LIVE OUT LOUD!

Emile Zola has written,"If you ask me what I can do in this world, as an artist I will answer you, I can live out loud."

I like that! What does it mean for Christians to live out loud? To “live out loud” as a Christian allows one to enter various arenas of life with concern and voice for life. Loud voices of faith are useful ones when they rally human beings around issues such as the green-house effect, depletion of scarce resources, global concentration of financial capital, population explosion, marginalization of unskilled workers, internet-pornography and issues of peace and justice. Loud voices of faith are useful voices when they announce God's passion for the world and God's desires to bring salvation to it.

In the Celtic tradition the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird, but not the peaceful and serene dove landing on Jesus at his baptism. For their symbol of the Holy Spirit, the Celtic Christians chose the Wild Goose. Doves are docile and delicate, but the wild goose is intractable, and unpredictable. Instead of a soft coo, the wild goose is noisy and raucous. The goose is also a messy bird! And it seemed always to be on a pilgrimage. Jesus said that those Christians who were led by the Spirit were like the wind — you don't know where it comes from and you don't know where it's going. Perhaps Christians who take their clue from the wild goose are loose and free themselves. They live lives that are less than predictable. They live life to the fullest (John 10:10). They are wild and free, loud, untamable either by a world that would bind them with lies or by some denominations that would chain them with duty and obligation.

But what does it mean to live our lives out loud? It often means that we have to step out of familiar roles of institutional church membership. Church membership alone is not enough to establish God’s truth; we need ongoing theological reflection and faith in action. Scriptures, creeds, doctrines, offices, sacraments, and liturgies are all “means of salvation”. They are instruments of the Word of God which arouse and sustain faith in the power of the Spirit. But, as Zola writes, we need to “live out loud.” If Christians are not “loud” about faith, the church and her message will be condemned to irrelevance. People are attracted today to the voices and actions of Christians where they find credible responses to felt needs – whether material, communal or spiritual. The question is whether the response offered empowers such people to face their problems, or whether they provide escape routes into fantasy and compensation.

As a Christian I don't want my faith to be reduced to handing out religious tracks, preaching sermons, or entering buildings where I am not supposed to be to “evangelize”. I don’t want my religious life to get stuck in a place like that. For me, living life out loud has meant embracing the view that salvation is about everything, and sharing this message with everyone everywhere. Living life out loud has meant finding a way to create a place or presence for life in my everyday world--with family, with friends, and with strangers. I haven't been completely successful in figuring out how to do this. It is a process that changes as I change. It is a process that engages the world beyond my own everyday world.

The church is also struggling with living its life out loud. In a historic change, non-celibate gays and lesbians can now lead parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Everyone doesn't like the decision. But you know what I think? I think the 549 delegates to the ELCA Assembly last August who voted for this change were actually trying to live their lives, and their faith out loud in the model of Jesus Christ. That's what I think. In a manner that is loving, supportive, and open-minded, but definitely out loud.

OBAMA WATCH

Is President Barack Obama's presidency saving capitalism? Timothy Egan in the New York Times, claims that President Obama has indeed saved capitalism. Egan argues that under the Bush watch, America experienced the worst stock market decline in history. As Bush flew home to Texas, the net worth of American households had shrunk. If you needed to finance a house or stay in business, private sector borrowing was dead. In a recent appearance on The Ed Show on MSNBC, Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter credited President Obama with preventing another Great Depression. Host Ed Schultz pointed out that Obama is not receiving credit for recent gains in the stock market. Alter said: "He saved them. He saved their fortunes. We were headed for a depression. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month when he took over. If we'd stayed on pace, we would have had another Great Depression in late 2009. He saved them." History will, no doubt, regard the Obama administration as a presidency that saved America at a crucial point.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS - A DELEGATION TO HEBRON

In 2006 I traveled with a delegatation of Christian Peacemaker Teams to Paslestine and Israel. I recently found notes I made while in Hebron.

August 5, 2006 - I visited Hebron as a team member of a delegation of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Tonight, we were alerted to something happening two doors down. Up to six Israeli soldiers entered a house and began a search. By invitation, three CPT members entered the house to accompany the familily living there. When directed to leave by the soldiers the CPT members refused. The soldiers searched the home and left. It seemed to be a routine search, maybe even a training mission for new soilders. The men waived their automatic weapons as if they were expecting a terrorist to sprang on them. I observed some of this from an adjourning terrace.

As we began our trip to Jerusalem the next day, we left behind a town where people live under occupation. In this place some people are largly confined to their apartments as prisoners would be to their prison cells when darkness comes. Freedom of movement is largely a dream. Streets are empty at night with shops locked by 7:00 PM. The sounds of children playing, men talking, women calling from balcony to balcony are missing. Only the sounds of dogs chasing the one is heat breaks the stillness of the night. And from the roof tops one can see several observation posts. There are walls everywhere.

HEALTH CARE DEBATE - THE MISSING VOICES OF CHRISTIANS

The President and some members of Congress took a step in the right direction with health care reform. Some of the loudest objections to that health care step comes from those who have good health care plans, and even from some wealthy people. Health care in America is failing those who are on the margins of society. The health care system fails the poor. According to the US Census Bureau "The number of Americans without health insurance rose to 46.3 million last year as people began losing jobs and coverage in the current recession." The fear of getting sick and needing a doctor or hospitilization is very real. Heath care discrepancies perpetuate themselves from generation to generation and few people are able to break out of their predefined destinies.

