Aaron Clarey has religion but, like most preachers kids, it got injected the wrong way. And he comments on the US situation and the dilution of the gospel into some form of corporate marketing and socail service club.

This reformed geek agrees with him on where much of the US church is: and I know plenty of Catholics who whould agree with him about the spiritual status of the current Bishop of Rome.[1]

Be it the never ending empiricism of science, the freedom of thought secularism grants you, the leftist movement of the 1960’s, or feminism railing against the “religious right,” people started leaving the church. And like corporations cannot abide decreasing profits, churches cannot abide decreasing attendance.

And so in an effort to stem the flow of congregants leaving the church, the church started diluting itself, sacrificing its standards to appeal to a larger market and therein save all those religious leaders their jobs.

In my town alone there is the church that actually baptizes animals. It’s right next to another church where (20 years ago) I listened to a long haired hippie preacher rail against the evils of capitalism. Which is only one of about a gazillion churches that fly gay banners outside their steeple.

And let’s not forget about the score of female pastors I’ve seen. And you Catholics have GOT to realize your pope isn’t a pope, but a leftist purposely chosen to win a popularity contest with the young and naive generation.

What Aaron cannot see as well as I can, from across the pacific, is that the church as an institution still has a function in US civic society. It does not in NZ. It does not. Most people ignore the church: like marriage, salvation and religion are seen as nice to have but not essential. The moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Archbishop of the Province of New Zealand and the Pacific (who is anglican) and the Catholic cardinal (who lives in the capital) have as much power as the local pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in Timaru, (who faithfully preaches to about eighty souls). That is none at all. Our current PM is a nonobservant Jew, the previous one a fervent member of the fourth socialist international.

The people who are left are those for whom the gospel is life and death. Not those who want a good social club. And definitely not those who want riches or power.

I see the US church, particularly the mainline, as craven. I cannot understand where the lost their brains, let alone their spine and ovaries. Particularly when they produce beautiful peices of prose like this. Because this bastard does not even realize he is assuming that all whites have a middle class upbringing.

When I taught White Privilege studies to a class of Masters of Divinity students at Eden Theological Seminary, the assignment I left the students with every day was this: "Tell me what you see." There is a passage in my sacred texts that reads: "Let those who have eyes to see, see." There is so much more to be seen than what white men will let there eyes take notice of.

I invite the white men of America with me on this journey of discovery. Ask those who don't share your privilege to tell you what they see. It may not have escaped your attention that whether we are talking about Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, what whites see and what blacks see are not the same thing. There is a reason for that. Privilege comes at a price -- and the price is the loss of a vision that admits facts that make accepting the privilege uncomfortable.

Therefore, I extend an invitation to a seeing that engenders the kind of discomfort with privilege that creates the space necessary for real justice to emerge. Don't worry about carrying the burden of solving this pervasive injustice: for good reason, you and I won't be entrusted with that work. But only when we see what others are more than happy to show us about ourselves will we be open then to hearing what they have to teach us about what will be required for true equality to emerge.

The acceptance of this invitation, and the resulting years of work it will take us all to open our eyes to that we have been conditioned to ignore for the sake of our privilege, is the first step in the proverbial journey of a thousand miles. White men in America, I invite you to walk this road with me

You racist bastard [2].

You see me in my congregation with my kids and assume they are white when their great grandmother paid a poll tax and their father grew up in the parts of Auckland people who had priveledge thought needed their service to enlighten. (Yes, direct comment from a lovely young girl on first day at medical school — in a class where at least ten people came from her school (of 180) and four came from the third of Auckland I grew up in). You assume that because I am white I am responsble for US slavery when I don’t even have any ancestry there — and the people of my lineage, who did not rebel from the King, got rid of slavery before you and without a fight. You see everything as racist and nothing as the gospel.

I much prefer my Dad’s Bapticostal church. Chinese, Indian, Samoan, and Kiwis, Aussies and Yarpies all worshipping together. Because in Christ we can be each other’s shelter. And in Christ we have something more than social status and seeking power.

For our status and power do not follow us to the grave, while Christ from the grave saves us.

1. Yes, I commented.
2. Yes, I commented.