Symbols

The observance functions like a sign on your hands or a symbol on the middle of your forehead: God brought us out of Egypt with a powerful hand." Exodus 13:16 (The Message)

During the standoff in Harney County here in Oregon there have been two predominate flags; Old Glory and one other flag, it is yellow with a rattle snake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.”  That yellow flag predates Old Glory and was first raised during the Revolutionary War. The rattle snake is indigenous to the eastern seaboard of the United States and symbolizes something uniquely American and common to all the colonies. This is where the known meaning of that flag and its symbols ends. No one knows who coined the inscription “Don’t Tread on Me.” No one is sure what its original purpose or intent was. There are no historical documents that speak to its meaning and usage.  If you search the internet you get a lot about the first time the phrase appears and the first time it was placed on a flag. You also get a lot of speculation about its meaning.

It is obvious to me why groups like the militant occupiers of the Wildlife Refuge use this flag. It comes from the Revolutionary War period and our nations struggle to break free of tyranny. It accompanied the first group of Marines into their first engagement with the British. And the phrase speaks to the idea that the federal government is ignoring the common man and exercising authority where they have none and that doing this will be to their peril. Now I could go into a Musing about this flag, the symbol on it, the phrase it is emblazoned with, etc but what has caught me is the power of symbol.

Why do symbols have such power? Why do people cling to particular symbols like the Confederate Flag, the cross of Christ, the skull of the Grateful Dead, etc? Quite simply, anyone clings to the symbolic world because it shields them from their existential fears and insecurities. Clay Routledge wrote about the psychological power of symbols in Psychology Today, “we invest heavily in the symbolic cultural institutions and identifications, in part, because they help insulate us from basic fears about our mortal predicament.”

University of Arizona psychologist Jeff Greenberg, who helped formalize Terror Management Theory in the ’80s, described the theory: The basic idea is that, from a scientific perspective, each of us humans is just an organism, an animal, that wants to continue to survive but ultimately is no more significant or enduring than any other living creature. But unlike other animals, we are burdened with the knowledge of our mortality. TMT maintains that we cope with this knowledge by viewing ourselves within the context of enduring symbolic systems like political, religious, regional, and national entities. This lets us feel like we’re special beings who exist in a world of meaning, significance, and permanence.

The point here is that symbols provide meaning and permanence especially to groups and individuals that feel themselves, their beliefs or their way of life threatened. And this brings us back around to the recent situation in Harney County and the white militants there. Why did they come? Why do they display the American flag and the “Don’t Tread on Me flag?” Because they perceive that their values, way of life, beliefs and very existence is threaten.  It is the same with the diehard defends of the right to bear arms; they fear a loss of meaning and permanence. Their identity is tied up with their gun just like the identity of the occupiers in Harney County is tied to ranching. In both cases a threat to that identity is a threat to them personally.

The fact is their ways of life are threaten. Gun ownership as it has been will fade away eventually and they know it. Ranching as it has been practiced is a dying endeavor. Mining, logging, fishing, etc are all going to change and change significantly in the future and are already changing and this change threatens those whose identities are tied to these ways of life. The American Christian is experiencing the same thing as the power and influence of our faith decreases, the fear of loss of meaning and permanence increases and we hold tighter and tighter to the symbols of the past that have provided us meaning.

Once again we find a reason for change being so hard. When change is needed or necessary it means symbols and their meanings either are eliminated or altered for the new reality. When the symbols we identify with are threatened or changed we feel our hold on meaning and our very significance is also threatened. Change brings fear and fear is a powerful emotion. Whenever change comes – as it does in everyone’s life – fear accompanies it. How well we address the fear will determine to a large extent how well we will move through the change. Never underestimate the power of a symbol, they provide us with connections that bring meaning, significance and permanence to our lives. They give us something concrete to hold on to when change comes.

Dear God, help me to let go of that which would hold me back from being all you want and need me to be. Help me let go of the symbols that represent what was and to embrace new symbols and new meaning for old symbols that will help me be what I need to be. Be with all those who fear a loss of meaning and significance in life. Help them find those in new and healthy ways. Amen.

WASP Male Syndrome

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27 (NRSV)

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28 (NRSV)

It seems that race, racism, sexism and male gun violence are all over the news. Police profiling, Black Lives Matter, women still making 2/3rds of what men make, the vast majority of those who use guns for violent means are male, etc. I could list many, many other issues and headlines and statistics and accounts but you know what’s out there and that the issues of racism and sexism and violence are ramped in this country. I know that the US is not alone in this but I can only speak firsthand about my nation and my experiences so I am focusing on the good old US of A.

