Thinking Ubuntu

My mentor posted something on Facebook about how she was thinking about Ubuntu, the theme that was the focal point of this summer's General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu says this African philosophy gets stated simply as:

"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has proper self-assurance that comes from knowing he or she belongs to a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated and diminished, when others are tortured and oppressed"

This idea is remarkably familiar to me. The idea of being "open and available" and "affirming and not threatened" was the philosophy and the ethic taught at Florida School of Massage. It affirms, and confirms, our relationships as people on this planet together. And, for the Church, it is the beginning of seeing Christ in the other, and the "building up" of the body of Christ... as opposed to what has occurred with the repeated attempts to surgically-remove those who we think are the tonsils or appendix.

The more I thought about this, the more I thought, "How different the world would be if we really did put this into practice." If this really were the ethic by which we live and move and have our being then there would be no reason for voters in Maine to go to the polls next Tuesday to decide if gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry. Florida children pent up in the foster care system would be able to be placed in loving homes with gay and lesbian couples, so these kids could stand a chance at having a stable family. Our military would retain some of its brightest intelligence corps if we could see each other as a continuum of humanity where the "asking and telling" of one's sexual orientation is of no consequence.

We are a long way from being in this Ubuntu place.

When the Stars Align

From www.astronomy-pictures.net

Amazing things happen when I'm at work!

As famed British actor Sir Ian McKellan held an audience spellbound at Florida State University's Conradi Theater, our city commission was unanimously adopting a policy to extend its benefits package to cover domestic partners in straight and gay relationships. And as they were doing that, the President of the United States... for the first time EVER... signed a pro-LGBT rights bill into law: the Matthew Shepherd/James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Matthew Shepherd was the young gay man in Wyoming, brutally beaten and tied to a fence to die in October, 1998. James Byrd, Jr. was an African-American man in Texas killed by three white supremicists who beat him, stripped him of his clothes and dragged him for three miles chained to the back of a pick up truck. That crime occurred in June of 1998.

Of course, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act was part of a military war bill... which is a bit odd... however this is legislation that so many groups have been seeking for years, so the signing of the bill, like the domestic partner benefits package in Tallahassee, has been greeted with enthusiasm and praise from the LGBT community.

So while the world seemed in chaos during those months in 1998 when such brutality was all over the news, yesterday was a day when, for once, all the stars seem to be in alignment for those who have been the "left behind" for so long.

Thanks be to God!

Take A Moment

I will be with a client, no doubt trying to undo life's abundance as knotted up in her rhomboids and levator scapulae, but I am mindful and taking note that the President is about to do something positive this afternoon for the LGBT community in signing the Matthew Shepherd/James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act into law.

Sadly, it is the kind of positive move that says, "It's not OK for you to kill or maim me because I'm a lesbian." It never should be OK... and yet such hate-motivated crime does occur in this country.

Integrity USA is calling on Episcopalians and all people of faith to pause at 4:45PM EDT in recognition of this historic event. Our prayers are encouraged to give thanks, remember the victims of such violence, and to pray for our continued progress forward toward a world in which your sexual orientation does not hold you out as separate in God's kingdom on earth. I believe that we are all one in heaven; it's just down here where we're having a little bit of difficulty with that idea.

The Ice is Melting in Fort Worth

I have no words, and I'm sitting here choking back tears at the news from the new and improved Diocese of Fort Worth: the diocese will finally have its first woman priest and rector.

Read the good news of the Good News coming to fruition HERE.

The story of Rev. Susan Slaughter's journey and discernment will feel familiar to some of you out there. Welcome the emerging spring in Fort Worth after your 33 year-long winter.

"Death is conquered, we are free;
Christ has won the victory."
--"He Has Risen", Hymn 180, 1982 Hymnal

Maine and Marriage

We are one week away from a pivotal vote.

Not in our nation's capital.

Not in California.

Not even in Florida.

But in Maine.

Maine. One of the rarely talked about states in our country. A state with 3,500 miles of coastline, 17 million acres of forest, and 41.3 people per square mile (by contrast, the US Census Bureau reports that Florida has 296.4 people per square mile). The trees out number the people!

