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Tag: ohio

  • Prisoners of Prophetic Hope

    Prisoners of Prophetic Hope

    Yesterday I had the honor to preach the sermon at my home, Trinity Episcopal Church, a progressive, inclusive, creative, downtown church. It has been a cornerstone of Toledo since 1837, and a bedrock of those seeking to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. If you’d like to watch the service you can follow the link here, or watch the sermon itself on my Facebook which is linked here. All of the quotes from Bishop Barber, including the Walter Brueggemann quote, can be found in the book, Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing by Bishop Barber. A video of his 2015 MLK Jr. Day sermon can be found here. Also, I have updated some action items that allow for online reach out, so here we go!

    I am going to start with just naming one of the many elephants in the room, yesterday, the country we call home celebrated its 250th birthday. There is tension, joy, anger, and a weird dash of patriotism if, you have been following Europeans visiting for the world cup. Some of us were on the plaza celebrating until the early hours of the morning, some of celebrated with family, and others, friends of mine, to paraphrase a song written by Ben Stalets, who just wanted to be holed up in a hotel room, hoping to God they could get through the night. There is a lot to sit with in this moment we find ourselves, as Christians in this country. To quote Michael W. Austin, co-author of American Christian Nationalism: Neither American nor Christian, “in one sense love of country is a good thing. But in another, it is deeply problematic. Love of Jesus and love of country can come into conflict.”

    It is that conflict, and a way to advocate the world we want, not the one we live in, I would like to spend some time talking about.

    The passage from Zechariah is very small but powerfully packed. Something that was important to ancient Israel, and current Judaism, is the story of the exodus from Egypt. The origin story of where these people called by God, were brought up out of slavery, rescued from the oppressors, welcomed into covenant with God at Mount Sanai, and ultimately brought through the wilderness. There is a constant call back to this story throughout the Jewish and Christian Bibles, and we can see that in how the author of Zechariah phrased the ancient nation of Judah and Israel. Any time we read about chariots or war horses, it should give us pause, because these descriptors are triggers for the original listeners of this story to be brought back to Egypt.

    Pharaoh and his army, with chariots and war horses, chased after the ancient Israelites as Moses led them through the Red Sea. In quick words, the Prophet Zechariah is drawing a one-to-one comparison to Egypt and the people who escaped that oppression to their current status. In their journey to be a blessing to all nations like they promised God to be, the ancient Israelites have become the opposite, they have become the new Egypt, oppressing and enslaving others. This group of people that pledged themselves to God have instead become an empire seeking its own means, claiming it is from God because they are clearly prosperous. It is to this point that Zechariah calls out from God for the dismantling of the military industrial complex, the command that peace be waged in all nations, and for the people who will be doing this work, the prisoners of hope, to be restored.

    Over two thousand years later the people of God, these prisoners of hope, continue to call out this need to dismantle our faith from the oppression, violence, and injustice of empire.

    But how do we do this work, after all, for the past decade there has been an incredibly charged political climate with culture wars and the like dictating new fronts to fight on. While it is incredibly overwhelming, even if we only have the energy in ourselves to voice opposition and to support the marginalized, targeted, and oppressed it can be enough. There is a Palestinian priest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church named Munther Isaac, and in his book, The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope, he writes, “Our silence towards injustice is a political statement itself” and he is right.

    With so much turmoil, what are we to do? Zechariah reminds us we need to take our instruments of oppression, and to turn them into plowshares, garden tools, or fine art. Whatever these 21st century swords and shields we still cling to need to be laid down by the riverside, and we must study war no more. When we start to practice this laying down, we can move from prisoners of hope to what Disciples of Christ Bishop, former North Carolina NAACP President, and current co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, Bishop William Barber II has coined, Prisoners of Prophetic Hope.

    Touching back on the conflict between the love of country and Jesus, it is easy to get frustrated. However, when I look around this room, think of our ministries, I see the truth in the country I love, and it is all of you, and the diversity we offer. When we lay down an old way of life, a new direction and leader is required for us and Jesus offers this in abundance. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    Every Sunday at 8:20am I give a little pre-breakfast peptalk that touches on this passage, because above the plaza doors in My Brother’s Place lives a sign that reads, “A Place To Nourish Both Body and Soul.” It is a remnant of our past, that screams truth into our future, because we want our friends who come to Breakfast at Trinity to lay their burdens down.

