The Problem With Personality Cults

There is a large church in Albuquerque, one of the largest in the country, that a number of years ago lost their lead pastor who went back to the home church, even though they are "non-denominational." After he left, the church crashed, hard. It got so bad that they begged him to come back to stabilize and try and restore the church. Which he did, and today the church is doing fine.

Now I don't know all the details of what happened after he left, but it wasn't just that his replacement was absolutely terrible. Instead it showed that to a large degree that they had a personality cult. People were there because of that pastor. When he left, they left, and when he came back, they came back. I know that most churches lose members in pastoral changes, but this was the extreme. And I think we will see that as the pastors of some of the other mega churches retire in the upcoming years. (Or look at the Crystal Cathedral)

I say all that as a comment on Trumpism. Now that he is out of office there is a lot of talk about how he will continue, or who will take over his base. And, while I could be wrong, I think the answer is no one, not even his kids. It's called Trumpism for a reason, and that's because it's based on his personality. Do Hawley or Cruz have anywhere close to the personality to replace Trump? Absolutely not. Can you imagine anyone going to an arena to hear them riff for more than an hour? No.

The problem with personality cults is that they are built on personalities, and when that personality goes away then so too does the cult. Some will hang on forever regardless and some will look for new things, just look at what QAnon followers are doing at the moment, but many will simply stop following and never glom on to a replacement they way they did to the original.

I expect (hope) that the cult of personality that is Trumpism will be greatly lessened now, especially since he doesn't have a bullhorn to talk, and will eventually simply go away when he goes away. Some of his ideas will hang around simply because they were always there, but I don't think anyone else can pick up the torch that he leaves behind.

And besides, even if they do, it's a losing coalition when it comes to popular vote.

Core Values: Inclusive

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 1:43-51 and Galatians 3:23-29:

Several years ago we were on vacation in the Denver area because we had gone to the mecca that is Ikea, and went to a local United Methodist church in the area. Now we are the ideal that most churches say that they want a family with young children, but as we walked in no one said anything to us, other than the ushers who gave us our bulletins and said welcome. We went into the sanctuary, and no one said anything to us. After worship we went into the coffee time because the girls wanted donuts, and no one said anything to us. And then as we were walking out, just before we got to the parking lot, someone finally said hello and stopped to talk to us and said they were new to the church but they really liked it because they were so friendly. And we just wanted to laugh because we had just witnessed the exact opposite. Now every church likes to say that they are welcoming, but if you’ve ever been to other churches you know that’s not true. There are some that do a good job, and some do an absolute terrible job, and some you can tell that they haven’t had a visitor since Jesus was a baby because they swarm all over you or are utterly shocked to see you. But, even excelling at welcoming people the first time they walk through the doors, doesn’t mean anything about how they might be welcomed and included into the community. As one youth who was LGBTQ said, “I don’t want to be welcomed, I want to be accepted.” And that is something radically different than being simply welcomed. 

And so we continue in our series looking at the core values that we have established as a congregation. And so before we dive in, I’d like us to say them together again, so that hopefully they will become part of what we know. So we are Christ-centered, prayerful, inclusive, growing spiritually, compassionate and caring, and in service and mission. Last week we started with what it means to be Christ-centered, and if you didn’t hear that message, I would encourage you to go listen to it. But I said that while these values could be listed in nearly any order, I believe that Christ-centered had to come first because it is what flavors everything else. If we don’t do Christ-centered well, then we won’t do anything else well either. And, as I said, that journey of being Christ-centered begins when we are baptized and is firmly rooted in our claim as baptized people. And as it turns out, our claim of being inclusive is also rooted in our baptism. Now we have jumped ahead and are doing inclusive this week, rather than prayerful, since we are also celebrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this weekend, and we should remember that he received his Ph.D. from Boston University, my alma matter, which is also a United Methodist school, and was also the first majority-white university to have an African-American dean of the chapel Howard Thurman, which was one of the reasons King went to BU, and Thurman was the one he introduced King to the idea of non-violent resistance as practiced by Gandhi.

A More Perfect Union

The preamble to the Constitution says that one of its goals is “to form a more perfect union.” I had an English teacher who objected to that because she said it was either perfect or not, you couldn’t make it more perfect. At the time, that made sense. But I think I now understand what James Madison had in mind when he wrote that.

