Category: Humanity

Ta-Nehisi Coates Writes

Published by mhelbert on January 23, 2020

I just finished reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel, “The Water Dancer.” I’m not going to review it here. I found the story compelling even though, IMHO, the telling of it was lacking a bit.

There was one part of it that really did affect me. A look inside of Coates’ mind through the mind of his character, Hiram Walker.
Let me summarize…

Walker is a slave on a Virginia plantation as the Golden Age of the Virginian Gentry is waning. He happens to be the illegitimate son of the landowner and a slave woman. Eventually, he became a part of The Underground. This network of people worked to smuggle slaves into the North and freedom.
One of the chief instigators in this network is a white woman who is part of the Virginia Gentry. She spent time in the North and became enlightened to the plight of the slaves. The result was a deep shame in the system of slavery that demeaned her people and was a blight on their legacy.

Through the eyes of Hiram we get a glimpse of something that very few of us ever consider.

Objectification.
To Objectify.
To reduce a person to an object.

How did I get to this from that story?
First, let’s consider why we objectify others.

Fear.

Yes, Fear.
Fear of those who are Not Us.
Fear of losing wealth; identity; power; property; self.
Fear of being shamed.
Fear of becoming Equal To.

I could go on listing things that we fear. But, I think you get the idea.

In the case of Hiram’s white benefactor, she feared the shame that was a necessary part of her complicity in owning other human beings.
Don’t believe me?
Who is the subject of her philanthropy?
The slaves?
Look again. Closer.
She, and her people, are the subject. According to Coates’ portrayal, she works in order to assuage her own guilt and shame. She, and her white society are absolutely guilty of heinous crimes against humanity. So, she does what she can to combat that system.
What we learn from Hiram is what she does not do. Perhaps, she cannot do.
That is to see the slaves as Human Beings.
Real people with real lives and real needs and real feelings.
To her they are simply objects to be used in her personal battle against her personal demons.
To Hiram, they are family.

Now, I want everyone to understand that I think that kinds of efforts that people like Coates’ female benefactor are good and necessary.
Any and all efforts to alleviate suffering and instill a sense of humanity and self-worth to people is positive and should always be encouraged.

There is more, though.

We can still be what may be called ‘Good’ in our actions.
We must also become Good in our Intent.
Empathy is what stands against Objectification.
Empathy may be defined as an ability to share and understand the feelings of others.
I would take that a step further and say that Empathy is our ability to live in the skin of those who are Not Us.

We humans are naturally Tribal.
From the first time we left the arboreal life and set out across the Savannah we have grouped together for self preservation. This is ingrained deep within our DNA.
That is where Homo Sapiens came from.
It’s time now for Homo Empathicus to emerge.
Our survival as a species may depend on that.

For sure our identity as Image Bearers of God demands it.

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What Will It Take?

Published by mhelbert on January 17, 2020

Sitting in the quiet darkness of early morning.
That time of day when the gentle, white lace of frost
Caresses the grass and paints with delicate strokes upon windows.

My mind wanders paths strewn with the blown litter of oak and maple.
The creaks and cracks of the naked branches above as the gently breezes
Flow among their gnarled fingers.

And, I wonder…

Where does the sand in the glass go when it completes its task?
Time leaks into time with no direction other than Onward.

At what point do we stop and look around at our purposes and desires?
See! The Indigenous Peoples of the Earth have stories to tell.
Destroyers appeared on the horizon.
Pestilence, life Passes, Peoples Perish.

My mind sees a shadow on the plains.
Millions upon millions of stamping hooves.

Silenced.

People, lives, cultures…Gone.

I see the dense canopy of a billion leaves swaying in the wind,
Dripping the Elixir of Life, Water, onto the world of myriad creatures.

Fire; destruction; Death.

Everyday I see the result of greed and lust in vacant eyes and bleached bones.

When will we learn?

