Ending “compassion fatigue”.

November 30, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I think we are all suffering from “compassion fatigue.” People don’t care as intensely, or consistently, as we did a few years go, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in this country.

But our “suffering” is slight compared to those living with, and fighting against HIV/AIDS. The suffering of this country is slight, now, compared to the struggle being endured in developing countries. Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, says that the epidemic has globalized and feminized. (Read his statement here.) The face of AIDS today is that of a heterosexual African woman of color. UNAIDS estimates that 95% of those living with HIV/AIDS are in developing nations, where all resources are scarce and costly.

There are countless world-wide and national organizations trying to help, but they too are often short on financial resources. The miracle drugs and “cocktails” which have made the continuation of life possible for thousands of Americans living with HIV/AIDS, are prohibitive elsewhere in the world, where even basic sanitation is spotty and difficult to maintain. Your compassionate response makes a difference.

Originally launched by the World Health Organization, tomorrow is the twentieth annual World AIDS Day, December 1.

This Sunday the Hollywood community will respond with an ecumenical Vespers/Concert in observance of World AIDS Day at Hollywood Lutheran Church, 1733 N. New Hampshire Avenue 90039. “World AIDS Hollywood” is an event to remember, pray and bring light. [Full details can be found at www.worldAIDSHollywood.org. Or call (323) 667-1212].

The event will feature the premier of “The Celestial Veil”, a new musical composition by Christopher A. Flores and Adrian Ravarour; music from Vox Femina and the Hollywood Wind Ensemble and other guest artists. Three 12×12 blocks of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display. A bell will be rung and a votive candle lit for hundreds of names of those whom we have lost in our community. Please join us!

It is my prayer that our compassion fatigue has ended, and that the Hollywood community especially will be awakened again to the urgency of our compassionate response.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Hollywood, HIV and AIDS, Health, Public Affairs, PRAYERS, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

The bifurcation of sexuality and self.

November 29, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

One of the worst aspects of internalized homophobia is that we tend to break up our lives and keep parts of them in separate boxes. This is especially true of our sex lives. For years (for generations, I suppose), we could actually live respectable lives, and be admired and integrated into our communities, as long as what we did in private remained private. At some deeply buried level of our minds (perhaps hidden even to ourselves) we believed that it doesn’t matter what you do for recreational sex as long as you’re back in your own bed, alone, when the sun comes up. We could do anything as long as we didn’t blab it to the neighbors, etc.

And the reverse reasoning went something like this: if society hates us for being gay – no matter how decently we try to live– and society thinks that any and all variations on gay love are equally horrible, from lifelong committed relationships to one-night stands— then why bother to have high standards? Or any standards?  Do whatever feels good.

I have seen this operating within the gay community even between gay friends. Men who slipped deeper and deeper into promiscuous, risky or kinky sexual practices started keeping their sexual habits secret even from long-time gay friends. They cut off a part of their life, and eventually cut off their entire life from the view of others, because they sensed that their particular recreational preferences or addictions would not be received well by other friends.

I would welcome broader discussion of this from a Christian perspective, because I already understand it is difficult to discuss within the gay male community. To say, out loud, that gay men should have higher ethical standards is almost to speak some kind of “sexual heresy” against our liberation movement. Unfortunately, the endless pursuit of sexual variety through the channel of riskier and crazier sexual practices enslaves our community and cancels the gains we have made both in sexual liberation and civil rights.

And the advent of the crystal meth epidemic in the gay community has simply amplified the deep division between daily life and nightly pleasure.  Patrick Moore’s honest piece in the Village Voice a few years ago, “We are Not OK,” needs to be read over and over until we let his confession/self-examination sink in and become our own.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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The trouble with conspiracy theories.

November 28, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

When I am in a hurry, (in other words, all the time), I become easily annoyed by things which don’t seem to cooperate: the rubber brake pedal that repeatedly falls off on the car floor, the drawer that won’t come unstuck, the tool from which an essential screw or part drops precisely at the moment when I am on a high ladder with it . . .

