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Portland’s Sit-Lie Ordinance Unjustifiable, Immoral

The Portland City Council is considering extending the city's controversial sit-lie ordinance.  You can read background on the controversy in this morning's edition of The Oregonian.  What follows is my letter to members of the council on the issue:

Portland City Council Members:

I want to remind the Council of the historic opposition to the sit-lie ordinance expressed by Portland’s religious leaders over many years. The sit-lie ordinance is another way of criminalizing homelessness. A decision to extend the ordinance will be seen by many as a moral failing on the part of council leaders. One day these votes will be seen in the same light as the “Jim Crow” laws history now views so harshly. In no one way do I mean to compare any of you to the segregationists of old but the sit-lie ordinance and other laws specifically directed at people who are homeless fit in the same category as those laws used here in Portland and across the nation to punish people based on the color of their skin. Now we are simply punishing people based on their economic and / or housing status. I ask you to prayerfully consider the consequences of your actions and to abandon support for these unjust laws.

Rev. Chuck Currie

Related Link: Letter To Portland City Council On Sit-Lie (June 13, 2007) 


Catch Me Tonight at 11PM Pacific On KOIN-TV

I just finished an interview with KOIN-TV 6 on how churches are responding to fears of a possible flu pandemicThe interview is scheduled to air at 11 pm Pacific.

My interview was bumped due to the breaking news of possible virus outbreak in WA State.  It might be shown during KOIN’s Early News that airs 5-7 am.  I plan to be asleep.   


Virginia Foxx: Nutty Congressperson Makes Nutty Claims

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx claimed today on the House floor during debate over the victorious Hate Crimes Bill (supported by the United Church of Christ and many other religious organizations) that the clear evidence that Matthew Sheppard was killed due to his homosexuality was a hoax. Listen to this:

I understand she later went on to claim that the deaths of Jews during the Holocaust were exaggerated, that NASA never really landed a ship on the moon, that George W. Bush was the winner of the popular vote during the 2000 election, and that Jesus was just kidding when he said love your neighbor.


Pandemic Level Now 5; Churches Must Respond

Moments ago the World Health Organization raised the Pandemic Alert Level to 5.  This means that a pandemic is imminent.

WHO's Dr.Maragaret Chan called the possibility of such a pandemic a "threat to humanity."

“Faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) will be essential partners in helping to ensure that people in need are provided for and that care is given in a way that minimizes stigma and other negative social responses,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Is your congregation ready for such an emergency?

Click here for the HHS report “Faith-Based Organizations and Pandemic Preparedness” to learn about the steps we will all need to take to be equipped for a pandemic. There is no reason for panic but many reasons to be ready.

Additional information on how churches can respond to the possibility of pandemic have been made available on the website of the National Council of Churches.

This Sunday at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ here in Portland, Oregon we will begin preparing emergency preparedness kits for elderly members or other members that might not be able to obtain such kits for themselves.  The Red Cross has on their website information about what items are needed in such kits. 

My prayer is that such kits will not be needed and no pandemic will actually develop but we must keep all those currently ill in our prayers.  They are God's beloved children and we pray for healing.

Related Link:  Church World Service Swine Flu Info  


POTUS Church Search

The search goes on for a church the Obama family can worship at in Washington, DC. Churches vying for the first family’s affections should be careful, however, about how they approach the presidential family as potential future congregants. Church leaders should stop campaigning to be the church of the First Family.

Read my full post on the United Church News Blog.


Why Does Rick Perry Hate America?

Texas Governor Rick Perry is of the view that Texas can leave the United States of America anytime it wants:

“When we came into the Union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “My hope is that America, and Washington in particular, pay attention. We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that?”

These “clarifying” remarks, as reported in The New York Times, came after Perry expressed “sympathy for Texans who want to secede from the United States” at an we lost the 2006 and 2008 elections in a landslide and we’re pissed off anti-tax rally.

His statement clearly put Perry into the company of the radical right.

