A little false witness

The bizarre world according to Steve King, a member of Congress.

"for every valedictorian DREAMer who has been brought to this country by his or her family, there’s another 100 out there who, they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."

A 100 to 1 ratio of bad to good is not ambiguous. Accusing immigrants of being a bunch of drug mules or pushers strikes me as deliberately bearing false witness to millions of people. Perhaps Steve King answers to a higher power that rewards lies.

Christ made an interesting observation about the words we use, particularly the ones about other people.

But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

-- Matthew 15:18-19

Our words betray the greed and hatred inside us.

Now the funny thing is that Steve King loves to lecture people about Christian values. Here is part of a sermon he gave about our moral heritage on the floor of Congress.

But we’re unique here in the United States of America. Madam Speaker, we’re a unique people. And, yes, we are the progeny of Western Europe, and we are the progeny that came from primarily Western European stock. And at the time that we received the best that Western Europe had to offer, we also received a fundamental Christian faith as the core of our moral values. 

This is a Judeo-Christian Nation, Madam Speaker. The core of our moral values is embodied within the culture. Whatever church people go to or whether they go to church, wherever they worship or whether they worship, we still have the American people who, as a culture, understand Christian values and Christian principles, the Judeo-Christian values that are timeless. 

So I would illustrate that, Madam Speaker, in this way. An example would be this: Let’s just say if an honorable man from Texas were to pull into his driveway and his neighbor’s dog had gotten loose and had run underneath the tire of his car. If you’re in Texas or Iowa or most of the places in the country, if you run over your neighbor’s dog, what do you do? This is how I’m going to illustrate this is a  Christian Nation. You go over and knock on your neighbor’s door and you say, Well, Joe, I just killed your dog. I’m sorry. 

Well, there are two things that happened there. One of them is confession, I just killed your dog. I’m sorry, his repentance. The third thing you say is, Will you forgive me? I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. So you would have confession, repentance, and you ask for forgiveness. And the neighbor, Joe, will say, Well, it wasn’t your fault. Of course you’re forgiven. And that is the path of Christian forgiveness that takes place even when we run over our neighbor’s dog. 

This is a Christian Nation, and the foundation of Western civilization are those kinds of values.

Gosh. Christian values. I wonder what the Lord would say about someone that disparages millions of people. We should place bets as to when Steve King will confess his slander, repent, and beg for forgiveness. He holds those Christian values near and dear. He even said so on the Congressional record.

Here we have a public figure that waves their Christian banner for all to see. Despite his Christian values, his public discourse is filled with slanderous comments about immigrants, Muslims, and the poor. These attitudes are also reflected in the policy initiatives he pursues in Congress.

When a high profile figure invokes Christ and then behaves like Roman nobility, the hypocrisy casts the body of Christ in an unfavorable light. That negative perception is strengthened by the silence of Christian leaders about the hateful behavior of this powerful politician and others like him. People like Steve King are quickly becoming the public face of Christianity in America. Big Microphone Christians (BMC). Small wonder younger generations are turning away from organized religion in droves. They are not seeing Christ in the BMCs. More and more of these young people think of Christians as prudish, uncaring and hypocritical.

Why is it so hard to get out of poverty in the Bible Belt?

Barbara Raab points out that your chances of escaping poverty depend on where you live in America. Location matters a great deal.

And now there is new research, published this week, showing that when it comes to the chances that a poor child born in America can climb up from the lowest rungs on the economic ladder, where that child lives may be more telling than previously thought. The researchers started by looking narrowly at questions of tax policy for poor parents, when they discovered something surprising but unmistakable in their data.

“Location matters, place matters,” says Nathaniel Hendren, a Harvard professor and one of the authors of the study. When it comes to a low-income child having a chance to climb up the economic ladder, “it matters where you grow up.”

Your best bet is to live in the West or Northeast. The deck is stacked against you in the industrial Midwest and "sunbelt" Southeastern states.

The odds of children from poor families moving into the middle class are significantly lower in the Southeast and industrial Midwest. Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, Raleigh, Indianapolis, and Columbus are some of the metropolitan areas where upward mobility seems to be seriously limited.

