In part it comes out of my struggle with the “dreamed reality” and the “lived reality” of Community of Christ. It calls for movement toward that Dreamed Reality, the one where we truly live out our calling as a body, where we truly live out the passion and mission of Christ, uphold the worth of all, the reality I tend to express, I seek to be a part of… from the “Lived reality” where we fall short, and do so often, the reality of stumbling, the reality where  the body that should love, uplift and value all and heal the pain in the world instead at times adds to that pain, and stubbornly, if at all, responds to some of the injustices in the world. The lived reality where I have been hurt by this body I love, this body I promote and am a part of, and where many of my friends and family have been hurt as well.

In part it comes from reflection as I have seen  friends, mentors, collogues leave this part of the body because of the pain they have experienced, have seen others experienced, the sluggishness of action, the hesitation, the encounter with how great the distance is from lived reality and that which we are called to be. I have seen others stay within and remain silent, or others who have become vocal.

I find myself, after years of theological studies understanding both routes, at times the road blocks I encounter I see paths away and into different and perhaps more full ministry, but I am captive bound to that dreamed reality, captive to that day when we truly will be Community of Christ in more than just name on sign and letterhead. Captive to that day when we with our sisters and brothers in the larger circle who call upon the name of Christ and the interfaith circles as well work together and bring forth the peaceable community that we here as Community of Christ fondly call Zion.

Some aspects I think also reflect my struggle with seeing some church policy being clearly expressed that “no exceptions shall be made” while other policies are often ignored, and I wonder what type of pain and injustice we are causing when we say:  Conditions for ordination and for remaining an active ordained minister include A & B. In case A we will make no official or unofficial exceptions. In case B, we make tons of exceptions (at least unofficially). Is this reflective of the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ? Are we embracing our enduring principles, in particular the worth of persons if person 1 is allowed to officially serve as an ordained minister even though they violate B, but never A, and yet person 2 violates A, but never B so is not allowed to serve in official capacity? Is this reflective of Christ’s love, mission, and passion? If one or both policies do not reflect the life and mission of Jesus Christ and the enduring principles of Community of Christ, does that add even more pain? Or what about those who violate B, and do suffer consequences while seeing others violate it with no consequence?

In many ways I guess a part of me feels it is time for the Church, to speak up and express its willingness and desire to embrace its calling, to be willing to call upon the leadership and the entirety of the body, to become Community of Christ. Granted they are but words, and only if we follow through will we be transformed into that which we have always been called to be:  a people of healing, reconciliation, peace, and restoration for all of creation…

Much of the above comes from, or is based upon earlier reflections on a shorter more limited version of this “piece of legislation” written on 3 March 2012. (http://www.journeyoflyle.com/2012/03/early-morning-thoughts-shared-late-at-night/)  Like everything I write, this is not finished but is a work in progress…

Be it resolved that the World Conference of Community of Christ calls upon the First Presidency, Council of Twelve Apostles, Presiding Bishopric, and other world church authorities to engage fully in the mission and passion of Christ, uphold the enduring principles, especially the worth of persons, in all that they do,

And be it further resolved, that the World Conference calls upon the administrative leadership to evaluate all current and planned policy to ensure that in its wording, implementation, enforcement, or lack of enforcement, it reflects the passion and mission of Jesus the Christ, and the enduring principles of Community of Christ, in particular the worth of all persons,

And be it further resolved, that this World Conference encourages the President of the Church, the First Presidency, Council of Twelve, Council of Presidents of Seventy, Presiding Bishopric and other leaders to embrace the prophetic aspects of their callings with eagerness in addressing the perplexing issues that face the church, rather than hesitantly responding to the needs of the world out of fear and thus delaying needed justice and the sharing of the Good News in ways that reflect the life, passion, and ministry of Jesus the Christ whose name we claim.