You get the picture. Every machine, or part, or material, or object, it seems, has not only the physical qualities which we see, and the force of inertia, but also some hidden, demonic ability to not work or to fall apart precisely when it shouldn’t. “Inside of every little problem is a bigger problem waiting to get out,” said Murphy in one of his famous laws. To which I add my own corollary: “Impeding every daily activity is some object which is broke, stuck, the wrong size, corroded, disintegrating, or back ordered.”

Recently my friend Ron explained this all to me as “The Conspiracy of Inanimate Objects.” In animate objects, he insists, really are ganging up on us! I had never much believed any of those conspiracy theories that roam the internet via e-mail (and did I mention how often e-mail is stuck, broken, the wrong size, corrupted, etc.?). There is another good saying to dispense with most conspiracy theories: “Never attribute to conspiracy what simple stupidity will explain.” For example, virtually everything our government does. Which government (city, county, state, federal), you ask? You fill in the blank.

But The Conspiracy of Inanimate Objects seems to explain virtually everything which stupidity will not explain. It is certainly more satisfying than calling the scissors or stapler, the carburetor, the door key, the door bell, lawn mower, fireplace damper, suitcase handle, cell phone, calculator, printer, or postal worker STUPID.

Beware! They are all conspiring against us! Especially people. Ron’s Conspiracy Theory also helps to explain people who are problems precisely because they become inanimate objects, almost on cue. In other words, obstacles. Inanimate means without animation. They have no “anima” or spirit. They block the store aisles, they brake for no reason, they clog every service station and convenience store, they stand in long lines in every government building, they park on the web, using up bandwidth until their session times out.

By the way, I take that back about postal workers. I have stood in line many times at the local USPS and had a hard time deciding which was more inanimate, stupid or conspiratorial: the employee or the customer on my side of the counter.

Did I mention that I am in a hurry and impatient a lot of the time? Okay, all the time? The Conspiracy of Inanimate Objects explains the problem here, because this demonic force—the conspiratorial force inside of most objects and too many people—has a built-in stress detector which monitors my stress level and misbehaves accordingly.

I just had another birthday. And alas, as I go through the inevitable aging process, I have made a very PAINFUL discovery: my own body is becoming one of those inanimate objects: creaky, broken, stuck, corroded. Stretching, yoga, push-ups and sit-ups are less and less effective, more and more of a reminder that the day will come when I am finally laid out as an inanimate object, and put in some box or incinerator.

The trouble with the Conspiracy of Inanimate Objects theory is that it explains too much. It even reminds me that my patience with stuff, people and self is constantly becoming more brittle, rigid, stuck or corroded. In my most charitable moments, I pray for greater patience — I really do. But, it never arrives. I guess it must be back-ordered.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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Church of Norway lifts the ban!

November 23, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I am behind on news reporting here. How did I miss this? Thanks to Elizabeth Schmitz’ blog, “Schmitz Blitz”, Lutheran Church in Norway Lifts Ban on Gay Ministers, I see that the International Herald Tribune (for those of us who are linguistically challenged and don’t read near enough of the world’s press) reported recently published as Associated Press story that the Church of Norway has taken a step similar to that of the ELCA in allowing individual bishops to decide whether gay/partnered clergy can serve congregations.

Norway is certainly more than a step ahead of the ELCA. The decision on November 16, (approved by a vote of 50 to 34 with 2 abstentions) lifted a outright ban on gay clergy. In contrast, the ELCA’s action last August (see: http://indwellingspirit.org/2007/08/25/) did not drop the odious ban, but simply gave permission to individual bishops not to enforce it.

It is never wise to leave an un-enforced law on the books. On this, I would almost have to agree with the right-wing extremists in the Lutheran fold, who cried out after the Navy Pier decision that not to enforce a rule is essentially to kill the rule. So I argue, if the ELCA now says bishops don’t have to enforce the rule, then get rid of the rule and let all God’s people serve in accordance with their gifts and not in accord with human rules.