    Trinity has a long history of guiding and advocating for the world we want to live in and trying to reshape America, and I would like to name four examples:

    1. Morrison Waite, who served on vestry from 1852-1874 when he was selected by President Grant to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during Reconstruction. During his time, he expanded the Freedmen’s Bureau, protected people of color from the KKK, and while there was more work to be done to protect Black and people of color during Reconstruction, he showed up and tried.
    2. There is a legend that the first free kindergarten in Lucas County was founded out of Trinity, and while I am unsure how true that is, what I do know is according to our September 1875 Parish Guide, a new term of school started on Monday the 13th, which the author states, “it is with particular gratification that I have been able to announce the establishment of the Kindergarten department, which I consider a great addition to the educational facilities of our city.”
    3. In March of 1912 Jennie Barnes and Hester Scrafford founded the Business Woman’s Guild of Trinity Church where women who worked downtown could come and eat their bagged lunch safely, in community with one another. There are pictures of the café that started in the basement because of this, and there is a bronze plaque commemorating this ministry that lasted well through the 20th Century in what is now our AA room.
    4. If you were present for the Queer Joy Symposium you heard Toledo Councilman Nick Komives talk about how the first Toledo Pride started in this sanctuary with the first Pride interfaith service.

    Again, and again, and again these walls have housed fellow prisoners of hope as we step forward in works of justice brought out from love. The continued work of making spaces safe for everyone is a justice issue Jesus calls us to be active members in creating.

    “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    These words of Jesus would have called his fellow farmers and working class listeners to think of the oxen in the field shouldering the huge wooden yoke to help plow the fields. Every single one of those examples of Trinity members had days where they wanted to give up.

    At times they may have thought the strain is too much, the world is too dark, and this burden is not light, but too heavy.

    The yoke and burden that Jesus gives us is only light and easy because we have each other to lean on, to help share the load because we mustn’t do this work alone. That is why we must move from being a prisoner of hope, to becoming a Prisoner of Prophetic Hope like those who have come before us.

    In January 2015 at Duke University, Bishop Barber preached the Martin Luther King Jr. Day service, and in that sermon, he speaks on this transition from prisoner to prophet. To become a Prisoner of Prophetic Hope, Bishop Barber says that it is crucial to publicly own the despair in the world we feel and know to be true. The need for this is because when we read the prophets we see how the hope in their words is subversive to the suffering and world around them. Bishop Barber is backed up by the words of Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, when he writes “prophets must be able to speak in both grief and hope.”

    Because of my role here, I find myself in conversations with random people throughout the week, and there is one consistent throughline in almost every talk that comes up about Trinity. It is not about our building, the pride flags, or any of our ministries. While those do come up, the one consistent thing people tell me about their experience with Trinity is, how welcoming and at home the people here make them feel. The reason why we are so good at welcoming people into Trinty, is because almost all of us that find ourselves through these doors in person or online, we have all been rejected from community. At one point or another, we have found ourselves outside of the place we once called home, and we never want anyone else to feel that way again.

    If you feel called to take on the yoke and burden of Jesus, and you want to move from being a prisoner of hope to a Prisoner of Prophetic Hope I have a few opportunities for you. In a way to publicly own this grief we feel, use 5 Calls to contact your senator about HR 1689. It is a recent bill that passed the House with bipartisan effort, House Resolution 1689 which determines the Temporary Protected Status of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.

    The second opportunity is on July 22nd from 9-11 there is a protest at the Central Corrections Facility of Northwest Ohio which is now contracted as an ICE detention center. I will be there, reach out and I’d love to have you with us. Finally, It is crucial now, more than ever we show up to support our LGBTQ+ siblings.

    To close, I want to leave you again with words from Bishop Barber, because we can be the hope that is missing in the world. “When the rejected get together they can in fact redeem America from hate and discrimination… when all those hands get together and when the rejected join hands our togetherness becomes the instruments of redemption.”

    Amen.

  • Broken Clocks

    Broken Clocks

    Imagine my utter surprise when I get a news alert about something Ohio Governor Mike DeWine says, that I not only agree with, but am actively championing. Per our local paper, The Toledo Blade:

    COLUMBUS — The state of Ohio should end the death penalty, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.

    “I no longer believe that the death penalty is a deterrent,” Mr. DeWine said during a news conference at the Riffe Center. “The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists.”

    The governor said the Ohio General Assembly should take action to end capital punishment.

    “If the legislature does not want to make that decision, they can leave it up to a vote of the people of the state of Ohio,” Mr. DeWine said.

    The fact that Gov. DeWine is calling for this is proof that no matter what, if you’re open, you can change. I appreciate that as for part of my life, I was a death penalty purist, if you did the crime worthy of it, your life is forfeit.

