It’s Not What You Think

Pat Liberty

The Easter sermon from Ledyard Congregational Church, Ledyard, CT

Though the details vary from Gospel to Gospel, it is clear that women were the first witnesses to the resurrection.  And it’s not what you think.  Unlike other religious leaders of the time, Jesus had women in his intimate circle.  They are hidden in the stories, often without names but they are there. But here, Mary is named and known. History has made Mary Magdalene an unsavory woman, but there is not a shred of historic evidence to suggest that this is true. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that Magdala may not even have been a real place. The name will probably stick, because calling her the “other Mary” doesn’t seem all that helpful, but it would be good if she lost the undeserved reputation.

The Easter event, however we understand it, begins in darkness. Before the sun started to tug at the edge of night, a time so quiet you could hear the trees breathe, that is where Easter begins. But the darkness was more than the absence of light. It was also the presence of fear, bewilderment, and a deep sense of uncertainty. Frederick Buechner called it “the darkness of the resurrection itself, that morning when it was hard to be sure what you were seeing.” Was it really an angel sitting in the unlit tomb? Were those shadows in the corner really grave clothes? The quiet stranger lingering outside, who seemed somehow vaguely familiar.

“Early in the morning, while it was still dark” is where Easter begins– with a sense of being lost and a profound absence of certainty. The earliest followers of Jesus had left home and life and family for the sake of this rabbi… and now it seemed it was all for naught. They stumbled around confused and afraid in the half light on that third day after Jesus’ crucifixion.  

I find that hopeful, because most of the time I don’t have it, whatever “it” happens to be all figured out. And for over 2000 years people have been trying to codify, explain and expound on the Easter event. And 2000 years later “it” has not been all figured out.

All the celebration and trumpets and flowers and alleluias came a few hundred years later. The first Easter was very tentative.

Mary Magdalene’s journey to the tomb was rooted in sadness but in her going to the grave, at great risk to herself, she also bore witness to Jesus’ teaching that love is stronger than death, and perfect love casts out fear. And perfect love is not love without error; it is love that trusts its source.  Mary’s love for Jesus was greater than her fear of what might happen to her if she trusted her heart. It is often in such heartbreak that resurrection begins.

And the Easter moment comes for her when she recognizes Jesus; there are few details given in any of the gospel accounts.  We are given just enough to discern a truth, even though it is not a logical event.

It is a consequence of modernity that we think in linear terms, the dawn of movies and other recording equipment has changed how we understand reality.  The resurrection stories, THIS resurrection story is not intended to be a movie script.  The truth of the story goes beyond the words recorded and it’s not what we think. 

Any way you look at it, that is a mighty fragile beginning for a religion that has lasted over 2000 years now, and yet that is where so many of us continue to focus our energy: on that tomb, on that morning, on what did or did not happen there and how to explain it to anyone who does not happen to believe it too.

Resurrection does not square with anything else we know about physical human life on earth. No one has ever seen it happen, which is why it helps me to remember that no one saw it happen on Easter morning either.

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote; “The resurrection is the one and only event in Jesus’ life that was entirely between him and God. There were no witnesses whatsoever. No one on earth can say what happened inside that tomb, because no one was there. They all arrived after the fact. Two of them saw clothes. One of them saw angels. Most of them saw nothing at all because they were still in bed that morning, but as it turned out that did not matter because the empty tomb was not the point.”

The point is that somewhere along the line they recognized him in the faces of those he loved when he walked this earth.  They recognized him in each other’s eyes when they spoke the words he gave them, when they remembered that following Jesus on the way was the only thing that mattered, and that Jesus was the way and showed the way.

The resurrection became real in a different way for all of them. God used the stuff of their lives as the raw material in which to make the resurrection real. 

John Shelby Spong, the late bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, suggests in his book, The Easter Moment, that it was the remembering and the telling, the scared and sacred sharing that transformed this group of confused fisher folk into a mighty witness to an even mightier truth. They recognized the risen Christ in their midst, were strengthened by sharing a meal in his name. 

And IN TIME they found their voices and their courage and carried on.  The truth of the empty tomb became real when God’s loving power was felt in their hearts and in their gathering. 

They heard the words and followed the simple directions from the angel, but it didn’t become real until they had some time to sit with it. 

We hear the words and understand them, but Easter does not become real until our own lives are transformed by it. 

Easter is always a moment that changes all other moments.

We don’t think too much about eternal life until someone we love dies.  We don’t think much about the promise of God’s sustaining love until we are ill and think we might die.   We may not think much about hope until it eludes us; we may not think much about joy until it returns to us on the heels of despair. 

The promise becomes real in the stuff of our own lives.  And it happens again and again as the stuff changes. 

