Skeptically Optimistic

Okay, election day is almost here and I can admit like most of my friends, I just want it to be over, so that I can stop tip-toeing around the whole thing. As an African American woman pastor, I have held out this long and have been seriously avoiding saying publicly where I stand. You see, I was trying to honor the separation of church and state. I thought if I were too engaged, it might seem as though I was telling the predominately white congregation I serve who to vote for. I would never do that! But, I do have an opinion about who wins this election and hope most of the country agrees with me.

For those, who have not asked, yes, I am a Barack Obama supporter. I for the first time have had to move out of my very comfortable apolitical stance that has kept me safe in conversations and place my feet somewhere. I am for "change we can believe in," change as Obama talks about it, change as described by a man who seems to have passion for the people. This passion is not evidenced solely by what he says, but how he has lived his life up until this point. The fact that he has been a community organizer is key in my support of him. I know what it is like to sit with people in poor communities and talk to them about power and get them to grasp that they can make a change in their own communities, in their own lives. I know what it is like to get folks who sometimes have no sense of self-worth to see their self-interest and work on their own behalf. I did that myself in the Bronx working with South Bronx Churches. I believe that Obama's work in inner city Chicago will make a difference in what kind of president he will be. I think it gives him more credability in his conversations about health care and helping the poor.

In coming out however, I must admit I am skeptically optimistic. Yea, I said skeptically optimistic. Skeptical because I am not sure that most of this country can get past the color of his skin. I am not sure that race does not still matter. What most people have not taken the time to think about is how he represents the best of this country. The best of what many would say is “two worlds.” Furthermore, because of his European and African descent, he is able to draw strength from two distinct cultures. He has also probably seen the best and worst of both cultures right in his own family. What most people, I believe forget is that he was raised with and saw very clearly white privilege at work in his home. Saw it, and has benefited from white privilege even if indirectly. His Harvard education, his travel abroad, seems to all be evidence of this and yet his skin is dark. Looking at him it is easy to forget that those who raised him are from the dominant culture in this country. His European American mother, grandmother and grandfather shaped and molded him in his most formative years. What we have heard tells us that he barely knows his African relatives. His father was never really in his life. Yet I do believe because of the self-confidence his mother instilled in him he has been able to develop a strong identity as a black man. I also believe that he has done the most with his inheritance. Listen to his speeches and you can clearly hear a rhetorical style born in the black preaching tradition. Listen to him debate Constitutional Law or anything else for that matter and his intellect shines through. Yet, even with him representing the best of America, we know too well, that because of the color of his skin he has had to traverse the stereotypical treatment of blacks in this country. He has done it well. I say, all of Obama’s background gives him an optimum vantage point from which to run this country. Yet, many will not see it this way, not because of his politics or policies but because of race.

However, I am optimistic, because the color of his skin, the incident of race has not quelled the enthusiasm around his bid for president. At first, I along with many others thought the presidential ambitions of this young black man were “nigh too impossible”, as my granny would say. But my granny would also be “tickled to death” (another one of her sayings) to see history being made. As I listen and observe, I wish she were here. She would get a kick out of the “goings on”.

In my hesitation to admit my political leanings, it has astounded me to hear the political stance and the enthusiastic conversations of the most unlikely Barack Obama supporters: those over seventy, CEOs, lawyers in upper middle class communities, Mid-Westerners, twenty something's, Republicans who are thinking “just maybe,” white suburban housewives, and my own mother who was a staunch Hillary Clinton fan. They all fuel my optimism. For them, race does not matter. Yes, I am skeptically optimistic and anxious to see what happens.

How about you?

God's story and Our story

It was good to hear Dr. David Lose again. He presented a forum at St. John's called: "Turning the Church inside out." The statistics he quoted (only 6% of Lutherans have ever attended a bible study), and the state of the church he referenced (if we continue as we are in 60 years we can mark the end of the church) should give us all pause. How can we be the church on earth, the ones who follow the word of God, when we won't even study the bible together?

Lose talked about how we view the bible as "a divine reference book" and how reference books hardly ever get read. They are pulled off the shelf and dusted off only when we want specific information. He challenged those listening to consider a different way of thinking of the bible that is as "living word of God." He proposed that we think about how the biblical story, God's story links up with our story. I thought, "that is a great way of thinking about it."

I remember early in my journey towards ordained ministry, when I thought of the story of the woman with the issue of blood -- this woman whose very life blood, whose energy, whose motivation, whose very essence was flowing from her -- I could very easily place myself in her story. You see, for many years as I struggled to raise a child as a single parent, as I struggled with who I was supposed to be in this world and the troubles in my life, I felt like someone whose life was steadily draining from me. I could even count the twelve long years of wasting away until I had an encounter with Jesus. That encounter took place in a little Lutheran Church in East Point, Georgia. There I was able to touch the hem of Jesus' garment. There I heard the word of God; there I received body and blood to sustain me; there the mutual consolation of the faithful soothed my soul. This encounter healed me and set me on a path that has lead me to love, and serve the people of God as pastor.

What story in scripture can you identify with? What stories speak to your experiences now or in the past?