As the poet wrote,

any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne Meditation XVII

I wrote the above as I considered our headlong leap into environmental disaster. Many people give no credence to the alarms sounded by people in the scientific community and elsewhere. We really don’t have to look beyond the Indigenous Peoples of the world. When the colonists came and destroyed their habitat, the cultures perished. Even as some Indigenous nations attempt to recapture their cultures and languages, they will be forever changed. And, not necessarily for the better.
What makes us so arrogant as to think that we will escape unscathed as we destroy our own environment?

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Friday Morning Musing

Published by mhelbert on January 10, 2020

A vault impregnable, impervious, impossibly shut and locked
Is the Heart of Humans.
Desires, hopes, dreams, lusts and longings closed within it.
Steel encased in concrete is like Butterfly wings compared with
Its hardened walls of Flesh.

What kind of dark Humors reside therein?
The swirling mist of “Myself.”
Gazing always inward.
Unable to see or imagine a world outside of
Self-imposed confinement, Completely alone.
Companionless.

There is One.
Who has a Key.

Can we allow this One,
With Pure motives
To unlock the Vault?
So that Light may enter unhindered
And, “Myself” might “See”?

There is Hope
That Freedom may penetrate
And the Heart may become…

More.

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Diversity is Not a Dirty Word

Published by mhelbert on January 9, 2020

The first entry in Merriam-Webster defines Diversity as, “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : VARIETY especially : the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.“

In today’s American culture wars diversity is considered by many people to be something evil that should be avoided at all costs. After all, if we achieve true diversity then White-Protestant hegemony would end. We can’t have that.

But, that’s a topic for another post.

This morning in the quiet hour before I had to get ready to go to work I considered diversity as it relates to our various faith communities. The reality of Euro-American dominance in the world raised its head and looked at me with its blood-red eyes.
I have written about this as it relates to world missions before.
The predominantly white North Atlantic Church has arrogantly forced its own cultural brand of Christianity on a world that neither wanted nor needed that. Yet, that Church still considers itself to be the Only Real True Church. Even today we send groups out into other cultures in order to form the people who are indigenous to those cultures into little versions of ourselves. Because we know best.

Well, we actually don’t.

We have lenses that color our vision. We only see what we want to see. People who are lacking. People who are missing out. People that We. Need. To. Save!

I think that there’s a better way.

I had the pleasure of studying under the Director of Black Church Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary, Dr. William H. Myers. Besides New Testament classes that I had with Dr. Myers, I also had the opportunity to study Womanist Hermeneutics with him. That is a way to read and understand the Scriptures taken from the point of view of African-American women.
That class stretched me. I was the only white person in that class. So, it was a total immersion experience for me.

And, it was uncomfortable.

Not because of who I was. But, because of the lives of the women I met in that course. Women who lived as slaves in the U.S. South. Women who survived that hell only to find themselves buried neck deep in Jim Crow America. Women who raised families.

Women who found peace and solace in the White man’s Jesus.

How they did that was an amazing feat of faith and trust in God.
They learned that God was not the provenance of the dominant culture. They learned that God sets captives free and leads those who love God to the Promised Land.
They learned that God was above the status quo.
They learned that God loved them.

Diversity.

I also learned about a man named Randy Woodley. He is descended from the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee. Dr. Woodley has spent his life discovering the Creator God of all people. He is also a follower of Jesus who is learning how to understand the God of the Colonizers in a way that those who were colonized can love.
He, and other Native Americans, work to, as Dr. Richard Twiss, himself a Native American, “Rescue the Gospel from the Cowboys.”
These faithful followers of Christ have found that Jesus isn’t White and doesn’t wear a clerical collar.

Diversity.

I mention these things for one reason.

The Church needs these voices.
We will die from inbreeding if we don’t listen to them.
They have truth that the hearts and minds of the dominant culture simply don’t have.
If we want to have life, and that abundantly, we must push back against those small minded culture warriors who think that there is only One Way to Live.
Their way.

That’s a lie from the pit of hell.
There are as many ways to live as there are people and cultures.
And, there are just as many ways to follow Jesus.

Diversity.

Not a dirty word.

It is Grace and Life.

