I took a couple days of vacation recently and went to Seattle for a three-day human rights conference that brought together about 125 people from around the world associated with the movement to end genital mutilation on the young and the helpless. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, bioethicists, anthropologists, religious people, scholars, authors and wounded women and men took their turns telling what they are doing about circumcision and awakening a world that cant or wont grasp the impact on unconsenting males and females of such a range of severe, intrusive practices.The 9th International Symposium on Circumcision, Genital Mutilation and Human Rights at the University of Washington was sponsored by the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Center (www.norcirc.org) and Doctors Opposed to Circumcision (DOC). It was a rapid-fire presentation of academic papers and the latest trends in circumcision practices around the world and whats being done to curb them. The clear message is that people in many nations and societies are committed to use medical research, the courts, media, legislatures, cultural persuasion and anecdotal accounts (botched circumcisions, individual tragedies, etc.) to convince expectant parents and medical professionals that males and females are supposed to have and keep natural genital structures that some think should be amputated. Female genital mutilation is in rapid retreat because of activism, education and a profound quest for social justice. It was outlawed in the U.S. in 1996, but many point out the double standard of equal protection under the law for males, who also suffer routine circumcision without their consent. An estimated 80 percent of the worlds males remain intact. It is largely sustained in this country as a religious and cosmetic practice and perpetuated by myths, entrenched misinformation and generous health insurance programs.

I was especially struck by the words of conference speaker Miriam Pollack of Boulder, Colo., a Jewish mother who had both of her sons ceremonially circumcised but who was deeply troubled by the impact the cutting had on them — then educated herself. For 15 years, she has spoken to Jews and non-Jews about circumcision and urging alternative b’lee milah ceremonies. Here is part of the text of her talk titled Redefining the Sacred: The Mother Wound Speaks of Circumcision:

… It is true that circumcision confers special status on the Jewish male. Yet numerous Talmudic and rabbinic treatises are explicit about the sacred role of the mother in the raising of Jewish children and the creation of a Jewish home. Traditionally a mother is seen as creating the container for nurturing the transmission of the Jewish heritage. Furthermore, how does circumcision serve our survival interests when we know how terribly vulnerable our male children and men have been in times of persecutions? How many tens of thousands of Jewish babies, children, adolescents and men have we lost when all the oppressors needed to do was to pull down pants?

Pollack, who believes circumcision disempowers the mother at the deepest biological impulse to protect her newborn, continued: In the more secure environment of the United States, there are thousands of circumcised Jewish men who are Judaically ignorant and unaffiliated. Has altering their penises effectively conveyed to them their spiritual heritage or secured their group identity? In the Middle East, is a Jewish penis really distinguishable from a Muslim one? Cutting explicitly sensitive sexual tissue ensures neither the physical survival of our people nor the perpetuation of our spiritual legacy. Nevertheless, crushing and slicing a baby’s foreskin does ensure both short and long-term damage to the male’s sexuality and well-being. As is true in all other aspects of biology, altering form invariably alters function.

Later Pollock made these observations, The piercing shrieks, flailing head and tremulous chin or worst, the dissociative silence of babies undergoing circumcision, have been insufficient for many to acknowledge the extreme degree of pain experienced by these male infants. We now have data, replicated by numerous scientific studies which have measured and quantified babies’ suffering by analysis of …respiratory heart rates, oxygenation levels, duration and pitch of cries as well as facial expressions. The findings are indisputable: Babies undergoing circumcision, even with the administration of pain-blunting techniques, experience quantifiably extraordinary pain. She asserted that research has found that circumcisions produce long-term alterations in neurological response to painful stimuli … We know that trauma of this magnitude cannot be psychological insignificant. Quite to the contrary, circumcision has been shown to disrupt the establishment of breast-feeding, an elemental part of a maternal-infant bond.

On an even deeper level, Pollack said, It may fracture or shatter an infants trust in his mother. She is his universe, source of all nurturing and protection. When that protection is violently breached, the babys entire sense of safety is invariably compromised, creating a deep fissure in the most foundational developmental test of all human, the establishment of trust.

Thats just part of a passionate speech by a Jewish mother. A younger Jewish mother who spurned circumcision for her son and who is writing a book for Jewish parents questioning circumcision told her story, underscoring that she and her husband want to celebrate so much of their Jewish heritage, but they cannot perpetuate the bris milah component and that a male does not have to be circumcised to be Jewish. Jews have historically discarded numerous harsh rules mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures, and circumcision — not consistently practiced by Jews over the millennia — can and should be abandoned as well. Interestingly, the list runs long for Jewish scholars, doctors and academicians who have been the most passioinate and vocal in writing in favor of medical reform in this area.

