Howard's Sermons and Article Clippings.

Howard's Sermons and Article Clippings.

About Me

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Im a Mainline protestant minister who loves serving in multicultural and urban contexts. I'm very interested in how liberation theology and existential-humanistic psychology are applied to the praxis of pastoral care and counseling. My most profound encounters with God come as we sojourn as brothers and sisters seeking the inbreaking of God's reign, here and now.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sermon: The Great Physician’s Touch Mark 1:21-28

Feb 1, 2008
The Great Physician’s Touch Mark 1:21-28

21They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Now a days, educated and sophisticated people don’t want to talk about things like evil and demons and all that stuff. We are all basically good people, right? It’s all just bad conditions that lead people to do bad things. If we just worked harder to improve things then acts of evil would not happen. Now I appreciate humanistic psychology, and our human capacity to be who God has made us to be. Yet, there are times when we need to be healed by our Great Physican. There are times when we need God to cleanse us from the spiritual poisons and toxins that hinder us from growing as Christians.
Have you ever had a moment where you sensed you encountered someone or something that really seemed evil? Have you ever wanted to have the authority of the priest in the Exorcist movie, and splash holy water on someone, “The power of Christ compels you!” Some of you have seen the documentaries of how the Roman Catholic Church still continues this ritual of purification. Many religions have a similar ritual that gives someone a psychological and spiritual release from the inner demons that are tormenting them.
When I was in seminary I volunteered as a chaplain at San Quentin State Prison. Every week we brought the chapel service to the people living with HIV/AIDs who had to be kept separate from the general prison population. One of the most remarkable encounters I have ever had with the forces of evil came while I was trying to serve communion. There was this scraggly, wild eyed prisoner on the other side of the fence who was determined to do every thing he could disrupt the sacrament. He yelled and screamed and tried to derail the service. I will never forget the looks he gave me. If there was ever a time I wanted to perform an exorcism it was then. He’s lucky I didn’t bring holy water with me that day.
One of the things we need to remember when we wrestle with these questions of good and evil, and the body of Christ’s role in confronting it; is that we too are vulnerable of becoming infected. We need enough humility to go through our own process of being cleansed. Blaise Pascal wrote, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” We should never be so proud and sure of ourselves, that we presume that we do not need to receive a healing touch from the Great Physician.
We have seen the church at it’s worst when it is too sure of itself. In M Scott Peck’s People of the Lie, he warns us that we are on thin ice when we think we are good and all the evil in the world is outside of ourselves. When we have these blinders of denial on, this is when the forces of evil can work on us under the radar.
The Twentieth Century presented us with some challenging questions. Are we basically good as human beings? Students of history and psychology have been debating with the pop-self-help gurus for decades. As Christians, our tradition has kind of a middle of the road position. Yes, we have this notion of original sin. Evil has a stronger hold us, when we don’t have Christ in our life. But in our baptism, this is in some ways an exorcism, where we are cleansed and purified. We are united with Christ, as our new Adam who lifts this burden from us.
When we are baptized we participate in the death and resurrection of our Risen Lord. These cleansing waters enable the Great Physician to enter our lives in a deeper and more complete way. In our Baptism, we have received some of antidote we need against the forces of evil that try to possess our hearts and minds. One of our challenges is not be so puffed up that we think we are immune from evil taking hold in our lives. What’s the old saying, “ Well, Physician heal thyself !” We need to take our medicine if we are to be able to help heal others.
It’s appropriate that the priest performing an exorcism uses holy water. These cleansing waters are instruments of the Great Physician’s touch. What would have happened if a German Catholic priest had the courage to perform an exorcism on Hitler, or a Russian Orthodox Priest to sprinkle holy water on Stalin? Can you imagine how different our world would be today?
There is a remarkable story of two Jewish kids growing up in the Bronx. Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram attended the same kindergarten class. These two boys grew up to be two of the most famous psychologists. It’s poignant that these two Jewish men’s did research that gives us some insight into how something as evil as the holocaust could happen.
Milgrim’s conformity study had people in a lab turning a dial that would shock someone as a form of punishment. The doctor in a white lab coat would tell the subject to keep turning up the dial on the machine to shock this disobedient person in the other room. “It’s for their own good.” The actor would be screaming bloody murder, yet some of the subjects were still willing to turn up the dial.
Zimbardo, Milgrim’s classmate from the Bronx, is well known for his Stanford Prison experiment. He set up a mock prison where college students took on the roles of playing guard and prisoner. Things got so out of hand they had to stop the experiment. Students playing the guards were mistreating the prisoners. If this happens at one of our most prestigious universities with some of our brightest and gifted, what does this say about our common humanity. We need to be humble enough to acknowledge that evil exists in this world and none of us immune from its influence.
Most of our children stories and cartoons have the same overarching theme. The forces of good battling against the forces of evil. As adult we see this all the time in the movies, Star Wars, the Matrix, Batman & Superman. We look for these heroes that give us courage that in the end the forces of evil will be defeated.
In some ways it’s appropriate that we now have a Jesus action figure (minus the kung fu grip). We really don’t need all these super heroes to be inspired and comforted by the hope we have that in Christ, good will finally triumph in the end. When Jesus walked that path to Calvary, and walked out of the empty tomb, Jesus, our Redeemer, conquered evil once and for all.
God’s entire created order was transformed that Easter morning. It’s hard to put words to such an incredible event. When we are baptized, the promise and deliverance of Easter is more fully realized. In these cleansing waters, we are initiated into the body of Christ. Here, the Great Physician is able to administer the vaccine for our souls.
Every Sunday when we pray our confession and assurance of pardon this is a cleansing ritual where our Great Physician can heal us again and again from any emotional or spiritual poison. Like the flu, we will never be fully immune from the evils of this world. But we know whose touch can always deliver us.
The Good News is that we are never beyond the reach of our Great Physician. There is grace and redemption extended to every child of God. We take our own medicine, so we are able to be instruments of God’s healing touch to others. Jesus is always ready and willing. He’s one of the doctors who still makes house calls. Any hour, any distance.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Howard's Proposed Dissertation Project Design

San Francisco Theological Seminary
Dissertation Project Design

1. Title: Empowering Clergy as Crisis Counselors in Urban America

Author: Rev. Howard Dotson Advisor: Rev. Dr. Paul Hertig
Context: Rampart Div. of L.A.P.D. & the Eastern District of St Paul P.D.

2.Problem:

In the North American urban ministry context, gang violence is claiming the lives of far too many young people. In the City of Los Angeles there are forty thousand gang members; most of whom were baptized in Latino Catholic and African American Protestant congregations. In the Rampart Division of LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) it has become evident that many of these grieving families are not receiving immediate pastoral care following a gang related homicide. This is due in part to communication gaps between the Police and the faith communities, but there is also the stigma of being the bereaved parent of a child who is presumed to be a gang member. Like the LAPD, many police departments have clergy councils that could serve as referrals and first responders to provide emotional and spiritual support for these grieving families. Many of the clergy representatives on these councils, however do not have adequate crisis counseling training to serve in this capacity.

