Prayer in the heart of Hollywood.

March 25, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

The music of Taizé has been around for a generation or more, but continues to grow in popularity, in part because of those who come from around the world to pray in this southern French town are met with simple and direct piety in an amazing blend of experiences.

Taizé was founded by Brother Roger during World War II, quickly became a refuge for Jews escaping the Nazi slaughter, and today draws as many as 7,000 visitors per week.

We have begun to pattern our prayer life on the piety and music of Taizé here in Hollywood. It has begun as a Lenten experiment, will continue on Maundy Thursday next week, and hopefully in the weeks after Easter.

There is no doubt that the experience is monastic — it provides a temporary retreat from the world into pure contemplation. There a re few words, time for silence and easily repetitive prayer. But when monasticism gently opens its arms to the outside world, it is grace.

Better yet, the brothers of Taizé welcome imitation all over the world. Their simple ecumenism fits our emerging church sensibility that the only way to be post-denominational as Christians is to start living like Christians with no prefixes or suffixes.

Even more amazing, doctrine and official dogma clearly are in the back seat or not present at all. The texts give voice to the words of Scripture alone, and interpretation is simply left to the Spirit to bring to each heart. The worship style of Taizé takes seriously the prophetic words of Jeremiah 31, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD.”

In our experience, the role of the leader is unimportant, and formality is forgotten. Some sit on the floor or on cushions. Different people simply rise to read or to offer pray from the heart.

What is gratifying to many is that this kind of faith and spiritual expression is attracting young people. The music is singable, not complex, not packed with theology, and the mood enhanced by things as un-high tech as candles allows each person to bring what she or he has to offer and place it before God with honesty and simplicity. In our house of worship, each week different people have been close to tears. I hope we can continue this in the future to welcome people who don’t feel they belong in a church on a Sunday morning.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Doctrine, Catholic matters, Bible & Interpretation, Ecumenical Issues, PRAYERS, Faith, Spirituality | Print | No Comments »

Did you feel it?

March 16, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

February 27:  a freeway in Chile, not Los Angeles

For many people it was no big deal, but at 4:04 a.m. today we were jolted awake by an earthquake. It was enough to make our chests pound more than a little with excitement and fear.

The bedroom is on the second floor, so we tend to feel shaking a little bit stronger than on the ground floor.

Today it was only a 4.4 by the way, not strong enough to cause damage, centered east of Los Angeles around Pico Rivera and 12 miles below the surface. See the USGS Preliminary Earthquake Report.

Here’s what shakes me up in California. You can’t always tell when an earthquake begins if it’s going to get much, much stronger and last longer, or if is will end in a few seconds after a light shaking. At 4 in the morning, it’s not like you can really tell what’s going on right away.

At 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, we were shaken up a lot more seriously by the Northridge quake. I remember the precise time and date, after all these years, because it was bad enough to be etched in my permanent memories. That one turned out to be a 6.7 on the Richter scale, or more than 120 times stronger than the one this morning.

In the stillness I lay there doing the familiar mental calculus, the what if’s, etc. The electricity had not gone out, as it did in 1994. There was no aftershock within 3-4 minutes, as there always is with a more serious quake.

But what if we were feeling only the faint echo of a really terrible quake hundreds of miles away? What if it was San Francisco that was completely wiped off the map at 4:04 a.m. Should I get up and turn th radio on, or rush to the computer for information?

Then there’s the nasty possibility of foreshocks. The scientists tell us about those — meaning that this little 4.4 could have been the precursor to The Big One which could hit within 10 minutes. Should we jump out of bed, get dressed, moved the cars out of the garage (possible collapse?), and fill every bucket and pot with water for emergency use in case the pipes break when the Big One hits. We have only minutes to react, if this is the harbinger of impending disaster.

As it was I couldn’t fall asleep right away and kept listening for creaks and groans in the building — from settling or shifting. There were none. But after the terrible geological disasters in Haiti (January 12) and Chile (February 27), no one in California can really rest easy all the time. We think we’re prepared for disaster, and we have emergency kits, and know about “drop and cover” etc. But you can never be prepared to awaken suddenly in the night. It really rattles your cool, dude.

—Dan Hooper

Also see:  the Los Angeles Times on-line report updated at 6:30 a.m.

P.S.  The nation of Chile has been struck with three more aftershocks on March 11, two of them very serious. A 7.2 shaker was followed by a 6.7 aftershock, followed by yet another of 6.0 on the Richter scale, all within about 27 minutes. Extensive damage is reported in the city of Rancagua. Pray for the poor and wounded.

Posted in Public Affairs, PRAYERS | Print | No Comments »

The crazies are at it again.

February 19, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Fred (”God Hates America“) Phelps continues to attract media attention, which is the only pay-off he could possible get out of flying his family/congregation around the country. … and I won’t say anything more disparaging, not that he doesn’t deserve it.  His “God hates” web sites are evidence enough of his twisted nature.