Fortunately, education, lawsuits, many books and magazine articles, TV segments, smarter allocation of health dollars and parents raw instincts are bringing the rate of circumcision down in the U.S. — now to about 55 percent nationally and about 35 percent here in the American West. And it has become sufficinetly clear today that a son no longer has to “lack” like Daddy, that body integrity and wholeness are worthy ends for a civilized society. Here’s hoping that the cutting and the screams stop and the first violence often visited on newborns — a perverse, institionally allowed sexual violence — can be ended.

Supernatural phenomena are something we in the media dont do a good job reporting. Dont go there tends to be the voice inside us, skeptics that we have to be. But paranormal events have a way of capturing the fancy of people, especially when they suggest religious miracles. So, in Texas right now, theyre still talking about the water gushing from the trunk of a large red oak tree.It has been called the San Antonio Miracle Tree and the “Gurgling Tree, emitting Gods water. Water exuded from the side of tree for three months, causing hundreds of faithful believers to visit Lucille Popes backyard on the east side of the city to pray and look for healing. Then on Aug. 16, the citys water system workers turned off the water from the street to the house, and the flow from the tree stopped, too. It was believed that the tree had tapped into a waterline going to a shed in the back yard and the water moved through the trees vessels. The city tested the water oozing from the tree and said it had chlorine, just like the water in the line.

Still the people have kept coming, insisting that its still a miracle that the 100-year-old tree could do that. After all, how many other trees have gotten into waterlines but have never gushed water from their trunks? The San Antonio Express-News said that despite such a logical explanation for why the tree sprouted water, many visitors still hinge hopes on water they say touches their soul. One visitor was a 56-year-old legally blind woman who soaked her hands in the trees water, hoping for a miracle. Some folks gathered and hugged the tree and hugged each other under the tree. One woman told a reporter, I pray its from God, and nothing will be false here. How can water go up a tree?

People would start showing up at 7:30 a.m. when the water flow was the strongest. Two people sat nearby at a table reading scripture to those who pass by. Visitors filled perfume vials from the flowing water or dampened their arms and faces with it.

Report Vincent Davis asked a religious studies instructor about peoples striving to find something supernatural in offbeat occurrences. It is an essential component of the human condition, said Oswald John Nira of Our Lady of the Lake University. Everybody hungers for something to believe in. Theyre looking for answers to ultimate questions.

British author Benjamin Creme, nonetheless, is calling it one of many miracles that been occurring from the same source. He said they are the signs of the emergence of Maitreya, the world teacher for this age along with his group called the Masters of Wisdom. Creme said other unexplained phenomena include mysterious patterns of light on buildings, weeping or bleeding religious statues, healing crosses of light, Hindu statues that drink milk, visions of the Madonna, holy texts appearing in fruit and strange encounters with angels. Heretofore, he said, no one has been connecting the dots to find out why things are happening.

Creme suggests that Maitreya has come in fulfillment of prophecies of all major religions and has arrived earlier that intended because of the urgency of the times in order to offer his counsel to a world in crisis. The British writer, author of 12 books and editor of Share International magazine, insists he has devoted 30 years himself to prepare the way for Maitreya The World Teacher, who has been living in Londons Asian neighborhood since 1977. Creme claims Maitreya has used his forces to end the cold war, break up the Soviet Union, unify Germany and end apartheid in South Africa, to name a few feats.

Now, Creme says, Maitreya is about to make himself public to inspire humanity to see itself as one family and create a civilization based on sharing, economic and social justice and global cooperation. He explains things further at www.share-international.org.

Does the gurgling tree have anything to do with a man waiting in London to give himself to the world to clean up our mess? Call me a skeptic.

Times like this make this blogs name, Beyond Belief, precisely well-chosen. Consider the latest remarks by U. S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., who is running for the Senate, saying that church/state separation is a lie and that if youre not electing Christians, then, in essence, you are going to legislate sin. Thats beyond belief.Harris has been self-destructing for many months, carrying out an inept and reckless campaign to try to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. She is widely remembered for her tactics in overseeing the 2000 presidential recount of votes of George W. Bush and Al Gore, while she was Florida Secretary of State — a matter later resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Harris has gotten herself into new trouble by what she said in a Q & A in the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, dated Aug. 24.

