Rob Bell Is Not Alone

About a decade ago, back when I was a member of Grand Rapids’ liberal Fountain Street Church and before I became an interfaith chaplain, I was invited by a conservative Christian to hear Rob Bell at his relatively new church, Mars Hill, in Grandville. I don’t remember what he preached in his 45-minute sermon, but I do remember thinking, “If Rob Bell cut that down to about 20 minutes, he could’ve preached it at Fountain Street Church.”
“What?!” my Christian companion exclaimed.
Oops. Did I say that out loud?
I suspected something was up with Rob Bell’s new book, “Love Wins,” when I saw that it was published by HarperOne and not by Zondervan, which had published earlier books (“Velvet Elvis” and “Sex God”). “Must be pretty controversial,” I thought, knowing that, while both publishing companies are owned by the same person (Rupert Murdoch), HarperOne would likely face less hermeneutical heat from true believers than Zondervan would.
That supposition was reinforced when I went to buy the book, first at a regular bookstore (sold out), then at a Christian bookstore.
“Excuse me, do you have Rob Bell’s new book, ‘Love Wins’?”
“No and we won’t be carrying that book.” (Emphasis his.)
I did note that they had former Minnesota Republican governor Tim Pawlenty’s new book, “Courage To Stand,” which I assume was in a Christian bookstore because it contains his systematic theology and biblical scholarship.
I never have understood why proclaiming a loving God and a welcoming heaven, as Rob Bell does, is controversial to many Christians. Isn’t that what Jesus proclaimed? Jesus even said you don’t have to wait to die to get to heaven. “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Heaven isn’t just somewhere over the rainbow, it’s on this side of the rainbow too, here and now.
The parable of the Prodigal Son is Jesus’ best description of what God and heaven are like. Some say the parable is about repentance. Really? The father (God) runs to the Prodigal Son (humankind), when he first sees him; hugs and kisses him before the son even has a chance to utter one guilty word. How is that a parable about repentance? It’s a parable about God’s unconditional love for everyone and not just for the righteous (or self-righteous) few (the brother). And heaven, Jesus is saying, is like a big party that everyone gets to go to.
I had a friend in college who was visited in his dorm room by a couple of Christians, trying to convert him. What looked to them like evangelical zeal looked to him like religious harassment. Finally they asked him, “Don’t you want to go to heaven?”
“Will you two be there?” he wondered.
“Why, yes, of course.”
“Then I’ll pass.”
It must be difficult for Rob Bell to defend himself against people who think they’re the only ones going to heaven and who won’t even bother reading that book.

As April Fools' Day Approaches

Let us close our eyes so that we might see.
As April Fools’ Day approaches:
we give thanks for the ability to laugh;
we give thanks for the ability to laugh at ourselves;
we pray for those who don’t have the ability to laugh at themselves;
we give thanks for people who don’t take themselves too seriously;
we hope that we don’t take ourselves too seriously;
we wish that people whose lives are filled with sadness, would find some gladness;
we pray for a day when all people will achieve happiness.
Let it be. So be it. And: Amen.

Why Do 16-Year-Olds Die?

My first church was a small church in a small town northeast of Grand Rapids, a town called Belding, which will play a significant part in this story in a minute. The church I pastored was a very, very conservative church. As some of you may know, I’m not. The church fit me like a – what’s the opposite of a glove? – like a circus tent. To give you an idea of the kind of church it was, when I got there, on the cover of the bulletin were the words, “The Friendly White Church.” Thankfully, the building was white. I just assumed that it was a mistake, you know, they didn’t know any better. But then a few months later I heard the story of what happened 5 or 6 years before I got there. A fireman had died from Belding and the funeral was at my church. As you know, when firemen die, firemen from all over come to the funeral service, just like when a policeman dies, policemen from all over come. There were some African American firemen that came from the Grand Rapids area and they saw a stray bulletin. “’The Friendly White Church?’ What the, what the?” The way it was told me is, “Can you imagine that they thought we meant something other than the color of our building!” Well, you didn’t have to imagine it; you now knew that it could be misinterpreted! But they didn’t change it, until I got there and changed it to “A Community of Faith, Hope, and Love,” which was probably not true, but at least it wasn’t racist. They didn’t change it because I think that if an African American family had come there and sat down and saw the cover of the bulletin, “The Friendly White Church,” and got the impression that they didn’t belong there, that would have been fine with the church, because they didn’t belong there, they weren’t relatives and friends of the powers that be at that church. Or if a Hispanic family had come and sat down and saw the cover of the bulletin and saw “The Friendly White Church,” and felt, “Well, we don’t really belong here,” that would have been fine with the church, because they didn’t belong there. They weren’t relatives or friends of the powers that be at that church. That’s who that church was.

