Mitt the Tither...

That, incredibly dull thud we heard nationally a few days ago, was the release of GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's 2010 and 2011 tax returns.  The louder thud we heard, was, at least by many accounts, was his opportunity to become the GOP presidential nominee.


Mitt's returns indicate that he made over $42 million mostly from returns and dividends from investments he made several years ago (he hasn't released tax returns for those years.  I wonder why?  Really, I do), and paid just under 15 percent of his income in taxes.


While I pay a far higher tax rate than Mitt, I really can't knock his hustle.  There is something uniquely American about finding a legal way to pay less taxes, as he has found a legal way to give less of his money to the federal government, good for him.


Less American however, is the fact that Mitt is a steadfast tither to the Mormon church, giving over $4 million to it.  In the Mormon faith, tithing distinguishes the more faithful believer from the believer.  It is an integral part of their theology and their history.  In fact, Mormons are called on to fast one Sunday a month and donate the cost of what they would have spent on the meal they did not eat to a relief fund.


This is pretty radical stuff.  While over 80 percent of Christians donate money to a church, only about eight percent of Christians tithe and about 20 percent give money to charitable causes other than the church. 


Now, I am not convinced that tithing is for everyone, but this kind of set up--the one Mitt and the Mormon church has, could really help churches of other Christian faiths (Yes, Mitt, Mormons are Christians) do more benevolent work and community building.

For Tebow Believers, This is Just the Beginning...

Well, we all witnessed it.  On Saturday, The New England Patriots humbled Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional playoff game, by a score of 45-10. 

There was little if any upside for Tebow, as he spent most of the game on the ground or on the sidelines watching Tom Brady throw a record six touchdowns to his receivers.

Some of us watched the game as fans of football.  Others of us watched the game to see Tim Tebow loose.  And still others watched because sports commentators told us this was going to be the best game of all time.

In the days leading up to this game many writers predicted that the Broncos would win the game with Tebow's efforts (and his God's help).  See here and here for example.  There was even a Tebow-inspired John 3:16 commercial aired during the game.

And there has been enormous attention on Tebow this season, this month, this week, because he is as one sports reporter put it, "the greatest story angle of the season."  He is a "gosh golly" young man, who loves the Lord openly and is humble.  We like him, the sports reporters love him and other athletes like him. 

And his sports reporters have not so subtly claimed that God loves Tebow too.  In fact, you know what they say.  That God loves Tebow so much that God helps Tebow win.  

It's a good angle to sell papers and get internet hits, but dangerous for the Christian world.  If we accept that God loves Tebow so much, God helps Tebow win games, it sends a curious messages for the dozens of devout Christian athletes Tebow plays against.  It sends the same curious message to thousands of Christians in tight spots or with ailments who see no light at the end of the tunnel. 

What I mean is if we accept that God has shown favor to Tebow for being a Christian, then what about the Christians he plays against who loose?  What about the devout Christians who loose their bouts with cancer?  Do they loose because they are not as Christian as Tebow or pray openly as he does or wear scripture verses under their eyes? 

This humbling loss should put things into perspective for sports writers looking for the "best angle" to write about.  It should illustrate that God allows the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the faithful as well as the unbeliever.

But, I predict that come next season, when the reporters are looking for an angle, this will all surface again as if we didn't bear witness to the game on Saturday.

Mitt and the Haters...

In the hip hip community and culture, success is measured in many ways. Naturally, unit sales, constituency of loyal fans, and the accumulation of material things all are benchmarks for an artists' success.
But, more than anything these days in some pockets of the hip hop community, an artist's success is measured by the amount of ill will he generates from his peers or the listening public.
Haters, are the personification of that ill will. If an artist has fifteen haters, he is trying diligently to garner twenty. If he has twenty, it is far greater to have thirty and so on.
On the presidential campaign trail, Mitt Romney made the political culture a little bit more like the hip hop culture.
As the front-runner in the Republican race, he has been skewered by his opponents in the Republican primary field for his financial deals when he was in the private sector as a venture capitalist. His opponents have called him heartless, shady, greedy and out of touch with most Americans.
His response? Well, his response to his opponents and critics has been nothing if not measured and consistent. He has said that people who are critical of the financial deals he made and the wealth he amassed while in the private sector, are simply envious of him and all wealthy people.