3. Purpose:
Improving the communication and response time between the Los Angeles Police Department and the volunteer clergy councils in Los Angeles, CA, where Rev. Dotson worked for 3 years. Such an arrangement of clergy councils will also be assessed with the St. Paul Police Department and the East Side of St. Paul, MN community where he has recently relocated. Rev. Dotson objective is to facilitate the ongoing training with LAPD Clergy Council members and assess the benefits of this model being replicated with the Eastern District of the St Paul Police Dept.
Another objective for this dissertation project is to increase the number of clergy who are equipped with the crisis counseling skills and training necessary to serve bereaved families traumatized by violence in their communities. With this continuing education training, an increased number of clergy will be more effective urban pastoral care providers. They will join a more comprehensive interdisciplinary system working to decrease the psychological and social barriers that hinder the traumatized and grieving families from gaining access to emotional and spiritual resources. These bereaved families need every resource available to them to enhance their coping skills, and thereby minimizing some of common psychological risk factors and vulnerabilities.

4. Scope:

Crisis counseling is a specialized form of pastoral care and counseling that centers around providing emotional and spiritual support to persons who experience a crisis due to a tramautic event that has overwhelmed one’s coping skills. Howard Stone and David Switzer have presented crisis counseling models that are readily applicable to the context of urban pastors providing pastoral care and counseling to bereaved families coping with emotional and spiritual stressors associated with a sudden and traumatic act of violence. The psychological literature demonstrates that there are some common yet unique psychological risk factors that bereaved families encounter as they cope with the loss of a loved one to violence.
In Rev. Dotson’s clinical and pastoral work, these families have frequently presented with vulnerabilities for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Complicated Grief and an increased risk for suicidality. His master’s degree in psychology prior to seminary and ongoing training with the Dr. James Bugental’s Art of Psychotherapist Institute provides some unique clinical and theoretical insight into how clergy can be trained and equipped to provide pastoral care for grieving and bereaved families.
His clinical orientation as an Existential-Humanistic pastoral counselor specifically focuses on how a pastoral care provider assists someone with their ability to face the givens of their human existence and the existential crisis that this traumatic act of violence presents. One’s own mortality is front and center when one grieves the loss of a loved one. One of the coping resources that can be fostered in these crisis counseling sessions is an exploration of how the bereaved might discover meaning in the midst of their despair and feelings of emptiness. How will they define the legacy of their loved one? How might they invite others to join them in paying tribute to their loved one by working together to assure that another mother will not have to endure the tragedy they are facing ? In Rev. Dotson’s pastoral counseling experiences with dozens of bereaved families, this existential-humanistic coping mechanism has consistently proved effective.
This theological and social framework provides a mechanism for the community stakeholders to engage the families in ways that transcend the all too common condescending modes of sympathy. Many grieving families resent and repel being fussed over by people who have good intentions. The bereaved family members increasingly feel isolated as the well wishers quickly shift and go back to life as normal, while they remain in their grief and bereavement.
When the bereaved families see how the community has come together to memorialize the fallen through commitments to peacemaking and reconciliation, their coping resources will be strengthened. Together they find a common mission that enables them to engage these new friends and colleagues. Bereavement is for a life time. Clergy crisis counselors can help organize these community stakeholders as agents of meaning-making that envelope these bereaved families. This is a long term coping strategy that helps sustain the bereaved over the months and years following the loss of their loved one.

5. Method including data sources and research steps, and the implementation, evaluation, and testing of the project;

Over the past four years, Rev. Dotson has worked with the LAPD and the Mayor’s Crisis Response Team to provide pastoral care and counseling to dozens of grieving families following a gang related homicide in the West LA and Rampart Divisions. The City of Los Angeles and the City Attorney’s have presented him with several commendations for this work.
In his new context on the East side St Paul, the scale and scope of violent crimes is fractional compared to Los Angeles, but the community surrounding Arlington Hills Presbyterian Church (AHP) has the highest crime rate for the entire city. This is a diverse community predominantly comprised of impoverished African American, Latino and Asian at-risk-youth vulnerable to gang recruitment. When Rev. Dotson was hired by the AHP session as Interim minister, the session members endorsed his community outreach to the Police Dept and the ecumenical community.
Rev. Dotson presently serves as a volunteer chaplain with the St Paul Police Dept. Commander Martinez, the Senior Commander for the Eastern District of the St Paul Police Dept. has engaged him to serve as a resource and liaison with the growing Latino community in the district. As collaborative partners, they are actively confronting the stigmatization families experience after a gang-related-homicide. As an extension of the St Paul PD Chaplaincy unit, they partner to ensure that the grieving families receive the emotional and spiritual support they need to cope with the traumatic event and their grief and bereavement.
Over the past six months, five candle light vigils have been organized to provide emotional and spiritual support to the bereaved family members and the traumatized community members. This has been well received by the community stake holders in St Paul. Many residents feel powerless and overwhelmed. This liturgical ritual allows the community to come together and provide emotional and spiritual support to the families. After the clergy crisis counselor has provided this ritual, the family is more receptive to the clergy for a follow-up consultation that enables pastoral assessment, crisis counseling and possible referral to appropriate mental health professionals.
The candle light vigils are points of contact with the family members and friends to assess the level of emotional and spiritual resources available to them. If they are affiliated with a particular parish/congregation and have already connected with their primary pastoral care provider, then deference is afforded to this clergy person. More often then not, however, the family has yet to engage their pastor because the funeral is days off.
In the Los Angeles context, if there is a crisis counselor already working with the family, then the pastoral care provider defers to h/her and takes their lead on what the families’ presenting needs are. In the St Paul context, the chaplaincy unit provides the short term crisis counseling at the scene of the crime or at the hospital. Clergy in both contexts will be advised and trained on how to function appropriately within the duties and responsibilities assigned to the various agencies that have been organized to assist the crime victim’s families.

6. Representative Bibliography

Batestone, D. (1993) New Visions of the Americas: Religious Engagement and Social Transformation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press

Bodenhamer, D. (1998) Voices of Faith: Making a Difference in Urban Neighborhoods. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

*Bugental, JFT. (1965) The Search for Authenticity: An Existential-Analytic Approach to Psychotherapy. New York Holt Rhinehart & Winston

Corr,C. & Balk,D. (2004) Handbook of Adolescent Death and Bereavement. NY:Springer.

Claerbaut, D.( 2005) Urban Ministry in a New Millenium. London: Authentic Media.

Culbertson, P. (2000) Caring for God’s People: Counseling for Christian Wholeness.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Delgado,G. (1994) Beyond the Politics of Place: New Directions in Community Organizing in the 1990s. Oakland, CA: Applied Research Ctr.

Doyle, P. (1980) Grief Counseling and Sudden Death: A Manual and Guide. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas

Dolendorf, D. (1999) Post Traumatic Stress Disoder. Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine.

Guder & Barret. (1998) The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Vision for the
Sending of the Church in North America. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Lawrenz & Green (1996) Overcoming Grief and Trauma. Grand Rapids, MI. Fleming H. Revell.

*May, R. (1950) The Meaning of Anxiety. New York: WW Norton.

Humprhey, G & Zimpfer, D. (1996) Counseling for Grief and Bereavement. London: Sage.

Pattison, S. (1994) Liberation Theology and Pastoral Care. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Press.

Oates, W. (1997) Grief, Transition and Loss: A Pastor’s Practical Guide. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Peters R. (2007) An Introduction to Urban Ministry. Nashville: Abingdon

Rogers-Fuller, D. (2002) Pastoral Care for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Philadelphia: Haworth Press.

Rosenthal & Mizrahi (1994) Strategic Partnerships: How to Create & Maintain Interorganizational Collaborations & Coalitions. New York: Hunter College School of Social Work

Schoenberg, B.M.(1980) Bereavement Counseling: A Multidisciplinary Handbook. Wesport, CT:Greenwood Press.