Albert Schweitzer wrote, “To those who would follow the risen Christ, whether wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the conflicts and the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship.  And as an ineffable mystery they shall learn in their own experience who he is.” 

But Easter is never just about us…it’s also about the passions at work in Jesus’ earthly life…his love for those no one else paid any attention to; his willingness to speak truth to power and lay bare the corruption that masqueraded as faithfulness.  Jesus was all about an upside-down realm where the last were first and the first were last.

Resurrection is at once deeply personal and totally communal…as we mark the Easter holiday as a point in time…it is not the anniversary of an event…it is the reminder of new life born of discipleship and community.

The resurrection stories are a mix and mess of mystery and human bewilderment, and we do well to remember it is not the empty tomb that made believers of them.  It was their fellowship with one another, their shared doubt and shared faith…it was their growing awareness of his presence as they lived the life he showed them.

And so for us…Christ is present in our fragmented lives…calling us to wholeness.

Christ is present in our sadness and grief, unfolding a way to healing.

Christ is present in the midst of all that comes to an end, with a promise of presence and unfailing love

Christ is present n the struggle for peace, going on ahead of us to show the way.

Christ is present in the yearning for justice, calling us to repentance and lives made new.

Christ is present in our fear of death, calling us to the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ

Christ is present in our fear of life, saying follow me.

Word Scrubbing: An Exercise in Making People Invisible

Pat Liberty

Word scrubbing is the practice of erasing language that points to particular people or things. Word scrubbing makes a whole list of vulnerable people invisible. According to Elizabeth Power, M.Ed., Adjunct Instructor, Georgetown University Medical Center and founder of The Trauma Informed Academy, the following are words that can trigger additional scrutiny in a grant application or request for program funding from the Federal Government:

  • Activist, activism, advocate, advocacy, background, barrier, barriers, biased, bias, BIPOC, Black and Latinx
  • Community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive
  • Disabilities, discrimination, discriminatory, diversified, diversity
  • Enhancing, equality, equal opportunity, equitable, ethnicity, excluded
  • Female, fostering, gender, groups, hate speech, Hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias
  • Inclusion, inclusive, increase, indigenous community, inequalities, inequity, institutional
  • Justice, LGBTQ, marginalize, minorities, multicultural, polarization, political, privilege, prejudice, promoting
  • Race, racial, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, status, stereotype
  • Trauma, underappreciated, underrepresented, underserved, victims, women

This list includes most of the people Jesus spent his life reaching out to, loving and ministering to.

Jesus fed the hungry, made the blind see, cared for the poor and included everyone in the circle of God’s concern and love.

By removing these words from the lexicon of public programming and grant funding, the populations represented behind these words are essentially removed from public view. They are “disappeared” like political dissidents in authoritarian regimes. It also ensures that these populations will continue to be underserved and underrepresented in the public arena.

By erasing these words, the US is rewinding the clock at least 50 years to a time when the differently abled, wounded, gender divergent, and abused, to name just a few, were routinely excluded from resources, programs and funding that helped heal and empower them. Removing funding for these groups also isolates them from the mainstream of human life by taking away resources they need to function in society.

Many of Jesus’ miracles were as much about restoring people to their community as they were about healing physical maladies. For instance, in biblical times, women who were menstruating were considered ritually unclean and had to absent themselves from their community. In the story from Luke 8, a woman with an issue of blood was perpetually isolated from her community. When she was healed, not only was her physical health restored, she also was able to rejoin her community.

This word scrubbing policy directive in our time is a move toward a historically unkind and limiting time in the lives of many people. It is despicable that this is now public policy for funding initiatives. It begs the question, what kind of programs will be funded? Summer camp for blond hair, blued eyed rich kids from the suburbs? Private limo transportation for Buffy and Muffy to their piano lessons?

It is yet another of the occupant and his cronies’ fly by night slash and burn public policy initiatives that stay under the radar.  If the day’s news hasn’t given you reason to contact your legislators, this is it. If we stay silent, the populations that are being “disappeared” don’t have a chance.

The Changing Face of Education

Pat Liberty

Last week the occupant signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education. Ultimately the Department can only be abolished by Congress, but with a Republican majority in the House and Senate this should not be a problem.

What is a problem, however, is the implications of this action. The occupant is moving to privatize education through block grants given directly to states. States already control a majority of the money that funds education, so his stated reason for dismantling the department is disingenuous at best.

Federal dollars are approved by Congress and given to the Department of Education to allocate to states. Giving the money to states as block grants means that parents could use vouchers to send their children to private schools. As Project 2025 states, parents should have the authority to determine how their children are educated. Translation: parents can use public monies to send their children to private school.

