Seeking the Common Good in Politics

Original ABBA outfits

Last summer on sabbatical, when Kristie and I were in Stockholm, we made sure to visit the most quintessential Swedish thing ever: the ABBA Museum. Yes, there is a museum dedicated to the band. And it’s everything you think it is. There’s the histories of the musicians, a replica of the recording studio, complete with the original soundboard, a theater showing old concerts, and, of course, a whole room with the outfits – all blinged out and flared at the ankles. They were deep in a basement, with no natural light, so as not to destroy all the polyester with the ultraviolet light of the sun.

One exhibit caught my eye, and that was about a later work done by Benny and Bjorn, after the band broke up, called Chess. It’s a musical set during the cold war, a US vs. Soviet chess competition. The assistant to one falls in love with the other player and both love and chaos and politics and heartache ensue. It’s pure ABBA genius.

I’ve been nostalgically listening to some of its numbers on YouTube, and got stuck on a super-ear-worm song called “Nobody’s Side”. Here’s the refrain:

Never make a promise or plan
Take a little love where you can
Nobody's on nobody's side
Never stay too long in your bed
Never lose your heart, use your head
Nobody's on nobody's side

Never take a stranger's advice
Never let a friend fool you twice
Nobody's on nobody's side
Never be the first to believe
Never be the last to deceive
Nobody's on nobody's side
And never leave a moment too soon
Never waste a hot afternoon
Nobody's on nobody's side
Never stay a minute too long
Don't forget the best will go wrong
Nobody's on nobody's side

It's the ultimate personal philosophy of cynical realpolitik. Trust no one. Nothing lasts. No loyalty. Get what you can while you can. All set to ridiculously catchy music.

I see and hear this in the world, and my first question is the same one the kids ask: who hurt you? What horrible thing did people do to you to make you so untrusting and uncaring? In the musical, it was the Soviets who steamrolled her hometown. Of course, love will break through (it’s theater) and the cynicism will melt. It’s not a French noir movie; it’s a Swedish musical.

I imagine a life like this filled with endless chasing of pleasures, and glaring absence of friendship and love. Debauched and lonely, successful and empty, cold but charming. It is, in almost every way, the exact opposite of Jesus. It’s also a good way to succeed in politics.

When I interned in the House of Representatives for a semester, I came in thinking I would find lots of really intelligent and capable people. How else did they get so far? What I found, instead, was a mixed bag. Some really were trying to do good, and some were the most arrogant, rude, selfish, calloused people I’ve ever met. I had to listen to tapes of the guy I worked for because he felt it was beneath him to have to identify himself to staff (even though we rarely saw him). One representative yelled at me with a loud “do you know who I am?” on the phone. Ugh. It was obvious they could turn it on at the state fair, in front of the cameras, and then became monsters when dealing with people for whom there was no transactional gain.

Is this what life is? We’re just individuals in a sea of individuals trying to get what’s best for us?

Are relationships just transactions? Is there no real love? Kindness? Compassion? Common good? And what about higher ideals? Self-sacrifice? Service?  What about that whole cross thing? Giving up everything?

If your view of things is a series of quid pro quos, then Jesus is the ultimate chump. He is the ultimate sucker who teaches us to let others walk all over us and get things from us without getting anything in return. What a wuss.

For those who are transactional, any giving without getting is not just frustrating; it’s humiliation. It’s getting played. It’s getting taken. And you’re convinced that, once the deal’s done, they’re snickering behind your back and laughing at you in disrespect. Giving is just letting people use you. Demand something for everything, then you can walk proudly.

We are in the midst of an election season, as we all know too well. I’ll admit I get tired of it, but I wouldn’t trade it for any other system. I may not always get the results I want, but no gain is worth having a dictator. And I’ll admit, too, that I feel such a deep grief at the total lack of thinking about the common good, the poor and the needy, the disadvantaged, the immigrants and refugees and homeless. The debates end up becoming a race between two people who have to win votes on selfishness: who will get me the most for me?

When did you hear a debate about whose policies will bring the most good to the most poor, and prevent or cure homelessness? They will argue, when pressed, that this or that policy they advocate will have that effect, but that’s ancillary. I don’t hear any “most good for the most people”. It’s always “are you better off than you were under this one?”

The Christian should be looking at the politicians the way Jesus did, through the eyes of the poor and powerless. We should be demanding that the government and corporations work for the betterment of the whole society, and world, to reduce suffering and poverty and environmental destruction. That should be the question. Not who will best satisfy my selfish desires with the least amount of personal sacrifice.