I lasted a year and three days there, which I think is somewhat of a minor miracle. I knew on Labor Day I was going to get fired. For some reason in the town of Belding they have a big Labor Day parade. Marching bands and floats and fire trucks and police cars. I’m standing there, watching the parade and thinking, “God, show me a sign! What am I gonna do? I’m gonna lose the first church that I’ve pastored. My career is over.” Just then, a Belding fire truck went by. I looked at the back end of it and it said, “BFD,” which, of course, stands for Belding Fire Department, but I thought it stood for something else and I laughed and I looked up to heaven and I said, “Thank you, God, for that sign!” If you don’t know what BFD means, I’ll clean it up for church. BFD stands for Big Freakin’ Deal. Big Freakin’ Deal, you’re gonna lose this little church in this little town. You’ll survive. I took it as a sign from God. Was it? Was God reaching out to me? Does God care when we suffer? Why does God allow suffering? Now when I say “God,” I mean God or the Spirit or the Universe or Fate or Whatever. I’m presuming God exists and if you don’t believe that, that’s fine, but I’m just using God as kind of shorthand for whatever. Why does God allow suffering?

A 16 year-old boy, the star quarterback, the star of the basketball team, scores the winning basket. His teammates hoist him up on their shoulders. A couple of minutes later, he collapses and dies right there on the court. Of course, I’m talking about Wes Leonard of Fennville. An autopsy showed that he had an enlarged heart. Why did God allow Wes Leonard to die? When he was 15, why didn’t God cause him to be examined by a doctor and it be discovered that he had an enlarged heart? Why did that 16 year-old boy die?

A couple of weeks ago, in Japan they had the worst earthquake on record, 8.9 on the Richter scale. The earthquake was bad enough, and then, of course, as you know, they had a tsunami that resulted from that. A wall of water dozens of feet high came onshore and we’ve seen the pictures where cars are pushed around like toy cars and houses are pushed around like toy houses. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, we don’t know the exact count now, died. Why did God allow that to happen? Why didn’t God cause that earthquake to happen somewhere in the middle of the ocean and the resulting tsunami might have washed up a little wave on the shore. Why didn’t God stop that from happening?

Jesus and Gandhi and Dr. King were all killed. Why did God allow that? The night before he was crucified, Jesus was sweating blood. He said, “Father, take this cup from me.” I only say that to remind those Christians who always say, “Well, it was a death he freely accepted.” No he didn’t. He sweat blood and he asked for the cup to be taken from him. He said, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” Why didn’t God stop that from happening? Why didn’t God prevent nails from being hammered into the hands and feet of Jesus?

Gandhi was killed by an assassin’s bullet. He was in his eighties. Gandhi said, according to the movie Gandhi, “I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew.” I love that quote. That’s how I feel. That’s one of the reasons why I’m glad we started Interfaith Congregation. Gandhi was a devout Hindu, but he also saw universal truths. He was trying to bring Hindus and Muslims together. His fellow Hindus, some of them, didn’t like that and he was shot by a Hindu. Why didn’t God cause that gunman to be captured before he could shoot Gandhi?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis. The night before he was killed he spoke to striking garbage workers. It was as if he had a premonition of his death. He said, “We’ll get to the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get to the Promised Land.” The next day he was killed. Why didn’t God cause the gunman to miss? Why does God allow suffering?

Buddhists, I think, speak to this very well. When I read the Dalai Lama’s “The Four Noble Truths,” which is the teachings of the Buddha, it was as if scales fell from my eyes. The first noble truth is “Life is suffering.” Wow. That went against my Sunday School theology that I had learned as a kid and kept as a young adult, that if I just prayed to God or Jesus that maybe other people would suffer, but I wouldn’t suffer. I believed that in spite of the fact that I did suffer. Then to read “Life is suffering,” to read the Dalai Lama saying that even a newborn baby is suffering because eventually that baby will grow up and die, that even a 21 year-old, a good-looking man or woman in the prime of life, is suffering because eventually they’ll get old, they’ll lose their looks. I know you’re probably thinking, “But Bill, you’re obviously the exception to that rule.” [Laughter] Be that as it may, most people will lose their looks and eventually die. Why does God allow suffering? Buddhists will say that the way to overcome suffering is to achieve detachment, to let go of your ego. Now while I believe a lot of that, some of it I’m not sure about, because a couple of months ago when we were on vacation and driving to Florida, I had excruciating back pain, the worst pain I’ve ever had. I was living in the moment, but I wish I hadn’t been living in that moment. I couldn’t detach myself from that pain; it was like…ugh! I can only imagine what it must be like for people who have chronic pain, who have that kind of pain every day of their lives. Why does God allow that?

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book many years ago, “When Bad Things Happen.” He asked the same kinds of questions. Why would an all-powerful God allow suffering? The conclusion he came to basically was that God must not be all-powerful or God would stop suffering. Maybe God suffers right along with us.

William Sloane Coffin, one of my spiritual heroes (I think everybody I’ve mentioned are my spiritual heroes, but I especially like William Sloane Coffin.) In 1983 he was the senior minister at Riverside Church in New York City. His 24 year-old son, Alex, died in a freak car accident – his car went off the road in Boston and went into Boston Harbor and sank and he drowned. William Sloane Coffin was sitting in his sister’s living room, when people brought casseroles and quiches, because, at a time like that, people don’t know what else to do. He was sitting there when this pleasant looking, middle-aged woman came in carrying many different quiches. As she passed him, she looked back and said, “I’ll never understand the will of God.” He said he was up and after her before he knew it. He told her, “You’re right. You never will understand the will of God because it’s not the will of God that Alex died.” He said this in a sermon preached ten days after Alex’s death. He said that Alex beat him in sporting contests and now beat him to the grave. He told that woman, as he said in his sermon, “It is not the will of God that Alex died.” He said God does not have his hand on steering wheels, God does not have his fist around knives, God does not have his finger on triggers. He said, “When Alex’s car went under the water, God’s was the first of all of our hearts to break.” I like that. I don’t know if it’s true, but I like to think that it’s Truth, that God suffers right along with us.

