Rev. Chuck Freeman2013-05-22T02:20:31-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=rev-chuck-freemanCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Rev. Chuck FreemanGood old fashioned elbow grease.Does America Still Have the Moral Courage of 1776?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8933882011-07-12T11:41:04-04:002011-09-11T05:12:02-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/"We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour."
These words were the stirring zenith to my Independence Day sermon. They give me red, white and blue chill bumps every time I utter them.
I arise at 5:30 a.m. every Sunday that I conduct the church service. As I wash my face and do my wake up rituals I often listen to the BBC. My groggy senses were treated to this story.
Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of Thailand's fugitive former prime minister led his loyalists to a landslide election victory Sunday, a stunning rout of the military-backed government that last year crushed protests by his supporters with a bloody crackdown that left 91 people dead and the capital in flames.
As prime minister, Mr. Thaksin championed the cause of the rural poor, mainly in the north. He introduced various effective and popular anti-poverty programs, among them subsidized universal healthcare and microcredit loans for farmers.
The results pave the way for Yingluck Shinawatra to become the nation's first female prime minister if the coup-prone Thai army accepts the results.
This election was the fourth official victory at the polls for Mr. Thaksin's political parties since 2001 (another election result was annulled, but he won that too). Three times opponents of Mr. Thaksin in the "establishment", those elite forces around the army and the monarchy, nullified the democratic will of the people by using either the army to force him from office or the courts to dissolve his political party.
I look at myself, my congregation, and my friends. We lead comfortable middle class lives. We feel a bit of socio-political discomfort on rare occasion. We opine passionately about justice. Candor compels me to say that we lead privileged lives.
I wonder if I truly have the fortitude of 1776. Does America have the moral courage of 1776? Am I willing like my forbearers, like the people of Thailand, to lay my life, fortune, and sacred honor on the line for freedom?
I'm loath to say that most of us are too fat and happy, even in the aftermath of the worst financial crash since the 1930's.
"The rates of obesity for American adults worsened in 16 states in the last year -- and not a single state showed improvement. A dozen states now have obesity rates that exceed 30 percent, according to a report just out from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation."
Let me amend my previous statement. We are fat and bored. Multitudes of Americans numb themselves with sensational "news,"(have you heard about the Casey Anthony verdict?), celebrity gossip (what are Prince William & Kate doing today?), and high fructose corn syrup.
I don't believe most American's have the moral courage of 1776. I'm including myself in this depressing diagnosis.
Our souls are starving. There is hope for us if we change our appetite, and do an extreme makeover of our diet.
Sacred chef Jesus grills up a first course in nourishing 1776 valor.
Contemporary Prophet Tracy Chapman serves sacred fare from the "son of humanity's" cookbook.
"Don't be tempted by the shiny apple Don't you eat of a bitter fruit,
Hunger only for a taste of justice,
Hunger only for a world of truth.
'Cause all that you have is your soul."
]]>Holy Water in Phnom Penhtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8721582011-06-08T08:12:23-04:002011-08-08T05:12:01-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/Khive Thol's home, a few boards separate the single bedroom from the main living space. The corrugated iron roof leaks light onto the dirty floor. But the 60-year-old woman is drinking clean water from the tap.
Khive used to boil water from containers she bought from a truck that came around every week. She doesn't know where the water came from.
Khive Thol had been paying $1 a day for dirty, dangerous water. Now she pays about $4 a month for a faucet in her own home and so do all of her neighbors. Her access to clean water is largely due to the work of one man and one organization: 61-year-old Ek Sonn Chan and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority he heads.
Chan says that in 1993, after four years of rule by the Khmer Rouge and 10 years of occupation by the Vietnamese, only 25 percent of the city had running water and most of those who had it didn't pay for it. The old pipes leaked, or the water was siphoned off and stolen. Now, 92 percent of households in Phnom Penh have clean running water, a phenomenal feat in such a poor country.
Ek Sonn Chan asserts, "I believe 100 percent that solving water problems [for] everyone in this world is 100 percent possible. "It's not the problem of scarcity of water resources; it's not the lack of financing, but because of [the] lack of good governance."
"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
I don't know if Ek Sonn Chan is a Christian. It doesn't matter. He is enlivened by a cosmic spiritual ethic. Jesus is one among legions of spiritual masters to articulate the meaning of righteous living.
