A Mile in their Shoes

“Walk a mile in my shoes.”

We’ve all heard this old admonition, which is associated with developing empathy and understanding for another’s perspective, position, or point of view. 

But next week, I’m taking the phrase literally.

Beginning on Monday, May 28, I’ll be joining El Coalición de Derechos Humanos (The Human Rights Coalition) for the annual Walk for Life on the Migrant Trail to honor and raise awareness about the men, women and children who have struggled and lost their lives during their migration to the United States.  The 75-mile trek through the Sonoran desert will take a week to complete and will culminate in a celebration in Tucson, Ariz., on June 3.  If you are in the area, I invite you to join me at Kennedy Park at 11:30 a.m. that day.

I hope to send occasional photos and reflections from the trail (as technology allows) and plan to blog about the experience upon my return.  In the meantime, I ask that you join in solidarity with me—and those for whom this hike is meant to honor—and consider the ways in which good people across the nation can and should respond, in love and compassion, to this phenomenon that too often ends in tragedy.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers as I embark on this important journey.

Hot Issues and the Real Church

If you are part of the Methodist family, you’ve doubtless heard a lot about last month’s General Conference.  There’s no shortage of opinions about the meeting’s outcomes, as the recent editorial from Bishop William Willimon—and the flood of responses to him—effectively demonstrate. 

I often appreciate hearing a “long view” perspective on any issue, so I was pleased when I received this message from Rev. Dr. F. Thomas Trotter, who led Methodist congregations, agencies and educational institutions for 50 years.  Tom is a Lifetime Member of CST’s Board of Trustees and lives here in Claremont.  He sent this letter about the recent General Conference to me and his pastor, Sharon Rhodes-Wickett at Claremont UMC, and it struck a chord with me.  With his permission, I share part of it below.

My opinion is that we invest too much confidence in the General Conference.  The current disappointment is but the latest in a long line of stumbling around to move the church forward. It might be helpful, if not reassuring, to recall other cosmic struggles in the GC. My experience includes the decades long struggle to do away with the segregated Central Jurisdiction which made black Methodists second-class members. I also remember the intense struggle to grant women full clergy rights including ordination. The GC has always been pushed to include wider circles of persons in the fellowship. These struggles had the same scenarios and intensity of the current one including use of biblical texts, warnings about fearful consequences, and final acceptance of reform.   

In my view the GC is like the U.S. Congress. It is dependent on regionalism and social traditions. We cannot force it to be wise and prophetic. However it can be moved by prophetic leadership, which has been missing for some time. With some exceptions, currently the episcopacy is anemic.  There have been only cries for restructure from the College of Bishops. When all else fails, reorganize the boards and agencies.

Since 1972, the UMC has moved inexorably toward an industrial model for the denomination.  The traditional democratic spirit of renewal through prophetic interests has been curtailed under that model of institutional reform.  The most significant positive action at the GC was the Judicial Council decision to declare the structure proposals un-constitutional.

Like other democratic institutions, “hot issues” that became organized as agencies and boards have moved us forward. Some of these local concerns were missionary work, education for former slaves, temperance, world peace, care for widows and orphans, theological education, status of women, and social action. These were originally independent movements outside the GC and only in the last period became fully integrated as sub-units under administration of super agencies like the General Council on Finance and Administration and the General Council on Ministries.  The General Council on Ministries was to have been an "interim general conference," but the Judicial Council declared it unconstitutional in 1974.  The most recent restructure tried the same idea and was shot down. 

The real church is created out of hot issues, the current one being the recognition in the church of persons who are gay. Energy from churches like Claremont UMC will manifest itself in a wider movement to bring about the changes required.  To have the denomination shrink back into an industrial model and housebreak the social and prophetic energies of the local parishes and individuals would have been disastrous.

The L.A. Riots and the Arc of Justice

Earlier this month, Prof. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook and I had the honor and privilege of being inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College. Many things raced through my mind as we sat in the famous, historic King chapel along with the others who were being honored for our contributions to the development of Dr. King's “Beloved Community.”

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the L.A. uprising, as well as the upcoming United Methodist General Conference, I was inspired by the setting and those around me to write about the pace of social justice—the arc of justice, some might say.  The Huffington Post published the piece, which is entitled “Morehouse, Martin and the Methodists,” and I hope you have a few minutes to read it.

As the anniversary approaches of the civil unrest following the Rodney King verdict, we realize that we have come a long but that we still have a long way to go. As a result, there are two events that Claremont is involved with to help ensure that our future is better than our past.  I hope many of you in the Southern California area will be able to attend:

L.A. Human Relations Commission Hearing: A Community Blueprint for the Next 20 Years
Tuesday, April 24 (6 – 9 p.m. at L.A. City Hall)

Claremont Lincoln University is a co-sponsor of this important public hearing, which will feature Mayor Villaraigosa.  The Commission is gathering community leaders for this hearing to examine the current conditions and priorities of Los Angeles upon the 20th Anniversary of the L.A. riots.  While I cannot attend, I encourage those of you in the Los Angeles area to go to City Hall and let your voices be heard.

