UMC Post-General Conference: What Now?

The last few posts I've made about the General Conference and the way the UMC conducts its business have been sort of like peering into a sausage factory- messy and a little bit shocking. The analogy of making sausage has been making its rounds in the Methoblogosphere: we like to eat it, but we don't want to watch it made. We may be grossed out by some of the political wheelings and dealings, but now that GC is over, what are we going to do about it. I've waffled back and forth for the past few weeks between despair and hope for our denomination. But slowly, I have begun to lean closer and closer toward hope. A few things have helped me do this.

1. The #DreamUMC Tweetup was truly a Holy Spirit wave! It was incredible to "meet" so many wonderful new friends in the UMC from all over the country. They all had wonderful things to say about moving forward from here. Another Tweetup is planned for Monday, 5/28, at 9 PM EST. You can go to Twitter and pull up the #DreamUMC hashtag to "lurk" and just see what people are saying, or you can get on Twitter and participate!

2. Last Sunday was Boston University School of Theology commencement. I have always been invited to sing with the Seminary Singers, and this year was no exception. A friend of mine, Rev. Victoria, leaned over to me and told me that her glimmer of hope in all of General Conference was my (OUR!) generation. I realized that it's our generation's turn to really do something for the Church, and that's energizing!

3. There's a new Facebook group known as Vaguely Progressive United Methodists. It's a "secret" group, so if you want to join, let me know and I'll invite you. There a conversation going on there right now about the differences between what happened at GC2012 and the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention of 1979. My pastor jumped into the discussion and wrote:

I can understand the discouragement with the General Conference, but I do not share your perception of a "takeover." If it was taken over, I don't know by whom. I will grant that the human sexuality votes, with the exception of the Hamilton/Slaughter amendment, followed that 60/40 pattern, largely as a result of an infusion of 16% more African delegates than were present 4 years ago. With that new conservative voting block the right only managed to maintain the same margin they had 4 years ago. This means that the American middle has moved considerably. But who won? The bishops lost their set-aside bishop and their Call to Action plan; the Plan UMC folks were trumped by the Judicial Council; the right held fast on incompatibility but lost every other initiative they brought to GC. We are certainly a church in disarray at the moment, but we may also be in the midst of a moment that can shape the future. For me the key issue is regionalizing in a way that will allow much more liberty than we have had before. I think we may have unexpected allies in this conversation if we get our act together.

Thank God for Scott. He reminded me that it could have been a lot worse than it was. Then somebody else who was familiar with the inner workings of the SBC takeover said:

What GC 2012 looked like to me was a stalemate. One of the beautiful things about Methodist polity is how hard it is to take over. One of the frustrating things about Methodist polity can be how it is slow to change. Its a double edged sword.

The SBC takeover happened because of a polity of participatory democracy. Conservatives literally organized busloads of people to throw the vote. First they purged the liberals with strategic votes that divided moderates from liberals (which became Alliance of Baptists in late 70s). Then they purged the moderates (which became CBF in late 80s).

If the UMC were taken over like the SBC, it would be because either 1) conservatives formed a center/right coalition (something they've failed to do) or 2) progressives and moderates get fed up and check out (either by leaving the UMC entirely or just retreating to local church and not participating in denom b/c its unpleasant and people are mean). 

And there you have it, my friends. The hope of the UMC is us. We are the ones we have been waiting for! No one is going to swoop in and "save" our church, but I'm not really sure it needs saving in the first place. And if it did, the only One who could save it is God. No, we are not here to do institutional maintenance. We are here to be the people of God and do God's work (not the work of people, the work of God). We are here to love others. We are here to bring others into relationship with Christ Jesus and with one another. We are going to "save" the church by being the church.

It is time, friends, to participate! Whether conservative (10% of us), moderate (80% of us), or liberal (10% us us), all of us make the UMC who it is.  We may be in a mess, I concede that, but the only way to get out of this situation is to band together despite our differences and get to work! Who's with me?

The Great and Powerful Oz: Changing the Dynamics of Holy Conferencing

In the last couple of blog posts, I have discussed what happened at General Conference 2012 and how technology affected the way legislation is created and changed, and how business is conducted at GC. But what does all this mean for the future of holy conferencing in the UMC? Well, I mentioned in my last post that conferencing is becoming more communal and less representative in nature. But what happened at GC2012 was more than that. A change of perspective took place among those experiencing GC2012 communally through social media and the live stream. In my last post, I talked a lot about power: how having power can allow a person to be involved in processes that affect the global church on a massive scale, but not having power leaves a person voiceless in the event that they do not like these changes. For the first time, folks who had never been to GC realized that there are battles taking place behind the scenes as well as on the floor of GC, and the outcome depends on who has the power. Before live streaming and social media, what happened at GC was a lot like the “Great and Powerful” wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

LION: Look at that!  Look at that!  Oh -- I want to go home -- I want to go home!*
OZ: I am Oz, the Great and Powerful! Who are you?
DOROTHY: I -- If you please, I - I am Dorothy, the small and meek.  We've come to ask you --
OZ: Silence! The Great and Powerful Oz knows why you have come.