Shapiro, E. (1999) Grief as Family Process: The Circumstances of the Death and the Structure of Grief. Guilford, NY

Stone, B. (1996) Compassionate Ministry: Theological Foundations. New York:Orbis

*Stone, H (1993) Crisis Counseling. Rev. ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

*Stone, H (1994) Brief Pastoral Counseling. Minneapolis:Fortress Press.

Stone, H (2001) Brief Pastoral Counseling: Short Term Approaches and Strategies. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

* Switzer, D (1986) The Minister as Crisis Counselor. Minneapolis: Fortress Press:

* Switzer, D (2000) Pastoral Care Emergencies. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Van Gelder, C.(2007) The Ministry of the Missional Church. Grand Rapids, MI:Baker Books.

Wicks, Parsons & Capps (1993) Clinical Handbook of Pastoral Counseling. V. 1& 3 New York: Paulist Press.


7. Contributions which you expect the work to make to the practice of ministry in the contemporary world;

This training model of empowering clergy as crisis counselors will enhance an urban pastor’s ability to partner with local law enforcement personnel and city officials to confront the psychological and sociological barriers that hinder families from receiving critical emotional and spiritual resources. Urban pastors are called to be prophetic social change agents who confront some of the deleterious social patterns that too frequently blame the victims.
The bereaved families need the broader community to surround them with love, compassion and spiritual support. How will we make meaning out of this? How can we discover hope in the midst of this tragedy and despair? Finding a constructive answer to this pervasive existential question is a critical coping resource that helps decrease the bereaved person’s vulnerabilities for further psychological problems as they continue their difficult journey. Urban pastors serving as crisis counselors need to posses some specific knowledge and skills set to provide emotional and spiritual support to these bereaved families and to engage the proper referral mechanisms, when and if it is warranted.

8. The time schedule you expect to follow;

Feb 24 2009
• Clergy consultation with Rampart Clergy Council
• Compile course evaluations

April 2009
• Present findings to Commander Martinez and the St Paul Chaplaincy Unit
• Assess the feasibility of replicating this model
with St Paul clergy serving the Eastside of St Paul
• Arrange a clergy consultation with Latino clergy in
the Eastern District of St Paul PD to address the stigma and isolation that bereaved families frequently endure after a traumatic act of violence.

May 2009
Continued research, pastoral praxis and the production of the dissertation.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

A Broken System: Sojourners Magazine

For the first time in history, according to a recent study by the Pew Center on the States, more than one in every 100 adults in the U.S. is in jail or prison. There has not been, however, a correlating decrease in crime. “The education system, particularly for inner-city youth where the bulk of our prisoners come from, is abysmal,” Carol Fennelly, executive director of Hope House, a Washington, D.C.-based organization supporting prisoners’ families, told Sojourners. “We need real job opportunities and a reformed society in which people don’t end up in prison in the first place.” Here are some numbers:

67 percent: People released from prison who are re-arrested within three years.
32 percent: Increase in federal prisoners between 2000 and 2007, which coincides with the 454 new offenses added to the federal criminal code during that same period.
7.4 million. Number of people under the control of the U.S. criminal justice system in 2007.
83.5 percent: People in jail in 2002 who earned less than $2,000 per month prior to arrest.
64 percent: Increase in criminal justice-related government spending between 1996 and 2005, reaching a height of $213 billion in 2005.

Sources: “Moving Target: A Decade of Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex” (Justice Policy Institute, September 2008); “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008” (The Pew Center on the States); The Washington Post.
Children of Abraham United As Peacemakers

Isaiah 2:2-4

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Luke 22:47-53

47While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; 48but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?” 49When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?” 50Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. 52Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? 53When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!”

Many times, with candles burning and hearts warmed by family and friends gathered to comfort one another, we have read these passages at candle vigils for peace on the Eastside and Los Aneleges. In these scriptures, our prayers and songs; we remember God’s enduring vision of a world where there are no more tears. One day there will be no more mothers bearing a broken heart because she has lost her precious child to violence.
Today, Dr Reiter will share with us a beacon of hope from the Holy land. In at least two places in the Holy Land, Jews and Muslims can cooperate and accommodate one another’s need to worship and praise God. In our interfaith dialogues, we discover this eternal truth. As children of Abraham; Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, are called to be peacemakers. Father Abraham and the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us are waiting and hoping us to realize greater peace and reconciliation here on the Eastside and across distant shores in the Holy Land.
Now I’m not naive to presume that soon and very soon, we will create a utopia through our bent knees and strained backs. Like Reihnold Neibuhr, we recognize a realism that there is evil in this world that from time to time we have to confront. Nonetheless, we pray and work for that day when the swords and spears are transformed into instruments that bring us our daily bread instead of daily headlines, “if it bleeds it leads.” As the children of Abraham, we work for this vision of a Wew Jerusalem to come into reality, but our human efforts alone will never make things complete. The Spiritual descendants of Abraham join hearts and hands to grow closer and closer to this vision of what God has created us to be. As fellow instruments of peace, who see our neighbours near and far as precious and fragile jar of clay carrying the image and destiny of our Creator.
One of things that I continue to press when people question if these tragic losses are God’s will. These bullets, missiles and bombs that bring far too many broken hearts are not part of God’s will. The violence here on the Eastside of St Paul, in the streets of Gaza and Southern Israel are not part of God’s plan. We remember the call of Isaiah and how Jesus lived the final days of his ministry. When Jesus was most tempted to resort to violence he kept the cup that was set for him and healed the temple guards ear. For two thousand years, Jesus’ words transcends the chapters of history. “No more of this!” Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.
Our ancestors have endured many oppressive nights. In spite of the hate and rage, we must transcend these poisonous temptations and embrace our higher and truer natures. Jesus reminds us in his Sermon on the Mount the difficult but necessary work of forgiveness and loving our enemies. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:38–39. “If we practice an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth, we will all be blind and tootheless.”

For too long we have allowed the thirst for revenge to shape our sense of what justice is. We pick and choose from the sacred texts to justify our tit for tat understanding of justice. We don’t wont to swallow the hard and bitter truth that if we are ever to see this new Jerusalem in our lives we must forgive and turn the other cheek. At some point, the madness of this back and forth has to stop. Our hearts and minds must experience the touch of God’s healing Spirit that enables us to forgive and forego our thirst for revenge. Are we willing lay our lives and let go of our temporary and fleeting sense of satisfaction? When will we finally accept that this emptiness will remain long after we our futile attempt to achieve closure through revenge? Its only God’s healing touch and the promise of God’s liberating Spirit that will enable all the Children of Abraham to be united in our common calling to be peacemakers.
May the swords and spears become instruments of food security. May the wounds we have afflicted one another be healed by God’s healing touch. Not only the wounds that bleed, but the scars deep within our hearts and minds that hinder our ability to join hearts and hands as the stars in the sky that God promised to Abraham long ago. May these lights of the new Jerusalem shine brighter and truer, this very hour and forever.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Sermon: Keep Looking for the Angels John 1:43-51