In the current system, federal funds are primarily used to support underperforming schools and offer additional resources for poor children. Children with disabilities, 95% of whom are educated in public schools, will have less access to adequate education that accommodates their disabilities. Block grants that allow parents to purchase vouchers means that public schools, especially those in low-income communities will have fewer resources.

The Department of Education champions enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in education and assuring that every student has access to an education that will help them reach their potential. Dismantling the department means defunding programs that feed, educate, and protect vulnerable and underserved students.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), eliminating programs like Title 1 will divert money from schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty. Support such as reading specialists and smaller class sizes would be eliminated. Reading scores nationally are falling. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), national reading scores declined for both fourth and eighth grade students. Reading scores fell to a record low in 2019 and 2022. A record number of students performed below basic reading competency.  Eliminating reading specialists seems ill advised at best. According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, 180,000 teaching positions could be lost, affecting 2.8 million students in low-income communities.

It is likely that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will be moved to the Department of Justice. This would practically eliminate the Office’s capacity to protect students against discrimination based on gender, race and disability. The absence of strong federal oversight would leave millions of students vulnerable to discrimination.

Under this cockamamie plan the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) would be transferred to another agency, as yet undefined. Over 7.5 million students, or 15% of the student population, receive special education services. Administering funds as block grants to states is unlikely to result in funding special education programs. The public schools that will get the left-overs after parents purchase their private school vouchers will have inadequate resources to fulfill the Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) that many students have to accommodate their learning disabilities.  

The overall goal is to privatize education which will leave the poorest and most vulnerable students, especially those with special needs, in underperforming public schools. The whole of Project 2025 is geared toward victimizing our most vulnerable populations. The Department of Education is just the latest casualty assuring that those in greatest need will get the fewest resources.

The Department of Education is four percent of the entire national budget. Surely eliminating four percent of the budget does nothing to address the national deficit, but it consigns thousands of children to inadequate education that will allow them to function in the future.

Assuring that every child gets an education is a foundation of a stable society. Students that are unable to read or function in the work-a-day world will be trapped in low-wage jobs that will continue the cycle of poverty. How this claims to have Christian values is mind-boggling. Jesus railed against unjust social and political systems that trapped people in poverty. Dismantling the Department of Education is just the latest casualty in Trump’s misguided plan to victimize the poor and under-resource those in most need.  

More on Policy 2025: Department of Health and Human Services Goal 3# Promoting Stable and Flourishing Married Families

Pat Liberty

Project 2025 is the conservative agenda for social, political and economic policy. It repeals crucial protections for marginalized populations, slashes social safety net programs and penalizes the poor. The following is an excerpt from the Health and Human Services section of Project 2025.

“Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society. Unfortunately, family policies and programs under President Biden’s HHS are fraught with agenda items focusing on “LGBTQ+ equity,” subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work, and penalizing marriage. These policies should be repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families. Working fathers are essential to the well-being and development of their children, but the United States is experiencing a crisis of fatherlessness that is ruining our children’s futures. In the overwhelming number of cases, fathers insulate children from physical and sexual abuse, financial difficulty or poverty, incarceration, teen pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, high school failure, and a host of behavioral and psychological problems. By contrast, homes with non-related “boyfriends” present are among the most dangerous place for a child to be. HHS should prioritize married father engagement in its messaging, health, and welfare policies. In the context of current and emerging reproductive technologies, HHS policies should never place the desires of adults over the right of children to be raised by the biological fathers and mothers who conceive them. In cases involving biological parents who are found by a court to be unfit because of abuse or neglect, the process of adoption should be speedy, certain, and supported generously by HHS.” (Project 2025, Page 453)

Here is the practical translation of what this means for an already marginalized segment of Americans:

