Well, it’s just about that time—I’m down to my last days at Hillel.  Hillel has been an integral part of my life for almost four years.  When we first started, we were a mish-mash group of young adults meeting behind the headquarters of our yearly meeting, in a rented space that we shared with countless others.  We had a little place in that room that was ours—it had a corkboard full of events, brochures, and pronouncements of our beliefs.  It had a calendar that featured a different beagle each month—a gift from me, of course. We sang, I preached, we worshipped.  We ate and talked, and made plans for the upcoming week.

That seems like a lifetime ago.  In October of 2005, we decided (with much pain and deliberation) to leave the rented space and begin house church.  I wrote about in an article for ESR magazine: 

After a time it became apparent that we still had not found ourselves.  This led to a painful journey that challenged us a community and as individuals.  In the end, we realized that if we were to have the intimate, authentic community we were seeking, we must abandon our building and go into our homes.  Thus began the “three week Hillel cycle”.  For three weeks at a time, we meet in one of our member’s homes for snacks, “catching up”, and silent worship.  We don’t focus on learning through a traditional sermon—I am among the few pastors who can say that’s not a part of my job.  Instead, we seek to learn through messages brought in Meeting, and through small groups that we call “shepherding groups”. The term “small groups” is misleading—Hillel only has 7 to 9 attendees, but we get together on a smaller scale in order to read, talk, and learn together about a subject of our choosing.  We also get together frequently for dinner, volunteering, movies, and other things that friends do.  Community and a relationship that’s interdependent upon God and each other is the very crux of Hillel’s existence; we don’t have any particular goals for the future—no big budget plans, no plan to move back into a building, no committees that may weigh us down. 

This is what makes Hillel unique.  This meeting literally flies by the seat of its ‘plain’ pants…  It is a Meeting with tremendous potential—but it will take work.  Hillel’s future depends on commitment in a variety of ways—attendance at worship and other Hillel functions, financial responsibility, making relationships with Hillel members a priority in one’s social life, and of course, committing to individual growth through the willingness to be tested, challenged, and changed.   

As I turn the ‘corner’ on my spiritual journey, and head elsewhere in Quakerdom, I encourage Hillel to jog along the path as well.  Don’t get too comfortable—God may throw a wrench in things (like asking the pastor to step down, and when she refused, pushing her off the invisible pulpit).  Let him challenge your beliefs and notions about the world, and let him guide you into the next phase of Hillel life.  Don’t get discouraged about numbers—believe me, quality within the meeting is always better than quantity.  Don’t let people make you feel inferior because you don’t have a building—remember, the early church never had buildings either, and they did just fine.  Don’t forget that while you’re Christians, you are also Quakers.  Never forget that.  If you  compromise Quakerism, then you threaten what is special about yourselves.  Remember, Quakers value peace, equality, simplicity, integrity, and community (among so many other things) because Christ first said we should.   

Don’t stop being a light in our community.  Stand up for what is fair, and what is from love.  Don’t let fear inhibit you—but when you speak up or stand up, do it gently, and always listen with an open mind to what your opponent says.  Remember, you have no enemies—that’s just not possible when you love Jesus.  You may have idiots in your life that make you so mad you see ‘red’, but always go back to that place of love, understanding, and forgiveness.  Remember what Jesus said to the people as he was traveling through their town:

“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed.  Instead, the person puts it on a lampstand so those who come in will see the light…” (Luke 8:16)

Remember that I love you, and will always be grateful for the opportunity you gave me.  I have enjoyed serving you, and will surely miss the banter, community, and even the aggravation that has become my life at Hillel.  We may not see each other as much as we used to, but take comfort in the knowledge that we are still members of the same community in Christ, and that I will be attempting to shine my light along with yours. 