Keep Looking for the Angels

John 1:43-51

43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Tommorow across our nation people will gather to remember the life and ministry of Dr. King. As a denomination, thousands of our congregations will be observing race relations Sunday today. Presbyterians were very active in the Civil Rights Movement. My mentor in seminary led a busload of seminarians to work in Selma. This is part of heritage that we remember as a nation remembers Dr. King’s dream. We have made huge strides but the dream is still not fully realized. As Christ’s disciples, we continue to dream and seek out the angels. These angels of love and forgiveness lead us in the difficult but necessary work of reconciliation among God’s children.
We are a people who have struggled to keep our practices in line with our principles. Our forefathers fought to lift the yoke of colonial oppression, but the rights of native Americans, Africans and women were not on their radar. I am not shaming or bashing America. I want to see her light shine bright on the hill.
When the Mayflower set sail from Holland they had a vision of this new promised land where followers of Calvin could shape a new order. That first winter was brutal. Half of the pilgrims perished. It was the native Americans who were angels that came to their aid and gave them food. When the ground thawed the Native Americans coached the pilgrims on the native plants that would thrive in this new land. Let’s keep looking for the angels that God sends us today.
Like Thanksgiving, tomorrow is a day when we remember where we came from and discern where we are going. We have a painful history but we also have an awesome story of growing into a more just society. The Hebrew prophets and Jesus’ life and ministry have been the conscience of our nation. When we find ourselves off track we look to this book for guidance. We are kept honest by the eternal truth the Holy Spirit shines in our hearts and minds.
In our gospel lesson we see some of Jesus’ first followers joining his ranks. Even the Son of Man, had to face some prejudice. Nathaniel is credulous. He asks with derision, “ Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Use your imagination, if you were a minority in America, how do you think this passage would come across to you? Do you think some folks find comfort knowing that Jesus too faced prejudice in his public ministry? Jesus faced a tough crowd and his poor, rural roots defied many of his peoples expectations.
In our second reading, Jesus has to show his power and insight to convince Nathaniel that he is the promised one sent by God. So what if Jesus does not exactly come from the area where some of the prophecies predicted. God is God, and we are mere mortals. If God chooses to adjust the game plan, we are mere water boys on the sidelines. You will see in Matthew’s nativity how careful he is to line up Jesus’ childhood with the historical sites associated with the promised messiah. We can see some of these differing concerns that each gospel writer has. What is critical for Matthew, is not an issue for John. So when it exactly did Nathaniel see the angels descending and ascending upon the son of Man? Was this at the transfiguration? Did this take place in the upper room when Jesus returned to them after the empty tomb?
Ever since the Temple was destroyed in 70AD, the holy of holies is no longer a building. The church of Jesus Christ is made up of the hearts and hands who gather in the name of Jesus. The church is present wherever two or three are gathered. John Calvin wrote in his institutes that each of us are temples of the Holy Spirit. We carry the light and salt within us wherever we go. Every place is sacred where two or more have together proclaim the Gospel of our Lord.
Whenever we are about the ministry of peace and reconciliation the angels of heaven come to attend us. Yes, this world has a cruel history, but for every painful chapter there has been a gathering of faith disciples who carry the Holy Spirit within them. Someone once said, that we help set the thermostat of our society. When things get cold and frozen, God sets a fire in us to dethaw the frigid hearts that refuse to extend the love of Christ.
I am not a life long Presbyterian. I grew up Nazarene in the north-west suburbs. As I have mentioned before, I struggled in this church. I felt our perspective was to narrow. The social gospel emphasis on peace and reconciliation was ridiculed. They only wanted to focus on winning people souls and disregarded any of the social ills plague the least among us. I could no longer be part of a fellowship that allowed racism and prejudice to go unchecked.
After I left the U of M, I went to New York to work in a private psychiatric hospital. I attended worship with one of the physicians who happened to be a Presbyterian. I like to joke that it was predestined that I became Presbyterian. The very first Presbyterian sermon I heard, the pastor used an illustration of serving as Freedom Rider in Selma. I knew then, that I found a home where my hunger for peace and reconciliation could be fed.
We are not mere social activists. In today’s officer's class, we will study the PC(USA) list of the Great Ends of the Church. One of the key points is the promotion of social righteousness. As people of faith, we must not shy away from our calling to be prophetic voices. It’s not always comfortable, but we must stoke a holy dissatisfaction for this gap between the conditions of our world, and the New Jerusalem we are called to help create through the Holy Spirit.
God’s angels are ascending and descending with every social movement that works to preserve the rights and dignity of God’s children. In every chapter of history, we can find a remnant that walked their own Via Dela Rosa to be faithful to Christ’s calling. We need to prepare ourselves for what the world throws at us when we shine the light of Christ through our lives.
Even when we are unpopular and hated for being faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we walk on. Dr. King knew for a long time that the path he was walking could lead to his own Calvary. The night before that tragic day in Memphis, Dr King assured the congregation. “I’m not worried I have seen the promised land. My eyes I have seen the glory of the coming of Lord.” In Dr. King’s dream do you think these angels were coming and going to tend to the people who would carry the mantel for him after he was gone? Dr. King gave his life so our nation could be transformed into the dream that has become our dream as a nation.
Now I understand that not many of us have the courage of a Dr King or Ganhdi. We won’t be called to lay down our lives for our friends. Nonetheless, every follow of Christ is called to extend sacrificial love to others. Yes, we are brother’s keeper. This is a key part of growth in spiritual maturity. To get out ourselves, and pour our lives into something that is bigger than any one of us.
Without the Angels above and beside us, we lose perspective on what God has placed us here to do. When we feel that hunger in our bones. When a chill goes down our spine, and we feel a heart connection with one of God’s children on the other side of a social divide, an angel has visited us. When we sense the Holy Spirit moving in us and through others, let’s be awake to the dream that is working become a reality.
Our nation is preparing for remarkable chapter in our history. May Dr. King’s dream continue to unfold as a fuller reality. There is still a lot of work to be done. God never promised this would be easy. Keep looking for the Angels who will come to help carry this yoke we carry. We may grow tired and weary but God’s eternal Spirit will come again to sustain us.
Tomorrow may our hearts and minds be renewed with hope and a renewed resolve to love all of God’s children. We don’t see a race, gender or a class of people. Whether we are from Nazareth, West Africa, Norway or Sweden, we are all part of God’s family. May God’s Spirit clear anything from us that keeps us from seeing the wonder and beauty of God’s creation in all peoples.