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As you know, I’ve been leading a small discussion group on the proposed ELCA social statement Civic Life and Faith. Like all ELCA statements, it moves slowly, building a case with scripture and theology, and moving to specifics. It’s far from radical, but sure to irritate some. It has a lot of talk about the need for Christians to advocate for the “common good” – a phrase that some, mistakenly, think is a code for communism and collectivizing all private property. It’s a slippery-slope argument that makes it impossible to talk about our “collective” responsibility to our neighbors in need. An excerpt from the beginning:

Article 2) In the biblical word shalom (Hebrew word) the Scriptures depict God's goal for creation and point to the nature of God’s ongoing active engagement with it. God’s power and love seeks shalom, the fullness of peace, well-being, goodness, truth, beauty, justice, freedom, wholesomeness, and love woven together for all. This statement is undergirded by that biblical term but in the context of civic life employs other terms such as “the well-being of all” or “the common good” because they are earthly measures toward God’s intention. God’s sovereignty brings forth and sustains the universe and grants creatures their power, even though it often is hidden to human view. God intends that humans use and share the gift of power so that human structures and systems serve the intended well-being of all with good order and justice.

So much here one could unpack, but I want to just highlight a couple ideas for consideration as we go into voting.

First, the idea that we are all in this together, the whole creation, and that peace and fullness exist only when we ALL are experiencing it. The good of all is the good for me. This is not a “if they get something I lose something” – a zero-sum philosophy (which is pointed out later in the statement), but a good for all. There is plenty for all, and one person’s winning is not me losing. It’s about wholeness, not transactional gain.

Second, the line about structures and systems. It’s not just about us, as individuals, minding our business and being nice to the clerk at the checkout counter (which you should be), but it’s about the whole system. Laws and policies can be rigged by the rich and powerful to their benefit, at others’ expense. Being ethical, as a Christian, is more than watching my own worst impulses, but about creating systems where some aren’t forced into poverty by laws and systems that give them no choice. We must seek a wholistic justice.

I could unpack this for ages, and I encourage you to take a look at the full statement again. Suffice it to say that we I believe we need to demand of our politicians a focus on the common good, and creating a wholeness with each other and the environment, a concern for the poor and disadvantaged, and not a transactional view of “what’s in it for me?” Transactional relationships are all about leveraging and using, not about loving and giving. They’re the opposite of Jesus.

Pastor Lars

Being in a Denominational Church

Being in a Denominational Church

Pastor’s Column for the June, 2024 newsletter

This month is our annual synod assembly again up in Mesa. I’ll be there June 14-15th to cast votes on resolutions, listen to speakers, and, this year, to vote on who will be the bishop. Our synod, called the Grand Canyon Synod, has been led for the past 6 years by Rev. Deborah Hutterer. Here first term is up and she will be running again.

Holy Communion setup at Love of Christ Lutheran Church, Mesa, AZ

A bishop here can serve two terms, and is elected by “ecclesial ballot”. Basically, everyone at the synod assembly writes a name for who they want to be bishop. It can be any pastor in good standing in the ELCA. They don’t have to live here.  If one person gets 75% or more of the vote they are elected right away. If no one has that much, it goes to a second ballot, or a third, and so on until one person is elected. (I can never remember the exact percentages needed with each round, but the crowd thins each time).

The idea behind it is to reduce the influence of campaigning and leave more room for the Holy Spirit. Some people do, of course, try to get their names out there, and having name recognition in the synod always helps. There has certainly been a tendency to elect bishops from larger urban churches because people know them, but that’s not a hard rule.

All of it will make things more interesting. Synod assemblies, once upon a time, were huge events that went most of a week. People would submit multiple resolutions, followed by loud and contentious debates. Local newspapers would send a press corps. In the 70’s it was the Viet Nam war resolutions, then nuclear war in the 80’s, then in the 90’s and early 2000’s it was same sex marriage and ordination. I remember lines of people cued up to debate pro or con changing the policies, complete with accusations, crying, anger, emotional pleas etc.

Then in 2009 the ELCA approved a social statement on sexuality, along with a policy change for ordination, that allowed same-sex marriage and ordination, and we had more than a few people leave – much as is happening now with the United Methodist Church. Since then, assemblies have been quick, with few resolutions. Part, I’m sure, is the lack of such hot-button issues. But I also suspect people got burned out with the sexuality debates, and after being so stressed with congregational conflicts and then covid battles, nobody wants to debate much.

Bishop Deborah Hutterer of the Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA

It's all part of being a church in a denomination, which they nickname the “mainline” today. In the 1950’s most people belonged to denominational churches. Now that number has shrunk to a minority. Instead, as you can see in NW Tucson, non-denominational churches have proliferated. They have trendy names that don’t sound particularly religious and are mostly conservative-Baptist in their politics and theology. Lord of Grace is a bit of an outlier in this regard.