  • Hard won civil rights for the LGBTQI+ community are on the chopping block. In Trump’s first reign of error the administration repealed all healthcare regulations that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As a result, LGBTQIA+ persons can now be denied both public and private health insurance, including Medicaid.
  • Equal marriage may be made unconstitutional. Repealing equal access to marriage has devastating consequences for thousands of families. Family health insurance policies will end. Visitation rights during times of illness will be curtailed because gay partners are not “family.” If same sex marriage survives at all, it will be seen as inferior to heterosexual marriage.
  • The Gender Policy Council (GPC) will be dismantled. This was established by President Biden to advance gender equity and equality at home and abroad. The GPC developed policies addressing economic security, access to healthcare, gender-based violence and education for women and girls with special focus on marginalized communities.
  • The Trump administration will threaten the Biden administration’s expansion of gender and gender identity discrimination protections. Biden’s policies were in alignment with the landmark Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. This ruling affirmed that LGBTQIA+ individuals are protected under federal nondiscrimination laws. It also recognized gender identity as a protected class of gender.
  • The current administration will erase and criminalize transgender behavior. The broad expression of transgender behavior will be seen as pornographic. By labeling transgender expression as pornography and then outlawing pornography, the trans community’s identity will be erased in the United States.
  • Project 2025 will change the name of the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Life. 
  • Funding for gender affirming care for children and adults will be cut or eliminated.
  • Lack of treatment for children with gender dysmorphia will likely lead to increased depression, anxiety and rates of suicide.
  • LGBTQIA+ families will be banned from the Foster Care system. There is already a critical shortage of foster homes. This will exacerbate the problem considerably.
  • Same sex couple adoption will be banned. Same sex couples have higher adoption rates (21%) than different sex couples (3%).
  • Sex education for minors will end.
  • Transgender military service will end.
  • Parental rights regarding how their children are referred to and which pronouns are used will be outlawed.
  • Tax advantages will be extended to ONLY heterosexual married couples.

This is far from an exhaustive list. Those who believe that God’s love extends to all people regardless of age, sexual/gender identity or sexual orientation should rightfully be horrified. The God of the Judeo-Christian tradition is a God of compassion, mercy, justice and love. Hatred and injustice have no place in God’s being and it should have no place in those who claim to be God’s followers.

There is thinly veiled “religious” language throughout the Project 2025 document. It is fundamentalist, socially archaic and spiritually abusive to anyone who is not white, heterosexual and married with children. The guarantee of religious freedom for all people means that those who claim a different, more loving stance toward the human family should have an equal say in the legal process that defines religious expression. Make no mistake, the lines of separation between church and state are becoming dangerously thin. The “religion” that is shaping the state is White Christian Nationalism.

There needs to be a howling pushback to the religiously repressive undertones of Project 2025. Our legislators are hearing far too little from their constituents about the social and political implications of Project 2025. They are hearing even less from people of faith. If you are concerned about your freedom to practice your religion as you see fit, you need to write to you legislators and object on legitimate religious grounds. Our religious rights as well as our social and political rights are on the chopping block.

Period

Pat Liberty

Period

No, it’s not the one that comes at the end of a sentence. It’s the one that comes about every 28 days to women of particular ages. In a post Roe v. Wade world, there is increasing fascination about menstruating people.

This has nothing to do with the health of those menstruating people.

Rather, it is about controlling their bodies. It is about limiting access to abortion and birth control. It is about usurping agency from their own being. A total of 41 states restrict access to abortion in some way. Some states, like Alabama and Arkansas, make no exception for rape or incest. Other states allow abortion under specific circumstances such as fetal viability, gestational duration, or threat of harm/death to the pregnant person. Even in states where there are exceptions for rape or incest, they are essentially meaningless. In order to qualify under the law, the sexual assault must be reported within forty days. Incest must be reported to law enforcement within one hundred and forty days. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 63% of rapes are not reported. Only about 12% of child sexual abuse is reported to law enforcement. With such a dismal reporting rate, and the stipulations imposed, the rape/incest exception is useless. Further, even if the criteria for pregnancy termination are met, there is often no one to perform the procedure. This means travelling to another state, which is not an option for many poor pregnant people, who are disproportionately BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).

In other states, abortion care must happen before six weeks of gestation. Most pregnant people do not even know they are pregnant at that time. It is another “allowance” that is essentially meaningless.

According to http://www.ReproductiveRights.org, Project 2025 outlines a detailed plan to limit access to abortion care and other reproductive services. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Ending access to medications like Mifepristone, which accounts for 63% of all abortions.
  • Allowing hospitals to deny medical care to pregnant persons in crisis.
  • Prosecuting people for shipping or transporting abortion pills and supplies across state lines.
  • Establishing an abortion surveillance system requiring states to report personal data of all patients receiving abortion care.
  • Restricting access to birth control, emergency contraception and other reproductive health services.
  • Tracking pregnant persons who are “at risk of having an abortion” (Missouri).
  • Paying a bounty of $10,000 to individuals who report a person seeking abortion care by crossing state lines (Texas).
  • Tracking pregnant persons through their internet search histories and social media. (Platforms track data using algorithms and selling the data. Setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and using encryption can limit access to search history, but it isn’t foolproof. A public computer is a better choice.)

These tactics are front line ammunition to control menstruating people who may unintentionally get pregnant. They also feed the larger goal of keeping those who give birth subservient to and dependent on men (though there are few consequences for men who do not support the children they create). 