Why does God allow suffering? I don’t know. If God exists, I don’t think anybody knows why God allows suffering. But I do know two things. When we suffer, we shouldn’t keep it bottled up inside of us. We should reach out to those who care about us and let them know that we’re suffering and let them help us through that suffering. The other thing that I know is when we see other people suffering, we need to reach out to them, to let them know that somebody cares, to offer them a hand to hold or a shoulder to lean on or to cry on. I think that’s one of the main purposes of our lives is to help others when they’re suffering. That may not make suffering any better or explain why there is suffering, but at least we can reach out: reach out when we’re suffering and reach out when other people are suffering.

This Is The Day, Like Every Day

Let us close our eyes so that we might see.
This is the day, like every day,
when we count our blessings.
This is the day, like every day,
when we remember our loved ones.
This is the day, like every day,
when we hold in our hearts those who are hurting.
This is the day, like every day,
especially lately, when we remember the family and friends of Wes Leonard of Fennville.
This is the day, like every day,
especially lately, when we remember the victims in Japan.
This is the day, like every day,
when we remember those who are at war.
This is the day, like every day
when we hope for peace in the world.
Let it be. So be it. And: Amen.

Making A Profit vs. Being A Prophet

Three men are sitting at a table, a rich guy, a tea party member, and a union worker. In front of them are twelve cookies. The rich guy takes eleven of the cookies and he leans over to the tea party guy and he whispers, “That union worker wants your cookie.”

It’s called class warfare and we’ve seen several examples of it in recent weeks – in Wisconsin, in Ohio, and even here in Michigan. Class warfare, the rich person would say, is when the poor and the middle class want the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. That would be class warfare. The rich would say that when they want the poor and the middle class to pay the rich person’s tax burden, that’s not called class warfare, that’s called sound economic policy.

Jon Stewart, a week or so ago, had a brilliant piece about class warfare. He showed clips from the Fox News Channel, of Fox commentators talking about what teachers make in Wisconsin. The Fox News commentators were saying things like, “They make fifty thousand dollars a year! Fifty thousand dollars a year! That’s a lot of money! Fifty thousand dollars a year! That’s a lot of money!” Then Jon Stewart played clips from a few months ago when debate was raging in Washington about whether to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for those making $250,000 or more. Those same Fox News commentators said, “Two hundred fifty thousand dollars, that’s hardly anything! Who can live on that? Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars! That’s chump change! Who can make a living on $250,000? That’s not rich!” It’s called class warfare.

Who would Jesus tax? That was a piece, maybe some of you saw it, that I wrote for the Grand Rapids Press and the Holland Sentinel in which I suggested that the flat tax in Michigan, 4.35 percent, be lowered 2 percent on those making less than $10,000 a year and be raised 2 percent on those making more than $100,000 a year. I said, “What would Jesus do if Jesus were in the legislature?” Jesus said things like, “Blessed are you who are poor, but woe to you who are rich.” Jesus had an affinity for the poor, but not necessarily for the rich. So what would Jesus do? Legislators have to ask themselves that question if they consider themselves Christians. People who go into the voting booth have to ask themselves that question if they consider themselves Christian, when they’re deciding who to vote for for the legislature, I said.

Then a guy wrote a response to that and said, “Let’s not drag Jesus into this. Jesus never sat in the legislature. Jesus never set foot in a voting booth. We can’t ask ourselves what would Jesus do.” What? I thought that’s what Christians are supposed to do, say, “What would Jesus do?” There are bracelets for this situation. But apparently, according to that guy, that’s not what Christians are supposed to do. The reason pastors and chaplains drag Jesus and people like Jesus into this is because Jesus speaks with a prophetic voice. Pastors and chaplains don’t, right?

I was sitting in class in seminary a few years ago and we were listening to our professor. Then another professor burst into the classroom. He said, “This will just take a minute. I just have to ask the students what they think the Reformed Church in America should do to be welcoming to more people.” He said, “I want to hear the students’ voices.” The students would raise their hands and say things like, “We need to be more welcoming to young people.” “Oh, good point!” he said and he’d write that down. Then I leaned over to my friend Denise, who’s African American, and I said, “Should I say that the RCA should be more welcoming to lesbians and gays?” She said, “Bill, that’s why you’re here!” [Laughter] So I raised my hand and said, “Well, maybe the RCA should be more welcoming to lesbians and gays.” The professor said, “Well, let’s bracket that for now and move on to other suggestions.” Apparently he didn’t want to hear my voice.

