God and Guns

Put a bunch of faith leaders together and you are not likely to find many of them arguing that Jesus really wanted everyone to have a gun. So the panel called God and Guns at the Religion Newswriters Association 2014 conference had activists who want to find ways both to regulate the proliferation of guns in American society and to change the culture that idolizes guns.

It’s not that there was not a spectrum of hackgrounds on the stage. The head of the National Council of Churches and someone with deep roots in Southern evangelical Christianity. Someone from the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and the Episcopal bishop of Atlanta.

In some ways, they covered familiar ground in the gun debate, but a recurring message was that this is an effort for the long haul. “Persistence” was the word of the day. But there were some vivid phrases in the discussion.

“We are truly messed up in this area,” said David Gushee of Mercer University, the evangelical as he compared gun violence in the U.S. with other nations. “We have a constant low-grade bleeding going on every day. A lot of our domestic problems are resolved by bullets.”

The disequalizer is the amount of money the gun manufacturers and gun lobby have in this debate. It is a classic example of “the power of vested interest money to override the public sentiment.”

What’s missing, said Bryan Miller, executive director of Heeding God’s Call, is the support of the grass roots. As if to reinforce what Gushee said about the U.S. standing apart in the world for its gun violence, he said that in a year, Philadelphia loses more people to gun deaths than all the developed nations in the world except one – the U.S.

“The faith community is the most logical one to take the lead,” he said.

Bishop Wright

Bishop Robert Wright, the first African-American Episcopal bishop in Atlanta, offered the theological rationale for that among Christians.

“Piece carry is at odds with the Prince of Peace,” he said, explaining why he banned guns from all Episcopal churches after a new George law allowed guns in churches.

He cited lax gun laws that reinforce people’s hostility to one another as being at odds with Jesus’ call to look out for our neighbor. “They are an affront to God,” he said.

He looked at Scripture and said there are no texts that affirm our obsession with self defense, adding, “You can’t put those words in Jesus’ mouth. Jesus is not from Georgia, he does not speak English and he is not a member of the NRA.”

Finally, he said that enlarging fear is not a very imaginative response to issues around neighborliness. “It is an absolute offense to human dignity,” Wright concluded.

This issue will get some attention in Madison next Monday. There will be a Hearts & Soles rally to prevent gun violence in Wisconsin at noon on the State Street steps of the Capitol. Here’s the explanation:

“Every year, an average of 467 men, women, and children in Wisconsin are killed by guns. One death is too many -- 467 is a crisis that requires decisive and meaningful action. That’s why WAVE is traveling across Wisconsin with a powerful display of 467 pairs of empty shoes, which serve as both a stark reminder of those we’ve lost and a compelling call to action.  

“We will be joined by elected officials, community and faith leaders, victims of gun violence, and other concerned citizens. Together, we will form a united front in the fight to prevent the tragedies that have devastated so many families and communities.”

Immersed in immigration – 10 takeaways

Six hours, 21 speakers, four topic areas – it was day exploring immigration in the U.S. There were panels on politics, acculturation, faith communities and human trafficking. It was all part of the Religion Newswriters Association annual conference for 2014, held at the Law School at Emory University in Atlanta. 

1 – Obama’s basis for delaying executive orders on immigration – Merle Black, politics and gov prof at Emory and one of the nation’s pre-eminent (and oft-quoted) scholars of elections, cited poll data from the last few months showing that for Obama, “taking action would mean organizing the election around his weakest issue.” The data shows more disapprove of Obama’s stance on immigration than approve, it’s not a priority for voters and neither party has an advantage on this as an issue. And here’s a twist. Obama has said he would take action by the end of the year. But Black pointed out that in Louisiana and Georgia – two key states in the battle to control the U.S. Senate – the winners must have an absolute majority, not just a plurality. If they don't, there will be run-offs – in December in Louisiana, in early January in Georgia. Will Obama act before those if the Senate hangs in the balance?

2 – And it’s complicated for Latino voters as well – Robert Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute and one of my favorite sources on data, says that immigration is a critical issue for Latino voters, but not the most critical issue. The economy/jobs and the rising cost of health care rank above it for a majority of Latinos.

3 – Religious resonance or not? Suzii Paynter, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said “When you have read scripture week after week, when you have sung hymns weak after weak, the words of immigration have a familiar sound to them.” But Robert Jones noted that for folks not immersed in faith communities – like the growing portion of religiously unaffiliated Americans – the Biblical phrase “welcome the stranger” sounds strange when the dominant theme with kids is “don’t talk to strangers.”

