Traveling in Place

What About Mormonism?

For the past couple of months, I’ve been asked two questions with increasing regularity: 1) Is Mormonism a cult?  2) Is Mormonism a form of Christianity?

Of course, there’s no secret about why I’m getting these questions.  There is at least an even chance that a major political party will, for the first time in American history, nominate a Mormon for President.  This would be another one of those “firsts” in the recent American history (following JFK as the first Catholic President, Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Supreme Court Justice, Barack Obama as the first black President, etc.) that cause some to applaud the still unfolding American dream, and others to bite their lips in anxiety.

I can answer the first question very simply.  No, Mormonism is not a cult.  It is too big and diverse to be a cult.  It’s been around nearly 200 years and has matured into a religious denomination of over 14 million people worldwide.  Mormons do not all believe exactly the same thing.  There are liberal Mormons, conservative Mormons, and fundamentalist Mormons.  If Mormonism were a cult, there would be no spectrum of beliefs.

Jesus vs. Religion?

The video inserted below has been viewed nearly 16 million times on YouTube.  It features Jefferson Bethke, a 22-year-old evangelical Christian, reciting his own rap poem that maintains Jesus came to “abolish religion.”  Bethke reflects the antipathy toward organized religion that is shared by many (most?) young adults in America – including those raised in Christian homes.  

 

It’s easy to criticize Bethke for this video.  He’s an active member of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, one of the nation’s premier megachurches.  He says he “loves the church,” but hates religion.  How is that possible?  Once you’ve organized a group of people who share the same basic belief system, you have religion – even if it’s “non-denominational.”  It’s also fair to ask, “If Jesus came to abolish religion, why was he an observant Jew?”  He attended synagogue services and participated in all the major festivals on the Jewish calendar.  In other words, he was religious. 

But I don’t want to dismiss Bethke’s provocative verse out of hand.  He’s got a point.  In fact, if you substitute the word “law” every time he uses the word

Why Dr. King Stirs My Soul

I was only a toddler when Martin Luther King gave his “I Have Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  I wasn’t even born when the Montgomery Bus Boycott catapulted him to the forefront of the Civil Rights movement.  But when I see the grainy black-and-white newsreels of King, especially when he’s speaking from the pulpit of a black Baptist church, I am instantly transported to a place that seems far away yet, judging from how deeply his words and cadence move me, is still very close to my heart.

On the occasion of the Martin Luther King holiday, as our nation pauses to consider the indelible mark Dr. King made on our history, I’ve been remembering the First Baptist Church on Cordell Street.

You see, I grew up in a typical Southern town.  The year I entered first grade was our school district’s first year of busing and integrated classrooms.  But every other aspect of life was strictly segregated, none more so than churches.  My family attended the First Baptist Church on Main Street, right at the major crossroads downtown.  But, as in many other Southern towns, there was another First Baptist Church – the one for the black folks.  Their church was located on Cordell Street, far off any path my family or any other white residents ever traveled.

The Return of Winter

Snow is falling heavily today.  This morning, some locations reported two inches per hour.   This wouldn’t normally be news in a Central New York January, but we haven’t seen any significant snowfall this season before today.  Tree limbs are thickly flocked.  Traffic lights are hanging at a 45-degree angle in a stiff wind that sometimes gusts to 40 miles per hour.  Since the snow is falling too quickly for the plows to keep up, the roads are sloshy and slippery, and visibility is down to a few hundred feet.  Snow is forecast to fall steadily for the next 24 hours.

In many other parts of the country, this would be time to close school, shut up shop, and hunker down at home.  We’d be doing the same thing if this were a monstrous nor’easter dumping a couple of feet of snow.  But it’s not that at all.  This storm is just the return of winter to the Snow Belt – finally.  School is open, traffic is flowing (albeit slower than usual), consumers and cashiers are moving with a sense of urgency, but not frantically.  The plow drivers are feeling their oats for the first time in nine months.  We seem to have been rustled out of our post-holiday slumber.  Normal life has returned.

In a post last month, I intimated that many residents here reflexively complain about snow, as if the less snow the better.  The ideal winter, to hear some people talk, would be no winter at all.  Florida, in other words.  Some of us have a different view.  We appreciate having four real seasons.  We believe that heavy snow is preferable to hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes.  We also recognize that a snow-blanketed ground lightens up otherwise dark days.  On sunny days, the snow sparkle under a cobalt winter sky is breathtaking.

Beyond Ideologies

On the eve of the nation’s first primary for the 2012 presidential election, six Republicans are vying for the opportunity to challenge President Barack Obama.  The outcome of the New Hampshire vote tomorrow is hardly in doubt.  Frontrunner Mitt Romney has been consistently outpolling the rest of the field there since the race began last summer.  But a lot of attention will be paid to who comes in second, third, and fourth, because at this point, there are three primary races within the Republican Party. 

First, there is the race for the “conventional” or “establishment” wing of the party.  That contest is between Mitt Romney and John Huntsman, and represents about a third of the national party vote.  Second, there’s the race for the “libertarian” wing of the party.  One could argue that this is not a race at all.  Ron Paul is the only real libertarian running, though in New Hampshire, some of that vote is split with Huntsman.  It accounts for 10-15% of the party nationwide.  Finally, there’s the race for the “social conservative” wing of the party.  This vote has been splintered between four candidates – Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Michelle Bachmann (who dropped out after her poor showing in the Iowa caucuses).  The national polls suggest that this is the largest wing of the current Republican Party, accounting for upwards of 40% of the party vote.