I don’t remember when I first became aware of my privileged status in our society. But somewhere in my growth and development I became conscious of the fact that I was a White Anglo Saxon Protestant Male and I had power, privilege and opportunity that those we are not a WASP male do not have. Once I became aware I started noticing things:

• Sales people talked to me even when the woman I was with had made in clear she was the one deciding things.
• People got nervous when my black friend walked into the bar.
• People (mostly males) told me racist and sexist jokes and expected me to not only laugh but to enjoy them.
• I had to go through a massive amount of work to get the Social Security Administration to recognize my name change when I got married but Amy just filled out a short form and was done with it.

I could go on but you get my point. As a WASP male I was and am treated differently, and most often it is by assuming that I make the decisions, I control the money, I am safe, I enjoy being on top and seeing people of color and women as less than myself, and that I would not willing give up my position and status in our social systems.

With my awareness came a desire to understand what my friends of color and the women I know experienced and felt. I took feminist literature classes, sociology classes that focused on race and gender, liberation theology classes that shared the voice of people of color and women and their understanding and interpretation of the Bible and Christianity. I observed how they were treated and when I could I made a point of treating them with respect and dignity as a witness to how we should treat each other. I speak out when someone starts a racist or sexist joke and let them know I do not appreciate such things and why. But no matter what I read, studied, observed or did I don’t feel I have ever been able to understand what it means to be a person of color or a woman in our society.

So I have stopped trying to understand it. I still try to witness to a way of treating others that is freer of racism and sexism then is the standard of our society. One thing I have done until very recently is try to tell those close to me who experience racism and sexism (and heterosexism) that I know how they feel from my own experiences of exclusion, being judged without someone knowing me, etc. I have stopped thinking this and saying it. I have stopped because I have become conscious of the fact that my experiences are not similar to theirs because I am never, ever in a place where I am not a WASP heterosexual male. I have come to this because of a video that one of my sources for internet wonders shared with me. It is Darius Simpson & Scout Bostley - "Lost Voices" (CUPSI 2015) at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPASWlnZIA

I encourage you to watch it either to maybe come to the realization I did or to have your own experience confirmed or to gain a sense of what others feel and experience or just to watch two young people express their experiences in a creative and powerful way.

Dear God, help me to be all that you created me to be. Help me to witness to the way you want us all to be. Help me to speak the truth, live the truth and work to make the truth that we all are one, equal and wonderfully made known to all. May we find a way to move beyond racism, sexism and all things that separate us. Amen.

Guns! Guns! Guns!

Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest…But Jesus said, "No more of this!"  Luke 22:50-51 (NRSV)

Well in case you’ve been out of touch or in a sensory deprivation tank or something let me tell you what has dominated our attention this week, guns. Those who regularly read my Musings already know how I feel about guns. I am not going to restate what I have said before concerning guns, the Second Amendment, etc. What I will Muse about is the purpose of guns in our society and how I think we should view guns.

Originally guns were a necessary part of life in the Americas. They were needed for defense. They are critical to survival. And they were the primary means of arming a militia. The average household on the fringes of civilization would have had guns. The average household in a town or even a city would have had guns. There were no standing armies. There wasn’t an armed police force. Folks needed to be ready to protect and defend themselves and their neighbors.

Today guns are still a part of life in the Americas. We have three primary groups of private citizens that that are armed: hunters, target shooters, and those feeling they need to defend themselves. These are not exclusive to one another as many folks with guns cross over the groups. We also have three groups that are professionally armed within our society: members of the military, law enforcement officers, and security personal. The main difference between the private citizen groups and the other groups is that those armed for their professions are trained, have very specific rules concerning the carrying, storage, exchange and discharge of their weapons, and are armed for the common good.

Now don’t get me wrong, many hunters and target shooters take gun safety seriously by taking classes and they operate within the bounds of restrictions and laws that govern guns and their usage.  But those laws, restrictions, etc are not very detailed and are easily circumvented and are limited in how much they limit gun ownership and usage.

Now I don’t claim to understand the whole need for gun ownership thing. My dad had a hunting rifle that I think he used maybe twice when I was growing up and which he gave away when my older brother became a teen (not sure if the two are related).  I would think that as a target shooter or a hunter you could keep your guns secured in a ‘Gun Bank” where you would go and withdraw them when you wanted to use them.  Or you would only own smart guns that could only be used by one person. Or if you kept the guns at home they would have massive security with trigger locks, gun safes, fire pins removed, etc. If you felt you needed a gun to protect and defend yourself then a smart gun would be your best option as no one could take it from you and use it against you.