When Dorothy and her friends first meet the Wizard, he appears fearsome, belching fire and smoke, and wise, since he seems to know what his newest subjects need. Later, we discover that Oz isn’t who he says he is.

DOROTHY: Please, sir.  We've done what you told us. We've brought you the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West.  We melted her.
OZ: Oh… you liquidated her, eh?  Very resourceful!
DOROTHY: Yes, sir.  So we'd like you to keep your    promise to us, if you please, sir.
OZ: Not so fast!  I'll have to give the matter a little thought.  Go away and come back tomorrow!
DOROTHY: Tomorrow?  Oh, but I want to go home now.
TIN MAN: You've had plenty of time already!
LION: Yeah!
OZ: Do not arouse the wrath of the Great and Powerful Oz!  I said -- come back tomorrow!
DOROTHY: If you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your promises!
OZ: Do you presume to criticize the Great Oz?  You ungrateful creatures! Think yourselves lucky that I'm giving you audience tomorrow, instead of 20 years from now. The Great Oz has spoken!




Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal the Wizard at the controls of the throne apparatus, his back to the viewer. The four friends react as they see him after Dorothy calls their attention to him. The Wizard at the controls speaks into the microphone. He turns and sees that the curtain is gone, then turns back to the controls. The Wizard peers out from behind the curtain.



DOROTHY: Who are you?
OZ: Oh - I - Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. Go - before I lose my temper! The Great and Powerful Oz has spoken!
DOROTHY: Who are you?
OZ: Well, I -- I am the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz.
DOROTHY: You are?
OZ: Uhhhh -- yes...
DOROTHY: I don't believe you!
WIZARD:     No, I'm afraid it's true. There's no other Wizard except me.
SCARECROW: You humbug!
LION: Yeah!
WIZARD:     Yes, that's exactly so.  I'm a humbug!
DOROTHY: You're a very bad man!
OZ: Oh, no, my dear. I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad Wizard.

In a sense, social media has “pulled back the curtain” on the once-mysterious General Conference proceedings. For decades, we all waited patiently for our delegates to return and give us their reports, which were factual but brief. We knew that sometimes our church fought over contentious issues, but we trusted our delegates and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Now that we have seen not only what happens on the floor but what happens behind the scenes as well, United Methodists have realized that the inner workings of General Conference aren’t especially spiritual. And there’s nothing exceptional about the delegates who perform this work— they’re just like us. Now that we’ve seen those who are in power at work, we realize that they are just ordinary United Methodists who happen to have their hands on the “levers” of our church. They aren’t necessarily our best and our brightest, but they’re our most passionate members. We’ve assumed benevolence on their part for a long time, and now that the smoke has cleared and the curtain has been pulled back, we’re not so sure anymore.

What all this means is that General Conference– and all holy conferencing among we Methodists– is going to become much more transparent. One incident highlights this need: the elimination of guaranteed appointments. This measure was bundled into a consent calendar with a lot of other items to be passed all at once. First of all, it should not have been put on the consent calendar because it has far-reaching implications, both for current/ incoming pastors and for our ability as a church to attract and employ new pastors. It is my opinion that the measure should be been debated. Second, whoever placed it on the consent calendar knew that debate might cause it to fail, and had sufficient influence to slip it into a place that no one would think to look for it. The body, as is wont to do with large bundles of “fluff” legislation, passed the entire consent calendar right away with no debate. Only after the vote did a few delegates realize that they had just eliminated guaranteed appointments without knowing what they were doing. Delegates used Twitter to organize and call for a reconsideration of the consent calendar, but the vote to reconsider failed. Pastors’ lives were changed in about five minutes flat and there was nothing anyone could do about it. In the future, delegates will be paying much closer attention to even “no-brainer” legislative procedures, and any issue that impacts so many people will have to be discussed before a decision is made.