Yes, in other words, he is counting and shaking his haters at the same time. Getting the dirt off his shoulder, if you will.
This is all fine for the wealthy fundraisers and lower middle class folks who vote against their own self interests that he's trying to impress, but it does little for the rest of us.
You see the rest of us are not haters of Mitt. We are not his haters and are not envious of his wealth because we know that Christ has valued, and continues to value the poor, the marginalized and the disenfranchised. He came to save the masses, not the wealthy.
But, keep shaking the haters, Mitt. If the GOP gets any more like some pockets of the hip hop community, I'll be expecting Mitt to pull up to a stump speech on spinners.

Mid-Week Meditation: Where's the Prayer in...

The United States is certainly a proud country with a proud people and a proud history. We invented baseball and the Ford truck. We were the first to put a human on the moon. We have barbecue and apple pie. We have the Brooklyn accent, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Bronx cheer. We have Dr. King, Dr. Oz, Dr. Pepper and Dr. Dre. We have Coney Island and the Isle of Manhattan. We have Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and the Bill of Rights. We have, well, you get the point. The United States has quite a bit of which to be proud.


But, this country also has many embarrassing, shameful moments historically speaking. And, I don't mean shameful like "Jersey Shore" or Pauly Shore shameful. I mean shameful. This country, for the better part of 200 years allowed humans with melanin in their skin to be sold into slavery, lynched, beaten, raped and abused. It facilitated a segregation of those people for decades, and has sometimes turned its back on the needs of its most vulnerable citizens.

And today, we acknowledge the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Opened at the direction of president George W. Bush, it was to house the meanest, most vile and abusive terror suspects in the world. Many of the 800 individuals detained there in the decade Guantanamo Bay was open for business, were held indefinitely without a single hearing or court appearance. While the detention center has been "closed," nearly 200 people still remain there.

Guantanamo Bay is infamous because leaders of our country stood by, silently, while U.S. military and officials beat, tortured and humiliated the people detained at the center.

I certainly remember president Bush saying repeatedly that he was a Christian and that he did not make any decisions without prayer to the Creator and reflection. I want to know on the tenth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay detention center, was this one of those decisions soaked in prayer?

Now, this isn't my Kayne moment--I'm not accusing president Bush of not caring about any one class of people. I am merely asking did he pray about the decision to open this center, and if he did, how did that shape his decision to open what will be a shameful moment in our country's history.

Sex in the Holy City?

The church, and I mean the church universal, has always had an interesting, if not strained relationship with sex.  When the scriptures are not punishing someone (usually a woman), for having it, not having it, or having too much of it, church leaders historically have sought to make the chasm between the church and sex as wide as possible. 

Even today, many pastors, clergy and exhorters of the gospel stay away from the topic of sex in the preached word.  It is not a neat and tidy discussion to talk about the way Christ's birth, death and resurrection, or His gospel of love and empowerment of the masses are easy to talk about.

Which is why Texas Pastor Ed Young's actions and plans this weekend are interesting.  Pastor Young plans to spend a night in a bed a top a roof with his wife this weekend, having a discussion about sex that will be streamed live on the Internet.  Specifically, they will answer questions about their love life and general relationship questions.

Now here's the hustle:  The couple are promoting their new book, "Sexperiment," which, among other things calls on couples to have sex for seven straight days to strengthen their marriages.

You mean to tell me the key to ensuring financial stability, quality education and health care for children and harmony in the home can be achieved by couples having sex for seven straight days?  Russel Brand is somewhere in time, hearing about this, weeping and wishing the book came out just a few days sooner.

I can't knock Pastor Ed Young's hustle.  This thing may work and his book may be just what the community needs.  I guess we'll see.  For now, I'm sure we can look forward to seeing Pastor Young and his wife on the grind (figuratively) this weekend, talking about sex and if nothing else, selling their book.

If only Jesus had this kind of marketing genius around Him...everybody would know about His life and gospel.

 

An A and B Selection...