On the Texas Secede website you get a clear understanding on their thinking and views about American history (spoiler: they don’t like Lincoln):

Q: Didn’t the outcome of the “Civil War” prove that secession is not an option for any State

A: No. It only proved that, when allowed to act outside his lawfully limited authority, a U.S. president is capable of unleashing horrendous violence against the lives, liberty, and property of those whom he pretends to serve. The Confederate States (including Texas) withdrew from the Union lawfully, civilly, and peacefully, after enduring several decades of excessive and inequitable federal tariffs (taxes) heavily prejudiced against Southern commerce.[4] Refusing to recognize the Confederate secession, Lincoln called it a "rebellion" and a "threat" to "the government" (without ever explaining exactly how "the government" was "threatened" by a lawful, civil, and peaceful secession) and acted outside the lawfully defined scope of either the office of president or the U.S. government in general, to coerce the South back into subjugation to Northern control.[5]

The South's rejoining the Union at the point of a bayonet in the late 1860s didn't prove secession is "not an option" or unlawful. It only affirmed that violent coercion can be used—even by governments (if unrestrained)—to rob men of their very lives, liberty, and property.  

Yes, this is the crowd the governor of Texas is hanging out with these days.

Texas cannot leave the Union, that’s not a legal option and we fought a war to prove it, but if Perry wants to leave the states and find another nation where he’d be more comfortable I’d help contribute to his one way plane ticket.

For me, a descendent of Confederate soldiers, I’d stake my life on the idea that flawed as we may sometimes be the United States of America is still the best nation on earth.

Related Link:  Rick Perry Agrees: Non-Christians Going Straight To Hell


I'm Not Scared Of Sam Adams

The Portland Mercury has the story of how Thomas Lauderdale - a big Sam Adams backer after the mayor's scandal broke - has now turned on his one time friend.

But when Thomas and company were out rallying the troops for Mayor Adams there were at least a few people saying in public that the mayor should resign. I was one of them.

Lauderdale now says:

"Right now, people are unfortunately scared to oppose the mayor, because they might want something from him, still," said Lauderdale. "They're scared that he'll stay in power and that he'll punish them. 

Sam Adams has become Portland's Richard Nixon.  But I'm not scared of of the mayor.  I never have been. 

However, I am worried about the direction our wounded mayor is taking the city in.  The City Council is fractured and leaderless and people I know within local government say no one takes the mayor's word and that during the worst of economic times we have a mayor that is almost powerless and when he uses what little influence he has left the policies he advocates are off course. 

The message to Sam Adams from me is still the same as it was in January: resign.

The only difference between then and now is that I've lost what little respect I had left for Adams.  He doesn't have the integrity or the vision to be the mayor of this great city.     


Weekly Podcast From Parkrose Community United Church of Christ For April 15, 2009

Podcast Use the below link to download the podcast of this message from Rev. Chuck Currie for your iPod or personal computer.

Download 041509

(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 Rev. Currie's podcasts on ITunes by clicking here.

You can download a PDF copy of this message by clicking here.

Related Link:  Portland Health Care Panel Discussion on Thursday, April 16th


Boycott The Humane Society

The Humane Society has enlisted none other than Rush Limbaughto do PSAs for the organization.  Already the group is pounding the president for his pick of dog.  As the owner of a rescue dog, I understand and support the need for animal adoptions and shelters.  But I'm not going to make Senator Kennedy's gift of a dog the president's daughter won't suffer allergies from into a political issue.  If The Humane Society wants to pick Limbaugh - the racist, sexist, and homophobic voice of the extreme right-wing as their spokesperson - they don't need money or support from any of us.  Here in Oregon you can call Scott Beckstead, Oregon State Director The Humane Society, at 541-530-8509 and let the organization know directly how you feel about The Humane Society embracing of Limbaugh.  Nationally you can contact Arzinda Jalil at 301-258-3071.  Please continue to support local rescue groups not affiliated withThe Humane Society. 


A Podcast Sermon for Easter Morning On Mark 15: 1-15, 17-20: "Hope Resurrected"

ParkroseEaster2009 This morning at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ we joined Christians across the globe in celebrating Easter.  Our Scripture readings for this morning included Isaiah 25: 6-9 and Mark 15: 1-15, 17-20.

Use the below link to download the podcast of my sermon for your iPod or personal computer:

"Hope Resurrected"

(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. 

Related Link:  Read the profile of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ - When the people are the church- that ran today in The Sunday Oregonian.

The audio of the sermon is not working.  Therefore, I am printing my sermon notes:

Good morning once again. It is a pleasure to have you all here during this time of worship, reflection and celebration.