There are reasons for the growth-decline trends. Mainline churches have done plenty of resting on past history and getting lazy, but it’s much more than that. I believe one of the biggest drivers towards non-denominationalism is the way people function in community.

Mainline churches are set up like democracies. We have meetings where everyone gets a voice and vote, and we know we won’t always get what we want. Not everyone will like every new initiative or agree with all the items in the budget, but it’s always been assumed that we would stay with our church and  support it even if it didn’t always go our way. And we always understood that democratic process involves meetings, discussions, debates, and time investment. Changes can take time, compromises get made, actions get delayed, but that’s how it works.

Taking a vote at the 2023 Grand Canyon Synod Assembly in Oro Valley, AZ

If you look around our world, participation in organizations is declining across the board. Social groups like Masons or Moose or Elks are shrinking. Non-profits are getting fewer regular volunteers. People are simply less interested in investing the time in process or belonging to groups that require it. Instead, it’s more what we call “vote with your feet”, where if you don’t like it, you just go. You probably don’t lodge a protest or try to talk to anyone before you go; you just leave and look for somewhere else that’s more to your liking.

We do this with restaurants. If I don’t like the food, I’m not going to volunteer to be on a committee to meet weekly for several months with the restaurant owner and chef to develop a new menu, which would then be voted on by the customers. I just leave and try somewhere else. When new ownership comes, I might try it again, see if it’s changed, but I’m not spending my time to fix it.

This attitude carries over to church. Rather than invest in a democratic process to change what you might not like, people are more likely to just move somewhere else.

There is some good in this. I have known people who are so miserable in the church they’re in, constantly fighting things, being angry, blocking, complaining, when they could just go down the road and be content. If I weren’t a pastor, and moved into a new town, I would shop around a little before joining a church. If they taught fundamentalism, creationism, or complementarianism (where women submit to husbands but we say that the obedience is “complementary” to the man’s authority and therefore equal – I guess), or anti LGBTQ sermons, I wouldn’t go. If they gave my kids dirty looks in worship when they talked, I’d move on

On the other hand, it’s hard as a church leader to always stay ahead of everyone’s felt needs and opinions. You try to listen, stay in touch, know what’s going on, but you can’t read minds. It makes church members more like customers, less like family members in community. If we really love each other and care for each other, then leaving will be a last resort, not the immediate go-to. In a community, you’ll make the point of getting involved in the process because you have a commitment to the church. If you’re a customer, it’s commitment until something better comes along.

But I wouldn’t change being in a denomination for the alternative. Yes, I’m biased, but I have seen what happens to churches that leave the ELCA and go independent. They usually do fine for the first few years, then, when the pastor retires or leaves, they struggle to find someone new. Then, there’s an exodus of people who don’t like the new pastor, and the place is dead in a generation. They struggle to outlive the founding pastor’s personality. Mainline churches have more resilience this way.

I also like having a bit of a buffer on things with the synod office. You can’t just fire a pastor with a council vote (I like that, of course). You can’t just sell land. You can’t just leave the denomination (without a lengthy process). You can’t just do a lot of things. There’s a process to keep the most extreme actions from being done quickly, and force people to take time to debate and discuss it. Things done in the heat of the moment are rarely done wisely.

So we will see how this synod assembly goes. I am the designated photographer, so I get to get up from the table and walk around to take pictures. (You can see my photos from 2023 here). I will be more excited at some speakers than others. I will enjoy catching up with colleagues, and hearing some news, and know that I’m a part of something bigger than just one church, and that we can do a lot of these things we do better when we live in community. I will enjoy watching the balloting process for a new (returning?) bishop. I will also surely get frustrated at some opinions voiced, some statements made, some things other churches are doing that I disagree with. But I am a part of a community, we are a part of a community, and we don’t walk out on each other without really taking time to turn over stones first.

Peace,

Pastor Lars

Loving not Hating - Pastor's Column May 2023

I was giving a tour of the sanctuary to a lighting consultant, who was asking me about what we wanted for the sanctuary. I told him my concerns were fairly practical: I wanted to have things more adjustable, and brighter up the front and on the sides, new sconces etc. He suggested all sorts of new lighting ideas, that the churches he worked with wanted fancy lights to “bring the young people back.”

That stuck with me, that churches had told him that they thought fancy light production at worship would make young people more interested in church. This shouldn’t surprise me. But it still seems like such 1990’s thinking. Back then, a lot of people (Baby Boomers – largely) grew up in traditional churches, but thought they were boring. So adding bands and light shows and production elements would tilt the scales when picking between churches. If you’re going anyways, why not the one with lasers, fog machines, jumbotron etc.?

