Facts Sir, Just the Facts!

Facts Sir, just the facts!  As a kid, I grew up hearing this on Dragnet every week.  Jack Webb as Sargent Joe Friday plainly spoke this every week.  It was a to the point and please keep to the facts without the opinion, hyperbole and/or  drama.  I have had numerous encounters with folks who chose to selectively pick and chose the data or facts to suit their own prejudices or opinions.

I have recently learned a serious lesson at my stage of life that you never really know people until their prejudices are encountered.  I also experienced an extension of this when I posted, on a personal whim, a comment and video on my face book page that suggested we view and see what truth and facts were not evident?  It attracted the usual agreements and disagreements as would be expected.  It also attracted an old high school chum who chose to "challenge" the facts and suggested that BO was also a liar and that he would be glad to provide evidence.  Well, I responded with a challenge to check out the sources and facts before you challenge.  This was would be expected incited a barrage of emails, posts, and comments to my face book page.  I should have just left him to his own prejudices and moved on.  In the process, his cause celebre' "Sharia" laws and the invasion of Islam because the rally and the point.  We had these "intellectual" discourses to an extent several months ago.  The cause celebre' began when....Yes, when BO was elected.  So it was "birther" issues and hysteria extraordinaire...  I eased out of the conversation because he's one of the 20% that must believe in some other story line than the facts has bared out.  Fact check, debunking, rebuking, corrections to the record matter not....He is stuck in some other parallel universe that I should not follow.  I wish now as I did then that I was never part of this conversation to begin with....and I wish that I could still have my old friend from high school back.  This friend was an unbiased friend that had some extraordinary talents and used them well.  He has drifted to a place in our relationship that moves away from my positions and values.  I guess he's entitled to his opinions----but not to his own facts.  Further and finally, if the "facts" are disputed as he is prone to do....he should do some serious fact checking from universally reliable sources.

Thoughts from a friend regarding the Brotherhood of St. Andrew

Well Roy, I thought having been so reactive to the BOSA pledge, I should try to articulate what BOSA would emphasize if it wished to be on the cutting edge of where I think Christianity is going in the twenty first century.  So here goes.

1. Jesus did not intend that we should work on creating "tribal Christians".  Tribal Christians are folks who think they have the right belief system and their job is to convert everyone in the world to that belief system.  Nowhere does Jesus even suggest that the goal is to have the right belief system. Jesus came to show everyone how to be human in the way God intended regardless of their religion or belief system.

2. Jesus showed us that the universe is built on and functions on the Paschal Mystery.  Everything everywhere is constantly being born, living, dieing and being born anew.  We are to get on board with this pattern and stop trying to resist it by trying to live forever.  We are meant to learn how to die to self in this life and thereby learn how to die into eternal life at the end of this life.

3. Jesus said to love one another as he has loved us.  More specifically to care for the poor, the sick, those in prison, and all of the downtrodden.  It is important for us to realize that we don't think our way into new ways of acting, we act our way into new ways of thinking. Jesus made no bones about it.  He said just do it, because it will not only help those in need, it will transform us and the way we see the world.

4. The human brain acts in response to patterns.  The patterns we learn become the actions we take.  It is time for us to learn how to create the patterns that teach us to love from the time we are born. It is time we address what we are all so afraid of and why .

5. Specifically where youth are concerned...  modern youth are not concerned with belief systems.  They are tired of being told what to believe by people who don't walk the walk anyway.  Young people want to know how to build relationships with peers, with bosses, with lovers, with relatives, with anyone.  They want to understand how to be human and instead we are giving them a largely intellectual belief system.

6. Scripture is about God's promises (covenants) with his creation. It is not a literal guide to do's and don'ts.  It's time for real and honest scriptural scholarship.

7. It's time to realize that Sin is not an action, but a state of being separated from God.  All those things we call "sins" are just the ways we act out our separation from God and look for His love in all the wrong places.

8. It is time for us to understand that life is full of paradoxes that we will never figure out or understand with our finite minds. We will not understand what God is calling us to be until we give up trying to separate everything into what is good and what is evil. In God's creation, everything belongs or nothing belongs.  In the Garden of Eden, God said not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because He knew that trying to figure out and judge what is good and what is evil is what is killing us.  We are called instead to focus on love.  Jesus modeled how to live a life focused on love and not focused on good and evil.

9. Everyone alive has valuable experience of God whether they realize it or not.  Personal experience has a place in the scheme of things along with the teachings and traditions of the Church.  It is time to value each person's experience and see what it has to teach all of us.

10. Human beings learn by experience not by being told what to believe. It's time for us to offer the experiences that teach us how to love and stop trying to teach people what to believe.  It is time for us to stop worshiping Jesus and start doing what he said to do.

11. Jesus did not come to pay some cosmic price for our sins.  A God of love does not require restitution for our sins, any more than the father required restitution for the sins of the prodigal son.  God simply wants us to join in the fun of outdoing each other in love.

Peace and Blessings,

Seth

A Blessing to you........

A Blessing to you........

At a recent Sunday evening Episcopal Church Service that caters to late churchgoers and those who may find a non-traditional Holy Eucharist service more appealing.  This worship often has text from the Taize format.  I read the following prayer during this service that I wish to share with you.

            The Blessing

May God Bless you with discomfort. Discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationship, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger?   Anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears.  Tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

May God bless you with foolishness.  Enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you do what others claim cannot be done. 

And the blessing of God, who creates, redeems and sanctifies, be upon you and all you love and pray for this day and forever more.  Amen.