    During the first year of marriage, my wife and I were reading Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s book, New Monasticism: What it Has to Say to Today’s Church. A former friend and colleague had recommended it to us as we were interested in the movement, and I will never forget how challenging the chapter on the death penalty was. Through many drives from Chicago to Toledo, we had argued and discussed it ultimately landing on, who are we to say when God is done with someone.

    Today, the day that DeWine has come out against the death penalty should be one we remember. On June 16, 1944 George Stinney Jr. was executed via the electric chair in Columbia South Carolina. It was alleged that he murdered two white girls, and this poor 14 year old Black child, was tried, convicted, and sentenced in one day. Then, 82 years ago today, he became the youngest confirmed person to be murdered by the state in the 20th century America. George Stinney’s case was reopened, and in December of 2014 he was vacated of the crime due to new evidence.

    Per the Equal Justice Initiative, an incredible organization founded by Bryan Stevenson, 202 people have been exonerated and released from death row since 1973, and 1,661 people have been executed in the U.S. since 1973. This means for every eight people executed, one person on death row has been exonerated. The odds are too high to not do something about it.

    As the old adage goes, broken clocks are right twice a day, the same can be said of politicians, and today is one of them.

    Ohioans, call your reps and ask them to support Governor DeWine’s push to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. You can find your State House Rep here, and your State Senator here.

    Grace and peace.

  • Everytown, OH

    Everytown, OH

    By now I am sure you have heard about the mass shooting event that occured on Saturday during the Old West End Festival here in Toledo Ohio. This festival holds a special place in my heart, as my wife and I lived in the OWE when we were first married. The very first place we called “our” home together was an apartment on the corner of Parkwood and Acklin from 2011 to 2013. There are few places in the world where you get the understanding of what a neighborhood and neighbors are, and the first real time I experienced it was here.

    While I was not present for this uncalled for violence, like most people in this wonderful city, I have friends who were. The church we belong to participated in the parade for the first time in years, and my son and I left hours before this occurred. For months members spent planning what was our Pride celebration kick off, and the two mile march was a great time. But the next day, Sunday, our annual Wear Orange/Gun Violence Awareness service which happens the first Sunday in June, was more somber than usual.

    I pray and give thanks that no one was killed, the community and fest goers responded in the way we hope people will, I mourn the fact that it happened. At a vigil I went to with some friends on Sunday, I overheard someone say that they were surprised this hadn’t happen here yet. And I am disgusted that I too found it surprising.

    Ohio ranks 30 of 50 in gun laws, which is down from last year when we were ranked 29th, per Everytown’s website. It was also no surprised that when I too posted about this on social media asking people to call their reps and demand gun legislation that there were people parroting the “it won’t work” talking points. I’m tired of listening to them, or giving that point oxygen.

    Gun legislation now,

    gun legislation tomorrow,

    and gun legislation forever.

    I’m sure there will be more to come on this, but today my heart is weary. While as of writing, there is one suspect in police custody, an 18 year old kid that doesn’t have a fully developed frontal cortex. My friend Alyx I think summed up my thoughts best in their post when they wrote, “You can’t expect kids [or anybody] to care about a future we’ve robbed them of.“

    Flood your reps with calls, letters, emails, etc. demanding gun reform. If you happen to find yourself in Toledo this weekend, I highly encourage you to attend Unwanted Firearms Disposal event sponsored by the Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio. If you’d like a sample letter to send to Governor DeWine to enact common sense gun safety executive orders, I’m happy to provide one.

    We don’t have to live this way.

    Grace and peace.

  • Jude, the Saint of Despair

    Jude, the Saint of Despair

    John 15:17-27:

    Jesus said to his disciples, “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

    “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world– therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. It was to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

    “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.”

    Saint Jude is the patron saint for lost causes, impossible situations and despair. It is a hard time for those of us who don’t believe empathy is a sin. When holding all that has happened in Minneapolis, thinking about Keith Porter Jr being murdered by immigration customs and enforcement, the horrific details in the newly released Epstein files, I needed to think about, and create space for despair for a bit.

    When I read this Gospel passage, which is specific in the lectionary to St. Simon and St. Jude (who both share the martyrdom on 10/28), it really had my mind going. See, when I read of Jesus in this passage talking about not being of this world my context, historically, of this passage is much different than what I believe now.