In love & light,April

As you know, this is Black History Month.  This is one of my favorite times of the year, as African American History is one of my favorite “subjects”.  Last night, in lieu of the much-hyped Super Bowl, Alan and I watched the Spike Lee documentary 4 Little Girls.  It is about the 1960’s tragic bombing at the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four little girls.  So, in the Quaker tradition, I thought I would pose a query for self-examination during this month.  As the economic status of many Americans, but blacks in particular, is of great concern to me, the query is of an economic nature.

Are you concerned that our economic system shall so function as to sustain and enrich the life of all?  Do you as workers, employers, producers, consumers, and investors endeavor to cultivate goodwill and mutual understanding in your economic relationships? 

So, I’m still thinking about the film Jesus Camp.  In particular, I can’t shake one of the pieces of “advice” good ol’ Pastor Becky gave her kids.  She was preaching about sin, and made her way around to the topic of Harry Potter.  Let me establish here that I’m a big Potter fan, and I doubt I’m the only Jesus follower who is.  Any way, Pastor “B” informed her kids that Harry Potter is evil.  Her advice?  “You don’t make heroes out of warlocks.”  But what really shocked me was what she next—she asked the kids if they knew that had this been Old Testament times, Harry Potter would be put to death.  Hum.  Well, let’s establish two things—Harry Potter is not a real person!  He’s a book character, so maybe the Potter books would have been burned, but it would be quite difficult to actually execute Harry himself.  My second point is one Pastor “B” already made, even though she didn’t actually say it: we are not living under the old law because Christ ushered in a new law. As sad as she may be about that truth, the fact is, we don’t have to worry about what would have happened—it no longer matters.  So why even introduce an argument based upon a law that no longer exists? That’s like arguing that we don’t make heroes out of black Americans like Barach Obama.  I can just hear someone asking, “Did you know that if these were still the antebellum years, blacks would be enslaved?”  Please. That’s ridiculous.  Don’t threaten people about punishments that are antiquated.  In many ways, it says that Pastor “B” cannot come up with a valid reason, that applies to this current time, about why one should not read the Potter books.By the way, Obama is one of my political heroes—his color makes little difference to me (except that if he wins, we’ll finally get to see someone who isn’t white sitting in the oval office!). 

I find it interesting that we are so scared of terrorists of the Muslim faith.  We spend so much time and energy fearing a group from far away, when we have our own, good ‘ol made-in-America  “terrorists” to contend with.  Let me explain. I just watched a documentary called Jesus Camp.  It’s an eye-opening (and scary, if you are like me) look at the indoctrination into the world of extreme evangelicalism.   

It features the daily life of kids in extreme, fanatical Christian families.  Many of the kids are home schooled, and all live in homes that are saturated with white-bread Christian culture.  Not the Christian culture of Jesus’ community—in fact, except for the Bible, Jesus is talked about as if he is somehow separated from the world he walked, talked, slept, preached, and probably got sick in.  It seems to ignore, except for the bloody (and I mean bloody—there’s definitely an emphasis on his bloody death) crucifixion, that Jesus was a real person—he got pissed off, felt lonely, worried, and ate real food (and it wasn’t from Chik-Fil-A!).  It ignores that his favorite friends weren’t very respected—hell, they weren’t even Christians.  The kind of religion practiced in the film seems so artificial and political—like the plastic cross one purchases at the bible bookstore to hang in their rear-view mirror (which is supposed to somehow help other believers identify them).  It’s so one-dimensional.  This kind of faith doesn’t look at all like the deeply spiritual, truly life-altering faith of some believers that I can think of, such as Brian McLaren, St. Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, or even the evangelical favorite (more beloved than Jesus, perhaps?) Paul.  Their faith was multi-dimensional, and it really changed the world.  It didn’t piss off and even alienate those outside the faith (or inside, for that matter).  I would rather be identified as a Christian (by those a part of and apart from the faith) as a result of my love, service, listening skills, compassion for all, etc. than the Christian rock blasting from my radio. 