Christians have too often thrown their lot in with free market Darwinism. In this system high performers rapidly outcompete low performers, accumulate collective power, use this power to entrench themselves in institutions, and marginalize the rest. This contributes, I think, to the expanding influence of prosperity preachers and even faith healers, who offer affordable, alternative cures. Historically, Christian have been in the public square advocating for justice. Christians gave voice to the Civil Rights Movement, and to ending the Vietnam War. Apartheid and Anti-Semitism were declared by some Christians to be heresies for various reasons. More Christian voices are needed in the health care debate.

This is one of the biggest issues facing the USA today, and Cristian voices are missing. As Christians and citizens, we must call for a more civil tone in this debate and call for a return to the goal of the common good. Christians can give encouragement to elected leaders, calling on them to create structures that serve the needs of some whom Jesus loved best, and once spoke of in these words: "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:40 NRSV).

ALBERTINA WALKER - "QUEEN OF GOSPEL"

Before we had a t.v. in our home in rural Opelousas, Louisiana we listened to Bill "Hossman" Allen on WLAC Nashville, Tennessee. Every Sunday night the 50,000 Watt CBS affiliate signal reached most of the Eastern and Midwestern United States. African American listeners in the Deep South were the intended audience of the program. It was on Bill Allen's Sunday evening broadcast that I first heard the names Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin, Kenneth Morris, Rosetta Tharpe, and Albertina Walker. Albertina was singing with the Williams Singers and touring with Willie Webb and The Robert Anderson Singers. In 1951 at age twenty two Albertina organized the CARAVANS. The rest is an amazing part of Gospel Music history.

Of course, we remember Albertina Walker through songs like "Please Be Patient With Me", "Lord Keep Me Day By Day", "Joy Will Come", "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", and "I Can Go To God In Prayer", all recorded in the 1970s.

Albertina Walker’s music ministry inspiried several generations of Americans, and her voice reached a worldwide audience. She loved gospel music and worked for it’s preservation. In 1988 she created The Albertina Walker Scholarship Foundation, a scholarship that provides financial assistance to college students who have completed at least one year of music study.

She is already missed, but her voice and performances are clicks away on YouTube. We can also preserve her legacy by purchasing her music.

CONDEMMING HARMFUL GENDER STEREOTYPES

Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman committed suicide after his roommate used a webcam to broadcast a sexual encounter involving Clementi with another male student. It is claimed that Dharun Ravi streamed the video live, and broadcast to the 150 followers of his Twitter feed details of his voyeuristic escapade, outing Clementi in the process: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Tyler had no idea he was being streamed live. Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei, a friend, have been charged with invasion of privacy for spying on Clementi, and could serve five years in prison. Tyler obviously could not handle having people know his sexual orientation.

On September 19, Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old student at Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi, Calif. hung himself from a tree in his backyard, after a bullying incident. Two 11-year-old Glenwood Middle School students, outside of Toledo, Ohio have been charged with assault after breaking the arm of an 11 year old male cheerleader who they thought was gay.Tyler Wilson was picked on by classmates. He told a local ABC news channel that students would wait for him after school, teasing him and taunting him. Across the nation bullying has resulted in tragedy, with youth who were picked on because of their perceived sexual orientation driven to suicide.

Picking on youth because of their perceived sexual orientation, or beating kids up because they break gender stereotypes should be condemned not only by school administrators and teachers, but by religious institutions and entire communities. These attacks illustrate why we should ask our congressional representatives to vote in favor of the Safe Schools Improvement Act 2010 (H.R. 2262) , to make sure that students like Tyler Wilson and Seth Walsh don't have to fear for their physical safety just by attending school.

BURNING THE QURAN

If Pastor Terry Jones changes his mind about burning a copy of the Quran on 9/11, how long with it take for a copycat to do the deed? General David Petraeus said that Terry Jones's Koran-burning stunt is "precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems." It would be good indeed if Mr Petraeus's intervention persuaded Mr Jones not to do the goofy, dangerous thing he's doing. Jones also said he was still praying over his decision and hinted that he might change his mind. "We understand the general's concerns and we are taking those into consideration," he told WOFL-TV in Orlando. Yes! Yes! Yes! We also need to hear from a few more Christians, like Pastor Steve Stone and the members of Heartsong United Methodist Church, Cardova, Tenn. They regard Muslims as neighbors who happen to have a different holy book. When the final building of a new Memphis Islamic Center was delayed, Heartsong members and Pastor Stone invited their Muslim neighbors across the street to use their church for worship. "They are in the final phase of building an Islamic Center for worship and education on about 30 acres across the street" (from Heartsong), explained Heartsong Pastor Steve Stone. "Their hope was that it would be completed by Ramadan, but it still has a way to go. They asked us if they might use our facilities and we were eager to welcome them.”

Here is what Heartsong members think of their Muslin neighbors. “These people have not in any way presented themselves to us as our enemies. But even if they took that stance, the direction of our Lord would be to love them still,” said Stone. Well, Dr. Bashar Shala, Chairman of the Memphis Islamic Center offers hope and promise and not threat. Shala spoke on Keith Olbermann's Countdown (MSNBC - Sept. 8) of the relationship of the Center to Heartsong. He praised his new neighbors, and he also spoke eloquently of the privilege and the responsibility of freedom.