    For a long time I feared the idea of the day of judgment, specifically because of the language around it. I grew up around the apocalyptic concept of fire, brimstone, etc., but then I found out that apocalypse literally means uncovering in Greek, as in, learning something new. When I found this out, I dove deeper into the Jewish roots of Christianity. Because of this new information, I was deeply curious about what this day of judgment would mean. After some time, I became much more comfortable.

    The idea of the day of judgement, is the work of God setting things right, the way they were supposed to be.

    It is creating justice in an unjust world, and for those of us who seek justice, who seek the safety of others, who seek after the words of Jesus, it really isn’t a scary thing. Sure, there are aspects of our lives where we are continuing to hone and align the way we believe with how we live our daily life, but on the whole, the setting of things in their correct manner shouldn’t be that scary.

    When we strip down the concept of wanting to live in a world where everyone is safe, no one has to worry about food, healthcare, being othered, bombs, and genocide as seen in Sudan and Gaza to name a few. These things that make us feel fear in our daily lives, these systematic issues that cause us to live into despair. As I sit with this, I feel connected to the despair that St. Jude is the patron saint of. It’s not hard right now to let those feelings consume us, but cynicism is easy.

    Then I remember, despair is easy.

    Hope, love, and taking care of one another in community is hard.

    It takes bravery to love someone.

    It takes bravery to stand up for someone.

    It takes almost nothing to cast someone aside, and not only deny their humanity, but the image of God that is interwoven through their very being.

    So when I read and sit with the part in Luke where Jesus says, if the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you, my mind goes to the lie that is christian nationalism. Those I have heard prosecution stories loudest, come from those that uphold white Jesus. And we know that they cannot be the people Jesus is talking about here.

    May you find some hope in these words my friends.

    Grace and peace.

  • Naked and Afraid (Luke 8:29-34)

    Trinity Toledo

    This is the transcript from my sermon on 6/22/2025. You can watch it here at the 23 minute mark.

    The day I was finishing up the sermon, the US bombed Iran. The context is important for how this starts.

    Whenever there is a global, national, or local tragedy and I am preaching, I leave a minute for us to center ourselves. With the United States bombing Iran yesterday, I am sure we are all feeling and thinking different things right now. So please, let us take a moment to remember the community God calls us to be in this world.

    There is so much that happens in this passage that it is so easy to get caught up in not the details but some of the larger aspects of the story. So, I am going to address two specific things, then move on to what I believe is the core of the story. These two things are demon possession and what it means to be the opposite of Galilee.

    What we read as demon possession in the Bible can often be seen and understood today are mental health problems. Not everything is Regan from The Exorcist spewing pea soup. For example, if there was a story of someone Jesus encountered that could not make a decision due to a demon that had kept them in a spot of fear, there is a good chance you’d be reading about me and my anxiety struggles. Thank God for SSRI’s, can I get an amen [pause for amen]?

    Scholars cannot agree on where this particular city was located. What is agreed upon is that it was somewhere in the Decaplilis. So, the question remains then, what does it mean to be the opposite of Galilee? Well, to be taken at face value, we generally know that while the region was on a trade route, there were, like today, few people who held a lot of wealth, while most people were poor. So, when we think of Gerasene, a jumping off point is this is an area where people had access to money, or at least, were middle class. We also know that Galilee was a Jewish settlement, Gerasene was an area where gentiles roamed and lived. What makes this story even better is that, if we remember, Luke is the only author of the New Testament that was gentile. So, this story does a great job foreshadowing the ministry to come in Acts of Jesus’ message reaching past the borders of Roman Palestine.

    This man that Jesus meets on the shores of this city is the model opposite of himself, and Luke makes sure to recount the story as such. Elaine Heath, current abbess of Spring Forest, an intentional Christian community, and former Dean of Dude divinity School points out a few interesting things:

    He is in every way “unclean.” Driven by a legion of demonic forces, the man is scarcely human anymore. He lives in the tombs among the dead. He is naked, unpredictable, violent, and alone. He is also a Gentile; thus, the phrase “opposite Galilee” refers to much more than geography.[1]

    What the author is trying to convey here, is that this region and person is the opposite of what Jesus and Galilee represent. With that in mind, I would like to get to the heart of what I have been meditating on with this passage. It is no secret that I spend a lot of my time reading historical and contextual books or articles when preparing for preaching. I do that because it is how I learn, how I process, and I enjoy bringing nuance to the text. I enjoy working with something ancient and pointing out the incredible relevance.

    In my opinion, this passage needs none of that work. It is important to understand the context, and mental health awareness. But a surface reading of this could suffice.