Worship Service for Healing Our Communities
Sunday, April 29 (6 p.m. at Holman UMC)

Claremont alumnus Rev. Gary Williams is helping organize this worship service co-sponsored by Holman UMC, a historically African American church, and the Korean congregation of Wilshire UMC.  This special event will encourage further healing and deliverance in the community in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the L.A. uprising.  Please contact revgary@holmanumc.com for more information.

A New Initiative at Claremont

There’s a short essay making the rounds on Facebook this week by a hospital chaplain who writes about “what people talk about before they die.”  She notes that people in their last minutes of life usually don’t ask her about the meaning of life or discuss their deepest religious convictions.  Rather, they talk about their families and those they love.  During our last breaths, we think about our closest relationships and remember the everyday acts of love -- and our failures to love -- that made them so important to us.

The chaplain comes to an important conclusion:

“We don't live our lives in our heads, in theology and theories. … We don't learn the meaning of our lives by discussing it.  It's not to be found in books or lecture halls or even churches or synagogues or mosques.  It's discovered through these actions of love.”

I can think of no better characterization of the vision for and challenge of our work in the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium.  From its inception, Claremont Lincoln was envisioned as a different sort of university.  It’s a place where we put love to work in the world, where we bring the wisdom of the ages to bear on the problems of today.  It’s a place where we ultimately learn the power of love, grounded in our relationships, for the good of the world.

That’s why earlier this week I announced the Claremont Initiative for Engaged Ethics at the Claremont Lincoln Consortium.  (You can watch a video of the announcement here or read my prepared remarks here.)

What is “Engaged Ethics”?  It involves putting faith into action, beliefs in motion, and our ethical convictions to work for the common good.  At Claremont Lincoln, it also involves learning by doing and teaching while learning.  It collapses the artificial wall between theory and practice, recognizing the importance and interdependence of both.  Books and lecture halls are critical, but so is the hands-on education of social engagement.

My hope is that this Initiative will accomplish two goals.

1. First, I want the initiative to celebrate the many examples of students, staff and faculty who already exemplify Engaged Ethics in the world.  For many among us, Engaged Ethics is already a way of life.  And in many ways, this already defines our community.
   
2. The initiative will also provide opportunities for staff, faculty and students who may want to do more in the community to come together in acts of social engagement, to put our collective institutional ethics into action as a community. 

I encourage you to follow the initiative on Facebook, where my office will be making regular updates, posting photos about the initiative and announcing new opportunities for service.

Perhaps most important, this initiative sets Claremont Lincoln toward a grand vision: to be the world's premier educational community for Engaged Ethics.  Some universities are known for their subject matter, others for their religious affiliations, and still others for their political leanings.

Claremont Lincoln will be known worldwide as the graduate school that puts values to work in the world.  

In the everydayness of her life, the chaplain above found what she could not discover in her seminary education alone.  My hope for Claremont is that we can learn from this lesson and prepare a new generation of leaders for a world that needs action as much as intellect.  Together, we can achieve this important and much needed vision.

Learning the Lessons of Love in a Shopping Mall at Christmastime

Last weekend, I foolishly ventured into a local shopping mall in search of a new pair of blue jeans for myself.  I was somewhat aware that the Christmas shopping season was upon us, so I entered directly into the department store’s side entrance and made my purchase.  Before I left, I decided to peek into the mall’s interior.

I guess I was unprepared for what I saw.

Hundreds—maybe thousands—of people, young and old, were shuffling from store to store, with little kids and big bags in tow.  The interior was bedecked with the most remarkable, sparkly holiday decorations one can find, which ironically belied the mall’s drab 1980s exterior just off the 10 Freeway.  The whole scene was Christmasfied, and it fueled the burning need—a palpable urgency—to buy, buy buy! It seemed as if everyone were racing the calendar to reach December 25 first, sprinting in every direction to get just the right gift as the ultimate demonstration of one’s love for family and friends.

As I think back on the spectacle, I can close my eyes and imagine myself taking a majestic, prophetic stance at the top of the escalators, raising my arms like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments, and declaring with great force and conviction, “People of the Purchase: You are the 99 percent! And it is you who are feeding the beast!”

Snapping back to reality, I remember that I too will give gifts to my loved ones this Christmas, and I should take care in my judgment of others.  But I am going to rethink what those gifts might be, and where they come from, and what I intend for them to mean for those who receive them.

How do I truly show love to those around me, not only during this time of year, but throughout all seasons of life?

Of course, I’m not the first to think about Christmastime consumerism (and I hope I’m not the last).  But it does make me wonder how I can give gifts differently.  It may mean buying local and sustainably produced gifts that spread the benefits of their production throughout a local community.  And it may mean investing more of my time than my money in preparing a gift.  It may mean giving different kinds of gifts altogether (I recently had the opportunity, for example, to mark a special occasion by passing down my father’s pocketknife. This was far more meaningful than anything I could have purchased at the mall.)

But most importantly, it calls into question how we love each other—not only how we express love, but how we truly love those around us, throughout the year.

So in this Christian season of Advent, as we anticipate and celebrate the coming of Eternal Love to the world, may we also reflect on bringing about Enduring Love in the world, throughout the year, forever and ever.