This also means that members who are concerned about the Church who care about its future, but who do not go to GG, need to collaborate in between conferences to make our ideas and opinions heard. If we want our church to not just survive, but to thrive, it’s time to take action. After Dorothy discovered who the Wizard really was, she didn’t just sit back and say, “I’m disappointed in you, Wizard.” She stood up for what she really wanted– to go home– and asked for it directly. It’s time to stop thinking about how to change the church to keep it alive and to start thinking about how the Church can fulfill God’s hopes and dreams for it— and our hopes and dreams for it.

Join in the discussion tonight! Young people of the UMC (and those who are young at heart) are invited to come to a Tweetup (Twitter + MeetUp) called #DreamUMC tonight at 9 PM. You can find instructions for how to join the discussion here. But if you just want to watch the discussion without joining Twitter, you can simply to twitter.com and search #DreamUMC. I’ll be joining in— I'm @wickedmethodist. I believe that the United Methodist Church can be the kind of church God wants us to be now, and I can’t wait to hear what my fellow Methodists in the Twitterverse have to say! I hope to “see” you there!


* All quotes above are taken directly from the movie script for The Wizard of Oz.

How Social Media Exposed the Inner Workings of GC2012

Earlier this week, I mentioned that some backroom deals were taking place at GC2012 during the creation of PlanUMC. Well, this was not the only surprise that first-time live streamers and Twitter followers encountered as they followed the events of the conference. Since the time I first conceived this post, I read a blog post written by one of the people involved with the formation of PlanUMC, which asserts that the claims of “backroom deals” by those who sought to defeat the plan are erroneous. This post will contain a sort of dialogue with the writer, as well as a synthesis of what happened on social media over the 10 days of GG2012.

2012 was the first conference that was truly revolutionized by Internet technology. GC2008 was the first General Conference to offer live streaming of the entire conference on the Internet. But while some people watched that year, there was no way for large numbers of them to discuss it in an open forum in real time. 2008 was when Twitter really took off, but most early adopters were young and privileged enough to have frequent access to the Internet. The iPhone was in its first model and not many people were willing to spend the money on an expensive plan to have mobile Internet. By 2012, smart phones have revolutionized the way we use the Internet: lots more people have them, and they can do a lot more and do it faster. Now, more people have regular access to the Internet. People over 40 have joined Twitter, so much so that Fox News, a company that caters to people 50 and up, is using Twitter to interact with its viewers. Now that so many people use Twitter, United Methodists were able to discuss GC2012 as it was happening. Many people pulled up the live feed of GC and monitored the hashtag #GC2012 at the same time. A hashtag marks a topic on Twitter, so if you search for that hashtag and watch it, you will see every post being made about #GC2012 in real time. Thus Twitter became a kind of forum in which United Methodists discussed what was going on at conference as it was happening. Using the @ feature, they were able to speak directly to one other, or they could speak to anyone who was listening. Even more revolutionary was the fact that Twitter users at General Conference brought their cell phones and laptops into committee meetings, and tweeted what went on in the committee meetings. For the first time ever, large numbers of concerned United Methodists who were not at conference- and who had never been to a GC- were privy to what went on in some committees. Even more detailed explanations of what had happened in these meetings were posted in blogs. One of the most infamous blog posts about the death of Plan A, Plan B, and the MFSA Plan was written by a provisional Elder in the EOC who was in the meeting.

All of this was, as my colleague Becca called it, “the sausage-making factory.” All the political rhetoric, all the parliamentary slight-of-hand, and all the wheeling and dealing of the most powerful members of our church were suddenly 1) out there on the Internet for all to hear, and 2) being discussed in real time by real United Methodists from around the country and around the globe. And a lot of people didn’t like what they heard. I was among many who didn’t understand how GC really worked, and personally, I was shocked and disgusted to hear some of the things being said on and off the conference floor.

Now for the defense of committee meetings and "backroom deals." The first four days of GC are full of committee meetings. The are, as my pastor, a longtime GC veteran, says, "the pregame" to all the action that takes place on the floor. They are necessary because we just can't hash out every single piece of legislation as a full body of 988 people. What happens is that committee members do work together before conference, do more intensive work at conference, and then finally decide whether or not to endorse the legislation. Any legislation that comes before the body is presented as being approved or not approved by the committee that worked on it. With the restructuring plans, no plan was endorsed by committee, which is why it was necessary to try to create PlanUMC. In the blog post I mentioned above, Josh states that those who worked on PlanUMC did so "out in the open," with no closed doors. He therefore claims that PlanUMC was not created as part of a backroom deal. I have two objections to this:

1. Because it was created at GC, in less than 24 hours before it was presented to the body, it was impossible for the entire UMC, including its many and diverse voices, to give input to the plan. It was literally impossible for every single constituency within this church to be consulted during its creation. And, given the implications of a church restructuring plan, I believe that every United Methodist has the right to be heard regarding such a major change.