I usually attend regular worship services Sunday morning that are rich in tradition and rich in message that serves to help me reflect on my week and what I have been doing.  The traditional service is comfortable and is about my Christian heritage, my youth, my life and the influences Christianity has had on me.  This worship has caused me to be thoughtful and reflective citizen and hopefully a servant to God and my fellow man.  As with others, this is a constant struggle to do both in today's harsh world.   This particular prayer during this evening service has brought me back once again to this personal struggle and made me more cognizant of the need to be more of a practicing Christian and not a modern day Pharisee…

Congressional InAction

I was dismayed and disillusioned after watching the series of political events in our national congress recently.  However, I was reminded of a quote that a good friend and former school board member said to me often.   In these situations we must remember the the quote attributed to Alex de Toqueville and/or Joseph de Maistre...."the public deserves who they elect."  I don't know if I feel any better but at least I can understand why we are in the governing quandary today.

Thoughts of a Brother of St. Andrew

Greeting Brothers--I have included a letter in this email that I have shared with my rector at Grace Episcopal in Georgetown last week.  I initially wrote this letter as a result of our Austin Assembly meeting this past November.  I felt called to do this and I wanted to share my thoughts and call to service that our assembly rector had challenged us.  The letter speaks to our role and our calling in our local parishes and in our daily life.  I hope that my thoughts will  be of some benefit to you as you provide leadership to your parish rectors and Brotherhood Chapters.  Yours in Christ.  Roy Benavides

December 23, 2010

LETTER TO ALL MEN OF GRACE—Thoughts of a Brother of St. Andrew

Recently, a man in our parish asked me if you had to attend Brotherhood of St. Andrew meetings to be a member of the Brotherhood.  At first, I thought selfishly that “yes,” you should but then I recalled a comment by a BStA member at another chapter that said “they wanted men that were willing to be “Brother” like and active in the mission and disciplines of the Brotherhood.”  These disciplines are the discipline of Pray, Study, and Service.  Think about this comment for just a moment while I share the following narrative. 

We now understand that membership in church organizations was an expectation in the 60’s but it is not so today.  In addition, our rector has indicated during several sermons that we, as Episcopalians, are but one or two decades away from extinction because we are not leaving a religious (Episcopal) legacy to our children.  Added to this, we know that the vast numbers of our communities are “unchurched.”  Yet, we are certain that we are predominately a nation of Christianity?  We are in name and association perhaps but are we in daily practice? Then I get messages from friends that we should worry about this religion and that religion because they are extreme and they are radical—just what are we going to do about this wave to “take us over?”  I started to wonder how all this this fits into our Brotherhood mission of Evangelism?  How do we reach out and how do we really need to talk and do about the E word?   How do we leave a legacy and a church to our child that is relevant?

I recently attended an area assembly sponsored by the Brotherhood of St. Andrew.  The conversation, discussions and over-all tone during the assembly was honest, thoughtful and focused around the sharing of how each chapter was doing out-reach and ministries.  In the mist of this back and forth conversation a rector attending our assembly suggested that the issue was really one of RELEVANCE… What is this organization’s Relevance to the congregation and relevance to you?  It was about my RELEVANCE as an individual’s practice of the disciplines of prayer, service, and study…. relevance to evangelism or inviting others to be part of our Christian Community of Episcopalians.  It was our RELEVANCE to our community a group of Christian Men.   Relevance to many people today includes forums involving social media, sharing, and doing something meaningful—making things better.  In my view the activity must be relevant to them and they will only give us permission to be part of their very busy worlds when the issue or organization is relevant to their lives regardless of what we now believe.

As a personal journey, my success in these areas of relevance has not been stellar and is usually conflicted with feelings of shortcomings and denial.  It is a battle to maintain a focus on my disciplines and like all of us I can certainly use the support to be a more Christ like person. Yes, in my day-to-day actions.  I have been to Cursillo and I have a Rule of Life and I am involved in as many church programs and ministries that I can work into my schedule but I am not really relevant to the success of Grace and our legacy.  That will be the dilemma until I consider what I have recently done and what the disciplines of service, prayer, and study mean to me…

As a man of Grace Episcopal Church, it is important that I measure my discipline not just by intentions but I must nurture daily my discipline of prayer—so that I pray daily for others needs and for myself.  It is also imperative that I take the time to invite others to pray, that I witness this prayer life to others and that I take courage in leading others in prayer…Prayer is not a weakness or shameful characteristic of man—it is a call to God’s commission.  I find in my Brotherhood activity and life that I gain peace by this discipline of prayer.  I suggest that this is and should be an easier task for all men if we devote our lives to the service of God daily.

Relevant—what are the men of our church doing to assist the congregation in our ministries of service?  How am I meeting the call to make our church better for the youth and young adults of this parish?  These daunting issues make me more aware that to become relevant we have to do more for the leadership of this parish and we have to provide the support and strength to become relevant—to be instrumental in the success of our congregation…

As a Brother of St. Andrew and a man of Grace Episcopal Church, I want to support our Rector and our Parish.  We, as Brothers, must reach out to other men and invite them to serve, to pray, and to study…No you don’t have to attend meetings but you realize the benefits of serving others in our church and in our community. 

I listened to the rector addressing the Assembly and realized that I was practicing a religion of convenience and not one of service.  What does it mean to serve and how can we as brothers proceed in this service, prayer, and study…it begins with a realization that our obligation is to invite, recruit, and induct men into service for the greater glory of Christ.  That rector challenged that if we wanted to grow spiritually, we should proceed with our agendas of service, prayer, and study in an inclusive way.  The first step as I recall from this conversation was one of simply asking our Rector, our Clergy, what can we do to serve our local institution…. Grace Episcopal Church?   Then, Brothers, we serve and as we serve…the rest of the disciplines will come easily.

Yours in Christ,

Roy C. Benavides