While access to reproductive health services is being severely limited, social safety net programs are being slashed: WIC, SNAP and Early Intervention to name a few. As a result, persons with children, particularly BIPOC people are trapped in a cycle of poverty that is almost impossible to escape.

Sr. Joan Chittister writes, “I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t?” Because you don’t’ want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth.”

For many conservative evangelicals and white Christian nationalists, all their anti-abortion rhetoric is wrapped in a neat little package, branded with a Jesus sticker and called Christian. In truth, Jesus was unwaveringly concerned about and committed to the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. What was true then is still true…the most vulnerable among us are women and children.

You would think the government has better things to do than peer in the windows of women’s bathrooms and see who is peeing on a stick. But it is all part of the re-entrenchment of a patriarchal society where white, cisgender, heterosexual men are in charge. Whatever progress we have made in dismantling the patriarchy is on the line in Project 2025. And it all begins by trolling your social media.  

An Open Letter to JD Vance

Pat Liberty

February 3, 2025

Vice President JD Vance

The White House

Office of the Vice President

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Vance,

I write to inform you that you are fundamentally wrong in postulating that there is a Christian concept “that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.”

I beg to differ, sir. It is you who has completely inverted the Christian tradition. Your position reflects a fundamental misunderstanding and ignorance of Scripture. For example, the same story is told in all the synoptic gospels. Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21. In each of these pericopes Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are waiting to see him. Jesus responds, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers? And pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus consistently advocated for the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised. Your distortion of words to a “Christian” concept is blatantly and dangerously false.

I realize you are a fairly new Christian, and have not had years to study scripture and theology as have I. If you would like some remedial Bible study to gain a more accurate understanding of the faith you proclaim, you may reach me at the above address.

Until you are better informed about the Christian faith, you should seek the counsel of wise elders who are well versed in Scripture and tradition. Your false portrayal of Christian faith, which equally naive people will believe is true, distorts the Christian faith. I urge you to cease to speak about that which you know little.

Faithfully,

Rev. Patricia L. Liberty

This Letter was sent to JD Vance on February 3, 2025

Dismantling Democracy

Pat Liberty

Hitler dismantled the democracy of Germany in just 53 days. It began with mass deportation and the dismissal of government officials who opposed him. Number 47 has begun in exactly the same way. Widespread ICE raids are targeting and rounding up immigrants, many of whom are legal citizens and have committed no crimes. The philosophy seems to be “round them all up and we will sort it out later.”

This week he fired a number of officials from the Department of Justice who pursued litigation against him for his illegal behavior. He said he would retaliate against those who opposed him and he is making good on that promise.

He is also challenging birthright citizenship in direct violation of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution. It hinges on a short phrase in the amendment that his right wing justices can interpret any way they choose with virtually no opposition.

Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. We are in a very similar situation to Germany at that time.  It is important to understand some history so we see the parallels to our own time. Hitler did not seize power in a coup. He was not directly elected to power.  Rather a combination of social and economic and political crises conspired to put Hitler into power. The fragile Weimar Republic which came to be in the aftermath of World War I was unable to manage the crises and political divisions that emerged during the late 1920’s and early 30’s. The world-wide Great Depression politically divided Germany and people lost faith in their government’s ability to solve problems and govern.

Radical antidemocratic political groups like the Nazi party grew in popularity, taking advantage of the political and economic chaos. The Nazi party made outlandish promises that captured the attention and the hopes of disgruntled Germans who were suffering in the economic and political chaos.  Things like fixing the economy, making Germany great again, reclaiming territory Germany lost in WW I and restoring a heavy handed rule of law were among the planks in their platform.

If it all sounds familiar, it should. The United States is following a very similar trajectory. The promises 47 made in his campaign are hubris to some extent, but he is making good on his anti-immigrant, anti-trans, anti LGBTQI agenda, much to his followers’ delight. He is also signing Executive Orders, some 300 since taking office. Many of them will go nowhere or will be delayed in endless litigation, but the overall visual is one of 47 taking charge and getting things done.

The American people are largely ho-hum about it. If this doesn’t affect us directly, we tend to not react or respond. We are not immigrants, legal or illegal, so who cares? We can take the hit for increased egg prices, so who cares? The Department of Justice probably needs some housecleaning, so who cares? It isn’t until the chickens come home to roost in ways that directly impact people that they wake up and take action. And often that action is pretty anemic– complaining loudly, kvetching and grousing.

This is the time to be paying attention. In Germany it didn’t begin with gas chambers. It began with mass deportation, dismissal of government employees who saw the danger in the Hitler regime and increasing authoritarian governing. In other words, what is happening here.

If you aren’t writing your senators and representatives weekly; if you are not writing to 47 and expressing your outrage; if you are not supporting the agencies that embody your values; if you are silent in the midst of what is happening; you are like the majority of Germans in 1934 who ignored the gradual hand writing on the wall.