 

In fact, St. Paul warned us about Fred Phelps and talks to people today who listen to his anti-Christian, ungodly diatribes:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace o fChrist and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!  As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrry to what you received, let that one be accursed! — Galatians 1:6-9 (NRSV)

This just in from Pastor Dan forwarding it from Rabbi Steve (I have added emphasis because this apparently happens tomorrow, February 20).  Please pray for our friends in faith, and if you are extra brave, say a prayer for Fred, who has completely blown off the gospel of Jesus.  ~  P.D.

A Message from Rabbi Steven Moskowitz…

Dear Temple Israel Family,

As you may already know, an anti-gay, anti-Semitic group, the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas, is scheduled to come to Long Beach to engage in a series of protests at various locations February 19-21.  Among those places to be picketed are Wilson High School, the Alpert Jewish Community Center, and Temple Israel.  Specifically, the group’s schedule states that it will picket Temple Israel on Saturday, February 20, 10:00-10:30 a.m.  Westboro is a small group, which typically has a small number of picketers displaying hateful and offensive signs, engaging in vocal demonstrations but refraining from any violent or unlawful activities.  Below is a link to a Press-Telegram article announcing the group’s intentions. 

The staff has been in touch with the Long Beach Police Department, the Jewish Federation, the Alpert Jewish Community Center, the ADL, and other agencies.  Following discussions that included Sharon Amster Brown, Education VP Judy Blumenthal and Torah Center Chair Katherine Bussi, we have decided to move the 7^th grade program scheduled for that morning to a parents’ home.  Sharon will shortly be sending an email to the 7^th grade families with the details for that morning’s schedule. 

After giving the matter much thought, I approached the South Coast Interfaith Council and proposed that we host at our synagogue that morning a unity prayer service as a way to refocus the story of the day away from Westboro’s message of hate to our community’s message about love, diversity, and unity.  I invited clergy and congregants from this interfaith community both to attend and to contribute to such a service with prayers/readings/songs which speak of the sacred power of love and unity.  I am delighted to say that the SCIC was very enthusiastic about this invitation.  Already I have received responses from neighboring congregations expressing their support for us and their interest in participating.  We are going to change the start time of our service that morning to 9:30 a.m.  It will conclude at 11:00 a.m.  Similarly, we will shift the start of our regular Torah study session to 8:15 a.m. 

Members of the Long Beach Police Department will be present at Temple Israel that morning.  Please do respect their recommended guidelines that there be no direct encounters with the picketers and no counter-demonstrations.  That would only help the group to feel that they had achieved their goals of provocation and attention.  I invite you to join us on February 20 at 9:30 a.m. as we give voice to the view that there are many paths to God, except the path of hate.  On that day we shall bear witness to the prophetic words inscribed on the outside of our synagogue: “My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Rabbi Steven Moskowitz

Press-Telegram link: http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_14272240?IADID=Search-www.presstelegram.com-www.presstelegram.com

Posted in Homophobia, wingnuts, Doctrine, Bible & Interpretation, Public Affairs, Faith, PRAYERS | Print | No Comments »

Keeping the pressure up against hatred.

February 4, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I am passing along Wayne Besen’s timely review of the Prayer Breakfast and Obama’s speech. Maybe we don’t need to write off the president if he continues to stand up to hatred and bigotry.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Obama Boldy Speaks Out Against Uganda Bill at National Prayer BreakfastTruth Wins Out praised President Barack Obama today for his bold speech at the National Prayer Breakfast condemning Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The bill aims to imprison, hunt down and even execute gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The bill also threatens imprisonment for those who do not turn in their LGBT friends and family members to authorities.

In his speech, Obama said: “We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”

The President’s words were particularly powerful given the setting of this breakfast, which is hosted by the fundamentalist group known as The Family. This secretive organization is directly linked to the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda. The bill’s sponsor, David Bahati, is a key member of The Family.

“We applaud President Obama for having the courage to confront those responsible for the heinous anti-gay bill in Uganda,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We hope that the President’s laudable stand makes it clear to Family members in the United States and Uganda that the world is watching. Religion can no longer be used to justify bigotry, intolerance and persecution anywhere on the face of the earth.”

Besen is the coordinator of The American Prayer Hour, which is an alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast. Fifteen national organization’s launched the American Prayer Hour to shine a spotlight on The Family’s nefarious role in Uganda on the week of their annual National Prayer Breakfast. There are American Prayer Hour events in 20 cities across the nation.

“The safe course would have been for President Obama to remain silent,” said TWO’s Besen. “Instead, he walked into The Family’s house and held them accountable for their actions in Uganda. It was a huge victory for human rights and the president’s actions were courageous and honorable.”

Truth Wins Out is a New York City-based non-profit organization that fights religious extremism and the ex-gay industry.

Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director |  E-mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org  | Phone: 917-691-5118  | Truth Wins Out | 33 West 19th Street, 4th Floor | New York | NY | 10011

Posted in Homophobia, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs, PRAYERS | Print | No Comments »

The devil you say.

January 20, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I guess I am not through lambasting Robertsonian Christianity (fundagelical-blame-the-victim-praise-Jesus-cash-the-check theology). When I wrote recently, “Is he still totally nuts?” I hadn’t yet absorbed the fullness of the history lesson that wasn’t even in my college history textbooks.

Pat Robertson insinuated a “what do you expect?” view of the disastrous earthquake which has collapsed most of the infrastructure of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The ex/wannabe reverend Robertson, who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars annual and has a personal fortune estimated to be near one billion dollars, is said to be quite compassionate for the people of Haiti: he called for prayer for them. Not he sent funds to help emergency life-saving efforts. He called for prayer.

Robertson gives a bad name to prayer and an evil name to what it means to be Christian. Why is he being singled out for criticism? For his remark that Haiti’s slaves in 1791 “made a pact with the devil” to obtain their freedom from the French. Mind you—this was a man who launched a campaign to run for President of the United States. Imagine how his foreign policy views would have shaped up.

Thank God for Elizabeth Palmberg’s blog entry on the Sojourners blog last week (and in posting it here I reproduce her important hyperlinks):

“So Pat Robertson, to whom the media are still inexplicably willing to pay attention, is saying that Haiti is being punished for an alleged pact with the devil?

“This might be a reasonable time to point out that, when Haiti threw out the French, it was the latter who were on the side of evil — first, as slave-owners (Haiti was the only modern nation created by a slave revolt). And then, when Haitians had finally attained freedom from plantation chattel slavery, France forced Haiti to pay reparations to the former slave-owners, to compensate them for their loss of ‘property.’

“You read that sentence right — the ex-slaves were forced to pay their former masters, the equivalent of $21 billion (billion-with-a-b) in today’s dollars. It took the tiny nation from 1825 to 1947 — that’s right, over a century — to finish paying off this “debt,” a crushing burden which bled away resources for education and economic development.

“I’ll leave it up to you to decide where the devil is in that history. But if you want to be on the side of the angels — and God’s Jubilee economics, as laid out in the Old Testament — then surf over to Jubilee USA and see their advocacy points for Haiti today.”

Now, what has this to do with an LGBT/Christian blog? It is not Pat Robertson’s inanities which need to be shamed somehow. But it is important that we who are open-hearted, “progressive” and compassionate Christians—whether sexual minorities or not—absolutely divorce ourselves from the evil theology that uses Jesus as a commodity to make money for the preacher not for ministry. Robertson is only an emblem of this kind of profitable evangelism. He is not the only one. But his misuse of Scripture and of God Above to blame the victim, shame gay/lesbian people, and now malign an entire nation, is irredeemably shameful.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Fundamentalism, Violence, Go figure!, LGBT Christian, History, PRAYERS, Public Affairs, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

Is he still totally nuts?

January 14, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I first heard it at a clergy association meeting yesterday, and all I could do was shake my head, again, that Pat Robertson cannot resist publicly saying inane and inappropriate things, especially when natural disasters happen. It is one thing to blame Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans on legalized abortion (I am not making this up! You might also enjoy Wikipedia’s entry on the “fringe theories” behind Hurricane Katrina), but to allude that a slave rebellion in 1791 in a “pact with the devil” has anything to do with natural disasters takes an extra special dose of hubris and ignorance.

See: “Pat Robertson links Haiti quake to pact with devil” in the Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2010.Pat Robertson completely misses the heart of Christian faith in trying to explain why things happen in terms of the Devil! I was more saddened than shocked at his public comment and its follow-up effort to save face.The heart of our faith as Christians is to live out the compassion of Jesus in our own times, both in our own community and wherever people are in need. Our own congregation is just beginning to explore ways to respond to this disaster as we did three years ago when we sent $2,000 directly to people affected by the South Asian tsunami, which was enough to re-build an entire building.We are also connected with ELCA International Disaster Response, which is seeking immediate financial gifts to send on to long-standing relief and assistance partner agencies. One hundred percent of all donations go directly to the disaster response. (There is no overhead or administrative percentage held out. Anyone interested in helping can find information about giving at www.elca.org/disaster.)

Robertson’s latest foot-in-mouth or head-up-behind remark cannot be overlooked as the musings of a doddering old man His broadcasting empire still influences huge numbers. Officially founded 50 years ago this week, CBN’s own web site claims that the 700 Club has an average viewership of 1 million, and that the media empire Robertson built broadcasts to 200 countries.