4 – Family reunification – A recurring theme throughout the presentations was the issue of family reunification. This comes up when one family member is deported, it comes up when Central American kids head north to join family members here, it comes up in the reality that there are some 9 million people living in mixed-status families – one or more members have the needed legal documentation but at least one other person does not, meaning they always live on the edge of disruption.

5 – Domestic violence is an issue – Aparna Bhattacharyya is executive director of Raksha in Atlanta, an agency that works with issues of domestic abuse and exploitation of women from South Asia. Because immigrants may lack proper legal status or because they are vulnerable in other ways, when they are abused, they often do not know where to turn. There may be cultural inhibitions as well, so organizations like Raksha play a vital role (a counterpart in the Madison area is Freedom Inc.).

6 – Immigrants from Africa – We tend to think of immigrants from Africa as slaves brought here a few centuries ago. We tend to think of today’s immigrants as being from Latin America or Asia. But there is a significant increase in immigrants from Africa in the last decade, said Jehu Hanciles, who teaches world Christianity at the Candler School of Theology. Almost half of the African immigrants now in the U.S. have come here since 2000. They are dispersed throughout the U.S. Traditional patterns of assimilation may not apply, both because of their skin color and because they often tend to stay involved in life in their homeland even as they live here. They assimilate with language and social interactions and the roles they take on here, but they tend to retain their religion and cultural values and patterns of family life.

7– Rethinking diaspora – Don Seemnan teaches Jewish studies in the Emory Department of Religion. He noted how much of the Jewish story is built around ideas of exile and diaspora, yet today, the Jewish population of the world is largely concentrated in the U.S. and in Israel, not scattered through many countries as it once was. What does that do the meaning of Jewish life as it shifts from stories of migration and movement to issues of certainty versus vulnerability?

8– Breaking the bonds of sex slavery – Jeff Shaw directs at Organization in Atlanta called Out of Darkness that seeks to give women an escape from sex slavery. He talked about going out at night to hotels and truck stops and giving women working the sex scenes a rose, a card with the group’s phone number and the message “You are beautiful – there is a way out.” The group runs three safe homes with 14 beds and helps women who want freedom to get it.

9– The roller-derby nun – Well, that overstates it a bit. Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck lead her La Crosse congregation of Franciscan nuns from 2002 to 2010 and then was head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious from 2009 to 2011. That’s the group the Vatican went after. She is deeply involved in efforts to eradicate modern slavery (that’s what she was talking about during intermission at a La Crosse roller derby). She talked about nuns forming an underground railroad for contemporary slaves through the network of institutions that congregations of women religious run in this country, of nuns tackling investments in companies that profit from slavery, of working with hotels to train their staff to recognize the signs of human trafficking. And how might religion get in the way of breaking down slavery? “Any denomination whose exclusive focus is on abortion, contraception or sterilization will turn off victims. The only way is to walk with the victims one by one. Those doctrines are precious – we believe them – but it’s not where we start.”

10 – Check how many slaves you have – There’s a web site recommended by Luis CdeBaca, President Obama’s appointee to coordinate U.S. government activities in the global fight against slavery. It’s slaveryfootprint.org.  I took it quickly. I apparently have 34 slaves working for me around the world.

Smart-ass pastor, sexual deviant & Jesus

They were billed as “a smart-assed tattooed lady and a middle-aged sexual deviant talk about Jesus.”

Sara Miles and Nadia Bolz-Weber

The smart-assed tattooed lade is Nadia Bolz-Weber, pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colo. and author of the new book, Pastrix, which has reached number 24 on The New York Times combined print and e-book non-fiction list for this week. Oh yeah, she is also an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, not known for smart assess (other than Martin Luther) or tatooes.

The middle-aged sexual deviant is Sara Miles, the directory of ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. The sexual deviant reference is to the fact that she is lesbian. But the heart of her story (told in Take This Bread) is how she walked into this church one day, someone handed her bread at communion  and her life was changed. Now she helps run a food pantry out of the sanctuary of the church and writes compellingly about Jesus. Her new book, City of God: Faith in the Streets, will come out next February.

They sat together on stage, trading quips and insights in front of the roomful of journalists at the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association in Austin, Tex. 

“What's you favorite thing about Jesus?” Nadia asked Sara.