Our democracy is older than Germany’s was at the time. It may mean that we have some resilience that Germany didn’t have, but I am not willing to bet the farm on that. Democracy, while incredibly strong, is always incredibly fragile. The degree of its fragility depends on the engagement of its people in the political process.  Given what I am seeing currently, this does not make me hopeful.

I implore you. Get politically active. Make your voice heard. Even if it doesn’t impact you, even if you don’t see the problem, even if you agree with some of his policies, even if you don’t really give a damn, it’s time to rise up.  Elie Wiesel said, “Silence benefits the oppressor.” The poor disenfranchised and politically powerless will pay the price long before many of us. If we claim to be followers of Jesus in any way, shape or form, our concern for them must rise to the top and our actions must reflect Jesus’ values and behavior. Otherwise, we become like the German church, which became the Reich church and did the bidding of the Nazi’s. Or we become like the confessing church, which ultimately failed because of its cowardice and lack of faith.

For those of you who say faith and politics don’t mix I say bullshit. The gospel is inherently political. It is not partisan, but it is political. Jesus’ ultimate concern was for the poor, the powerless, the disenfranchised, the last, the least and the lost. Embodying his concern for the people of our time who are exploited and beaten down by the system is our moral duty. It’s just that simple.  

Saved?

Pat Liberty

In one of his cockamamie speeches, number 47 said he felt he was” saved by God to make America great.” Of all the vomit-worthy things he says on a regular basis, this one caught my attention.

There are many ways to understand what it means to be “saved.” There are many theologies of salvation. Some believe that salvation comes once and for all in a specific moment. You might hear someone say, “I was saved on July 10th” or whatever date. It is cited as an experience of being born again. Others see it as a lifetime process of continuing to grow in the grace and image of God. They cite no specific moment but believe in the presence of the Holy helping shape and divine their lives. These are just two of the theologies of salvation. Gallons of ink have been spilled defining what it means to be “saved.”

What most of the definitions have in common, however, is this: one is saved for the purposes of God. The life of the faithful disciple is to embody the presence of the holy in one’s daily life. One labors for the things that are central to the message of Scripture. These are care and concern for the poor, marginalized and disenfranchised, working to undo unjust systems that persecute those with less power, creating the realm of God on earth, a realm where justice, peace and enough for all is the norm.

Salvation is never understood for self-aggrandizement. It is not to shore up any political or social system. In fact, God’s realm undoes political and social systems in favor of an equal distribution of goods and services to all people. In God’s realm there is no underclass, there are no second-class citizens and there is no mega-wealth. In ancient times it was believed (and I think they were onto something) that there was limited wealth. If someone was wealthy, it was because someone else was poor. The wealthy literally took the resources from someone else.

We know now that CEO’s make 290 times as much as a typical worker. In 1965, they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. And while everyone has been griping about inflation, the truth is that corporations including grocery store chains, department stores like Wal-Mart and petroleum companies have posted record profits for shareholders. Meanwhile their workers qualify for SNAP benefits and their children qualify for reduced price lunches. The minimum wage has not been raised since July of 2009 when it was raised from $6.55 to $7.25. In the intervening years the cost of living has increased by roughly 47%. Do the math. These financial statistics do not embody the values of the gospel and the proposed policies of #47 do not bode well for the poor.

When one is “saved” they embody the fruits of salvation; justice, mercy, compassion, love for others, economic justice, respect for God’s creation and radical welcome. None of that is on #47’s radar. Salvation is an invitation to walk with the Holy One in humility and faithfulness. It is a discipleship journey that lasts a lifetime.

Tax cuts for the wealthy, mass deportation of immigrants, persecution of the LGBTQI community, systematic voter suppression, lack of redress from the legal system, discrimination in employment, housing and lending and the normalization of prejudice, violence and hatred are not gospel values. They do not embody salvation, no matter how you define it or what your theology is.

It is heresy for #47 to claim God as part of his plan to destroy America. God is nowhere to be found in his rhetoric or his actions. Those of us who strive to live into gospel values, whether we are church goers are not, have a responsibility to speak out and speak up to anyone and everyone who will listen.  Part of the reason #47 has been able to spread his MAGA right wing political and religious bullshit is because the theological moderates and liberals have been too long silent about his actions. Take to social media, talk about your faith, your theology and what you are doing to live the gospel. Repost this blog to educate people about the nature and purpose of salvation. Write letters of protest to #47 and tell him you are outraged by his hubris and heretical speech. Organize a demonstration. Put signs on your lawn. Make your revulsion known.