But Pat Robertson’s own sense of “compassion” seems to be pathetically limited (Americans United’s Barry Lynn labels his remarks “grotesque insensitivity“), in my opinion based on a follow-up statement form the 700 Club quoted in the Times story:

Hours after his comments ignited a firestorm in the news media and online, Robertson’s “The 700 Club” TV show issued a statement elaborating on his remarks. . . .”Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath,” the statement went on. It added that “Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them.”As part of Robertson’s bizarre legacy, last October the CBN network warned trick-or-treaters about demonic Halloween candy. Eight years ago Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell blamed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the ACLU, feminists, abortionists and homosexuals.It has been estimated that Robertson’s personal fortune may be approaching $1 billion. He personally owned an oil refinery here in Southern California and a diamond mine in South Africa. If he were disposed from a Christ-like heart, he could personally finance an enormous amount of relief efforts in Haiti.Robertson’s own life expectancy isn’t so hot (he turns 80 in March). At his point in life he ought to be giving more thought to his legacy than his ego. What true ministry has he put into place which is Christ-like? Instead he will leave a legacy of ignorant and arrogant comments about the supposed sins and demonic forces behind high-profile calamities.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

---

---

Posted in Environment, Fundamentalism, Public Affairs, PRAYERS, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

Living and fighting AIDS, Hollywood remembers.

December 1, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

Here we are again at another World AIDS Day (begun in 1987), and 25 million people have died of this disease. Progress in fighting it has been so remarkable that people don’t use the term “pandemic” any more, which is good.

But the burden and the horror of AIDS has shifted — from white homosexual males who transported HIV around like so much airline baggage, and shared freely if unwittingly — to the third world, to women, to children, and to minorities. The bad side of this generation-long struggle against AIDS is that access to health care is not fair, justice or equal. Those who can afford health care have gotten access to today’s wonderful medications which allow them to manage the immune deficiency and get on with their lives.

Those who cannot get access to such medications (including the millions in third world nations who can’t even get clean water) still suffer the same pain and the same potential future as those whose names are on the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

I am proud to be on the Board of Directors of a fairly new local non-profit entity here in Los Angeles, Hollywood Remembers. Two nights ago, in anticipation of World AIDS Day, Hollywood Remembers staged its third annual consciousness– and fund-raising event, premiering the new rock/blues musical “Red Ribbon,” conceived and written by Joe Lawrence and directed by Jerry Craig. It tells the courageous story of six people whose lives were so heavily impacted by HIV and AIDS in the early 1990s just as the red AIDS ribbon was becoming a national symbol of the fight.

At the end of the evening our Board present $2,500 to Women Alive L.A., a grass-roots organization helping mostly minority women in their struggle against HIV and AIDS. Executive Director Carrie Broadus was here to speak to the audience—preach, really, about the fight we will not give up until AIDS is conquered—and to receive the check. I am hopeful that when our annual accounting is done, we’ll be able to send Women Alive even more. Much of our work has been generously underwritten by corporate and other non-profit sponsors, including Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Lutherans Concerned/Los Angeles, but many small donations at the door provided more than a thousand dollars and proof that people still care.

During the intermission, ushers collected scribe tickets on which people in the audience wrote the names of loved ones they have lost to AIDS. Every year I get teary just jotting down a few of the names of those friends I lost, but I was overwhelmed again this year to see that the enormous red ribbon on the banner (pictured above) being hoisted to the ceiling was not big enough to hold the names. Perhaps the heart of God is bigger than our banners, bigger even that the AIDS Memorial Quilt itself, which is the largest work of folk art in the world (nearly 1.3 million square feet).

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, the 576 square feet on exhibit at Hollywood Lutheran Church will be up through Sunday, December 6. Come and pay your respects, light a candle, and make a donation. It will be well used to help people with HIV/AIDS continue living and fighting.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Hollywood, HIV and AIDS, Living by Grace, History, PRAYERS, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Berlin: let your light so shine.

November 10, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

“You are the light of the world. . . .No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. . . .” —Matthew 5

This week’s news includes the 20^th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, and I keenly remember the events as the world rapidly changed in the late 80s— early 90s.

When my spouse and I went to Berlin 10 years ago on a concert trip with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, we walked through the Brandenburg Gate easier than you could a turn-stile in an amusement park. We saw the thin bronze strip laid into the asphalt streets signifying where the famous Wall had stood.

Last night you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard an NPR story about what led up to the break-through and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It began with peaceful street demonstrations not in Berlin, but in Leipzig on September 4, 1989. What NPR said was that a Lutheran pastor, Christian Fuhrer, the pastor of St. Nicholas Church, known as “Nikolai Kirche” at the crossroads of two main streets on the main square in Leipzig, began holding Monday night “peace prayer” services, and they began to draw people from all over the city.

Within a few weeks, each time the parishioners spilled out into the Leipzig Karl Marx Square, they took their prayers and candles with them and began to keep a public vigil for peace. Before many Mondays went by, it was thousands of people carrying candles from the church, in non-violent protests against the government.

The STASI, the state police, held back, unwilling to cause a massacre. One of them later said “we were prepared for anything” that the crowds might do. But we were not prepared for prayers and candles.