But times have changed. I honestly have never met a person under 40 (heck, under 50 now) who says they don’t go to church because it’s too boring or traditional. Their issues are deeper. They don’t believe in God at all. Or they don’t like “organized religion,” and they will give a list of grievances with “church”. And none of them have anything to do with lights. Instead, the view is that Christians are hateful, transphobic, intolerant.

Ouch.

This bites much deeper than production value.

But where do they get these ideas?

The internet, of course.

And the newspaper.

And stories from friends.

And the stories they hear are disturbing.

I’m sure you all heard about the pastor at Faith Christian Church, based out of the University, using church funds to buy mansions on Mount Lemmon without paying taxes. He claims it’s for “spiritual retreats”. But, interestingly, only he and his close friends ever go on them.

So the internet lights up with “tax the churches. They’re all a scam….”

Then there’s the episode at Bookman’s where they had one of those drag queen story hours. A local church sent a crowd of angry people to shout and scream them down, scare them into stopping. They said they were “protecting the children from grooming”. What utter nonsense. There is no data to support drag queens leading to child molestation. Most offenders are straight and married. None of them started with drag queens.

Of course, to the young people watching from the sides, this is glaring hypocrisy, and intolerance. They see priests molesting kids and bishops covering it up, then Christians are worried about drag queens?

Of course, you and I will point out a distinction between some non-denominational personality cult and the Roman Catholic Church. They don’t. It’s all just “Christians are hypocrites”.

You want to know why kids don’t want to come to church? They think we’re hateful, homophobic, reactionary, sexist etc. They can’t figure out why they’d want that guy with his shiny red corvette and frosted tips to tell them every Sunday why LGBTQ people were going to hell. No thanks. I’ll be a good person, live love, and do it without “organized religion”.

I’ve had people ask my kids, when they say I’m a pastor, “so, your dad hates gays?” Gentle ribbing? Or do they really believe it?

The two biggest questions I get asked by confirmation students are “what is hell all about?” and “why do Christians hate gays?”

That’s the world we live in. Like it or not. The kids who go to church have to answer to their friends for the sins of those Christians who are screaming loudly to block what most young people see as self-evident human rights. They don’t see atheists shouting down drag queens and screaming at school board meetings. Ergo: atheists are more tolerant and loving.

I know that we as a church, as the ELCA, have struggled over the years with what course we will plot over LGBTQ issues. We know all too well at Lord of Grace that many of our former members left to go to conservative churches that would affirm their belief that all same-sex activity was sinful and against the Bible. We also know that our social statement on human sexuality both affirms same-sex marriage and ordination, but does not condemn those who choose not to support that. You don’t have to agree with the change, but we do expect you to live in a loving and supportive way in community with those who do.

Which brings me back to thinking about our place as a church, our future, our strategy for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these times. Most of our society seems to be splitting apart along hard, partisan lines. Some churches stake out a traditionalist view, and they keep planting churches that affirm those beliefs, and do so with really good light shows. On the other hand, more and more of the population is just dropping out of church entirely. They don’t see a place for them. They may not deny God’s existence, but don’t want to participate in what they see as hateful politics.

In order to do evangelism these days it’s not enough to talk about Jesus. You have to overcome all these negative views, all these preconceptions first. You have to BE loving and supportive of people ostracized by other churches. And you have to keep clarifying, “but we’re not like that church, we don’t believe that, we don’t practice that……”

It's gets exhausting. I used to be more circumspect about doing the whole “We’re not them” bit. It felt arrogant. But after watching the screaming at Bookman’s and credible threats against the Catalina Foothills school board, I don’t feel we have a choice. Honestly, I would rather go to no church at all than that one.

And I used to be more circumspect about talking about ELCA social statements. I was worried it would offend people and cause controversy, and I didn’t have the energy for a fight. But, the more I see in the news, the more I feel the opposite. We’ve already lost people because of our positions. Maybe it’s time to use them to gain new ones.

It's why I feel we need to be more bold in identifying ourselves as different, and highlighting our social positions, and letting people know we’re an alternative. We also have the burden of living that out in practice, and demonstrating that we can be loving, open-minded, tolerant, inclusive, accepting, non-judgmental, listening to diverse views, and not automatically against all social change. We have a lot of obstacles to overcome to reach new generations for Christ. And none of them have to do with flashy lighting.

That said, we will be upgrading our lighting. We’ll go with the simpler plan: nothing flashy, but more bright and adjustable. We’ll be able to set a mood for a meditative service, and raise it for Sunday morning. And I hope that under those lights, whether dark and contemplative or bright and celebrating, that we act and live love and acceptance of Jesus, so we can melt hardened hearts with deeds and actions that give a different voice to Jesus and the church.  

Peace,

Pastor Lars