And be it further resolved, that this World Conference calls upon all jurisdictions seek to ensure all aspects of congregational, mission center, and individual ministry reflect the mission and passion of Jesus the Christ, honor the enduring principles of Community of Christ, and promote the peaceable community where the worth of all is uplifted and valued, and creation is healed and made more whole.

And be it further resolved that this World Conference encourages all members and friends of Community of Christ listen to one another, respect the diversity of understandings and perspectives, and seek to live out each moment as fully committed disciples of Jesus the Christ who seek the peaceable community we fondly call Zion,

And be it further resoled, that this World Conference encourages all members and friends to  engage and reflect the life giving  ministry of Jesus the Christ through active participation in the ministries of Community of Christ and  the ministries of Ecumenical and interfaith organizations that reflect the life, mission, and passion of Jesus the Christ.

that’s it for now

Peace

I’m a member of Community of Christ, an ordained minister, and serve in ministry in various ways with and within that body, and in larger ecumenical and interfaith circles. For me “Community of Christ” exits as both the lived stumbling reality, and also the dreamed of reality. I must admit that dreamed reality, you know the one where we truly live out our calling as a body, where we truly live out the passion and mission of Christ, uphold the worth of all… is the reality I express, and seek to be a part of, while recognize, even if not so excitedly, that we fall short, and do so often… I struggle with church policies at times, I struggle with the sluggishness of movement, of the prophetic hesitation tin which we act at times. I have been hurt within this body in various ways, I have seen others hurt, and at times I wonder “can we move forward” at times I see things done with good intention, but with bad consequences. I have seen friends, mentors, collogues leave this part of the body because of the pain they have experienced, have seen others experienced, the sluggishness of action, the hesitation, the encounter with how great the distance is from lived reality and what we are called to be. I have seen others stay within, and remain silent, or become vocal.

I find myself, after years of theological studies understanding both routes, at times the road blocks I encounter I see paths away and into different and perhaps more full ministry, but I am captive bound to that dreamed reality, captive to that day when we truly will be Community of Christ in more than just name on sign and letterhead. Captive to that day when we with our sisters and brothers in the larger circle who call upon the name of Christ, and the interfaith circles as well work together and bring forth the peaceable community that we here as Community of Christ fondly call Zion.

Other thoughts beyond this are on my mind as well, but back to the point, this morning I started to write words that entered my thoughts… I only wrote part of them as the first portion was a bit jumbled, and to write would have required time looking up citations that I did not have time to do… but what I wrote was still sitting upon my laptop screen when I arrived home this eve, and is as follows:

Be it resolved that the World Conference of Community of Christ calls upon the First Presidency, Council of Twelve Apostles, Presiding Bishopric, and other world church authorities to engage in the mission and passion of Christ, uphold the enduring principles, especially the worth of persons, in all that they do,

And be it further resolved, that the World Conference calls upon the administrative leadership to evaluate all current and planned policy to ensure that in its wording, implementation, enforcement, or lack of enforcement, it reflects the passion and mission of Jesus the Christ, and the enduring principles of Community of Christ, in particular the worth of all persons,

And be it further resolved, that this World Conference encourages the President of the Church, the First Presidency, Council of Twelve, Council of Presidents of Seventy, Presiding Bishopric and other leaders to embrace the prophetic aspects of their callings with eagerness in addressing the perplexing issues that face the church, rather than hesitantly responding to the needs of the world out of fear and thus delaying needed justice and the sharing of the Good News in ways that reflect the life, passion, and ministry of Jesus the Christ whose name we claim.

Why I wrote it, why it comes in resolution form… I don’t know, but seeing it there this even, I just felt the need to share it with the world, or at least those who randomly come across this post. I need to think about this some more, but perhaps your thoughts can aid me in figuring out my own….

Peace,

For if the punishment for say, murder is death, and that punishment is carried out by the community, then the community has murdered, and thus they now should face the same punishment, yet because they are the ones committing the crime of murder they tend to over look that they are doing so and live on to murder another day.