The Norwegian church’s Synod meeting was not without its “anguish” according to the Associated Press story. One bishop said this vote would create peace in the church. Another bishop said it was a sad day for the church, and may “lead to many feeling homeless in the church.”

Thank you, Bishop Ole Hagesaeter, for putting it in those terms. That is exactly how I have felt for decades, and millions like me – we have been surrounded with grace, beauty, love, forgiveness, and the promise of abundant life, yet really denied all those things because we are a minority that the majority didn’t care about.

Now, Ole— and may I call you by your baptismal name, instead of by your title?— what you are saying is that when the church finally opens its door to a small minority of persons who have been homeless (a fraction of gay people who are clergy, and a fraction of those who are partnered), that it will push the vast majority of people out. Yeah, right.

Since you used the world “homeless,” Ole, let’s stay with that metaphor. If a homeless person is given a home, does that mean that all the people in town who have homes now must become homeless and go out into the snow? Are you saying that there is an incompatibility so profound that the love of God cannot possibly encompass both, and bridge our differences?

Or is it a human problem? Are you suggesting that the many people simply will never make peace with the fact that we are, that we are different, and that we also claim the grace of God like everyone else.

With all due respect to your office, Ole, get over it! And while you’re at it, since this decision by your churchbody focused on employment, perhaps reading Matthew 20 again would refresh your memory of how Jesus answered a very similar employment question. The owner of the vineyard says to one who was filled with resentment that the late-hires received equal wages,

“Friend, I am doing you no wrong: did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:13–15)This speech, which Jesus intends to represent the thinking of God Almighty, completely trumps our human efforts to qualify for grace and thereby exclude others who do not qualify (under the standards we set to qualify ourselves).  God is generous and gracious. The reason the church must and should and will welcome all people, including partnered lesbian and gay people, and include them in all aspects of its life of discipleship, is because none of us meets God’s qualifications (Romans 3:23), but all of us are accepted because God is generous and gracious. “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” Ole, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8). Get it, Ole?

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Bible & Interpretation, Ecumenical Issues, Living by Grace, Ministry, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

Shall we overcome? Part 1

November 18, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

All human beings are unique. Every body is different. Each of us has a unique life experience which results from what we have been given from birth onward (both our genes and our birth-family environment, etc.). Some are born to privilege, others in dire circumstances, some with physical challenges, others with extraordinary physical “good luck” — no genetic time bombs, etc.

The variety of human beings is endless. The stuff of literature, however, is fairly finite, and one of the recurring themes used by writers (whether novelists, essayists, or those who craft screen plays) is the story of someone who overcomes great difficulties or obstacles. For example, the heroic figure who rose out of poverty, or broke free of slavery, or overcame ignorance, racism, disease, handicaps, physical hardships — you name it.

In films, this “overcoming obstacles” is one of that limited number of story ideas. I had some fun with this in my earlier blog, “Everybody knows there are only five basic plots.”

It set me thinking whether we are so conditioned by popular literature and especially the movies that we have trouble with people who accept the circumstances they are in, rather than struggling against them and overcoming them. And I think of St. Paul’s advice, in 1 Corinthians 7, that “each of you lead the life that the Lord assigned, to which God called you.” He begins by talking about marriage, singleness and virginity, but when he comes to these verses (17–24) he also includes circumcision and slavery. Slaves, he counseled, should be willing to accept their enslaved condition, knowing that they are “free in the Lord.”

This is of course one of those passages that gets St. Paul in trouble with modernists, feminists, liberations, etc. But I have thought of this passage as it might be understood by lesbian and gay people — or for that matter, but transgender persons. Are we asked to accept the condition or circumstance in which we find ourselves, make the best of it, and just try to be spiritually free in the Lord even if we feel trapped in what life has dealt to us?