It’s been said that America is a grand experiment, and indeed the study of politics is called political science, although it’s not science the way other sciences are science. And so while we may strive for perfection, we may mistakes, we back track, we move forward, and then maybe sideways, and then to the other side. We try new things. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t, sometimes we agree and sometimes disagree, but we keep working at it. And all that means there are lots of things that consist in the American Spirit.

We often hear people say after some event, “That’s not who we are.” But while the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement are who we are so too are David Duke and the KKK. Just as the Voting Rights Act is who we are so too are Jim Crow laws. Just as calls for peace and non-violence are who we are so too are calls for violence and actual violence. That’s part of our striving for a more perfect union. Even when we think we might be there, there is always room for growth, ways to call forth the better angels of our nature in order to be better, to move onto perfection.

Seeing our country as a grand experiment also says that we have to look at what works and what doesn’t, to deal with facts which are verifiable, not just stipulated. If we simply believed what some people said, we would have our electricity powered through cold fusion. But that was a false claim. It could not be replicated through experimentation. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. If it is a claim of fact, then it can be verified or not. And then, as George Conway said “If you don’t change your views as you learn new facts, then many of the facts you believe probably aren’t facts.”

But before we can get to that more perfect union, I believe we also have to focus on the beginning of the preamble which says “We the people…” In many ways we are still working on that “we” part. Sometimes in our grand experiment we are closer to it than others, but that too is what we should be striving for, a more perfect we. And that means it’s up to us.

Last week I wrote about words mattering. And what we see is that those who can yell the loudest and be the most obnoxious or say the most outrageous things will get more air time, because they can drive ratings. And so we get this perception that we are more divided than we are, and get exposure to things that probably shouldn’t be given much attention. But, do you know how we end that? We turn it off. We don’t watch it. We don’t listen to it. We don’t read it. Because when the extremes get ignored, then those who have been making money off of them will change and begin presenting a different and more civilized product.

Finally, as a new administration begins, I want to quote from John Wesley, as I did on Sunday: “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”

And when we live into we the people, then we stand a much better chance at a more perfect union and “that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Ridiculous DH Proposal

Last year, for the shorted season, MLB instituted a universal designated hitter role across the league. Many people expected/hoped that it would become permanent and eliminate forever the stupidity of having pitchers batting. But now it's being reported that there is a proposal to change the DH rules for both leagues so that you will have the DH in place as long as the starting pitcher is in, but as soon as they leave then you lose the DH.

It's speculated that the reason for this rule is to try and stop teams from using "openers", or pitchers who are only going to go one or two innings, before bringing in the next pitcher. I can say I'm not a fan of the opener, but if a team wants to do it, and find it works for them, like the Rays who just made the World Series, why should they be stopped? I don't understand why MLB wants to always try and elminate creativity or changes to the game. The answer to shifts is to hit it the other way, and the answer to bullpen games is to blow them open. When it no longer works it will go away. Make it not work, don't legislate it away.

Pitchers don't hit because they aren't trained to hit. They rarely hit in college and they rarely hit in the minor leagues, and then we expect them to hit against the best pitching in the world once they get to the major leagues, or at least the National League does. In 2017 NL pitchers hit .125 and in 2018 it was .116. The American League was only a little worse, which is to be expected since they bat even less, hitting .109 in 2018. Just for reference, what is often referred to as the Mendoza line, the batting average at which even a stellar defender isn't worth fielding, is .180. How exciting is that to see someone who is getting out just less than 9 out of every 10 times they come to bat?

Now defenders of pitchers hitting will argue many things. One is that it is "traditional." So was batters being able to tell pitchers where they wanted the ball to be thrown, and also throwing the ball at runners to get them out. But that went away. A second is how great double-switches are. Really? If you want to talk about a suicide-squeez I'm right there, but double-switches? That's ridiculous.

And that's really a huge part of the problem for me, and this proposal, is that what pitchers batting does is to weaken the team on the field, especially in the later innings. At the time when you want your best players on the field, you are removing them for bench players, which lessens the game. And yes I know that occassionally you have starters on the bench to come in, but that's less likely in the playoffs when it's even more important to have your best players out there. And so this proposal wants to take one of the worst aspects of the DH and make it for everyone.