The movie Joyful Noise, starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, is due out any day now.  While I have not yet seen the movie, as near as I call tell, the plot of the movie is this:

A small town in Georgia, has fallen on hard economic times (in no way due to the president's policies), but the gentry are counting on the Divinity Church Choir to lift their spirits and hopes by winning the National Joyful Noise Competition. The choir has always known how to sing, but the discord between its two leading ladies now threatens to tear them apart. Their newly appointed director played by Queen Latifiah, stubbornly wants to stick with their tried-and-true traditional style, while Parton thinks tried-and-true translates to tired-and-old.

There it is.  Enough sappy sweetness to make Buddy the Elf sick. 

Now, the plot is harmless enough and it seems like good, clean family entertainment.  But if the plot sounds familiar, that's because it is.  This plot line has been used hundreds of times in religious movies--pitting traditional worship and song against more the more contemporary worship.

We know that this is a discussion within the church that has caused some friction.  Some in the pew believe that church worship and song should be traditional in all ways, while others have eschewed most traditional forms of worship, and favor non-traditional worship.

Who's right?  Perhaps both sides are.  Worship needs both traditional and non-traditional, contemporary elements to edify the Creator and connect with the pew.  It's a serious discussion that should be ongoing and continuous...and serious.

I have not yet seen Joyful Noise, so I can't praise or criticize it.  I appreciate the movie entertaining the very valid and serious discussion of traditional versus contemporary song and worship.

My hope is that the movie handles the discussion responsibly and thoughtfully.

Candidates Called by God

This political season, God has been busy.  In addition to God's regular work of being all-knowing, all-powerful and all-seeing, God has been urging some politicians to run for various political offices at the local, state and even national level.

 Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have all said explicitly that God called them to run for president.  (God, how is it that you only speak to Republicans these days?)  I have no problem with that at all.  God, the Creator does call the unlikely, reluctant or unexpected to do things all the time.  God called Moses and Jacob and Paul, and Joseph and Mary and Rahab for greater work.  All reluctant or recalcitrant in some respect.

I do note that when supporters of the current president made the same claim as he was running for president, the president's supporters were accused of trying to elevate Obama to prophet or even Christ-like stature.  And, I want to put the claims made about God's calling on Obama's run in perspective.  Obama outlasted the wife of a former (and beloved) president, moved past questions about his drug use, his flamboyant Chicago pastor, and his ties to Islam, and found a way to win the election.  And he didn't even have one stripper, one escort, one blond porn star come out of the wood work to accuse him of sexual misconduct.  Not one.  That doesn't happen today.

In some circles, that does amount to evidence of a human called to run for president.  Heck, that might even get someone canonized for sainthood or at least a book deal and some TV commentator jobs.

So now that Bachmann and Cain have dropped out of the presidential race, and Rick Perry is on his way to doing the same, people are questioning God's wisdom, or rather whether God called them at all.

For people like Bill Maher and others who want to poke fun at God and Christianity, this is a fair question.  If God calls you to run for president, why are you not winning?  In fact, why are you dropping out of the presidential race?

The answer is this:  In the scriptures, Job asks God why all of the things he was going through were happening to him.  And God, in essence replied, that there are some things that God does that pass human logic and understanding.

Perhaps Cain was in the presidential race to advance a discussion on sexual harassment in the workplace, and Michelle Bachmann was in the race to bring attention to Minnesota or give another young woman the motivation to run for president, and perhaps Rick Perry was in the race to forward a discussion about poverty.  I don't know for certain why any of them were called to run. 

But, perhaps the Creator called them to run to move something else forward, but not necessarily to win.

Father was a Rolling Stone...

Earlier today, Gabino Zavala, an assistant bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles of the Roman Catholic communion, resigned.  Zavala's resignation came as it was discovered that he had a secret family complete with a side piece and teenage children.  Naturally, the names of the children have not been released.

Of course, the Catholic church has been plagued with sexual issues.  The church, has paid over a billion dollars in settlements of sexual abuse of minors cases in 2007.  What's more, there have been notable cases of priests in academia abusing seminarians and priests within the pastorate maintaining secret families for decades.

Matthew 19:10-12, certainly are controlling scriptures in this case.  The passage says:  "The disciples said to him, 'If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.'
Jesus replied, 'Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.  For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.'