    At the heart of this is someone who is hearting almost beyond repair, and his community thought it was best to chain him up. When that didn’t work, they let him run around naked among the dead because sometimes ignoring the people who need the most help is easier.

    What breaks my heart about this passage is that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

    For several years, a man named Dan Rogers was the head honcho at Cherry Street Missions. Every year he taught a leadership course to those in non-profit, ministry, etc. That were interested in understanding the unhoused, other needs in downtown Toledo. He would start almost every new class with a story that went like this. One day he was walking down the street on his way to lunch, and he saw someone who had been a resident of Cherry Street.

    It was a busy sidewalk with people passing by, and Dan called out to this man by name. After a few minutes of talking, the man started crying because he had been there for three days with people passing by, and Dan was the first person to talk with him. The first to recognize this guy’s humanity, and unshakeable goodness.

    Now, I personally do not care if that actually happened, or if it happened that way, because it rings as true as this story in Luke does. This man was sick, and in need of dire help. There is a moment when the demons inside the man plead with Jesus that he does not send them back to the abyss. I would like to think about this in a new way. So often when we are caught up in our own trauma and demons, we become comfortable with them. They keep us company when no one else will.

    The known is always more comfortable than the unknown, even if it is unhealthy. James Thompson wrote that, “this story also suggests that the salvation of some creates hostility with others.”[2] Thompson is specifically referring to Jesus potentially ruining someone’s livelihood when he sends the possessed pigs into the water to drown. But if we think about salvation found in the Greek word Soteria, salvation will always cost us something.

    You have heard me preach on this before, Soteria, means to provide safety, and providing a safe space costs us. We know this not just because of our individual experiences but communally with restarting our community breakfast. Trinity is now no longer just a safe place for those of us who gather to worship, but the 90-100 people that come weekly to lay their burden down and be cared for.

    But there is one thing we all have in common with the suffering man in this story. At the end of the day, I am confident in saying that we would all much prefer to go with Jesus physically. To follow him as he teaches, preaches, and heals. But like the man, after our time is done here today, we will be sent back out into the streets. At the end of service, we will be invited to share what the lord has done for us as we navigate the known abyss.

    My friends, this encounter in Luke is boiled down to how communities at times other those who need community the most. As we move through the week ahead, may we remember that the cost of maintaining safety and deliverance can be high, but it is a load we carry together. And that, in community there is no thing that divides us because of Christ in us as the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians. The only thing that divides us, is how we choose to measure and “other” those around us.

    Amen.

    [1] Heath, E. Feasting on the Word: Year C vol 3, pg. 166

    [2] Thompson, J. Feasting on the Word: Year C, vol 3. Pg. 169

  • Prayer Meeting Reflection

    Trinity Chapel

    The following is my reflection from the prayer meeting held at Trinity’s 12 Noon service on 3/25.

    Matthew 5:17–19 (NRSV)

    Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

    The sermon on the mount is a teaching I have been spending a lot of time with as of late. I cannot speak for everyone, but this part of the sermon always gave me pause. As a young Christian I was taught that the Old Testament no longer applied to my life because Jesus came and liberated us not just from sin, but from all that “legalism.” Whenever this passage came up in church or wherever, this part always tugged at me, and the best explanation I could get from anyone was that it no longer applied. Paul had written about the law and how it did not apply to us, so we were free from it because of grace.

    As I have grown older, I have personally come to realize that I cannot take that view because of how short sighted it is. To determine that something in the text no longer applies to you gives you permission not to take it seriously. It gives permission to be permissive about it, and when we become permissive, we are no longer curious. I find for myself, when curiosity is gone, what was fresh and vibrant become stale. I do not want to personally live in a world where the Sermon on the Mount becomes stale. So, what does it mean for this part of Matthew to continue to breathe new life?

    Taking place on a mountain side, Jesus sits down and teaches his twelve disciples while others crowd around him and listen in. This image of Jesus is, I would argue, is what we would recognize today as Jesus at his most rabbinic. Rabbi and scholar Jacob Neusner in his book, A Rabbi talks with Jesus, writes: 

    …the sage sets for himself a worthy challenge, one that every sage in every generation does well to meet: receive a tradition whole and perfect, hand it on never intact but always unimpaired, so taking a rightful place in the chain of tradition from Sinai.

    What Rabbi Neusner writes about, is how traditionally new teachers of the law would be raised up. Those who were picked and went through the training to become a teacher of Torah would be taught the commandments by heart. Then, their teacher would put their spin on it by providing some new perspective. This is what it means when a teacher passes on the law, not intact but always unimpaired. What Jesus is building on in his Sermon on the Mount, is the Torah, the law given at Siani to Moses and the ancient Israelites.