A friend of mine is a minister in the Reformed Church in America. He was in a meeting about a year ago of other RCA ministers and RCA leaders. The question was raised, “How can we be more prophetic in our ministry?” One of the leaders in the RCA said, “Whenever I think of a prophetic presence in ministry, I think of Bill Freeman.” I said, “What?” When my friend was telling me this, I thought he was pulling my leg. A prophetic presence? Me?

The other day I was at the seminary, visiting a friend, and ran into a professor I had and he said he appreciated the letters and essays I write for the Grand Rapids Press and the Holland Sentinel. He said, “You give people in this area something to think about, something they ordinarily wouldn’t.” And then he said, “It’s not easy being a prophet.” I said, “No, I don’t suppose it is.” Then we parted and I thought, “Well, wait a minute. Was he saying that I’m a prophet? No.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet. He spoke truth to power. He said things like, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Dr. King was a prophet. I’m no Dr. King. I’m no prophet. Gandhi was a prophet. He spoke truth to power. He said things like, “Victory by violence is tantamount to defeat.” Gandhi was a prophet. I’m no Gandhi. I’m no prophet. William Sloane Coffin was a prophet. William Sloane Coffin spoke truth to power. He said things like, “Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.” William Sloane Coffin was a prophet. I’m no William Sloane Coffin. I’m no prophet.

Eugene Peterson has a new book out. It’s called, “The Pastor: A Memoir.” Eugene Peterson is a retired Christian minister. He translated the Bible into modern poetic language, called “The Message,” several years ago. Eugene Peterson says in his book that early in his pastorate he was invited by a psychologist, along with 15 or so other clergy members, to meet every Tuesday morning. The psychologist talked to them about the mental problems that people might have in their houses of worship. He told the clergy to look for those kinds of things in their congregations. So that’s what Eugene Peterson did. He started looking at his parishioners as problems to be solved. Until one day it dawned on him, “Wait a minute. That’s not what I’m called to do. I’m not called to look upon my parishioners as problems to be solved. I’m called to look upon my parishioners as children of God.” It was at that moment that he knew that he was called to be a pastor.

In reading that section of Eugene Peterson’s book, it dawned on me what I’ve been called to be. (Try not to laugh.) I think I’ve been called to be a prophet, or at least to try to be a prophet. Maybe in 40 or 50 years I’ll get there. To speak truth to power. I now know why I wanted to start Interfaith Congregation. To speak prophetically to the religious world that all of us are one. We shouldn’t be divided by denominations or separated by spiritual traditions. We’re all one. I now know why I went to Holland City Council and asked them to pass a gay rights ordinance. Because I wanted to speak prophetically to the people of Holland that all of us are equal and should be treated equally. I now know why I write letters and essays to the Holland Sentinel and the Grand Rapids Press. Because I want to speak prophetically to the people of West Michigan that the model we should follow is The Golden Rule, not “He who has the most gold rules.” I now know that I’m supposed to be a prophet or at least a prophet wannabe.

I know I can’t pretend to be someone or something I’m not. I know I can’t pretend to be Benny Hinn and tell people that they’re healed in the name of Jesus. I know I can’t pretend to be Pat Robertson and tell people that, coincidentally, God hates the same people I do. (Oh, I know there are some people who think that I do that, too, and I’m working on it.) I know I can’t pretend to be Joel Osteen and tell people that God wants them to be rich. I have to be me. I have to speak as prophetically as I can.

Now there’re some disadvantages and some dangers in being a prophet. One of the dangers of being a prophet is that a prophet is supposed to be righteous. But there’s a thin line between being righteous and being self-righteous. I’m hoping that you all will let me know if I cross that line. [Nodding of heads] One of the disadvantages of being a prophet is, you’re not going to get rich. If I wanted to make a profit rather than be a prophet, I would become a traditional, fundamentalist, orthodox Christian preacher and tell people that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus and that God wants them to be rich. Another one of the disadvantages of being a prophet is, as they say, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own home and in his own town.” After asking the Holland City Council to pass a gay rights ordinance, I know what that means. Another of the dangers of being a prophet is prophets are oftentimes killed. I’d like to try to avoid that one. [Laughter]

I want to assure you that even though I think I’ve finally figured out what I’m supposed to do, every sermon I preach won’t be a prophetic sermon. I’ll still preach theological sermons and pastoral sermons and spiritual sermons, but I will mostly preach prophetic sermons, because I feel that’s what I’ve been called to do.

“The Spirit of God is upon me, for God has anointed me. God has sent me to proclaim good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release the prisoners, to proclaim the year of God’s favor.” Those are the words that the prophet Isaiah lived by. Those are the words that the prophet Jesus lived by. Those are the words that I will live by, or at least try to. What about you? Do you feel like you should be speaking prophetically? What form would your prophetic voice take? Let us resolve, you and I, to speak prophetically, to speak truth to power, whenever the Spirit moves us.

We Come Here To Try To Make Sense Of Our Lives

Let us close our eyes so that we might see.
We come here to try to make sense of our lives.
We come here to try to make sense of our world.
We come here to try to make sense of suffering in the world.
We come here to try to make sense of a tsunami that hit Japan, killing many.
We come here to try to make sense of a 16-year-old boy dying after a basketball game.
We come here to remember our loved ones.
We come here to remember to hope for lives at peace and a world at peace.
We come here to remember to look upon creation with wonder and awe.
Let it be. So be it. And: Amen.