Ek Sonn Chan is not merely providing for the bodily thirst of the people of Phnom Penh and Cambodia. His offering is Holy Water.
Chan has written on a piece of paper above his bed that he will not rest until all of Cambodia has clean running water.
The paper pages fashioned into a book in my nightstand titled "The Holy Bible" bear witness to the breath of the Eternal Spirit.
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me."
]]>Planned Parenthood Funding: A Religion of Control versus A Religion of Lifetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8616272011-05-13T12:02:45-04:002011-07-13T05:12:01-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/"The problem of mass poverty, mass starvation, the mass deaths of children and infants every year from a simple lack of proper nourishment is not normal, is not 'life'... It is a condition traceable solely and specifically to patriarchal religion."
"The antiabortion movement in America calls itself 'pro life.' In fact it is 'pro fetus' period. Championing the fetus is easy...What is hard is to change the world, so that millions and millions of children have a chance for some kind of qualitative life after they are born -- this is the only genuine pro life work.
When one reads the total gestalt of the antiabortionist movement in America, it is clear to see that the average 'pro lifer' is not pro-life at all, certainly not pro-quality life. Rather, they are pro-control."
This week Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a law that will cut off about $2 million of the $3 million Planned Parenthood of Indiana receives annually in federal funds and make Indiana the first state to prohibit the use of Medicaid at Planned Parenthood. It also gives Indiana some of the strictest abortion rules in the nation. For example, doctors would be required to tell patients that life begins at fertilization and that a fetus can feel pain at or before 20 weeks.
Republican leadership has a multilevel marketing strategy from the state to federal arenas to attack Planned Parenthood .
Cecile Richards, national president of Planned Parenthood confirms Sjoo & Mor's assessment. Appearing on Democracy Now! Richards said.
"The House leadership in Congress has basically just declared war on women, really from day one... they're basically trying to end family planning and access to birth control in America. The Republican budget that came out basically gets rid of the nation's Family Planning Program. There will be an amendment to basically end all federal funds going to Planned Parenthood.
Less than 10 percent of our services are related to abortion. In fact, more than 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's care is preventive care. We provide birth control to about two-and-a-half million people every year. We do almost a million cancer screenings for breast exams, as well as cervical cancer screenings. We're now one of the largest providers of STD testing and treatment in the country."
Sjoo & Mor's conclusion calls up a foul visual 'a-ha' moment for me. I vividly recall in 2003 when the federal law was signed to make intact dilation and extraction a crime. Every single person gathered around the table was a white male. Congressman Boehner & Gov. Daniels has the same profile.
"The fundamentalist men...are not involved in a religion of Life, but in a religion of male control."
"Where does life begin?" they inquire.
"Life does not begin. It is always here. Nature is alive from the beginning. Life does not emerge from us, we emerge from it. Pregnancy and childbirth are ritual passages ofeternal life through the bodies of autonomous women."
]]>The Age of Everyday Messiahstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8372692011-03-22T13:23:37-04:002011-05-25T18:40:24-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/
"He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist."
The heading in my Harper Study Bible understates, "The Age of Messiah."
It is happening in the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Wisconsin and Ohio. The refrain we are hearing over and over is that these are "leaderless" uprisings. Update this with a non-sexist lens and these ancient passages hold up quite well on substance. Their relevance is enduring.
"The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him,
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord,
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord."
"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra's den, the young child will put its hand into the viper's nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
We are in the throes of a major mindset shift, a new reality, a new birth, a new world. The "Messiah" isn't exclusively male. There isn't "A" Messiah. The pervasive means is non-violent. With this emerging consciousness and our interconnecting tech capacities, we have entered the Age of Everyday Messiahs.
]]>2/11 Now Supplants 9/11 as the Narrative of Our Timetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8250992011-02-18T11:24:08-05:002011-05-25T18:35:25-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/
The wind of the Spirit has blown. The Mystery has moved. The Paradigm has shifted. The Zeitgeist has zoomed.
9/11 consciousness is born of a few empire and tribal extremists that is imposed on the many. 2/11 consciousness flows from the synergy of millions with the power to root out an entrenched dictator in 18 days. 9/11 is corded phone, reptilian brain, flat earth thinking. 2/11 is iPhone, prefrontal cortex brain, cosmic thinking.
The 9/11 world is over. 2/11 is the new narrative of our time.