    When we talk about no longer being subject to the law of the Old Testament and say that we must follow teachings like the sermon on the mount, something important is left out. What Jesus does with the Sermon on the Mount is what rabbis would call, “building a hedge around Torah.” Imagine that this law is so precious to you, not because of sin or persecution, but because you believe it is the best and you want to live it, that you put a buffer between yourself and it. Like a house with a hedge surrounding, it for protection, is what Jesus is doing in this sermon. The hedge, as Rabbi Neusner puts it, the hedge is important because it allows us to, “…conduct yourself in such a way you will avoid even the things that cause you to sin, not only the sin itself.”

    There is a famous teaching associated with the Hillel the Elder where a gentile comes up to him and asks to be taught the Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel responds with something like, “that which is bad for you, do not to your neighbor, that is the Torah, the rest is commentary.” 

    For Jesus to give this teaching, encouraging us that not murdering is not enough, and we must not even have hate in our hearts. It is not just about not cheating on your spouse, but to not even to look at someone lustfully, and if you do, cut your eye out (because it is not the person’s fault you are looking at them like that). When I sit with this part of Matthew, as I have for the past year, I am reminded that for me, if all of Torah is about caring for my neighbor, and as Rabbi Neusner confirms, Torah is all about teaching us how to show mercy, then I am proud to teach others to show it. 

    I am excited to invite others along the path to teach and show mercy and love in ways that may not be new but are still worth doing. Especially in the climate we find ourselves in, this yoke, this teaching, must be passed on. When you hear it, it may not be intact, but it will at least be unimpaired.

    Grace and peace.

  • Ignorance isn’t Bliss, it’s Dangerous

    Trigger warning: this post addresses bigotry against the LGBTQIA+ community.

    Something I have learned as I have aged is my opinion is not needed on most things. Especially as someone who society has catered to for a very long time. It has been almost a month since the opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and I am still upset about some of the backlash. The weird moral outrage thinking it was aimed as an attack on the Last Supper is laughable. But one post in particular still gets under my skin, and it came from a family member’s blog.

    A few weeks ago, a friend of mine messaged me asking if I had read their newest post, and to be honest, I try hard not to. It is usually filled with bad grammar, and rambling thoughts one would expect from a conservative religious boomer who lives in an echo chamber. The title itself was a redflag, I had a feeling this one would be different than normal. Looking back, it took me somewhere around 10 minutes to click on the link because I had to try and prepare what was about to unfold.

    Truely, I wish I were surprised but, there was a lot of anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric, though the author I am sure would never see it that way. From comparing the film, The Dallas Buyers Club, all but stating that is how “real” marginalized Drag Queens live, to reminding readers that the world has always been this way and that’s why God destroyed it during Noah’s time. Stating that there has been “queer” behavior all over the pagan world, until the rise of Christendom, in which it went underground.

    The ignorance displayed in this post, is the same we see all over social media when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community. It reminds me of a story my dad told me about he and his dad. My father was born and raised in Dayton Ohio. During the 1960’s, he was in elementary school, and one day my grandfather and he were walking into the library. When my dad looked down the street he saw something he didn’t understand. So, he asked, “dad, what are all those people doing wearing their bedsheets out?” Not knowing he was witnessing a Klu Klux Klan demonstration, my grandfather responded with, “son, that is ignorance personified.”

    This, without a doubt in my mind, is ignorance personified.

    This type of ignorance is a choice, and people use it as a crutch. It is not on anyone but themselves to learn about what they do not know after they have become aware of it. I have had a lot of conversations with family, friends, and others about the LGBTQIA+ community, and what it means to be an ally. It is always clear who engages, those who are afraid to give up social or societal standing, and those who know they’re “right.” Continued intentional ignorance about the LGBTQIA+ has cost a lot of lives. Especially in the trans community most recently, for example, stated in the medical journal, Innovation in Clinical Neuroscience, “Gender-affirming care has consistently been shown to improve quality of life, improve health outcomes” yet religious conservatives continue to try and block it.

    This week is Pride in exotic Toledo Ohio, and the church I work for has been planning our involvement for most of the year. Pride, being radically welcoming, and actively being a safe space is who our big queer church is. It is how we show others we can be the hands and feet of God. It is how we express the love of Jesus to the stranger, and those millions of sheep that have left the flock. It is how we reach out and say, I see you, and I love you. And I am so honored to belong to this house of worship.