“His mom,” was her quick reply. And then a bit more. “He tracks you down.” She told her story of eating bread and discovering Jesus when most of her adult life, neither knew nor cared much about Jesus or God or religion or any of that.

Nadia talked about the beginnings of her church community, a few people gathered at a house one of them a transgendered Unitarian who one day asked her out to coffee. “I think I’m having a crisis of faith,: the young woman said. “I think I believe in Jesus.” 

He tracks you down, Nadia echoed.

“Jesus has no taste,” added Sara. “He hangs out with all the wrong people.”

So it went, stories and insights mixed with laughter. 

Nadia talked about the emphasis on participation at her congregation. At both churches, the singing is without accompaniment and often in harmony because those who can harmonize, do so. At Sara’s church, to say they gather around the communion table understates how closely every bunches up.

“Here's the thing about Christianity,” Nadia said. “Bodies matter.” So people stand where they can see each other.

Sara’s forthcoming book is about her going out onto the streets of her on Ash Wednesday in a a church robe and offering to cross people with the ashes and remind them that they were going to die.

“I am always terrified to do it,” she admitted. “I am appearing in church drag in my neighborhood. 

Yet this challenges what she calls the chronic lie in our culture that we will not die. The ashes represent a welcome truth telling that we all have dying in common and that we can believe in something beyond death.

Both talked about realizing that if church is not about welcoming the stranger … whether it’s a suburbanite visiting Nadia’s church or babies making distracting noises or bad smells from street people – then it is missing an opportunity.

“We have to welcome strangers,” she said. “They are the ones who mess things up.”

Someone asked how they deal with the growing range of views in America about God, spirituality, religion.

“I feel I’m in no way responsible for what people in my church believe,” Nadia said. “They believe all sorts of shit. I’m only responsible for what I say,” adding that she is pretty conventional on Christian doctrine, if perhaps less sanitized in the way she presents it.

And then there was sin. Someone asked how they view that concept.

“Sin is the key to everything,” Nadia said, getting animated. “We all carry brokenness inside ourselves. We can do that in cunning, masked ways. If we didn’t carry these things, we wouldn’t need God’s grace.”

Sara added that repentance is not about saying “I’m sorry.” It’s about change in our lives. 

Ten words for Pope Francis

Alejandro Bermudez and
Greg Burke discuss Pope Francis.

Greg Burke tried to describe Pope Francis in 10 words.

That’s quite a challenge after a journalist who had covered the pope during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires,  Argentina had just finished describing him as “a complex personality.”

Alejandro Bermudez had interviewed then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio several times, had translated the then-cardinals in-depth conversations with the most prominent rabbi in Latin America (the book is called On Heaven and Earth) and had assembled interviews with some of those who knew Bergoglio best for a quick book after his election as pope (Pope Francis: Our Brother, Our Friend).

The occasion was a presentation to the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association in Austin, Texas. And Burke was tackling this as a former journalist for FOX News and TIME who in June of 2012, became the senior communications advisor in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

He did allow as to how now that Francis was the pope, each day was a bit more unpredictable for the Vatican communications staff.

So his 10 words to describe Francis:

Mercy – He noted that over and over, Francis reminds people that “God doesn’t tire of offering mercy.”

Moxie – Another word for courage, Burke said. “We are all going to get challenged by Pope Francis, especially those who live comfortable lives in the First World. That’s a good thing.”

Margins – He talked about the pope constantly reaching out to the edges, a recurring theme of not getting closed in on one-self … and of the church not being so self-referential.

Prayer – Burke reminded people that the pope spends a lot of time in prayer and that he is open about his struggles with it … struggles just like other folks have. He told of workers in the building where the pope lives seeing him shuffle into the chapel in the middle of the afternoon, rustling around for his rosary beads just like any other old man. Later, he also noted a kind of “old-fashioned religion” that appeals to Francis reflecting the popular piety of Latin America where he grew up.

Encounter – This is a pope focused on engaging with the world’s many religious traditions, crossing the usual philosophical and national borders that separate people.

Joy – Burke acknowledged that John Paul II and Benedict talked about joy but said that Francis seems to be showing it in remarkable ways, even as he warns people to watch out for discouragement.

Proximity – One thing that has been clear over the past months is how much Francis likes to be physically close people. One of the most memorable phrases of these early months, Burke suggested, is that church leaders should “smell like the sheep” because they move so closely among them.

Simplicity – Lots has been written about Francis’ simple life style, his carrying his own briefcase, his paying his own bills. The message: It’s not about power and privilege, Burke said.