Lola Michaud's Funeral Meditation

Lola Michaud’s Funeral Service Jan 17, 2008

God's Love Endures Forever Romans 8: 35, 37-39

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ....” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Jan, Sharon and Debbie our thoughts and prayers are with your family as you place your mom to rest. We hope that our gestures of love and compassion help lift the yoke you bear. We will do our best to just be with you and not say things because we don’t know what to say. Like our Good Shepherd, we are here to walk with so you don’t feel isolated in your pain. This journey of grief and bereavement is longer than many of us ever anticipate. Life will not just go back to normal in a few weeks. As a congregation, as family and friends, we walk with you all the way.
One of my favourite lines from the movies is, “We say never say goodbye, only see you later.” As Christians we understand that when we received the waters from this font, we participated in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were born again in these waters of Jordan, so death no longer has a hold on us. Jesus has signed, sealed and delivered our passport to eternity. Paul wrote, “Death where is thy victory, where is thy sting.” Yes, we grieve but these tears in the context of knowing where we are going when we Passover into the New Jerusalem. It’s not goodbye, its see you later. No more tears, no more pain. Celestial choirs, placid lakes and all of our friends and loved ones waiting with our Good Shepherd to embrace us again.
When Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome he was ending his
ministry.Paul knew what was in store for him. His colleagues warned him not to go to Jerusalem but he kept on, knowing the risks he would face. The very people Paul once led, are now after him to silence his voice and the truth he could not help but shout from the roof tops.
Paul knows something about death. He oversaw the group that killed Stephen, our first Christian martyr. It can be hard for us 2000 years later to appreciate the hardships that our ancestors went through before we became the official religion of Rome. Paul is writing to a people who face the very real threat of losing their life for their faith. Paul is being pastoral to a community very anxious about their own mortality. They are human, having second thoughts and doubts are part of our humanity.
It’s in this context that Paul reminds us that God is good, and God is faithful. God came to us in Bethlehem and liberated us once and for all on Calvary. This storm is over. We never have to wonder if God will follow through. When we read God’s holy Word we see how God has kept his covenants with Noah, Abraham, David and now with Jesus our Redeemer.
If there was any question of whether God will follow through Jesus’ departure from the empty tomb and reappearance in the Upper room helps us resolve any doubts.
Lola and Jim are together again. They are watching over their family and friends. Like that scene in Our Town, they are looking back over their lives and seeing more of what life is really about. There are so many opportunities that are before us. Take the time to be with one another. Lola and Jim are with the cloud of witnesses’ nudging us to remember our baptism and trust that God will follow through on his promise when our times come to join them.
Lola came into this world when cars were starting to fill the streets. She was only six years old when the depression hit. The family gathered around the radio to listen to FDR give fireside chats. A reassuring voice in anxious and difficult times. She was part of the greatest generation who led our nation through the war to end all wars. Lola and her generation can teach us something about how we can of triumph over adversities.
We live in anxious times. Yet we walk on with hope and assurances because we know who holds the future, and who holds us in eternal love.
One of the things that stood out for me when I heard some of Lola’s life review was that she was Lutheran and Jim was Catholic. I guess being Presbyterian was the goldie-locks option right in the middle. AHP's first campus on Edgerton was just a block away from where they raised their girls.
When Lola and Jim chose AHP they wanted to be part of a neighbourhood church. These denominational differences did not matter so much. Jim made sure that the girls got to church on Sunday. Lola and Jim have modeled for us the unity that we are called to live out as humble servants in Christ’s body. We are all parts of one body. Branches leading out from the one true vine.
No matter where we started, we come together to appreciate all that we have in common. AHP continues to be a neighbourhood church that embraces folks from many backgrounds. I have a hunch that Lola and Jim were part of the building of this come as you are hospitality. No one has all the right answers. We just want our children to grow and learn how to love their God and their neighbors as themselves. We come together to learn how to love one another as God loves us. We will never reach the top but we keep our compass aligned with how Jesus lived and what he continues to teach us.
Brothers and sisters this is the Good News. God’s promise to us will never fail. God’s love will hold us forever. The Good Shepherd will never abandon his sheep. Lola has passed through her darkest valley and the Shepherd has carried her through to calmer waters and green pastures.
Her life and legacy lives on in you. Tell each other the stories about Lola. I bet there are new things you will learn about her. Remember her for the entire life she lived. Well done good and faithful servant. Be at peace.

Flyer for Feb 24th 2-5 Rampart Station of LAPD

Empowering Clergy as Crisis Counselors
Tues. Feb 24th 2-5 PM

Many of our community stakeholders look to their faith community leaders for emotional and spiritual support when tragedy strikes. Far too many Angelenos have endured the hardships of losing a loved one to gang violence without adequate emotional and spiritual support.
There is a significant gap between the average clergy person’s counseling training and the common perceptions and expectations in our communities. Most seminarians only receive one course in pastoral care and counseling. Crisis Counseling skills and the common risks factors associated with traumatic acts of violence are not usually in the curriculum. Several psychologists on staff with the LAPD will lead workshops on:

• PTSD
• Complicated Grief
• Assessing for Suicide risk

As urban pastors, we need continuing education if we are to serve as effective pastoral counseling resources for the LAPD clergy councils. By attending this consultation and remaining active in your local LAPD Clergy Council, you will be part of a growing community of faith leaders working together for peace and reconciliation in Los Angeles.


Rampart Clergy Council
Community Room at the Rampart Community Police Station
1401 W 6th St LA, CA 90017

Parking is available across the street on 6th St.
RSVP with Rev. Howard Dotson
hr_dotson@yahoo.com (612) 702-3151

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Dr. King’s I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington

Dr. King’s I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington
August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.


I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Friday, January 16, 2009

Marriage Equality Act: MN State Senate

Dear Friends:

I was at the State Senate hearing today with my collar on to witness with our GLBT brothers and sisters. They need to see that there are clergy out there who are blinded by bigotry and intolerance. There is a lot of healing and reconciliation work ahead of us. I left a note for State Senator Moua to listen to her conscience and the hunger for justice that resides in her bones.

Please alert your friends and allies in MN to lobby for this bill to clear through the MN senate. Prop 8 in CA is not the last word. All people of faith and conscience must be heard this time.
______________________________________________________________________
Marriage Equality Act
S.F. No. 120, as introduced - 86th Legislative Session (2009-2010)


1.1A bill for an act
1.2relating to marriage; providing for gender-neutral marriage laws; enacting
1.3the Marriage and Family Protection Act;amending Minnesota Statutes 2008,
1.4sections 363A.27; 517.01; 517.03, subdivision 1; 517.08, subdivision 1a; 517.09.
1.5BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.6 Section 1. CITATION.
1.7This act shall be known as the "Marriage and Family Protection Act."

1.8 Sec. 2. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.
1.9(a) The legislature makes the findings and declarations in paragraphs (b) to (h).
1.10(b) Marriage is a legal institution recognized by the state to promote stable
1.11relationships and to protect people in those relationships and their children.
1.12(c) Minnesota's current marriage law discriminates against same-sex couples,
1.13denying them and their families rights and responsibilities, including the right to pension
1.14and Social Security survivor's benefits, the right to family and medical leave, and
1.15numerous other benefits and obligations.
1.16(d) The state has an interest in encouraging stable relationships regardless of the
1.17gender or sexual orientation of the partners and the entire community benefits when
1.18couples undertake the mutual obligations of marriage.
1.19(e) Despite long-standing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
1.20transgender Minnesotans, many have formed lasting, committed, and caring relationships
1.21with persons of the same sex. These couples share lives together, participate in their
1.22communities together, and many raise children and care for dependent family members
2.1together. Permitting same-sex couples to marry would further Minnesota's interest in
2.2promoting family relationships and protecting family members during life crises.
2.3(f) Fundamental fairness requires that same-sex couples be permitted to marry on
2.4the same terms as heterosexual couples.
2.5(g) Minnesota's exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage serves no legitimate
2.6government purpose and is contrary to the public interest. The discrimination and harm
2.7caused by the prohibition of same-sex marriage cannot be remedied except by permitting
2.8those couples to marry.
2.9(h) The state should not interfere with the religious beliefs of its people. Just as a
2.10church or religious denomination that objects to same-sex marriage has the right to refuse
2.11to solemnize those marriages, a church or religious denomination that believes in the value
2.12of same-sex marriage should have the right to solemnize those marriages.