2. The people who chose to create PlanUMC were some of the same people who created previous plans. Josh writes, "These “not sanctioned by GC” talks happened in public meeting rooms, between groups that had only days ago been opposed to one another in significant and sometimes almost hostile ways when it came to restructuring. With my own eyes, I witnessed the talks grow organically out of relationships between persons involved in the different plans, and the deep underlying sentiment was apologetic, repentant, and dedicated to agreeing on something that would benefit the church." That may be true. However, the whole reason PlanUMC happened in the first place was that the writers already had relationships. Someone or someones in that group was powerful enough to get this legislation on the agenda, and Josh himself was only involved because his father happened to be one of those people, and he happened to be a very powerful person- an episcopal candidate. If you're not already "in with the in crowd," you're not part of this conversation. Again, conversations about restructure have to take place all over the connection, and voices that influence the plan must come from the entire connection- not from a few people who are already powerful.

Josh states that some people declined to participate, and some did so with uncharitable attitudes. Well, if I were there, I would have declined too. For the reasons stated above, I would have believed that to work on such a project would be disrespectful to my entire church. And, in the heat of the moment, I may have been a bit graceless too, and would hope that he would forgive my attitude. When one feels one's church is being disrespected and one's voice is being disregarded, it can be difficult not to be offended.

Now that there are members of the body of GC tweeting and blogging for those members of the Body of Christ who are not at General Conference, committee meetings are suddenly transparent. Now, we both see "what's on the stage" via live stream and hear what happens in committee via firsthand report on the Internet. All of this happens in real time, and real United Methodists across the country are reacting to real events as they happen. Delegates no longer ask, "How would my home church/ district/ conference feel about this." Now they know exactly how we feel, and they know it instantly (if they are listening)! A good example of this was on the second-to-last day of GC, when the Common Witness Coalition coordinated a demonstration on the floor of GC in the middle of business. When a bishop announced that visitors would not be permitted entry to the plenary after recess for lunch (that never actually happened), I was afraid they would shut off the live feed too. I contacted one of my delegates, the amazing and talented Rev. Valerie Stultz. She responded very promptly- and her email ended with "sent from my iPad."

The implications for doing Holy Conferencing this way are far-ranging. Holy Conferencing is now a much more collective event than a representative event. And since Twitter is, in certain ways, "our sandbox" for young people, conferences now have the potential to get more of us directly involved with how our church works. OK, so these are some implications for the practical, concrete side of Holy Conferencing? But how has the UMC changed emotionally and spiritually as a result of this technological revolution in conferencing? Tune in for my next post!

General Conference 2012 Legislation Round-Up

OK, friends, it’s that time of the quadrennium: the time when those who attended General Conference return home and report what happened to everyone else. This year, there are many more reporters than usual. In 2008, live streaming was available, but not as many United Methodists were on Facebook and Twitter. Those who could watch did watch, but there was no one with whom to discuss what was going on. This time, folks interacted on social media while watching the live stream. Those who witnessed and processed what happened on the floor together have already been blogging about it, and I will now join the chorus of voices and the cloud of witnesses. One thing is for certain this time around: General Conference – and United Methodism – will never be the same again. You’ll see why in this series of blog posts.

First, I’ll post a brief legislation round-up so you know, in a nutshell, what changes or non-changes will affect your lives as United Methodists for the next four years. And then I’ll get to what happened off the floor of conference, both in committee and emotionally psychologically. Next, I’ll address the ways in which social media affected the way Methodists conferenced and project implications for forthcoming conferences.

2012 Legislation Round-Up

Many of you know that incredibly important, far-reaching changes were proposed this year. Most of them failed, but how that happened is a long story.

Changes to the Discipline 

• Guaranteed appointments for Elders were eliminated. Emotions run high regarding this action and the way in which it was executed. The measure has been referred to Judicial Council to determine whether it violates the Constitution of the UMC; if it does, it will be thrown out. JC will deliberate in October. 
• The United Methodist Women was made an autonomous organization rather than remaining a subsidiary of the General Board of Global Missions. This will allow more freedom for UMW members to decide how the money they raise will be spent.

Issues/ Miscellaneous

• We did not divest from three companies whose products are used by the Israeli military in occupied Palestine. 
• We repented of our complicity in acts perpetrated against Native Americans from the 1600’s to the present. 
• We created a ministry plan for Pacific Islanders.
• We did not change language in the Discipline regarding LGBTQ persons. The bishops issued a statement acknowledging that the current language has been used to hurt LGBTQ persons. 
• We lowered apportionments and passed a reduced budget of $603.1 million for the coming quadrennium. Two new funds were approved: one for theological education in the Central Conferences (outside the US), and one for recruitment and training of clergy in the US. 
• The President of the Council of Bishops for the coming quadrennium is Rosemarie Wenner of Germany.

