Christian Mythbusters

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. The local PAC, “Ottawa Impact” which is currently trying to take over our school boards,  has listed as one of their core values, “A boy is a boy. A girl is a girl.” On its face, this might seem to be an innocuous statement. But it is not. It carries with it an agenda. And it is, quite literally, deadly. So, this week in Christian Mythbusters, I'd like to talk a little about gender identity, including from the perspective of the Christian faith.The problem with claiming gender is as simple as a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl is that this seeks to erase the reality of any person who does not fit within the gender binary. It literally seeks to pretend that the trans community doesn't exist—and thus only continues the marginalization and discrimination towards those who identify as anything other than cisgender (this is the term for those whose sense of gender identity corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth). First, just from a scientific and realistic standpoint, the idea that “a boy is a boy, and a girl is a girl” ignores the reality of people who are intersex. That is, those who are born with ambiguous genitals, or genitals that do not clearly match their chromosomal gender identity due to a variety of scientifically identified conditions. Most scientists believe that somewhere between .02% or as many as 1.7% of births fall under this identification. Yes, these adults (and children) are real. And to pretend they do not exist is to participate in the culture of stigmatization and discrimination that has led to the high rates of infanticide and abandonment these people experience within their own families. Second, the true attack of this claim, I imagine, is not on the intersex community (I'm willing to allow that people may be ignorant and unaware of that scientific reality). Rather, it is directed at those who might have a clear biological gender externally but who cannot identify with that gender internally. This could be someone born as a boy who identifies as a girl, someone born as a girl who identifies as a boy, or someone who is nonbinary and does not identify as either male or female. The Mayo Clinic (clearly not a secrete cabal of liberalism) even has a helpful article for parents entitled “Children and Gender Identity: Supporting Your Child.” In that article, the staff of the Mayo Clinic stress that it is common for children to go through periods of gender exploration when it comes to clothes and toys and even the roles they adopt in play. For some kids, however, as they get older this sense that they identify as a different gender persists. They encourage parents, “Listen to your children's feelings about gender identity. Talk to your child and ask questions without judgment.” People can become aware and able to articulate their gender identity at any age. In a non-discriminatory environment, many adults who identify as transgender can point to an awareness of that reality as young as even seven years old. Some can identify it even younger. For others, they may live for years with a vague sense that they don't really fit in and it's not until later in life they realize it is because of their gender identity. The reality of children and adolescents who don't fall into the “boy/girl” categories of cisgender is an essentialreality for educators and school board members to recognize. The American Psychological Association advises “Parents of gender-nonconforming children may need to work with schools and other institutions to address their children's particular needs and ensure their children's safety.” Data from the National Institute of Health indicates that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide—with rates of suicidality being highest among transgender youth. As adults, these children will also face profound challenges. Most anti-discrimination laws do not protect transgender people from discrimination and so they are often discriminated against in housing, employment, healthcare, legal systems, along with their educational experience and their family of origin. In a recent study, about half of transgender participants reported they had experienced a transphobic hate crime at some point in their life. Half. “A boy is a boy and a girl is a girl”—these are words that contribute to a culture that is literally killing trans people, literally killing trans kids. And ignorance cannot be an excuse anymore. One more word on this question, before I close. And that is to the loss. Because there is a loss when people deny the reality of trans people. You miss how wonderful, beautiful, and strong these people are. In my work with the Lakeshore GSA Youth Group (http://sjegh.com/gsa), I've had the gift of meeting some kids in our schools who don't identify as cisgender. They are smart, funny, and amazing.And I think it's good to be who God truly created you to be. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. One of the realities of being a priest, similar to being a teacher or in other professions where you are constantly planning ahead, is that you live your life in two different times. On one side, it is the middle of October. The leaves are beginning to fall and the concerns of the end of the year are still far away. However, I'm also always living about a month in advance when it comes to church calendars, communications, and bulletins, so my mind and heart are already turning to those holy days at the beginning of November: All Hallow's Eve (or Halloween, if you must), All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day (or Día de los Muertos for my Spanish-speaking friends).And so, I'd like to talk about the Christian perspective on death for a few minutes this week, perhaps breaking some myths about what Christians do and do not actually believe about this universal shared experience.Each morning, a little before 9am, I walk down the darkened church aisle to our chapel near the front of the church, on the left. Originally it was the entrance to the historic church when it was constructed some 150 years ago. However, we have repurposed it into a small chapel we can use for Daily Morning Prayer during the week and our small service of Holy Eucharist and Healing at Noon on Wednesdays.Once I get everything set up, I turn on Facebook Live on my phone and begin the daily morning prayers of our church. They take about fifteen minutes to say, when you include the daily Scripture readings and psalms, and usually it's just me there in the chapel. There are also often two to four people on Facebook Live, praying with me, which is nice. But I am always aware of someone else.We call our chapel the “All Souls' Chapel” because the 150-year-old wall opposite the altar in that chapel houses a Columbarium: a place where people's ashes can be deposited, along with a name plate marking the spot. We just put ours in a few years ago and there is currently just one occupant: Fr. Kenneth Michnay. Father Kenneth was an ELCA pastor who, because of our church's ecumenical agreements with the Lutherans, was able to serve as a priest associate in our church. He died in the winter, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, from the virus. I miss him dearly, not only as a colleague but as a friend as well.But his niche in the Columbarium happens to be right behind my head, when I am seated saying the prayers, and so I have a concrete sense that he is praying with me as well, wherever he is in the nearer presence of God.I lost another friend this year, Chuck Wibert, the verger emeritus at our church. A verger is kind of like a Master of Ceremonies and Chuck made it a point, since he was retired and more available than other vergers, to serve and help me lead funerals. He died of heart failure several weeks ago and we buried him outside in our Parish Memorial Garden, another place where people can have their ashes interred. His ashes are actually buried in the grass, at the right side of the altar, exactly where the verger would stand if we were celebrating mass out there. And every time I stand at the outside altar, I'll think of him and remember that he is right there, worshipping with me.In the Eucharistic Prayer that I say whenever we have communion at funerals, there is a line that always stands out to me, “For to your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed, not ended.” For Christians, we do not believe death is the end of life, only that life is changed by death. The person still exists somehow, somewhere, held by the love of God until the time when God heals and restores all creation in God's love. One of the great questions I often get when new people join our church is why we pray for the dead. Most of them likely assume it's because of something like the Roman Catholic understanding of purgatory. I always tell them that we pray for the dead because we believe they still exist. In the same way that I pray for those who I love who are living, after someone dies my love, my concern for them doesn't evaporate. And so, I pray… I pray that whatever that journey into God looks like after death, they find strength. I pray that they feel my love and how much I miss them. And I pray that God will bring us all home together in the end. At our church, these prayers all come together at the end of this month and the beginning of the next. On Sunday, October 30, our Latin American members are hosting coffee hour after the 10am liturgy and then, together, we will prepare the Día de los Muertos Ofrenda, setting up pictures of our loved ones in that All Souls' Chapel. Then, on Tuesday, November 1, we will celebrate the great Communion of Saints at 6pm with a festive service of Holy Eucharist, complete with chanting and incense and joy. And on Wednesday, November 2, at 6pm, we will come together for a Requiem Eucharist to say aloud the names of those we miss, those we pray for during this holy and sacred time.Because they are not gone. Their life has been changed, but their love for us, and ours for them, can never be ended by the power of death.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. We are at challenging point in the life of our country, in the experience of the church in America, and in many local communities, including mine here in Grand Haven, Michigan. It seems as though for the past several years we've been caught in an endless downward spiral of divisive rhetoric and polemic, increasingly unable to hear the perspective of those who disagree with us and increasingly willing to paint the opposition with a broad brush.I want to be honest with you that I'm not sure at times how best to handle that reality. I mean, I look around me and I see the erosion of women's rights, the continued marginalization of the LGBTQIA+ community, people who use the phrase “parents' rights” as code for the attempts some parents to control the schooling of all other children, the conversion of the immigrant and refugee community into pawns that are moved around the country for political ends… I see all of this and it's hard not to speak up, to try to say something against this kind of corruption and injustice.And it's hard, it's so hard, not to appear strident when human rights seem to be at stake. I know don't always do a good job, but I hope you know I'm trying.Earlier this week someone sent me a message in response to some of the criticisms I have publicly levied against current school board candidates in our own community who are trying to unseat our good and faithful incumbents. One member of the community told me that I'm a bully for the things I've said and the criticisms I have raised.As much passion as I have for these questions of human rights and dignity, I don't want to come off as a bully. And so, I thought about it. I thought about it really hard. And I thought this week I might try to parse some of the difference between disagreeing with passion and disagreeing as a bully. At the basic textbook definition, a bully is someone who seeks to harm, intimidate, or otherwise coerce someone who is vulnerable (or someone who is perceived as vulnerable). And that is the first and key point I want to make right there. Bullies are those who seek to intimidate and coerce the vulnerable.What is unfortunate is that some people in our society, people who are actually trying to intimidate vulnerable populations like queer kids or refugees, these people call those who disagree with them bullies. It is an excellent example of some kind of cognitive dissonance, of doing something bad but then turning and saying it's really your opponent that is doing the bad thing.To call out marginalization, to point out the harm of policies that are being advocated for in our schools and our country, to make it clear the ways that these policies and approaches will have a devastating impact upon vulnerable communities, this is not to be a bully. To say it another way, for one person to stand up and tell a bully to stop punching a vulnerable person, to tell them they are doing damage, that is not bullying. You can tell it is not bullying because the person being called out is someone with power and the person being impacted and hurt is someone who is vulnerable. The history of the Hebrew Scriptures is filled with the condemnation of false prophets who proclaimed everything was okay in society, despite rampant sin and corruption, despite the marginalization of those who did not have a voice. These were prophets who only sought to make the comfortable and powerful more content with the status quo, knowing that upsetting the status quo might threaten their own comfort.Everything is not okay in our country right now. Everything is not okay in our communities. Everything is not okay in the church. And I know, I swear to you I know, there are times when I could phrase things more gently, when I could perhaps have more kindness and curiosity toward those who disagree with me. And I promise, I will try to do better with that.But the people of God cannot be silent in the face of injustice. Christianity has a really bad history of supporting the status quo at the expense of vulnerable communities, of telling the bullies it will be okay while the vulnerable are being squeezed and pushed aside.So, I will try harder with the words that I use, absolutely. But I will not be silent. I will not be silent at the ongoing attacks upon the vulnerable right now. And I hope you won't be quiet either. Because it is when good people stay quiet that the real bullies win.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. The mourning and funeral for Queen Elizabeth II last month was watched around the globe. The longest-serving monarch that England has ever known, the preparations for marking her death and committing her to God were carefully done  far in advance and likely touched even those more skeptical about the essentiality of the monarch to twenty-first century England. Of the many roles the Queen had, one of them is actually connected to my own denomination, The Episcopal Church. For the past five hundred years or so, the monarch has been known as Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. That means that Elizabeth II was also the highest-ranking lay person in the Anglican Communion, choosing the Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance, who serves as the spiritual leader of our Communion. As I watched the carefully orchestrated funeral last Monday morning, I was reminded of something my friend Chuck Wibert used to say when it came to funerals. Chuck was what is known as a verger in our congregation, basically a Master of Ceremonies. And Chuck would tell everyone before a funeral that the approach we take—one with careful liturgy and music, and with a pall covering the casket so you cannot see the wealth or importance of the person being buried—we do all of this to make it clear that at death we are honored for what is truly most important: that we are a beloved baptized child of God. “When the Queen of England dies,” Chuck used to say, “She'll get the same treatment you do as a Christian because we are all equal before God.”Now, of course, the queen clearly did not get exactly same treatment as your average Episcopalian funeral, but the underlying principle and point Chuck was trying to make holds. And so, this week I'd like to break the myth that pomp and circumstance is just for the death of a queen. It is available for you as well, because you matter that much.Part of the difficulty with funerals is that our culture—and our various religious traditions—have jumbled together all sorts of customs and services done when somebody dies. Traditionally, there would be a time for preparation of the body and visitation with the family. Then, at the funeral liturgy, the deceased would be commended to God. Finally, at a wake, memories would be shared and the person's life toasted.These days, however, the ubiquitous “Celebration of Life” tries to accomplish all three at the same time—time with the family, prayers and religious customs, and remembering the person who died. And, by trying to cram so much into one service, none of it can be done terribly well.But if we tease the central part out of that gordian knot of customs and look only at the heart of what the funeral liturgy is meant to do, we will discover that holding that piece well can be profoundly more meaningful than a smushed-together cultural cluster.At its heart, the funeral is the gathering of the faith community to commend someone to God. What matters, at the end, is not how successful they were, whether they were a saint or a scoundrel. In the end, what matters is that God's love, through baptism, has claimed you. And so, as I said, the casket or urn is covered with pall, a piece of heavy and embroidered fabric that is a symbol of baptism. And everyone, no matter how loved or how hated, how rich or how poor, gets that same baptismal pall. For God loves and embraces us all equally out of God's mercy.In our tradition, we also don't have numerous arrangements of flowers, photos, or other memorabilia. Those can be comforting to the family before at a visitation or afterwards at a wake or reception, but the funeral isn't about a multiplicity of flower arrangements. Instead, for every funeral, there are two arrangements of flowers near the altar, a gift marking that holy space in honor of the one who has died.In fact, our liturgy doesn't even have a place for a eulogy. Once again, remembering is something best done as a community, when we can talk to each other and share multiple stories. Instead, a sermon seeks to blend together the life of the person who died with the Gospel of God's love and forgiveness which holds us all, in life and in death. Of course, there are parts that are different with each funeral. The choices of hymns and music, whether or not the service is chanted, if there is incense… but truth be told, with so much of it done so carefully, with pomp and circumstance for every person who died, you get a sense of the importance with which our faith community holds each and every person… a manifestation of our belief that God's love also holds each and every person.My friend Chuck actually died not that long ago and we're getting ready for his funeral in a couple weeks. It won't be what we saw on TV for the queen… but it also won't be that far off, when it comes to the service itself. Because what Chuck would tell you is that what matters most is that God loves him, God saved him, and it is God who will welcome him home—imperfections and all. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. One of the most potent images in Scripture and the church for our relationship with God is the metaphor of a parent and a child. It lies at the heart of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, as we address God in that prayer as Our Father. At the same time, no metaphor is perfect… and there are ways in which thinking of God as Father can be not only unhelpful but also damaging. So, this week, I'd like to do a strange task and break the myth that God's like your dad. I want to start out by saying I have been blessed with an amazing father. My dad was the best man at my wedding and, though he's certainly not perfect, he has been a great father throughout my life. So, for me, the image of God as father resonates with my experience of my own dad—someone who loves me no matter what, who will always be there for me, a person I can always come home to.However, I'm keenly aware that not everyone has such a positive experience with their own father. And that can mean that this metaphor of God as Father can begin to undermine your own relationship with God.For example, there are those whose father was abusive—either verbally or physically or even sexually. Not only is there profound trauma from being raised in an abusive household, but it can become the lens through which you view your relationship with God. And so, the words of God's judgment in the prophetic books of Scripture, or Jesus flipping over the tables in the temple, all of this can bring back frightening memories of a dad who was out of control, pouring salt in those wounds.For others, perhaps their father was distant. It could be an estranged relationship that has grown cold over the years or something much simpler than that. Perhaps your father was not someone who showed emotion, who told you regularly that he loved you. With that lens, God the father becomes a distant figure, far away in heaven, one who probably doesn't know or care that much about you personally. For still others, it could be that your father outright rejected you at some point in your life. Maybe you didn't choose the right job or live up to your dad's expectations in school or other aspects of your life. This is particularly difficult for those in the LGBTQIA+ community, who may have experienced this kind of rejection when they told their parents who they truly were or who they truly loved. And so, having experienced this rejection from your own parents it becomes difficult to imagine how God could even tolerate you… much less love and delight in you as you are. It could be any kind of weakness, any kind of breakdown in your relationship with your own father that can undo your ability to resonate in a positive way with the image of God as Father. The great evangelical preacher, Haddon Robinson, spoke powerfully in a sermon on the prophet Hosea once, saying (and this is a long quote, so bear with me):I believe that [God's love] is the hardest single thing for Christians to understand. I do certain things and I can get God to love me more. Some of you grew up in homes where you never heard your dad say he loved you. Some of you grew up in homes that were very perfectionist. You came home with three A's and one B and your father would say, ‘How come you didn't get four A's?' And so you worked hard, you got four A's, you brought home four A's and your parents would say, ‘Must be something wrong with the school system, you get A's that easily.' Never once did they commend you. Never once did they approve you. Some of you have daddies who have been dead fifteen years or more and you're still trying to earn their favor. Well, hear me: God is not your daddy. God does not play that game. God just loves you. And when you come to understand that God's love is unconditional, that he does not love you because of what you are… that grips you, then you respond with worship and service and praise and love.That's the end of the quote.I don't know what your relationship with your own dad looks like. But if there are cracks in that relationship, if there are wounds you still carry… then perhaps its time to let that go, to be willing to hope, to trust, that God's love is more than that. As Rich Mullins was fond of saying, there's nothing you can do to make God love you less… but there's also nothing you can do to make God love you more.You are already entirely and absolutely beloved, adored, and cherished. And if you have trouble believing that, please come see me here at St. John's Episcopal in Grand Have, so that this father, Father Jared, can wrap you in a hug and tell you that God's love for you is indeed true, unconditional, and very real. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. I know many of you, similar to me, likely enjoyed the traditional three-day weekend which ends summer each year. I'm always struck, though, that despite the common (and important!) refrain to “remember the reason” for the Memorial Day holiday each year, there is rarely a similar call for Labor Day.I also know that it may be strange, to sum, for a priest to have much of an opinion on Labor Day, given that labor relations are largely seen these days as a purely secular concern. But I think the reason and origins behind Labor Day actually touch on deeply theological concerns, concerns that are particularly pressing given the decline of labor unions in our own time. Many of the roots of the labor movement can be found in Christianity itself. Beginning in the late 18th century and running to the mid 19th century, the Clapham sect in the Church of England (the mother church of my own denomination) was active in calls for social reform. The best-known member of the group was the evangelical Anglican, William Wilberforce. Their denunciations against the slave trade were one of the strongest forces that led to its end.  With the rise of industrialization in the 19th century, there was a corresponding rise of a formal Labor Movement which advocated for workers in the new industrialized world. Whether their politics were conservative or liberal, many Christian theologians and pastors found themselves aligned with the concerns of the labor movement. In an early twentieth-century edition of Biblical World (one of the earlier names of the Journal of Religion, which is still published today by the University of Chicago Press), a theologian wrote, “The ‘workingman' is first of all just a man, and his power to produce commodities is not the object of his existence.” A person's value cannot be determined by the goods they produce, their existence has much deeper meaning than this. Christian virtues, like the importance of the Sabbath in Judaism, began to be brought to bear on an increasingly industrialized world, with Christians insisting that every person should have a day of rest. Around the same time, in the early twentieth century, the Federal Council of Churches, which included the Anglican, Baptist, Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Reformed traditions of Christianity, adopted something called the Social Creed of the Churches, giving their own support and commitment to responding to these issues. The Social Creed they adopted expressed these convictions:For equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life.For the principles of conciliation and arbitration in industrial dissensions.For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational diseases, injuries, and mortality.For the abolition of child labor.For such regulation of the conditions of labor for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community.For the suppression of the “sweating system.”For the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest practical point, with work for all; and for that degree of leisure for all which is the condition of the highest human life.For a release from employment one day in seven.For a living wage in every industry.For the highest wage that each industry can afford, and for the most equitable division of the products of industry that can ultimately be devised.For the recognition of the Golden Rule and the mind of Christ as the supreme law of society and the sure remedy for all social ills.In our own time, including right here in our community of Grand Haven, we are seeing once more the need for strong advocates for labor. While corporations and executives take in significant profits, they also complain about the difficulty in hiring workers. Something about the experience of the past two years has made many people unwilling to work for wages that cannot produce a reasonable standard of living. It's not that there is a shortage of labor—it is that companies and businesses have not caught up to the fact that workers will no longer put up with inadequate pay nor the constant demands for work created by technology, where your office is always hidden right there in your mobile device, twenty-four seven.We can set partisan politics aside, I hope, and agree as Christians that the inherent dignity of every human being means we should be concerned with the wages people are being asked to live with, even as corporate funding continues to go up to those at the top. In our church's nighttime office of prayers called Compline, there is one prayer that particularly highlights this concern to me and is a meaningful end to the day. It says, “O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”Indeed, our common life does depend upon each other's toil. May we learn, not just on Labor Day but always, to respect and honor that more fully. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. My first position as a priest was at historic Christ Church Episcopal in Alexandria, Virginia. Our nation's first president, George Washington, served on the vestry of this church and his family had their own box pew that they would sit in during worship. And so, over the years it became customary for every president, at some time during their tenure, to attend worship at Christ Church and to sit in George Washington's family pew.And while I knew that this was a possibility at some point during my tenure at Christ Church, I certainly did not expect to arrive at church the first Sunday morning after my ordination to the priesthood only to discover that I would be celebrating my first Sunday mass with President George W. Bush in attendance.And that experience broke some myths in my own heart, impacting me to this day. So, this week I'd like to try to break the myth about what it means to be a Christian when there are the people in the church with whom you deeply disagree.To be clear, I was not the rector of this church, I was simply a lowly assistant, and the rector easily could have taken the prerogative and celebrated mass himself for that early Sunday morning worship service. But he kindly gave me the opportunity and so I went to my office and worked on ensuring I could wrap my mouth around the Elizabethan language we used at that early service.One of the things that's interesting as a priest is that people come to the communion rail very differently. Some people kneel and keep their head down with their hands outstretched, focused on the reverent experience with God they're having. Other people stand up the whole time and look right at you with a smile on their face, full of gratitude and joy.President Bush knelt at the rail, but he was also someone who looked right at you when you were giving him communion.  