Something Actually Important
At a dinner party last night, our pastor came up to a couple of us and said that we need someone to rally around at our church, someone who can focus our progressive drive and help us to start taking back Christianity from the hatemongers and stop the media from putting us all in the same group. Some Christians, after all, are for tolerance and compassion, for helping the poor and underprivileged, for love in all of its guises, for truth and honesty and transparency in government. In other words, for America.
And so I give you Reverend Inman Moore, our Associate Pastor. Rev. Moore has a long history of political activism. And boy can he preach a sermon that makes you want to run, not walk, to the nearest anti-war protest and shout out loud! He served in the Navy in World War Two and serves our congregation now.
"Inman Moore is one of 20 pastors driven out of Mississippi due to racism...Inman was also one of the...pastors who 42 years ago signed the “Born of Conviction” statement denouncing segregation...Moore moved to California in 1963, just months after signing the "Born of Conviction" statement denouncing segregation with 27 other ministers in Mississippi....“You reached a point where you simply had to stand up, so to speak, and speak your piece,” said the Rev. Inman Moore, Pasadena, Calif., one of 28 pastors who signed the statement." Allison Scahill, United Methodist News Service*
I wish you could hear him preach, truly I do. He is inspired and he is progressive. And he is the kind of Christian we can be proud of.
Inman and I are going to work together to find a way for our church to be more politically active and I am so excited about it! It's time to stop being tired and start getting out there!
And so I give you Reverend Inman Moore, our Associate Pastor. Rev. Moore has a long history of political activism. And boy can he preach a sermon that makes you want to run, not walk, to the nearest anti-war protest and shout out loud! He served in the Navy in World War Two and serves our congregation now.
"Inman Moore is one of 20 pastors driven out of Mississippi due to racism...Inman was also one of the...pastors who 42 years ago signed the “Born of Conviction” statement denouncing segregation...Moore moved to California in 1963, just months after signing the "Born of Conviction" statement denouncing segregation with 27 other ministers in Mississippi....“You reached a point where you simply had to stand up, so to speak, and speak your piece,” said the Rev. Inman Moore, Pasadena, Calif., one of 28 pastors who signed the statement." Allison Scahill, United Methodist News Service*
I wish you could hear him preach, truly I do. He is inspired and he is progressive. And he is the kind of Christian we can be proud of.
Inman and I are going to work together to find a way for our church to be more politically active and I am so excited about it! It's time to stop being tired and start getting out there!
posted by Wendy Stackhouse at 4:24 PM
8 Comments:
I just read your comment on Neatnik in church today. Somehow, I feel better about it now.
When a friend's son was about 2½, our old paster passed on. The boy asked, in the quiet of the church during the wake, in a carrying piping little voice, "Why Father C in the box?"
Since I am on the staff at my church, my children spend a LOT of time there. And do inappropriate things in the Sanctuary, although not usually during services. But sometimes. It's always dangerous to let them answer questions on mike during "Minister's Time with the Children"...
Luckily, our newish pastor has kids the same age as mine and sometimes they come out with funny stuff, too!
Good luck with the politics and church. Hopefully people with a variety of opinions will be welcome there. Afterall, there are many ways to make the world a more loving and better place.
This past year my youngest attended preschool at a Lutheran School nearby us. I joined them one day during their weekly student chapel. The lesson talked about how we should go forth to be the soldiers of God. The pastor was great about interacting with the children and he often asked questions to keep them involved. One of the older classes had drawn a picture of a Roman Soldier, complete with armor, shield and sword for this particular lesson. In an effort to keep the little ones interested the pastor directed a question to them specifically. He asked, "What do we do with the sword of God?". A little boy shouted out, "Kill people!" I almost wet my pants and I think the pastor did too. It was completely innocent on the child's part and the rest of us had a good chuckle. Curriculum modification may be in order as this isn't the quite the desired loving and Christian image.
Ah, it is perhaps not the image you or I want to convey about Christians, but there are a lot of people out there ready to kill (and threatening to kill judges and such) over their religious beliefs. I don't want to be grouped with them. The group at church would be made up of tolerant people who disagree with the status quo. And if there are church members who disagree with me, I hope they attend and have a debate. That is the way America is supposed to work. The most important thing is to bring love back into our country, and into the public Christian reality.
I like your young pastor. I think he is an amazing speaker. Whenever I go to hear Jill sing, I am always struck by what a great speaker he is... I can't remember his name, but the young one.
Missed you at the pool today. I didn't swim - got a lot of sock done!
xo,
Joy
You struck a chord. I am a liberal Presbyterian. Our congregation has taken a very active role in social justice. I wish you and your congregation the best of luck. It's a darned hard road, but I can't tell you how satisfying it is to take that stand publicly.
It makes me happy to hear about other progressive Christians. As a Lutheran (soon to be ordained) woman, I definitely see a connection between what happens in church and what happens in society. Since you're in California, might I suggest looking into the PICO national network (http://www.piconetwork.org/)? They do some great work- and we've had a lot of success up here in the Bay Area.
Yes, we seem to be invisible, but need to come out into the open! Thanks for the suggestion, I will take a look. There are lots of us at our church that are appalled by current events and just need someone to rally around. I hope it works!
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