I know that smart gun technology is available and that it is expensive. I also know that if we offered buy backs, incentives, rebates, tax credits, etc (like we do for home energy efficiency upgrades, etc) we could lower that cost. I also know that if people began to ask for it and were willing to buy guns with it or have a gun retro fitted that the cost would come down. I also know that if the military started requiring it for their weapons it would be cheaper and more available. There are some logistical matters that would need to be addressed but they could be worked out. I like the way gun safety regulations are being talked about as similar to seat belts, airbags, smoking warnings and restrictions, etc. I think if we see guns in this light we can still have them, still honor the Second Amendment and make guns less of a concern. I also know that no matter what we do there will still be guns out there and people with them and that gun violence would not go totally away.

I do not want to take guns away from people. I cannot see how as a nation we could deny the Second Amendment – we could repeal it but I don’t see that happening. So if guns are a part of our way of life we have to take seriously how they affect life and health and happiness and do what is reasonable for the health and well being of the citizens of this land. We need to study gun violence as a health concern in order to maybe address issues that lead to gun violence. We are not doing enough to make sure guns are a safe part of our lives.

Dear God, help us to see a way forward as a nation and as individuals that will lead us to a place of safety and well being with guns in our midst. Help our nation to find a way to say “No more of this.” Amen.

Myths and Legends

Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives' tales. 1 Timothy 4:7 (NRSV)

Today I want to write about the many and varied myths and legends associated with the many and varied symbols and songs of Christmas. This will in no way be exhaustive but it seems opportune given that Facebook and my inbox are filling with these myths and legends.

The Twelve Days of Christmas This song is about the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany. Traditionally a time of celebrations and gift giving and part of the fun was a Twelfth Night celebration where "memory-and-forfeits" games were played/sung. In these games the leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, and the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as an offering up a kiss or a sweet. The myth is that the items in the song (partridge, turtle doves, etc) are symbolic of various Christian doctrines (partridge=Jesus, two turtle doves= the Old and New Testament, etc) and that it was sung by Catholics in England when the practice of their faith was outlawed as a way of teaching their doctrine.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp

Legend of the Candy Cane This holiday treat is a relatively recent addition to the world. In early Christmas cards sugar candy was represented as white sticks until early in the 20^th century when the now traditional upside down “J” shape with red and white strips began appearing. Candy sticks with color strips are known in the 1840s. The myths that the candy cane developed as a way for Christians to identify one another or as a symbol of the scourging Jesus received are again fabrications where a secular item is infused with religious meaning that was not the original intent of the item.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/candycane.asp

I could go on from the Christmas tree to Santa Claus to the number and gender of the wise visitors to Christmas lights to Christmas being the actual date of Christ’s birth. As with almost any Christian holiday (perhaps any faith’s holidays) the symbols and traditions are often times adopted or adapted from those of the indigenous cultures. When trying to make your belief system understandable to someone outside your traditions what better way than to adapt them to local items and events?

So should we just ignore all our traditions and symbols of Christmas? No. I think that knowing what the origins of a myth or legend are is important as is the truth behind the adaptation or adoption. Then you can make an informed decision about what you will include in your own festivities and how you will share the meaning and significance of the symbols and legends you choose to pass along.

I think finding “Christian” meanings in myths and legends is one way of keeping the faith alive but we should never divorce the real roots from the thing itself. So I talk about the Christmas tree representing for me eternal life and the lights as symbols of the light of Christ but also mention that it started out as a religious symbol for indigenous peoples who had no knowledge or intent to communicate what I find in it today. I don’t need my faith to be the only reason for a symbol or a celebration, it doesn’t have to supplant the meaning it had with another and be deemed superior. When we try to cover over or hide the original we are saying that ours is better and that isn’t the point. The point is to let things speak and to find meaning within them for yourself and your faith but not to deride or belittle or even replace the faith, tradition or people that gave you the song, symbol or whatever.

In the early days of some of the American colonies Christmas was banned as a holiday as were all its symbols. It took well into the 1800s before Christmas began to be adopted as a holiday thanks in part to the immigrants who came from countries where their Christmas traditions were never banned. Think about what we almost lost if that ban held up over time. Sure most of what we associate with Christmas has its roots in other cultures and indigenous faiths but that doesn’t mean we can’t find significance and meaning in it for our faith and lives. So grab a cup of nog (not Christian), belt out the “Twelve Days of Christmas” while sitting in front of your Yule log (again not Christian) and your Christmas tree and find within it all meaning for your life and faith.

God, thank you for all faiths and cultures and the celebrations and traditions that belong to them. Thank you for giving me a mind to think and a heart to feel. Thank you for the meaning I can find in them and in the entire world. Thank you for giving me a faith that can be seen and known and felt in so many ways. Keep my imagination strong, my faith nimble and help me to never let the meaning I find in something be understood as the only meaning it can have. Amen.