Not much upward mobility in the proverbial Bible Belt. I would think people that claim to be serious about following Jesus would want to lead the nation in giving the needy a hand up, not come in dead last. So what is going on here?

Here is a potential clue.

You found there are some factors that set upwardly mobile cities apart from others: a large and geographically dispersed middle class so that lower and upper classes live among one another; good schools; a high share of two-parent households; and populations engaged with religious and community organizations.

Since these are areas that profess strong engagement in religious organizations, that only leaves economic segregation, failure to educate the poor, and a high rate of single-parent households as potential differentiating factors. Perhaps there needs to be more discussion of generosity of spirit to go along with all the talk of sexual purity that is so popular in this region.

Speaking of generosity of spirit, it is funny the rich do not have to worry about downward mobility no matter where they live.

The study also suggested that mobility has its upside: for rich people. People born into relative wealth seem to stay wealthy, and they don’t seem to have a big risk of falling down the ladder.

It looks like the rich have perfected the art of Mammon worship. Their prayers for perpetual wealth have been answered. And this is likely to be their only reward according to that Jesus fellow.

I have to wonder what people imagine the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven will look like. Will it be a gated community with mansions for some, hovels for others, and dungeons for the rest? Or will it be a place where are all are equal and cherished in the eyes of God? And what is our responsibility to bring us closer to a world that mirrors this future Kingdom? Are we to act as the hands of God to lift the burdens of others? Of course.

We are required to treat all as our sisters and brothers, as our mothers and fathers, and as our daughters and sons. That is the walk of Christ. Talking about Christ while turning a blind eye to the suffering of others betrays the Lord. No one will ever have faith in God because of the testimony of a hard-hearted person. That is not the witness that Christ expects of us. "Faith without works is dead."

It is troubling to see how difficult it is to escape poverty in some areas of the country. There are only two viable hypotheses. One is that too few of the financially comfortable are willing to do anything to help lift the poor out of despair. Or worse, perhaps the well-to-do folks are knocking down the ladders of opportunity. I doubt the Lord will applaud neglect or abuse, most especially by those who claim to believe he is their salvation. Christ is neither blind nor stupid.

We live in a society that idolizes greed. The historical Jesus as recorded in the four gospels makes it clear we are not to fall prey to materialism. What you did for those in need, you did for the Lord. On the other hand you lose points for neglecting or harming those in need. Everyone who has read the book of Matthew knows exactly what I am talking about.

Perhaps it would be wise for people of faith to work together to make sure everyone has enough to eat, a place to sleep, a good education, job opportunities, and care when old, sick, or disabled. That would mean putting aside petty disputes over theology and secular political ideology to find common ground among our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Ask yourself if you really hope the Lord returns soon, even tomorrow. Will he be pleased by what he finds? It will suck to be us if we are found bickering about bull crap while people are suffering in our midst. I doubt he will find that the least bit humorous. And that is an understatement.

Hardened hearts in Tampa

Here is a little reminder for the fine folks in Tampa, especially the city council.

“If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. “Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you. “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. “For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’ 

-- Deuteronomy 15:7-11

Such a reminder is necessary given the decision to criminalize the homeless. The new city ordinance makes it illegal to sleep on the streets or store personal possessions in public places. The ordinance was created and supported by people that knew that the resources to house the homeless are woefully inadequate.

The city has no plans to create temporary or transitional housing. Council members also acknowledged that Tampa's shelters are already full on a nightly basis, with up to 100 people on a waiting list to get a bed. The ordinance's supporters responded that the law will not be enforced if there are no shelters available, and that another option is to take the homeless to a shelter outside of city limits. A police officer stated that "the city will provide resources" to a homeless person taken to a shelter outside of the city to get back the next day if the person requires city services, but no plans have been put in place.

The idea that the police will be able to determine if shelters are full before arresting someone is ridiculous. If arrested for sleeping on the streets, the burden will fall to the homeless person to prove the shelters were full and the ordinance should not have been enforced on the night they were arrested.