The story of transgender individuals tests this interpretation. Individuals who are born with a male body but perceive themselves to rightfully be female, or the other way around, suffer from gender dysphoria. There is a lot of debate right now about whether this or another label even belongs in the diagnostic manuals of mental health. But if we try to apply St. Paul’s advice — on a parallel track with being single or being married or being a slave, we would have to counsel a transgender person not to seek to change genders, through hormonal treatment or gender reassignment surgery. “Let each of you lead the life the Lord has assigned.”

But then what of the situation for those who discern themselves to be lesbian or gay? Shouldn’t we just accept the fact that we are homosexual, accept our sexual orientation as a given, as part of what life has dealt us?

The rub comes not within ourselves but from others, who weigh in with strong opinions about what it means to “accept.” Conservatives and fundamentalists quickly counsel a transgender person not to change genders but to accept their birth gender and to live (present themselves) as that gender, but take the opposite point of view on homosexuality. They do not believe that we should accept ourselves as gay or lesbian, and live the life “assigned” to us. The conservative would argue that being gay or lesbian was not “assigned” by the accidents or vagaries of human diversity, but chosen as a willful act of human disobedience and sin.

It makes for a fine, coherent systematic view for conservatives. The only problem is, it’s not particularly truthful. Most of us cannot remember choosing to be heterosexual or homosexual, and we don’t discern our sexual responsiveness (arousal, emotional attraction, and even love) as willful acts. We can suppress and stifle our true humanity and human experience—with enough social pressure and internalized shame brought about by the disapproval of others—but that is far from accepting our “condition” and claiming our “freedom in the Lord.” In fact, it’s quite telling that in the very same discussion in 1 Corinthians 7, St. Paul also advises those who are single “It is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.”

Taken as a whole, Paul’s advice is quite mixed. He strongly counsels those who are unmarried to remain unmarried and to accept their circumstances. He counsels the slave to remain content in his “condition” of enslavement. Yet he suggests that it is not a sin for the single person to marry after all, rather than to be aflame with passion. And he stops short of advising the slave that it’s not a sin to seek freedom rather than to be aflame with anger and resentment.

What rule would Paul give to a person who is lesbian or gay? Are we to be content with being lesbian or gay, and so go ahead and “lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you”? Or to attempt to remain celibate and abstinent, even if constantly aflame with passion? Or aflame with bitterness, loneliness and resentment?

Or as the conservative Christians insist, can a lesbian or gay man overcome the sexual orientation she or he has discerned, through great heroics and with great triumph. Conservatives want to believe the latter, because they have a whole “ex-gay”industry riding on it which they seek to protect from the ridicule of both the LGBT community and of health professionals.

I don’t think I’m through with this one, at all. I’ll get back to this.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Hollywood, Bible & Interpretation, Fundamentalism, LGBT Christian, Coming Out, Ex-Gay | Print | No Comments »

You go, Pastor Jen!

November 17, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I would have loved to be there! Today, my colleague Jennette Rude was ordained into the Lutheran ministry to serve Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago. Her father and grandfather, also Lutheran pastors, were there to share in the joy.   Read the full news story here.

Today was another of those days — they do not come often enough — when I am exceedingly proud of my faith tradition. They did the right things for the right reason in ordaining Jen, an out-Lesbian (can there be any other kind?) Who is grounded in the faith we all hold dear, a faith of grace, compassion, hopefulness and acceptance.

Today Jesus must also be proud of this small corner of his church. Yes, Jesus—the same Jesus who did not condemn, who welcomed with compassion, who constantly taught forgiveness, and who had little to nothing to say against those things which seemed to scandalize religious people.

Where he taught love and welcome, encouragement and reconciliation, are we to think that only those specific people o situations that the Gospels mention are to be included? When he included women, foreigners, Samaritans, the poor and the prisoner, are we supposed to limit our inclusiveness only to those specific Jewish women, or Syro-Phoenecians, Samaritans, etc., who are mentioned? Or was his a ministry of inclusion and grace which sets a pattern, a precedent to remind his followers to drop all distinctions, all prejudices, all signs of being scandalized by the presence of those who are different from themselves?