One final argument that people make for the DH is the "strategy" that comes into play using the DH. But, Joe Torre and Tony Larussa, both Hall of Fame managers who managed in both the NL and AL, both said that managing with the DH is harder because in the NL decisions of when to replace the pitcher are made for you. That is, there is greater strategy to be found in the AL.

Whoever came up with this decision needs to be demoted and I truly hope no one takes this seriously let alone having it implemented because it takes a bad situation and makes it worse.

Rich White Men Controlling Things

Steve Sarkisian has just recently been named the new head football coach at the University of Texas. He signed a 6-year contract starting at $5.2 million dollars and escalating by $200,000 each year for a total of $34.2 million. In his first interview, he was asked about what will happen with the Texas fight song "The Eyes of Texas," and his answer was very telling.

But, in case you are not aware, last year as the country was starting some sort of racial reckoning, athletes, and others, at Texas were doing the same. They were seeking to have buildings renamed after people who weren't racists and/or slaved holders. They also pointed out the racist background of the "Eyes of Texas," including that it came from minstrel shows with white students dressed in blackface to sing it.

And so many on the football team, who had the highest profile, objected to this history and the fact that they were forced to sing it after each home game. This past season many on the team refused to stay and sing it, and there were also many musicians in the band who said they would not play it. The administration’s answer was to play it over the loudspeakers, without the band present, and force the football team to stay out.

Now the answer given by the administration, think white men, was that the boosters, think rich white men, didn't have a problem with it and wanted it to continue. And so it was going to continue, whether the athletes liked it or not. In other words, rich white men were telling unpaid black men what to do, and that they had no say and should just be happy they get to play for Texas. Plus the school had put up a statue of the first black letterman for the university, so shouldn't that be enough? (And his name is Julius Whittier, and he earned that letter in 1970. Not 1950 or even 1960, but 1970!)

Now Sarkisian could have done a lot of things. The smartest probably would have been to say that he knows there are lots of feelings around the issue, and he was going to talk with his players, and the administration, before he said anything. Instead, he said the boosters, the rich white men paying his salary, wanted it played, and so he, a rich white man, was going to tell his players, those unpaid, largely black athletes, that he doesn't care about them or their feelings about a song with racist connotations and history because they have no power and they were going to "proudly" sing it.

I really hope that the athletes and the band and other students continue to tell the administration and the boosters that just because you are rich and white doesn't mean you get to do what you want anymore. That's the way the world has worked, but that time is coming to an end, and it's all of these little battles, and the big ones, that will make a difference. 

Words Matter

The Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)  That Word, of course, was Jesus, the incarnation, the Word made flesh. What that passage should also tell us is that words matter. If Jesus is the word, then words have to matter, because it means that words can change and transform the world.

In the past week we have seen the power of words. Two athletes have been caught on mics saying words that are slurs to different groups. One of them apologized and said that’s not who he is. And the other than issued a statement saying she was sorry to anyone who was offended, which is not actually an apology at all. And then of course there is what has happened in Washington, DC.

Words matter. In his letter, James says “How great a forest is set ablaze by small fire. And the tongue is a fire.” (James 3:5b-6) Earlier he had also said, “If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues… their religion is worthless.” I could also quote from 1 Peter, “Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God.” (1 Peter 4:11a) Our words matter.

And then of course we could also quote Jesus who says that it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles us, because what comes out of our mouths reveals what’s in our heart. Which is why the first athlete saying that using the slur is not who he is, is a little disingenuous because he said it, and that says something. Now do we make mistakes in our speaking? Yes, and there is room for grace, for learning and also repentance.

I received an email this morning from the writer of a daily devotion that I read for a mistake he made yesterday, totally unconsciously, that referenced schizophrenics as being close-minded bigots. That was not what he intended or meant, but it is what he said. Many people pointed this out to him and he is using this as a learning experience to see where he may have biases of which he was not aware, and to correct them.

There is a statement, in different forms, that has been attributed to lots of people that originally came from Bishop Beckwith in 1885 that says:

Plant a thought and reap a word;
plant a word and reap an action;
plant an action and reap a habit;
plant a habit and reap a character;
plant a character and reap a destiny.

Or as Paul says in his letter to the Galatians “you reap what you sow” (6:7) Words matter.