It won't surprise you to hear me say that we live in uncertain times – a time of wars, terrorism, extremism, manmade climate change and global economic crisis – and these times offer us a stark choice: we can respond with fear, a most natural reaction if there ever was one to the times we face, or we can live out our lives in the hope born in the Resurrection. God’s steadfast love endures forever says the Psalmist. 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 crucifixion 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 love of God (Micah 6:8) overcomes evil and turns the darkness around us into the brightness of noon. This is not a time to cower but to blossom.

Before we get to the Resurrection is has to be asked why it was that Jesus was killed?

Princeton’s Paul Raushenbush wrote this week that:

For some, the death on the cross represents the act of substitutionary atonement - Jesus pays for each of our private sins through the shedding of his own blood on the cross. While this is a central belief for some Christians, it is not for me. In this departure I feel a great kinship with my great-grandfather Walter (Raushenbush) who of the substittionary atonement theory said: "it was not taught by Jesus; it makes salvation dependent upon a Trinitarian transaction that is remote from human experience; and it implies a concept of divine justice that is repugnant to human sensitivity."

Paul Alan Laughlin notes, however, that still another theory holds that “Jesus’ obedience and death on the cross was to provide an example for humanity to follow.” To put it another way, Walter Wink in his book Engaging the Powers states:

Here was a person able to live out to the fullest what he felt was God’s will. He chose to die rather than compromise with violence. The Powers threw at him every weapon in their arsenal. But they could not deflect him from the trail that he and God were blazing. Because he lived thus, we too can find our own path.

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 moral 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?

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 his teachings as a threat to their hold on power. Crucifixion was a crime reserved for enemies of the state.

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 would pal around, if you’ll excuse the modern slang, with women, with lepers, with the poor, with tax collectors and with children and say 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 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 and even presidents. In reality, we need to remember that not only was Jesus was Jewish but that so were his supporters.

We heard in the reading this morning from the Gospel of Mark that after it was over and all the male disciples had scattered in terror three women followers came looking for his body. But on hearing that Jesus has risen from the dead the women, like the men, fled, “for terror and amazement had sized them.” You’ll note that when you read the Gospel of Mark there are two endings. This morning we read both endings. In the first, the ending is stark and hope seems lost.

C. Clifton Black notes that much later another ending was added to Mark in which all the disciples behave a bit better but he writes “whether the Gospel was unfinished, or its original ending was lost, or Mark intended such a provocative open finale remains an issue of considerable debate.”

The original ending was like the final episode of “Dallas” when everyone is left wondering who shot JR or in Star Wars when they ended the “Empire Strikes Back” with Han Solo frozen in carbonite with little hope left for the rebellion.

Biblical scholar Mary Ann Tolbert has a theory. She writes:

To end the Gospel on such a resounding note of failure is very upsetting from a modern perspective. After observing Jesus’ continual struggles to make his male disciples understand his teachings and seeing their ultimate failure, readers want so much for someone in the story to prove faithful to Jesus. It is devastating to watch those who have already demonstrated more faithfulness than the Twelve fail as well! But from an ancient perspective the very point of the Gospel of Mark may rest with this painful ending. Ancient writing was intended to do things, to make people act or believe or change their behavior, not just to entertain them with a suitably literary experience. ..

The expectations raised and then crushed by the end of the Gospel are intended to move the hearers of the Gospel to action, Tolbert writes. If the women do not carry the message, is there anyone else who can? Is there anyone else who has heard Jesus’ preaching, seen his healings, and listened to the wondrous announcement of the resurrection? The audience of the Gospel has heard all this. At the end and indeed by means of the end itself, the audience of the Gospel of Mark, both women and men, are challenged to become themselves faithful disciples, carrying the message to the world, doing what some characters in the Gospel have not proved worthy to do because of their subservience to social conventions or their desires to status, wealth, fame, or power. The ending of Mark intends to arouse the emotions of its hearers on behalf of Jesus and the “good news” he came to preach.

And in many ways that is exactly what has happened in the two thousand years since. Walter Wink writes that:

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.

That light shown on the original disciples and rekindled their courage as they experienced the Risen Jesus telling them once again to preach the good news. 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 that in ways that may very well surpass human understanding Jesus revealed himself with the ones he taught and loved and that his spirit still moves many today to wondrous ways.

 Yes, Christianity has been perverted on too many occasions with disastrous consequences. When, however, the faith is grounded in the teachings of Jesus and people are guided by the Holy Spirit, the results are astounding. Faithful Christians have helped bring ends to wars, worked to non-violently bring down regimes that governed with violence and oppression, helped lead the Civil Rights movement, built homes and medical clinics for the world’s poorest people, and today Christians across the theological spectrum are working to bring an end to the human practices that produce climate change and threaten all that God has created on Earth. All of this in response to Jesus. All of this out of love for God.