Failed Legislation 

• The proposal to create a “set-aside bishop” assigned to administrative tasks, nicknamed #Superbishop on Twitter, failed. 
• Proposed term limits for bishops failed. Bishops remain under lifetime appointment.
• Church restructure failed. Instead, General Conference approved plans by all the General Boards and Agencies to voluntarily reduce in size.

So what was this church restructure about? How did it come about in the first place and how did it die? That is a very long story, so I will attempt to briefly summarize. First, one should note that the supposed motivation for restructure was to benefit the local churches and help reverse the trend of attrition that we have seen over the last 40 years. However, the restructure plan was not about the local churches or about discipleship (it was about money, but it was not really about saving money , as the plan’s proponent would have had us think… more about that later). The plan’s purpose was to restructure the way the General (worldwide) Church Boards and Agencies are run and the way power/ money is distributed among them. In the end, restructuring would only have saved each local church about $120-$180. So why was this plan such a huge deal to everyone? Well, the proponents of the plan have had a lot of people convinced that “the church is going to die” if this measure wasn’t passed because young people would not be attracted to the church. In many of the speeches given in favor of the plan, “the time is now” to “save the church” was the main idea. Many young people expressed their views on Twitter that this is just a band-aid and would not solve the underlying problems the UMC faces, but the Interim Operations Team (IOT) tokenized young people’s voices and didn’t really listen to their objections (except for Adam Hamilton, but more about that later). So how did this whole thing happen, anyway? Well, here’s as brief a summary as I can offer:

1. GC 2008 commissioned a study on vital congregations. The Barna Group published a lot of stats about church decline. 
2. The IOT, aka the Connectional Table, was formed and created the Call to Action report, which proposed a restructure plan.
3. People objected, and there was a lot of conversation on social media and blogs about it. The MFSA (Methodist Federation for Social Action) wrote its own plan. Members of the Connectional Table who did not vote for the CTA (including young adults) created Plan B. 
4. Plan A was proposed by Adam Hamilton on the floor of General Conference. He urged the church to pass it. This was wildly unpopular with young people, who felt “talked at” and “marketed to” rather than “talked with.”  They expressed their displeasure on Twitter and Hamilton met with them first thing the next morning to discuss their concerns. 
5. The Committee on Administration met to decide which plan should be presented to the body. Plan A (CTA) people, Plan B people, and and MFSA people were deadlocked. No decision was made. 
6. Some people (Plan A and B writers?) and Adam Hamilton came up with a so-called compromise through a series of backroom deals: PlanUMC (basically an iteration of Plan A). 
7. PlanUMC was presented to the body and passed by a 60-40 majority. My pastor, Scott Campbell, requested that this plan be referred to Judicial Council because he was concerned that it was unconstitutional. It was referred. 
8. PlanUMC was voided by Judicial Council for being unconstitutional on four counts.
9. PlanUMC proponents had another backroom meeting and attempted to fix the plan. Its unconstitutional elements were so inextricably enmeshed with the rest of it that it could not be saved. 
10. In an additional evening session of GC2012, PlanUMC proponents made a motion to refer it to committee to be studied and made constitutional over the next four years. Referral was defeated. 
11. Someone made a motion to table PlanUMC indefinitely, and that motion passed. PlanUMC finally died.

It is clear that United Methodists know our system is too big and clumsy, and that it needs to change, but we will not accept a poorly conceived plan that has been hatched in secret by a few powerful people. Any restructure proposals made in the future will have to be created in the open by a group of people that reflects the diversity of the UMC long before General Conference. Formal legislation to make changes to our church structure will most likely be submitted to Judicial Council for review before the legislation even makes it to the floor of GC. There needs to be ongoing conversation among all Methodists in the next four years regarding, among other things, how our church is run.

Up next: how the extant political culture of power plays and backroom deals collided with the culture of transparency found in social media… and why General Conference will never be the same again.

Follow General Conference 2012 online!

I can't believe it's already here: General Conference 2012 opens today! General Conference is a gathering of representatives from every conference of the United Methodist Church in the whole world. GC is a time when Methonerds like me geek out all day, every day for 10 days. If you're not that familiar with United Methodism, you'll start to hear strange phrases being thrown around like "quadrennium," "plenary," "conferencing," and "in perpetuity," along with acronyms of all kinds and parliamentary procedure terms.