Nikolai Kirche   ~   Montagsdemonstration

Pastor Fuhrer’s peace prayers drew a crowd of 10,000, and within weeks, 70,000—this in a city of half a million. By October 16, the Monday night crowd had swelled to 120,000, and the following week, to more than 300,000.

The most interesting note I found in the story of the Monday night demonstrations was this quote, from a cabaret artist Bernd-Lutz Lange, who said, “There was no head of the revolution. The head was the Nikolaikirche and the body the centre of the city. There was only one leadership: Monday, 5 P.M., the Nikolaikirche.”

My point is very simple and direct:  Never, never, never underestimate the power of one person, or one church, to make a huge difference in the world.

Within the first month of the peaceable demonstrations in Leipzig, Western Germany television was reporting what was happening. Viewers in East Germany learned of the candlelight marches, and Pastor Fuhrer’s vigils began to happen in other Easter German cities.

The context in which the first Monday night prayers for peace started was a mood of either resignation or hopelessness. This one Lutheran Pastor could not have dreamed that he would launch a movement to bring down the German Democratic Republic. But he did what he could do, and the people of Leipzig knew from the witness of this one church that the Lutheran Church supported their yearning for change.

“You are the light of the world.” Jesus tells us to put our lights up and out there like a lamp on a stand. “In the same way, let your light shine before others.” That light may be a candle. But it almost always includes other forms of courage, determination, sacrifice, strength and risk. If we are not stuck in a mood of resignation or hopelessness or powerlessness, any one of us has the ability to change the world.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Christian, Bible & Interpretation, Faith, Public Affairs, PRAYERS, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

Praying for those who have no faith.

September 3, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

Recently I read about an Episcopal Church here in Los Angeles that welcomes people of faith and people with no faith. That contrast has stayed in mind for days. Our parish attracts an amazing diversity of people. some of them are still very much living in a fundamentalist world, and others are in recovery from fundamentalism, from Catholic guilt, from heavy parental piety and moral control, and from total burnout.

This is not the first time I have wrestled with these issues. I am struggling again with how to talk to people who have no faith, but who are at least open to spiritual experience that will lead them to respond in faith. As I am planning for an alternative, evening worship service–which may possible take the form of a Taizé worship experience– I started to jot down what elements belong in it, or what “ingredients” I would use to cook one up.

If we were to offer a brand new service or gathering without using traditional liturgy (complex, busy, unintelligible, boring) as a model, but drawing seekers and believers into a new experience of Jesus, what would this event include?

For one, it cannot use a traditional creedal statement, even the Apostles Creed. The formulas of the historic Christian Creeds were built on several generations of theological reflection about the significance of Jesus.

I no longer assume any such experience or penchant for reflection on the part of new seekers. Many people who wander back into a church had left as teenagers, not young adults. However long ago that was, they were operating on simple Sunday School thinking, and didn’t do much reflection on spirituality and life experiences before they walked.

Think of Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome” only “high school” is “Sunday School”:

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

The ancients (priests and prophets, disciples and apostles of Jesus) were steeped in a tradition of seeking and knowing the power of God. And they had powerful experiences in their lives to confirm their faithful sense. People today seem not to have these experiences, possibly because we have cut too many ties to our own inner spiritual selves, as if spiritual stimuli are disconnected from the nerve pathways that could bring them into our consciousness. And we are numbed by the over-stimulation of stuff, of action films, instant gratification, and 24/7 virtual hook-ups.

Suddenly I found myself praying a prayer for faith without dogma. Is this un-Christian, non-Christian, pre-Christian? Or post-Christian? It is at least a prayer for “openness to faith”.

Great One,
I do not so much seek You as to open myself to be found.
I, who am finite, open myself to the infinite.
I, who am contemporary, open myself to the Ancient One and the Future One.
I, who am limited, open myself to the one who is unlimited.

Present One,
May I become transparent to your color, your strength, your Spirit.
May I have an ear ready to hear your Voice.
May I have legs to follow where You lead.
May I have a life ready to live in You.

Holy One,
Let Your Life infuse my life.
Let Your heart be the beat within my heart.
Let Your Light illuminate wherever I have darkness,
and Your Joy replenish my emptiness.
Let your compassion shape my compassion,
your power be my own power,
your grace become my graciousness,
your love awaken love within me,
and your forgiveness teach me to forgive others.

Let these things be so! Amen!

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Doctrine, PRAYERS, Spirituality | Print | No Comments »

I lift your names prayerfully.

August 21, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

I am still trying to grasp the enormity of this action in Minneapolis today, where one of the major Protestant churches in the United States reached its “tipping point” about the presence of lesbian and gay pastors in its churches, not just lesbian and gay people.