I pressed to the bread into his hands and said those old traditional words, “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which is given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.” He said, “Amen,” and consumed the bread. And in that moment, like I said, something broke open inside of me.I knew that I disagreed strongly with several of the policies and practices of his administration. I had concerns that were deep and based upon fundamental moral convictions I have is a Christian that there were things happening in the Bush administration that were fundamentally unjust, which were threatening the very peace of our world.But in that moment, at the altar rail, I was reminded that someday, many, many decades ago,an Episcopal priest poured water on the little baby George W. Bush. I was reminded that no matter our differences, no matter how faithful or how inadequate either of us are, in that moment George was simply a baptized Christian, coming to receive the sacrament that Christ had ordained for the church for all generations. He needed the grace of that sacrament… and I did too.I keep a picture on my wall in my office of that day, one that he signed after he and his wife met my wife, and we exchanged pleasantries outside the church. I keep it there to remind myself that there will always be people in the church, people in the world, with whom I disagree… but that my baptismal calling is to treat every person I meet with faithfulness, because every person bears the image of God on their soul. In particular, even when I strongly disagree with another Christian, I am called to remember that they remain my sibling in Christ by virtue of baptism, not by virtue of matching up to my standards… Or me matching up to their standards. Because in the end, it is God's love and grace that will heal us all, that will draw us altogether in the divine embrace. Don't get me wrong, you know I still have no problem speaking up when I disagree… But I do need constantly to be reminded of the importance of that love, constantly reminded of the need the practice humility, to be curious instead of condemnatory.I don't always do a good job, but I'm trying. I'm glad President Bush, simply by being in that church with me so long ago, reminded me that day to try a little harder.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. I'm aware, sometimes, that I give the impression that my own church, The Episcopal Church, is a place of perfect peace, love, and joy—celebrating the full inclusion of all the baptized, including our LGBTQIA+ members as we live in beautiful unity. And while it is true that the Episcopal Church, as a whole, is fully affirming, there are still some bishops and parishes and members disagree with that stance. Division is just as real in our church as it is in any church.Indeed, some days division in Christianity seems to be getting worse, the polemic more strident. Right here in Grand Haven, some of our Reformed Churches have felt the need to exit their denomination over views on human sexuality. So, this week, I'd like to break some myths I think that exist about division in the Body of Christ, and I'd like to use the painful history (and current reality) of my own church as an example. As a member of The Episcopal Church, that means I am a part of the global Anglican Communion. We are actually the third largest Christian communion (after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches), with roughly 85 million members spread across a fellowship of 38 independent provinces. Our roots come from the Church of England, with many of our independent national churches (including the Episcopal Church in the United States) being formerly colonies of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader of the Communion, but since each province is independent and autonomous, that means he doesn't tell us what to do. We listen to him, but in the end, we make the decisions we believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to.I give you this brief historical background because right now almost all of the bishops of the Anglican Communion are gathered at Lambeth Palace in England for the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference. I say “almost all” because though our Communion has 880 some bishops, only about 650 are attending the Conference this year. Some are not there due to COVID concerns or difficulty getting a VISA to travel, but most who are not there are making that decision because of divisions in our Communion that still persist over issues of human sexuality.The provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda are all boycotting the Conference in objection to the decisions my church in the United States has made by consecrating partnered gay bishops and embracing sacramental marriage equality. They are particularly opposed to the fact that four of our bishops who are married and gay or lesbian were invited to attend. On the other side, however, the invitation to our married gay and lesbian bishops, came with restrictions because their spouses were specifically not invited to come, something that caused significant frustration among many of our bishops—to the point that some of our bishops, including my own bishop, the Rt. Rev. Prince Singh here in Western Michigan, refused to attend the Conference as well in protest to the discriminatory invitations issued to our married gay or lesbian bishops. But even among those gathered, the divisions are playing out as many bishops are now refusing to receive communion since there are openly gay bishops in the worship service… And round and round the objections and boycotts and refusals to attend go. The Body of Christ becoming more and more wounded with each inflicted division. Each generation has their own “church-dividing issues,” controversies or questions about theology or discipline which people believe are so significant you cannot be in relationship with those who disagree. When I was growing up, it was questions like marriage after divorce. Interestingly enough, most Christian churches today permit marriage after divorce (despite what Jesus' explicit prohibition). I agree with that permission, of course, believing that grace should give people a second chance at love and life after the pain of divorce, certain that if you read Jesus' words in their historical context, the more traditional view cannot stand.But back then churches split over the issue, confident that those who disagreed, who argued for something new, were deviating from a core teaching of the church.One of the first things I learned when I was active in the ecumenical movement, serving in the National Council of Churches, is that our unity in Christ is a gift—it's never something we can bring about on our own. It is a gift, a unity that is hidden with God in Christ. And that we, as Christians, should be seeking to make that unity a more manifest reality in the world. And I hope that on the questions of our own time, particularly questions of sexuality and gender, churches can get to a place where those who have embraced a more progressive view can have room. I particularly hope for this because I know so many Christians whose minds on this question were changed from their experience with gay and lesbian Christians. Until you've had the experience of real relationships with LGBTQIA+ Christians, it's hard to see that there might be a different perspective.In the meantime, while we work and wait (and pray) for greater unity in the church, I hope you can find room to be curious in your own life, to resist the impulse to separate and divide. And above all, I hope we all remember that none of us are saved by our perfect beliefs, but by the grace of a God who loves us all and welcomes all of us home. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. One of the strangest and, unfortunately, most common ways of trying to convert someone to the Christian faith is telling them that unless they convert to Christianity, they are going to go to hell. If we can bracket for just a moment whether or not that sort of an idea is an accurate articulation of Christian theology, just take a step back and imagine what it sounds like. You are saying that the God you worship is going to send everyone else in the world to an eternity of damnation except for those who decide they like this God and want to spend eternity with this God in heaven. It makes your deity sound like some kind of cosmic supernatural being with a profound ego complex. It certainly does not sound like a loving creator of the universe, at least to me.So, this week on Christian Mythbusters I'd like to break the myth that Christians know who is and who is not going to heaven.The reason I phrase it like that is because the first thing we need to acknowledge is that none of us really know who is and who is not going to heaven. Jesus was clear in the gospels that at the end of time a lot of people who thought they were worshiping God will discover they didn't actually do a good job taking care of their neighbor and so they are goats, not sheep, they are sent to the “other place.” Similarly, a lot of people who didn't think they were religious but took good care of their neighbors are told that at the end they were actually sheep all along, even though they didn't know it, and so they are invited into eternal joy and rest. Point being, we apparently don't do a good job knowing whether or not we are actually faithfully following God—and if you are religious, the odds are even stacked against you!But,, the deeper problem with the idea that you know who is going to heaven and who is is going to hell, is that this supposition usually falls into one of two different ways of sorting it out. The first approach is the idea that everyone who is basically good goes to heaven and that everyone who is basically bad goes to hell. This idea has some merit, it's kind of what Jesus says in the parable of the sheep and the goats I just mentioned. Indeed, this is an idea that's common for people who aren't even that religious, but who think they are pretty good people. “I'm not, like, Hitler,” they might say, “Surely I would go to heaven.” The difficulty with this view is that it's hard to know where the line would be drawn. What is the difference between basically good and good enough to get eternal salvation versus eternal damnation. No matter how you draw the line, it starts looking rather arbitrary. And, of course,  though most people are probably basically good, none of us are perfect. In the end, we will all need forgiveness, mercy, and grace from God to get into heaven. Which brings me to the other approach people use when they trying to figure out who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. We are not saved by works, none of us is perfect, we all need God's forgiveness. Yes. But, where this gets squirrely is when people start setting the standards by which God will forgive you for what you do wrong and welcome you home. The most common view in American Christianity is that to go to heaven you have to believe in Jesus. Everyone who believes in Jesus is saved.The problem with this view, however, is that it means whether or not you go to heaven depends primarily on where you were born and into what family. After all, the vast majority of Christians are members of the church because they happened to be born into a pre-dominantly Christian geographical area or an already Christian family. Very few Christians went on a spiritual quest or entered into an exploration of all religions and then chose the church. Once more, this being the standard makes God seem rather… capricious. I prefer the approach in the early church called “apokatastasis.” That fancy word is a Greek word used in Acts 3, when Peter preaches, saying that what Jesus was doing as the Messiah was leading us to “the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.” Paul talks about it in Ephesians 1, where he says that the mystery of God's will revealed in Christ is “a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”That's why, for me at least, I think it's best not to guess who gets to go to heaven and who gets to go to hell. Heck, maybe even, given eternity and God's love, hell itself will be redeemed and all in it made whole and welcomed home. In the end, I believe that God's goal, God's desire, is to draw all things together in God's love… the only question is whether or not I want to be a part of that. That means I'm not a Christian so God will let me go to heaven. I'm a Christian because I believe Jesus is the manifestation of God's love for this world, that his resurrection is the triumph of love over hatred and violence and discrimination. I'm a Christian because I want to be a part of what God's love is doing in this world. I want to welcome what God's love is doing in my own life.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Sometimes people come to me as a priest, telling me that they are having trouble finding God in their life. One of the best pathways I have for them is to start spending time around the poor. Help out in our church's Loving Spoonfuls Meal Ministry. Try spending time with and listening to marginalized people. Either way, you'll soon discover God is up to far more than you thought. And you'll likely start to get fired up about the broken systems of this world… and your sense of God's demands upon your life and ours. That's the direction I want to take with Christian Mythbusters this week. I want to push against this idea that religion is about your own happy relationship with God and suggest that Biblical religion has a whole lot more to do with your relationship with your neighbor. One of my favorite biblical figures who makes this argument is Amos. If you don't know who Amos is, let me start off by being clear that you probably won't like him. I mean, don't get me wrong, I agree with Amos whole heartedly when he shakes his angry prophetic finger at other people… just not when I find myself on the receiving end.But more than that… After all, Amos wasn't a local. He wasn't from Israel. He was what would today be called an “outside agitator.” Amos was a sheepherder from the southern nation of Judah who found his way north to Israel to tell them all the things they were doing wrong. He is also not a religious figure, someone who is properly trained and schooled. Think of it this way: Amos is like a blue-collar agricultural worker from another country, somewhere like Mexico perhaps, who has traveled north to give that northern country a message about their corruption.Now you can see why Amos wasn't very popular. When Amos talks about the corruption of the nation, maybe some people, people like you and me, might feel like we have heard this schtick before. We've heard people lament the decline of our country, the moral decay that is festering all around us. We've heard that message for over thirty years: about the erosion of family values, the increasing liberality with sexual relationships, the loss of God in the public square. But listen, beloved of God, because that is not the complaint that Amos levies against his northern neighbors. Instead, Amos points to the marketplace, to those who, in his words, trample on the needy, those who bring the poor to ruin. He tells us that those who control the market in his time can't wait for religious observances to end so that they can return to fleecing people, who are putting their fingers on the scales so that more wealth flows to the wealthy at the expense of those who are struggling to make ends meet. Now you may be thinking, “I don't know what eighth-century Israel looked like, but that sounds a lot like our own contemporary situation.” Amos talks about those who are willing to sell the poor for a pair of sandals and my mind immediately goes to how we will look the other way for a pair of inexpensive shoes, no matter the labor practices that created them. But there are all kinds of ways the concerns of the poor, in our own time, are pushed to the side for convenience and affordability. And it's legal. It's the way the system is designed, everyone assures people like Amos. But Amos isn't interested in whether or not the current system is legal. Amos wants to know whether or not it is moral…. And Amos has more than a hunch that no, the system is not moral. Rather, the system is one that uses religion to distract the masses while people with no power are ground up by injustice, oppression, and systems in which there is no fighting chance for a better life. And, at times, even today, religion is twisted into just that: something to distract you by getting you to look only at your own salvation, your personal relationship with Jesus… and you get so focused on that you miss that your neighbor is drowning right next to you. Jesus told us that all of the law and the prophets, all of the words of people as diverse as Amos and Moses, can a be summed up in the precepts of “Love of God” and “Love of neighbor.” And, as my daughter taught me when she finished her Vacation Bible School just a few weeks ago, “A neighbor, Daddy,” she said, “Is not just someone who lives near you.”  “Did you know, Daddy,” she said “A neighbor is anyone in need?”This means that those who are being crushed today by unjust systems, whether they be broken systems of immigration or broken systems that support misogyny and heterosexism, or just broken systems that will grind up the poor to make someone else's lifea little better… those who are crushed by these systems are your neighbor. They are your responsibility. They are my responsibility.And if you run to and fro looking for God in your life while you are ignoring your neighbor crushed by the systems of this world… you simply will not find God, Amos says.   Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. This past week, on Sunday, June 26, my congregation hosted our second annual Pride worship service, held the last Sunday in Pride month to celebrate all God's beloved children, no matter their sexuality or gender identity.I spoke at that service about what freedom means for the Christian, drawing from the Epistle reading appointed that day in our church's lectionary, from Galatians 5, where St. Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This week, on Christian Mythbusters, given everything going on in our country, I'd like to try once more to break some of the myths regarding what freedom does and should look like for the Christian… and what it shouldn't look like. If you live where I do, here in Ottawa County, Michigan, you may have noticed lately an increase in banners and yard signs promoting a set of political candidates who believe in “freedom and family.” “Who can disagree with that?,” you might say. Well, if you go to the website of the group running these signs and candidates, you will see what sort of freedom they believe in: their freedom to tell other people how to live their lives. This group, known as Ottawa Impact, believes in their freedom to insist that their religious views control what sorts of books children have access to in the library. They believe in the freedom to dismantle the county department of diversity, equity, and inclusion, because it runs counter to their personal beliefs. Groups like this, people who believe in “Christian Freedom” (so-called) like this also believe in their freedom to tell women what to do with their bodies, a freedom that found its fulfillment last week in the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now a woman cannot make her own conscious decision, but the government has taken that freedom from her. This is the opposite of freedom. This is the tyranny of a far-right religious view, and it has no place in our country. It has no place in the church. The candidate running county commissioner in Grand Haven Township, where I live, has on his flyers his commitment to his freedom to insist that a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl, his freedom to declare the gender identity of children, to erase the biological reality of intersex people whose gender cannot be clearly identified, his freedom to erase the reality of children who do not yet know, who have not yet claimed their own gender identity. This is the opposite of freedom. This is the tyranny of a far-right religious view, and it has no place in our country. It has no place in the church.In Galatians 5, Paul is clear that Christian freedom is not biting and devouring one another, not using Scripture to bind up and dehumanize others. Paul is clear, right here in this text, that the whole of the law can be summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the heart of Christian freedom: love of neighbor.And that means, freedom is willing to be constrained by the good of the other, to seek the best of your neighbor ahead of your own personal privilege, or views or opinion. Freedom for the Christian produces the fruits of the Spirit, Paul says in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control. Sadly, though, as so many Americans work to push their own particular understanding of Scripture into the law of our country, we are seeing American Christians celebrate the way they have robbed women the right of making decisions for their own bodies. And Justice Thomas was clear, he wants to rob gay people of the right to marry. You see, Christian freedom, for far too many people today is, in actuality, religious tyranny. But it is for freedom that Christ has set us free and far too many people today live under a yoke of slavery. And make no mistake, any form of Christianity which enslaves another human being is false. That was true when Christianity supported the freedom of white landowners to enslave black people, not much more than a hundred and fifty years ago. It's true when Christians want to enslave an undocumented immigrant to a system that doesn't recognize their humanity. It's true when it's Christians wanting to enslave a woman so that a small group of religious men can control her body. And it's true when Christians want to enslave the queer person by telling them that they need to be celibate or they need to hide, they need to be anything else than who God created them to be. All of these systems of slavery have nothing to do with the Gospel of freedom in Jesus Christ. And Christianity today must repent of them. It is for freedom Christ has set us free. And I long for the day that is what Christians are known for. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. We've all had around a week to process it, but I know many of you are still reeling from the horror of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Two dead teachers. Nineteen dead elementary school children. As I read of how the gunman locked himself in a classroom with those kids and that this was how they all died, I felt my spirit tear inside of me. I could not wait to get home and hug my own child a little more closely. I've been trying to think about what to say, what to write, about this tragedy and how we, as a society, should respond to it. I've written and spoken so many times about gun control by now, that it feels hollow to pull all that out yet again. But I'll try. I'll try this week, as I try to break the myths—or perhaps, more accurately, the systemic sin—about Christianity and its relationship to the gun lobby in our nation.I mean, we know. We know that 92% of Americans favor mandatory background checks for all gun sales. We know that 75% of Americans support a 30-day waiting period for all gun sales and 70% of Americans support mandatory registration of all privately-owned guns with the police. We know that 77% of Americans support laws that would allow a family member to seek a court order to temporarily take away guns if they feel a gun owner might harm themselves or others. We know that 70% of Americans support police filing that same order. We know that 68% of Americans support raising the legal age at which a person can purchase certain firearms from 18 to 21. We know that 56%, still well over half of Americans, support banning the sale of semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15 which have no purpose other than being a weapon of war and death.And we know that the majority of Republicans support almost all of these measures.We know all of these things… and yet we do nothing. We do nothing because our legislative system is broken, particularly when it comes to gun reform. And we know that a good deal of that legislative system is owned by the National Rifle Association, meaning almost no Republicans would vote for the very sensible and bipartisan measures we know people support, measures that would absolutely save lives. And the fact that pastors and faith leaders don't call out this broken system, the fact that churches don't take to the street to protest the failure of legislators to make our country safer for her residents… to make schools safer for our kids… it boggles the mind. It breaks my heart. And it makes me very angry.On Thursday, June 9, my parish, St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, will be holding a Requiem Vigil and Mass of Advocacy for Victims of Gun Violence. The service will be at 6pm and anyone who is interested is welcome to attend. We chose that date because it is the feast day of the great St. Columba. Columba was a monk in the sixth century who was active in both Ireland and Scotland. He had a strong personality and preached forcefully in ways that often stirred up opposition. He wound up exiled to Scotland, but remained active in Irish politics and Scottish politics, always working for peace in his land. In fact, his name is derived from the Latin word for dove, as we worked for a peace that was just and holy, a peace that was inherently political.Jesus told us in Matthew, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” And it is time. It is long past time for all Christians, no matter your political persuasion, to stand up and work to bring peace because our country is being torn apart by gun violence. Children, minorities, and all sorts of people are victims every day. We don't even hear reports on all school shootings because they happen too often. There have been seventy-seven school shootings on campuses just this year. In addition to Uvalde, there have been two others where more than four people were shot. And I bet most of us couldn't even name those schools.We must make peace. Each and every one of us. The church must stop being known as one of the biggest supporters of gun rights in our country, bought, sold, and paid for. Instead, the body of Christ needs to get to work making peace. Because the cost of this fantasy of an unrestricted right for every person to own firearms, no matter their lethal capacity… this fantasy must be challenged. It must end. And it won't, until the church stands up and says, enough.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. As we head toward the Memorial Day holiday, for many people it means the unofficial start of summer. Grills get uncovered, pools opened up, and many of us prepare for another beautiful summer by the gorgeous Lake Michigan shoreline.I will admit that I'm not always grateful for social media, but one thing I do think social media has done over the years is increase the awareness that Memorial Day is not really about the start of summer. Instead, this is a holiday set aside to honor those who gave their all in service of our country. And its observance comes from a place of felt pain and grief at the death of loved ones who served in the armed forces. So, this week, I thought it might be a good week to break the myth that those who have died are gone and entirely separated from us… because I don't think they are. Memorial Day began in the nineteenth century as a way of remembering those who perished in the civil war. Lost to the shrouds of time, it would be easy to underestimate the impact of that war upon our country. But truth be told, 750,000 people died from the Civil War. That would be 2.5% of our country's population at the time. By comparison, if a similar conflict happened today, it would be like losing 7 million American lives. In both the north and south, it became the custom in the late spring or early summer to decorate the graves of soldiers who died in that terrible war, with the day often being called “Decoration Day.” And it was after the horrors of two world wars in the twentieth century that the holiday most fully took on its present form as Memorial Day.There was a similar movement that happened in my own denomination, the Episcopal Church, after the first World War. At that time, the Episcopal Church was one of the larger denominations in the country, but, like many other denominations, our members were crushed by the deaths of the first World War. When we authorized a new prayer book in 1928, the prayer book included an innovation that had not been in Anglican liturgy since the days of the Reformation: prayers for the departed. While some rejected prayers for the departed as a Roman Catholic innovation that should not be part of properly Anglican liturgy, the truth is that these prayers were tremendously popular with the laity who were still grieving from lives lost in the Great War.And these days, if you go to almost any Episcopal Church, whether high in the catholic tradition or more in the lower protestant tradition, you will almost certainly hear prayers for those who have died. While our church does not have the same very specific understanding of purgatory that the Roman Catholic church does, we have fully restored the practice and idea of praying for the departed. And the catechism of our church gives a good reason for why we pray for the dead. It says, “We pray for them, because we still hold them in our love, and because we trust that in God's presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love, until they see him as he is.”And I know for me, when there is a brief pause in Sunday worship to pray for those who have died, I feel that connection. I pray for my grandparents, for my aunt who died of cancer just before her eighteenth birthday, and for a few other people's whose absence I feel so acutely. As I pray for them, I am reminded that death does not win, that through Christ's love I'm still connected to those who have gone before. I don't know what kind of a religious tradition you come from (or even if you have a religious tradition), but I would encourage to give it a shot, try praying for those who have died. You might find it a meaningful devotion in your daily life or Sunday worship. For me, I pray that God continues to hold them in God's. I pray that whatever the afterlife looks like, whatever the journey into the foothills of heaven (as CS Lewis describes it) might be like, I pray that they will feel my love surrounding them… and I pray that their love will surround me. I pray particularly that the words of the author of Hebrews will be manifest in my own consciousness, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” Because make no mistake, we are not left alone. For those who trust in God's love, life is not ended by death, it is merely transformed into something else. And their love for us, and our shared love in God, still holds.  Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. For the first couple weeks of May, our church, St. John's Episcopal here in Grand Haven, ran a targeted Facebook ad with a survey aimed at people who are not connected to a faith community. We wanted to know what things would be important to them, were they to want to be a part of a faith community. We also wanted to know what kept them away from church and also what they might say to a church trying to do a better job of listening.The responses were excellent, giving us some helpful insight into people who don't find a home in church right now. But one thread ran through several responses: the experience of spiritual abuse or religious trauma. So, this week I'd like to break the myth that church is always a safe space… because sometimes it is not.The Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS), which is a safeguarding charity in the United Kingdom, defines spiritual abuse as “coercion and control, manipulation and pressuring of individuals, control through the misuse of religious texts and scripture and providing a ‘divine' rationale for behavior.” In a study that CCPAS did, they found that two-thirds of those who responded had been spiritually abused at some point in their life. Religious trauma is a term which increasing numbers of psychotherapists and counselors use to describe the experience of someone who has been to a church, or religious community, that weaponized Scripture and religion in such a way that it damaged the person's psyche and emotional well-being. An article in the New York Times on the issue noted that scientific research has indicated some people can “suffer for decades from post-traumatic stress disorder-type symptoms, including anxiety, self-doubt and feelings of social inadequacy.”If you're listening to me right now and you are thinking that either of those terms describes your own experience, I want you to know how sorry I am for the pain you have experienced… and the pain you still carry. I hope you'll know that there are pastors and priests like me, and congregations I hope like mine, that would repudiate that sort of twisted experience of religion that has hurt you so badly.And I'd also want you know there is hope for moving past it. That same New York Times article shares how Duke University did a study in 2014 on something they called “religious cognitive therapy.” This is an approach that focused on Scriptures about forgiveness, God's love, and mercy, and used those Scriptures to challenge the dysfunctional thoughts that maintain and perpetuate trauma. Clinical trials run by Duke showed that people who experience this sort of therapy had lower rates of depression and were more likely to feel positive emotions like gratitude or optimism. In short, Dr. Harold Koenig, the psychotherapist who ran the study at Duke said, “The best cure for religious trauma may be a deeper dive into the spiritual core of religious teachings.”So, a few things. If you are a faith leader or just someone who is active in your church, be attentive. If the message of your church is leaving people feeling wounded and inadequate, I have a hunch it's not really the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If religious language is used in your community to coerce or manipulate people, if it's being used to justify behavior or actions you would otherwise reject, these are all red flags of possible religious trauma inflicting behavior. Raise concerns, if you can. And leave any toxic faith community you're in, if you must. If you're someone who still struggles with the wounds and aftereffects of religious trauma and spiritual abuse, I'd encourage you to find ways to explore more fully the real mercy and goodness of God. Sometimes that means finding a therapist who can help you undo and let go of some of the dysfunctional thinking that was drilled into your mind by misguided faith leaders. Sometimes it means finding a faith community that can offer a different perspective, one that nourishes and empowers you to be the person you know God created you to be instead of pushing you to fit into some pre-defined mold. And if you just cannot bring yourself to do it, to be vulnerable and risk further trauma in another faith community, please know that it's OK. God's love holds you whether you are in church or out of church. God's love holds you. And that love can eventually bring you the healing God so deeply desires for you. God can find a way… and I pray God will find a way.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Last week I talked about some of the Scriptural and theological reasons why there is room for a nuanced view of abortion in Christianity. Having been raised with strict views on this question, I know I was surprised to learn in graduate school that there was room to think differently, to honor a woman's right to make this difficult choice on her own, and that honoring a women's right to choose could be based in both a careful reading of the Biblical text and in the theology of the church.But this week in Christian Mythbusters, I'd like to do something different. I'd like to talk about the way Christians so often talk about abortion, the words they use and the arguments they make. Because they think they are speaking in favor of life, but so often their words and rhetoric bring pain, death, and suffering to countless women. I know I didn't understand much of this myself until my wife and I struggled to conceive. After the long journey of work with fertility doctors, we were able to have one child, our daughter… but we were unable to have any more after that. We both still carry that pain to this day.And so, when I know when I am driving down the road and I see an anti-abortion billboard that claims that an embryo is the equivalent of a human being, my heart sinks into my stomach. Because, like many couples who struggled with infertility, we lost embryos in the process. And to be told that those were my children, the equivalent of my own daughter running around in our back yard… to be told that the embryo is the same as that, that the embryo was my child… this is not only scientifically false, it's not only lacking any basis in Scripture or theology… it is painful and it's cruel. It piles unnecessary sorrow and guilt on top of already-existing pain. And, you see, that's the key that is so often missed in these debates: how the language you use will impact women who have been touched by questions surrounding not just abortion, but fertility, miscarriage, and stillbirth. Because all of those women carry deep pain and the language Christians use doesn't heal that pain; it pours salt upon the wounds.The day that the news of the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade came out, I sat in my truck listening to a story on the radio, an interview with an elected state representative. The reporter was asking about laws in Oklahoma, laws that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade is indeed overturned, laws that would not only criminalize abortion but would not even make an exception for cases of rape or incest. After hemming and hawing a bit, the representative said that, well, these laws were important because as horrible as rape and incest is, it doesn't justify murder.I immediately thought of any woman who was impregnated by her rapist, or a girl who was impregnated by a family member, and who was listening to the radio right now. And if that woman had an abortion because of the horror forced upon her by a man, I wondered about how massively wounding it must be to be told that after being raped, or being the victim of incest, that they should have carried that embryo to full-term birth, that an abortion was making her a murderer. Shame. Shame on Christians for equating abortion with murder. Make no mistake, abortion always has tragic dimensions, but nowhere in Scripture is abortion treated the same as murder. In fact, quite the opposite. As I said last week, Exodus 21 is very clear that if violence causes a miscarriage, the penalty is different than it would be for murder. And I hope you will listen to me, if you are a religious leader or just a passionate advocate for the so-called Pro-Life movement, I hope you will listen to me when I tell you that your language is what is killing life. By calling women who were faced with the tragic and difficult decisions surround abortion murderers, you are plunging a dagger deep in their soul. You are the reason that women in your churches who have had abortions, or who have struggled with issues of pregnancy, you are the reason they don't talk about it. You are the reason they make the journey to the abortion clinic alone, while so-called Christian protestors hurl insults and sometimes physical objects at them as they walk that lonely sidewalk. You are the reason they make that journey alone and then they hold shame that is not theirs to bear the rest of their lives. You are the ones who have done that.In Matthew 23, Jesus had this to say to the religious leaders of his own time, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” That is what is happening today, right now, in much of Christianity. Christians are tying heavy burdens on the backs of women and are unwilling to actually lift a finger to move them.So, stop. Stop. Stop with the bad theology and a false reading of Scripture. Stop calling people murderers and saying that a clump of cells, though valuable, is the same as a child. And stop telling women who are in the impossible experience of contemplating what to do with a pregnancy they did not choose to have… or a pregnancy they wanted but which has gone horribly wrong… stop using your words and rhetoric to traumatize them all over again. It has nothing to do with the way of Jesus. Because the way of Jesus is to lift burdens and to heal with compassion.And if you're listening, and you're a woman facing these questions, or one who has faced them in the past, feel free contact me at rector@sjegh.com or call me at the church, St. John's Episcopal, Grand Haven, Michigan. I'll walk this road with you, no matter what you choose and no matter what you have chosen. I'll walk this road with you as a priest and as a follower of Jesus that believes that compassion is what is key. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Like many of you, I was shocked to read the draft decision from the conservative majority of the United States Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade and transforming this fundamental question of women's healthcare, the very right of a woman to control what happens to her body, away from a constitutionally protected reality into one that would be at the whim of state legislatures. So, I'd like to try, once more, to break some of the myths this week about abortion and Christianity. As I said the last time this topic came up; abortion is a massively tragic choice that many women face. Every decision about abortion has difficult and challenging contexts. I don't know anyone that is pro-abortion. What people like me, though, who oppose the criminalizing of abortion, believe is that this difficult decision is one that should be made by the woman who is pregnant… not by legislatures.My own denomination, The Episcopal Church, has spoken clearly for decades that “all human life is sacred from its inception until death.” At the same time, we've been clear over and over again that legislation will not address the root cause of abortions. Our church has expressed “its unequivocal opposition to any legislative, executive or judicial action on the part of local, state or national governments that abridges the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of pregnancy or that would limit the access of a woman to safe means of acting on her decision.”And the position of my church rests upon an acknowledgement that the biblical witness on the questions of abortion contain important nuances when it comes to issues of personhood and the sanctity of life. Those who claim that a fetus is the equivalent to a human being from a moral and ethical standpoint cannot make that claim based on Scripture. Exodus 21, for example, is clear that if violence causes a miscarriage, the penalty is different than if you murder someone. Numbers 5 describes a ritual a woman must go through if she is accused of adultery, where the priest gives her something called “the water of bitterness.” And if she has committed adultery, the text believes  that the water will make her uterus drop, her womb discharge.Both of these texts absolutely reflect the patriarchy of their time. In the Exodus text, for example, the husband determines the punishment for the loss of the fetus and there is not any corresponding violent ritual a for a man accused of adultery in the book of Numbers. Thankfully, given the fulfillment of the law through Jesus Christ, we are no longer bound by these commandments. Instead, Jesus told us that love of God and love of neighbor is the principle upon which all the law and the commandments rest. So, the question for the Christian is what does love of God and love of neighbor require of us? What does a true respect for the sanctity of life look like? First, it requires respecting the sanctity and personhood of every woman. That means that when a woman is faced with tragic and difficult circumstances, the church should support her , help her make her own informed decision about what is best. And then, after she makes that decision, the church should walk alongside of her. The second thing a Christian should do is advocate for policies that reduce the number of abortions in our country—which actually means advocating for policies that increase access to healthcare, particularly to marginalized communities that would be most adversely affected if Roe v. Wade is overturned.I mean, the data is clear that countries with the most restrictive laws on abortion also actually have the highest rates of abortion. Instead it is policies like increased access to healthcare and birth control that actually results in far fewer abortions. That is why the number of abortions usually decreases under Democratic administrations and increases under Republican ones, ironically enough.If this court does strike down Roe v. Wade, the lives of women in our country will be put at risk. Abortions laws will immediately take effect that will restrict access, which will increase the danger to women. And those Christians who have fought for this to take place will be complicit in the lives lost… they will be complicit in the emotional, spiritual, and mental anguish that women will be put through.Make no mistake, a true value of the sanctity of all life—including the lives of women—means that if the Supreme Court makes this decision, we must all work together to create legislative protections for women in our country. The lives of countless women are at stake.   Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Today, as the church moves through Holy Week and approaches Easter Sunday, there is a tendency sometimes for Christianity to turn inward. And so, whether you are hearing this on Wednesday in Holy Week or on Easter Sunday, I want to take a moment to talk about how I think the story of Christ's death and resurrection should not be one that turns us inward. I want to break that myth and explore how this story should expand our views and tear down the barriers we build. The Gospel of John shades the story of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection rather differently than the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John doesn't have a Last Supper narrative with the institution of Communion, instead he has the story of foot washing in the upper room. Whereas in the synoptics, the last meal in the upper room is a Passover dinner, in John's Gospel the last meal is the night before the Passover. Because in John's Gospel, Jesus is killed at the same time as the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, drawing a unity between the lamb and Christ who is our Passover lamb sacrificed for us. Before the passion and resurrection narratives in John, Jesus is at the Passover festival, and we are told some Greeks came to Philip and wanted to see Jesus. These would have been Jewish Greeks, since they are at the Passover festival, so they are probably Hellenistic Jews, those who had been a part of a tradition in Judaism exemplified by Philo and others that blended Judaism with Greek philosophy.But oddly enough, Philip doesn't just take them to see Jesus. Instead, Philip goes and talks to Andrew and then both of them go and talk to Jesus. And rather than Jesus saying anything about the request of the Greeks who Philip and Andrew say want to see him, Jesus answers them by saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”What a bizarre answer. Right? You wonder, what happened to the Greeks? Why does Jesus answer the disciples with this theological explanation, this foreshadowing his coming death on the cross? I think a hint of the answer, though, can be found near the end of Jesus theological explanation, where he says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”I wonder if the reason that Andrew and Philip don't immediately bring these Greeks, these Hellenistic Jews, to see Jesus is because in their eyes these Greeks aren't the right sort of Jews. These are fancy Greeks who enjoy philosophy and whose Aramaic was likely broken, not good Palestinian Jews like Philip and Andrew and Jesus and the rest of the disciples. So, instead of bringing them to Jesus, they hear their request, leave the Greeks were they are, and then go to Jesus to tell him, “Just so you know, Jesus, some of those Jews are here, those strange Hellenistic Jews. And, we don't know what to do with them.” Because surely, Andrew and Philip think, surely Jesus wouldn't want to talk with those people.Jesus gives this theological explanation, this emphasis on his dying like a grain of wheat, to the disciples, to make it clear to them that his choice to do this, his choice to die on the cross, is so that he can draw the whole world to himself… including those people that Andrew and Philip might find suspect. The idea of God's all-encompassing love is threatening to the narrow views of the religious of his time, so threatening that he is going to let the religious kill him, so that he can make it clear that his love for all people—including his love for those people the religious might not like, those people you may not like—his love for those people is what will triumph in the end. And all this pushes us, as Christians today, to ask who those people are to us? Who are the people that, if they came up to you, you would not really want to invite them to your church? Who are the people you tend to “other,” to set aside, to want to avoid? Maybe it's their politics, or their piety. Maybe it's their documentation status or their social class or even the color of their skin. Who are those people to you? Do you know that God is trying to draw those people to himself as well? He is trying to catch you and them in the grip of his love. After all, you know your conception of God is wrong if you're pretty sure God and Jesus likes the same people you like and hate the people you hate. So maybe die to that today, just a little today. Let God's love rise in you and create in you an expansive love, a love even for those people you would rather avoid. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. You and I live in an age and in a time when bodies of water are admired and enjoyed. Very rarely are they feared or seen as uncrossable boundaries. Of course, this does not apply for those of us who live in the Grand Haven area and have tried to cross the bridge from the north, with all that construction traffic. At times this has made the Grand River seem like an uncrossable boundary.This week, in the last Christian Mythbusters before we begin Holy Week, I'd like to talk about things that seem impossible and how God is often inviting us to see new ways forward.  In the Hebrew Bible reading our church read this past Sunday, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”For the Israelite people, when they hear a prophet remind them that their God is a God who makes a way in the seas and a path in the mighty waters, they know from a very visceral place what that means. Their minds go back, back to the stories their ancestors had told them about when the Hebrew people fled slavery in Egypt and arrived at the beaches of the Red Sea. There was no way to turn, no other path of escape from Egypt, and the armies of Pharaoh were advancing rapidly. But then the power of God pushed to the waters aside and made a pathway through the sea so that the children of Israel could walk to their freedom on dry land. They remembered as well, the stories how, decades later, when the descendants of those escaped slaves arrived at the Jordan River, on the eastern boundary of the Promised Land, their priests carried the Ark of the Covenant into the water and the waters parted once more, creating a pathway into the land of promise, the land of God's long-awaited blessing for God's people. The prophet speaking in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah is trying to invoke those powerful memories for God's people. For decades they have lived in exile, with no sense of how they could ever break free of Babylonian imperial power and return to the land God had given their ancestors so long ago. They were afraid, afraid that their sin, their failure to be the just society God had called them to be, that all of this had forever broken the covenant. But Isaiah is trying to remind them in this reading that every time it seems like the end for God's people, God has always made a way. Their God is the God who can make a path in the Red Sea, who can turn the waves of the sea into a chariot and horse to protect God's people.Isaiah is telling the exiles that the God who had made paths through uncrossable water was going to bring them home, it was just that God was bringing them home by a new and different way. So, they needed to remember those past memories of God's salvation, but also needed to let go of them just a bit so they would be able to see the new liberation God was bringing about in their own time. This time they wouldn't be coming home through water. Instead, God was going to sustain them through the middle-easter desert. God was going to create a new path, a new way home.I wonder, at the end of Lent, with Holy Week and Easter almost here… I wonder what new things God is trying to do in your life, in our church, in the world. The prophet is right, if you only ever look for God where you have found God in the past, you will miss the new things, the new salvation God wants to bring you. And sometimes, like those ancient exiles, you need to pull your eyes from the place where God has always saved you and look instead to what might seem like a desert. Because it could be that your salvation now lies in an entirely different direction. Know this, beloved child of God, throughout all of the paths behind you, all of the things that shaped you—for good or for ill—God's hand has been at work, redeeming that which was wrong and never should have happened and giving strength to that which was good. So wherever you find yourself at this end of Lent, don't give up. Remember the past, but turn into the new thing God is bringing about in your life. Let it be OK that you don't have it all figured out, that you don't know the answers, that you still struggle with sin and doubt. Don't let that weigh you down. Because the goodness God has for you is there, just ahead in the distance, if you can but make room in your life to accept and receive it. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. It has been beautiful, absolutely beautiful, to see the worldwide outpouring of support for the Ukrainian people, particularly those who are fleeing Putin's war into other Eastern European countries. Over the past few weeks, though, I've also seen a handful of posts on social media noting that welcoming those fleeing violence is not really something our world has done a great job at recently. Indeed, our country has gotten really bad at it, truth be told. As I asked in my sermon this past Sunday, when are Americans wanting to welcome the Ukrainians fleeing violence going to start having that same embrace to refugees who might have a different skin color?One of the founding ideals of our country was the inalienable right to life, liberty, and happiness. What many people don't realize, though, is that this is not a uniquely American ideal. It actually has a basis in Scripture. So, this week I'd like to break the myth of what each human being should have as a right, on the sole basis of their humanity. In the book of the eighth-century prophet Micah, there is a powerful depiction of what the final healing of the world will look like when God finally sets all things right. This is Micah's vision of what the world should look like and what, by God's grace, it will look like in the end.All the nations will come together, Micah believes, and God will finally be the God of all people. In this vision, Micah says that nations will finally beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks—no more weapons, just instruments for growth. He promises that nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And then, in verse four, the prophet writes, “but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.”This same image was taken up in revolutionary times in the writings of George Washington, with Washington using this phrase in correspondence throughout his life, “they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees.” The dream of the prophet Micah exemplified, for Washington, the dream of the peasant farmer freed from military oppression and tyranny. It was a part of Washington's farewell address, his wish for the citizens of the country to find freedom in their own patch of land, not to need to fight any longer for the freedom that should be theirs by right. The phrase was even picked up by Lin Manuel-Miranda in his musical, Hamilton, where Washington sings, “If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on. It outlives me when I'm gone. Like the scripture says, ‘Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.' They'll be safe in the nation we've made. I want to sit under my own vine and fig tree. A moment alone in the shade. At home in this nation we've made, one last time.”This ideal is what you see reflected in the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents of our country. The founders of our country had an idea that every human being should have a right to an unmolested life on their own piece of land. Now, they clearly didn't actually mean every human being back then, given the other laws surrounding slavery and women and out treatment of native people… but the ideal has persisted, and each generation has sought to put to that ideal a little more into reality, to make our country more reflective of that hope. And make no mistake, there are so many people in our world today who still long to see the dream of the prophet Micah realized. Not just Ukrainians who are fighting with all they have against a war they didn't invite, Ukrainians who would love to sit once more in their homes undisturbed, but so many more than that.I think of African Americans, whose bodies and whose slavery and oppression built the wealth so many of us enjoy, people who would very much like to enjoy the fruit of the labor of their ancestors, fruit that is still kept from them through systems racism and injustice in our country. I think of the Palestinian people, many of them Muslim but many Christians as well, who were forced from their homes and who long to return to vines and fig trees their ancestors planted, which were stolen from them by Zionism and an Israeli government that increasingly thrives on fear and eschews justice. I think of immigrants in our own country who are unable to get any documents because our system is broken and immoral, because it asks them to spend decades waiting while they watch their children suffer from war and violence, simply because of the country they happen to be born in—because people in other countries can get those documents much more quickly in this current system. Could you imagine… Could you imagine if the church used the force of Christianity to argue that it is the inalienable right for every person to live a life free from poverty and violence, that every human has the right to sit in the shade of their own tree and enjoy the fruits of their work? I can imagine it… and the prophet Micah could imagine it. I hope you can imagine it, too. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. I mentioned last week how during Lent, members of my parish are reading the book The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus by Fleming Rutledge. The discussion from earlier this week, on her chapter on Apocalyptic War, underscored for me how very misunderstood the concept of the apocalyptic is, particularly among Christians. So, this week I'd like to break some myths around the idea of the apocalypse, while also suggesting that an apocalyptic perspective can inspire us to live differently as Christians in our own time.Though we often think of apocalyptic as any sort of story or concept involving profound war, catastrophe, destruction, violence, or the end of the world, that's not actually what the word means. The word “apocalypse” comes from Greek word apokalypsis, which simply means revealing or disclosing something that had been hidden. Apocalypse was used to describe a specific genre of literature that arose in the second century before Christ and persisted into around the second century after the time of Christ. Several pieces of apocalyptic literature found their way into the canon of Scripture, both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Greek New Testament, but others were simply literature that circulated among Jews or Christians in those centuries. This literature often was written in times of crisis for God's people as a way for them to understand the crisis they were in and how it might relate to what God is doing in the world. And so, during the 2nd century persecution of the Jewish people, the apocalyptic sections of the book of Daniel gave hope that God was ultimately in control of the world. In the 1st century persecution of Christians, the Revelation to John was written to give hope to Christians that God would, in the end, conquer evil and heal their broken world. One of my favorite apocalyptic texts is actually not from Revelation—though that is a powerful book, when properly read. Instead, it is from Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. In the third chapter he writes that he is currently a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles and that this imprisonment is related to “the mystery [that] was made known to me by revelation.” That word translated as “revelation” is the Greek word apokalpysis.As the chapter continues, Paul explains that the former generations had not known what God was seeking to do for creation, a plan that was not made known to humanity until the incarnation of Christ and the inspiration of apostles and prophets. What is that plan, you might ask? Paul writes, “That is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”You have to remember, that for a first-century Jewish person, the idea that a Gentile could be a part of the people of God without first becoming Jewish was contrary to everything they had understood in the Hebrew Bible. It was contrary to everything their religion had told them. Jesus Christ, however, insisted that his life and ministry, his death and resurrection, was the fulfillment of the hopes of the Hebrew Scriptures… and it was also a reinterpretation of them. Because now, through the lens of Christ, the hopes of the post-exilic prophets that all nations would be a part of the people of God could finally be realized. The post-exilic prophets of Judaism had long believed that this hope would be realized through the conversion of the nations to Judaism. They had never imagined that God would become human in someone like Jesus Christ and create an entirely new form of the people of God, one that did not rest upon the promises of the Old Covenant, but one that rested entirely on the grace of God in reconciling humanity to one another and to God himself. This mystery that Paul talks about, the mystery of God reconciling all people to himself, a mystery that challenged how Jewish people read Scripture… That mystery is still at work in the church today. In the Episcopal Church, we have insisted that this is the basis for our own insistence on the full place of LGBTQIA+ Christians in the church. We understand that it is contrary to how people used to read the Bible, how many people still read the Bible today. But we believe the Holy Spirit has moved among the church—and particularly through our LGBTQIA+ siblings in Christ—and the Holy Spirit has shown us that our old reading was flawed, it was distorted by discrimination and the systems of this world which seek to oppress and marginalize. The Spirit showed us that our LGBTQIA+ siblings have all the fruits of the Spirit. Their relationships are holy and life-giving. They should not be told to somehow different than how God created them. They should not be told to live celibate lives or deny their created identity. Instead, they can teach us, in the words of St. Paul, “the wisdom of God in its rich variety.” Just like how the Spirit revealed the church was wrong on engaging in religious wars, or slavery, or the role of women… God is always working to unveil and reveal the truth of God's plan of love and reconciliation. You and I just need to have faith to see it. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. During Lent, members of my parish are reading the book The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus by Fleming Rutledge. It's a very good book, hefty at around six hundred pages, but well worth the time. We're doing selections from the book each week, knowing that not everyone finds six hundred pages of reading to be a meaningful Lenten discipline, and the selections so far have been very thought provoking.In particular, the readings from the past week have been rolling around in my mind. So, I thought this might be a good week to share some of the insights of what I've been reading with you and perhaps break some of the myths myths surrounding what Christianity believes about sacrifice and power. Sacrifice is a word that gets thrown around a lot in our time, but often not in ways that resemble actual sacrifices. As Rutledge defines the word, a sacrifice is you giving up something of value for the greater good. Many times in our society, people talk about the sacrifice of military personnel, for example. It's important to be clear, though, that the burden of that sacrifice rarely rests upon the shoulders of leaders who send young people into battle. Indeed, that sacrifice in our country often rests on the shoulders of those who aren't in the ruling classes. For those in power to send those with little power off to battle isn't Christian sacrifice, it's instead far too often sending people into harm's way without having much cost to yourself. I think we see that right now with Ukraine. We are seeing Ukrainian citizens rising up and seeking to defend their country against Russian invaders. We all honor those sacrifices. But we are also are seeing young Russians sent into battle by an autocrat with no discernable end in sight, a sacrifice of young Russians that costs little to Putin and is heart breaking to watch.In our own country, we've seen gas prices rise due to several factors, not the least of which is the impact of Russian aggression and global attempts to sanction Russia and get that country to turn from this violent path. Rising gas prices absolutely always hit the poor and working class harder, and that's a difficult sacrifice to be asked to make. At the same time, when we see the cost of gas at the pump as a sacrifice we are invited to make to enable these economic sanctions to hit Russia hard, to help and support the Ukrainian people, I hope we see it as a sacrifice well-worth making for the common good. I also hope that the government, churches, and nonprofit organizations find ways to help the poor and working class who are struggling right now, to help them with resources to make up for the loss of funds they are experiencing due to pressure at the pump. Those of us who don't feel that pain as acutely need to help those who find it overwhelming. We need to find our own ways to sacrifice for them.Indeed, with all of this the sacrifice of Christ can be instructive to us as people of faith. After all, our culture tends to view self-sacrifice as weakness. Or we tend to experience forced sacrifice as an exercise of power over those with no power. But the sacrifice of Christ challenges those preconceptions, experiences, and ideals.Fleming talks about this in her book, about how the sacrifice of Christ on the cross displayed an alternative mode of Power. As she says in chapter six, the Apostle “Paul did not understand the crucifixion of Christ primarily as a sacrifice in the cultic sense; he understood it as the definitive apocalyptic engagement with the forces of the enemy, at the frontier of the ages where Jesus' self-abandonment was the ultimate weapon. It was the ultimate form of the ‘passive resistance' that overwhelms and routs the enemy.”For the Christian, Fleming points out, true power is best seen in a life willingly offered as sacrifice for the sake of others. This means that when Christians see people subjugated, we choose to do what Christ did. We stand alongside of and advocate for them. We don't tell women to stay with abusive husbands. We don't tell immigrants to follow unjust laws that dehumanize and exploit them. We don't tell LGBTQIA+ individuals that the must consign themselves to a life of celibacy we would never force on cis-gender heterosexual Christians. No, instead if we have power, we ask how we can lay that power aside, how we can sacrifice our power and privilege to be an ally to those with none. We lay aside our own comfort in order to seek the healing of creation, to seek justice that can beat swords into ploughshares.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. I believe one of the most profound challenges facing Christianity, facing our society in America right now, is a misunderstanding of the fundamental ideals that should guide us. I see this particularly in the ideal and virtue of freedom. Of course, in one sense our country was founded on the ideal of freedom, of liberty for every human being… and yet, at our founding, what that actually meant was the freedom of every white, land-owning, man in the country. There has also been this persistent idea, particularly on display during the pandemic, that freedom means I get to do whatever I want, without regard to the impact it will have upon my neighbor. So, since you're hearing this either on Ash Wednesday or the First Sunday in Lent, I thought this would be a good week to allow Lent to break some of the misconceptions people have about what freedom means for a Christian. One of the Scripture readings for Ash Wednesday, comes from Isaiah 58. In that reading, the people are trying to rebuild their nation following the destruction of the Babylonian exile. They are fasting and worshipping God but are perplexed because their worship, their piety, does not seem to be producing any response from God. “Why do we fast, but you do not see?” they cry out to God. “Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” It feels almost as though God doesn't care, like God isn't even listening when they pray. The prophetic word in Isaiah, though, makes it clear that the problem is not with their ritual actions. The problem is with the way they live their lives outside of worship. They do not practice righteousness, only focused on themselves on the days they fast. They come out of their times of fasting and repentance but persist to oppress their workers and engage in quarrelsome behavior. And so, the prophet declares that the fast God wants is not to lie yourself down in humility but instead “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” True freedom is not doing whatever you want. True freedom for the Christian is living in line with God's call in your life, focused not on getting what you want but on how you can lift the burdens and break the yokes that hold others down. When the eminent twentieth-century theologian Karl Barth sought to describe human freedom, he said that human freedom is God's gift that enables us to obey God. The great theologian, St. Augustine of Hippo, said it differently. You can only be free, Augustine believed, when God has healed all of creation and all of you, when you are no longer able to sin. He drew a distinction between liberum arbitrium (free choice) and libertas (freedom). If we keep the end of God's desire for us and the world in mind, we will eventually, though God's grace, reach a point when we can only ever choose to do what is right and good. Think of it as the perfection of an athlete who is not worried about getting to hit the ball however she wants, but an athlete who is incapable of hitting the ball poorly. That is freedom, according to Augustine. If you are a Christian who practices Lent, or perhaps has been thinking about taking it up, today is a good day to ask what kind of Lent you want to practice. After all, the danger of Lenten rituals, just like any other religious ritual, is that you can enter into this season concerned only for your own relationship with God. This creates a ritual that is not only inauthentic to the call of God in your life, but also creates a sort of blindness where your ritual has made your neighbor invisible to you. Engaging or participating in economic oppression, quarreling with others for the sole purpose of proving you're right, speaking evil things about your sibling who is created in the image of God, all of these are individual pursuits. But the fast that God chooses is one that helps to bring about the new humanity inaugurated in Jesus Christ, one where you aren't interested in freedom of choice or your own spiritual fulfillment but are instead deeply concerned with how you can love God and your neighbor more faithfully. Just ask yourself this simple question: how is what you are doing for Lent, what you are taking on or what you are giving up—how is what you are doing going to help you love God and your neighbor with more faithfulness? God is not interested with convenient offerings, offerings that fall short of the moral challenges posed by violence, poverty, and injustice. That is what the people were willing to offer in the time of Isaiah. No, God is interested in the sort of sacrifice and discipline you can offer, a sacrifice and discipline that will heal the world.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. In last week's edition of Christian Mythbusters, I talked about the dangers fascism poses to our country right now, including where I live here in Grand Haven, MI. I talked about how Christians are increasingly comfortable with fascist perspectives and ideology, something that should concern all of us, conservative and liberal alike.This week, I'd like to drill down to one specific point—book banning—and to explore some of the uncomfortable history Christianity has with this common tactic of fascists.First, we have to acknowledge that Christianity has often sought to suppress literature which it has perceived as contrary to the dominant view at the time. The original book burner himself was 15th century priest Girolamo Savonarola whose “Bonfire of the Vanities” burned art and books that he believed were morally lax or questionable. In 1517, the Nine Five Theses from Martin Luther were condemned by Pope Leo X. Later in the sixteenth century, the Holy Inquisition began compiling its Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of books and authors that Catholics were not allowed to print or read. The system remained in place for the next several hundred years, not abandoned until the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. In my own English Christian tradition, the leaders of the Church of England (when it was still part of the Roman Catholic Church) burned thousands of copies of William Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament, eventually burning Tyndale himself as well. And, as many of us know, several books that have been banned in history have wound up being regarded as classic works of literature by later generations. Daniel Defoe's book Robinson Crusoe was on the Catholic Church's Index Librorum. So was Le Misérables by Victor Hugo. Boston's district attorney threatened to ban Walt Whitman's book Leaves of Grass. Christians in the White Citizen's Council urged the restriction of The Rabbits' Wedding because they thought this illustrated book promoted the dangerous idea of racial integration. Other examples include Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, James Dickey's Deliverance, The Diary of Anne Frank, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. And it's not just questions of morals, Christians have also opposed books that might encourage people to understand the Bible and its teachings differently. Darwin's Origin of the Species was banned from the library of Trinity College Cambridge, where Darwin himself had studied. In 1925, Tennessee banned the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools in any form, a law that remained in place since the late sixties. But we also have several modern day examples of conservative Christians urging the banning of books. When I was in college, the battle was against JK Rowling and her Harry Potter series, due to its supposed encouragement of witchcraft and the occult. It struck me even then that it was odd Christians couldn't distinguish fictional magical powers from occult practices of worship and how many Christians missed the point in the first book that the most powerful thing of all was the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother in love for her son… a decidedly Christian idea!So much of the history of Christians censoring, banning, or even burning books is based on two elements: fear and the need to control. Christians have feared depictions of anything that they think might threaten their own conceptions of morality, anything that might send people down the wrong path. They believe that banning books will help them control people, ensure they are not exposed to anything to which their understanding of faith is opposed.And yet, the early church was remarkably committed to ideals of freedom and openness of dialogue, believing that the Christian faith could not be coerced. They opposed any sort of attempts at control to get people to be Christians or to force people to adopt Christian ways of thinking. They believed that the Christian life has to, in the end, be chosen by each individual or it will be broken from the start..I was struck by a verse from First John which was in the appointed Scripture readings for Morning Prayer this past Tuesday. In it, St. John wrote, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” I wish Christians would let go of fear and control and instead seek perfection in love. Neither of these are virtues for the Christian faith. Indeed, Christianity actually thrives much more when people live with attitudes of love, respect, and humility, when it doesn't try to control what people read or how people live but instead when individual Christians choose to display in their own lives the love and sacrifice of Jesus, when Christians strive to be curious instead of judgmental.Christians need to repent, once and for all, of this tendency in our tradition throughout history to ban or burn that which we deem inappropriate. Instead, let's trust trained librarians to curate content that is age appropriate and, above all, let's engage in conversation about difficult works of literature, asking why it is so unsettling to people… and, perhaps most importantly, asking if you are unsettled because the content is inappropriate, or because the content raises issues of sin, selfishness, discrimination, or control that are already present in your own heart. And maybe your heart is what you should focus on a little bit more.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. One of the unfortunate difficulties of the past couple of years is that language has become increasingly polarized and manipulated, with people claiming certain words and concepts mean things that are absolutely divorced from reality. It's like Humpty Dumpty talking to Alice in Wonderland. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.”One of those words that has been increasingly misunderstood is the concept of fascism. So, this week I want to focus on breaking some of the myths surrounding fascism and also ask how Christians should respond to rising fascism in our own time.Fascism comes from the far-right of the traditional political spectrum and is characterized by authoritarian ultranationalism, a preference for dictatorial power, and a forceful and often violent suppression of any opposition. Fascists want the nation to be entirely self-sufficient and so are often protectionist in policy. Many forms of fascism also include some form of white nationalism or other discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, or religion—anything that will enable the fascist to scapegoat the problems of society and place the fault upon the other. Many of the actions of former President Donald Trump resembled fascist leaders from the twentieth century. He was clearly prone to dictatorial and authoritarian tendencies, regularly having to be told by his own administration that things he wanted to do were not legal. His support of violence against non-violent opposition, his protectionist economic policies, and his continued scapegoating of minorities all were indicators of fascism. Interestingly enough, after the insurrection and attacks on the United States Capitol on January 6, several conservative historians and legal scholars who had earlier resisted using the word fascism to describe Trump changed their mind and affirmed that he clearly had fascist tendencies, if not describing him as a fascist. These conservative scholars include Michael Gerson and Steven Calabresi, along with a historian of fascism, Robert Paxton. In my own city of Grand Haven, we have our own home-grown fascist tendencies increasingly taking root. We have parents who continue to rail against the school board, trying to get them to ban any books that include LGBTQIA+ kids. They insist that they know better than trained librarians as to what sort of literature is appropriate in a library and, most unsettling, they think their own homophobic and transphobic views should determine what sort of literature is available to kids in our community. To be clear, they already can control what their own kids check out, but that is not enough for them. They want to control everyone else's kids. That, my friends, is authoritarianism. These parents are also resisting any sort of curricula that teaches our children the ugly history and current reality of race relations in our country. Using the boogey-man phrase of “Critical Race Theory,” what they oppose is actually any curriculum that might make white students uncomfortable. In a time when we can clearly see that there are still profound issues with race in our country, they believe they should be able to dictate a white-washed curriculum for all kids in our schools. Ironically enough, they have also harassed government officials regarding public health measures like wearing masks in public in the middle of a pandemic, claiming mask mandates are authoritarianism. The fact that we have gotten to a point that laws with regard to public safety are claimed to be authoritarian over-reach shows just how far fascists have gone in changing the very meaning of words. If these fascists who oppose mask mandates were correct, then seat-belt law, rules against sending your kid to school with chicken-pox, and requirements that kitchens don't serve food that could kill you would all be authoritarian. There is a difference between authoritarianism and reasonable laws and policies that protect public health, even the if the fascists refused to see it that way. But the fascist is only concerned with forcing those in power to obey his own views. So, what is a Christian to do in the midst of these threats? I believe Christians must resist these growing fascist tendencies in our country and our local communities. We must repudiate political movements that, under the guise of Christianity, move in authoritarian directions. We have been failing at this for years, currently allowing corporations to control their employees' reproductive health, for instance. We must turn from this and once more embrace the tenets of liberty and the dignity of each person on which America was truly founded, not the fascist false narrative.Christians also, believing in the dignity of every human being, must repudiate the ways in which these groups deal with race along with sexual and gender identity. The fascists want to scapegoat these people, calling Black Lives Matter protestors thugs and trying to pull books about queer kids from libraries. Christians must turn from those fascist tendencies and stand up on the side of minorities who are created in God's image, just as much as anyone else. It's kind of a scary time in America right now. We must wake up to the threat posed by these growing fascist ideologies and join together, conservative and liberal, religious and non-religious, and resist these attempts to remake our country in the image of far-right fascism. In particular, as Christians, we must stand up and be advocates, otherwise those who have too small of a voice today may have no voice tomorrow.  Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Like many of you, I've been watching the escalating events in Ukraine and Russia with a fair amount of anxiety. Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding several things, including a promise for NATO never to expand eastward to countries like Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Russian troops have amassed on Ukraine's borders, ignoring calls from the US and NATO allies to remove them. And, since it was only a few years ago that Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the threat of a new invasion seems very real. So, I thought this week might be a good one to break some of the myths surrounding Christianity and war—and, in particular, to look at the theory of just war as it might apply to this situation. Though Just War theory goes back to Greco-Roman philosophy, it was best laid out in in a Christian understanding by Augustine of Hippo, and then later by Thomas Aquinas. In “Just War” theory, there is a hesitance regarding the inherent violence of war while also recognizing that sometimes it is the lesser of two evils. In the view of Aquinas, a just war must be waged by a lawful government, for a just cause due to a wrong done to those being attacked. The waging of a just war must also have a just intent to promote good and avoid evil. Aquinas was also clear that war should always be the last resort, done in the pursuit of justice. And later developments have also made it clear that there must be a probability of success and that non-combatants must be protected. When Putin invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, he sent unmarked troops into the region and fomented a civil war that cost over 14,000 lives. Russia was slapped with economic sanctions, but little else. The Minsk protocol effectively gave half of the Crimean region to Russia as reward for his belligerence. Not Putin wants the rest of the territory, the regions that were given back to Ukraine in 2014. As I said, he demands a promise that Ukraine never enter the NATO alliance and is further demanding that NATO withdraw all forces from Romania and Bulgaria, both NATO member countries. Under Just War theory, wars of conquest are illegal war, with Russia's desire to control the entire Crimean region being an example of just such an attempted conquest. Ukraine is a victim of this aggression, and her allies are justified under Christian just war theory to use force to protect her, if negotiations fail and Russia does invade. In the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, Ukraine gave up all of her nuclear weapons from her Soviet days to Russia, in exchange for a promise from Russia that Ukraine's borders and territorial independence would be protected. Russia has clearly broken those promises. As John Davenport, professor of philosophy at Fordham University argued in a recent essay, the United States cannot betray and abandon Ukraine. We must demand the immediate removal of forces that threaten this country and be clear that if these forces are not removed by a hard timeline, Ukraine will immediately be invited into the NATO alliance. We must be clear that if Ukraine is invaded again, that the US and NATO will send in forces to protect the innocent citizens of that country. As Davenport says near the end of his essay, “Peace, as the aim of just wars, should not be the false peace of life under tyranny.”As a Christian, like many of you, I have lived through a good amount of wars at this point, a good amount of conflicts that, in the end, many Christian leaders have regarded as unjust. Both the invasion of Iraq and the occupation of Afghanistan were deeply problematic from a just war standpoint. It has seemed at times that our country is not really concerned about protecting non-combatants and citizens. And so, Christians have spoken up and have urged an end to violence. I have joined them in those calls. But protecting the weak and the vulnerable is central to Christian teaching and our siblings in Christ in Ukraine are hoping their western neighbors will stand up and defend them, that we will not fall back in a fear of war that would enable the tyranny of Putin to expand. We must never forget that that it was the hesitancy of many Christians toward war against Hitler that enabled his aggression to go unchecked until it was almost too late. Putin has demonstrated he will not stop on his own. We must force him to stop, or the peace under which we live will be a false peace caused by massive injustice and oppression.