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Sunset on Another Year

Published by mhelbert on December 30, 2019

Today’s the Eve of New Year’s Eve.
For a lot of us it’s a time to tidy up after Christmas. Take the decorations down and store them away for another year.
Others may still be returning gifts or redeeming gift cards. Gotta keep Amazon busy!
For many it’s just another day. Back to work trying to make sure all of the year-end accounting is completed.
Then there are those who take the last few days of the year to reflect on the days now past.
The days of darkness from a year ago when the cold winds whipped across the landscape. Snow and ice piled up in parking lots. Yet, with lengthening daylight came a bit of hope.
Hope that was finally realized when the first crocus forced its head up through the still thawing earth. There was the return of the birds and other animals after their long winter sojourn in other places or hidden away from the forces of Nature.
Hope gave way to realization of new life and green trees. Warmth seeping into the ground to rouse the seed and call the sprout from its protective shell.
Soon the colors change and daylight again begins to wane. Harvest time! Gladness in the fruit of the ground!
Then, the circle closes as we come, yet again, to the end.

Or, is it a beginning?

As the Cosmos cycles through birth, life, and death, so too do we.
There are cries of newborns and sighs of the aged and infirm.
Relationships blossom and bloom. While others get tangled in the weeds, choke, and pass into compost.

Yet, it continues.

We still hope.

We still sow and reap.

Perhaps it is a good thing to reflect.
To remember things as they are and have been.

But, we can’t dwell there, can we?

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Both/And

Published by mhelbert on December 27, 2019

It’s hard living in a binary world.
On/Off
Black/White
I/O
Right/Wrong

For, in God’s Cosmos there are even more colors than Microsoft’s Millions and Millions.
There is the space between the river above and the river below as water cascades over the stones that divide the two. In that space the water is neither above nor below. It is neither In one or out of the other.
It is Between Space.

Right?
Wrong?
According to whom?
You?
Me?
Someone else?

Yes, some things must fall in one or the other.
Murder?
Wrong!
Rape?
Also, Wrong!
Feed the Poor?
Always Right!
Give a needed hug?
Right, again.

We don’t usually need to make those kinds of choices in our everyday lives, though.
Do we?

No, most of the time we need to decide between strawberry and grape jelly with the peanut butter on the sandwich.
Neither right nor wrong.

Yet, we fight and argue over the color of the bathroom or which gas station to go to.
“No! I want Yellow paint! I’ll pick it up on my way to Get-Go!”
“Forget that! You’ll get Blue paint on your way back from Speedway!”

From politics to religion to whether Spam is actually food, we disparage one another.
“It’s my way or the highway!” we shout.

But, what if it’s not?

Rather than Either This or That,
What if life is actually filled with

Both/And?

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Enlightenment, Spirituality, and the Breath of God

Published by mhelbert on December 19, 2019

Spirituality is something that is embedded deep in my bones.
I have no idea why this is so. Lord knows I’ve tried my best to leave it all behind. The toxic theology that pawns itself off as Real True Christian almost fried me. I could no longer agree with that worldview that states all thing human are totally depraved. The idea that there is no redeeming characteristic AT ALL in the Cosmos is a fatal flaw in that closed, religious mindset.

I turned my mind to think critically about religion, theology, Holy Writ, and what some call spirituality, (whatever that means). I saw the inconsistencies and contradictions that seem omnipresent in all of those things. So, I tried to leave it behind as a relic of a bygone era before what was considered Supernatural became routine science. I began to listen to the voices of the Enlightenment. The collected voices of those people were raised up in a chorus that sounded out the harmony of the Human family. The striking melody of Human Reason cut through the Cosmos. We were on our way to Perfection at last! The Mind was lifted up on a pedestal where all could see it and bow before its magnificence. A whole universe of possibility opened up before us.
Of course, two world wars and the real possibility of nuclear annihilation tempered that idea a bit.

I noticed that a version of this had birthed itself out of the Christian faith. It was named Progressive Christianity. “Wow!” I said. “Rationalism married spirituality and Poof! Look at what came out!”
I was excited. Things were looking up. A theology of the Kingdom of God developed that stated that we, the Church, are the Body of Christ. We are to work for the same things that Jesus did. We are tasked with welcoming the ‘Other’ and caring for the widow, orphan, and stranger. And, eventually, we will see the realization of God’s reign on Earth! Yay!!!