This year, some very important legislation is coming before the worldwide body: major restructuring of the church's boards and agencies, changes to the ordination process, proposed elimination of guaranteed appointments, and unfortunately, the usual ideological bickering over hot-button issues. There are some easy ways to plug into GC 2012 to keep track of what is going on in Tampa and to read as much or as little commentary by folks there as you like. You can seriously spend all day reading, so I'm going to suggest some blogs and cool people to follow. These are by no means the only resources out there, so if you don't care for them, I encourage you to find your own.

- General Conference 2012 website is here. Click on "Today's Schedule" to download a PDF that will tell you what is happening and when.
- GC worship and sessions can be streamed live here.
- Got a smartphone? Interact with GC with the GC2012 app. To read about it and download, go here.
- You can track legislation progress here, but you have to know what you are looking for. If you just want to know about the legislation in general, check out a blog.

- The Methoblog is a great place to find headlines, quickly skim through a wide range of blog posts about GC, see the latest Tweets, and even watch videos made by United Methodists.
- Rev. Jeremy Smith is a delegate from OK and will blog GC at Hacking Christianity. He blogs a lot about the restructuring legislation. If you're interested in that issue, his blog is the place to go.
- Rev. Becca Clark is a delegate from VT and will blog GC at We Your People, Ours the Journey. Becca is on the committee on human sexuality, so if that's your interest, here is a good place to start. She puts her opinions out there, but makes sure to graciously host conversation and comments from all sides.
- Rev. Dan Dick is a veteran delegate from WI and he's blogging GC at United Methodeviations. I find his observations to be prophetic, perceptive, and on-point.

- On Twitter? The hashtag for this conference is #GC2012. You can search by it, but there will be so many posts, you may want to follow just a few people. Rev. April Casperson, a deacon from West Ohio, is a great person to follow. Her handle is @aprilcasperson. @UMWomen is the handle for UMW and they will be a great resource for anyone who's mission-minded. You can find Revs. Jeremy and Becca on Twitter as well (their Twitter handles are on their blogs).

And what of my thoughts on GC? Well, they will have to be sidelined for now. I'm going to Ashland tomorrow for a funeral. But I'll be live streaming GC as much as possible and perhaps next week I'll have some thoughts to share.

A Weekend in New York City: Themes of Fair Housing and Worker Justice

I know I have been delinquent in posting the newest entry for Eastertide, but I hope it was worth the wait! This past Thursday through Sunday, I visited NYC and I learned quite a lot in a short period of time. No matter where I went in Manhattan or Brooklyn, it seemed justice issues followed me everywhere. Here are my thoughts and observations from the journey.

Thursday evening, Friday, and part of Saturday were spent visiting my good friend, Brother Anthony, who is preparing to become a Capuchin Franciscan friar. You can find his blog post about our weekend here. Anthony and his brothers are finishing up their postulant year at the friary in Brooklyn. As soon as arrived, I was greeted warmly and enthusiastically. The brothers served me a delicious dinner of fish fry, and we had lots of laughs throughout our lively discussion on Thursday evening. The brothers are living in one of the poorest and most violent precincts in NYC intentionally, so that they can identify with the poor. Anthony and his brothers are attempting to divest themselves from their worldly positions and live a life of minority- that is, poverty. Anthony kindly gave me a book he had been given that was interested in reading. He said he doesn't need more stuff.

On Friday, Anthony took me with him to his ministry site, Neighbors Together, which is a soup kitchen that was established 30 years ago to serve some of Brooklyn's poorest neighborhoods and works toward ending hunger there. I helped some in the kitchen and then joined Anthony for a training. He taught some of the members about the community organizing principle that sharing our stories motivates others to action and gave them some general public speaking skills. Then he invited them to share their stories. It was heart wrenching to hear how crack cocaine affected the surrounding neighborhoods, and how people were unable to find jobs that pay a living wage. Some of the members mentioned something called 3/4 housing. I didn't know what that was, so I asked Anthony later. He told me that 3/4 houses were supposed to be sort of like halfway houses, which are overcrowded and to which social workers no longer refer homeless clients, but instead they are modern-day tenements. They are rooms designed to bunk 10-12 people are are filled to 30, 40 or more. These housing units purport to provide substance abuse counseling and programs to get clean, but they are completely unregulated and often their programs are run by people who have had little to no training on drug abuse. People sign over everything they have- their meager Medicaid checks- to the landlords in exchange for a small corner in one of these rooms. Anthony says that often the toilets don't run, the heat isn't on, and the ceilings cave in. This is the last stop before living on the street, and people are giving up everything they have to keep themselves off the street. Unfortunately, for those who live in 3/4 housing, there is no way out of this situation unless they can find a job that will provide them with enough money to rent a real apartment. To say that I was shocked and appalled at the existence of 3/4 housing and the way in which it is run would be an understatement. Neighbors Together is trying to empower and mobilize its members to speak directly to their city councilors and demand regulation for 3/4 housing so that it becomes safe and less crowded.