Yes, I know this is not the way many think of it. In part it may be the language we use, as we tend to not use the term murder when we refer to the act of the calculated, planed taking life of one who  has been accused and convicted of taking the life of another. We also tend to separate ourselves from the act, and not think of the aspect of our involvement. This post is mainly focusing on the communal murder described earlier in this paragraph, but I want to express that this is not the only form of communal murder we commit. There is also the communal murder committed by military and related action, by excessive police force, by our choosing to not eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, even though it could be done for a lot less then the communal murder done through acts of war, the deaths caused by us refusing to ensure all have access to basic life saving medical care… So when I describe numbers of how many communal murders I have been a part of it is in reference to just that type of communal murder and not the others, unless I state otherwise.

In some ways I am a lucky person, if I look at just the acts of the communities in which the governments represented me. In my lifetime, like all Americans alive in that time period we have communally murdered three people, and in the states where I was a legal resident of, I have been a party to 3 additional murders for a total of 6. The three state level communal murders took place prior to my having the legal right to vote, the the three federal after I had the right to vote. In addition to this I have lived while attending school and participating in internships and fellowships in states where additional communal murders took place, though my legal residence remained in a state where none took place. Summer 2004- I was in Ohio, during those three months: 3 communal murders, Once more in Ohio  for most of 2006, 7, 8, 9, and 10 for School, during the time I was in that state there were 14 communal murders. Thus through the governments that represented me I participated in 6 murders, three of them enacted once I had voice and vote, three before I had voice and vote, and was present in a state where I had no vote for an additional 14 for a total of 20 that I was present in the legal jurisdiction where the communal murder took place. Compare that to someone the same date as I who lived in say Texas their entire life- 489TX+3Fed for a total 491 (289 of them after age 18), I am lucky to have murdered so few (3,6, or 20 depending on how one counts… or 22 if one counts the 2 in Ohio that took place while I was not in Ohio, but while I still had belongings in a residence in Ohio). In my lifetime 1273 people have been communally murdered within the various legal jurisdictions of United States, 697 since I turned 18. Since it is possible for federal level law to end communal murder even in the states, my count could rise up to these numbers as well. I don’t have numbers for the rest of the world, but that will rise it even higher as a member of the Human family. I do not want to be a murder, and am very sorrowful that I have communally murdered so many… not to count the thousands, if not millions we have communally murdered during this time through lack of action, war…. This is not Okay.As a person of faith, I stand with clear voice saying this is not okay.

The first communal murder I have much recollection of, is the first of the three that took place in states where I lived. It took place while I was 10 years of age. I wasn’t physically there, but I do recall sitting in the living room, the TV on and watching the news as they talked about the man we were about to murder, as they showed the protestors outside, the governor’s refusal to commute the sentence… I don’t recall much details of the case or the man. I remember seeing pictures of where the death would take place… and things like that…

Here in Oregon our current Governor,  has just prevented the first communal murder in 14 years(scheduled for the 6th of Dec.) from taking place. In the last 49 years only 2 communal murders have taken place in Oregon, one in 1996, one in 1997. Both of these took place under the governorship of the same man who is once again our Governor, even though he himself was not for communal murder, and has described it as the hardest decision he has ever made and he expressed regret in allowing them to take place. However, he did not commute the communal murder, but postponed it stating no communal murders will take place during his time as governor, but that he feels that while he has the authority to commute all 34 who are waiting to be murdered by us to sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, it is something that the voters must address. I hope that we as Oregonians will take this chance to step up, and say we will murder no more and end the practice all together. The Governor has stated that that is what he intends to push for, the elimination of communal murder sentencing, and instead life without parole being the option. (I find it interesting that Oregon has had at least two Governors who have allowed communal murder to take place whose personal beliefs and morals is that communal murder is wrong, our current Governor Kitzhaber [D] his past stint, and Gov/Sen Hatfield [R]… there could be others, I just know of these two, in in Kitzhaber’s case we know he has regretted doing so, and has said it will not happen again while he is Governor)