Not only are the number of beds available in Tampa's shelters inadequate to house the homeless population in the area, some shelters even go so far as to charge to stay in them.

"Most shelters in the Tampa Bay area charge $10 to $42 per night for a single person. They aren't free," Tasha Rennels told Bay News 9. "18 out of 25 shelters cater to a specific need such as domestic violence or mental illness, and those are important, but there aren't shelters available for people who can't afford housing. Lack of affordable housing is the biggest problem."

If you cannot find or afford to pay for a bed in a shelter, you can be arrested and forced to pay fines, court costs, and other penalties. Tampa offers a hand closed in a fist to the needy and poor.

Everyone is talking about race

From people in the street to the President, everyone is talking about race. It makes perfect sense in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to gut enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and the jury decision to acquit an armed white man for shooting unarmed black teenager to death.

There seem to be two camps of opinion. One camp claims all (or almost all) have been cured of racism. Even a majority of Supreme Court justices believe that racism is so last century. Now that racism is a thing of the past we really, really (!) don’t need any affirmative action or federal supervision of voting rights. Trust us.

The other camp says that racial discrimination is alive and well in America right here and now. The statistics support their claim since people of color are more likely to live in poverty, struggle with unemployment or slave wage employment, been imprisoned for a crime, and die of gun violence or chronic disease in 21^st century America.

So how do the folks that believe that racism is dead explain all those bad things happening to people with dark skin? Easy. Bad things happen to bad people. They are just a bunch of gang thugs, thieves and addicts that cannot live within the bounds of the Law so they deserve to suffer. Throw them crumbs and pennies for that is all they deserve. It’s God will.

Perhaps it is my overactive imagination but all that sure sounds racist. Now that Jim Crow laws have been taken off the books, policies that hurt people of color are fine as long as that is not the stated objective. You can restrict voting rights but slyly claim it is to prevent voter fraud. You can jail and even execute people who cannot afford a top legal defense team. You can starve people that cannot find a living wage job by accusing them of being welfare cheats. As long as you do not get caught muttering racial slurs, the racism charge will never stick. Just ask Paula Deen.

Rhetoric (and presumably attitudes) do seem to have evolved. Many now fear the poor rather than skin color. I guess that makes them color-blind. As a nation that rewards business success with obscene wealth, those that cannot pull their own weight economically are a burden and need incentives to work harder. It is almost like they were predestined to suffer according to God’s plan for them. The Lord smiles down on the successful as symbols of destiny fulfilled. The poor are moral failures. So goes the rhetoric popular in some segments of our enlightened society. 

If you believe some of the political pundits, President Obama is a racist that just wanted to stoke racial tensions in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict by claiming kinship with the shooting victim. How dare he speak from his own experiences as a man with dark skin about people assuming the worst of him!? Obama’s call for a little soul-searching on race is proof of his divisive intent.

And then, finally, I think it's going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching. There has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. I haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have. On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there's the possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin, but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that racism is truly a thing of the past. Our economic and justice systems are color-blind even though too many people of color wind up with the short end of every stick. Let’s give folks the benefit of the doubt that it is not race they fear, but they have every right to fear the violence, addiction, and property crime prevalent in poor neighborhoods because those are character flaws that deserve judgment.

As a follower of that Jesus fellow, I am trying to get my head around how classism is morally superior to racism. The Lord warned about the trap of materialism. You cannot worship Mammon and God. He also said the rich have a snowball’s chance in hell to reach the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps He was kidding. Maybe He was only talking about rich Romans and Palestinian Jews, but certainly not about Americans, God’s new chosen people. 

Christ calls His followers to lift the burdens of the oppressed and care for the most vulnerable. We are to serve others as if we are serving the Lord in each person. I would say we have more than a little soul-searching in order. Now about those sins of Sodom . . .

Georgia loves vengeance

State officials in Georgia love vengeance. They relish it. They cherish it. They are even so intoxicated by their power that they want to execute a man that is intellectually disabled. His name is Warren Lee Hill. 