In the end, Mary Ann Tolbert had it right. The Gospel of Mark leaves readers “challenged to become themselves faithful disciples, carrying the message to the world, doing what some characters in the Gospel have not proved worthy to do.”

Yes, these are uncertain times, but hope was resurrected along with the Jesus. Let us take that message from this place and aim to do nothing less than change the world. It’s what God is calling us to do.


"When the people are the church"

The story of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ, where I serve as the interim minister, as told in the Easter edition of The Sunday Oregonian:

"When the people are the church"  

My tenure at PCUCC concludes in August. Three years ago when I arrived there was serious talk about closing the church but the people of Parkrose still hear God's call to preach the Good News and the faithfulness of the members has brought new hope and new possibilities.

It has been an honor to serve this church.

Join us tomorrow for our 10 am Easter worship service.  All are welcome.


Portland's Homeless Need Your Help To Prevent Budget Cuts

Dear friends,

Programs funded by the Portland City Council that help people who are homeless - for children, families, and single men and women - are still on the cutting block as we speak.

As you may remember, area religious leaders sent a letter to the council asking them to protect these programs. But the council - which seems to be able to find money for tax-payer funded soccer stadiums, hotels, and bridges - may still cut vital programs for those experiencing homelessness.

Holy Week is a busy time. Advocates for the homeless, however, have reached out to me again today asking for help and so I'm asking you.

Street Roots has put together a website where you can quickly and easily send an e-mail to all the members of the Portland City Council asking that they protect programs that benefit the poorest of the poor - those Jesus would have called the least of these.

Visit that site here:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5474/t/3276/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1307

Please take a moment and do this today.

- Rev. Chuck Currie

Related Link:  Protecting The Least Of These


Easter In Portland 2009

Image304 Are you looking for a place to celebrate Easter this Sunday?  Please join us at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ for our 10 am Easter service.  Click here for all the information.

"No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ."


Portland Health Care Panel Discussion on Thursday, April 16th

On Thursday, April 16th from 6-8 pm there will be a health care reform forum at Portland's First Unitarian Church(1011 SW 12th Ave.)  U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, State Senator Alan Bates and Dr. Mike Huntington with Physicians for a National Health Program will be among the speakers.  The organizers have invited me to moderate the discussion.  Click here for additional information.  The forum is open to the public. 


myUCC: A New Social Networking Site From The United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ has launched a new social networking site - myUCC - and as part of this upgrade the United Church News Blog that I edit has moved to a new location.  You can find it at:

http://community.ucc.org/ucc-news

You don't need to register to read the site but you did need to register to make comments on the posts.  I'll hope you'll visit and see what the UCC is up to.

What will you find on the United Church News Blog this week?

Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Pastors

Gun Control Needed To Stem Violence

Gay Clergy In The Pulpits?

So mark the new site - http://community.ucc.org/ucc-news - and come take part in the discussion.

I'll devote more and more of this site - www.chuckcurrie.com- to issues impacting Oregon (with a continued focus on our state's religious communities) but will from time to time cross post information from the United Church News Blog, and to write about political matters that are not appropriate for an official church site.


Newt Gingrich's Real War Against Churches

One day back in the mid-1990s I was at the U.S. Capitol for meetings for Oregon's Congressional delegation to speak with our representative about the devastating cuts to programs for the poorest Americans being pushed by the U.S. House Speaker New Gingrich and his Republican majority.

Those cuts and the economic policies pushed by Gingrich - and later enacted by President Bush and the Republican Congress - pushed poverty levels up and led to economic ruin.

I happened to run into the Speaker during that trip and explained to him how his policies were increasing homelessness among working families with children.   

Churches and non-profits have been left without much help to try and clean-up the mess left by Gingrich and Bush.  Were fortunate that we now have an ally on many critical issues in President Obama.

So it was ironic today to hear Gingrich declare today that the president had started a "war against churches."  Gingrich has pursued policies that have been opposed by everyone from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the United Church of Christ on everything from efforts to fight poverty to the war in Iraq.

The reality is that Gingrich has long fought churches and the values they advocate - in both his personal and professional life.  He has no moral standing on which to criticize the president.