2.13 Sec. 3. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 363A.27, is amended to read:
2.14363A.27 CONSTRUCTION OF LAW.
2.15Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to:
2.16(1) mean the state of Minnesota condones homosexuality or bisexuality or any
2.17equivalent lifestyle;
2.18(2) authorize or permit the promotion of homosexuality or bisexuality in education
2.19institutions or require the teaching in education institutions of homosexuality or
2.20bisexuality as an acceptable lifestyle; or
2.21(3) authorize or permit the use of numerical goals or quotas, or other types
2.22of affirmative action programs, with respect to homosexuality or bisexuality in the
2.23administration or enforcement of the provisions of this chapter; or.
2.24(4) authorize the recognition of or the right of marriage between persons of the
2.25same sex.

2.26 Sec. 4. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 517.01, is amended to read:
2.27517.01 MARRIAGE A CIVIL CONTRACT.
2.28Marriage, so far as its validity in law is concerned, is a civil contract between
2.29a man and a woman two persons, to which the consent of the parties, capable in law
2.30of contracting, is essential. Lawful marriage may be contracted only between persons
2.31of the opposite sex and only when a license has been obtained as provided by law and
2.32when the marriage is contracted in the presence of two witnesses and solemnized by one
2.33authorized, or whom one or both of the parties in good faith believe to be authorized, so to
2.34do. Marriages subsequent to April 26, 1941, not so contracted shall be null and void.

3.1 Sec. 5. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 517.03, subdivision 1, is amended to read:
3.2 Subdivision 1. General. (a) The following marriages are prohibited:
3.3(1) a marriage entered into before the dissolution of an earlier marriage of one of
3.4the parties becomes final, as provided in section 518.145 or by the law of the jurisdiction
3.5where the dissolution was granted;
3.6(2) a marriage between an ancestor and a descendant, or between a brother and a
3.7sister, whether the relationship is by the half or the whole blood or by adoption; and
3.8(3) a marriage between an uncle and a niece, between an aunt and a nephew, or
3.9between first cousins, whether the relationship is by the half or the whole blood, except as
3.10to marriages permitted by the established customs of aboriginal cultures; and.
3.11(4) a marriage between persons of the same sex.
3.12(b) A marriage entered into by persons of the same sex, either under common law or
3.13statute, that is recognized by another state or foreign jurisdiction is void in this state and
3.14contractual rights granted by virtue of the marriage or its termination are unenforceable in
3.15this state.

3.16 Sec. 6. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 517.08, subdivision 1a, is amended to read:
3.17 Subd. 1a. Form. Application for a marriage license shall be made upon a form
3.18provided for the purpose and shall contain the following information:
3.19(1) the full names of the parties and the sex of each party;
3.20(2) their post office addresses and county and state of residence;
3.21(3) their full ages;
3.22(4) if either party has previously been married, the party's married name, and the
3.23date, place and court in which the marriage was dissolved or annulled or the date and
3.24place of death of the former spouse;
3.25(5) if either party is a minor, the name and address of the minor's parents or guardian;
3.26(6) whether the parties are related to each other, and, if so, their relationship;
3.27(7) the name and date of birth of any child of which both parties are parents, born
3.28before the making of the application, unless their parental rights and the parent and child
3.29relationship with respect to the child have been terminated;
3.30(8) address of the bride and groom parties after the marriage to which the court
3.31administrator shall send a certified copy of the marriage certificate;
3.32(9) the full names the parties will have after marriage and the parties' Social Security
3.33numbers. The Social Security numbers must be collected for the application but must not
3.34appear on the marriage license;
4.1(10) if one or both of the parties to the marriage license has a felony conviction
4.2under Minnesota law or the law of another state or federal jurisdiction, the parties shall
4.3provide to the county proof of service upon the prosecuting authority and, if applicable,
4.4the attorney general, as required by section 259.13 ; and
4.5(11) notice that a party who has a felony conviction under Minnesota law or the law
4.6of another state or federal jurisdiction may not use a different surname after marriage
4.7except as authorized by section 259.13 , and that doing so is a gross misdemeanor.

4.8 Sec. 7. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 517.09, is amended to read:
4.9517.09 SOLEMNIZATION.
4.10No particular form is required to solemnize a marriage, except: the parties shall
4.11declare in the presence of a person authorized to solemnize marriages and two attending
4.12witnesses that they take each other as husband and, wife, or spouse; or the marriage shall
4.13be solemnized in a manner provided by section 517.18 .

4.14 Sec. 8. REVISOR'S INSTRUCTION.
4.15The revisor shall change any terms that specifically refer to husband or wife or male
4.16or female in the context of a marriage relationship to the gender-neutral term "spouse" or
4.17to include that term wherever those terms occur in Minnesota Statutes or Minnesota Rules.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

HIV/AIDS Awareness Meditation for the PC(USA) Mission Yearbook

Sunday, October 11



Minute for Mission: HIV/AIDS Awareness

The Lord’s Day

The face of AIDS is changing, but how many of our congregations are aware of this? Many people see HIV/AIDS as primarily a concern in the gay community and sub-Saharan Africa. Our last PC(USA) policy statement on HIV/AIDS was adopted in 1988. Imagine how dramatically the face of AIDS has changed since then! For such a time as this, the 218th General Assembly (2008) directed the Advisory Committee for Social Witness and Policy (ACSWP) to organize a small group of experts and stakeholders to study our faith response to this crisis and to prepare a report for our 219th General Assembly (2010) in Minneapolis.

In these past twenty-five years, just as the face of AIDS has changed, so has the Twin Cities area been transformed by the diversity of our new neighbors from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We rank fourth in the nation for refugee resettlement populations. The Hebrew prophetic call to embrace the stranger among us has new and special meaning.

In Minnesota, 68 percent of the new HIV infections among women occurred in women of color, according to the Minnesota AIDS Project. Micah’s call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God challenges us to develop new, local HIV/AIDS ministries in our diverse racial ethnic communities. The face of AIDS has changed but do our ministries reflect this new reality? The church of Jesus Christ needs to see the new face of AIDS and to live out Micah’s call for justice, kindness, and humility.

—Rev. Howard Dotson, board member, Presbyterian AIDS Network

Prayer

Loving God, touch our hearts with your immense love and compassion. We are all connected as members of your one body. When one of us has AIDS, we all have AIDS. Open our eyes to see and respond to the new face of AIDS. We pray for the day when we have a cure that is accessible to all. Melt us and mold us into instruments of your peace. Amen.

Friday, January 9, 2009

What You Dont Know About Gaza

What You Don't Know About Gaza
By RASHID KHALIDI

NEARLY everything you've been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gazhttp://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42197a like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE Israel's blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.

The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment - with the tacit support of the United States - of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn't really about rockets. Nor is it about "restoring Israel's deterrence," as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people."

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming "Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East." He serves on the advisory board of Friends of Sabeel-North America.

January 8, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Lisa Albrecht: Its Not Hateful to Criticize the Israeli Government St Paul Pioneer Press

It's not hateful to criticize the Israeli government
By Lisa Albrecht

Updated: 01/07/2009 05:40:31 PM CST


As a Jew and citizen of the U.S., I am outraged, sick to my stomach, and aching in my heart. First, I say that it is not anti-American to criticize the U.S. government, just as it does not signify Jew-hatred to criticize the Israeli government.

Second, I say that there is not one monolithic Jewish community or voice in the world, the U.S., or Minnesota, though mainstream Jewish organizations that are pro-Israel get the most media coverage.