For years now there have been serious constitutional questions about Georgia's plan to execute Warren Lee Hill, a man whom all government doctors now agree is "mentally retarded."* As a matter of fact and law, such an execution is supposed by be barred by the Supreme Court's precedent in Atkins v. Virginia, a 2002 case in which the justices, by a vote of 6-3, declared that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual" punishment precludes the execution of people whose cognitive impairment renders them unsuitable for the criminal justice system's ultimate punishment.

All the experts agree that this man had extremely limited cognitive ability, but it does not matter. The state refuses to commute the sentence to life. Any show of mercy is unacceptable. And yet, no good will come of killing this man. 

Just how desperate are state officials to kill Warren Lee Hill? Not only are they willing to ignore his cognitive deficits, they are working in shadows to find the drugs to kill him. 

The Georgia corrections department confirmed that, with just days to go before Hill's death sentence is due to be carried out, it has not yet secured a batch of the medical drug in sufficient quantity to kill him. The department's existing stock of pentobarbital expired in March, and the Guardian understands that the state has turned to an unidentified compounding pharmacy in another state to try and skirt around international controls.

They even passed a law to cloak their lethal injection process in secrecy.

In an attempt to circumvent international and national scrutiny, the Georgia state assembly passed a law in March that in effect permitted the corrections department to act in secret in seeking to acquire execution drugs. The provision classifies the identity of any person or company providing drugs for use in lethal injections as a "state secret", thereby negating any public right to the information.

Clearly the spirit of Christ is dead in the men and women of the state assembly. When you love vengeance this much, the Holy Spirit has been silenced. Lord, forgive them for they know exactly what they are doing and simply do not care.

Born Again

I decided to take a break from writing while attending to my parent’s health crises. Too much stress often has a way of putting a little too much bite into our words. As a test of whether I can be critical without being hostile, I present a story of harmful witness for Christ.

I met a woman at a recent fundraising event and we chatted during lulls in the action. Let’s call her Marjorie. The conversation was light as we talked about our careers and family, but then the subject of religion came up. Or more precisely, we found ourselves discussing religion being used as an excuse to harm others.

Marjorie is Jewish and raised her three boys in that tradition. Her husband’s struggle with alcohol took its toll on the marriage, leading to divorce about ten years ago. She hoped and prayed that he would eventually find the strength to conquer his addiction. They remained on good terms, effectively co-parenting the boys to adulthood. The man eventually remarried and seemed to have put his life in order. The man’s second wife was described as a “born again Christian.” He converted to Christianity from Judaism before their wedding, but never made religious differences an issue with his children.

A few weeks ago, the man tragically took his own life. Marjorie has no idea what triggered the suicide. It was one of those sudden events that knocked the wind out of everyone that cared about him. She and the boys attended the memorial service fully expecting it to be very difficult. Coming to terms with the loss of a loved one, particularly a parent, is no easy feat under the best of circumstances.

During the homily, the pastor decided to do something very unChrist-like. After reassuring the mourners that this man now stands in the presence of the Lord in paradise, he pointed to the man’s children and offered this gem. “His sons have been raised as Jews. If they ever expect to see their father in heaven, they better give themselves to Christ. The bible says that only people that accept Jesus as their savior will be given eternal life.”

No doubt there are some that will defend the pastor’s actions as merely clumsy rather than mean-spirited. He was more concerned about the eternal wellbeing of these young men than hurting their feelings. I don’t believe that for a second, but all are entitled to their opinions.

These young men were grieving their father’s sudden death and struggling with the fog that comes from the nagging questions of why he ended his life. They came to the service expecting a safe place to mourn and remember the good in their father, not to be held up for rebuke for their religious beliefs. The pastor ignored their suffering to wag a finger of disapproval at them. He threw a snake to people begging for food.

If we evaluate religious leaders by their fruit, then this pastor left members of a grieving family with a bitter taste. Marjorie is still stunned and hurt. The same is true for her sons. Rather than use the memorial service as a platform to witness for God’s love, the pastor’s words only served to raise doubt and despair. As a Christian, I felt the need to apologize to her for the hurtful words of the pastor, but I made no excuses for his conduct. I only hope God opens the preacher’s eyes to the harm he does done in the name of Christ.