But it’s not just what we say, it’s also what is planted in us. If we surround ourselves with people who are proclaiming hate and animosity, discord and conflict, bitterness and revenge, violence and lawlessness, slurs and insults, rage and lies, those things will take root in us and that is what we too will think, say and act upon.

In addition to all that happened last week, it was also the 10 year anniversary of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson. An act that killed six people, including a US district judge and a 9-year-old who had been born on September 11. An act that was also likely born through extremist rhetoric.

Words matter. The words we hear matter. The words we say matter. And we cannot pretend otherwise. God said let there be light, and there was light. Words create, words challenge, words form, words corrupt, words make realities and words become flesh. If all we ever hear are words of hate or fear or rage or animosity or wrath, then we are swimming in a toxic pool which can only corrupt us and fill us with the poison that surrounds us.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “When evil people plot, good people plan. When evil people burn and bomb, good people must build and bind. When evil people shout ugly words of hatred, good people commit themselves to the glories of love.” He also said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Words can inspire and words can tear down. Words can build up and words can destroy. Words can offer love and words can offer hate. Words can offer hope and words can bring despair. The words we use reflect the values we hold dear. May the words we use, may the words with which we surround ourselves, reflect the better angels of our natures, and may they always seek to bring healing and wholeness, love and belonging, not just for us, but for the world.

Twitter Doesn't Owe You Anything

By now I'm sure that everyone has heard that Twitter, along with most other social media sites, has permanently blocked Trump (and approximately 70,000 others). My question is why has this taken them so long?

I don't use Twitter all that often, but one the tweets I sent in the past year, which may have been one of less than 10 I sent, was to the CEO of Twitter after what was then the latest incendiary tweet that you don't teach a 2-year-old a lesson without having some consequences. Merely saying "don't do that" is not very effective. And I have a two-year-old so I am very aware of the behavior and the tantrums (although hers are a lot cuter than a 74-year-olds).

But, now that they have done it, the right-wing, or the sedition-caucus, is freaking out because their "first-amendment rights" are being infringed upon. First, that should indicate that they know nothing about the constitution, because what the first amendment says is that "Congress shall make no law..." not Twitter. Second, private companies have much more leeway for numerous reasons, but it's about enforcing the rules equally.

Twitter has standards of conduct which can get people banned, and they have been doing it all along to radical elements, but they have finally decided to do it to Trump and his followers. Again, my question is what took them so long?

No one has a right to a Twitter account or Facebook or anything else, especially if they choose to advocate the violent overthrown of the government, or violence towards others. It's like driving. It's a priveledge that can be taken away. 

Now we can argue about the power that Twitter or Facebook or Google or Amazon, among others have, but that's a different conversation and it has NOTHING to do with banning people for inciting violence or hate. 

The biggest problem now for the sedition-causcus is that they are being forced to live by the rules, often the same rules they wanted applied to everyone but them. And it is violating the "rights" they think they have as whites that they believe they are entitled to, that no one else is, which is really at the heart of much of what has been taking place.

There is still a reconing that will come to the social media companies because they have some culpability in the rhetoric that's been going around, especially in the hate and Big Lies, but at least they have started to make a step in the right direction. Now, again, they just have to answer why it took them so long.

Core Values: Christ-Centered

Here is my message from Sunday. We began a new series on our core values, and the passage was on Acts 19:1-7 and Mark 1:4-11:

In what is the crescendo in the call to discipleship in the gospels, Jesus asks the disciples “who do people say that I am?”  They say that some say that he is Elijah, remembering back to our message on Jesus being the prophet as to why that answer is important, and some say perhaps John the Baptist has returned, or maybe one of the other prophets. But then Jesus asks the crucial question: Who do you say that I am? And Simon says “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” and it is then that Jesus changes his name to Peter, the rock, and says that it is upon this rock that I will build my church. Now there is some debate about whether that rock is Peter himself, or whether the rock is Peter’s confession of faith. That the church’s foundation and solid rock on which it stands is the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the Living God. Because it turns out that we have to answer that same question about who Jesus is for ourselves. No one can answer that question for us. We have to have our own answer. And really we see that throughout scripture. If you remember in our Genesis series, for a while, Jacob only talks about the God of his father Isaac. It’s not his God, but his father’s God. It’s only later in his life that we hear about the God of Jacob, that Jacob has accepted God as his own. Or later after Joshua has taken the people into the promised land, he says to them, after recounting all that God has done for them, he says “You must choose this day whom you are going to serve” and then he responds “as for me and my household, we will serve all Lord.”