9/11 is about autocratic oldies, fear, suicide bombing, war, good versus evil, manipulation, propaganda, control, and human rights being stripped away piece by piece in the name of security.
2/11 is about democratic newbies, hope, peaceful protest, the good of the whole, clarity of purpose, straightforward communication, interdependence, and the elevation of human dignity.
Scanning my spiritual files I came across this archaic yet eternally effervescent illustration of Jesus.
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
The empire and tribal patriarchs will keep trying to patch up the worn out garment of 9/11. Their actions will only make the tear worse. Time to throw the ragged clothes away.
The old wineskins are parched and cracking. 9/11 wine is rancid and causes soul sickness. It is time to showcase the new 2/11 wineskins. Let us toast with the elixir of our collective preservation -- Egyptian Beaujolais Nouveau!
"There are thousands of wines that can take over our minds. Don't think all ecstasies are the same! Drink from the presence of saints, not from those other jars. Every object, every being, is a jar full of delight. Be a connoisseur, and taste with caution. Any wine will get you high. Judge like a king, and choose the purest."
]]>Elijah's Empty Chair of Freedom in Oslotag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7950562010-12-10T16:17:48-05:002011-05-25T18:20:30-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/A Jewish elder speaks during the Passover seder:
"At each table there is an empty chair, an extra cup of juice, and one remaining piece of matzoh. Jewish history tells of a beloved prophet by the name of Elijah, who appears in times of trouble to bring promise of relief, to lift downcast spirits, and to plant hope in the hearts of the downtrodden. The injustice of this world still brings to mind Elijah who, in defense of justice, challenged power."
Friday in Oslo, Norway Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was represented at the award ceremony by an empty chair.
Xiaobo was unable to be in Oslo to collect his gold medal and his $1.4 million prize. He is just one year into an 11-year jail sentence for subversion because he penned an open letter calling for democratic reforms in China.
His wife has been under house arrest since her husband's prize was announced. His brothers have been told they won't be allowed out of the country.
Since nobody can collect the prize, the Nobel committee has decided to put an empty chair on the podium, with a portrait photograph of Liu Xiaobo behind it.
"It is a signal to China that it would be very important for China's future to combine economic development with political reforms and it is support for those people in China who are struggling for basic human rights. This prize conveys the understanding that these are universal rights and universal values."
In Liu's stead, Liv Ullmann, one of Norway's most famous actresses, read a text from Liu's final statement on Dec. 23, 2009, entitled, "I Have No Enemies." The essay expresses Liu's compassion for his adversaries and his hopes that he will be the last one in China to be incriminated because of speech: "Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth."
Liu helped to organize and disseminate a document called Charter 08, which called for sweeping political reforms in China, including the freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of religion. It reads in part:
"The Chinese people, who have endured human rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these same years, now include many who see clearly that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values."
Elijah's chair remains empty with graceful dignity and powerful, prophetic clarity. The Seder liturgy draws to a dramatic close. An elder opens the sanctuary door, and makes this bold pronouncement: "The door is opened, reminding us to be open to the hope for a better world -- to hold on to the dream that we may live in a world without hunger, slavery or any kind of injustice. We invite Elijah to come to our Seder."
The congregation responds: "May the all merciful send us Elijah the prophet to comfort us with tidings of deliverance. Let us open the door for Elijah!"]]>Jesus Christ, George Bush and Torturetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7828032010-11-12T13:11:15-05:002011-05-25T18:10:25-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/ Bush writes in his memoir Decision Points:
"I thought about my meeting with Danny Pearl's widow, who was pregnant with his son when he was murdered. I thought about the 2,971 people stolen from their families by al Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect my country from another act of terror.
'Damn right,' I said."
My response to Mr. Bush is equally concise and clear.
It is sickening enough that, as President, Mr. Bush had his legal team redefine torture to be only that which caused permanent organ failure and or death. It is sickening enough that he flaunted every established International law that torture is a crime. It is sickening enough that he consistently obliterated America's constitutional ideals of human rights. But to do all of these calloused acts in the name of Christ elicits in me, as a minister and follower of Jesus, a prophetic condemnation of hellish amplitude.
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment."
Damn right.
]]>Why Help Build a Mosque I Have Core Differences With?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7582462010-10-29T13:21:41-04:002011-05-25T18:00:30-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/North Austin Muslim Community Center.
