Prop 8 Protest

Well she's kind of right... lol

Apparently even the BBC picked up on the shirt.

I may have to buy this.

3 Wolves Shirt.  Read the Amazon Reviews of it.  Hilarious.

Boyd reviews the Patriot Bible.

It's not until things like this come along that I realize just how bad things have gotten in many circles.  I keep finding myself referring to them as "these people."  I have a fiery anger for these people that fail to hold to the scripture they claim to be lifting up.

It's all mom's fault.

I suppose I should just blame my mom. It really is her fault. She's the one that made life so difficult for me. People ask me why I do things a certain way. I just point to her. It's all her fault.

For instance, "John, why are you still single? Why haven't you settled down?" I suppose any woman I'm going to give the time of day to has to measure up to a huge iconic figure in my life: my mom. She has to be able to love well, work hard, and display a balance in life between serenity and tenacity. You know, the type of grit it takes to deal with three boys all the while not losing one's mind. That's my mom. She has always loved me well by teaching me to take care of myself all the while taking care of me. She served while teaching to serve. She loved while teaching to love. She embodied what a mother, wife, and woman should be. All women should tread lightly when speaking to any of the Young boys. You have large shoes to fill.

She's the one that allowed for me to become the man I am today. Don't blame her for where I may fall short, but lavish praise for anything good that may have come about. You see, I don't live up to all my mom's expectations. But in those few moments that I may... they're brilliant. I somehow stumble into the shadow of greatness. Not greatness as in fame, fortune, or power. No, that's not what my mom taught me to pursue. Instead, it's greatness in meekness, love, patience, and kindness. My mom helped send me into life after things that last. Things that matter. You won't find her blinged out or in the shopping mall. No, you'll probably find her serving the little ones and their families in her community.

Yet you can also blame her for some of my rougher points. My uncompromising pursuit of these things that are good can be seen as stubborness. My unwillingness to settle can be considered arrogance. And that's fine if you'd like to think of it as that. I chalk it up to that side of the family. From my grandfather to my mom, we don't know anything about settling for second best. We do things all the way and with a propensity to kick up a little dust. So if you find me frustrating. If you can't stand that I'm hard nosed and a bit over the top. You can blame my mom for that. She taught me that if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

It's worth noting that my mom is pretty much super mom. If you know me and my siblings, then you know my mom has to be one of the strongest people in the world. We're all quite different from each other, yet all free spirited. How many mom's can deal with this diversity? Heck, the military can't even deal with it. They dress people all the same and make them walk in straight lines. Yet mom let us be whatever we wanted. She loved us in our diversity and even in our bad decisions. Sure, there may have been times when the cops may have been on our tails or we may have made mom cry. But you shouldn't blame mom for those moments. Those are moments of learning and growth that good moms must allow for. It's a catalyst for maturity. It's a demonstration of love.

Yeah, if you find anything of worth in me... If you find the slightest bit of charm or responsibility... If I stumble upon some act of loving kindness... Don't look at me too closely. Just blame my mom.

Angry? Not so much.

I had a great conversation in leiu of church on Sunday with a friend. He was talking about his process of healing from church and how he was trying not to do things in spite of the church. I totally understood where he was coming from. I remember when we first started Movement we were very intentional not to do things out of an attitude of rebellion or just to be different.  We set our face towards embodying the most biblical form of a faith community as possible.  In doing so, we found that we were living out a critique of both the traditional church and culture.

What I've found interesting is that we in return get critiqued by both outsiders and the traditional insiders.  This is a good thing.  We welcome that discussion.  We should have a dialogue.  People should think we're doing things wrong or right.  If someone doesn't have an opinion, well I'd suggest they really don't have an idea for the way things should be.  And I suppose that's their call too.  But we love when people say, "That doesn't seem right because..." They have an opinion and a reason.  Right on.  Both sides may think they're right, but hopefully the process of fleshing things out we all learn something more.

One of the things I've caught backlash on, primarily in regards to my blogging, is that I think doing things (especially in regards to church) differently is wrong.  Well there's two parts to this.  First, I always overstate things for the sake of stirring conversation and thought.  I tend to paint with broad strokes on purpose.  

Secondly, there's a difference in how people talk and think about things.  I don't see all things as black and white as some others.  There's nuance and degrees.  So I may speak about something in negative terms, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's evil or completely wrong.  I'd like to compare it to how I speak about certain forms of music, politics, or sports.  Baseball for instance.  Not a sport.  It's terrible.  The world would be better without baseball.  Now, although I may really loathe baseball, I can still understand that some people think it's the greatest thing.  I disagree with them.  And that's okay.  We can both look at the exact same thing and come to completely different conclusions.  That doesn't mean that I hate baseball players.  I just really don't like the past time.  At all.  And we can dialogue about that.  They can tell me why it's great.  I can tell them why it's a waste.  The truth is that I still go to baseball games on occasion and find myself enjoying it to some degree.

But we're called to do more than just critique and talk.  We must do something other than complain.  We must move forward and embody.  Yes, call me out if I am just talk in something.  In the meantime, I always invite you to dialogue and walk with me/us.  We try to be more than just a voice, but a demonstration of a different way to live faithfully.  We fall short far too often.  But every once in a while.  On the rare occasion... we may get something right.  And it's quite beautiful.

let's get together and we'll be all right.

Churches typically don't work together on things unless there's something in it for them.  There are times when they get together to sit in the same space and breathe the same air under the guise of unity on occasion.  But for the most part, we just live in separate worlds.  We're busy doing our own things.  And oftentimes those things are in competition.

I found that I enjoyed churches getting together in college.  Black churches are real big on visiting other churches.  They'll charter greyhound buses in order to go about 15 minutes to another sister church on a Sunday afternoon.  The joint service takes place after a fantastic potluck typically.  The services was always humorous to me.  You would have the host church's choir sing.  Then the visiting church choir sing.  It was often like a sing off competition.  My church only had like 10 people in the choir so we always lost.

Then came the preaching.  The visiting pastor would always give a sermon.  Afterwards we would take up an offering for the visiting preacher.  And when I say they took up an offering, I really mean we got up row by row and walked to the front to drop a dollar in a plate (or just walk on by).  (I got to the point where I just typically walked by.)  There were times where both pastors would give sermons.  I suppose that was a preach off.  They sure were fun.  And they sure were long.  (Association meetings would have 2-3 sermons... it was ridiculous.  Offerings walk bys and/or offering plates would increase by the number of preachers too by the way.)  But there was something really neat about sharing a meal with these other communities.  The communities did this on a regular basis.  We would go to their place and our pastor would preach.  They would come to our place and their pastor would preach.  You couldn't help but get to know those folks.  As flawed as some of the elements may have been, there was something truly healthy and good about these meetings.

White people don't do that type of thing.  2 sermons?  Walk by offerings?  Socialize with another church?  Yeah, right.  I even find it now on the micro church level.  I've reached out to a number of other communities in an effort to get together.  The answer always seems to be, "You can come join in on what we're doing anytime."  Why thank you for the invitation.  You mean, you're going to let me come to your church?  Oh my.  We have to learn to create time and space away from our regular routine to encounter other communities.  We have to work together to find joint ventures.  These are things that we can make a much larger difference together than individually.  And before you old timers start saying this sounds a lot like a denomination or association, hold that thought.  We shouldn't be doing things in name only, but in true relationship with others.  It should be transformative and not just formal.

My hope is that our communities will find ways to work together and rub shoulders more than we do now.