Memo To Michigan: Allow Gay Marriage

In seminary one day one of our professors spent almost the entire hour speaking against homosexuals and homosexuality. He quoted the Bible, of course, and I kept raising my hand and saying that the Bible speaks against women preachers, too, but we don’t go along with that any more; there are several women here who are going to be preachers. We don’t think women should be silent in churches, even though that’s what the Bible says. He brushed my comments aside and kept talking against homosexuals and against homosexuality. I raised my hand again and I said, “The Bible supports slavery, but we don’t go along with that, we ignore those passages. Why don’t we ignore these passages?” He just brushed my comments aside and kept on talking against homosexuals and homosexuality. Then, at the end of the hour, he switched topics and started talking about the environment. He said the earth is becoming overpopulated and that something has to be done about it or we’re going to have too many people on the earth. So I raised my hand again. “Yes, Mr. Freeman?” I said, “Well, maybe homosexuality is God’s way of keeping down the population.” (Laughter) His jaw literally dropped open, for about ten seconds, and then he said, “Oh, that’s a good one, Mr. Freeman. Ha, ha, ha. Class dismissed.” The Bible can be used to justify just about anything.

In our preaching class we had to preach a wedding sermon. We had to imagine two people that we were going to marry and then preach to them and an imaginary congregation, like the real one you have at a wedding. So I preached a wedding sermon to Chris and Pat. (Laughter) Now Chris and Pat could have been a man and a woman, or two men or two women. It was a gender-neutral wedding service. I would say things like, “Take your beloved,” and things like that. After the class one of my classmates wrote on my evaluation, “Chris and Pat?” I went up to him the next day and asked him what he meant. He said, “I just wanted you to know, somebody got it.” (Laughter) A couple days later I went in to see our preaching professor and I said, “This is what I did and if you want to mark me down you can.” He said, “Chris and Pat? Why didn’t I think of that? Why didn’t I realize what you were doing?” And I got an A on the sermon. (Of course, he was also an easy grader.) Some people realize, even though they can’t publicly admit it, that the Bible says things that shouldn’t always be taken as the “gospel truth.”

I performed a gay wedding a couple of years ago, actually a lesbian wedding, the only one, unfortunately, that I’ve ever done. I married two young women in Grandville. It was a wonderful wedding. There were a couple of surly people in the audience that I assume didn’t approve, but for the most part people could see that the love these two women had for each other was palpable. Protestants have two sacraments: communion and baptism. Catholics have seven sacraments, including the sacrament of marriage. I kind of like that. I think a wedding is a sacrament. I define a sacrament as a sacred moment. The wedding that I did for those two women was a sacrament, a sacred moment.

“Don’t ask; don’t tell” has been rescinded by the Congress. The military no longer will kick out gays and lesbians. It hasn’t been fully implemented yet, but as I understand it, they no longer kick people out for being gay or lesbian; no longer do their comrades in arms have to “tattle” on them, or whatever you want to call it, “out them” for being gay. I think that act, rescinding “Don’t ask; don’t tell,” shows that America is making some progress.

President Obama says that the Defense of Marriage Act is indefensible. The Justice Department will no longer defend an act that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. I believe he thinks it violates the Fourteenth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause. Several states allow gay marriage, so how can the government say no to that, especially if the President, a Constitutional scholar, he taught constitutional law, who believes that it’s unconstitutional, how can he send his Justice Department to defend it? I listened to, I think Glenn Beck, yesterday for about two minutes (that was about all I could take), anyway he said, “What is he, a monarch? Is he some kind of monarch?” I don’t think so, I think he’s like a prosecutor who uses his discretion and says, “I’m not going to prosecute these people for this.” He’s like a policeman who says, “I’m not going to give this guy a ticket for this.” We remember the Nuremburg trials, where people can’t just follow orders because they’re given. I think that’s what President Obama is saying, that he’s not just going to follow a law that he believes is unconstitutional. America is making some progress.

Ten months ago, you may know, I went before the Holland City Council and asked them to pass a gay rights ordinance. Some might say the wheels of government are turning slowly, others might say they’re trying to cross every “t” and dot every “i.” Hopefully in the next month or two the Holland City Council will be presented with an ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the areas of education, employment and housing. Maybe I’m being optimistic, but hopefully they’ll pass it. Then Holland, like America, will be making some progress.

“Seven Passages” is a play about the seven passages in the Bible that condemn homosexuality and/or homosexuals. It’s also a movie that’s going to be shown this Friday night at the Park Theater, put on by Holland Is Ready. I’ve seen the play twice now. It’s very powerful. A Calvin College professor interviewed over a hundred gays and lesbians, bisexual and transgender people, to find out how those seven passages impacted their lives. The impact was not a good one for most of them, for all of them. Imagine. Put yourself in a church at the age of 13 and there is your minister railing against homosexuals and you yourself are realizing that you’re gay. He’s quoting those passages calling for the condemnation of homosexuals, that say homosexuality is an abomination, that homosexuals should be killed. Imagine how that would make you feel. That’s a lot of what this play is about. There are parts of the Bible that are more hurtful than helpful.