After an illuminating afternoon at Neighbors Together, Anthony and I headed to the Lower East Side to people watch, eat dinner, and browse shops, all of which we did. Poor Anthony had to keep up with my impulsive and distractable nature as I ducked into shop after shop. I came home with chocolate bonbons, three gourmet teas, and a delicious red velvet cupcake in my belly.

But we weren't done with the Lower East Side on Friday night! We went back on Saturday to take a tour at the Tenement Museum. The tour we took was called "Sweatshop Workers." We visited the apartments of two immigrant families who endured sweatshop conditions when they arrived in America in the late 1800's. The NFT guide to the Lower East Side writes of the museum slightly hyperbolically, "You're supposed to feel content about your relatively spacious living quarters after viewing a day in the quotidian life of your ancestors, but chances are you'll grow envious of their decent digs." So true! Those apartments were small and cramped, but not that much smaller than my own apartment. Anyway, in the first apartment, it was really eye-opening to learn what it was like to run a garment factory in miniature in your own living room (that is something I am not doing, which makes my apartment much more bearable). In the second apartment, we learned about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, and how a massive strike in its aftermath affected the families whose daughters participated in the strike for workers' rights. Clara Lemlich, a leader of the strike, was badly beaten by gangsters who had been hired to stop the rally. But she came to the rally anyway and gave a rousing 20-minute speech! Learning all of this reminded me that workers' rights, which are currently under fire in the US, were hard-won by our foremothers and forefathers... they paid dear prices for the right to organize, with their pocketbooks and with their own bodies.

After the museum visit, I went to visit my sorority sister, Emmy, in Midtown. We caught up and grabbed a lovely dinner at a local Italian restaurant. On Sunday, we went to see a Broadway show, which happens to be based on one of my favorite movies, Newsies. The show centers on characters based on real kids who lead the 1899 news boy strike, which really happened in response to the gouging of the boys by newspaper publishers. A bunch of kids took on moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst- and won! The most rousing and catchy songs in the musical illustrate the fight for fair employment practices:

"And the World Will Know" - sung just after Jack and Davey form the news boy union
And the World will know
And the Journal too
Mister Hearst and Pulitzer
Have we got news for you
Now the world will hear
What we got to say
We been hawkin' headlines
But we're makin' 'em today
And our ranks will grow
And we'll kick their rear
And the world will know
That we been here
  
"Seize the Day" - sung as the boys prepare to face the scabbers and overturn the paper carts
Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us give our rights away
Arise and seize the day

Now is a time to seize the day
Send out the call and join the fray
Send out the call and join the fray
Wrongs will be righted
If were united
Let us seize the day

Friends of the friendless seize the day
Raise up the torch and light the way
Proud and Defiant
Well slay the giant
Let us seize the day

Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one

Of course, the show is full of incredible dance numbers, the obligatory patter song and tap number, and lots of good singing. But as I watched the story playing on the stage, and I listened to the character of Katherine Plummer talk about her responsibility to her generation, I thought about how Anthony always says that workers' rights is the fight of our generation. It was fought in the late 1800's and early 1900's, but because we have allowed corporations free reign in our society and they have taken advantage of their workers, it must be fought again. In the beginning of Newsies, the main character, Jack sings to his friend Crutchy in "Santa Fe,"

Why should you spend your whole life livin'
Trapped where they ain't no future even at 17
Breaking your back for someone else's sake
If the life don't seem to suit ya how bout a change of scene
Far from the lousy headlines and the deadlines in between

Jack is dreaming of a better life. I hear so many people my age and younger dreaming of a better life themselves. Our generation is sick of being wage slaves. The working poor of every generation are sick of being wage slaves. In Newsies, we see the transformation of the character of Jack from a dreamer who sits back and wishes to a free agent who puts his words and thoughts into action. When are we going to do that today? When are we going to demand decent housing and health care for all? When are we going to demand reform in government policy to keep jobs here and create new ones? When are we going to demand that our rights as human beings be respected in the workplace? I would suggest that the answer lies in verse two of "And the World Will Know:"

And the world will know
That this ain't no game
That we got a ton of rotten fruit and perfect aim
So they gave their word
But it ain't worth beans
Now they're gonna see
What "stop the presses" really means
And the day has come
And the time is now
And the fear is gone
And the world will know

As Christians, we're called to stand with those whose rights have been violated and who need fair housing and health care. It's time to seize the day.

