The Gospel of Barry Dubya Drumpf
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 03/02/2016 - 21:22It may seem strange for a politician so liberal that he’s been called a communist by his political adversaries to quote a talk radio show host’s article in the National Review, but these aren’t normal times and perhaps I’m not your typical politician.
Dennis Prager wrote Gratuitous Hatred Is Destroying Republicans — Just as It Did the Ancient Israelites. There is plenty I can find to disagree with in Prager’s article, but his concern about gratuitous hatred is an important point, and it’s not just destroying Republicans, it is destroying all of us.
One example of this is the tendency to come up with names to disrespect our previous and current president, as well as one of the current candidates. As you can see by the title of this post, Republicans and Democrats alike do this. It is part of a larger problem, the vilification of those that are different from ourselves, that are ‘other’.
This is happening, not only in national politics, but in church politics as well. Today, I read a post by a senior Anglican bishop, which included, “Western liberal activists are not the least bit gracious. Actually, forgive me. That was judgmental. I have never met a Western liberal activist who was gracious”
Apparently these days even senior Bishops think it is acceptable to speak disrespectfully of those they disagree with, if the post ‘forgive me’.
The bigger problem is that hate now appears to be socially acceptable. We talk about ‘haters’ and shrug them off saying, ‘haters gonna hate’.
This isn’t new, and if we go back to great literature and to scripture, we find two important quotes. The first is from the Prince in the final scene of Romeo and Juliet
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.
It illustrates the passage from 1 John 3:15
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
and again in 1 John 4:20
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
I know that it can be enjoyable to poke fun at people we disagree with. At times it can be humorous, but too often it is just plain hateful. To my God fearing friends, I call on you to not only say, “forgive me” but to actually repent, to turn around and seek to love those you disagree with, those that are different from yourselves. To my secular friends, I’ll just refer back to the Prince’s speech at the end of Romeo and Juliet. We will all be punished, one way or another, if we don’t end this gratuitous hatred.
Rabbits, Lions, and Lambs
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 03/01/2016 - 07:04Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. March comes in like a lion. Doors closing and windows opening. Between strange dreams, now unfortunately forgotten, not much sleep, and things being in great flux. There is little that I can write about right now.
Easter is on the 27th and so March is likely to go out like a lamp, in multiple ways. I am waiting for Easter, but I’m trying to live each day in the present.
Measurement
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/28/2016 - 19:20Yesterday, a friend posted on Facebook a link to an article, The Quantified Welp: A new study suggests that measuring an activity makes it less enjoyable. She asked, “What are the implications for outcomes measurement/management and evaluation in the nonprofit sector?”
I wrote several comments, which I’ll try to gather into a meaningful blog post.
First, the article, seems to contract itself saying the research “proposes that the more you quantify something that’s rewarding for its own sake, the less likely you are to enjoy it—and the less likely you are, too, to do more of it." Yet when you read further, you get "Those who got numerical feedback on their works in progress—'you have colored one shape,' etc.—colored more shapes but reported enjoying it less."
It seems like measuring something in fact makes people more productive, but less happy. If you want productive employees, measure them. If you want happy employees, don't. This, of course, illustrates the need for balance. Of course we want our employees to be as productive as possible, so meaningful measurements can be beneficial. However, if the measurements aren’t really meaningful, aren’t really helping the organization achieve its mission, then the measurements are detrimental. The challenge is to find the right level of meaningful measurements.
The research also doesn't appear to take into consideration the issue that one of the other people commenting on the post brought up about competition. The study does not seem to factor in the reward of competition. Not only would it be interesting to see how this changes for more competitive and less competitive people, but also how it changes if you have a leader board, badges, or other recognitions for measuring well. Would we then see people high on the leaderboard happier and those lower on the leader board less happy?
All of this seems to fit nicely with research on the demotivational effects of higher salaries. It also makes me think of the OpEd in the New York Times by Robert Wachter last month, How Measurement Fails Doctors and Teachers. I’m also interested in how this fits into discussions about the future of the church in the United States; church growth and the ‘slow church movement’.
On The Process
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/28/2016 - 09:03This morning’s Old Testament lesson is Exodus 3:1=15, Moses and the burning bush. We spoke about it Thursday at the discernment committee, mostly in terms of God calling Moses, but in just about every calling story, there is another part of the story, when the called returns to their people. Will the message be accepted? Believed? Heeded?
I’m part of a group on Facebook, where those of us who are seeking discernment share our stories and support one another. It seems like all of us run into stories of people who think they are supposed to become an ordained deacon or priest, only to be rejected by the Commission on Ministry. Many of these people carry deep hurt or bitterness. In the group, people ask, is the process broken?
I commented:
Yes. It seems like mentioning that you are seeking discernment is an invitation for everyone to tell you every horror story possible about the process. I've lost track of how many people have told me their horror stories.
It is broken. It is as broken as the most broken person in the process. Yet it is all filled with grace. It is as full of grace as the most grace filled person in the process.
We are stuck in the middle bring both our brokenness, and our God given grace.
I believe God is calling me to the ordained priesthood. I pray that those who will decide whether to accept me as a postulant arrive at the same feeling.