But, even this seemed to lack. It looked like the same view that came out of the Enlightenment. That somehow or other, the trajectory of the Universe is bent toward justice.
That’s a really nice thought. I do like that idea. A Lot.

But, my eyes tell me a different story.
All over the world I see war, hate, distrust, greed, death.
There seems to be something innate in the human character that simply drives us to the most abhorrent actions that we can imagine.
And, no, it doesn’t look like things are improving.

There MUST be another way, I thought.

So, I sat.
In silence.
Listening.
For hours and days.

Slowly, I noticed changes in the way I looked at things.
I no longer saw things in a closed system like those Real True Christians seemed to love. Life, and God, cannot be reduced to black and white. There is a whole rainbow of colors that lie between those poles.
I found that God is a really, really Big God Who cannot be stuffed into those decorator boxes that Real True Christians carry around.

I also found that the Progressives miss the mark as well. Their idea of the Kingdom of God opening up before us as we do the work lacks the Spark of Life that actually identifies the Kingdom.
To simply reduce God’s purposes to humans continuing the outward work of Jesus is just as anemic as the RTC view of God-In-A-Box.

So, what other possibilities are there?

“In the beginning the Cosmos was empty. And Ruach Elohim hovered over the waters.”

Ruach Elohim. The Breath of God.
Hovering.
Seeding God’s Good Grace into the waters.
Order growing out of Chaos.

That is the missing piece.
Yes, the human heart is capable of creating horrible things.
We all know it. We all see it every. single. day.
And, no change of philosophy or theology that pits human will against the darkness in that heart will change it.
Not possible.
Been there; done that.
But, when the Breath of God blows, chaos is calmed. Life germinates and flourishes.
Hope pushes up through the fertile soil of the soul and metamorphosis is possible.

I do think that we all are capable of feeling the gentle breeze of God’s Breath as it hovers above the chaos. I have hope that God will one day fulfill the promises made so many years ago. Promises of peace, justice, life, and Love.
But, it won’t come through human effort alone. Yeah, there must be effort on our part. We must be willing to be open to transformation.
Most importantly, though, we must be open to the voice of the Breath of God.

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Little Boxes

Published by mhelbert on December 17, 2019

This morning as I sat in the quiet of my office, candles casting a soft luminance across my desk, shadows quietly dancing to the movement of the flames, an image formed in my mind.
The image was of a man wearing a robe with gold woven into it. He was leading a procession down a street.
There were some others wearing similar robes. Someone carried a banner like a flag.
Many people followed in the train of these men.
They appeared to be full of joy, singing together.

I wondered at this for a moment.

Then, I realized that I recognized these people.
They were walking away from a church that had at one time been a place where the Holy Spirit was alive and active.

But, something happened to change that.

The people created boxes.
They were pretty boxes.
There were green ones and red ones. Some purple and still others yellow and blue.
The people I saw marching down the street each held one of the boxes.

“What’s in those boxes?” I asked.

“Why, God, of course,” came the reply.

My forehead furrowed as I looked on, perplexed.
“Those boxes are awfully small,” I said. “How did they get God into those?”

The answer surprised me.

“All of those people shrunk God so that God would fit!” the voice said. The tone was like a person stating something so obvious that the question was just silly.
“They have each imagined God as a small, parochial deity that can only do certain small things.
The God of their imagination cannot accept anyone who has not prayed a certain prayer in a very certain way. This God is not capable of loving the many and diverse people and creatures of the Cosmos. Only people who look like them are acceptable to their God. These people have very strict rules about what their God is allowed to do. God must be able to fit inside of their small imagination. So, naturally, this God must be small enough to fit in the boxes!”

As I sat there considering what I had just seen and heard, I could not help feeling sorry for those people. They had created a god that fit their own idea of what a god was. This god is impotent. It is incapable of expressing divine love because it is constructed out of the paper mache of the human mind. It really is sad.