Now I say all this for several reasons. One of them being that when I lead confirmation classes for youth, one of the first questions I ask is what does it mean to be a Christian? They will talk about things we might believe, or things we are supposed to do, or about going to church, sort of generic things. But, what they never say, until I get more direct, is that being a Christian means following Christ, or worshipping Christ, or proclaiming Christ as the Messiah, the son of the living God. We might think that’s sort of basic, of what it means to be a Christian and yet it doesn’t seem to be for many people. That when they answer the question about Christianity, following Christ is not the first answer given.

Stop It With Tom Brady

First, let me start with the fact that I am a New England football fan, having lived there for 8 years at the height of Tom Brady's career. I understand why he left, but I am not happy about it and really hoped he had a terrible year. That's my caveat.

But, the announcers have been going crazy that "Tom Brady really turned it around the last four games of the season." This is when you can tell that they are either really ignorant of what is happening, or simply telling the narrative they want, rather than looking at facts. So, let's look at the reality of these last four games:

Game 1: a 26-14 win over the Vikings, who were 6-7 at the time.

Game 2: a 31-27 win over the Falcons who were 4-10.

Game 3: a 47-7 win over the Lions who were 5-10 and had already fired their coach (and this is the one they were going crazy over because he put up big numbers. It was the Lions, of course he put up big numbers!)

Game 4: a 44-27 win over the now 4-12 Falcons.

So that's four wins against four losing teams, with a combined record of 19-39. 20 games under .500. And even their "impressive" play-off win was against the Washington Non-Racist But Misogynistic Football Team, who had a record of 7-10. That's right, the hosting team in the playoffs had a losing record.

So, let's look at the rest of their schedule. The finished the season at 11-5. They had wins against only two teams that had winning records at the time they played them, the Packers and Raiders, and only the Packers finished with a winning record. The Raiders finished at 8-8. The combined record of the 11 teams they beat at the time they played them: 12-19. And some of those wins to terrible teams were a lot closer than they should have been.

Their  five loses, however, were all to teams with winning records and all those teams made the playoffs. The combined record of the teams they lost to when they played them: 22-6.

Now I understand that you can only play who you are scheduled to play, and that you have to beat up on the bad teams. But, what you also have to do is beat the good teams, and other than the Packers, they didn't come close.

I believe that Brady is the GOAT, but let's stop talking about how great he did because he put up good numbers against division-2 NFL competition.

New Year

Happy New Year! I know that I am hoping that 2021 is a little better than 2020 was for us, although there were plenty of good things and celebrations that also happened in a year filled with lots of things we never thought we might experience. But, of course, we are not out of the woods yet, and as I said on Sunday, we just have to be prepared to “go home by a different road” when our plans inevitably change. And we have to trust that the Spirit will lead us in the right direction.

One of my plans for last year was to focus on reading books I had purchased, rather than getting new books from the library. But, even with the library being closed since March, that didn’t really happen. According to Goodreads, I read 128 books, or 37,910 pages. The shortest book was only 27 pages and was about Junia, a female apostle named in Romans, and the longest was Ron Chernow’s biography on Grant at 1,074 (I was reading that when I had shingles, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do). This year I want to try and tackle my “to read” list of things that sounded interesting when I encountered them, but wasn’t going to read at the time. That’s part of a resolution.

Another resolution I had when I was appointed to Los Alamos was to become involved in the community. Last year I was approached about serving on several different boards, and the one I accepted was for the library, where I was just elected chair. I’m not sure what all that entails but I will find out as we go along.

If you are still thinking about things to do in this new year, on Sunday I said that besides for deepening our faith lives, and our relationship with the church, we should also work to deepen our relationship with our community. And while there are many ways to do that, might I also suggest joining me in serving on a county board? There are several immediate openings or those coming up, including for Art in Public Places, Historic Preservation, Public Health, and Personnel, to name a few. You can find more information on the county website

I don’t know what this year will bring for us, but I am excited about the possibilities. As I always say, the best year this congregation has ever had is not in the past, its next year. And it takes all of us to bring that about. I look forward to this year and working with all of you to do the things that God has planned for us, some known, and some unknown, so that we will continue to be God’s love in action.