Humility – Burke recalled the moment when Francis was introduced to the world and he bowed and asked the crowd to pray for him. He noted the pope’s repeated references to himself as a sinner. And he said pointedly that Francis expects that of others in the church.

Compassion – He reaches out to embrace those who are suffering. At every audience, Burke said, Francis goes to those in wheelchairs, to those who are hurt and touches them.

A few other insights –

The pope’s extraordinarily popular tweets are drawn from his morning homilies and other writings. He signs off on each one before it is sent out.

Bermudez said that this is a man who has always been quotable because he shapes his messages in ways that there is a clear take-away with a quote that people can remember.

Bermudez earlier talked about the seeming obvious but deep impact on Francis both of being from Argentina and being a Jesuit. In Argentina, he said, there is a vibrant Catholicism with lively internal debate, lots of writers and historians and an excellence in canon law. And the Jesuit influence shaped his spirituality, his sense of going to the frontiers which in our era are the cultural margins and then making sure that what you do has results “for the greater glory of God.”

Obama reflects on death and resurrection

Joshua DuBois started working for Barack Obama in 2004 when Obama was running for the U.S. Senate. He guided Obama’s faith outreach efforts during his presidential campaign and then served as director of the White House office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships from 2009 until this past February. Later this month, he has a book coming out called ThePresident’s Devotional: Daily Readings that Inspired President Obama. The book will include not just the readings, but some of DuBois’ reflections on dealing with the spiritual dimensions of the crisis that roll through the White House.

Joshua DuBois talks with
Manya Brachear Pashman
of the Chicago Tribune.

DuBois talked with journalists at the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association today in Austin, Texas. There was some tension in the room, because journalists who cover religion found the Obama White House a very difficult place to get access to, but DuBois still praised them for their focus on the issues involving people’s search for meaning.

One fascinating tidbit. He talked about how Obama started an Easter Prayer Breakfast several years ago, inviting a wide range of Christian pastors to join him and then each year, revealing a little bit more about his own understanding of “what the death and resurrection of Jesus meant to him.” DuBois lamented that these did not get enough attention but said they offered a depth of insight into the spiritual side of Obama.

So for those who are interested, here are links to the speeches from the past several years:

April 6, 2010

April 19, 2011

April 4, 2012

April 5, 2013

1st Amendment for people or institutions?

One of the clearest delineations of the terms of the debate over religious liberty came in an unexpected place on Thursday.

Speakers and panelists from many viewpoints had offered their perspectives in a series of presentations in a conference room at the Texas State Capitol as attendees at the Religion Newswriters Association pre-conference probed contentious issues ranging from the Obama administration mandate on including contraceptive care in health insurance to the rights of high school cheerleaders in a small Texas town to put Bible verses on the banner that football players would crash through on their way into the Friday night game.

But it was at an unrelated session on the growing concern about sexual abuse by religious leaders beyond the well-documented Catholic priest scandal that William Bowen framed the issue in a way that I think covered so many of the issues discussed on Thursday.

Bowen, national director of Silentlambs, an organization dedicated to helping the survivors of abuse, was talking about the resistance of the Jehovah’s Witnesses hierarchy to efforts to hold them to account for child molestation by leaders in their communities. He said they always came into court waving the flag of the First Amendment, saying that the government could not touch them.

“The First Amendment was written to protect the rights of the people,” Bowen asserted, “not to protect religious institutions that hurt people.”

He was framing it in particular to argue that religious institutions ought not be shielded from religious accountability for lawbreakers in their ranks. But the broader issue, it seems to me, is whether the First Amendment is to protect people or institutions.

At an earlier panel, Jeff Mateer, general counsel for the Liberty Institute that aggressively pushes back at efforts to limit religious expression, cited the example of a student asked to write an essay about a hero who then picked God as her hero. She was told that was unacceptable. Matt Dillahunty, host of the Atheist Experience program and not normally an ally of Mateer, said, sure, she should be able to write that essay. It is her viewpoint.

The First Amendment was protecting both belief and speech, they agreed. 

Here's a good summary of that panel from Brian Pellot of the Religion News Service.

Laurie Goodstein of The NY Times
asks Steve Green a question
at the RNA meeitng.

The biggest battle over religious liberty at the moment is over the contraception mandate, of course. It pits groups like the Roman Catholic bishops and Hobby Lobby owner Steve Green against the Obama administration’s insistence that employers offer contraception within their health insurance coverage.