More than 50% of the people may have voted for this ego-maniacal narcissistic excuse of a human being, but we are a strong minority and not a small one at that. His tropes worked to unite the right, now our tropes need to unite the left. Find your voice and speak up.

Just Wondering

Pat Liberty

So, I’m just wondering why the CEO of United Health being shot on a Manhattan Street is an act of terrorism and (another) school shooting is not considered terrorism. Anybody being shot for any reason is a tragedy and there is no way that gun violence can be excused in any setting. Yet we have been dealing with school shootings (83 so far this year) since the 1700’s when four Lenape Native Americans entered present-day Green Castle Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch brown, and killed nine or ten children (reports vary). Only two children survived. I’m just wondering if the violence of these Natives was related to yet another example of having their land stolen, their people being senselessly killed and their way of life threatened.

I’m wondering how politicians, in good conscience, can continue to be owned by the NRA, which effectively circumvents any meaningful gun control in the United States.

I’m wondering why the Trans community is the target of such vitriol when they make up less than one percent of the entire population of the country. Twenty-four states have pending legislation to limit access to health care for the trans community. According to the National Institutes of Health, eighty two percent of trans teens have attempted or seriously considered suicide. These numbers are only going to increase as the incoming administration targets the trans community.

I’m wondering how we, as a nation can continue to give carte blanche to Israel to conduct a systematic genocide against the people of Gaza. I wonder where the outcry for the people of Gaza is. I wonder why it is impossible to say anything against Israel without being called antisemitic. The truth is that Israel is guilty of war crimes and needs to be called to accountability in the international community for systematic murder of Gazans in the name of defeating Hamas. Thanks to American technology, Israel has access to weapons that can blow the top off a can of soup, but instead they choose widespread bombing campaigns with high civilian losses.

I’m wondering about the implementation of Project 2025 and what it will mean to poor and marginalized communities. Equal marriage, decades of progress in civil rights, social justice and equity particularly for African Americans are on the chopping block. Social safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid face drastic cutbacks. I’m wondering how the American people can be so blind to the truth that Project 2025 is going to cause widespread suffering to the poor, those with food insecurity and those at risk for homelessness. I’m wondering if we are so self-centered as to think that as long as we are okay, it really doesn’t have anything to do with us. I’m wondering where the “love your neighbor as yourself” part of the gospel has gone in our corporate American religious life.

I’m wondering what will happen to our planet as hard-won regulatory restrictions against fossil fuels are rolled back. I’m wondering how close we are to the point of no return. Sometimes I wonder if my war on single-use plastics at home is making any difference, if burning wood instead of fossil fuels contributes to the health of the planet, among other things I do to try and live lightly on the earth. I’m wondering if we have forgotten that two and two and fifty make a million, and if we all did what is ours to do we could make a difference.

I’m wondering why everyone blames inflation for high grocery prices when the truth is that grocery chains are posting record profits. I’m wondering if the American people know they were played when political candidates promised to lower grocery prices for hard working middle class families. In reality, unless there are government checks on price gouging, nothing will happen to reduce grocery prices.

I’m wondering why the health care industry is completely owned by insurance companies. Before 1993, insurance companies were not-for-profit. The focus was on providing medical care. Now the focus is on making profits for shareholders. Premiums continue to rise and benefits continue to decrease. Increasingly artificial intelligence algorithms make decisions about the kind and amount of health care one can receive. I’m wondering when the whole system is going to implode, or as seems more likely, health care will be a privilege of the increasingly rich, while the poor will continue to have less access to care and poorer health outcomes.

I’m wondering where our capacity for outrage has gone. As the old saying goes, “If you’re not outraged you’re not paying attention.” I think it is true. We are not paying attention because the changes that are gradually happening have not caused us a sufficient amount of pain. I’m wondering how we became so selfish, so self-involved, so unconcerned for others while still claiming to be followers of Jesus. Incidentally (not really), Jesus was all about the poor and marginalized. I’m wondering how the church of Peter and Paul’s time went from being on the cutting edge of announcing an upside down realm to being the chief holder of the status quo.

Maybe it’s me, but I’m just wondering.

These Uncertain times

Pat Liberty

This sermon was preached at Ledyard Congregational Church in Ledyard, CT on November 10, 2024

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude Copyright © 1956, 1958 by The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Used by permission of Farrar Straus Giroux.

Thomas Merton O.C.S.O. (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) is arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century. He wrote over 60 books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms race. He kept private journals and maintained a voluminous personal correspondence; he also recorded his classroom lectures.

After a rambunctious youth and adolescence, Merton converted to Roman Catholicism while attending Columbia University. On December 10th, 1941, he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a community of monks belonging to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists), the most ascetic Roman Catholic monastic order.