There are many Jews all over the world who do not unequivocally support Israeli government policy. I am a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; we support a free Palestine that can determine its own future and an end to Israeli apartheid of Palestine. We stand in opposition to the ideology of Zionism, which has resulted in Israeli government policy to try to remove all Palestinians from Israel. By being a Zionist state, Israel legally privileges Jews over Arabs. Over the past 12 days, you have seen this ideology dramatically in action — an air and ground war that has killed more than 650 people in Gaza, and injured more than 3,000 Palestinians. Shifa Hospital in Gaza reports that the majority of the injured and killed have been Gazan families, not armed Hamas soldiers.

The Israeli government says that it is acting to end Hamas' rule in Gaza. Remember, both the U.S. and Israel supported democratic elections in Palestine, and Hamas was democratically elected. When countries negotiate for peace, they


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do not get to tell the other side who can sit at the table.
Israel says it has attacked Gaza because Hamas soldiers have shot thousands of rockets at Israel. I do not condone this bombing, but let me ask you, what would you do if you were part of a population of over 1.5 million people in one of the most densely populated places in the world? Your borders have been closed by Israel for 18 months. You do not have access to enough food for your family, or medical care, electricity, water or gasoline. You have no income, live under constant curfew, and your olive and vegetable fields have been destroyed by Israel. When a people are treated inhumanely and violently, it is no surprise that they fight back. No wonder that the Israeli government will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza to report on its destruction.

Again, the Israeli government justifies the war because of the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas into Israel. However, since September 2000, here is some startling data that we do not read about:


1,062 Israelis killed AND 4,876 Palestinians killed;

123 Israeli children killed AND 1,050 Palestinian children killed;

8,341 Israelis injured AND 33,034 Palestinians injured;

One Israeli political prisoner held AND 10,756 Palestinian political prisoners held;

And for us in the U.S., perhaps the most important number, during fiscal year 2007, the U.S. government gave $6.8 million a day to Israel (and less than $300,000 to Palestine). (My source for these numbers is the Web site ifamericansknew.org.)
I was in Gaza in December, 1990, with a women's peace brigade 15 days before the first Gulf War started. I met with Palestinian peace activists, mothers, daycare workers, teachers and doctors. The poverty was dramatic. Children played in crowded alleys as open sewage ran between their legs. The people wanted peace, and did not hate Jews. And I thought that the conditions I witnessed then were horrendous. I also visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum; when I saw the photos of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, I started to shake. They looked like the Palestinians I had just visited in Gaza.

Israeli government policy gives me, an American Jew, the right to "return" to Israel and get immediate citizenship, even though it is not my homeland. However, Palestinian families who have lived on the land for generations, and were removed in 1948, have no right of return. Nor do they have any recourse when the wall put up by the Israeli government separates them from work, family, access to water and highways, and even divides Palestinian villages themselves.

The Jan. 5 headline in Haaretz, the largest Israeli newspaper, quotes foreign minister Tzipi Livni, saying "Israel will no longer show restraint when attacked." This is the person who is hoping to be the next prime minister of Israel in elections happening in a month. If 18 months of total lockdown of Gaza was showing restraint, what in God's name is going to happen to the innocent people of Gaza?

What must we do? We must demand that our elected officials call for an immediate ceasefire and an opening of Gaza's borders. I do not believe that using violence will end this crisis. History has shown us that there are successful nonviolent ways to work for justice. In the 1980s across the globe, individuals, colleges, entire cities and states, and businesses stopped buying anything made in South Africa, and governments that had invested in South African bonds got rid of them. Working with black South African leaders, the world ended apartheid.

We must challenge the Israeli government by hitting them where it hurts — financially. We must call on Gov. Tim Pawlenty to cut our trade and investment ties with Israel. We must support the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee. Read labels when you shop. Find out where your retirement money is invested. Hold Israel responsible for its violations of international law and Palestinian rights, and hold our elected officials responsible.

Do not let mainstream Jews and their organizations call you "Jew-haters." Have courage and speak out. Do not be silent about Gaza. Salaam/shalom.

Lisa Albrecht is an activist educator and writer. She is associate professor and Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Distinguished Professor of Teaching in the School of Social Work of the University of Minnesota. The views expressed here are her own. Her e-mail address is lalbrech@umn.edu.

Rabbi Heir: The Jews Face a Double Standard Washington Post

The Jews Face a Double Standard

Why doesn't Israel have the same right to self-defense as other nations?

By Marvin Hier


The world-wide protests against Israel 's ground incursion into Gaza are so full of hatred that they leave me with the terrible feeling that these protests have little to do with the so-called disproportionality of the Israeli response to Hamas rockets, or the resulting civilian casualties.



My fear is that the rage we see in the protesters marching in the streets is far more profound and dangerous than we would like to believe. There are a great many people in the world who, even after Auschwitz , just can't bear the Jewish state having the same rights they so readily grant to other nations. These voices insist Israel must take risks they would never dare ask of any other nation-state -- risks that threaten its very survival -- because they don't believe Israel should exist in the first place.

Just look at the spate of attacks this week on Jews and Jewish institutions around the world: a car ramming into a synagogue in France; a Chabad menorah and Jewish-owned shops sprayed with swastikas in Belgium; a banner at an Australian rally demanding "clean the earth from dirty Zionists!"; demonstrators in the Netherlands chanting "Gas the Jews"; and in Florida, protestors demanding Jews "Go back to the ovens!"

How else can we explain the double-standard that is applied to the Gaza conflict, if not for a more insidious bias against the Jewish state?

At the U.N., no surprise, this double-standard is in full force. In response to Israel 's attack on Hamas, the Security Council immediately pulled an all-night emergency meeting to consider yet another resolution condemning Israel . Have there been any all-night Security Council sessions held during the seven months when Hamas fired 3,000 rockets at half a million innocent civilians in southern Israel ? You can be certain that during those seven months, no midnight oil was burning at the U.N. headquarters over resolutions condemning terrorist organizations like Hamas. But put condemnation of Israel on the agenda and, rain or shine, it's sure to be a full house.

Red Cross officials are all over the Gaza crisis, describing it as a full-blown humanitarian nightmare. Where were they during the seven months when tens of thousands of Israeli families could not sleep for fear of a rocket attack? Where were their trauma experts to decry that humanitarian crisis?

There have been hundreds of articles and reports written from the Erez border crossing falsely accusing Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies from reaching beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza . (In fact, over 520 truck loads of humanitarian aid have been delivered through Israeli crossings since the beginning of the Israeli counterattack.) But how many news articles, NGO reports and special U.N. commissions have investigated Hamas's policy of deliberately placing rocket launchers near schools, mosques and homes in order to use innocent Palestinians as human shields?

Many people ask why there are so few Israeli casualties in comparison with the Palestinian death toll. It's because Israel 's first priority is the safety of its citizens, which is why there are shelters and warning systems in Israeli towns. If Hamas can dig tunnels, it can certainly build shelters. Instead, it prefers to use women and children as human shields while its leaders rush into hiding.

And then there are the clarion calls for a cease-fire. These words, which come so easily, have proven to be a recipe for disaster. Hamas uses the cease-fire as a time-out to rearm and smuggle even more deadly weapons so the next time, instead of hitting Sderot and Ashkelon, they can target Tel Aviv and Jerusalem .

The pattern is always the same. Following a cease-fire brought on by international pressure, there will be a call for a massive infusion of funds to help Palestinians recover from the devastation of the Israeli attack. The world will respond eagerly, handing over hundreds of millions of dollars. To whom does this money go? To Hamas, the same terrorist group that brought disaster to the Palestinians in the first place.