I disagree on a core level that submission is the primary path to holiness. I disagree on a core level that Prophet Mohammed is the final teacher from God. I disagree on a core level that their religion is the only true faith. I disagree on a core level that a theocracy is the ideal government.
I disagree on a core level that only men can be Imams. I disagree on a core level that men are front and center during the community prayers and that women must pray behind a partition out of sight. I disagree on a core level that women must have their heads covered at all times in public.
Simply and clearly stated, there is a greater principle at stake.
In the "Preacher's line" after the church service where we gathered the contribution for the Mosque one of my members vigorously opposed our course of action. The parishioner asked, "Would you help build a Catholic or Mormon church? We should be tolerant of other religions but we should not be building their churches!"
My answer to her and you is this.
Normally I wouldn't be in favor of helping another religious group build a house of worship, especially one that I have such core differences with. But the Muslim religion is under siege in America. The overwhelming multitudes of their adherents are here seeking a life of opportunity and liberty in the "land of the free and the home of the brave."
They strive to be good citizens and make a positive contribution to their cities. They are seeking a place to peacefully practice their faith. The least we can do is live up to who we say we are. The fact that we have substantial core religious differences makes our reaching out in support even more profoundly principled.
I can easily cite the first amendment to our Constitution as the bedrock greater principle I am seeking fidelity to. But, I want to go back a few thousand years to a teaching of Rabbi Jesus who surely inspired Jefferson in crafting the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights.
This teaching of Jesus undergirds our inheritance of religious freedom.
"If you love only those who love you what reward can you expect? Surely the tax gatherers do as much as that. (They were vilified as traitors working for the Roman empire.) And if you greet only your brothers, what is there extraordinary about that? Even the heathen do as much. There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father's goodness knows no bounds." *
* Matthew 5:46-48, The New English Bible]]>Help Build a Mosquetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7470622010-10-05T01:56:00-04:002011-05-25T17:55:20-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/"Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off." (Ezekiel 37:11)
My God, I relate to this! I am weary to the bones of making statements protesting the brokers of intolerance in America.
Their verbal AK-47s are spraying out fear and falsehoods so quickly that I become dizzy trying to decide which bullet to fend off: controversies surrounding the building of an Islamic center in New York, rancor around building mosques in numerous communities across the country, the arson of a mosque in Tennessee, the threat to burn a Quran by a Christian Minister, and the freshly minted, eternally ludicrous Texas State Board of Education resolution to counter supposed pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias in public school textbooks.
Here is Prophet Ezekiel's dry-bone encounter and action plan:
I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. [The LORD] asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"
So I prophesied as I as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live." So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet -- a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:2-10)
Prophecy is the bold combination of seeing, speaking, and doing that literally invigorates parched bones with the Spirit of Life. Armies don't sit around holding press conferences and discussion groups. They undertake decisive action!
Over the past few years I have developed a relationship with Islam Mossaad, the imam for the North Austin Muslim Community Center in Austin, Texas. In response to all the indignities chronicled above, my congregation, Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church, took a special collection to help the people of NAMCC build their mosque. I will present the meager $530 offering this Saturday at their celebration. The amount hardly matters. This symbolic act infuses breath into the brittle bones of America, affirming the core principles of our precious democracy.
Resist the temptation to waltz off with do-gooder resolve and start writing checks. Begin with a relationship and see where its Spirit leads you. Your tangible action will flow out of this life giving connection.
WWJD? What would Jefferson do? He spoke to a group of Baptists in the birthing phase of our nation: "In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object." Jefferson considered this liberty so foundational he had engraved on his tombstone, "Author of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom."
We have done enough talking. We have been on the defensive for too long. It is way past time to do something positively prophetic:
"Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.
[...]
They came to life and stood up on their feet -- a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:4-6, 10)
I invite you to visit the Facebook page "Help Build a Mosque" and share your stories.]]>Have Riches and Privilege Made Americans Un-Christian?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7213842010-09-21T11:57:00-04:002011-05-25T17:40:20-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.
--Newt Gingrich, Aug. 16, 2010, FOX News' FOX & Friends
Although I find the tsunami of distorted and inflammatory remarks by Gingrich and his tribe to be despicable toxic sludge in the ocean of world rhetoric, I can dismiss them knowing their ulterior motives.