I am proud too of newly-elected Bishop Wayne Miller for his forthright and simple explanation of his position on this ordination extra ordinemi.

According to the Chicago Tribune story tonight,

“Chicago’s bishop, Wayne Miller, who took office in September, said he met with the congregation in October to discuss potential consequences should the national church choose to enforce the policy in the future. The congregation could be expelled from the denomination for calling Rude to serve.”‘This does not imply any bitterness or any hostility. It’s simply where we are right now,’ Miller said in an interview last week. ‘My goal is to keep people in the conversation, and I do not see this as an issue that should be dividing the church. I think it’s one of the many places where difference of opinion can make the church stronger and healthier, as long as people stay at the table and keep talking.’”

Miller had spoken with equal forthrightness after his election as Bishop last spring, saying that he believes the rules against gay and lesbian clergy should be changed. Miller, and also his predecessor Landahl, can be counted on to defend the work of the Holy Spirit to move the church forward. Especially truth-ful and grace-ful is his remark, “I do not see this as an issue that should be dividing the church.”

For those of us doing our own ministries all over the church, and who also do not stand within the ordinary policies of the church, we don’t see why there should be division either, except for the unwarranted histrionics of conservatives who cannot bear the thought of sharing the heavenly banquet with homosexuals.

I wonder if they could have tolerated the presence of the Beloved Disciple at the Last Supper, either. No matter. I believe that both Jesus and his Beloved would be very proud today as Pastor Jen Rude celebrated the Holy Supper at Resurrection Lutheran. You go, Jen! And may the Spirit go with you!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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“Jesus is Gone.” Are we lagging behind?

November 16, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

Our little parish church happily accepted three new members recently. Two more will likely be joining our company before the year is out. This is always good news for a small community. It means new energy, new enthusiasm and commitment to the congregation’s vision of an inclusive, loving, active ministry in its neighborhood.

But around us it seems there are churches closing or about to close. “They are circling the drain,” says my colleague Pastor Ruth. Given to introspection, we might easily re-examine ourselves and check our pulse for shortcomings, failings, errors, that cause a church to wither and die. Last year the oldest Lutheran church in Los Angeles, dating back to the 1880s, closed its doors.

But it is not simply that any one individual’s or any one congregation’s failings and errors cause a congregation to shut down. It seems as if THE Church is shrinking, at least in the “First World.”

In Germany churches have been closing in record numbers — even village churches, once the vibrant enter of village life. Churches which have held worship services for more than 700 years are now becoming restaurants, clubs, music halls or private residences. “Jesus is gone,” said young filmmaker Juliane Beer who bought the whole brick church in Briest in east Germany for $10,000, according to a Los Angeles Times story April 22.

Clearly, the church as a central cultural fixture is in decline in the West. In Africa, where it is growing, only the fundamentalist arm seems to have any strength, and if Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola’s constant diatribes are any indication, it is a conservative or fundamentalist slant on the Christian faith that many of us in the declining Christian West would find odious. (See my blog for October 10, “Culture war is not necessarily disunity.” I remember saying, when I was younger, that if fundamentalism were the only form of Christianity left, I would not be a Christian. Now it appears that even during my lifetime, I may be tested with the choice I had pictured.

If “Jesus is gone”—from the church in Briest, Germany, or for that matter gone from the churches of the West, that would certainly explain why the churches are in such sorry decline. If Jesus is gone from what we are doing as a church, then we’re doomed to fail, as Gamaliel reminded his colleagues (Acts 5:38). But I take a spiritual slant on this phrase from the young filmmaker, who wants to turn the church in Briest into an artist’s studio. If Jesus is gone from the church we know and have given our lives to, then where is he moving?