The Bible says that we should beat our children. “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” But many of us ignore that. We’ve seen studies and stories that say that kids who are beaten sometimes grow up to be violent themselves. So we ignore that passage of the Bible. There are other parts of the Bible that we just ignore because we know parts of the Bible are more hurtful than helpful. It says that parents can smash their kids’ heads against the rocks if they act in a bad way. We ignore that. We know that there are parts of the Bible that are more hurtful than helpful.

Jesus knew that. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” What he was saying is, it’s said in the Bible. It’s there in the Hebrew scriptures, “Hate your enemies.” But Jesus knew that should be ignored, so he said, “But I say to you, love your enemies.” Jesus knew that there were parts of the Bible that were more hurtful than helpful.

Now let me tell you what Jesus said about homosexuality and about gay marriage. You may want to write this down. It was very profound. What Jesus said was something that we should all remember. (Silence.) That’s right, as you know, Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality or gay marriage. Now you might say, “Oh, come on, Bill, of course he didn’t say anything about gay marriage, they didn’t have that back then.” But they did have homosexuality, since the beginning of time. Since Adam and Eve and Steve were created. But Jesus didn’t say anything against homosexuality. Not one word. Because Jesus wasn’t like that. He sometimes did condemn rich people, but he didn’t condemn people in general. If he thought homosexuality should be condemned, why didn’t he say that? Or was this one of those instances where Jesus said parts of the Bible are more hurtful than helpful and I’m not going to say anything about it?

Now I know that as an interfaith chaplain, I’m supposed to be tolerant of everybody. I don’t really like that word. How big of me to be tolerant of people. I say that I love and respect everybody, or at least I try to do that. But if somebody is going to think that homosexuals are bad and ought to be condemned, fine, you can think anything you want. But if you’re going to speak out against homosexuals and homosexuality, then I’m going to speak out against you. I’m sorry if that shows that I don’t love and respect everybody and everything and every thought, but the reason I do that is because I know that there are people, as demonstrated in the play, “Seven Passages,” who are injured because of people’s words, sometimes emotionally and sometimes physically injured because of words, sometimes, like Matthew Shepherd, they’re killed because of those passages, or at least, seemingly, because of the culture at large, for the most part, hating gays. So I can’t remain silent about that. And I won’t.

Peter Gomes died this past week. Peter Gomes was a minister at Memorial Church at Harvard. He was a professor of religion at Harvard. He wrote several books, wonderful books. The New Yorker said that he was a fiery preacher, that he was a fiery Baptist preacher who was sort of a mix between James Earl Jones and John Houseman. He spoke at the second inaugural of Ronald Reagan. He spoke at the inauguration of the first George Bush in 1989. Then in 1991 students were protesting outside Memorial Church at Harvard, his church. He got up to speak. They were protesting because a conservative publication on campus said some vile things about homosexuals and homosexuality. Peter Gomes said the Bible can be twisted to say anything at all. Then he said, “I am a Christian who happens to be gay.” The crowd went wild. His sermons at that church were always filled to the rafters. He never again got invited to speak at the inauguration of a Republican president for some reason. In 2006 he came out as a Democrat, which I suppose for some people is even worse than coming out as gay, but anyway, he said he voted for Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. Peter Gomes knew that the Bible could be twisted, that some parts were more hurtful than helpful.

H.L. Mencken, the late great newspaper editor from the first half of the last century, defined Puritanism as “the haunting fear that somewhere, someone might be happy.” (Laughter) I think that’s what upsets a lot of people who hate gays. They don’t want to think that two gay guys or two lesbian ladies might be happy someplace. I think they hate the term “gay.” I think they would rather have the term be “miserable,” because that’s how they’d like to see gays. But wishing and hoping doesn’t make it so.

Nelson Mandela has a new book out called “Conversations with Myself.” It’s a collection of his letters and speeches and other writings. It’s a wonderful book. In it, a story is told about a guy who buys a house. He moves into the house and after a while he starts hearing voices in the house. Come to find out, the house is haunted. Well, the guy freaks out and he sells the house. He hires this guy to move his stuff. The guy loads all his stuff on a truck. They sit in the front of the truck and the mover says, “Well, where you moving to?” A voice in the back says, “We don’t know yet.” Yikes! (Laughter) The moral of the story is, you can’t run away from your troubles. You have to face them. Michigan has to face them.

It is time for Michigan to allow gay marriage. Several other states have. I don’t think you can read the Fourteenth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and not believe that gays have the right to marry. Gays should have the right to marry just like straight people do. To deny them of that, I think, is unconstitutional.

It is time for the governor of Michigan and the State Legislature to allow gay marriage. I know there’ll be people who’ll say, “But, Bill, they’ve got more important things to do. Now is not the time.” Well, if people are denied their civil rights, if people are denied the liberty to marry the person they love, isn’t now the time to allow them to have that freedom? If not now, when? I never have understood how two gay guys getting hitched in Hudsonville somehow adversely affects a straight couple in Coopersville. How does that happen? Does the straight couple in Coopersville, if they see two gay guys getting hitched in Hudsonville, do they say, “Well, I guess now anything goes. I guess we should get divorced.” I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s happened in Massachusetts or in other states where they allow gay marriage. It’s a red herring.