When I read opinion polls of my brothers and sisters in America, my soul sickness turns to mourning.
Sixty-eight percent say that immigration policy should emphasize stricter enforcement rather than integrating illegal immigrants into U.S. society.
Forty-eight percent believe that the United States should end the practice of granting citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
Seventy percent of voters say that the Muslim group has the right to build a mosque and cultural center near Ground Zero, but 63 percent say that it is wrong to do so.
This snapshot into our nation's psyche comes from a Quinnipiac University survey of 1,905 registered voters nationwide, carried out between Aug. 31 and Sept. 7.
What ails me to the bone and marrow is that most of my fellow citizens polled would wear a Jesus cross proudly beneath their flag lapel pin. They boisterously call for our return to being a "Christian nation."
I am the son of a fundamentalist Christian preacher. I was weaned on the Word of the Lord. I was also indoctrinated with multitudes of narrow viewpoints. Yet, I kept reading, praying and taking to heart the precepts of Jesus.
Even though I am a Universalist now, I am more committed than ever to being a disciple of Jesus.
His teachings continually nurture and challenge my conscience: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
We live in the wealthiest, most privileged nation on the planet. One would think that out of our abundance a spirit of generosity would erupt and roll like an ever-flowing stream. On the contrary, if these polls have any validity, it appears that we have become a country of fearful, shriveled, stingy, mean people.
I'm not advocating that we establish no boundaries or demonstrate no backbone. I am making an appeal that we nudge a bit closer to a couplet of Rabbi Jesus' sayings that manifest true freedom:
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made.
This is only about a fourth of the Nicene Creed. By this time the eyes of most congregants begin to resemble a glazed donut, heavy on the glaze.
I don't want to devalue believers who find ritual spiritually freeing. My point is that the Nicene Creed is the cornerstone of "noun faith." This style of faith emanates from top-down edicts. The powerful ruling class decrees to its followers what to believe. These creeds are then drilled into the disciples' psyche day after day, week after week, year after year.
Their dogmas are otherworldly, free from empirical evaluation. This transitory life is portrayed as a prelude to the real life to follow, which is everlasting. The adherents of "noun faith" are passive, easily molded by the all-knowing.
The Buddha's teaching in this arena makes immanent sense to me. He rejected speculation about such matters as God, the nature of the universe, and the afterlife, urging his followers to focus instead on the Four Noble Truths by which they could free themselves from the wheel of suffering.
"Noun faith" is form of mind control. It produces consumers.
"Verb faith" paints a starkly contrasting portrait.
The word translated as "faith" in the New Testament simply means "trust." Do we trust in unprovable speculation about metaphysical realities by those who know better, or do we trust in a grounded, earthly, integrated faith?
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)
In his landmark volume Stages of Faith, James Fowler asks the questions of "verb faith," "What are you spending and being spent for? What commands and receives your best time, your best energy? To what are you committed in life? In death? What are those most sacred hopes, those most compelling goals and purposes in your life?"
In a postmodern world, our high priests are the multinational corporations and their messaging machines. Advertising is the least of their catechisms; their primary evangelists are corporate media "journalists."
They are incessantly programming you to be a submissive consumer. One of their primary products is war.
In the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card remarked to the New York Times, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." Card was explaining what the Times characterized as a "meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress, and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein."
The military analysts did not simply propagandize for ideological reasons; in many cases, they work for defense contractors and are "in the business of helping companies win military contracts."
"Verb faith" produces active, engaged citizens who express a here-and-now earthly "heaven."
Rev. Martin Luther King makes it plain: "Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial."
This is the third piece in a series. The previous pieces can be found at ChuckFreeman.org.]]>The Spirit Speaks to a Texas Minister About Building Mosques in Americatag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.6885582010-08-27T14:06:00-04:002011-05-25T17:25:21-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/I am sickened by the BS going on by the religious & political right with the center in NYC & Mosques across the country. I wonder if we can get some Austin religious leaders together and make a statement, do a service project together etc. to counter this. This is beginning to pick up national steam and is in need of being addressed here. I plan to do a portion of my sermon on this Sunday. My topic is courage. -Islam, Imam of the North Austin Muslim Community Center in Austin, Texas
I consider Islam a friend and brother. We have shared lunch and coffee numerous times. I have had him on my radio show "Soul Talk" on several occasions. I have prayed with and spoken to his religious community. Islam and I had a frank conversation during a worship service at my church entitled, "A Window Into the World's Most Controversial Religion." Afterwards we had a congregational Q-and-A and then a dozen of us treated Islam to lunch for more dialogue.