I expect that such a decision is still months away, and I have to live out what God is calling me to, today. Today, I am a person in the process. I pray that God will use me, in this process to help others in the process and perhaps even, to bring new thoughts and new experiences to the process so it may be more grace filled for others who will go through the process in the future.
One thing I should perhaps clarify, when I speak about the broken people in the process, I am speaking equally about the candidates, as I am of the Bishops and members of the commissions on ministry.
One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about in the process is what a great responsibility being a priest is. In the celebration and blessing of a marriage, towards the beginning of the service, the celebrant says,
Therefore marriage is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it was instituted by God.
The couple, and the community are both asked if anyone knows any reason the couple should not be married, and all of this comes after the couple has spent a lot of time speaking with the priest.
A bad marriage can be terrible; how much more so, a bad priest. With the marriage, the priest makes a decision about blessing the marriage. Sometimes, the priest gets it wrong. With becoming a postulant, the bishop, with the advice of a commission on ministry makes the decision. Sometimes, they get it wrong too, both by accepting someone who shouldn’t be or by not accepting someone who should be.
One of the places, where the process is broken, is that it seems like for many, the question being asked is, will the church accept me as a postulant for ordination. This seems to be the framing of the question for both seeking ordination, and for those who will make the decision. I have been fortunate in that my own framing of the question, and those who ultimately will make decisions about my journey are asking instead, “What sort of ministry is God calling Aldon to?” It is my hope that when the discussion comes to whether or not others in positions of authority talk with me about this again, it will continue in this fashion, and should the decision be, “not now”, there will be a good discussion about what should happen now.
Another concern that people bring up is how long the process takes. Given what an important decision it is, this doesn’t seem to bother me as much as it bothers other people. Of course, my process has been going rather smoothly so far. I may have very different feelings if it gets delayed or if I get rejected. Some of my tolerance of the length of the process comes from the fact that I believe I was called back when I was young, and didn’t reply. God has been waiting for me for many years. I can wait for God as long as it takes. I’m also reading the book “Slow Church” right now. I’ve got mixed feelings about the book so far. I wish I would see more about waiting for God in the book. Yet there is an important message in there about slowing things down.
Yet I will note that it is a difficult time being in the process, and I suspect even more difficult as the process drags on. For me, that part of the reason why finding a community of others in similar situations is so important.
And so, I wait, with my fellow seekers, for more clarity, more discernment about what God is calling me to, what God is calling my fellow seekers to. Let us support one another in our journeys.
Standing Against the Pandemic of Dissension
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/27/2016 - 09:59On Thursday night, the discernment committee met and we discussed calling. What is our calling? What happened when we felt called by God? How is each one of us called by God? A large part of the discussion was around my calling, which to a certain extent makes sense since the discernment committee was convened to help me with this task, but part of helping me discern my calling is to hear the stories of others, and there were some other deeply moving stories told, and I would have loved to hear more about others callings.
We started off by reading the stories of the calling of Moses, Samuel, and Isaiah. Afterwards, I thought about writing the story of my calling in the style of the stories in the Old Testament. I’ve hesitated about posting it, lest it seem like boasting or blasphemy, but a dream I had last night caused me to rethink this. So, here is the story of the calling I experienced in May 2105 written in an Old Testament style.
During a guided meditation at a poetry conference at Yale Divinity School, the Lord came to me and said, "Aldon, I love you more than you can imagine or understand".
And I said to the Lord, "Lord, I am not worthy"
And the Lord said to me, "Aldon, I know all your faults, yet I have made you worthy through the blood of Christ"
And the Lord said to me, "Aldon, you have been made to show forth My Love to those around you. You have done this through your work, and your writing, and your politics. From now on this is to be your primary goal"
And I said to the Lord, "Here I am"
A month later, I was reading the Old Testament lesson about the calling of Isaiah in church on Trinity Sunday, and I said aloud, reading the lesson, and praying at the same time, "Here I am. Lord, send me."
And the Lord said to me, "The time has come for you to become an ordained priest." Over the following months, I struggled with these words. I thought about the process of becoming a priest, and the Lord said, "All will be accomplished according to my plan".
So, I began the process, seeking to better discern God’s will and learn God’s plan. As I spoke with the homeless man on the street, I asked the Lord, is this whom I should serve?", and the Lord answered, "yes". I spoke with the infirm man in the nursing home and I asked the Lord, "Is this whom I should serve?" and the Lord answered, "yes". I sat in church groups, praying for each member and I asked the Lord, "Are these whom I should serve?" and the Lord answered "yes."
I heard stories of politicians saying hateful things, things that I believed were contrary to God’s message, and I asked the Lord, “Should I love even these people?”
And the Lord said, “Yes.”
And I heard stories of religious leaders shunning other religious leaders and refusing aid from certain countries because of disagreements over doctrine, and I asked the Lord, “Should I love even these people?”
And the Lord said, “Yes.”
Last night, I dreamt that I was at some sort of religious camp or retreat. The organizer was saying various things that felt very narrow and would exclude people from hearing the message of God’s Love. I spoke the truth, in Love and he changed his ways.
I don’t expect to see such a change in the U.S. political discourse, or in the discourse of the Anglican Communion because of my words, but I pray that they might be at least a small ripple of hope, a ripple of love in a climate where dissension seems to have become pandemic.