For those of us who follow Christ, the communal murder of Jesus son of Mary and Joseph so long ago should be reason enough for us to stand in opposition to communal murdering of those who have committed crimes. If it is not, then the communal murders of many of the first apostles and disciples should be, along with the laws against murder, the teachings of Christ, should be… I’m glad my faith tradition stands in opposition of communal murder, though I am sad it took us until 2000 to pass a world conference resolution stating we stand against it.  I am sad that in this act, as in many others, that while we are called to be prophetic we we late to the game and followed others to standing up for the worth of all persons. (In one of the whereas we indicate that we were not courageous to act prophetically until others did by stating “ A growing number of nations and faith groups including Catholic, Protestant, orthodox, Jewish, and other traditions have either already rejected or urged extreme caution in using the death penalty as a means of punishment or as a deterrent for violent crime.”) The binding parts of the resolution, are the resolves and so the resolves of World Conference resolution 1273 are: “Resolved, That we stand in opposition to the use of the death penalty; and be it further Resolved, That as a peace church we seek ways to achieve healing and restorative justice.”

May we have the courage and conviction to step forward and be prophetic, may we have the courage to act now, and not wait for others to lead the way. Let us embrace our eternal call to care for the world, to bring about healing and reconciliation. Let us stand with conviction that the Holy calls us to love one another and that “One being is as precious in God’s sight as the other” (Jacob 2:27 as quoted in resolves of WCR 1273) and bring an end to the suffering and pain in the world. Bring  an end to the communal murder that is described in this post, but also the communal murder we participate in through our actions and inactions though the means of world hunger, extreme poverty, lack of access to basic healthcare, proper sanitation, through acts of war, through violent use of force by police…. Let us stand with our sisters and brother of other faiths within the circle of all those who call upon the name of Christ, and in the larger circle of faiths of all who call upon the Holy, the Ultimate reality.., and upon the larger circles of all of humanity and all of creation, and heal our broken world…

Peace,

In recent weeks some thoughts have floated through my mind. In the United States there is a federal minimum starting wage. Each of the fifty states that make up the union also have wage laws, some of which set the minimum starting wage higher. Some local governments do as well. However, these wages are often far from livable, especially for families. Often those who pay their employees these wages also do not provide them will full time hours and want open availability, thus making it harder for an individual to have enough to get by, even if full time at the minimum rate would be enough to live on. There have been various proposals out there for increasing wages to be more livable, but rarely do they address the whole problem. Typically they focus on the wage per hour but not the hour per week. They say $x per hour is a livable wage in a location, but forget to mention that is if they are getting 40 hours a week… when many work part time (less than 30-32 a week), or work full time but not 40 as many companies don’t want to risk over time so even full time might be 32, 34, 36 and even at that $x rate that may not be enough to provide the necessities.

We have some states with increases built into their minimum, but still not livable, wage systems. These are great in they at least help keep the minimum wage workers at the same level as they were and not lower. However, this also exposes a problem. It exposes how people being paid at higher hourly rates, often do not see their income increase at proportional rates. So the gap between their starting rate and the minimum starting rate shrinks… brining awareness (if we choose to open our eyes and see) that those living on enough or less than enough to get buy is increasing. It exposes the reality of the shrinking “middle” and the growing “poor.”

We hear cooperation’s, politicians and others speak against proposals to tax corporations and wealthy at rates they were once taxed. We hear people call to cut the safety nets that keep people from starving. We hear arguments from them saying that to restore their taxes would lead to a loss of jobs. The reality is jobs are being lost regardless if we tax them or not. The reality is many companies are paying their top executives more, while reducing their lower paid employees, either number wise or hour wise as much as they can to increase their profits. They seek to keep as many in the part time roles to limit benefit expenses… The reality is that if the safety net programs are cut, people will have less funds to pay for food and other necessities which will make a direct impact on retail sales, which in turn will lead to retail establishments reducing the hours per employee and/or the total number of employees as their income shrinks, which will lead to even loss of sales, as there will be even more people with less to spend. The reality is, a reduction in those corporations taxes will not create more hours, higher wages for the low paid common worker, or more job openings. Instead the money saved on taxes will go to the executives and the shareholders.