So what do you think goes on at Christian camp?  Team and self-confidence building?  Bible lessons designed for children about how they can better serve their community and be good at home?  How about those good old ghost stories (that we know aren’t real—at least I think they aren’t—but love anyway?)?  Not at Jesus Camp.  Oh, you’ll find team building—but it’s of a Republican sort.  One scene features a “visit” by the beloved president himself—a cardboard cut-out of Bush was presented at the pulpit, where the children were required to greet him and pray for his efforts to achieve the conservative agenda. I was scared nearly to tears as I watched little kids cry and shake over their “sins”.  One child was brought to the floor in shame because he had dared to question whether or not the Bible was true.  Wasn’t it in the Bible that Thomas questioned Jesus about his authenticity?  Was he not rewarded for his seeking? Another child dismissed quiet, contemplative churches (like many Quaker Meetings) as “dead”.  She thought God only showed up to loud churches like the mega-church she was a part of. Probably the saddest part was the opinion voiced by one little boy—a child considered to have great leadership potential (by the camp staff).  He said that he didn’t feel good around non-believers—in essence that they creeped him out.  He said they made him sick, then promptly noted that that was perhaps the case because they were sick.  I was immediately reminded of a passage of Scripture:“Very few people will die to save the life of someone else.  Although perhaps for a good person someone might possibly die.  But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.”  (Romans 5:7-8) 

God loves all of his creation—even when they aren’t (and perhaps especially) squeaky clean.  Remember Jesus discussing the prodigal son?  The greatest celebration is saved for the return of the lost.  So, it was with great sorrow that I heard a child saying that those out of the Christian faith make him sick.  Jesus’ best friends were the dirty and criminal.  

A final note about the film—the pastor of the camp is a woman named Becky Fischer.  Well, I guess those particular Christians don’t always interpret the bible literally…  

The day after Thanksgiving, when many of us were feeling fat and happy (and maybe tired from overspending at the mall), I was driving from house to house doing my pet runs.  I was listening to the Tavis Smiley show on NPR.  He had two guests that night—one who worked with America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest food pantry for the needy, and the other a researcher at the Heritage Foundation, a Conservative policy think tank.  The Second Harvest affiliate was talking about the shocking number of Americans who are hungry—approximately 13% of households in North Carolina in 2004 (see their website at http://www.secondharvest.org/).  The main point of her discussion was a new report out by the government about poverty and food insecurity in the U.S.   A recent report produced by the Second Harvest gives some of the same figures Smiley’s guest referred to. Called the Almanac of Hunger and Poverty, it focuses on poverty rates in each state, as well looks at poverty and food insecurity in particular groups, such as children and the elderly.  An estimated 35 million Americans are living in situations where they do not know where their next meal will come from.

 If you’re alarmed, or even motivated to help these folks, don’t be—at least that’s what Robert Rector, the Heritage researcher, says. He is so frustrated with concerned folks “crying wolf” about food insecurity that he wrote an article about it:

 Today’s Special: Another “Hunger Crisis”By Robert Rector

It’s Thanksgiving, and political activists are serving up a familiar dish: cries of alarm about a “hunger crisis” in America. The Chicago-based group America’s Second Harvest, for example, says millions of American children suffer from hunger. The Food Research and Action Center claims that 29 percent of all U.S. children — nearly one out of every three — is hungry or “at risk” of hunger.But such startling claims are refuted by the federal government’s own data. Surveys conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services show that 96 percent of American families report that they have “enough food to eat.” About 3 percent say they “sometimes” don’t have enough food. Only one half of 1 percent say they “often” don’t have enough food.These data also reveal an ironic fact: Nearly half of the people who claim they lack food are overweight. In fact, obesity is most common among the tiny group claiming they “often” lack food.Are one-third of U.S. children hungry? In reality, American children, both rich and poor, are remarkably well nourished. The average amount of protein, vitamins and minerals consumed by poor children is virtually identical with what middle-class children consume. In most cases, it greatly exceeds recommended norms. For example, poor children, on average, take in more than 200 percent of the “recommended daily allowance” of protein, a relatively expensive nutrient.Health problems relating to the under-consumption of food are scarce among both poor and middle-class children. Thinness (low weight for height) and stunting (low height for age) are virtually non-existent among both groups. In fact, poor American children are simply giants by international or historic standards. By the time poor boys reach age 18, they are, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than a middle-class boy of the same age in the late 1950s.Poor Americans do face health problems related to diet, but these mainly stem from an over-consumption of food, not food scarcity. In a nation plagued by excess calories, the poor are most likely to be overweight. Nearly half of poor adult women are overweight, compared to a third of non-poor women.Medical experts have expressed concern over the growth of obesity among American children. Unfortunately, obesity is most common among poor children. A recent medical study of low-income black and Hispanic students in Central Harlem found that 25 percent were “obese,” and more than half of that group was “super-obese.“Recently, the government’s principal food program for children (Women, Infants and Children) issued a study claiming that it wasn’t responsible for the alarming growth of obesity among poor children. Whenever you have the government’s major feeding program denying responsibility for obesity among the poor, it seems reasonable to conclude that activist claims of a widespread “hunger crisis” are just a bit overblown.Finally, many believe that lack of money forces poor people to eat low-quality diets deficient in nutrients and high in fat. But government survey data show that nutrient richness (the amount of vitamins, minerals and protein per calorie of food) is the same for poor and middle- class Americans. And the diets of poor people, on average, are no higher in fat than the diets of the middle class.Some poor people, particularly in the inner city, do have diets that are very high in fat. But this problem can be blamed on the heavy consumption of take-out “fast food.” A diet laden with “Big Macs” and “Super-Size Fries” isn’t healthy, but it’s hardly evidence of a food shortage or a lack of money to buy food.I’m not suggesting that periodic hunger doesn’t occur in America. But far from being a crisis, hunger is a limited problem, and one that usually doesn’t last very long. For example, U.S. Department of Agriculture surveys show that, in the last month, about one American child in 200 missed one or more meals due to the family’s lack of money for food. This is a cause for concern, of course, but it is far short of a national epidemic.More importantly, when temporary hunger does occur, it is often linked to behavioral problems that are far more troubling than simple food shortages. In the inner city, for example, up to 80 percent of children are born outside of marriage. Drugs and crime are rampant. Activist groups may think they’re doing poor Americans a favor, but bogus claims of a “hunger crisis” only distract attention from these all-too-real problems.

A comment made by  Rector on the Tavis Smiley show really sums up his article best.  I can’t quote verbatim, but I do remember the essence of what he said.  He told Smiley and his other guest that perhaps the real problem is that people in poverty don’t know how to spread meals out evenly.  He suggested that instead of eating a whole lot at the beginning of the month, they spread their meals out over the course of the entire month. In other words, they should ration their food.  Is this man for real? When has he skipped a meal in order to ensure his kids would eat? When did he last feel the pain of hunger yet was unable to do anything about it? I wonder when he last rationed his food?  Maybe he did it over Thanksgiving, ensuring that instead of one nice, large meal, he’d have a whole month of turkey leftovers.  It’s a good thing this privileged white man is thin, otherwise I’d point out that maybe he, too, doesn’t know how to spread out his meals properly.Instead of accusing the poor of ineffective rationing skills, we ought to ask ourselves why the idea of rationing is even necessary in what some would think is the best country in the world.  To Rector’s credit, he did say that food stamps should cover nutritious foods instead of the junk and soda they typically pay for now.  And he’s right.  But that’s just a start.  We need to help people find jobs that will bring them out of poverty, and most Americans, whether secure in food or not, need to learn how to eat better.  But that won’t happen as long as junky, fast food and poor quality items at the store are what so many can afford.  I think the poor have it difficult enough as it is—we need not blame them for their hunger pains as well.