 

I put faith in Jesus more than in the church, although both are named in the historic Creeds of the church among that which Christians “believe in.” But the Jesus I know is not static, and certainly not hanging around in church buildings waiting for the faithful to show up every week, or several times a year, to admire him. Jesus is living in the world — serving, ministering, healing, challenging, suffering and dying. Jesus is rising again places where he is not expected to be alive (as the first apostles’ came to realize). Our mission, as followers of Jesus is to continually learn where he is working now and to follow him in his work.

We are constantly being urged by Jesus to “keep up!” If his work can be done in and through churches, fine. If not, our faith is in Jesus, through whom the church has its life. I really hope I don’t need to make the hard choice between them, so I remain vigilant, diligent, hopeful and hard-working to keep my church centered upon Jesus, not upon itself.

And if people come here seeking Christ in us, in our church community, then we will grow, not shrink. We will be born again, not die.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

[Talk amongst yourselves:  also see “Spirituality: Do we look like Jesus?”  October 1, 2007]

Posted in Fundamentalism, Faith, Spirituality, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

The privileged, underprivileged, and unprivileged.

November 13, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

This past Sunday, we attended the 10^th annual Hollywood Interfaith Choral Festival. I was proud of our choir and its musical tornado director, Eldon Turner, for their hard work. It was also a chance to hear the Harmonies Girls Choir under the direction of the very gifted Jose Antonio Espinal, both alone and singing with Hollywood Lutheran Church’s choir in a new work by Eldon M. Turner III.  This year’s concert benefited the Harmony Project.

The Harmonies Girls Choir is comprised of girls ages 8 to 18. Although started only five years ago, the choir has already made a third concert tour to Europe.  These young girls may be seen as coming from “underprivileged” settings, and are seeing a better world open for them through music. Of course, these girls, with disciplined and coordinated voices, and matching outfits, regularly perform for “the privileged.”

Many “privileged” people like to see “the underprivileged” being showcased.  Somehow it makes us feel better about our position – we who can afford concert tickets, nice clothes to go out in public, and a roof over our heads (where there is a comfortable bed and a computer to write blogs on.)  If young people are somehow making progress from “underprivileged” places in society, it seems to ease our own consciences about the positions we have and the places we live in.

But contrast these underprivileged children with the “unprivileged” – those who are homeless children in Los Angeles, in California (over 100,000) and across the nation: Estimates are that one million youth are homeless in America.

This November has been designated the first-ever “National Homeless Youth Awareness Month” by resolutions of Congress. Virgin Mobile has launched “The RE*Generation” project to help, and to seek other corporate sponsors.  Other organizations are connecting the dots of their efforts, including Fannie Mae Foundation’s Help the Homeless Program. It is impressive that Virgin Mobile’s efforts have already raised $3 million, but that’s only 3 bucks per kid – not even enough to eat one meal.

According to the National Runaway Switchboard, somewhere between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away from home each year. http://www.1800runaway.org/.  The reasons are complex, painful and tragic.  Kids on the street are more subject to sexual abuse and prostitution, drugs and substance abuse, despair and other forces which contribute to suicidality.

Our parish has been involved with youth homelessness by directly supporting the work of the Jeff Griffith Youth Center residential program, which keeps 24 youth off the streets of Hollywood, teaches them skills, helps them finish their GED and helps them find employment to build a future. I’m proud of what we’ve done these past three years, and hope our small community will keep its prior commitment to help LGBT youth.

Youth homelessness is an issue we must own in the LGBT community.  Many young people who do flee their childhood homes, or are ruthlessly expelled from them, are sexual minorities and misfits.  I wrote about Jeremy in Denver in the Lutherans Concerned/Los Angeles Light of Christ newsletter five years ago, and will try to re-post that article soon.

Your homework assignment starts here:

• Virgin Mobile’s introduction to the issue: http://www.virginmobileusa.com/regeneration/. It also has a column of relevant web sites here.
• Good Magazine’s presentation of the Virgin Mobile project
• The Trevor Project, which operates the nation’s only 24-hour youth suicide prevention hotline.
• Also see: Home Walk L.A. - this coming Saturday November 17.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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