  But I also agree with Martin Luther King, Jr. who once preached at Riverside Church that: “…I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.”

There are too many great moral issues being debated in our community today – in our state and the world – that require the attention of the church.  These issues – whether it be the coming debate over marriage equality or more life threatening issues concerning global climate change – that demand that we not be silent but take stands, not just as individuals but as a church community.

What would Pilate think of us?  This is a serious question.  If we dropped Sunnyside Church and University Park Church through a time warp and into Pilate’s time would we been seen as a community that was at all threatening?  Or could we easily be ignored?  Are we speaking out as a church on the important issues of our time as churches or are we sitting in silence – perhaps acting as individuals, perhaps hoping someone else will do the work we are all called to do?

Jesus knew who he was.  He didn’t need a title or throne or crown to tell him that he was God’s son called to proclaim the Kingdom.  We need to struggle a bit with who we are, I think.  It’s time.

We need to be marching alongside workers at Wal-Mart calling for livable wages.

We need to be demanding of our President and our Congress a carbon tax and other measures to dramatically shift the way we all live to save God’s creation.

We need to be demanding of our local community permanent funding sources to create affordable housing and standing with those facing foreclosure.

And Sunnyside Church and University Park Church should be the first churches to Oregon to publically endorse a ballot measure calling for marriage equality in 2014.

If we do these things and more, we can stop being the church of Constantine and start being the movement of Jesus.  We’ll be controversial.  New people will come to worship with us and others will mock us.  But at least we will know who we are and can say that we are faithfully responding to the teachings of Jesus in our time and place.

Amen.  

Join us for Christmas Eve in Portland.

Contraception Reduces Abortion Rate

A new report shows a drop in the rate of abortions in the United States.  The reason?  Family planning and the availability of contraception. Reducing the number of abortions is a cause most people of faith share but not all people of faith believe women should have access to contraception - some believe such access should be difficult or even illegal.  Such thinking increases the need for abortion.  Groups like the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice work to promote contraception.  We need more voices joining with RCRC.  At the same time, faith communities need to be fighting hard for quality sex education in our public schools and to be providing such education in our churches.  A great resource for churches is the Our Whole Lives curriculum developed by the United Church of Christ and Unitarian Universialist Association.    

Christmas Eve In Portland 2012

This Christmas Eve in Portland join the people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church for a special joint 6:30 pm candlelight service in Sunnyside Church’s historic Southeast Portland sanctuary located at 3520 SE Yamhill Street. The public is welcome at this family friendly service (children are encouraged to stay during the service but nursery care will be available).

View Christmas Eve in Portland On Facebook. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching Christmas Eve will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am, is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, a neighborhood “swap shop,” and Camp Fire programs. 

“My contention has been and still is that even in the midst of war, deep global poverty and environmental chaos caused by humanity, the message of the Prince of Peace is as relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago,” writes Rev. Currie. “What happened on the day Jesus was born? God broke through into the world again -- but this time not with the force of the Big Bang or some other cosmic event -- no, this time it was with something even more powerful: the miracle of the birth of a child filled with promise and hope. Both that miracle and the message that this child preached as an adult, born first homeless and poor, is what Christmas is about.”

What I'm Thankful For

2012 has not been an easy year.  We lost my mother, Judy Bright, to cancer in April at only 62 and during that time I was diagnosed and treated for a cancer of my own.  Despite these difficulties there is much to be thankful for.  I’m thankful for the honor to serve God as the minister of both Sunnyside Church and University Park Church here in Portland, to study on-line and on-site at Chicago Theological Seminary (and for the grace they have shown me this year) and for my family and friends who have lifted me up during challenging times.  

In the Hebrew Scriptures we find Psalm 100:

1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

2   Worship the Lord with gladness;

   come into his presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

   It is he that made us, and we are his;*

   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

   and his courts with praise.

   Give thanks to him, bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good;

   his steadfast love endures for ever,

   and his faithfulness to all generations.

In this spirit, I give thanks for all the many blessings I have.  Despite the injuries suffered over this year it is hard not to feel overwhelmed with blessings as Liz and I watch our daughters grow and as I become closer with the parishioners whom I am in ministry with.     