Christmas Cookies

Asher will become famous for rich foods, candies and sweets fit for kings.

 - Genesis 49:20 (The Message)

We have a tradition in my family, one that dates at least to my mom’s mom. This tradition is that everyone in the family has to have a favorite Christmas cookie and they get that cookie each year. Now this is a wonderful tradition and always is received with joy. But, and you know there would be a but; it can be a bit overwhelming once you get your children’s significant others and your grandkids included in the list.  It means a wide variety of cookies but it also means making a wide variety of cookies. And of course as more and more folks are added to the list the choice of cookies becomes more difficult. We have modified our tradition to the point where someone can have a favorite that has already been claimed by someone else. It makes it easier on the cookie bakers and on the selection process.

When I was doing my “Foods of Faiths” meals based on the primary holiday of each faith there was a common thread that ran through them all, a sweet treat. It would seem that almost every culture and faith has a sweet tooth and that at times of joyous celebration that tooth is fed. One reason that sweet treats are so much a part of these special times is that sweeteners (sugar, honey, molasses, etc) are not easy to procure or produce. They are available for limited times or it takes a lot of effort to produce them. So these sweet ingredients are prized and used sparingly except at times of celebration.

Today in the 21^st century western world at least sugar and other sweet ingredients are easy to come by, relatively cheap and most of us have sweet treats as part of our every day (or maybe limited to weekly) diets. Sweets are no big deal to us. Cookies and candies and pies and cakes are available at every store, gas station, newsstand, restaurant, hardware store and just about everywhere else. They just aren’t that special anymore; the common place-ness of them has lessened their specialness but so as the quality of a lot of them. Mass produced sweets always seem lacking to me. Now some treats in some bakeries and restaurants are almost to die for in their quality and taste but that bag of cookies or that freezer pie just seems to be missing something.

So I like our Christmas tradition. We produce quality, handmade treats that are special because they are handmade and because they are favorites, not every day treats. At Christmas we use only the best – real butter, special flour, top of line chocolate, fresh and special ingredients all the way around. We make small batches – enough but not too much. And we take the time to decorate them well, make them look picture perfect, and have their presentation be special. They are truly treats for one and all.

So we begin the baking this weekend. We start with gingerbread, move on to sugar cookies, do the spritz, make what we call wagon wheels but what the rest of the world calls chocolate crinkles, then comes the fudge with and without nuts, then peanut butter cookies both with and without the chocolate kiss, snicker doodles make an appearance, gingersnaps have to be done, snowballs rolled out (my dad’s favorite which we will make in his memory this year), and the Check Mix baked (we salt lovers need a special fix too!). We spread this over several days and we end our special treats with fresh cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Makes my mouth water just typing this!

I hope you have a tradition that is exceptional. One that makes everyone feel that they are special. I hope that whether or not you have a large group or if it is even just yourself you keep that tradition alive. Everyone needs some touch stone, some special ritual, and some tradition that sparks memories, brings meaning, and helps make you feel this is a special time. If you don’t have some tradition now is as good a time as any to start one. Don’t be afraid to try something and see if it fits. We have gone through several traditions in my family. Some of them stuck and some of them lasted for a time and some didn’t make the must do status of Christmas cookies but all of them helped to bring meaning and significance to our celebrations.

Dear God, thank you for traditions, rituals and other things that make celebrations and holidays special. May all people everywhere have some special moment and treat this year. Be with those who have lost their traditions or who have never had them. May every one of your children feel special this year. Amen.

American & Christian

Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. – Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NRSV) Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. – Isaiah 43:18 (NRSV)

Ok, I have held off now for months but I can do so no longer, I have to Muse about “The Donald.” His latest “position” on Muslims in the United States has pushed me over the edge. On the Huffington Post website his campaign press release read: "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.” Add to this his call for a data base on all Muslims and a shutting down of all Mosques and I am fed up with his Islamaphobia and his lack of compassion, understanding and commitment to Christian and American values.

What is going on? How can so many people be supporting this idiot? Time and time and time again through US history we have tried to ban, round up, subjugate and “protect our citizens and our way of life” to have these efforts backfire or be condemned in light of the values we profess. Slavery, Chinese immigration laws of the 1880s, Japanese internment, etc are all failures of just the kind of thing Donald Trump and his supporters are advocating. All have been proven to be worthless and all are condemned as anti-Christian and anti-American because they violate our basic understanding of our country, our values, and our humanity.