It is time for Michigan citizens to allow gay marriage. Several other states already have. Iowa allows gay marriage. Iowa! Not exactly a hotbed of progressivism. If Iowa can do it, can’t Michigan?

Michigan was the first state in the nation to outlaw capital punishment, the death penalty. Let’s not be the last state in the nation to allow gay marriage.

Let Us Give Thanks For This Day

Let us close our eyes so that we might see.
Let us give thanks for this day.
Let us count our blessings.
Let us be grateful for creation.
Let us hold in our thoughts our loved ones.
Let us hold in our thoughts those who are hurting.
Let us hold in our thoughts those who are at war.
Let us hold out hope for a better tomorrow.
Let it be. So be it. And: Amen.

Some Of Us May Come Here

Let us close our eyes so that we might see.
Some of us may come here
with hearts as light as a leaf.
Some of us may come here
with hearts as heavy as a tree.
Some of us may come here
rejoicing over good news.
Some of us may come here
depressed over bad news.
Some of us may come here
seeking to help others.
Some of us may come here
needing the help of others.
Some of us may come here
yearning for peace in our lives.
Some of us may come here
yearning for peace in our world.
However we come here
let us be here now.
Let it be. So be it. And: Amen.

The State Of Spirituality 2011

My wife for the past couple of months has been trying to get me to take one of those online personality tests. She’s taken it and she thought it would be fun for me to take it, to compare results. I just don’t like taking personality tests. I’m afraid they’ll come back and say, “I’m sorry, sir, you don’t have a personality.” But I know it’s important to her, so I will take it soon.

As a chaplain, I know the importance of examining our lives. Perhaps we should do it every now and then; maybe we should do it every day. To look at where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re going. To examine things we’ve done right and maybe things we’ve done not so right. That’s also important for faith traditions to do – Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, what have you. It’s good to examine where the faith tradition has been, where it is, where it’s going. What it’s done right, what it’s done maybe not so right. That’s what I want to do with this sermon today, entitled, “The State of Spirituality 2011.” It’s kind of like the president’s State of the Union Address. Of course, I’m not the president and we’re talking about religion and not the state of the union.

An interfaith minister told me a story a few months ago. She said she was part of an interfaith group that was going to do a worship service. There were going to be interfaith clergy there from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and others. She was part of the planning committee, trying to determine what to do exactly. She volunteered to read something from Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Unitarian minister and, obviously, a famous writer. But a Unitarian minister in their midst said, “Oh no, I won’t allow you to do that because you’re not steeped in my tradition.” Hopefully, as we look at the state of spirituality, it won’t be mired in the feelings of, what is surprising to me, a fundamentalist Unitarian. I didn’t even know one existed.

A mosque at Ground Zero, and the controversy that surrounded it, was the number one religion story of 2010. You’ve heard of this: the Imam wanted to take a closed Burlington Coat Factory and turn it into a mosque, or really a cultural center. There was controversy about it. People were upset that Muslims were going to build a cultural center or a mosque near Ground Zero because, of course, it was Muslims who flew those planes into the World Trade Center. But when you think about it, if somebody wanted to build a Christian church near where the Oklahoma City Federal Building was before it was blown up by Timothy McVeigh, a Christian, would anybody object to that? I don’t think they would. Now I’ve been to a mosque. I didn’t see people plotting terrorism. I saw people praying. I think the state of spirituality for some is about freedom. The state of spirituality for others is about fear.

Terry Jones is a so-called Christian pastor down in Florida. You remember how he was going to burn Qurans on 9-11. Many people objected to that. Even people who are Islamaphobes said, “Whoa, that’s even a little too extreme for us!” I wrote an email to Pastor Terry Jones last summer urging him, as the chaplain of Interfaith Congregation, not to burn Qurans. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called him and said that burning Qurans could cause an international incident, could put US soldiers, US citizens around the world at risk. As you probably know, Terry Jones decided not to burn Qurans. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether he did that because he got a call from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates or because he got an email from me. [Laughter] Again, the state of spirituality for some people is fear.

Are you smarter than an atheist? There was a religion survey released last year that said that atheists and agnostics know more about Christianity and other faiths than people of those faiths. In some ways I suppose it makes sense, because somebody who is a Christian accepts their faith, often, on faith. They don’t really need to know the particulars of it, they just need to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But somebody who is an atheist or an agnostic wants to know what it is they are atheist or agnostic about. So they learn more about Christianity and Buddhism and different faith traditions, which is a good thing. So the state of spirituality for some people is about knowledge and understanding.

I saw a fish the other day on the back of somebody’s car. It had Jesus’ name in the middle of it. I got to thinking about how you see other fish that have Darwin’s name in the middle of them and usually with a couple of feet protruding from it. It’s an indication, I suppose, that the state of spirituality is still one of contention between people who believe in creationism and those who accept evolution.