Christ says in the passage that there are people who are born to not have sexual relations, people called by the Creator to not have sexual relations, and people who have not been so called.  Both those who have been separated to not have sexual relations and those who have no such calling, are equal in the the eyes of the Creator.

Now, I'm not trying to renew the centuries-old debate of whether clergy within and outside of the Catholic communion should be able to marry, but Christ makes it clear in the passage above, that it doesn't matter to Him whether a member of the cloth has sex or not.

What is gets me about Zavala's resignation is that it was quick and efficient and quiet.  While the Catholic church can handle its clergy any way it wishes, it sends a message that Zavala's sin is more egregious than other sins of clergy.  You see, for decades, some clergy within the Catholic communion were caught molesting children, and those clergy were quietly moved to other churches or assignments.

There was no moving Zavala.  No rehabilitation.  No reassignment.  

It's ironic almost.  What message does this send to the pew?

Cee Lo Green to John Lennon: Forget You...

On New Year's Eve, recording artist and reality TV star, Cee Lo Green performed in Manhattan's Times Square.  Naturally, this is a great honor.  And for his part, Green treated the sublime honor with aplomb.  He chose to sing John Lennon's "Imagine," a timeless piece about unity, peace and harmony.  The piece, "Imagine" while timeless, advances some fairly timely messages in the American and global political environment.

What Green most certainly meant as a tribute, offended both Lennon fans and fundamentalist Christians alike.  In Green's rendition of "Imagine," he sang,“Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too,” Green sang, “Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion’s true.”

Beatles' and Lennon loyalists are angered with Green because he tampered with Lennon's lyrics (any tampering with Beatles' lyrics are not just frowned upon, it's downright wrong.)

Fundamentalists have taken umbrage with Green's rendition because they believe there is only one true God and if "all religion's true," it directly contradicts their beliefs.

Now, the outrage from either side is expected and not unreasonable.  Beatles and Lennon fans have a reasonable desire to keep Beatles lyrics pure and intact.  And fundamentalists have a right to believe that their God is the one true God and anything--lyrics, television shows, popular trends or other religions--serve as a threat to their faith. 

However, Green appears to have meant no harm, and debating a song in which paradoxes are juxtaposed (almost to the absurd) to make a point about unity, it should go without saying that Green deserves a little leeway.

Love Don't Cost a Thing...Except in Grand Rapids

Prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan have authorized a warrant for Author Pearson.  Pearson is the senior pastor of Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, who is accused of embezzling over $200,000 from his congregation's operating funds.  Naturally, the prosecutors in Grand Rapids intend to file criminal charges against Pearson.

The church has also taken action against Pearson.  On December 30th, the church filed a suit in civil court to recover the money Pearson allegedly embezzled from the church. 

But, the story isn't that Pearson will be charged criminally, or that the church has filed a civil suit against him to recover the money.  The story is in how some of the members of the church are defending Pearson, even ones who believe that he embezzled funds.  Some are even fighting to keep Pearson at the helm of the church.

"This is hurting Pastor.  Pastor loves all his members," one member of the pew exclaimed recently.

If Pastor loves all his members, his love is pretty darn expensive.

One Thing Fundamentalists and Science can Agree on...

Happy New Year.

As with all new years, in the coming days and weeks, there will be plenty of reflection over the most significant events of 2011.  And there will also be predictions about what will happen in 2012.  Some of the predictions will be silly.  Others will be sublime.  And some predictions will actually turn out to be accurate.

One prediction that will most certainly get some attention in this week, is the Mayan Calendar prediction.  You know, the theory that the ancient Mayan civilization predicted the end of the world--an Apocalypse, complete with asteroids colliding into earth and other natural disasters--would occur on December 21, 2012, because their "Long Count" calendar does not contain days after that day. 

The theory has been rejected by the descendants of the ancient Mayans and the scientific community, but has its supporters in the United States (There must be some people who still believe this theory because there has been a moderately successful movie and four major books written on the subject in the last year). 

Surely, in anticipation of the predictions we will hear, NASA, has issued a statement indicating that there would be no Apocalypse as no planets or asteroids are set to collide into the earth in 2012.

So the world will not end in 2012.  Finally, something fundamentalist Christians and scientists can agree on.  Now, if we can just get the whole Creationism argument worked out...