It goes without saying that 2012 has been a difficult time for many in our nation and the world.  I give special thanks to those who find in their faith the courage to work for justice and the common good.  And I pray for a better tomorrow for us all.  

Church World Service Responding To Sandy In The Caribbean

Americans have a right to be proud of the response by federal and local officials to Hurricane Sandy.  President Obama - along with Governor Cuomo and Governor Christie - has been working around the clock to provide aid to those most in need.  But the storm impacted not just northeast but also the Caribbean where Church World Service is hard at work providing assistance in places like Cuba and Haiti.

  

Learn more about how Church World Service is responding to Hurricane Sandy and please make a donation to support critical efforts underway both in the United States and the Caribbean.

Save KPOJ

Talk radio around the nation long been the domain of strident conservative voices.  Many of those voices have used racism, homophobia and overt sexism to draw in listeners.  In Portland, KPOJ has been the alternative.  KPOJ has been opinionated and passionate but in ways meant to draw our community together instead of tearing it apart -particularly with their local talent, people like Carl Wolfson and Thom Hartmann.  I've enjoyed many times over the years being a guest on the station to talk about religion and public issues (as recently as Election Day).  KPOJ is one of the only stations willing to air religious viewpoints that are moderate or progressive. What you get on the other stations is the Religious Right 24/7. Portlanders responded by listening and making the station profitable.  All that changed right after Barack Obama was re-elected.  The station, owned by Clear Channel, changed formats.  Gone was progressive talk and there was FOX Sports (in a city that already has two other radio stations devoted full time to sports).  Now Portlanders are crying foul and I'm one of them.  Visit savekpoj.com and tell Clear Channel that you want progressive talk back on the air.  A great community like the City of Roses deserves a great radio station like KPOJ.

Portlanders United

Dear Editor:

I will offer prayers for Mayor-elect Charlie Hales, Commissioner-elect Steve Novick and newly re-elected Commissioner Amanda Fritz at my churches this Sunday.

Our prayers will also be extended for all in Portland -- particularly those who have engaged in the democratic process this year. Such work makes our community stronger. I look forward to working with the new City Council on issues such as growing poverty and crucial community needs in both North and east Portland. This is a time for all Portlanders to come together for the common good.

I know from Hales' previous public service that he will make Portland proud.

REV. CHUCK CURRIE 

Northeast Portland

Published in The Oregonian on 11/10/12

No More Candidate Endorsements

Over the course of the last few years I have felt increasingly concerned that my endorsements of political candidates, particularly at the local level, have negatively impacted my ability to speak as a minister on the issues most important to the church. I’ve always made it clear that endorsements are my own and do not represent the churches I serve but that line is to thin. Frankly, my endorsement of political candidates has never mattered much. But I recognize that as a member of the clergy that my voice can carry weight on some of the important moral issues we face.  That is where I can make a difference.

I’ve preached before that when we align the church with one candidate or one political party, we risk becoming an agent of that cause instead of an agent of God. Scripture teaches us that we are called by God to be loving critics of the conventional wisdom, not agents of the state. And it is in that task -- calling the political leaders of our day to account -- that there can be no negotiation. Scripture teaches that we have a responsibility as a people of God to be actively involved in the life of the world. That means that the role of the church is sometimes to lift up difficult issues and put them before the public. That is what abolitionists in our churches did during the era of slavery, that is what civil rights marchers did in our churches during the Civil Rights Movement, and that is what our churches are doing today in calling for economic policies that help reduce poverty and lift up children. Those of us who are followers of Jesus have a special responsibility to speak out on issues related to peace and justice.

No one can accuse me of ever going easy on a candidate I’ve endorsed. After all, I’ve been a loving critic of the policies of President Obama and local officials here in Oregon when I felt it important.

Still, it concerns me that too many people link me these days with politicians instead of the causes I believe should be the focus of my ministry.

Therefore, moving forward I will not be offering endorsements, at least in local elections where the connections are so close. Instead, I will focus on the issues that have always been important to our churches and to me – particularly fighting poverty and the battle for equality – and will happily work with political leaders that share those goals and will hold those that do not to account in the best prophetic tradition of the church.