Islam invited me, a rabbi, and a comparative religion professor to his community center on Tuesday, August 18 for a strategy session around the national mosque controversies. According to Time magazine, there are at least six mosques being vigorously opposed across America.
Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion...
Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
This magnificent revelation became the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights, which states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
As I walked into the mosque, I couldn't help but notice there were two trucks parked near the entrance owned by a local company doing work in the building. The logos read, "Liberty Mechanical."
The Spirit moves in mysterious ways! America's cardinal canon was confirmed.
I spoke these words to my congregation two days earlier:
Courage calls us to the maturity, wisdom, and discretion to find a balance between protection and principles. How can we protect ourselves and those we love without renouncing our principles? How would you like your religion to be judged by the worst of its adherents?
Our world is in a major transition. It is changing with 4G network speed. Change produces fear in us. As humans we often act out of this fear choosing to create the "Other." We demonize and target them. Courage charts another course.
Gandhi said, "The practice of nonviolence calls forth the greatest courage." I'm asking you. I'm asking this church to live our faith, our principles. I'm asking your courage to be more embracing than the fear.
I'm asking the same of you.]]>A Consumer Is a Subject, A Citizen Is a Verbtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.6491222010-08-18T11:20:54-04:002011-05-25T17:05:23-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/
We found out on the eve of our nations birthday a few weeks back that Thomas Jefferson first referred to our forbearers as "subjects" in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Upon reflection Jefferson made a monumental edit that deeded us with a revolutionary identity. It seems he sought quite methodically to expunge the word, to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated. Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word "citizens."
I am loathe to say it, but we have reverted back to being Subjects.
The American corporate media culture challenges our freedom in a much more sophisticated and seductive fashion. We are saturated with images and rhetoric by which we willingly morph our identity.
Here is a brief history of the evolution and devolution of your public self. First you were a Subject ruled by a King. Then, by virtue of hard earned modern democracy you became a Citizen, one with mutual responsibility. Next, the fossil record indicates you were a Customer, signifying a relationship between a business and a buyer of goods and services.
Somewhere along the way a mutation was engineered. You are now a Consumer. You have deformed into a buying machine. A Consumer is a Subject. In the days of Kings the Subjects had no choice. They were ruled by a superior social order or military force. In our day we actively accept being Subjects.
Even in the darling progressive media outlets you are uniformly labeled a Consumer. In America it is manifestly clear that we have confounded democracy and capitalism. The Catholic monk and hermit Thomas Merton offered this spiritual diagnosis over 40 years ago.
"When we call ourselves the 'free world' we mean first of all the world in which business is free. If you have nothing to buy or sell freedom is, in your case, irrelevant. Profit first, people afterward."
Capitalism can be conducted with a social conscience. The unexamined, unquestioned monoculture of consuming is leading to the collapse of all of our ecosystems.
A Consumer is a Subject, a pawn to be manipulated.
A Citizen is a Verb with dignity and purpose.
The spiritually awakened person and culture will be keen to preserve their fundamental identity. In his wondrous sermon "Spiritual Freedom" Rev. William Ellery Channing spoke with relevance eternal.
"I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstance, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own improvement, and acts from and inward spring, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused."
Seduction surrounds you. Will you be a Consumer or a Citizen?
]]>Citizens, Resist the Squeeze Play on Your Mindstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.6654602010-08-03T11:18:38-04:002011-05-25T17:15:21-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/(This is the second piece in a series. The first one is "A Consumer Is a Subject, A Citizen Is a Verb.")
The conclusion of this headline doesn't bother me as much as the principles named. Sometimes a different word choice can generate an entirely new meaning.
This rewrite is an upgrade: "Corporate profits up, but citizen optimism sagging." Eventually, the headline would transform into a world changer, "Corporate profits down, but citizen optimism rising."
Why am I making such a big deal of semantics? How could this possibly be a spiritual issue?
Universally, the great religions teach us that the mind is ground zero for eternal values to reign on the earth. Our identity is fundamental.
Fast-forward 2,000 years. Standing at America's ground zero, our would-be-Emperor beseeched us to "go shopping."