The world seems to have forgotten that at the end of World War II, President Harry Truman initiated the Marshall Plan, investing vast sums to rebuild Germany . But he did so only with the clear understanding that the money would build a new kind of Germany -- not a Fourth Reich that would continue the policies of Adolf Hitler. Yet that is precisely what the world will be doing if we once again entrust funds to Hamas terrorists and their Iranian puppet masters.

In less than two weeks, Barack Obama will be sworn in as president of the United States . But there is no "change we can believe in" in the Middle East -- not where Israel is concerned. The double-standard continuously applied to the Jewish state proves that, for much of the world, the real lessons of World War II have yet to be learned.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Eternal Word: Source of us All

The Eternal Word: Source of us All January 4, 2009
John 1:1-9

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world

Happy New Year! The ball has dropped on Times Square, and the champagne bottles are in the recycling bin. Have you made your New Years resolution? Don’t worry if the one from last year was never achieved, like our library books, we can always renew them for another year.
What if we had a New Years resolution to be better stewards of God’s creation and serving as our brother’s keeper ? This New Years resolution needs to include how we treat one another as fellow sojourners in addition to recycling our cans and bottles and reducing our carbon foot print. We need care to just as much about one another as we do the animals in our shelters and humane societies. The Eternal Word is the source of us all, the lilies of the field, all living things. God’s light shines in all God has created. Do we see it, or do we dim it. Its still shining even if we are blinded by our idolatries.
When I was in Kenya I was somewhat puzzled by the tourists who were so preoccupied with getting a chance to see the Big 5 on safari they seemed to overlook the beauty of God’s creation made evident by the Kenyan people. We must always remember that our common humanity is a glorious part of God’s creation.
In our Gospel lesson John reminds us of how God came to us as the Logos (the Word) that has been present with us from the beginning of time. We worship the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who spoke the world into being through the Word. Sometimes we get off track being understanding through phases. First there was Yahweh and the Hebrews, then came Jesus and his disciples then Pentecost and the Holy Spirit for us gentile churches. Our Triune God was there in the beginning and will remain with us until the end.
In the beginning when God created Adam and Eve, God says in the plural, “let us make them in our image.” Who do you think God was talking to? Surely, it wasn’t the section leader for his choir of angels. The image of God has been imprinted on everything God has created. God’s divine light is present in every creature and living thing.
I have been to many beautiful places of nature, the boundary waters, the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite. One of the highlights of my time in Kenya was climbing Mt Kenya and watching the sunrise. For six months, I saw this mountain from my bed room window. It was beckoning me to explore her and grasp a new vista of God’s remarkable handiwork.
Our communal time in God’s creation can be an act of worship. It’s humbling to see the grandeur of what God has ordered. We can feel small and insignificant. Likewise, the great Cathedrals in Europe instils in us this sense of humility in the midst of the columns and spires. Still, there is something more pure about reflecting on the things God brought to be without the use of our hands. It’s not our project or building campaign that brought these beautiful works of nature into being. I love the gospel song that goes, “Im working on a building for my Lord, a building not made by man’s hands.”
We are called to help build God’s shalom, here and now. With humility and a sense of awe, we commune with all God has created. We need some time away from all this concrete, glass and steel to appreciate our place within the creation that came to be through the Logos (the Word).
As Christians we need to confess that our agendas and interests have not always been faithful to God’s call for us to be stewards of creation. Some of you may remember that commercial from the 70s, the native American with a tear flowing down his cheek as looks over a land fill. In reality that man’s face is a metaphor of how God sees what we are doing to what has created for us.
In the beginning the Divine Logos created all of this around us and our ability to see this light has been dimmed by our actions. The light is among us but we don’t comprehend it. The issue of global warming is something that people of faith must confront. It’s really something when we can get to see a commercial with Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson sitting on the same couch to raise awareness about the environmental crisis that is before us.
Rev. Richard Cznick, the vice President of the Evangelical Association has carried a cross for some time. He had the courage to speak out about our call to be stewards of creation. There were some Christians leaders who were out to get him because he was getting off message. This doesn’t fit into our family values agenda. “You need to the tow the line mister!” There is a great Bill Moyers interview with Cznick on PBS. I’ll see if I can get a copy for the church library.
For too long, we have been idolatrous of our special place in God’s creation and failed to see God’s light in the creation. Our interests and agenda have usurped God’s commandments to care for what God has created. There are peoples lives at stake! When we see these droughts and famines in Africa we need to confess that some of our actions have contributed to it. When our brothers and sisters living on the coast lines are displaced or worse yet killed by the storms we should be confessing and repenting.
The gas crisis of this past year has forced us to make some tough choices. I hope that the drop in oil prices while not lull us back into complacency. When I bought my first econo car my buddies teased me about how unmipressed the ladies would be. They drove those supped SUVs. Ha, ha, who’s trying to sell their guzzlers now? This current gas holiday will not last forever. We have an opportunity to finally to take some corrective actions. There is too much at stake. Let’s let the smoke clear so we can appreciate God’s light still shining in midst of our smog.
President Elect Obama has many huge challenges in front of him. His plan to create green jobs as part of the stimulus package is consistent with our call to be good stewards of creation. If the rest of the world lived the way Americans live we would be in huge trouble. There are some costly prices for our comforts. We are only six percent of the global population, but next to China, we lead the globe in producing green house gases.
The Good News is God’s light has come to us in Bethlehem. God came to tabernacle, to pitch his tent with us and show us the way to the promised land. John’s theology lifts up the reality that God is present in everything. Our sense of being a neigbhor and steward to creatures that bear this imprint of God needs to be renewed.
For too long we have practiced the idolatry of speciesism. Our lust for greed and comforts have taken a heavy toll on the sacred garden that got has created for us. Part of the problem rests with the pendulum swing that came with a debate between Emil Brunner and Karl Barth, two prominent theologians of the past century. This was a great debate over general revelation and special revelation. Brunner argued for a natural theology. God’s spirit was evident in the created order and can be perceived by all humanity. Barth strongly disagreed. God can only be known through the special revelation brought to us in Jesus Christ’s life and ministry.
So where does our Gospel lesson fit into all this? If Jesus Christ is the Logos through which all things are created, than it would make sense that this light (the world) still shines through God’s creation. We need to step back from this heated debate about general or special revelation and appreciate that our Creator God calls us to be stewards of creation. Christians can get too puffed up in their specialness and lose sight of their calling to be humble servants. Our calling is not just to some narrow scope of family and friends, but to all of God’s creatures.
God’s light has come into our world to help us see God’s image, God’s handiwork among us. We should not be motivated by guilt and shame, but by as a sense of love and gratitude to God for beauty of the earth. When we walk the trails and canoe across the waters, let us we remember that Jesus, the Logos was there when all this was coming into being.
God’s eternal light that came into being out of nothing actually came to be with us as a fellow sojourner. Jesus light was too bright for many. His words of truth ruffled many a feather. Our Risen Lord has set a path for us that will often bring sacrifice and hardship. Being a faithful disciple is not easy but man its always worth it.
God’s eternal word is the source of us all. In the beginning was the Logos, the light, the Living Word. All that we see around us came to be through this light. May God touch our eyes so we can see anew the splendour of God’s creation. May our hearts and minds be transformed so we can walk the path before us as faithful stewards of God’s abundance. We are our brother’s keeper, the birds, the lilies, and the distant shores. God’s light burns bright to show us how.