The tipping points, plural, were four resolutions on “Ministry Policies.” (Votes were taken in a different order than originally proposed, so if you’re following these from the original “Recommendation on Ministry Policies” published months ago, the resolutions were addressed today in this order: 3, 1 , 2, 4.) And the tipping points were 77%, 60%, 55% and 69%.

The actions essentially readdressed policy change that came before the prior biennial Assembly in Chicago in 2007, when the vote went ever-so-slightly in favor of the status quo (celibacy as a life sentence for LGBT clergy). Sociologists and historians will chart today’s actions when they write the ful story of how a homophobic society has continually and inexorably liberalized about homosexuality to the degree that every institution in it will eventually find a way to recognize and get in sync with the change.

But because this issue affects me so personally and specifically, I am sort of in a daze right now. Earlier in the day, I met with another gay pastor who has felt compelled to leave the Lutheran ministry, but has been waiting to see whether the ELCA will finally welcome his gifts and his energies. Now I am thinking and feeling—with a kind of stunned quietude—of the efforts and the sacrifices of countless people for nearly 40 years who would have rejoiced to see this day.

Joel, Don, Marc, Bryan, especially, I remember you and salute you in your heavenly place where you can fully know the heart and mind of God while we in this world struggle to discern what is right and where we are being led. Of these friends, the youngest of whom has been gone 14 years, all died of HIV/AIDS. One was a Lutheran pastor, two were seminarians never ordained, and one was a layman of extraordinary faithfulness to a church that had rejected him.

From the ELCA news release late today:

“Allison Guttu of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod said, ‘I have seen congregations flourish while engaging these issues; I have seen congregations grow recognizing the gifts of gay and lesbian pastors.’”

Now the church lately begins to recognize the gifts of gay and lesbian pastors, and I thank God for their insight. But I am mindful of the decades (including those long before my time) when the validity of ministry on behalf of sexual minorities was scarcely even thought of. For years and years, gay pastors quietly and often secretly ministered to gay Christians while the institution ignored and despised both. The Word was proclaimed, confessions were offered and absolutions pronounced, the bread and wine were blessed and given, and all of us quietly, faithfully continued to hope for this day.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Recap of the 4 resolutions on Ministry Policies:

In the order considered today and voted upon . . .

Resolution # For/Against Total Votes Cast Percentage of Majority

3                      771 – 230                  1001                    77%

1                       619 – 402                 1021                     60%

2                        559 – 451                 1010                     55%

4                       667 – 307                   974                     69%

Posted in LGBT Christian, Ecumenical Issues, HIV and AIDS, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Faith, History, ELCA, Ministry, PRAYERS, Public Affairs, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Critical Mass

June 16, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

The nation is changing, as if we haven’t noticed, and the pace of change is changing, speeding up, on overdrive. I’ve purposely been avoiding same-sex marriage stuff for a few weeks so that readers can be assured that there are other issues to talk about. But in today’s news, the pace of change on this issue is reinforced again: 

The U.S. Conference of Mayors at their 77th Annual Convention today passed a resolution calling for full marriage equality for same-gender couples. In addition to its strong language on marriage equality, the resolution passed today also endorses the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, the Uniting American Families Act, and the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

The resolution, called “Equality and Civil Rights for Gay and Lesbian Americans,” said the following on the subject of marriage equality: “…The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports marriage equality for same-sex couples, and the recognition and extension of full equal rights to such unions, including family and medical leave, tax equity, and insurance and retirement benefits, and opposes the enshrinement of discrimination in the federal or state constitutions.”

Ross Murray, Associate Director, Lutherans Concerned/North America, said “As we continue to advocate for full inclusion of LGBT Lutherans in the life of their church, we are encouraged that leaders in the secular world are beginning to recognize what we have known for a long time: that LGBT people are and always have been part of the wondrous diversity of creation, and, as such, are entitled to equality in society, as well as in the church.”

Phil Soucy, Director Communications LC/NA: communications@lcna.org

So, maybe we are really reaching the critical mass for social change on the marriage issue, when even Dick Cheney thinks it’s okay and the U.S. Conference of Mayors wants to be in the “yes” column (see its Resolution No. 46 here). Note also that the same resolution supports ENDA legislation and the Matthew Shepherd act. Support like this is pretty cool on the occasion of the 40^th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Somebody let me know when the actual “tipping point” arrives for LGBT people, so that we can hold a celebratory concert, party or church service in honor of it. Maybe we could call it the “Critical Mass” and offer prayers of thanksgiving?

The only problem is that homophobic Christians may use the term in the other sense, and hold a Mass which is critical of same-sex marriage. More than likely the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that would back that one. It opens tomorrow in San Antonio, Texas. Hmmm.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Catholic matters, LGBT Rights, History, Public Affairs, PRAYERS | Print | No Comments »

A Personal Resurrection Experience

April 12, 2009 by Dan Hooper.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed. Alleluia, alleluia!