I can understand it a little, though.
If we allow God to exist outside of our little boxes then God might just do something we don’t expect. God might surprise us with the vastness and ferociousness of Divine Love. We might even find ourselves changed! Our hearts and imaginations might become vast and ferocious as well. We might find that we are compelled to Love Others. If we’re not careful we may find ourselves caring about the Cosmos like it was our very own backyard.

We can’t have that kind of stuff happening…

Can we?

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Thanksgiving: Some Thoughts

Published by mhelbert on November 27, 2019

Yesterday I shared a bit about the stress and anxiety that I experience during the holiday season. Like I said, I try to take steps to mitigate those things. I try to get necessary rest, take vitamins and other meds, use a Happy Light, and try to focus my thoughts and energy on things that may redeem this season and create a positive from the negative.

I have to admit, Advent and Christmas are much easier for me to grasp the redemption stories. They are all about Christ and the preparation for us to receive Him.

Thanksgiving, however, poses a bit of a conundrum.

After all, the holiday seems to be an homage to gluttony and self-serving individualism.
A far cry from the ideal that we say we celebrate.
And, I think we may be hard pressed to find too many Native Americans who are thankful that their land and cultures were invaded and destroyed as a result of that first meal.

What, then, can we take from this particular holiday that brings life and blessing for everyone.

Let’s take a look at what we consider the first celebration with the Wampanoag and the Puritans. Maybe there are a couple take aways that can help make this holiday more meaningful.

One of the first things that jumps out at me is the contrast of how that feast was celebrated.
Today, we usually gather with our own family. When I was growing up that included the extended family on my Mom’s side. We usually had about 20 or so. That is, until we kids grew up and started adding to the count with kids of our own.
The point, though, was that we were isolated in our own, comfortable familial cocoon.
Contrast that to how our forebears celebrated.
Theirs was a community feast where everyone gathered to celebrate a successful harvest. They shared whatever they had with the everyone in both the Puritan community and the Native American community.
Theirs reached beyond the doors of their houses and touched the lives of everyone.
Each brought to the table what they had. There were most likely the Three Sisters of Maize, Squash, and Beans. The hunters supplied meat. Those who plied the waters brought fish.

The point is, it was a communal celebration, not a private one.
Perhaps we may find something redemptive in that kind of sharing.

The were welcoming of the “Other.”
This may be the biggest redemptive act of the entire holiday.
As I was looking for something to help me wrap my head around this holiday, I got out my Book of Common Prayer and read the prayer for Thanksgiving.
Part of that prayer is,

” Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name.”

Notice that the prayer asks God to make us Faithful Stewards in order to provide for our own needs as well as those of All Who Are In Need.
The Native Americans did that very thing.
For reasons of their own, they chose to help these “Others” who had sailed across the sea and landed in their backyard. The Native Americans were Faithful Stewards of Creator’s bounty.
Note that the reason for this stewardship and sharing is to bring Glory to the Name of God.

Perhaps we, too, can not only be mindful of our stewardship of the resources we have been graced with, but can find ways to welcome and support those people who are looked upon as “Other” in our culture.

Maybe, just maybe, this holiday has some merit besides over-eating and falling asleep with a football game on the tube. Perhaps there is hope that God’s Good Grace may use this day for God’s Glory and our continued metamorphosis into the Image of God in Christ.

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Friday Morning Musing

Published by mhelbert on November 22, 2019

What matters whether transcendent or translucent?
Original Sin stains, sealing souls in black plastic wrap.
Light shrouded in gray folds of wayward hungering
Diffusing, obscuring from within and without.

“Not so fast!” a Voice whispers; intones; suggests
“The veil that shrouds the Heart has colored the understanding in colorless shades of shadow.
“Let the Light within dispel such childish notion!
“Arise to the morning and warmth that Truth, like Sunlight, radiates upon the Soul.”

I marvel at this.
What Truth?
Then, like the Dawn, understanding gently begins to illuminate.
All is held in thrall to darkness; decay; death.
This we mistake for Original Sin.
It is not.
Yet, the story doesn’t end there.

No.

This story continues from life to life.
From light to light.
From Love to Love.

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