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. This past Sunday, one of the appointed Scripture readings in the lectionary cycle of our church was from the book of Nehemiah. The Hebrew Bible has been a love of mine since my undergraduate major of Biblical Studies. It currently fuels my Monday Night Introduction to the Hebrew Bible class that I teach at the church and on Zoom (you can join us at 6pm on most Mondays at sjegh.com/zoom). So, I took the opportunity this past Sunday to tell some of the story of Nehemiah. And one of the key points of the story of Nehemiah is something I'd like to share with you this week, a myth I'd like to break. And it's this: it's OK to find out you are wrong. In the time of Nehemiah, the Jewish people had been spending decades trying to rebuild their nation, their capital city of Jerusalem, and their temple following their return from exile in Babylon. Nehemiah was sent by the king of Persia to be the governor of Judah and he was massively successful. One of my favorite parts of Nehemiah's story is that when he discovered the Jewish nobility were oppressing the poor, he forced the cancellation of all debts and mortgages.Thankfully, Nehemiah didn't have to get a legislature of the rich to agree with him on that one.In the readings from this past Sunday, from Nehemiah 8, the people of Judah gather, and the priest Ezra reads them the entire law once more. When the people hear the law, the weep and mourn because they realize how far they have strayed from God's intentions for them. But Nehemiah tells them not to weep, he tells them to rejoice, to go on their way, to eat the fat and drink sweet wine, because the joy of the Lord is their strength. I think the experience of the people in Nehemiah's time is something many of us can resonate with. It's hard for anyone to realize you are wrong, but it seems particularly hard for religious people to acknowledge they had been wrong about something. It's probably because your faith is so close to your heart, that it feels vulnerable and threatening to watch a piece of it change… but we have to remember what Nehemiah said, our strength can never be found in how perfectly we believe or how tightly we cling to our opinions. Our strength should be in the joy of a God who is always inviting us to ask if God's love and justice are pushing us to think and act differently today. I think back to when I changed my mind about the role of women in the church. In my upbringing, the evangelical church I went to divided over whether or not a woman could lead prayers out loud in a home when men were present. I was deeply opposed to the arguments of those in the other side. I was raised in a house of just my mom and my sisters for much of my life, I knew the importance of the voice of women and requiring their silence just seemed fundamentally un-Christian. But at the same time, when I was in college, I was kind of a moderate. I was in favor of expanded roles for women but anxious about division in the church. Then I read Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” where he says the white moderate is the actual true obstacle in the fight for freedom, because the moderate prefers order to justice. I felt horrible. I felt like the people in Nehemiah's time. Dr. King had helped me hear the law of God's love and justice, and it was like I heard it for the first time and discovered that I was on the wrong side of God's goodness in this world. I repented. I changed. And now I can say that the most powerful clergy in my own life have almost always been those who are women—their gifts have blessed me profoundly. The church tends to drag its feet when God calls it to reform… and there is a cost to this refusal to admit we are wrong and change.The church continues to drag its feet in bringing about a truly anti-racist society, and so Sunday remains the most segregated hour of the year and systemic racism still plagues our nation, claiming the bodies of people of color to hate and fear. The church continues to drag its feet on ensuring women have a full and equal place in the church and the world. And so, the Equal Rights Amendment that was first proposed in 1923, that was sent to states for ratification nearly fifty years later in 1972, that amendment has still not been ratified as the 28th Amendment to the constitution. I mean, heck, there are still states in our country where a wife does not legally have to consent to sex with her husband.  And the church continues to drag its feet on LGBTQIA+ Christians, resulting in a whole generation which has rejected the church as clearly immoral on basic grounds of the way you treat a fellow human being, a dragging of feet which has claimed the lives of countless young people who have died by suicide after the hate they heard in their church. A Christian should never be afraid of being wrong. Indeed, Christians should always be asking if God is calling them to repent, to change, if God's calling for their church to reform closer to God's love and justice in this world. After all, the path to true joy in this world is the path of trust in God's call to you to make that joy manifest in the lives of every human being. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. At my congregation we have a tradition on Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Day that we've kept for several years now. We invite people to sign up to read from his sermons, letters, and other writings, with half-hour shifts all day long from 9am until 7pm. Members of the community are then invited to come to the church throughout the day and listen to the words of Dr. King, or to watch the readings happen live on our church Facebook page.One of the gifts of this practice to me is that it has exposed me much more to the depth of Dr. King's writings. Whereas before, like many, my greatest familiarity was with his “I have a dream” speech and his profound and convicting “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In reality, though, Dr. King wrote on many other subjects, including capitalism,  socialism, the military industrial complex, nuclear proliferation, and the war on Vietnam, just to name a few.I'm also aware that probably most everyone in our own day and age has some respect and even reverence for Dr. King. But he was actually a controversial and even polarizing figure before his death. So I would imagine that if many people, particularly those on the right, read more of his works they might find themselves uncomfortable with the positions he took, maybe they might even ask themselves whether their own politics align with justice as Dr. King understood it. So, in honor of Dr. King's holiday, this week I'd like to break the myth of the gentle Dr. King of mythology by sharing with you some of his quotes that I have found particularly compelling and insightful, quotes that might even encourage you reconsider some of your own views on important questions that still face us today.The first is from his speech, Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution, “I am convinced that [the Vietnam] is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. Our involvement in the war in Vietnam has torn up the Geneva Accord. It has strengthened the military-industrial complex; it has strengthened the forces of reaction in our nation. It has put us against the self-determination of a vast majority of the Vietnamese people, and put us in the position of protecting a corrupt regime that is stacked against the poor. It has played havoc with our domestic destinies. This day we are spending five hundred thousand dollars to kill every Vietcong soldier. Every time we kill one we spend about five hundred thousand dollars while we spend only fifty-three dollars a year for every person characterized as poverty-stricken in the so-called poverty program, which is not even a good skirmish against poverty.”How prescient his words proved to be, as the military-industrial complex is far stronger now than it was in Dr. King's time. After all, in fiscal year 2021, we had a total defense budget of $753.5 billion. That means we are spending $2,287 per year per citizen on defense spending in our country. By contrast, we spend less than a third of that, only spend $212 billion dollars on programs that provide assistance to those in poverty. This point is particularly important as we watch Washington DC refuse to extend a Child Tax Credit which lowered the poverty rate among children by 16%-13%, effectively keeping 3 million children out of poverty, particularly Black and Latino children. Finally, as we continue to wrestle with the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, I'd like to draw your attention to this quote from The Other America, “But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay.”I'd encourage you to take some time and read from these and other lesser-known works of Dr. King. He has much to teach us, so much to say, particularly when it comes to, as he put it in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice. We have much more to learn from him… and much more to do.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Let's talk about weed. Yep, just when you thought your local progressive pastor couldn't move any farther to the left. Here I am.Now, I bring this question up because of a local medicinal facility in our own community here in Grand Haven, New Standard. They are asking for the city to move forward with allowing recreational marijuana. City leaders are debating the question (and you can guess I weighed in, never one to keep my mouth shut). But as these sorts of changes continue in our country, I thought this would be a good time to break some of the myths surrounding marijuana and what Christians might think about its use and the law surrounding it.Interestingly enough, the question of recreational marijuana use is increasingly one of the few issues in our country that is not really based as much on a partisan divide anymore. Instead, individual views seem to be based much more upon generational perceptions. According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, 91% of Americans now believe marijuana should be legal, either for medicinal use only (31%) or for both medicinal and recreational use (60%). True, progressives generally do favor legalization more, with 95% of Democrats in favor of either recreational or medicinal use, but that is not much more than the 87% of all Republicans who agree. Indeed, nearly half of all Republicans (47%) explicitly  favor the legalization of recreational marijuana use.As I said, the disagreement in our country right now is much more based upon age and generation. For example, 70% of adults under 29 favor legalization of recreational marijuana. That number decreases by age, until you get to those who are over 75, of whom only 32% support the legalization of recreational marijuana.Personally, I believe the current status of marijuana in our country can be likened to another ban on an intoxicating substance one hundred years ago: the prohibition on alcohol. Prohibition then didn't stop people from drinking, it instead drove alcohol underground where it fostered a criminal empire of producers meeting a demand that would not be stopped. The worry expressed by some in our own city leadership is that approval of recreational sales in Grand Haven will make it easier for marijuana to get to area kids. This concern, though, doesn't really make sense when you look at the evidence. From 1975-2012, 80-90% of 12th graders consistently reported that marijuana was either “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain. However, oddly enough after legalization began, those numbers began to drop and for the first time the perception of availability has now dropped below 80%. Which actually makes sense if you think about it. If you walk into New Standard in Grand Haven, you will meet a friendly person at the welcome desk who will check IDs (and, currently, medical cards) before you can go through a second door into their show-room. However, when the mechanism for purchase is illegal and on the black market, there is nothing to keep it away from teenagers. There is also no government data to indicate that reformed marijuana laws have led to any increased use by teenagers. There is really only fear. And we must make decisions based upon facts, not upon fear. Before I close, I'd like to say a little bit as to why I, as a Christian priest, am talking about this issue. First, all of the data I've said seems reasonable and compelling to me, no matter someone's faith commitments. However, as a Christian, I am concerned about more. In particular, I am concerned with equity and justice. And the current system is unjust. A study by the ACLU found that African-Americans are 3.6 times more likely than whites to be arrested for possession, despite similar usage rates. Beyond that, marijuana is far safer than many other medications people take on a regular basis, particularly when it comes to chronic pain, mood disorders, and the effects of chemotherapy. As a Christian, compassion would urge me to make that access by adults easier, not harder. To me, marijuana is similar to alcohol—it's a mind altering substance that can be abused and misused, but which should not be illegal. Even St. Paul encouraged a little wine now and then for his protégé, Timothy's, stomach. And, to be honest, I have a feeling he would have said the same thing about gummies. Let's finally get rid of the approach of prohibition, an approach that has failed and is actually more dangerous to kids. Instead, let's talk about responsible adult use. Let's support studies about the long-term impact of marijuana use, particularly when it comes to regulated and consistent commercial products instead of street drugs. Let's do that so that we can know what risks are involved.To be clear, I'm not promoting the use of marijuana. Like with any mind-altering substance, there are risks. I do, however, think it is a decision—like the use of alcohol or other important choices—that's  best left in the hands of responsible adults. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. As the church continues walking through the Twelve Days of Christmas (yes, despite what you may assume, given the number of Christmas Trees already thrown to the street for recycling, we are still in the midst of Christmas), much of the world has turned its sight toward the New Year. Depending on whether you hear this on Wednesday or Sunday, you will either be hearing this a few days before New Year's or a few days afterwards. If you're like me, maybe you struggle a little bit with your New Year's Resolutions, perhaps having entirely given up on them. You wouldn't be alone, that's for sure. But, whether or not you make New Year Resolutions, I wanted to take a moment this week and break some of the myths surrounding the resolve we have when it comes to making changes in our lives. Whatever resolution I come up with, in the years I do make a resolution, whether it is consistently to go to the gym at least three times a week, to cut down on fast food, or to take a shot at a dry January… Man, I sometimes feel like the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Romans. In Chapter 7, he writes, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”The struggle with choosing the good and avoiding the wrong is one that has perplexed Christians and engaged theologians since the first century. An English monk in the fourth century named Pelagius dealt with the struggle by insisting that what was needed was, quite simply, for Christians to try harder. He was disappointed by the moral laxity of other Christians, particularly in Rome, blaming their moral laxity on their understanding of divine grace. He insisted they were using grace as a ticket not to try to be better Christians, that humans actually could, through their own nature, choose the good and resist the bad, that we had the strength within us, the resolve, to do what we should do. You may be surprised to find out that the church responded to the teachings of Pelagius by insisting they were heretical, contrary to the fundamental claims of the Christian faith. One of the strongest critics of Pelagius was the great African bishop, St. Augustine of Hippo. Augustine insisted that, contrary to the teachings of Pelagius, God does not redeem us according to our own merit but instead out of God's love and forgiveness for us. Furthermore, Augustine insisted that we are not capable of living a sinless life on our own but that, instead, it is only the grace of God which enables us to grow and change and become more Christlike.So, what does this all have to do with New Year's Eve? Well, a few things. First off, the fact that you find it so hard to do the good you want and avoid the bad is because of the brokenness of your human nature. It's not you yourself that's somehow worse than everyone else. We were created good, but from the beginning humanity has chosen poorly. So, it's  not surprising that few resolutions last much past those first weeks of January.And if you are doing a New Year's Resolution because you view yourself as deficient, or somehow less than… I'd caution you against that. I mean, remember, despite our inner will being somewhat broken, God looks at you and declares you as beloved. Yes, God looks at you, with all your struggles and failures, and loves you precisely as you are. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less, and there is nothing you can do (including keeping all those resolutions) to make God love you more. Now, at the same time, resolutions to change your life, not only at New Year's but anytime, these are a fundamental part of Christianity. Christianity is indeed about all of us trying to be more like Jesus. But changes in your life come after you are able to accept how much God loves you, that God forgives you when you fail. It is when we exit the shame spiral that we so often put ourselves in, that we are able to approach resolutions differently. Because then you are approaching your resolutions, not just with the resolve of your own will, kind of white-knuckling it, but instead you are approaching your resolutions with the grace of the Holy Spirit active in your life, strengthening your will when it becomes weak. You cannot do this on your own. But with the grace of God working within you, and with a supportive community of faith that calls out the best in you, you can, little by little, bit by bit, become more like Jesus, become more merciful, more just, and more faithful. The trick isn't to try harder, though. The trick is to open yourself more fully to God's love and grace, and to trust that God's love and grace truly are enough. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. In his Christmas Message, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, drew our attention to a campaign that  our church put out in the late 1930s. Refugees were fleeing tyranny, evil, injustice, bigotry, and hatred in Europe in the lead-up to World War II. Our church, alongside of other Christians and Jewish people in the United States, worked to save as many refugees as they could—though history is clear that we failed in doing as much as was needed.To generate support for the work, our church created a poster of the Holy Family. Mary is holding the baby Jesus in her arms while riding a donkey, with Joseph walking with them. The line at the bottom of the poster said, “In the name of these refugees, aid all refugees.”With that in mind, I thought this special Christmas Mythbusters would be a good time to try to break through some of the sentimentality of Christmas to get at the heart of the matter—particularly as it relates to refugees.After all, Christians often forget that the Holy Family was indeed a refugee family. They lived under an oppressive and violent regime and fled across borders to Egypt in the hope of finding safety from the murderous rage of King Herod. Our Lord told us, once he grew up, that what we do for the least of these we do for him, which means our faithfulness as disciples of Jesus rests, in part, in our ability to perceive Christ in the vulnerable, oppressed, and marginalized, and to do something about it.  The United Nations Refugee agency has tracked 82.4 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their home, with 26.5 million of them being identified as refugees. Of that number, about half are children under the age of 18. Eighty-six percent of all refugees are hosted in developing countries and sixty-eight percent of all refugees come from just five countries: the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar.  Before the Trump Administration, our country was a leader in responding to refugees around the world, offering refuge to more people than all other nations combined. However, the previous administration drastically reduced those numbers and imposed new security vetting which leaves many refugees in dangerous situations for prolonged periods of time as they wait for their applications to be processed. President Biden increased the cap that President Trump had set, moving it from 15,000 refugees to 62,500 refugees. In September, he pledged to increase that cap to 125,000 refugees. However, President Biden has not yet reformed the policies and practices of our refugee system, nor has he dedicated significant resources and personnel to streamline the application process. For that reason, only 7,500 refugees have been resettled under his administration as of this past fall, far below his initial cap of 62,500. As we consider the celebration of our Lord's Nativity on Christmas, we would do well to reflect upon the point of the incarnation. In the Christ-child, God chose not only to take on human nature, but also to located himself among the vulnerable. And throughout his ministry, when Jesus encountered injustice and marginalization, he acted. He told an oppressed people that when somebody smacks you on the cheek, you stand up and offer the other cheek, claiming your own humanity and dignity against those who would demean you. He sent the religious away in shame when they tried to make him complicit in the stoning of a woman caught in adultery (notice, they didn't bother bringing the man). Jesus cleansed the temple when the Court of the Gentiles was turned into a marketplace, insisting it should be a house of prayer for all nations.As we celebrate a holy family who lived as refugees, I hope that Christians of all traditions will find themselves inspired to work anew for the plight of refugees in our world today. After all, Democrats do like to campaign on moral issues like these, but it will take the will of the people pushing them hard to get those in leadership to make substantive changes to the systems that contribute to the current refugee crisis. In the name of these refugees—Joseph, Mary, and Jesus—let us aid all refugees. And if you'd like to take some time right now to make a difference in the life of refugees you can go to episcopalmigrationministries.org and find a variety of ways that you can take action and make a difference. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. The United States Supreme Court has decided to let stand an abortion law in Texas which bans abortion after six weeks and allows any private citizen to sue a doctor or other individual helping someone get an abortion. The Court did agree that abortion providers could sue the state for this law, but as that works is way through the judicial system, abortion in Texas is now effectively banned after six weeks, which is before may women even know they are pregnant. At the same time, we are also awaiting a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a suit based on a law in Mississippi that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, contrary to prior Supreme Court precedent which has long held the point of viability of the fetus as the point at which abortion can be banned. All of this makes today a good day to break some of the myths out there about what Christians can and cannot believe when it comes to abortion. This is important because much of the so-called “right-to-life movement” rests upon modern political and philosophical arguments and not upon the actual Biblical witness.Now, I want to be clear; abortion is a massively tragic choice that women face. My own denomination, The Episcopal Church, spoke clearly in a 1994 resolution that “all human life is sacred from its inception until death.” At the same time, the resolution was clear that legislation will not address the root cause of abortions. Our church expressed “its unequivocal opposition to any legislative, executive or judicial action on the part of local, state or national governments that abridges the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of pregnancy or that would limit the access of a woman to safe means of acting on her decision.”The position  of my church rests upon an acknowledgement that the biblical witness on the question of abortion reflects a nuance when it comes to the questions of personhood and the sanctity of life. Those who claim that a fetus is the equivalent to a human being from a moral and ethical standpoint cannot make that claim based on Scripture. Exodus 21:22–25, for example, is clear that if violence causes a miscarriage, the penalty is different than if you murder someone. Numbers 5 describes a ritual a woman must go through if she is accused of adultery, where the priest gives her something called “the water of bitterness.” And if she has committed adultery, the water will “make your uterus drop, your womb discharge.” Both of these texts absolutely reflect the patriarchy of the time. In the Exodus text, for example, the husband determines the punishment for the loss of the fetus and there is not any corresponding violent ritual a for a man accused of adultery in the book of Numbers. Thankfully, given the fulfillment of the law through Jesus Christ, we are no longer bound by these commandments. Instead, Jesus told us that love of God and love of neighbor is the principle upon which all laws must rest. So, the question for the Christian is what does love of God and love of neighbor require of us? What does a true respect for the sanctity of life require? First, it requires respecting the sanctity and personhood of every woman. That means that when a woman is faced with a tragic and difficult circumstance, the church should support her , help her make her own informed decision about what is best. And then, after she makes that decision, the church should walk alongside of her. The second thing a Christian should do is advocate for policies that reduce the number of abortions in our country. I mean, let's be clear, countries with the most restrictive laws on abortion also actually have the highest rates of abortion. Instead it is policies like increased access to healthcare and birth control that actually results in far fewer abortions. For example, a Contraceptive CHOICE project in St. Louis gave women free contraceptive counseling and the contraception of their choice and the average annual abortion rate among participants was .97%—compared with the 4.2%, the rate of sexually active teens. If this court does strike down Roe v. Wade, the lives of women in our country will be put at risk. Abortions laws will immediately take effect that will restrict access, which will increase the danger to women. And Christians will be complicit in the lives lost by this change. Make no mistake, a true value of the sanctity of all life—including the lives of women—means that we must not use laws or courts to strip women of the ability to make this incredibly difficult choice. It's cruel and the cost will be high. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Like many of you, I'm sure, I was distraught to hear the news of the shooting at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. That school is actually not far from Rochester University, where I did my undergraduate studies, and I have several friends who are alumna. My heart goes out to all those who have been impacted, as well as to families in our own area trying to keep their heads above water with our schools now shut down out of an abundance of caution while local threats are being investigated.As seems to happen every time there is a shooting, we've seen the same arguments for and against gun control pop on up social media, everyone rehearsing the same old lines. We send up thoughts and prayers to help our kids, when what they really need are policies and action. So, this week I thought I'd try to break some of the myths that persist in American Christianity about God, Guns, and what it really means to protect others. Our country does have a strange love affair—some might say an addiction—to guns. Americans own half of all guns in the world, even though we are only 5% of the world's population. And at this point, it's pretty clear that both race and religion are factors that influence gun ownership. In 2020, an article was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion called “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Gun Ownership.” They found that for many white evangelicals, owning a gun stems from their felt need to protect their families from a sense of threat. White evangelicals are not only more likely to own a gun, they are also less likely to support gun control. Some people have been trying to change that though. Activist Shane Claiborne published a book in 2019 called Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence. Since that time, he has gone around the country, organizing events where people turn in their guns which are then melted down and turned into farming implements. He does this drawing from the words of the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, who imagines that in the end, when God heals all things, “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks.” And it's not only a question of violence against others. Of the nearly 40,000 gun related deaths in America each year, more than half are the result of suicide. Claiborne also points out that the idea of safety is really a myth. For every one gun used in self-defense, six more are used to commit a crime. Keeping a gun in your own home means that you or someone in your family is 12 times more likely to be injured by that gun than you are to use that gun to protect them. Claiborne sees the question as a simple one: guns are violent and we are followers of a prince of peace who urged us to turn the other cheek and engage instead in non-violent resistance against evil and injustice. So, Christians shouldn't have guns. No I should be clear—I'm not anti-gun. I don't go quite as far as Claiborne does. I happen to own two guns myself, both used for hunting. My dad was a member of the National Rifle Association back before that organization got as crazy and aggressive as it has in recent years. But, our love affair with guns needs to end so that we can start coming up with plans and policies to make our country safer. Gun manufacturers have been expert at weaving the myth of the essentiality of the freedom to own any and all guns out there, and they have co-opted the Christian desire to protect others in order to increase their own bottom line.There are steps, clear steps, we can take to make our world safer, to make our kids safer. And many of these steps have strong support in our country. A Fox News poll two years ago found that 90% of respondents favor universal background checks, 81% support taking guns from individuals who are at risk, and 67% favor banning assault weapons.And for the kids who died in Oxford? A law that requires gun owners to store guns in a locked container or disable them with a trigger lock when not in use or being worn on their person… that would have stopped that senseless violence. And since statistics indicate that 46% of gun owners in the US who have children don't secure their weapons, it's only so long before we return to this cycle of violence and grief.Jesus told us that the peacemakers would be blessed by God. We need some peacemakers in the world today, that's for sure, some people that will work together to make our country a safer place for all people, who will reach across the lines and find solutions that can save lives.