Outcast

      As a 2nd year seminary student, the public and some family members have been holding me to a certain set of standards of which I am not obliged to follow.  It’s been an interesting trip to discover the public’s understanding of what I am, who I am, or WHO I belong to due to being enrolled in Seminary.  What I have learned, per freedom of speech (of which I exercise daily) and this election year is that people have a very skewed idea as to what a Pastor or Priest should or shouldn’t believe and do AND people assume that I am already liked a caged Priest lion that is shackled into having to watch my p’s and q’s.

     To much of my delight, I am not yet burdened with having to fret about losing parishioners due to statements I make in leadership.  I can take a stand for the things I believe in on social media and the only fret I have is that somewhere in my future I won’t get a job because I took an ethical stance for something I believed in.  The monetary part of me thinks, “just be quiet”.  The Spiritual part of me says to “preach/take a stand for the things in which God has laid on your heart. Don’t be fearful but trust the Lord.  The Lord is above monetary comfort and our call as Christians isn’t to be comfortable but to be revolutionary in the name and imitation of Christ”.  Therefore, I am in the perfect position to proclaim unpopular beliefs.  If I appall individuals in the process, so be it.

      I had a family member say to me in response to a post on Facebook about businesses not being business savvy for posting giant signs advocating for Trump, "you know I love you. I think you enjoy making posts like this. You get people's hearts pumping and blood boiling”.  To be clear, I deplore any issue that divides me from those I love. It is never my desire to push an issue that creates separation.  In my world I desire cohesiveness.  I desire harmony.  I desire peace. But for me, there is no peace when there are people in this world that work for and support injustice.  

      I am a Christian Pluralist. I am both pro-life and pro-choice. I believe that in today’s political terms that Jesus was and is a Liberal (This is different from a Democrat).  I believe in delivering safe needle kits to intravenous drug users.  I believe not drug testing welfare recipients. I believe in teaching "non-traditional” but socially conscious Christian sexual ethics in the church. I believe in marriage. Period.  I am pro legalizing marijuana. I believe in a large array of humanitarian efforts, policies, and protections; all this being justified and reconciled in my faith.  

      In my year and a half of seminary, I have discovered that those of us who are educated in religious studies, racism, sexism, classism, and prejudice in this day and age are often outsiders that stir or offend even the simple and complex believers in our families and friend circles.  As leaders in the church our charge is not to meet the status quo or find a comfortable homeostasis within our churches and communities. Our charge is to move us closer to a life together that is cloaked in Christ and help usher in the Kingdom of Heaven.  So the question is to ask ourselves (clergy & lay alike) what qualities does a world or a person need to possess to do that? 

      I’ve been mulling over responding to my family member for the last several weeks.  Night after night it became apparent to me that I couldn’t just not respond in an effort to create some false sense of peace.  I responded, "I’ve been pondering your statement above for the last two weeks. For everyone, if we all stayed silent about the things we believe; if we all were afraid of of rocking the boat; if we all allowed ourselves to let someone else fight for what is ethical and right, then nothing in the history of humanity would have ever or will ever evolve. It takes minority voices and voices in the majority speaking out for the minorities to make change and create space in this world for what is right."   Do I believe that hearts should be pumping and blood boiling over certain injustices in this world? YES!  

Peace is not real peace if it’s founded in apathy or ignoring and/or waxing over issues.