The Genesis Code is a movie that just recently came out, made in Grand Rapids, about the debate of evolution and creationism, told from a kind of fundamentalist Christian point of view. The reviews I’ve read and the opinions I’ve heard from people who’ve seen it saw it as more of a ham-handed way of trying to show that science and chapter one of Genesis are compatible. I’m not sure how successful they were at doing that. I don’t understand why Christians don’t just say, “You know, I can accept evolution, but God created evolution, maybe in six days, I’m not sure.” The state of spirituality for some is about knowledge and understanding.

Skeptics meet in Holland one night a month. Skeptics in Holland? Oh, my! They meet at a bar. I went there this past week and the bar was full of people, but for some reason I could pick out the table of skeptics. They look like the cast of “The Big Bang Theory.” They’re affiliated with the Center for Inquiry, which used to be called the Free Thought Association, so I felt right at home. I mean, I think I’m a free thinker, or at least open-minded and think rationally and reasonably. It was a great group of people; there were about 8 of us. Eight people in Holland who are free thinkers!

One guy told the story of his son who is in the second grade. He goes to a charter school, which is, of course, a public school, they get taxpayer money. The kid’s teacher held up a fossil and said, “This fossil is thousands of years old.” This guy’s kid raised his hand and said, “No, ma’am, that fossil is millions of years old.” She said, “Well I don’t believe that.” Yikes. It seems to me you can teach your kids at home whatever you want to teach them. You can teach kids in Sunday School class whatever you want to teach them. But if you’re a public school teacher getting taxpayer money, you can’t teach that the Bible is a scientific textbook. I think it’s even against the law in Michigan; that’s what the kid’s father said. But maybe there’s hope for the state of spirituality if a second grader is willing to speak truth to power and maybe there’s hope for the next generation if that second grader represents the future.

I went to jail the other day to visit an inmate at the Ottawa County Jail. The way it works is, you go in and there’s a woman behind the glass and you say, “I’m Pastor Bill Freeman. I’m here to see inmate so-and-so.” Then she calls back and the guard brings the inmate to a room. They buzz you into a big room and there’s a series of little cubicles there with a glass divider. It takes about five or ten minutes for the inmate to come in. During those five or ten minutes I sat there thinking of some weird Twilight Zone plot, where the inmate comes and we talk and then I get up to leave and my door’s locked. I look across the glass and the inmate’s in street clothes and he just walks out the door. I look down and I’m in jail garb and a guard comes and escorts me back to my cell. Yikes!

I didn’t think anything more of that, it was just a goofy idea, until after I’d spoken with the inmate. I left and he left and I went to the front desk to set up an appointment for the next week. There was a guy standing there in a suit. He had a big briefcase bag with all kinds of files in it. He said to the woman at the front desk, “I’m here to see inmate William Freeman.” Yikes! [Hums Twilight Zone theme.] True story! I’m not making that up! So he goes into the room and I say to the woman at the desk, “Well, I’m William Freeman, but I’m a pastor, not an inmate.” She said, “Apparently we just have a guy by that name in here.” But still, what are the odds? The state of my spirituality at that point was scared half to death!

It’s at the jail that I hope, in the next few weeks, to start a meditation group for inmates. A meditation or contemplation class. I googled “meditation prisons” and all kinds of stories came up from Oregon, Alabama and other states, where they’re doing meditation in prisons. There are many benefits for the inmates. It calms them, it sometimes lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels and it gives them hope for the future. So I hope to make that proposal in writing to the jail administrator soon, who then will pass it on to the sheriff. I hope that happens in the next few weeks, because I think it will improve the state of spirituality for the inmates.

The breakfast that we serve at the Community Kitchen every Saturday morning is one year old this month. You all should be proud of what you do, either by giving your time, talent or treasure to feed the needy in Holland. As you know, they have a breakfast on Sunday, they have lunch Monday through Friday, but they didn’t have anything on Saturday and so we do that. As I say, you should be proud of that because I think that improves the state of spirituality for those in need and for those who volunteer their time, talent and treasure.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” has been rescinded by the Congress. The military will no longer kick gays and lesbians out for being gay or lesbian. The military still has to implement that, but as I understand it nobody now is being kicked out for being gay or lesbian. I think that’s good for morale of the gay and lesbian troops who no longer have to hide who they are, but also for all their comrades in arms who no longer have to report that their colleague is gay or lesbian. I think it improves the state of spirituality in the military and I think it improves the state of spirituality in America. We’re now on a par with other civilized countries that allow gays in the military.

President Obama says that the defense of marriage act is essentially indefensible. The Justice Department will no longer try to defend an act of Congress because Barack Obama – a constitutional scholar (he didn’t own some baseball team in Texas, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago) – says it’s unconstitutional, I believe citing at least the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection” clause. I don’t think it’ll be too long before all across America there will be gay marriage. I’ll talk about that next week. I think this decision by the President is good for the state of spirituality in our country.

Next year, if I preach a similar sermon to this one – The State of Spirituality 2012 – I hope to be able to comment on good news. I hope to be able to say that in 2011 the City of Holland passed a gay rights ordinance. I also hope to be able to say that Hope College in the City of Holland rescinded its anti-gay policy. I think if those two things happen, the state of spirituality in Holland will be very good, very good indeed.