The Hobby Lobby case may well be the first one to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The Hobby Lobby position that including contraceptive coverage in its health plan violated the company’s Christian-based opposition to such coverage was upheld in a lower-court ruling.

Green said that he could not countenance the notion of his company being required to be, in his words, “an abortion provider.” That, of course, uses the disputed view that contraceptives don’t merely prevent conception but end an incipient life.

The Catholic bishops, interestingly, may actually have some more room to maneuver on this. Even though the church’s opposition to contraception is deeply rooted and well-known, Fr. Thomas Nairn, senior director of ethics for the Catholic Health Association, and Prof. Andrew Getz of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, talked about renewed attention to an old Catholic moral principal dealing with cooperation with evil.

In essence, the question is how close one is to the evil being done. The greater the distance, the lesser the moral culpability. In the contraception case, they suggested, there is some ability for Catholic institutions to work their way through this with the kind of exemptions the Obama administration has offered to require the insurance companies themselves to absorb the costs of contraceptive care.

Those exemptions are not available to non-church related employers, though. Cue the Hobby Lobby case, that will include the question of whether of corporation is a person.

Which takes us back to that framing of the religious liberty question. Whose freedom is being protected? Under what circumstances? And how to resolve those clashes.

The recurring answer throughout the day. These issues never get resolved. They are part of the tension of a democratic society.

The bright sport was the gracious spirit of everyone throughout the day toward people who were diametrically opposed to their viewpoint. Score one for civility.

Lessons in life and dying from a friend

My friend Mike died last week.

We were the same age. We grew up together in Marinette in northeast Wisconsin. Worked our way through Boy Scouts together. Played at each other’s houses. Studied in the same classrooms. And then, over time, we drifted apart. Until this past year. That’s when I learned that Mike was dying of cancer.

In less than 12 months, we re-established a friendship and Mike and his wife, Nancy, taught me amazing lessons about living with the prospect of dying.

In our initial contacts, Nancy wrote of Mike: “He is doing well with his treatments.  I am amazed, each day, how well he handles this journey we are on.  Never once have we asked ‘why us?’  We feel so blessed that we have each day to love each other and enjoy our retirement one day at a time.  Not everyone is so lucky to have a long goodbye with the one they love.“

Just a note about the actual diagnosis. Mike had stage IV small cell lung cancer that had metastasized to his bones and a bit to his liver. The initial diagnosis came on May 2, 2012, with the expectation that he might live for about a year. He beat that by about a month.

We lived 300 miles apart, but we managed to meet three times face to face over the past year. We communicated in between by email. And we held each other in prayer all along the way. 

An email Mike sent out to a network of friends in late July of 2012 offered clues to his attitude: “The chemo is working to slow the cancer down… I am losing a lot hair, but I have discovered the joy of hats! … I am happy and fulfilled.  This is wonderful journey, and the biggest adventure of my life.  And I am getting plenty of time to be ready for the big event.” 

He understood that Nancy and their kids and grandkids were not quite as thrilled with this big adventure, but he was not about to let a simple thing like dying cramp his style.

Mike wrote me in early December to say that the growth of the cancer had slowed enough so that the resumption of chemo had been postponed.  “Spiritually, new wonders everyday,” he added.  That’s what really seemed to matter to him. He was experiencing a sense of God in wholly – and holy – new ways.

Dying also shifted Mike’s view of the world a bit. Our conversations often touched on religion and politics. I though Mike might enjoy one of my favorite magazines, Sojourners, so I got him a subscription. He liked it, noting that “Liberal values without spiritual values are bleak.  I hate judgmental liberalism, just as I hate judgmental conservatism.  Sojourners looks at liberal values with a strong Christian feeling of hope and love.   It looks at what we can do to build, not to defend or destroy.”

Later, he would strive for greater peace within, writing that “I avoid all things that thrive on negative energy, like the news, gossip, cruelty, conflict, or bad humor (the cruel, the meanly sarcastic, and the sacrilegious).  I can look out our bedroom window and see our snow covered hill, trees, sunrise and moonrise.”

Mike sent a health update on Groundhog Day – Feb. 2. Continued growth of the cancer, more pain and fatigue, chemo about to resume. But he also sent a second message that day to those who were more attentive to his spiritual journey: “Spiritually, I feel healthier than ever. My prayer and meditation life is rich… Since I can't volunteer outside the home anymore, I was able to join our parish prayer ministry, since I now have plenty of time to pray. I really enjoy praying for all of you in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc. who are praying for me… God is good.  God is great.  Hope is eternal.”