A Holy Week Reflection

Today I came across a guest post by Elizabeth Siwo-Okunde, a woman with whom I studied in seminary, that really moved me. It's posted on the blog of Marie Fortune, founder of the Faith Trust Institute, which focuses on preventing violence against women and children. Elizabeth is from Kenya, and she runs her own nonprofit benefiting orphans in her home country. Elizabeth always speaks and writes powerfully about violence, and this reflection is no exception. Here she tells the story of Christ's passion in a new and haunting way:

A group of terrified women watch as their friend and relative is humiliated, violently beaten, and killed while the authorities refuse to help. If the women speak up or even cry aloud, then they could suffer the same fate as their loved one. Some bystanders see the situation but do nothing, pretend not to know the victim, and pretend that the situation is not as dangerous as it appears. Other bystanders, spit on the victim, tease the victim and even encourage the violence. But these brave women redefine the word bystander in that they stand by the victim. In standing by their friend, they provide their friend with a comforting presence in the midst of a violent death. The women stay to witness the final few words of their friend and watch to see where the lifeless body is taken. They watch as the body is placed inside of a private area with a gate made of stone and sealed shut.

The women wake up early in the morning to care for the violated body of their dear friend and to provide a proper burial. As they go to the place where the body is kept, they have one major problem: “Who will roll the stone away?” The stone permits the community to go on with life “as usual” as though the violence never happened. The stone prevents people from mourning and offering appropriate care for a loved one. The stone blocks the image of the bruised body from the minds of busy bodies. The stone hides the horror of the humiliation. The stone allows power, profit, and fear to decide who will or will not be held accountable for their acts of violence. The stone stops people from seeing the suffering while allowing people to create their versions of the violence—versions which attack the victim’s character and declare that the victim somehow wanted or “deserved” the violence. These brave women know that the stone will determine what happens next. Through their tears and their fear, they have the courage to go to the stone.

There is a stone that conveniently hides the stench of violence against women and girls and the various forms that it takes. The stone is often placed there and sealed shut by well-intentioned individuals who are offering their help. It is also placed there by power-hungry people, profit-driven programs, misguided media, and those who are more concerned with covering up the truth than with saving lives. The stone is reminiscent of the door that is slammed shut and bolted to try to silence Tamar after she is raped (2 Samuel 13:1-22). A stone that heavy cannot be rolled away by one person or organization. It takes the courage of people who are willing to wake up when others are still sleeping and living life “as usual.” It takes the miracle of cooperation and earth-shaking, love-filled, truth telling in order to roll the stone away and seek justice. When we roll the stone away, some of us will be so mortified by what we see that we will take action. Others of us will immediately run and share the news so that everyone will know what we have seen and experienced. Still others of us will not believe what is happening and will feel safe in silence. Nevertheless, the stone must be rolled away.

Even as we face what seems to be the impossible task of rolling away the stone, we must stand by the victims and survivors, just as the group of women stand by their friend and relative named Jesus when he is beaten and killed. They stand by him when his body is taken away and the evidence is hidden from the community. They stand by him when they ask, “Who will roll the stone away?” The only way to go to the stone and roll it away is to stand by the victims and survivors of violence.  The stone must be rolled away in order to expose the world to the truth. When the women go to the tomb of Jesus, it is simply another morning—another sad morning. But that morning becomes Easter morning when the stone is rolled away.

In this story, the stone is both the rock in front of Jesus' tomb and the sin of violence. As Rose Marie Berger illustrates, the Passion narrative notes those who abandoned Jesus: Judas, Peter, and the unnamed man who ran away at Gethsemane. But Elizabeth's reflection is from the perspective of those who stand watch while Jesus dies and who bury him.

Confronting violence is never easy. Most of us would rather think about something else. But Holy Week, when we observe our faith by telling the story of Christ's passion, forces us to meditate on one of the most brutal acts ever committed by humankind. What does it mean to hear this story of violence done to our Jesus, and what does it mean to sit in sorrow on Good Friday and Holy Saturday? Elizabeth points to a ministry of bearing witness- standing by Jesus as he suffers, and standing by those to experience violence in our time. By bearing witness to terrible things, we tell the stories of those who have been traumatized and who may not be able to tell their own stories. In so doing, we expose the ugly truth of the sin of violence to the world and we teach those around us that violence is wrong. Our rebellion against sin starts here: at the cross; at the tomb.