The Other Epiphany

This Friday, January 6, is “Epiphany” on the Christian calendar.  Because it does not fall on a Sunday, only the most liturgical traditions will hold worship services, and only the most observant will attend.  The rest of us may or may not have observed Epiphany last Sunday.  Since it was New Year’s Day, and the readings for the second Sunday of Christmas lent themselves well to a reflection on the transition from old to new, I suspect many congregations, like my own, did not.

The first Sunday after Epiphany is the time to remember Jesus’ baptism and renew our baptismal vows.  Since this occasion has become one of the more moving worship services of the year for our congregation, Epiphany, at least this year, gets short shrift.

Or does it?

In Western Christianity, Epiphany is the time to remember the visit of the Persian Magi to see the Christ child.  It is therefore an extension of the Christmas season, inviting further reflection on gift-giving, as well as on the revelation (“epiphany” means “revelation”) of Christ to the Gentiles.  Tradition has bolstered the Magi’s Gentile identity by refashioning them as “three kings” from across the Orient.  But in Eastern Christianity, Epiphany has always been about Jesus’ baptism.  And since Eastern Christianity (which traces back to the church at Antioch) is older than the Western tradition (with roots in Rome), our remembrance of how Jesus was revealed to be “Son of God” at his baptism actually reflects the oldest understanding of Epiphany.

Standing with Arab Christians

On Christmas Day, Islamic extremists attacked a Christian church in Nigeria during worship.  Twenty-six people were killed.  This kind of tragedy is an all-too-frequent result of the otherwise promising “Arab Spring” that is sweeping the Middle East and Northern Africa.  In October, extremists in Egypt opened fire on Christians as the Egyptian military turned a blind eye.  Twenty-four Christians were killed and 300 wounded.  Over the past year, Egyptian Christians have been under relentless assault.  Jihadists have destroyed churches, vandalized homes, and disrupted Christian neighborhoods.  In Iraq, the plight of Christians has grown worse every year since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that since 2003, 54 Iraqi churches have been bombed and 905 Christians have been killed.  Christians in Syria, Iran, and Pakistan also live in constant fear.  Across the Middle East and Northern Africa, Christians are fleeing by the hundreds of thousands.  Ironically, the day may come when no Christians live in the land of the Bible.

All those repressive regimes that are falling like dominoes in the Arab world had been giving protection to minority Christian populations in order to win the favor of Western nations, especially the United States.  Now that popular revolts are taking down those regimes, the protections enjoyed by Christians have been swept away.  Here in the U.S., reaction to the Arab Spring tends to fall into one of two broad categories. 

Christmas Sunday

Note: This post was updated on 12/26/11

Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday very often – only ten times every 100 years, but not in regular intervals.  (The next time will be in 2022, and then, not again until 2033.) This makes no difference to Catholics and high-church Protestants who always hold worship services on Christmas Day.  But going to church on Christmas morning is a bit of a novelty to most Protestants, including me.  I love our Christmas Eve services, especially the late one that ends with the lighting of the Christ candle at midnight.  Because we “sing in” Christmas with that service, we don’t normally worship together the following morning.  But when Christmas falls on a Sunday, we don’t cancel church.  We hold only one service.  The crowd is small, but those who come want to be there.

One reason Christmas Day worship is nice is that some carols are written specifically to be sung on Christmas morning.  For instance, the third verse of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” begins, “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning,” and “Good Christians Friends, Rejoice” includes the line “Give ye heed to what we say: Jesus Christ is born today.” 

And then there are the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow set to music in “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”  Longfellow penned this poem in the depths of the Civil War, contemplating the dissonance between the gunshots of war and the

A Gray Winter Solstice

It’s the first day of winter – the shortest day of the year.  It’s also pretty dark.  The rain is steady; the sky is overcast.  We have been uncharacteristically bereft of snow this December.  While many long-time residents of Central New York reflexively say they are glad for every day without snow, they seem unaware of how crabby they sound with this meager expression of thanks.  Snow in December and early January lightens the landscape and reduces the effect of having so little light.  Without it, the world is gray.  There is no crispness in the air.  And it doesn’t look much like Christmas.

So on this winter solstice, our affect is more seasonally disordered than usual.  We can appreciate to a greater degree the need of our ancestors to fashion elaborate ceremonies of light to cope with this dark moment of the year.  In ancient Rome, the festival of Saturnalia (“birth of the Sun”) was observed by exchanging gifts and dancing around evergreen trees.  In Northern Europe, peasants lit fires to chase away the evil spirits and bid the god of light to return.  Later, Christianity embraced elements of these pagan festivals to celebrate the birth of Christ – “the true light that enlightens everyone.”

Christmas in the "Service" Economy

When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, I worked part-time as a disc jockey for a local radio station whose policy was not to play any Christmas music until December 10.  Listeners actually called us earlier in the month begging us to cue up “Frosty the Snowman” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” but our program manager never budged.  This was actually good for business.  People knew they had to wait to hear their holiday favorites, and the anticipation increased attention to the station’s playlist.  Starting on December 10, we DJ’s were allowed to program two Christmas songs each hour.  Then, on Christmas Eve at 6 p.m., the station (whose format was Top 40), broadcast Handel’s “Messiah,” followed by continuous commercial-free Christmas music until noon on Christmas Day.

How quaint.  A few years ago, radio stations started playing round-the-clock Christmas music on the day after Thanksgiving.  At the time, only one station in any given market would program wall-to-wall holiday fare.  Then, multiple stations in the same market adopted the same strategy, the only difference being who switched to this format first.  Now, one station in Central New York starts playing 24-hour-a-day Christmas music on November 1.  By Thanksgiving, four stations are offering nothing but Christmas music.  If I were a (compact) disc jockey at any of these stations, I would lose my mind by the middle of December.