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas…According to stores, Christmas has been almost here since before Halloween. But for many families, the first weekend after Thanksgiving marks the true beginning of the holiday season. I know I talked my wife into beginning our own decorating, though I couldn't convince her to go with me to the Christmas Tree Farm… not yet.Part of the reason for that is that our family leaves our tree up for the entire Christmas season—which actually only begins on December 25 and lasts until the Twelfth Day of Christmas, January 5. However, aware that that may confuse some of you, I thought this would be a good week to break the myth of the idea that it's already Christmas by talking a little bit about the gift of the Season of Advent. Advent always begins four Sundays before the Christmas holiday. In some churches, Advent is kind of an extended experience of the Christmas season. There are candles on a wreath named for such gentle and heartwarming concepts as hope, peace, joy, and love. But traditionally, that's not what the Advent season is like. Instead, Advent is a darker season, a season that is meant to prepare us for the celebrations of Christmas, one in which we are invited to cast off our sins and prepare for the coming of Christ. In fact, traditionally the themes for the four Sunday of Advent are known as the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. In Advent, however, the darkness of our world is met with the light and power of the Gospel, and that means the Four Last Things are profoundly important opportunities to see how the good news of God interacts with the Last Things of Christian theology.Let's give it a shot.We believe in death. Which is to say, we believe we will all die someday. True, for the Christian we believe life is changed, not ended, but in a world where we seem to deny the reality of our mortality, a reminder that we are all indeed mortal is important. That doesn't mean we chase death (get that vaccine, folks!), but it also means we do not look at death as the end. It also means that we take very seriously our responsibility not to hasten someone else's death through our own choices (once more, get the vaccine, Christians killing people by not being vaccinated during a pandemic is the antithesis of the Christian faith!). As Christians we also believe in judgment. Don't get me wrong, we believe God's judgment is always tempered by God's mercy. I know I believe that in the end, all those who chose God will find God, that God's love will heal all things. But when we acknowledge the brokenness of this world, we must also acknowledge the importance of believing in God's judgment, believing that God's justice will make right those things in this world that have been broken by sin, selfishness, violence, hate, and systems of oppression. Salvation means nothing—particularly to those who are marginalized and powerless—if it doesn't also involve God's justice being made manifest in people's real lives.Heaven, the third of the Last Things, is a bit easier for people to believe in. But heaven is not about pearly gates and mansions. It's not the place where good people get to go when they die. Heaven is about the final healing of all things, of finally being in new and perfect relationship with God and all creation. Heaven is about all things being made new, all things being brought to their perfection through God's love. And in the end, you don't go to heaven because you earned it, you go because you've been willing to be embraced by God's love and forgiveness.And just like belief in Judgment and the justice of God is essential, the fourth Last Thing, Hell, is also an important part of Christian theology. I often say that Hell has to exist to preserve free choice. People must have the freedom to choose an eternity with God (also known as heaven) or an eternity without God (best understood as hell). However, the early Church, along with my own Anglican tradition, has taught that even in hell we do not lose the ability to change that choice and so even those who reject God in this life can still choose God in the life to come. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, for people like that hell was actually purgatory, the difficult place where they finally learned to choose God.Which is why I know I believe that, at the end of eternity, given the power of God's love, hell will find itself empty as all things are brought together in Christ.This is what the season of Advent is about: God's light entering the real and difficult places of our world, of our mortal existence, in small and yet powerful ways. So, don't just celebrate Christmas early these next few weeks. Instead, look into the darkness of this world but find yourself held by God's love. That's an Advent that will truly prepare you for the real joy of Christmas. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. It's Thanksgiving week, a time set aside each year to gather with family and friends and give thanks for the blessings of life. With the lockdown of last year, many chose to stay home for Thanksgiving, celebrating in smaller and safer gatherings. COVID-19 numbers in Michigan are now higher than they were back then, though, making it difficult to decide what is the best way to celebrate safely. However your family chose to celebrate, I do hope that you stay safe. At the same time, with familiar images of Puritans and Native Americans blissfully sharing food together, this week is always a good week to bust some of the myths surrounding the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday. Last year I suggested an excellent book for those who want to learn more about this history. It's by David Silverman and is called This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. In it, Silverman lays out much that we have learned about that original Thanksgiving, much that had been covered up by myth and historical inaccuracy. He's also clear about how the continued retelling of the Thanksgiving myth wounds not only the still existing Wampanoag Indians (and yes there are still some), but all Native people who see their history erased by quaint and invented stories.So, let's start by clearing up a few things. First off, for at least 12,000 years, if not longer, the Native American people lived in this country, long before anyone from Europe got here. By the time the Mayflower arrived, this was not the first contact, either. There had been a century of contact between Native people and the Europeans. And it wasn't the kind and gentle engagement of brave explorers and Native people. Instead, it was more often bloody slave raiding by the Europeans. When the pilgrims arrived, some of the Native people already spoke English and had even been to Europe and back. I know I was taught that the pilgrims came to our country for religious freedom. These 17th century Christians were religious non-conformists who rejected the English state church of Anglican Christianity. As an Episcopalian, and a member of the Anglican Communion, that means it's kind of my church that ran them out of England. What they wanted was a more Calvinist understanding of the Christian faith than was found in Anglicanism. So, first, they left England for Holland (where they did indeed encounter religious freedom), but then they came to America for the hope—not of religious freedom—but the hope instead of establishing a puritan colony.You see, they were not interested in religious freedom for anyone other than themselves. They certainly rejected the religious freedom of the Native people, who they viewed as heathens. The Puritans of Massachusetts believed they were building a “city on a hill” in the words of Puritan leader John Winthrop. But there could be no dissent from their puritan views in this city on a hill. They wanted a theocracy where their own perspectives on Christianity would govern all things and all people. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, members of the original Puritan community, were banished following disagreements over theology and policy. Roman Catholics were banned. Quakers were actually hung in Boston for standing up for their religious beliefs. So, it wasn't so much religious freedom as it was religious control.When it comes to the Native people, the story is also very different. The specific tribe that those early pilgrims got to know was the Wampanoag people. And, true, there is evidence of a harvest feast of some sort in 1621, the year after the arrival of the Mayflower with the Wampanoag and the Puritans. But both Native people and European societies had been celebrating harvest festivals for sometime. It wasn't until the 19th century, really, that a Thanksgiving holiday as we know it was officially established. And that first relationship between the Wampanoag and the Puritans was actually a military relationship. The Wampanoag had reached out to the English at Plymouth in the hope of an alliance to help them in their ongoing battles against the Narragansett. You see, they had already been decimated by a pandemic (one likely brought to them by the Europeans) and this kind of relationship was one of their last hopes. And unfortunately, even if there was a shared harvest celebration at the beginning, during the next fifty years the Europeans responded by stealing Wampanoag land, spreading European disease, and exploiting their natural resources. That Thanksgiving Myth became one of the pillars of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the belief that God had given American settlers the land of North America to take for their own, a doctrine that was the used to justify over a hundred years of genocide against Native people. So, our bounty came at a price. Maybe take a moment during this holiday to reflect. Remember our history honestly. Ask how you can make right the wrongs done by those who came before you. And look for ways to break down the systems today, systems which oppress people, producing bounty only for the privileged few. I think that's the sort of Thanksgiving that Jesus would appreciate. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. As I write this week's episode, deliberations have just begun in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse for homicide in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, along with the gunshot injury to Gaige Grosskreutz. Alongside of Rittenhouse's trial, we have been watching the prosecution make its case against Greg McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who chased down Ahmaud Arbery before Travis McMichael allegedly shot him (supposedly) in self-defense. Both of these trials are tremendously polarizing and have resulted in significant pressure on all sides of the political aisle. They involve questions of gun rights, self-defense, freedom of speech, freedom to protest, among a host other questions… not the least of which are the persistent realities of racism in our country. This is all seen in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement,  the continued controversies surrounding that movement's condemnation of the continued deaths of people of color in our country. All that political heat can make it hard to see, sometimes. So, I'd like to take a moment, now, before I even know what the results of Rittehouse trial are or what the results of the trial of the men whose actions led to the death of Ahmed Arbery, I'd like to take a moment and talk about the church and the question of “Black Lives Matter.”Because we need to be honest, brutally honest, that one of the reasons our society does not seem to value black lives as much as the lives of white people is because of the ways in which Christianity supported and is complicit in narratives of white supremacy. The transatlantic slave trade was founded on Christianity. A series of popes in the fifteenth century argued for the enslavement of non-Christians as “an instrument for Christian conversion.” Thomas Aquinas drew from Aristotelian understandings of slavery to insist that the slave was the rightful and natural instrument and property of the owner. Christians merged Aquinas's understanding of the “natural slave” with the idea of Ham's curse in the Hebrew Bible, insisting (without any true proof in the text, I might add) that Africans had inherited that curse and that slavery was their natural state.And so it was that Christians insisted slaves should obey their master, that masters were at total freedom to punish—even kill—any slave that resisted. When the Civil War concluded, Christianity was a driving force behind segregation, insisting that this was a biblical principal and that the government must not infringe upon our freedoms… And so one of the founding principles of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups after the Civil War was their belief that they were protecting their Christian nation. And it's not just a question of Christian support of racism and slavery, it is also about the hesitance of the broader church to speak out and denounce those views when they occurred.In the book The Color of Compromise, author Jemar Tisby tells the story of what happened after four young girls were killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, during the Civil Rights Movement. A white lawyer got up in front of an all-white business club and asked them who was responsible for throwing the bomb. He then answered his own question, saying, “We all did it.” Tisby goes on, noting, “Every time that the white community—especially Christians—failed to confront racism in its everyday, mundane forms, they created a context of compromise that allowed for an extreme act of racial terror like planting dynamite at a church. That's the idea of complicity.”All of this Christian complicity with racism lies uncomfortably under the deaths of black people in our country right now. The church must own that history. The church must repent of that history. The church must do something to make right the history we have helped write.And in the trials currently happening in our country, Christians must demand justice. They must demand justice for a system that lets a cop go free when he shoots a twelve-year old black child who has a toy gun. A system that also seems to suggest that a seventeen-year old white boy with an assault weapon posed no threat.The reason it doesn't feel to many people like Black Lives Matter right now is because Christians have spent centuries saying they don't matter the same. Christians today must stand up and say, enough. Christians today must make good upon the calling of God to resist injustice, to affirm the dignity of every human being. If Christians cannot say Black Lives Matter and repent of our complicity in the sins of racism… then Christians should not be surprised if the rest of the modern world has no interest anymore in our religion. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Late last week, I read with interest the concerns of Detroit News columnist, Ingrid Jacques, who warned that “‘Fair and Equal' could unfairly harm faith-based work.” As a priest who has worked and served on the board of a variety of non-profits, both those that are and are not faith-based, I wanted to know what her concerns were.Her concerns, it seems, are about a petition circulated by a group called “Fair and Equal Michigan.” Their goal is to amend the state's current civil rights law—the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act—to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression as protected categories. It would also clarify that protections for religion are for “the religious beliefs of the individual.” A pretty significant 77% of Michigan citizens support this ballot proposal, which also has the support of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and former chairs of both the state Democratic and Republican party.  So, at this point, you might be asking, so what is Jacques so worried about with this bill? Her largest concern is the change to specifying the religious beliefs of an individual, limiting the protections of religious expression to say they wouldn't apply to a corporation, for example. She cites the suit Attorney General Dana Nessel filed against St. Vincent Catholic Charities and Bethany services, insisting that unless they would agree to place children with same-sex parent they could not contract with the state for state-provided adoption services. So, let's say it again, so everyone can hear. Freedom of religion is about your freedom to practice your religion—it is not about your freedom to insist other people follow the tenets of your religion. And it's not about your freedom as an organization to make people follow your tenets of religion. Let's see if we cannot do some work this week to try to break this persistent myth.The so-called cause of religious liberty in our country has gotten this principal backwards for too long. Instead, it is now legal for a Catholic hospital to infringe upon the right of a female employee to use birth control. Jacques believes it should be legal for a Christian adoption agency to infringe upon the rights of a same-sex couple, one who might, for example, be married in the Episcopal Church, to adopt children. How the rights of a gay couple in my church shouldn't be protected in her eyes doesn't make any sense to me.At any given time, there are 3,000 children in Michigan foster care who are available for adoption. Gay couples are four times more likely to be raising an adopted child and six-times more likely to be raising foster children than opposite-sex couples. Research has consistently indicated that children raised by LGBTQIA+ parents grow up just as successfully as children raised by opposite-sex couples. (And research has also shown that there is no correlation in the gender identity and sexual orientation of children raised by LGBTQIA+ parents—because, of course, being gay is not something you catch from your parents… I mean, you all know that, right?). Real freedom of religion would be the freedom of a gay couple to adopt a child, using the same resources a straight couple might use. For a religious adoption agency to refuse to place a child with a gay couple is the religious organization imposing their views upon the gay couple and removing that couple's freedom. It's discrimination. It has nothing to do with helping the thousands of kids looking for a home. And it has no place in the Christian church. I'm tired. I am tired of religious people attacking the religious rights of women and LGBTQIA+ individuals, insisting that their religion means that they can tell those people how to live, they can advocate for laws and policies that restrict their freedom, they can control the bodies of women and LGBTQIA+ persons. It is past time for other religious people to stand up and say no more discrimination in the name of religion. Practice your faith freely, do what you believe God is calling you to do as an individual—but don't think you have the freedom to tell someone else they must do what you believe as well. And, for the sake of Jesus and his plea that we allow the children to come to him, if you are an adoption agency, get those kids in a home. That gay couple who wants to love and care for an adopted child is not a threat to your religion, they are a way you can practice your religion more faithfully by helping kids find homes.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Halloween is coming! At least, that is what my five-year old daughter has told me almost every day for the past two weeks. But now, this weekend, the wait will be over, and all spooky ghosts and ghouls will be on the prowl either Saturday or Sunday, looking for some tricks or treats.When I was growing up as a Christian, though, Halloween was a bit… uneven. On one side of my family, Halloween was seen as the devil's holiday and there was great danger in observing it. On the other side, it was just fun to dress up, no matter the costume. One year, I dressed as the devil for Halloween, but then had to change costumes before going to the church Halloween party.So, I thought this might be a good week to break the myths surrounding Christianity and Halloween. When the month of October turns into November, the Western church celebrates a sacred time often called Allhallowtide. The term “Allhallowtide” is derived from two words in Old English, the word halig (which means holy and is a synonym for saint) and the word tide (which means time). The celebration of Allhallowtide begins on October 31stwith All Hallows Eve (the Eve of All Saints', often shortened to Hallowe'en). It then continues with All Saints' Day on November 1 and the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed (commonly known as All Souls' Day) on November 2. The way in which this sacred time is observed varies around the world, but most Christians see it as an opportunity to celebrate Christ's triumph over death and our continued bonds to our loved ones who have died. When we look at Christianity in the British Isles in the Middle Ages, we see how these celebrations began interacting with the pagan Celtic holiday of Samhain, which fell each year in early November. Samhain marked the time at which the harvest had ended, and the days began growing darker. The Celtic people believed that during this time the boundaries between our world and the world of the dead thinned. The souls of the dead would even revisit their homes, seeking hospitality. And so, people would set an extra place at the dinner table to welcome them. Throughout the Middle Ages, the importance of these festivals spread throughout Europe. It was common to burn candles in your home in Austria and England to help guide souls back to their homes. In other countries, groups of poor people would travel door-to-door collecting soul cakes in exchange for praying for the dead. These traditions developed in Spain as well. In Spain, the tradition of bringing pan de ánimas (spirit bread) to the graves of loved ones was an important part of All Souls' Day. Christians would also cover the graves of loved ones with flowers and light candles to guide the departed home. As the Catholic Church arrived in Mexico with the sixteenth-century Conquistadors, they brought with them Spanish and Catholic celebrations surrounding All Saints' and All Souls'. The Mesoamerican Indigenous celebrations of the dead in the fall began to blend with Spanish and Catholic traditions surrounding the saints and all faithful departed and before too long the modern Día de los Muertos was born. On Día de los Muertos, just like Samhain and All Souls' Day in Ireland and England, those who celebrate this sacred time believe the border between the spirit world and our world dissolves and the souls of the dead can return to the living world to once again commune with family members for a brief period.Today the sacred time of All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day is celebrated in many different ways in congregations across the church and in many denominations. You can find out more about this history, and especially about the observance of Día de los Muertos in a small booklet I wrote with our church's Office of Latino/Hispanic Ministries. It's online at http://sjegh.com/muertos.But, no matter your cultural background, there's no need to be scared or anxious about Christians observing Halloween. A good scary movie or a fright in a haunted house on Halloween tends to make you feel more alive, which can be a fun and good thing, giving you appreciation for the life you have which is, of course, a gift from God. Maybe also take some time during this sacred season to remember the great heroes of faith, to remember those you love who have died. Because the truth is that nothing—not death, not even ghosts and ghouls—can separate us from the love of God which binds us together in Christ. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. One of the best things about being a priest is that people invite you into these fascinating questions about God, the Bible, spirituality, and their lives. I had a conversation like that earlier this week. Someone had reached out who is searching and exploring, and she wanted to talk through things. We chatted for around a half hour, and it was delightful.As we were discussing questions of God and life, she brought up the story of the woman caught in adultery. The story is found in the seventh chapter of John, when a group of scribes and pharisees interrupt Jesus' teaching, bringing him a woman who they claim has been caught in the very act of adultery. The religious leaders tell Jesus that the punishment for this act is stoning and ask Jesus what to do. Jesus doesn't answer them. He bends down and writes with his finger on the ground. They persist, asking him and asking him what they should do. He responds, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then Jesus bends down again and writes on the ground some more. The religious leaders then went away, one by one, beginning with those who were the oldest, shamed by Jesus' question until no one was left but the woman and Jesus. And he straightens up and asks her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She responds, “No one, sir.” Jesus then tells her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”We were both struck by that last line, often translated as, “Go and sin more.” And so, this week, I'd like to break the myth of what it really means, sometimes, to turn from sin. Because I think that when we can find ourselves in places of stillness and quiet, places where we can practice the presence of Christ, we hear two messages over and over again. The first message is, “I love you, beloved child of God.” And the second message is, “Now go and sin no more.” It's unfortunate that so often we do not hear the first message, the message of God's love for us, a love that is entire and complete. As Brennan Manning used to say, there's nothing you can do to make God love you less… but there is also nothing you can do to make God love you more.But I think it's that second message, “Go and sin no more,” can be even more difficult to interpret and practice. If there is one thing I've learned as a priest hearing confession is that sometimes people don't really know what sin really is. I've had people come to me in confession and my response, at times, has been to tell them that the burden they are carrying isn't a sin. It's not even a burden they need to be carrying. In the end, when Jesus tells you, “Go and sin no more,” the concrete meaning of that call will be different depending on your own place in life.• For someone like me, with no shortage of opinions about things, Jesus' invitation to “Go and sin no more,” might be a call to me to hold my own opinions a bit more lightly, to listen to those with whom I disagree with more curiosity and empathy, to ask if I'm interested in proving I am write or if I am interested in learning more about God's call in this world. • If you're in the midst of a failing marriage, “go and sin no more” might mean to turn from a focus yourself, instead to give yourself to counseling, to the work needed to heal the marriage… or “go and sin no more” might mean it is time for you to go of that relationship, to exit a marriage that has become damaging and destructive, not to let the damage of the marriage continue. To sin no more might mean to let the marriage go so that God can bring new life to both you and your spouse.• If you're struggling with questions of gender or sexual identity, the call to “Go and sin no more,” might be a call from Jesus for you to exit the closet of self-hatred and shame, to go out of that closet and be who God created you to be as an LGBTQIA person. The call to sin no more might mean to let go of messages of self-hatred and to know that God loves you just as you are, and God wants you to have the same opportunities for holy relationships that straight people have. All of this reminds me of a new poem I came across a few weeks ago, by the poet Jay Hulme, it's called “Jesus at the Gay Bar" –He's here in the midst of it-right at the centre of the dance floor,robes hitched up to His kneesto make it easy to spin.At some point in the eveninga boy will touch the hem of His robeand beg to be healed, beg to beanything other than this;and He will reach his arm out,sweat-damp, and weary from dance.He'll cup this boy's face in His handand say,my beautiful childthere is nothing in this heart of yoursthat ever needs to be healed.Yeah, go and sin no more. Go and sin no more, beloved child of God. I don't know what that means for you today. But I know this, if you listen with your heart to God's love for you, you will know that the call to “go and sin no more” is always an invitation to freedom.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

A couple of weeks ago, another issue of people claiming the name of Christ while also acting contrary to the spirit of Jesus surfaced just north of Grand Haven, among our siblings in Muskegon. Fresh Coast Alliance, an organization that operates various homes for people transitioning from incarceration, in need of mentoring, and in need of outpatient substance abuse counseling, had a proposal for a 30-bed treatment center for women and men recovering from substance abuse rejected by Muskegon County commissioners. One of those who spoke against the facility, in particular, didn't like how, “they've used the face of a church as a front to accomplish their agenda.”