I don’t usually dwell on personal issues, but this is a brief follow-up from last week about Carl. Thanks to the intransigence of insurance plans, he was sent home on Easter Sunday right as we began our morning festival worship service. We are still working out the details of home health care and logistics.

I am so grateful to God that he walks, he talks, he is able to ambulate and feed himself, and his body is functioning somewhat normally ~except of course for the fact that he wears the steel, plastic and velcro equivalent of a body cast from his hips to his chin, and will live with those indignities and discomforts for probably 8 more weeks.

The discomforts are from no less than six broken bones, and as I peruse the lengthy print-out of his treatment record, I am finding more and more things from the analysis of his MRI that could mean additional fractures have occurred.

But he is living! And we shall always remember Easter as God’s sign that our own resurrection is in God’s hands!

And I am dazed again by the power of the blog! It was from reading my April 5 blog that a dear friend in Oregon learned about Carl, and contacted mutual friends that I had not yet been able to tell. Thank you, Sarah. And thank all of you who have lifted Carl’s spirits, fed him before he could feed himself, and brought entire florist’s and card shops to his side, and offered entire prayer books of faith on his behalf. God bless you all.

— Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in PRAYERS, Spirituality, Recovery | Print | 1 Comment »

Jesus is not the only one despised and rejected.

April 10, 2009 by Dan Hooper.

About a year ago a young Muslim man came to my office to learn more about the Christian faith. (I blogged about this once before~ June 3, 2008) I was taken by surprise, and thought to myself, “Oh God, where to begin?” But we have several deep conversations. He helped me begin by asking me, “How did Jesus die?”—something which many Muslims have never been told about.

Today is Maundy Thursday. In this Holy Week, Christians recall the events of the final days of Jesus’ life, and especially his betrayal, arrest, mock trial and condemnation to death. Those events are fully told in the Gospels. But in the ancient prophesies, there are a series of “Servant Songs” in the book of Isaiah which Christians have recognized since the earliest times as prophetic of the suffering and death of Jesus.

In reading this passage from Isaiah 53:1–9, I began to imagine some parallels between the rejection and hatred of Jesus and the rejection (and secret suffering) of lesbian, gay or transgender people who also feel despised and hurt —especially young people who don’t have enough perspective on life yet to be able to stand up to homophobia and hatred:

1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?I am going nuts, Lord. How do I know if you are with me or not, because my friends and my family think I am evil and sick, and people say I will go to hell for being gay.

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

I can feel the hatred in their eyes, because they look at my like I’m some kind of freak. I’m only a teenager, and already my life is a mess!

3 He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

This torture inside of me has been going on for a long time. I just knew I was different since I was a little kid. And no matter how I have tried to be good or to conform or “fit in,” people either disliked me or completely ignored me, like I’m not even a human being.

4 Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

When they find out you’re queer, the first thing they think is like, “He’s got AIDS! Get away from me you fag!” And, “God is punishing you for being so gay!” Sometimes I have been hit or shoved into the wall. Once they kicked me.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

They think that by treating me with hate they are somehow better, like “holier-than-thou.” They think that by beating up on me or shouting obscenities, somehow they are more human that I am. Like, the guys are insecure about their masculinity, so they want to hurt me to prove they are “real” men.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

I can’t help it, Lord, but I feel like you have let all this hatred come down on me. I cannot carry this load, Lord. People say you never give us a load we cannot carry, but I can’t carry the load of hatred that has been put on my back.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

So how am I supposed to remain quiet, and be nice to people who talk about me behind my back? Am I supposed to just let them hate me, be cruel, abuse me and kill me like they did to Matthew Shepard and Lawrence King and Gwen Araujo?

8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.  Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

I’ve heard about guys who went to jail “on a morals charge” just because they were gay! And anti-gay violence is getting worse. We are being killed just for being who we are!

9 They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

O God, I feel like I could die. I mean, I feel dead, because people wish I was dead!! Protect me, and help me to not to go crazy. I want to live. you gave me life. Help me to go one living until there is better day, and not to hate those people back because they hate me.  Help me to survive!!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Homophobia, Gay Catechism, Violence, HIV and AIDS, Bible & Interpretation, PRAYERS, Faith, LGBT Christian, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

For better, for worse, in sickness and in health.

April 5, 2009 by Dan Hooper.

This is not a blog about gay marriage. Indwelling Spirit is about a lot of issues affecting LGBT people who are trying to follow Christ, and to remain in fellowship with other Christians who either reject us and hate us, or at the least are suspicious of us.

But we take the news of the day, and play the ball where it lies. In recent months the news has been jammed with the aftermath of Proposition 8, which (temporarily) dash the hopes of California becoming and staying the third United State to legalize same-gender civil marriage.

The news of my day has changed things, at least for a time. My lawfully-wedded spouse Carl is in the hospital, having suffered a disastrous fall on Saturday. He has four fractured vertebrae, one of them serious, and two fractured ribs. It appears now that this will not require emergency surgery, but what is coming next is still quite unclear.