But there's one thing Maine's got that Florida and California and Washington, DC, don't got: marriage equality for straight and gay couples!

By act of the state legislature and encouragement from the Attorney General, the Governor of Maine, John Baldacci, signed into law the right for lesbian and gay couples in the state of Maine to enjoy the privileges of civil marriage. Important to note, as always, we are talking about civil marriage rights... those rights conferred by the state to the happy couple... and not the blessing of a marriage, which is what is the primary function of a religious marital sacrament. But because the church has become the agent of the state in the marriage business in this country, too often these two functions are blurred. It takes a keen person to realize that all the wonderful words and pronouncements that "Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder" are words directed to God, and for a congregation of people; the priest and the couple then slink away after the dismissal and sign the state-sanctioned, legal paperwork for the civil authorities. It is these civil authorities who then issue the license that allows couples access to the world of benefits... include pension payments, social security and, if you're lucky, health care.

And in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa... lesbian and gay couples can have a taste of what it's like to have your relationship so validated by the state.

But... some people in Maine are a little cranky about all this. And shortly after the bill became law, they mounted a campaign to have what is called a "People's Veto" of the legislation. And so now voters in Maine will head to the polls to decide the question... listed as Number One on their ballots.

Why, oh, why, must we put these things to a vote? Do we vote on whether senior citizens should get married? Do we vote on whether people with disabilities should get married? Do we vote on whether ANYBODY else gets married?!

The arguments, so very tiresome at this point, always go back to things like, "This will lead to teaching children that homosexuality is OK!" It won't. And even if it did, so what? Another popular one, oft-stated here in Florida last year, was that it would make it illegal for clergy to refuse to marry a same-sex couple. It won't. There is no requirement for clergy to do anything that would offend their religious beliefs, and as I had pointed out here, the real problem is that there are clergy that would LIKE to officiate at weddings and can not. And then there is the really bizarre idea that allowing same-sex marriages somehow cheapens opposite-sex marriage. I'm still wondering how somebody else's relationship status affects another's.......

It's simple people. If you live in Maine, Vote NO on One.

Because NO ONE should tell Mainers to discriminate against their neighbors!

Thought for the Evening

Even before I had heard or read any sermons, prayers, collects or sung any hymns, I was hit with what felt like quite the important central message of the week:

We are not the center of even our own personal universes. If we're doing this Christianity correctly, we must recognize that God is at the center, and when we give into this idea as the organizing principle of our lives, there is a radical reordering of what we think is important. And it's never too late to do this.

That may all "sound" easy, but to actually put it into practice takes effort. And perhaps this is why we were warned that this whole "taking up your cross" business is NOT for those unwilling to face difficulty. And the first difficulty is facing our own ego, and taking a good long hard look in the mirror before we start working on everybody and everything else. Anyone who has gone through a personal transformative experience knows what I'm talking about. And if you don't, take it from me: when you begin to remove the mask that you wear for the world and allow your true face to be the one you put forward... you'll know what I'm talking about. It's frightening at first, and then extremely liberating.

And it is the beginning of clearing the space to put God back in the middle.

And now I lay me down to sleep... to pick up with other thoughts tomorrow!

Everybody Loves a FAMU Parade

One of the benefits of living in Tallahassee is that we are home to Florida A and M University and its spectacular band, the Marching 100. The Rattlers band has been invited to President Obama's Inaugural parade and they were the only band from the United States to play in France for the bicentennial in 1989 in Paris. They put on a show of not only music but dance. And the Alumni band, which marched ahead of them, still have what it takes to high-step and blow their horns. I couldn't hang out for the whole parade because I had another meeting this morning, but I didn't want to miss seeing the band... even in their practice suits. They're saving the full uniform for the game this afternoon against Norfolk State. Go Rattlers! Strike! Sssssssssssss.......

(PS: I am hoping that my alma mater does honorably in our Homecoming game today. We scheduled the Texas Longhorns. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Fight Tigers you will always win (ha-ha-ha) )