As a priest and pastor, I always wince at this reading, particularly given how it has so often been interpreted over the years, the way it has been used to wound those who have gone through the pain and trauma of a divorce. So today I'd like to break the myth of what Jesus really means when he talks about divorce.

I know there are several churches, of course, that do still restrict the role of women… and also that the church has long unfortunately been complicit in misogyny and patriarchy. So, I thought this week I'd try to break the myth that the Bible is anti-women. Because, you see, it's quite the opposite.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. A couple weeks ago at the 10am worship service at my parish, St. John's Episcopal here in Grand Haven, I did something I've never had to do before. I asked someone to leave our church property during a worship service. I've served in ministry in a few different areas around the country, including in the DC Metro area, so there have been times before that I've had to ask people to leave church property during the week because they were creating such a significant disturbance or danger, but I've never had to do it on a Sunday morning.The people I removed were not members of the church but were visitors who I did not know.The difficulty was that they refused to wear a face mask despite several remindersfrom various volunteers at the church about our parish's current policy. This was a particular problem because it was our first Mustard Seed Sunday since COVID-10—mustard seed Sundays are something we do where we put children at the center of the worship service—and we had told parents that they could bring in their unvaccinated children and know that every single person in the church, no matter vaccination status, would be wearing a facemask.But this couple, only a few pews away from children I knew were not yet vaccinated because they were too young, continued to take their masks off until, during a hymn, I asked them to please join me outside for a conversation. Once outside they became belligerent and increasingly disrespectful, and I began to worry for my safety and the safety of my flock. Even then they would not leave until I went to get my cell phone and call public safety for help.I tell this story because it is increasingly common right now to see people using their Christianity as a cover for blatantly disrespectful and dangerous behavior. And so, I'd like to try this week to break something I'm shocked is even a myth… the idea that it's OK for Christians to abuse and harass people, to ignore the dignity of their fellow humans. In the prayer book of the Episcopal Church, we have something called the Baptismal Covenant. It is a series of promises that mark our understanding of the shape of the Christian life, the way of living we commit to follow as disciples of Jesus. The final question in the Covenant is this, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” To which the candidate for Baptism responds, “I will, with God's help.”There is a profound lack, right now, among Christians in America, when it comes to showing respect for the dignity of every human being. Something as simple as wearing a face-covering so that parents can feel safer bringing unvaccinated children to church should not result in you standing outside the church and shouting at the priest about your rights being violated. In Ottawa County, crowds of people claiming to be Christians descended on a Board of Commissioners meeting, saying prayers and singing hymns while in the same breath heckling and harassing those who disagreed with them to the extent that people literally felt unsafe, and several decided not even to speak. In Grand Haven, both our Superintendent and the Chair of the School Board—a devoted public servant who has served faithfully for over two decades—resigned due to the harassment they've been experiencing. In Kent County, the Health Director had someone try to literally run him off the road on the interstate. Someone else told him that they hoped someone abused his children and made him watch.This is sickening. It is despicable. It is far from the call of a Christian to respect the dignity of every human being. In the third chapter of James, we read, “With the tongue we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”In the midst of all of this vitriol and this violent language and violent actions, Christian leaders in our area have been uncomfortably silent. I know it's been a hard year for many of them. I know they may be afraid of alienating segments of their congregation by speaking up and saying something. But what does it say that standing against this kind of bullying and violent behavior might alienate members of the church? What does that say about the state of Christianity right now? We must do better. Disagree, absolutely. Debate, please. But the hate speech, the violence, and the harassing even of the families of those with whom you disagree… this has nothing to do with the way of Christ. Christians and pastors must rise up and vocally denounce this sort of behavior or the cost to Christian witness (not to mention the cost to public servants just trying to do their jobs)… The cost will be incalculable.Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  The withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan, along with the collapse of the Afghanistan government and the resumption of control by the Taliban, has been a painful episode to watch play out over the past couple of weeks. So, as we all seek to respond to ongoing events in Afghanistan, I'd like to take this week to talk about the relationship of Christianity to war, maybe even breaking some myths you may have heard in the past. First, I believe our country could have done all of this better. At the same time, I'm grateful for the insight of an American history professor at Boston College, Heather Cox Richardson, who has provided some helpful analysis I'd like to share with you. The roots of the end of this war occurred when the Trump administration cut a deal with the Taliban in February of 2020, agreeing to release 5,000 imprisoned Taliban fighters and to leave the country by May of 2021. That's right, this is the deal the previous administration cut. And it was a deal that did not involve conversations with the US-backed Afghan government. When Biden took office in January, only 2,500 troops were left in the country. Biden had to decide whether to go with Trump's agreement or to begin a new troop surge in violation of the agreement, putting even more US service people at risk after twenty years of war. He delayed the exit date to the end of August (prompting Trump to publicly complain), but proceeded with the withdrawal. And, as we all know, the Afghan army crumbled in the past weeks. The Taliban has been restored to power, claiming victory over the United States. And the United States government is working on evacuating the remaining Americans in the country, several of whom are Afghan-Americans who are still unsure whether they want to leave or stay. The violence has not yet stopped. From the attack on the airport in Kabul to the United States attack on a suspected terrorist vehicle that killed ten civilians, including children, we are seeing more and more the horrible human cost of war, a cost that has been borne for twenty years by all sides in this conflict. All of this gets us to the question of… how do Christians understand war? Far from thinking America needs to go to the ends of the earth to fight for democracy, as has sometimes been the apparent view in American Christianity, most modern Christian theologians hold to a “just war” view of the question. Though Just War theory goes back to Greco-Roman philosophy, it was best laid out in in Christian understanding by Augustine of Hippo, and later by Thomas Aquinas. In “Just War” theory, there is a resistance to the required violence of war while also recognizing that sometimes it is the lesser of two evils.  In the view of Aquinas, the war must be waged by a lawful government, for a just cause due to a wrong done by those attacked, and with those fighting having a just intent to promote good and avoid evil. Aquinas was also clear that war should always be the last resort, done in the pursuit of justice. Later developments also made it clear that there must be a probability of success and that non-combatants must be protected. What is so difficult to me about the Afghan conflict is that the original reasons for the conflict have long since disappeared. The original reason for the war given by President George W. Bush was to bring the Al Qaeda leaders—who coordinated the 9/11 terrorist attacks—to justice. The Taliban refused to turn them over and so we invaded the country to go get them. Within months, however, Al Qaeda fled to Pakistan and the war turned into a battle against the Taliban and us as we sought to build a Western-style democracy. In the years that have passed, almost all forms of this being a just war have evaporated. It no longer had anything to do with Al Qaeda and the wrong done on 9/11, particularly after the capture and death of Bin Laden. The war became a proxy battle, with the Taliban having not inflected any injury on our country other than fighting against our establishment of a different government in their country. Far from a last resort, war became the only tool we used. And as the probability of success dwindled the loss of non-combatant life continued to grow. As a Christian, I think much of the past twenty years was an immoral use of violence and money with no backing or support in the Christian tradition. I wish we would have exited differently, but even more so I wish we would have exited so much earlier, before  the situation had become as bad as it did. And I think, in the end, exiting when we did was simply the lesser of two evils was the path we took. And I hope we are chastened, as Americans and as a country, and that in the future we will give a much deeper consideration to whether the use of war is indeed the right, just, and proper solution to the issues that face us. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Welcome to week three of my series on Christianity and Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n' Roll. We've explored the relationship between Christianity and sex, emphasizing the importance of the virtues of respect and equality over principals of purity culture. We've explored the relationship between Christianity and drugs, emphasizing the racial implications of the so-called “War on Drugs” alongside of the importance of greater reflection upon the impact of anything we consume. Now, it's time to tackle the third: Rock ‘n' Roll. Of course, in  this day and age, there aren't a lot of Christians who think Rock ‘n' Roll is a sin. It's instructive, perhaps, to remember the origins of this phrase, an article in a 1969 edition of LIFE magazine that listed sex, drugs, and rock as the “sacraments” of the counter-culture. So, some Christians in the 60s weren't concerned about rock ‘n' roll, per se, they were concerned about the moral implications of the content of rock ‘n' roll. This is clear because, as the historian Randall Stephens describes in his book The Devil's Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ‘n' Roll, the origins of rock are found in Christianity. The first generation of rock ‘n' roll artists all had shared backgrounds in Pentecostalism, where they experienced something different than traditional church music at the time. This includes Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, James Brown, and the great B.B. King. The initial criticisms of Rock ‘n' Roll were because Christians were upset about how artists like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin were taking sacred music like spirituals and turning those forms into secular music. Stephens points to one Pentecostal youth pastor who said that rock ‘n' roll was “Satan's Pentecost” and who also portrayed rock ‘n' roll concerts “as a kind of inverted Pentecostal worship.” As the genre developed, the criticisms of rock ‘n' roll in white churches began to have racial undertones, being called “jungle music” or “savagery.” When the Beatles came to America, Christians were concerned about their long hair and the hysteria they seemed to inspire in some young girls. Their hair was based on the styles of beatnik existentialists in Germany, and Christians were sure their music would corrupt the youth of today. Now, it's easy for us today to poke fingers at these fears and criticisms. There aren't many Christians I know of who think the music of the Beatles is a danger to young people, but what's interesting is that it did not stop there, of course. When I was a kid, Christian leaders were warning about the Satanic influences of artists like KISS, Alice Cooper, and eventually, Marilyn Manson. What these fears missed was the performative aspect of the genre of “shock rock.” The artists sought to perform outlandish and shocking acts so as to push the edges, to get people to question their assumptions, and, of course, sometimes just for the attention Christian leaders were only too happy to give them. Perhaps one of the best current examples of a musician pushing the boundaries (and freaking out some Christians at the same time) is Lil Nas X, the American rapper and singer-songwriter. When his country rap single “Old Town Road” achieved viral popularity and hit number one, he came out as gay—the only artist to come out while having a number one record. His song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and the accompanying video has been claimed to be sacrilegious and devil worship by some. His video for the song is also uncomfortable, but that's largely because of the discomfort many Christians have with male homosexuality… with male bodies. He released a modified pair of Nike's that he called “Satan's Shoes.” The shoes are black and red with a bronze pentagram, filled with "60cc and 1 drop of human blood." What some Christians often miss about Lil Nas X, along with other musicians that have pushed the boundaries over the decades, is that they push the church to ask what is and is not actually OK, what is and is not actually sin. Early rock ‘n' roll confronted the sins of racism and war, pushing boundaries about hairstyle and language in ways that were important, in ways that helped several Christians begin to question what the church had told them about race, about the war in Vietnam, about people who look different than them. Lil Nas X is doing the same thing today, his artistry is satirizing the demonization of LGBTQ people, asking Christians to question if they really think being gay is of the devil… something Lil Nas X was told by the church growing up. In the end, Christianity shouldn't be afraid of Rock ‘n' Roll or modern forms of music that push the edges. Rather, we should be curious about the artistry and message, humble about our own hang-ups and pre-conceptions. And this priest, for one, thinks the artistry of musicians like Lil Nas X is fantastic for the way it forces some parts of the church to confront its own homophobia. Rock on, Lil Nas X. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. Last week I talked about how many people think that the big things the church is opposed to are “Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n' Roll.” I tried to start breaking that myth by tackling the relationship between Christianity and Sex. This week, we're talking the next item on the list: Christianity and Drugs. First off, we have to acknowledge that the word “drugs” is actually pretty broad term. After all, good luck finding a Christian church that doesn't give people coffee—which contains a stimulant known as caffeine. You may have heard of it. You can move out from that to acknowledge the Christian use of alcohol in traditions that permit it and the increasing acceptance of marijuana use in Christian communities. In the end, a drug is defined as a substance or compound that is either administered or eaten with the goal of a certain effect. Neuroscientist William Struthers talks about how drugs begin as a taboo (yes, caffeinated tea and soda are still seen as taboo in some religions). But then, over time, people understand that a drug has a medical or therapeutic property. So, if it can alleviate suffering or disease without too much danger from side effects, it begins to be seen as a possible therapeutic. We've seen marijuana move from taboo to therapeutic over the past couple of decades. The next stage is recreational acceptance. It is socially acceptable (and also acceptable in many churches) to drink alcohol for the pure enrichment of lives, for simple recreational sake.. I think of Psalm 114:5, where the psalmist reminds us that God gave us “wine to gladden the human heart.” The final stage is when a drug is seen as a right: that is, something that I don't only get to choose to have for the fun of it, but that is my right to have if I want it. When it comes to drugs that are illegal or socially taboo in some quarters, I think Christianity needs to have a careful and reflective conversation. It's not just about what they do to our bodies. After all, everything we take in affects our bodies. It's about how what we take in affects us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A lack of reflective thinking is why we have a society where 20% of all incarcerated people are there for a drug related offense… but doctors overprescribing opioids legally creates the public health crisis we now face. Critical reflection on history and purpose is also important.  Nixon's domestic policy advisor, John Ehrlichman, claimed in 2016 that Nixon “knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and the blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” Now, Erlichman's claim here should be scrutinized (after all, he never really forgave Nixon for letting him go to prison as a result of Watergate), but there is likely some truth to this. It is undeniable that the war on drugs has disproportionately affected minority communities. Drug enforcement often targets locations of poverty, which tend to have more minority populations, and to spend less time targeting wealthy or suburban communities. The difference in penalties for crack and powder cocaine had clear racial implications given the different levels of use for each in different communities. So, the war on drugs has had profound racial implications that Christians must grapple with, that Christians must work to make right. In the end, Christianity must be more reflective about how it considers drugs, what it believes is healthy and unhealthy. Effort must be made to encourage people not to self-medicate with drugs (or food or alcohol for that matter), when the deeper symptoms could be better treated through mental health therapy, for instance. Concern must be raised about any drugs or chemicals that have addictive qualities and can create a state of dependence. These are the questions a person of faith should ask her or himself when trying to understand what  a Christian view of drugs must be. Because “just say no” is clearly not enough. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. If you asked the average person what the church is opposed to, you'd probably get some variation on the phrase “Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n' Roll.” The phrase was first used in a 1969 edition of LIFE Magazine to describe the, in the words of LIFE magazine, “sacraments” of the counter-culture movement of the late sixties. It was then popularized even further in 1977, when British musician Ian Dury released a song using a version of the expression as its title. But I've long thought the idea that the church is against sex, drugs, and rock ‘n' roll is not an idea that is terribly helpful, or even really true for that matter. And so, this week I'd like to start a three-part series breaking the myth of the Christianity and Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n' Roll. Let's take them one at a time. So, this week we'll start with Christianity and Sex. You would be forgiven for thinking Christianity is against sex. In America, in particular, Christianity has long been connected to the puritanical movement that fled England before the American Revolution. Many evangelical traditions still have puritanical ideas about sex. I know when I was growing up, it was called “purity culture.” It made boys and girls feel very guilty for thinking about sex and also tended to blame girls for boys' bad thoughts. Neither came away from the purity culture with a healthy understanding of sex or their body, much less questions of sexuality and gender identity. The purity culture was kind of horrible. Alongside the puritanical impulses of much of evangelical Christianity is the moral theology of the Roman Catholic church (which of course is the largest denomination in our country), where sex is seen as the mechanism by which original sin is passed on and, technically, is only allowed when there is an intent to procreate children. Now, you and I both know that neither evangelicals nor Catholics really practice much of that in their own lives, but that just means they spend a lot of their lives feeling guilty about their experience of sex and sexuality. And I'd say, contrary to these widely held views, the church is not actually not really opposed to sex! At least, not the text of Holy Scripture or Christian theology or the Christian tradition when it is considered carefully. In the Song of Solomon, for example, highly sexualized imagery of two lovers is used to describe the epitome of romantic love. There is a clear delight in the body of both people in the relationship. And rather than finding the book scary, Judaism believed that the passion in that book reflected the passion with which God loved Israel. Christianity finds within the Song of Solomon the passion that Jesus has for the church as the bride of Christ. Jesus himself didn't actually have much of anything to say about sex. He warned against using other people's bodies for your own pleasure through lust. He also warned against discarding people through divorce. But in both of those, the ideal he is speaking to is how you honor another human being. And he is speaking contextually. So, clearly, not all forms of sexual passion are the lust he condemned and, furthermore, clearly there are times when divorce is about saving yourself from a damaging situation and not about simply discarding someone. In the New Testament,  it is clear that the apostle Paul had some resistance to sexual excess, even urging people to remain chaste rather than get married. Paul allowed marriage as a sort of necessary second-best choice for those who would otherwise burn with lust. But when you consider Paul's context, you need to remember that Paul truly believed (as did many of the first generation of Christians) that Jesus would be coming back literally any day. So, for them, marriage didn't seem terribly important. It wouldn't last. In our own time, when sex within marriage is basically the only rule many Christians have, we've seen problems with that being the only thing you worry about. Because of that approach, we've seen the church turn a blind eye to issues of sexual violence and coercion within marriage. In our country, approximately 10-14% of women are raped by their husbands at some point during their marriage… and I would wager a fair amount of those are Christian men who think it is OK because they're married and that's all that really matters. But that clearly cannot be all that really matters. So, what should Christians do when it comes to an ethic of sex? Well, Jesus said that all the law and the prophets hang on two principals: love of God and love of neighbor. So, I would suggest that a Christian sexual ethic is one that promotes those aims: love of God and love of neighbor. That means that abuse and coercion are clearly out of line because they are contrary to love of neighbor. A Christian sexual ethic honors the body of the other and the consent and mind of the other. A Christian sexual ethic would not engage in promiscuity because it creates such profound risk for emotional pain and damage as people become objects to be used instead of humans to be loved. Most importantly, a Christian sexual ethic is reflective about how sex affects each person involved and strives for a relationship that is mutual, one that honors the other, and one that is not afraid to delight that is healthy and doesn't do damage. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  Someone in our church's confirmation class this year asked me about my five favorite books, books that are easy to read and which impacted me as a Christian. It was a super fun exercise and the list I came up with dated me just a bit, with many of them being published over a decade ago, when I was beginning to move from the evangelical fundamentalism of my youth into a different understanding of faith. I made the list by walking my library in my study at the church, and so the list wound up in Library of Congress catalog number order. (Yes, I am enough of a nerd to catalog my books using the Library of Congress system. Be nice.) Here are the books I wrote down: · The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out by Brennan Manning  · Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller  · Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon · The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society by Fr. Henri J. M. Nouwen · The Gospel and Catholic Church by Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey It's the first book in that list, though, I want to talk about today, because I think the message of that book remains so important for people to hear, both Christians and those who may find themselves outside the Christian faith. All that to say, this week I'd like to break the myth that Christians are people who have it all together.  I regularly meet people who stay away from church because they have a sense they're simply not good enough, that they should get themselves together before they decide to show up for church. I always try to tell them that getting your self together is what going to church is supposed to help you do, that you go precisely because you are not good enough… but people always remain hesitant. Now, the other side of this reality is when people walk away from Christian community because of the sins or failures of people in that community. This can particularly happen when you are disappointed in your pastor. A wise priest once told me that when new people would join his parish, he would say that he looked forward to the first time he disappointed them… because it was after that they could start to form a real and true relationship.  The truth is, we are all of us, priest and parishioner, pastor and congregation, devoted member and curious seeker, we are all of us a work in progress. And Brennan Manning's book was written specifically for those who know this is the case. And so, he says, early on in the book, that he is writing “for smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags.” Brennan writes in The Ragamuffin Gospel about how one of the significant differences between the Christian understanding of God and other understandings of God in the world is that the Christian God is the only God that humans have ever encountered who loves sinners. He insists that the people who most filled with God's light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.  One of his most insightful lines in the book is this: “Many of us pretend to believe we are sinners. Consequently, all we can do is pretend to believe we have been forgiven. As a result, our whole spiritual life is pseudo repentance and pseudo bliss.” But what if, Brenna suggests, what is we stop pretending to believe we are sinners and begin honestly to acknowledge our sin? Maybe instead of being overwhelmed by guilt and shame we might be set free to experience the deep and abiding love God has for us… and how God does forgive us.  Brennan describes this Gospel of mercy and love for sinners this way, ““This is the God of the gospel of grace. A God who, out of love for us, sent the only Son He ever had wrapped in our skin. He learned how to walk, stumbled and fell, cried for His milk, sweated blood in the night, was lashed with a whip and showered with spit, was fixed to a cross, and died whispering forgiveness on us all.”  And Brennan insists, much to the chagrin of more exclusivist approaches to Christianity, that something is radically wrong when the local church rejects someone who has been accepted by Jesus—a statement that should give us all pause. So, know you are loved, you are fiercely loved, child of God. And if you've never heard that message before, I hope you'll go find a church that will not only be a place for you hear it, but a place you can actually begin to believe it.  Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  This morning, as I was driving to work, I was listening to NPR and heard a powerful story about advocates working to change the incarceration laws in our country, particularly as they relate to juveniles. As a part of that conversation, they also discussed issues surrounding the practice of solitary confinement. In our country's penal system one out of every five inmates are put in solitary confinement at some time during their period of incarceration. This is a far higher rate than anywhere else in the world and is something that the United Nations has called out as a profound human rights issue. All of this broke my heart, thinking of the mental pain and trauma these inmates are put through. And it got me thinking of the history of the Christian church when it comes to prisons, a history that is very different than what Christians assume today. So, this week I'd like to break the myth of Christians and the prison system. You see, something fundamentally shifted in our country in the 80s and 90s. After the turn of the twentieth century, practices like solitary confinement were seen as unethical and cruel and so they were phased out. But the “tough on crime” and “law and order” movement that began in the 60s and reached a crescendo in the 80s and 90s fundamentally changed our criminal justice system, the way Christians think about all of this—and none of this for the better. First off, we need to remember that the first person to campaign on a “law and order” platform was Alabama governor George Wallace, who used this phrase as a racist dog whistle in his 1968 campaign. Nixon transformed the phrase into a message that sought to discredit Democrats, insisting that they were soft on crime, they responsible for riots… riots at the time that were against significant racialized violence by the police. Yes, this playbook has been around for a while. And, given the rise of the religious right at the same time, the “law and order” mentality also began to pervade churches as well. The result of the policies that came out of this movement is that the number of prisoners tripled in fourteen years, from 500,000 in 1980 to 1.5 million in 1994. The United States now has both the largest prison population in the world and the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world at a cost of $81 billion dollars annually to taxpayers. But there is the human cost as well. Crime rates in New York City dropped under the “law and order” policies of then mayor Rudy Giuliani but reports of police brutality increased significantly. Whole lives have been lost, and recidivism rates have actually increased. And all of this is not really making us people safer. After all, half of all incarcerated people in state jurisdiction are in prison for non-violent offenses. At the federal level, nearly half of all those incarcerated are in prison due to drug offenses. And the Christian church has said very little on this issue, which is has gotten worse and worse. This is a tremendous break from tradition. After all, one of the hallmarks of the Messiah in the book of Isaiah was that the Messiah would “proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,” a promise Jesus said in Luke was made manifest in his own ministry. Jesus told us in Matthew 25 that when we visit those in prison, we visit Jesus himself. In Hebrews 13, we are told to “remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them.” When Constantine made Christianity legal in the 4th century, he also began a reform of the Roman system of imprisonment. St. Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century took up the cause of continuing reform for how those in prison were treated, arguing that criminal punishment should aim for moral and spiritual rehabilitation of the criminal. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was Christians who led the work of reforming the prison system in England and the United States. And much of that reform was, ironically enough, seeking to get rid of practices like solitary confinement. Practices which are now so pervasive with Christians saying nary a word. It is time for Christians to repudiate the “tough on crime” mentality of the late twentieth century and return to our heritage of advocacy for the incarcerated. It should be particularly important because 55% of those incarcerated are Christians, they are our siblings in Christ. But even for those who are not Christians, they still are humans with the image of God on their soul. Our justice system should be working for their rehabilitation and their healing. Now I know it's easy to feel overwhelmed and like there is nothing you, as an individual, can do as a response to all of this, but that's not true. You can make a difference. You can raise these issues with those in your social groups. You can make it a part of your discernment when it's time to vote, pressing politicians for reform. And, if you're local to West Michigan, you can do a search online for an organization called “Humanity for Prisoners.” This is the only organization in our state doing one-on-one advocacy work among the incarcerated. I used to serve on their board and know the work that they do is profoundly important and is changing lives every day. Whether it is contributing financially to the work of HfP or contributing your time, there is much to be done. You can find out more about them at humanityforprisoners.org. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.  I hope the fireworks from the Fourth of July holiday have finally calmed down in your neighborhood. I know it seemed to me like this year's observance was a little more… exuberant than most years. That's probably because there were limited public celebrations this year, the lifting of COVID-19 regulations coming too late for plans to be made. I think it also just felt good, after the year we've all had, to blow some things up. And so, as a late fireworks display of my own, in this week's episode of Christian Mythbusters I would like to tackle the myth of our country's founding being about creating a Christian nation. You might say, I want to blow the whole idea up, if you'll forgive the pun. I always find it amusing when people insist that the United States is a Christian nation because that's kind of the opposite of the point of the whole revolutionary war. After all, the pilgrims, for example, who came to America (indeed, many of the early colonists), were coming from England—a nation that is an explicitly Christian nation with the Church of England serving as the state church and the  monarch serving as the supreme governor of the church. Many of the colonists came here seeking religious freedom, especially freedom from an established Christian nation. Now, this is an awkward point to make as an Episcopalian. Our church, after all, is the daughter church of the Church of England, with whom we are still in relationship as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It was awkward after the revolutionary war as well, as many colonists who were devout members of the Church of England were also loyalists to the crown. This includes Samuel Seabury, who some of you know as the loyalist cleric in Lin Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton, a person who is taken down by the title character for his loyalist views. After we declared and then won our independence from the Christian nation of England, the founders were explicit that they did not want to create a similar arrangement here in the United States. They did not want any church, denomination, or religion to consider itself established. The same was actually true in the Episcopal Church because, in a great second act, our newly independent Anglican churches elected Samuel Seabury to be the first bishop of our church. Seabury set sail for England but was refused consecration because—get this, even though he had been a loyalist—he refused to swear allegiance to the monarch. He was a citizen of a newly free country and church and just couldn't do it. He turned to Scotland where, in a story that is much longer than I have time for here, he was consecrated a bishop and able to return home and serve the new Episcopal Church in the United States. The point of all of this is that our country was not founded to repeat the oppressive “Christian nation” from which we many of the colonists had come. Instead, the founders set to create boundaries and walls to keep that very sort of thing from happening. In the book The Myth of a Christian Nation, theologian Greg Boyd explores this myth and not only argues that it is inaccurate, he insists that it is corrosive to Christianity itself. Boyd reminds us that, as Christians, our first loyalty should always be to Jesus Christ and his calling for us to love of God and neighbor. The longing for a “Christian Nation” is really about a longing for the church to have power in society… but the church has a pretty bad track record when it comes to power. In fact, in general, it is when the church eschews power and focuses on love, justice, and mercy that it is far more faithful to the teachings of Christ. The problem with wanting us to be a Christian nation is that it would shift, not only how we engage with non-Christians in our country who then somehow don't become real Americans, but it would shift how we exist with Christians outside our country. Our unity in baptism is surely more important than our citizenship. Don't get me wrong, I celebrated the Fourth of July with my family. We even lit off some fireworks in the driveway (though I tried to ensure they weren't too loud or obnoxious). But the celebration for me was that our country was founded as a place with a dream of liberty and justice for all people, no matter your faith or even if you don't have faith. We have often not lived up to that ideal, but we continue to strive. And I truly believe America is at her best when she ensures all people—and all religions—have the freedom to worship and believe as they believe their God calls them. Just like you. Just like me. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. During Pride month, I've been talking about the relationship between Christianity and the LGBTQIA+ community. Thank you to all of you who joined the people of St. John's Episcopal for worship at Waterfront Stadium this past Sunday to celebrate that final Sunday of Pride Month and all of God's beloved children. My deep hope and prayer is that we will be able to do this event again next year and have more churches in the Tri-Cities join us. In this final Christian Mythbusters episode for Pride Month, I have one final thing I'd like to talk to you about, something that often gets overlooked in discussions surrounding the place of LGBTQIA+ persons in the church: the gifts that the individuals of this community can bring to the church—indeed, the gifts that many of them already bring. When meeting with one of the same-sex couples at my church back when they first joined, they shared some of their story with church in the past. It broke my heart. I then told them that not only would they be welcome here, but that I was excited to see the gifts I knew they would bring, how they would bless us. They expressed surprise at this response—because the best they'd ever gotten from the church was being tolerated. They'd never been celebrated. In an essay called “The Body's Grace” by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Archbishop Williams talks about the gifts that same-sex couples can bring to the church. He notes that for far too long the church has often treated sexual intimacy as only good when it is for procreation. The Roman Catholic Church today still treats the desire to procreate as an essential component of the sexual act between a married couple. The problem with this view, from Archbishop William's perspective is that it depends on a strained reading of the Biblical text. In the Hebrew Bible, for example, when the mother of the yet-to-be born prophet Samuel weeps because she doesn't think she can have children, her husband responds by asking if he, as her husband, is not more than ten children. In the passionate Song of Solomon, both the partners in the relationship clearly delight in sexual intimacy using some pretty strong and descriptive language that doesn't have a lot to do with making babies. In the New Testament, both Jesus and Paul talk about marriage and sexual intimacy, but neither uses procreation as the rational or functional justification. Indeed, Paul's emphasis in both First Corinthians and in Ephesians is the partner willingly giving herself or himself to their beloved, that this is the richness of the sexual relationship. Williams suggests that this giving yourself to the other, this mutual delight, could be described as “entering the body's grace.” And then he then wonders if “we are afraid of facing the reality of same-sex love because it compels us to think through the processes of bodily desire and delight in their own right.” That is, Williams is suggesting that one of the gifts same-sex couples bring to the church is that they can help straight couples understand marriage and sex better… because their relationships as same-sex couples are not founded upon pro-creation in the same way, but instead on a mutual delight in the other. I'd also suggest that the commitments I've witnessed in same-sex marriages can be instructive for straight marriages in the church. Many same-sex couples have faced significant adversity in their own lives and that has helped them build a rock-solid commitment and trust in one another—and I have a feeling they could teach straight couples how do to that better. Many LGBTQIA+ people also know what it feels like to be rejected by your church, even by your own family. In response, they have built rich communities and friendships, places where the lack of blood relationship does not preclude deep commitment and trust. They can teach straight and cisgender people in the church who have experienced rejection from their own families or churches how to move forward, how to forge lasting relationships in other ways. And it's not only gay and lesbian individuals and couples who have wisdom and gifts to bring. Bisexual, queer, and questioning individuals can help us better understand that sexuality isn't a black and white question, but that it is a spectrum of attraction that functions differently in each individual. Pansexual people love people for who they are, regardless of their gender, a truth that has its own richness. Asexual people find delight in many other places in life and lack the desire (even the sometimes obsession for sex) that others have. And people with different gender identities, whether transgender or intersex, have much to teach us about the biology and spirituality of gender. They are often invisible, many times even violently pushed to the side or hidden from view, but they are also a part of God's created order, worthy of love, celebration, and inclusion. They have much to teach cisgender people. So, I'll hope you'll take these final days of pride month as an opportunity to learn, to make new friends, to grow in your own understanding of sexuality and gender identity. And I hope that churches that are not affirming will wrestle with these questions once more. Because let me just say, as the pastor of an affirming church, by not having LGBTQIA+ people publicly affirmed in your pews… Wow, you are missing out on some absolutely amazing and godly people in your own congregation. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John's Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today's edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. During Pride month, I've been talking about the relationship between Christianity and the LGBTQIA+ community. This week, I'd like to talk about the problems surrounding the traditional teaching of the church on these questions—and the harm it can do. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, the Scriptural questions surrounding the place of LGBTQIA+ people in the church can get thorny. Very easily, people fall into their own sorts of proof-texting, each person coming up with Scripture that justifies their own view. Part of the reason for this is that Scripture is not a monolithic witness. Rather, Scripture is the unfolding story of God's grace—and our growing apprehension of God's grace and design for us and the world. Sometimes, there are just different ways of telling the story in the Bible. In Genesis one, for example, humanity is created last, as the pinnacle of creation. In Genesis two, however, humanity is created before animals and given stewardship. If the point of the creation narratives is a newsreel retelling of the events, this is a problem. But if the point is not about specific order, but theological principals revealed in myth and ancient story, then we can find the inconsistencies helpful for understanding the text. At other times the Bible simply disagrees with itself. When the Jewish people returned from captivity in Babylon, Ezra commanded them to divorce their foreign wives. However, this is contrary to the prohibitions on how you treat foreigners in Leviticus 19 and is in direct contrast to the story of Ruth, a Moabite, who marries Boaz and becomes the great-grandmother of King David. The prophet Malachi, writing after Ezra, also argues against putting away a foreign wife simply based upon her ethnicity. In short, the old saying, “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it,” simply does not really work in practice.  But there is a deeper reason why using those seven verses people claim are about homosexuality to exclude and discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people is wrong—because that reading of the Bible comes at a cost If you are opposed to people of different sexual and gender identities expressing themselves honestly according to their own understanding of themself, then the question becomes… what is the message of the church to the gay Christian? And does that message sound like Jesus? Most conservative Christians respond that the message is “Go and sin no more,” echoing Jesus in the Gospel of John. But what does that look like? For some people, the message of the church has been that God's grace can change you and make you straight or cisgender. This has been the claim of so-called reparative or conversion therapy. However, there is no reliable evidence that this is actually possible. Indeed, there is actually reliable evidence that it is not only ineffective but can cause significant harm, leading to suicide, this is why it is deemed to be an unethical practice by the American Psychological Association and is illegal in several jurisdictions. One of the largest proponents of this approach, Exodus International, disbanded in 2013 the board published a statement repudiating their use of reparative therapy and apologizing for the harm they had done. So, neither prayer nor psychology can turn a gay person straight or a transgender person into a cisgender person. The next offering I'll usually hear is that the message of the church is that gay people should live celibate lives. This is the stance the American Association of Christian Counselors took when they removed their promotion of conversion therapy from their code of ethics. However, the church has long understood celibacy as a gift some people may be called to but never as something that can be imposed upon a class of people due to their biology. We've already established that you don't choose to be gay. Requiring someone who happens to be gay to be celibate would be a violent imposition of a manner of life on a whole class of people without regard to God's calling in their lives. Some might respond that straight people are also called to chaste lives until they're married. I'd counter that even that view is a shrinking one these days, but that at least straight people are told to be chaste until they find someone. Gay people are not given that chance by much of the church. So, what is the message of the church to LGBTQIA+ people. It must be two-fold. First, that you are the way you are through no choice or fault of your own. Indeed, this is your natural state of existence—a state that is found in the rest of God's creation at times. Second, you are called, just like anyone else, to holiness of life: by living in covenanted relationship with the person you love, should you so chose. The affirmation of same-sex marriage is indeed the best graced response to gay Christians, an avenue that enables them to be who they are, while also to receive the gifts of the sacrament of marriage just like straight people. And, one more time, if you're LGBTQIA+ or an ally, and you live in West Michigan, I'd invite you to join me on Sunday, June 27, at 10am at the downtown Waterfront Stadium in Grand Haven, for a special pride worship service to celebrate all of God's beloved children. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.