I have been biting on this all day. So long, in fact, I am probably going to explode.
There is a massive disconnect and huge void when white people howl and scream about Christianity, Christ and church. For those who have never embraced Christ or are atheist, more power to you. In fact, I am probably some mix of Believer and atheist, myself.
HOWEVER.
I am ALWAYS hurt and angered when I see white people criticize the church and Christianity. As a young brown girl growing up, the church was the ONLY PLACE I felt safe and at ease. I was surrounded by my ma and her friends and all the other black people in my life. I would see them at the hair salon, the day before, getting done for church and on Sunday? I saw the fruits of everyone’s labor. My fondest tiny childhood memories are of Saturday and Sunday, in preparation for church. My father, a white man, participated and was every bit welcomed and loved in our church. My great-grandfather was a pastor, and a hugely successful one, at that. He stood on that pulpit, day in and day out, and howled and cried and spoke the truths to a roomful of black people who, when they left that space, felt whole and loved. People who, when they were on the outside, did not feel that love or feel that power. In many cases, they went to church to find STRENGTH.
White people do not know this. They do not understand the power of the church. They already have power, so in many cases, do not understand the importance of what the church provides black people.
We organized, we cooked, we baked, we sat together and we were a group of people with a mission. A mission to better ourselves and the world around us. For so long, our church was the only place where we COULD do those things. We sure as shit weren’t allowed to anywhere else. But folks left us alone, to pray, to sing, to laugh, to cry, to hold each other up and to ease each other down.
It is far too easy for white atheists to dismiss the church and places of worship as ‘Christian’ houses of hate. But my upbringing, my life, my blackness is defined by our church. I do not believe in God, but I believe in church. Because I understand and realize the importance of the social, the political and the familial of church. When you have nowhere else to go, when you have nowhere else to feel real and to feel complete, you can always step into that church, as a black person, and know that you will be accepted, a feeling that so often evades you.
“In a world of too much information about almost everything, bodily practices can provide great relief. To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.” — Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World (via isopod)
truth be told!
this is one of those things i wouldn’t issue as a prescriptive for anyone else, ever, but i find personally beneficial to try to hold to in my own life.
“Not only is your story worth telling but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song.”
—Gloria Naylor from Conversations with Gloria Naylor.
Photo by justmakeit. (Taken with instagram)
“Josef was determined to make his own statement so we went to the car and with pencil and his sketch pad, he made up his own little sign that reads ‘GOD HATES NO ONE,’ ” his mom wrote. “Those people are scary but he stood strong, was respectful and stood by his convictions. He will be a good man, I have no doubt. I got my Mothers Day present early.”
(via librarianpirate)
“There shall be no needy among you…If there is among you a needy person, one of your brethren, within any of your cities, in your land which Adonai your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your needy sibling; but you shall surely open your hand, shall surely lend sufficient for this one’s need…For the poor will never cease from the land. For this reason, God commands you, saying, “You shall surely open your hand to your siblings, to the poor and needy in your land.” — Deuteronomy 15:4-12 (via revnaomiking)
“He promised us that everything would be OK. I was a child, but I knew that everything would not be OK. That did not make my father a liar. It made him my father.”
~Jonathan Safran Foer from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Photo by smwright. (Taken with instagram)
Pastoral Prayer for Union Sunday 2012
by Rev. Lyn Cox
Spirit of Life,
Who draws us together in a web of holy relationships,
Make your presence known with us and in us and among us.
Remind us that we are not alone in history,
Ignite us with the courage of the living tradition.
Remind us that we are not alone in entering the future,
Anchor us with patience and perseverance.
Remind us that we are not alone in our times of grief and pain,
Comfort us with your spirit, manifest in human hands and voices.
Remind us that we are not alone in joy and wonder,
Inspire us to honor and extend the beauty we find in this world.
Divine music of the universe,
Let our hearts beat in diverse and harmonious rhythms,
Cooperating with an everlasting dance of love.
May we move with the rhythms of peace.
May we move with the rhythms of compassion.
May we move with the rhythms of justice.
Source of stars and planets and water and land
Open our hearts to all of our neighbors
Open our souls to a renewal of faith
Open our hands to join together in the work ahead.
So be it, blessed be, amen.- - - - - -
By way of context, the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore hosts a major guest speaker each year to speak about a vision for shaping our faith movement. UU’s from all over the region are invited to participate. The event is called Union Sunday and commemorates the Baltimore Sermon of 1819. This year’s guest was Rev. Marta Valentin. She spoke about understanding Unitarian Universalism as a sanctuary, especially as we consider what our calling might be in response to unjust immigration policy. I wrote this pastoral prayer for today’s service.
Church doesn’t have to be about attracting and extracting people from one environment, at great expense, and placing them in our environment, always worrying they will leave us, becoming Pepsi people not Coke people; church can be about turning outwards, helping others grow, serving the ends of others, giving ourselves away, incarnating who we are into the greater life, and of course always inviting others to do so with us, and nurturing leaders to keep this movement alive.
“Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous,
tranquil contribution of all
to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism.
Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.”
— Archbishop Oscar Romero (via revnaomiking)