If hope was eternal, so was Mike’s sense of humor about a situation that would lead many of us to despair. By mid-February, Mike could really feel his body slowing down: “My material world is shrinking, and so is my body. Just like the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz, ‘I'm melting! I'm melting!’ We had to get a handicapped parking permit for our car. I walk like a crooked old man, with a crooked old stick, but let's face it, that's what I am…”

Within the next few days, Mike shifted from the chemo regime to palliative care with Hospice. He was thrilled: “Now I can look forward to a happy, peaceful death surrounded by loving family, friends, and a fully qualified, fully experienced and fully compassionate medical team. Nancy is a little weepy, but happy/sad weepy.  I feel like the Packers just won the Super Bowl.”

And then a pitch for prayer: “So anyway, keep praying for a happy, peaceful death for me.   If you are praying for me, let me know, as I add you to my prayer book and I will pray for you too everyday and I hope to pray for you when I get to heaven.... God willing.  Bless you all with love, peace, and joy,”

In late April, Mike sent out a detailed medical update, laced with his own brand of humor.  “I just wanted to send you the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of my final earthly journey, focusing on the old jalopy called my body that is on its last miles… I am so grateful for this last year to get to contemplate my life, reach out and discover old friends, strengthen my ties to my family, reach out to others who are suffering from a loss, and even reconcile some emotions stemming from the past.  Fruitful!”

He recognized God in the care that others showed for him, especially that of his beloved Nancy. “I have never felt so loved by God and so close to Him.” He signed off, “May we all live forever in love, peace and joy.”

His final email went out on May 21, just nine days before his death. “I have shared with many of you how well I am doing spiritually,” he wrote. “I feel so close to God, I feel like I can almost touch his face and feel his breath.”
  
Mike died early in the afternoon of May 30 – the traditional date for Memorial Day, the day his father’s plane was shot down during World War II. Nancy was at his side, the kids were in the house. Now he is with God.

Notebook jottings - Part 2

The Religion Newswriters Association conference continues in Bethesda, Md. Here are a few more notes from Friday and Saturday at the event.

At a presentation called "50 Shades of Evangelicalism," a group of younger evangelicals talked about the growing diversity among this substantial slice of Christians in America. The diversity does not all move in one direction.

Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, for instance, noted that even though younger evangelicals trend more liberal on social issues, their support of Mitt Romney now is higher than that for John McCain four years ago. Patton Dodd, executive editor of Bondfire Books (e-books), said younger evangelicals often struggle with how to define themselves, since they don't fit into conventional stereotypes. And Sarah Pulliam Bailey, the new managing editor of Odyssey Networks after serving as the online editor at Christianity Today, said that when she was a student at Wheaton College, just outside Chicago, she found that "a lot of people know where they are from but they don't know what they are right now."

Brad Russell of FaithVillage.com, a new social network with appeal in the evangelical world, wondered if "evangelical is still a valid term." And panelists talked about the debate among the evangelical leaders about who could be called an evangelical and who could not. Is author Brian McLaren still an evangelical if he supports gay marriage? Dodd said the issue is do you identify yourself or do others define you.

Russell said a significant change in attitudes on social issues like gay marriage reflected a greater tolerance of a pluralistic society: "What's not right for me does not have to be a matter of law for everyone else... Younger evangelicals have grown up thinking their stance in the public square has been defined for them." They no longer accept that.
++++++
Perhaps the oddest session of the conference was one where representatives of the Obama and Romney campaigns faith outreach operations were invited to "tell war stories from the front lines."
First, the two from the Obama campaign - Broderick Johnson and Michael Wear - refused to let C-Span video the session. Then all three of them said in many different ways that faith really did not matter that much in the election, even though that was their area of focus. As Bob Smietana of the Nashville Tennessean tweeted:  "Faith advisors on panel want to talk about works, not faith."
++++++
Stephen Prothero discussed his new book, The American Bible: How Our Words United, Divide and Define a Nation. It's a collection of 27 texts with a varieties of commentaries on each that he defined as "the texts that we value and fight about." He said that the U.S. is "held together not by a common creed but by a shared argument." And that plays out in the pages of this book.

Prothero acknowledged that sometimes the argument can get out of control. He suggested that the great thinkers of the past modeled how people could engage in public conversation and he cited the Jewish tradition of two kinds of arguments - one on behalf of the self, the other on behalf of heaven. An argument on behalf of heaven recognizes that truth resides there, not in any one of us, so as we listen and as we talk, we can come closer to the truth.