The reality is that while in some states with high minimum wages and more safety net programs, even when their unemployment rate is higher they often have fewer people that are food insecure than in states with lower unemployment and lower wage rates and fewer safety net programs. So looking to the states with low unemployment for ways to reduce unemployment is probably not the solution. For what good is low unemployment if people even with a job still can not put food on their plate, a roof over their head, go to the doctor, and put clothes on their backs?

Beefing up our safety nets is needed. But it in and of itself is not enough. Taxing the corporations and those with great wealth in ways to help justly distribute the burdens of a nation and a globe is not enough. they are part of the equation, but only part of it. Raising minimum wages to so-called livable wages is a start, but unless we move from an hourly model to a weekly/monthly/yearly model reflective of the gospel story of the workers who got paid the same regardless of how long they worked, we will have a problem. For people will get paid that living hourly rate, but not given the hours to make it livable.

In pondering ways to try and reign in the ever growing gap between the poor and wealthy, I wonder if however our attempts to set “minimum wages” is the wrong approach. Perhaps we need to set “maximum ratios” instead, or along side. That is set in place a system where we say: The highest paid person in a company’s total compensation can not be more than z times the total compensation of the lowest. For example using the numbers of one company that I work for. My total hourly compensation (wage+401k match+employer side of insurance premiums+ employer social security tax+ my savings by using my employee discount+vacation accrual…)  times 40 hours a week (more than I work a week) times 52 weeks equal several hundredths that of the President/CEO of the company. Even if we were to double that total so it was 80 hours a week the President/CEO would still be making several hundred times more than I per year. And there are many people working in this company for less than I do per hour and with fewer benefits than I.

People argue that these salaries are needed to keep people, and recruit people. However the US tends to have one of the highest ratios in the industrialized world, and the ratio has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Perhaps if we were to cap these ratios,  it would lead to better income equality and fewer hungry people. If a company wanted to pay its top person more to incite him/her to stay or to attract a new head they would also have to increase the wages of their lowest paid employees… What would happen if the ratio went from highest to lowest went from 500:1 down to 50:1, or 10:1 or 5:1? Even in a company that has thousands of employees, it might not lead to drastic changes in the low end, in terms of new jobs or hours, or wage increases, but it may lead to just enough of an increase to make sure they can pay rent, and not have skip a meal every now and again. It may be just enough for them to not need to utilize the safety net programs. It may be just enough to help people have a restored sense of dignity, and perhaps help the people at the top have better awareness of the struggles, realities, and needs of those that labor hard underneath their “leadership” and management.

Is there also a way we could create an income pool that would help larger families out? That is a way so companies still could budget $x per job position but where a single person making way more than they need could give a portion of their income into that pool, and a family of say 4 with the wage worker(s) of the family not receiving an income sufficient for them all could draw from to meet needed expenses… (I’m thinking in part of organizations that have tried to pay people by their need rather than “rank” but struggled as they grew in trying to budget and mange such a system and so had to revaluate their pay system… thus recreating in  a way such a system, but in a more budget friendly manner, and their are companies/organizations out there that have systems like this for sick time & personal leave where people can give their unneeded paid sick leave to those who are experiencing a need that leads to them having to be away from work a long time which could work as a model of how such an income pool could work.)

Just some of the many random thoughts in my mind of ways to try and help transform our current system into something just a bit more just and equitable. (if we could get to the days of all things in common, and making sure all were fed and cared for, as the saints of old did, or at least tried to do, I’m up for that as well…)

What are some of your thoughts and ideas?

Peace,