Carl was climbing a tree in order to do some quick pruning in preparation for Palm Sunday. Now w have both missed the Palm Sunday service entirely, instead watching the hours tick by in the Emergency Room. At this hour he is completely immobilized with a neck brace, until the results of his MRI can be evaluated by a neurosurgeon.

Yet in the midst of all his pain, Carl has been capitalizing on our civilly-married status. Coming out all over again, he makes sure that each doctor or nurse attending him understands that I am his “husband”—a term I have yet to get used to when applied to myself, even though we have been a couple for decades. In fact, last October’s National Coming Out Day was the fourth time we have tied the knot in a ceremonial way.

After waiting in the rain overnight in front of San Francisco’s City Hall in February 2004, a quick view of our happiness.   The Lutheran magazine later mentioned us and our best friends in a news brief, “Married in the State of Grace.”

“He is fulfilling his marital vows,” Carl tells the nurse matter-of-factly, “to take care of me in sickness and in health.” As much as I have advocated for stable, permanent relationships among lesbian and gay couples, and now carried the flag for Marriage Equality in the streets and in my church (NoOn8Church.org), there is something almost monumental in just living as a married couple and in effect holding our heads up high as a married couple. Not just when the television station showed up at our wedding reception, but when we have to call the nurse (again) for some pain medicine.

The Supreme Court may speak any day now on whether it considers our pre-Prop 8 marriage “legal.” That nasty ballot measure insisted that only a marriage between a man and a woman is “recognized” in California regardless of when or where contracted (not the exact wording).  A month ago, the Justices closely questions attorneys on both sides in the oral arguments about what “recognized” might mean, and what it was intended to mean in the wording of Proposition 8.

But I am here to tell you that my marriage is recognized in our local Emergency Room, as it is in the congregation and the supermarket and the neighborhood and in our extended family circle. Ultimately, Proposition 8 cannot erase recognition for those who know that they have tied the knot securely and have already claimed their rightful status as “married.”

But please pray for Carl, and for all of us who have to keep coming out and claiming rights until the rest of the state “gets it.”

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Christian, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Living by Grace, Spirituality, PRAYERS, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Rest in peace, Rosemary!

March 31, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, `I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, `Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’” — Luke 9:57–58It is unsettling to think of Jesus as homeless, and yet that is how he is characterized in the Gospels, because throughout his entire ministry he not only was an itinerant preacher and healer, he depended on the kindness of others who welcomed him into their homes. (In Galilee, he was the guest of an unknown person or family. In Judea, he presumably stayed with Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, just outside Jerusalem. It was probably from their home that he moved with determination and triumph toward Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday morning.)The Nicene Creed states in formal terms what Christians accept from the Scriptural witness: Jesus is “true God and true man.” We know that Jesus completely shared our humanity, and in many ways which sadden us and appeal to our conscience. As an infant, when Joseph and Mary fled from King Herod, Jesus and his family became “political refugees” in Egypt for a time (some might say “illegal immigrants”!) Jesus wept. Jesus agonized over the suffering he would face. Jesus was betrayed and denied. He bled. He died. These are very human experiences!

But perhaps most jarring of all is this passage above, telling us that Jesus was homeless. Who among us would not find some way to take Jesus in, to get him off the streets, if we met him in Los Angeles today?

It calls to mind Isaiah’s prophetic utterance, which tugs at the heart during Lent:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” — Isaiah 58:6–7

The “problem” of homelessness is always with us in these times.  So many in our society wishes “the problem” would just go away!  But our homeless neighbors are still human beings, created in God’s image, and still our neighbors.  Our neighbor and friend Rosemary succumbed to breast cancer in mid-February.  I led a memorial service for her in the Sanctuary two weeks ago, and it was well attended by members, friends and neighbors.  A candle burned day and night in her memory for 40 days in our Sanctuary.

Rosemary is survived by Matthew, her companion of nearly 20 years, and by a cousin in the Midwest. She was nearly 70 at the time of her death, and still homeless, along with Matthew.   [See:  LA’s Homeless Blog“] Over the years, our community has done a lot to feed, clothe and help these two special people, but now we face a different “problem” or opportunity. It may cost as much as $400 to pay for the cremation of her body, and to gain the legal release of her remains. But we would also like to help Matthew start his life anew, off the streets, by helping him find temporary shelter and then long-term housing and employment.

In situations as these our faith and discipleship are being tested, to see if we can truly follow Christ wherever he goes, wherever he leads. We are at the threshold of Holy Week, the one week of the year in which Christians are most keenly sensitive to the humanity of Jesus, and to the power of God to change our world. Please join me in prayer for Matthew, and in doing anything we can as a community to honor Rosemary and to help the homeless poor get a fresh start. It would be our most fitting celebration of the Resurrection.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Bible & Interpretation, Hollywood, Public Affairs, PRAYERS, Ministry | Print | No Comments »