A Mormon trio on the Mormon moment

Jana Reiss converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints as an adult, has written a lot about it and would generally be considered fairly knowledgeable about the faith.

But she said she was brought up short after addressing a group of Protestants who asked her about the "white horse prophecy." This is something attributed to Mormon founder Joseph Smith about his followers who would come from the Rocky Mountains on a white horse to save the U.S. Constitution as it hung by a thread. Whether Smith ever said it is in doubt, but it has gone into circulation around the prospect of Mitt Romney being the first Mormon president of the U.S.

That's one example from a panel of Mormons today talking about how their faith has gotten a lot more attention in the past few years, whether because of the Romney campaign or the hit Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon.

There has been a lot of interest in what is unusual or exotic about the faith, said Terryl Givens, a Mormon scholar at the University of Virginia. "So the Mormon sense of self has been challenged," he told folks attending the Religion Newswriters Association annual conference in Bethesda, Md.

Darius Gray, an author and film producer, said that in the past when controversy around his faith arose, the leaders would run for cover or issue inflammatory responses. Now they are telling their story in very human terms, which he appreciates.

Yet Mormons still deal with accusations that they are not truly Christians, even though the name of their faith is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Givens said Mormons are "bewildered" by the claim that they are not Christians. He said the evangelical Christians have a theology derived from Christians of centuries past and are not willing to consider other understandings of how one follows Jesus.

That prompted Reiss to say that for her, it's been "a very painful year to be a Mormon."

She told of watching the Republican convention on the night a series of Mormon speakers talked about the way Mitt Romney had lived out his faith, using easily accessible language instead of insider talk. "I had a sense of Mormons being welcomed in the public square," she said.

The next day, she received word from the Academy of Christian Editors that her invitation for membership was being rescinded because she was a Mormon - a notification that hurt her deeply.

Gray, who is an African American, noted that he is about to celebrate his 48th year as a Latter-Day Saint and talked about the change in attitudes in the church that once barred blacks from the priesthood. He helped tell those stories in a movie called Nobody Knows: The Untold Stories of Black Mormons.

Gray said that overall, he was pleased with the greater understanding of the Mormon faith and of Mormons that he senses is occurring. "The Latter-Day Saints aren't as weird as some may have thought," he said with a chuckle.

But it was Givens, who has a new book coming out on Monday on Mormon beliefs, got into the heart of Mormon theology by outlining what he described as the five core beliefs:

• Humans have a heavenly father whose heart beats in sympathy with human hearts,
• Humans pre-existed as spirit beings, 
• Mortality is not a catastrophic fall but an ascent to greater godliness,
• God has capacity and desire to save entire human family
• Heaven will see the preservation of relationships most valued on earth (a reference to eternal marriage).

Schools, faith and freedom

So who is protecting free expression of religion in public schools these days?

Here's one surprising answer - the ACLU.

Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, told journalists at the Religion Newswriters Association annual conference on Friday about efforts in defense of students:

• Fighting a rosary ban in one school (it was banned because some gangs were using it as a symbol)
• Defending a Native American students' right to have long hair as a religious expression
• Arguing that a student had a right to sing "Awesome God" as an entry in a student talent show
• Making sure students were allowed to use a Bible verse as their personal quote on a yearbook page

Of course, the ACLU also jumps in when schools try to impose a particular religious viewpoint on students.

Mach talked about a public school in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, that set aside a day devoted to "converting as many people to Christ as possible" in all-school assemblies. Students who chose not to attend the assemblies were given the "option" of serving time in detention.

Charles C. Haynes, one of the nation's top scholars on the First Amendment who directs the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., argued that the general consensus on how to handle religious expression in public schools has grown fairly strong, while agreeing with Mach's observation that while "the rules are clear, there are rampant and repeated abuses."

Haynes said that the 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning organized prayer in public schools - a decision long vilified by conservatives actually "opened the door to more discussion of religion in schools than ever before." The guidelines that have emerged over the half-century since then have created space for thoughtful examination of various religious traditions and left open room for individual student expressions of religious beliefs.

But those are also areas that are still contested on the ground, as Mach suggested. Haynes said one of the on-going struggles is over when a student may give a religious expression to what is essentially a captive audience, as compared to a prayer group gathered for an extra-curricular activity. Some groups try to rig the rules to make sure their viewpoint - and only their viewpoint - is the one that is favored.