I'm asking you to do two things: número uno, sharpen your eyes and ears to the noun the corporate media uses to reference you; and número dos, every time you are referred to as a consumer (which is virtually every time), say resolutely to yourself, "Citizen."
The consequence of seeing human beings as consumers bores down not only to the marrow of our identity, but also of our literal existence.
On July 29 the United Nations General Assembly declared for the first time that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. In a historic vote, 122 countries supported the resolution, and over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European industrialized countries.
Bolivia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Pablo Solon, introduced the resolution at the General Assembly. He told of the long struggle for water rights in Bolivia, which successfully fought against Bechtel's water privatization efforts 10 years ago, then went on to say:
At the global level, approximately one out of every eight people do not have drinking water. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of the time used by women is spent collecting and transporting water for their homes.
The lack of sanitation is even worse, because it affects 2.6 billion people, which represents 40 percent of the global population. According to the report of the World Health Organization and of UNICEF of 2009, which is titled "Diarrhea: Why Children Are [Still] Dying and What We Can Do." Every day 24,000 children die in developing countries due to causes that can be prevented, such as diarrhea, which is caused by contaminated water. This means that a child dies every three-and-a-half seconds. One, two, three. As they say in my village, the time is now.
The Buddha taught, "Everything has mind in the lead, has mind in the forefront, is made by mind. If one speaks or acts with a corrupt mind, misery will follow. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness will follow, like a shadow that never leaves."]]>Patriotism Should Equal First Principles, Not Military Mighttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.6352202010-07-04T17:59:50-04:002011-05-25T17:00:24-04:00Rev. Chuck Freemanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-freeman/Rolling Stone, he was a rat in an eagle's nest." - Geraldo Rivera on FOX
"I mean, to end a career like McChrystal's? I mean, Michael Hastings has never served his country the way McChrystal has." - Lara Logan, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News
FYI, Geraldo and Lara: Hastings has been reporting in Iraq and Afghanistan for five years now, and his fiancé was killed in Iraq. It appears that he knows a smidgen about sacrificing for his calling and country. Does your service to America exceed your self-righteousness?
This week Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan defended herself in tense questioning from the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions:
I tried to make clear in everything I did, how much I honored everybody who was associated with the military on the Harvard Law School campus ... I meant to protect the gay and lesbian students who might very much want to serve in the military, who might very much want to do that most honorable kind of service that a person can do for her country ... I talked about how important military service was, because our veterans organizations and veterans on campus did an absolutely terrific job, a terrific service to their fellow students in talking to them about the honor of military service.
Lemme see if I got this straight. Being true to your calling as an independent media reporter is to be "a rat in an eagle's nest," and one taking the fourth estate seriously has "never served his country" the way a military general has. And, to be a qualified Supreme Court Justice you have to bow before the Imperial Altar of the United States Armed Forces, extolling military service as "that most honorable kind of service that a person can do for her country."
This is what we have come to? During the Fourth of July celebrations, I hope you paid attention: patriotism is almost exclusively synonymous with military might. You will see flags coupled with soldiers, arms and awesome aerial displays. Please contact me if you see the flag wed to social workers, teachers, nurses, or peace activists.
I want to be crystal clear. I favor the constitutional role of the military to "provide for the common defense." But one is hard-pressed to make a case for any of our "conflicts" from Korea through our current quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan as meeting this standard.
I am not anti-military, but I do patriotically resist America's imperial armed forces. I do abhor selling five times more weapons of destruction than the next five nations combined.
Way back in 1848 Rev. Theodore Parker preached a sermon, "The Political Destination of America and the Signs of the Times." He said, "There is a lamentable want of first principles, well known and established, the authority of truth and justice."
His prophetic word built to a crescendo:
An American State must also be a state of free men who give over brawling, resting on industry, justice, love, not on war, cunning and violence -- a State where liberty, equality, and fraternity are deeds as well as words ... and the American church tuning all to harmony of freedom for the mind, freedom for the heart, freedom for the soul.
In his "Sermon of War" he thundered:
We reverence force. Abroad we are looked on as a nation of swindlers and men-stealers! Alas! The nation is a traitor to its great idea -- that all men are born equal, each with the same unalienable rights.
The voice of conscience speaks to you and me, the right will prosper, the wicked States shall die. History responds with her long amen."
Let patriots who have ears to hear, let them hear.]]>