I can only understand these extreme reactions if it is placed within the realm of fear and a flawed desire to somehow reclaim a nostalgic past where all was wonderful. That past never existed. Because of who we are there has never been a time when we could keep others out in order to protect ourselves because we are all others here. One of the reasons people began to migrate to this land in the 1600s was because of religious intolerance in their homelands. A founding principle of this country is that people should be free to practice their religion and that being a citizen of this country does not require you to profess any religious creed or doctrine that you don’t want to.

How can people support excluding others based on religion? It is fundamentally against everything that is truly American not be mention Christian. We are told by Jesus to love one another. We are told by Paul that there are neither Gentiles nor Jews. We are told by our founding documents that all people are created equal. This may be the ideal and it may never have been fully realized but these are our basic understandings and core values. When you talk about keeping a group of people out or about gathering them into ghettos or making them register or monitoring an entire faith group -does this sound familiar like maybe Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan or Stalinist Russia or …? – you have given up what it means to be an American and a Christian.

Fear is easy to manipulate. Fear is easy to build upon. Fear is a strong emotion that kicks in all our reptilian instincts. Fear is a motivator for doing things you would never normally do. And fear is something manipulative people have drawn on to get groups to do things they would consider evil, abhorrent and beyond anything they would normally tolerate. I don’t think Donald Trump is smart enough to be deliberately manipulating the supports he has. I think he is just a scared, fearful and mean man who cares nothing for others and isn’t able to look at what he says and believes in a critical way. He is so narrow in his thinking, so limited in his compassion, so trapped in his billionaire fantasy land, and so out of touch with the world that he can only spout off ridiculous ideas that have no basis in reality and that would in fact do more harm than good.

I am proud of the fact that these United States have always tried to live by the words of the poem “New Colossus” on a plague on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

We may have often times failed in our living out this dream, this call, this desire but it has been our beacon to the world and it helps to define who we are, what we believe and what we want our nation to be and set a standard for how we behave.

I don’t want to give Mr. Trump any more time or attention. I think his popularity is being driven by the media obsession with him and his ludicrous statements and preposterous positions. He makes good theater but he’s had his time in the spot light and we need to set this show aside. After all, only 35% of Republicans support him and only 23% of the US population is Republican. His views are not the views of a solid majority of Americans (according to the Wallstreet Journal), thank God!

Dear God, help me to be more tolerant of those I deem to be ignorant, mean, and narrow minded. Help me to live out my convictions and my faith. I pray for those been targeted and vilified. Help my nation to be the ideal we profess, a place that welcomes all. Amen.

Idols

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me…You shall not murder. - Exodus 20:2-3 & 13 (NRSV)

Just another day and just another mass shooting in the land of the free and home of the brave. There have been more mass shooting in the good old US of A this year then there have been days of the year. A mass shooting is when four or more people are shot in an event, or related series of events, likely without a cooling off period. Here is a graph from the Oregonian today that tells a lot about this number (each purple hash is a mass shooting):

I think we have been talking about the problem of guns all wrong. I think that what we have in this country with a minority of the population is a fanatical worship of an idol. By most sources and estimates only 1/3 of the US population owns a gun and gun ownership is declining. Yet most sources will tell you that right now in the US there are anywhere from 270-310 million privately owned guns – that’s nearly one gun for every man, woman, and child in the US. So those that own guns on average own several. So I think we might have a devotion to an idol and not a commitment to a right to own and bear arms.

Let me say that a large number of gun owners are people who handle them safely, have a reason to own them and don’t participate in what I am saying is idol worship. I cannot tell you numbers because they aren’t easy to find but I know many people who do own guns but don’t worship them or the right to own them.

That being said there are still a small but fanatical group out there that sees their guns as holy and their right to own them as devotion to their god. How else can you explain their unflinching claim that more guns would keep these mass shootings at bay? That isn’t logic or even defense of a right, it is religious fanaticism. “You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hand.” Who says something like that? Only a devote worshiper. I think that we are missing the point if we approach gun control from a socially responsible or logical or common sense perspective.

We have to see that the NRA and its devotees are a form of idol worship, they have placed their guns and their right to own them on a pedestal and have fervently dedicated their lives and resources to keeping the object of their devotion free and accessible so they can carry it with them wherever they go and have it near at all times. Regardless of how senseless or illogical or even criminal it may be these gun worshipers will risk everything for their god; even when their devotion means the very real possibility that they or others will freely violate of their other god’s commandments.

The opposition to gun control isn’t about the right to own and bear arms; it’s about a fanatical devotion to an idol.

Dear God, help us to worship you and you alone. Be with the victims of gun violence. Be with those who feel that they must use guns for violent purposes. Be with us all as we try to find a way forward that allows for freedom and also protects us. Amen.