A second area is over how courses approach the Bible. "There are a lot of stealth laws to encourage Bible courses," Haynes said. While there is nothing wrong with treating the Bible as an academic subject, he contended, what some districts do is use a Bible course as a form of religious instruction - and that violates the notion that public schools should not favor a particular religious belief.

Looking more broadly at the First Amendment protections for freedom of religion, Haynes quoted James Madison's observation that the more diverse we are as a people, the more protection of freedom of religion for everyone there will be. When one faith is overwhelmingly dominant, it is easier to steamroll those who don't share that faith.

Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the American Catholic bishops, reminded the audience that "everyone is a minority somewhere." The ACLU's Mach echoed that, saying, "Virtually all religious groups have been in the minority at one time or in one place."

Arguments over religious expression are nothing new in U.S. history. Haynes noted that Alexander Hamilton tried to form what we would now call an early version of the Christian Coalition while Madison and Jefferson argued for a free marketplace of religious ideas.

Haynes praised the U.S. for have "the boldest free expression of religion of any country" yet cautioned that "the vitality of religious freedom depends on the minds and hearts of the American people."

Notebook jottings as journalists gather

The Religion Newswriters Association is gathering for its annual conference this week in Bethesda, Maryland. Here are a few vignettes along the way.

Joanna Brooks is a professor at San Diego State University and the author of “The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith.”  She said that in the run-up to the presidential debate on Wednesday night, some Mormons were fasting so that Mitt Romney would have a successful debate. "We're all going to fast to make sure our guy kills in the debate ... and he does!"

Brooks also noted that there is a "feminization of heresy in many traditions ... women who do not speak in orthodoxy are excluded."
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In a discussion over what's fair game about religion for reporters to ask candidates, David Campbell, a ;olitical scientist at the University of Notre Dame and co-author with Robert Putnam of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, offered this proposition: "Religion is relevant only to the extend it has a plausible connection to what that person would do in office." Bill Keller, the former executive editor of The New York Times, argued in a column last year and in person on Thursday that journalists should be "less shy about probing the religious beliefs of candidates." He said a candidate's religious beliefs can be a window in how he or she views science, gay rights and a host of other issues. 
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David Beckmann, head of Bread for the World, exuded great enthusiasm as he talked about the progress in the battle against global poverty. "The world has cut in half the number of people in extreme poverty in the last 30 years," he said. Using Biblical imagery, he called this "the Biblical exodus of our time."
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Thomas Reese, S.J. is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. He said that too often we cite violation of church state boundaries just because we disagree with someone. "If I disagree with you, then you are violating the separation of church and state," he said. That ignores that "politics is a hard and ethical endeavor."

He observed that while the Catholic bishops still hold to the "consistent ethic of life" approach of the past generation, their emphasis has shifted away from economic issues to things like contraception, abortion and gay marriage. He noted they will grant "prudential judgment" to people on issues around things like poverty, but say that on things like abortion or gay marriage, there can be no dissent. That, Reese said, is "a fundamental misunderstanding of prudence."

Reese also posed this question: "Did the Nuns on the Bus have more impact than (the bishops' religious liberty campaign known as) the Fortnight of Freedom?"
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The brand new dean of the National Cathedral, The Very Rev. Gary Hall (brand new as of Monday), talked about his vision for the future work of the Cathedral as we gathered in a conference room seven stories up in this magnificent building. One element is to use the Cathedral's "convening power" to focus on the intersections of faith and public life. Another is to build on a tradition of interfaith dialogue to be a convening presence for interfaith ministry. Another is to be even more a part of "healing the wounds and addressing the needs of the people of Washington D.C. And, of course, there is the matter of raising $20 million in the next five years to repair the damage done from the August 2011 earthquake.

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Sally Quinn, who started the "On Faith" section of the Washington Post web site six years ago, welcome journalists covering religion to Washington - "a spiritual hardship post." She told of starting "On Faith" because she was concerned about the lack of coverage of religion everywhere, including the Post. She could not persuade editors to do much, but Don Graham, the publisher, told her to start a religion web site on the Post's site. "I didn't know anything about religion and I didn't know anyting about the web," she said. So she gathered smart people from both fields together and now On Faith is a powerhouse in the field of journalism about religion. When her friends asked her if having a religion site would not stir up controversy, she told them in Washington, "people's egos are much more sensitive than their souls."