I grew up in rural Canada during the 60s. The Civil Rights movement of that era was just a distant rumble that didn’t penetrate in the consciousness of a young boy on a farm outside of Schomberg, Ontario. I think I heard when Martin Luther King was killed, but I had no idea who he was or why that was important.
So learning about it later, I have always wondered if I had been in the thick of it, would I have been on the right side. Maybe not marching to Selma, but at least not bad mouthing the people fighting for justice and freedom. And maybe, just maybe, offering them praise, monetary support, votes and doing whatever slactivism I could muster up. I mean, it seems to obvious now which side was the right side, but would it have seemed that way then?
And so I find myself looking at the current fight that’s going on by an oppressed minority, demanding the rights that they should have had from the beginning, and I think of it as “our” civil rights campaign, even though it’s not my civil rights I’m fighting for. It’s a chance to do something, so that in ages hence, I can say “yes, I did the right thing”. And so I am. Thanks to the New York Senate for finally passing this marriage equality bill. Thanks to Messiah Lutheran Church for becoming a “Reconciled” congregation. Thanks to the many ways, small and large that we’re winning this battle. We got to keep chiseling chunks out of the stone of ignorance.
> Thanks to Messiah Lutheran Church for becoming a “Reconciled” congregation.
I think here is less choice converning going to a “reconciled” or “not-reconciled” congregation, there is at least one congregation where men sit left and women sit right of the aisle even if they are married 10++ years. Some people find that okay, others not.
People are making a choice every sunday morning to go there (or somewhere else), some probably driving no small amount – just as some people are making a choice to go to jehovahs witnesses or seventh day adventists. I don’t think I am invited or entitled to make a judgement about the people who go there – I can only make an offer “hey take a look at my point of view and my community” about one time a year. There is nobody going door-to-door around here, its a small town I live in, but in the big town near me (500.000++ people) you most probably have jehovahs witnesses coming to your door, and the (mostly young) people (often from overseas) wearing black name tags (I forgot the name of their spiritual community) in the main city shopping area.
Just because I drive a BMW does not mean its best for everyone, maybe I just got a good deal or have some memories associated with that brand, but driving a car of a certain kind is not part of traffic rules around here, so speed limit and right of way are the same.
I think there is a section in the bible concerning harsh judgement (by god himself) for wrong preachers, but that does not apply to me since I am no preacher, so I haven’t paid much attention to that and may be wrong.
I recently suggested to a person via mail to think about completely switching off “naming conventions” like “methodist” or “mennonite”. That means, for example, name their assembly place something like “spritual community in miller street 24” or “spritual community in main street 75” (evaluation period a single year), people interested in changing spritual community can just go there and ask and look and hear, or if they are weakly and or elderly can use a phone to listen to a prerecorded message as a decision helper (they even announce their community schedule on small sings at the city limit, which is probably regulated by a law). So no risk or small risk involved, but I suppose the person I mailed that idea got upset somehow, but I haven’t found out why exactly – what is the definition of “brothers & sisters” in their head?