Saying she has a 100 percent voting record that it is in sync with both the Christian Coalition and a traditional values group, Harris said that people who are the salt and light, as talked about in the Bible, should seek to become elected officials, presuming that the pepper and darkness will get into office, instead. … we have to have the faithful in government, she said. Over time, she said, that lie regarding the separation of church of state — something people have internalized — is causing them to avoid politics. And that is so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers. Harris said that if she and her faithful ilk are not actively involved in electing those godly men and women, and if people arent involved in helping godly men in getting elected, than (sic) were going to have a nation of secular laws.

Harris said secular laws were not what our founding fathers intended and thats (sic) certainly isnt what God intended. So its really important that members of the church know peoples stands … thats why we need the faithful and we need to take back this country. Its time that the churches get involved. Smart enough to recognized that pastors cannot endorse candidates from the pulpits (to protect their tax-exempt 501C3 status), Harris said churches should still invite politicians to speak — just talk about their faith. Likewise, there is no violation when pastors ask politicians to share they positions on gay marriage or abortion. Obviously, there are effective ways to get around things.

Harris said she has spoken to four or five churches on a Sunday, and people line up afterwards because its so important that they know. And if we dont get involved as Christians, then how could we possibly take this back? The real issues, she said, is why should people care? … If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if youre not electing Christians, then, in essence, you are going to legislate sin. They can say that abortion is alright. They can vote to sustain gay marriage. And that will take western civilization, indeed other nations because people look to our country as one nation as under God, and whenever we legislate sin and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they dont know better, we are leading them astray and that is wrong…. Her rambling, often incoherent, statements can be found at www.floridabaptistwitness.com/6298.article.

Harris comments received criticism, including from members of the Republican Party. But a Democrat and Jewish congresswoman from Florida, Rep. Debbie Wasserman, said she was disgusted by the comments, adding that Harris does not deserve to be a representative and that she is deeply disappointed in Representative Harris personally.”

Harris, unfortunately, is not alone in her lame thinking. This rhetoric from a “veteran” politician like that is dangerous, especially suggesting that Christians hold the key to good government. Surely, Christians, regardless of denomination, should be offended. Harris cannot speak for Christians nor insinuate that secular legislation is synonymous with sin. Thats Christian nationalism and theocracy talk. Heaven help us. Watch Harris go down in flame on election day.

Keep moving through life and you come to know more than a few people who become really famous. I could list my acquaintances who have excelled so well, but here I mostly want to talk about the Rev. Homer Larsen, who for 44 years has been the radio pastor of Christian Crusaders, the 8th oldest continuous radio ministry in the United States and 70 years old next month. It can be heard 8:30 a.m. Sundays here KXEG (1280 AM).I called him Homer during the years he sat on the governing board for the Cedar Falls (Iowa) School District. From 1972 to 1980, one of my tasks was to report on the biweekly or monthly meetings of that school board in my role as assistant state editor. (I got the assignment after Richard Whitt quit, went to work for the Louisville Courier-Journal and won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 1978). School board meetings were Monday nights. In those years, I was getting married, having my two children and watching them grow. Meetings lasted a couple hours or more. Then I drove back to the dark newsroom of the Waterloo Courier to write my article on a typewriter and have it ready for the afternoon newspaper published the next day. Among the reporters at the school board meetings with me in those days were Dennis Ryerson, now the editor and vice president of the Indianapolis Star, and David Westphal, who went on to become managing editor of the Des Moines Register and is now the Washington bureau chief for McClatchey Newspapers, the second largest newspaper chain in the U.S.

Homer was a white-haired, golden-tongued, affable school board member. Across the table was Joy Corning, who served as board president for a stint and went on to become the lieutenant governor of Iowa, 1991-1998. Across the quarter century, I have caught the Christian Crusaders show on the radio and have been amazed that Homer keeps on preaching. Now 82, he has been doing the show since 1962. When I was state editor at the Courier, one of my department writers was Linda Kettner, a member of Homers church, Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls which he served for 43 years until retiring in 1996. He is now pastor emeritus. Linda used to tell wonderful stories about Homers Sunday morning services, the spirit in his preaching and what he asked of his church. As a skilled reporter, she picked up a lot of the inside stories of that large, dynamic church. Linda is now longtime director of university relations for the University of Iowa.