The 27 years he spent at Gethsemani brought about profound changes in his self-understanding. This ongoing conversion impelled him into the political arena, where he became, according to Fr. Daniel Berrigan, the conscience of the peace movement of the 1960s. Referring to race and peace as the two most urgent issues of our time, Merton was a strong supporter of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which he called “certainly the greatest example of Christian faith in action in the social history of the United States.”

This prayer was written during a time of deep uncertainty in his life as his ongoing conversion was leading him through new and uncharted territory in his life. I find his words quite comforting as we move into these uncertain times.

Uncertainty is one of those things we’re not very good at. We like things mapped out…A leads to B leads to C. We see the end, if not from the beginning, at least from the middle. And while that may be our preferred way of experiencing the world, in my experience that’s not the way it usually works out.

We live with uncertainty about our jobs…will they still be there in six months? There is uncertainty about our health, what it means to live with chronic disease or waiting for a new diagnosis. Our family relationships are, at times tenuous, as we navigate the changes that are inevitable among people who continue to evolve throughout their lives. There is no end to the avenues of uncertainty that haunt our lives. And we don’t like it one bit.

We knew that no matter who won the election we would be moving into uncertain times. Ours is a nation deeply divided and the way forward is anything but certain.

There is a feeling of being unmoored, like a boat that is bobbing around not attached to the ground tackle that holds it in place. After Super Storm Sandy, which Jean and I rode out on our boat, much to our families’ chagrin, we got phone calls from all over the country yelling at us. When we emerged from the companionway, the first thing I saw was a beautiful 38 foot sailboat lying on its side on the rocks two docks behind our boat. It’s hard to describe the sick feeling that came over me as I thought about the owner. A salvage crew was already approaching to lift the boat off the rocks, but it would be weeks before the damages were fully assessed.

I’ve had that same sick feeling in the last few weeks, the uncertainty of what lies ahead and what it will take to bring our nation back together as a safe place for all people.

Uncertainty looks like me, a gay married woman whose marriage may well be made illegal in the next few years.

Uncertainty looks like sky high grocery prices and most of our produce rotting in the fields when we deport half the migrant workers on whom our economy depends.

Uncertainty looks like the roll back of rights for the trans community and the end of gender affirming care. Now you may not understand what it means to be transgender, but that doesn’t mean that you know better than the person who lives in their skin what is right for them.

As an open and affirming church, are we ready to welcome a scared population of LGBTQIA people who are wondering what is ahead for them. Or, as I suspect, are we hiding our light under a bushel because the truth is we are welcoming of that community as long as we look and act straight.

Uncertainty looks like Project 2025, and if you don’t know what that is, you need to. It is impossible to be a responsible American citizen in this day and age without a working knowledge of Project 2025. It is available for free online. It is the blueprint for unprecedented uncertainty for every vulnerable population in this country. Don’t be upset with me for what I am saying unless you have done your due diligence and become familiar with Project 2025.

Uncertainty looks like extreme weather patterns that will continue to increase if we do not pay attention to the degradation of our planet. Sure, it’s amazing to have temperatures in the 70’s during November, but not when you realize why this is true.

Uncertainty lives at the razor’s edge of two things, despair and possibility. When we get to the very edge of all we have ever known and entered unchartered waters we have a choice. We can wring our hands and get immobilized in fear and despair, or we can do as the Psalm 46 suggests…be still and know that God is still God.

This is not a get out of jail free card. This knowledge will save us from nothing. Rather, it will ground us in a certainty that roots our action on the side of what is good and holy and just. God is faithful and calls us to be the same.

 Our tasks are the same now as they have ever been, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, visit the imprisoned, care for the planet and care for one another.

Our identity as God’s people, people on whom God has laid a claim in our baptism surpasses our identity as citizens, political affiliates, liberals, conservatives, tree huggers or granola groupies.  

What we share is that we are citizens of this country, and this world and God calls us to covenant relationship that puts all other identities second to the one we share in Christ. If we fail in this, we fail in all else.

Whatever the uncertainty in your life, whatever despair creeps around the edges of your peace, whatever fear invades the certainty that, while partly an illusion, you have lived with…be still and know that God is God. Keep digging, deep, down deep, until you get to that bedrock that is the root of all things.

When we stand secure in that place…what is unclear will become clearer, what is uncertain will become more certain, what is fearful will diminish because we will discover that love is stronger than hate, faith is stronger than fear, the call of life surpasses the threat of death. God is still God. We are still God’s beloved. These times will require all the faith, all the love, all the grace and all the courage we can muster. It’s time we put the protest back in protestant.