This week, Janet Mennen, executive director of Christian Crusaders, sent me a press release titled: In a World of Change, This 70-Year-Old Radio Ministry Has Not Lost its Focus.” It carried the subtitle Christian Crusaders Has Broadcast in Phoenix-Mesa Area Since 1989. It cited Larsens clear, dynamic, Gospel-centered preaching. (Interestingly, Janet has lived just outside of my hometown of Parkersburg, Iowa, for almost 30 years).

The first Christian Crusaders broadcast was Sept. 6, 1936, from the hour-long worship of Trinity Lutheran Church in Waterloo. Its pastor was the Rev. G.E. Melchert, who would do Christian Crusaders for 20 years. It was first broadcast by station WMT-AM (originally named for my newspaper, then called the Waterloo Morning Tribune). The Rev. Bruno Schlachtenhaufen of First Lutheran Church in Waterloo was the radio speaker from 1956 to 1962. Then came Larsen. Originally called Your Hour of Worship, its name was changed when it went to 30 minutes. It was never intended to take the place of church attendance, but rather to carry a Lutheran liturgical service to anyone unable to attend church and also reach out to the unchurched.

Christian Crusaders is 30 minutes, includes two or three timeworn hymns, prayer, scripture and the Homer Larsen sermon that stresses a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Broadcasts are heard on radio stations in nine states and on the Web at www.ChistianCrusaders.org.

What makes this radio program unique is that even though it has changed very little since its origin 70 years ago, it continues to be a popular choice for many radio listeners today, Janet Mennen said. While many worship services have become more contemporary in format, Christian Crusaders has not changed its broadcasts to follow that trend. While its board looked at changes, listeners wanted to keep it as it is, she said. It has resisted catering to a youthful audience. …Weve determined that, while reaching the younger generation is extremely important, the need for our aging population to hear the message of salvation is just as vital.

Larsen attributes the shows longevity to the faithful preaching of the Word of God. I would say it is also because of Homer Larsens character, sermon writing and tenacity. For me, that ageless pastor brings back fond memories of another era in my years of newspapering. And he — and so many I worked around in those days — just keep on doing some important work.

Christians never seem to stop creating situations that give Christianity a bad name. So much of it is due to selective use of scripture to justify some absolutist position to purify things. The latest is the case of First Baptist Church in Watertown, N.Y., where an 81-year-old Sunday school teacher was terminated from her adult class instructional duties because the Bible says women should not teach men.Mary Lamberts dismissal has caught a lot of national attention, and Pastor Tim LaBouf infers there is more to the story than just the woman teacher issue, but to get into that would risk the church getting sued. Clearly, the woman who has taught Sunday school there for 54 years — adult classes since 1995 — has some significant differences with the young pastor who has only been around for a little over two years. But he is the pastor, and he is male, and it is the Baptist Church where males authority goes undisputed. Only recently did the Diaconate Board vote to adopt the rule on women teaching men.

Its not that women Sunday school teachers is bad. Some 87 percent of the teachers at the church are female, while 55 percent of the Diaconate Board is female. It is just that Lambert should no longer being doing an adult class where men have to get instruction from a female. Are those men, whose minds have been fouled these 11 years by her teaching, now spiritually damaged? If they knew the Bible, why didnt them remove themselves from such an abomination at the outset? Or was this LaBoufs interpretations coming in and his acting to change things.?

LaBouf wrote this in the dismissal letter to Lambert: As pastor of the First Baptist Church, I take very seriously my responsibilities to watch over the congregation, and I also take very seriously proclaiming scripture as the truth and applicable for all situations of life and containing the blueprints for how we should structure our church corporately. I believed based on the consistent teaching of scripture that there are qualifications for both men and women teaching spiritual matters within the church. These qualifications do not mean that one is superior or more important than another. It only means that God has special plan for each of us in accomplishing his work within the church setting.

The letter goes on: I believe that as a pastor, I will ultimately stand before God and give an account of how I proclaimed and enforced his word within the church setting especially. Now I am fully aware that not everyone ascribes to my view of the scriptures, but I would never vilify them for having a different religious view, and I would hope that if you do hold a different view, that you would extend to me the same courtesy. It notes that the board decided to adopt the scriptural approach based on 1 Timothy 2:11-14: A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

That scripture has, of course, been used to keep women in their place for centuries. But to most peoples wisdom and credit, it has come to be dismissed with such biblical anachronisms as slavery, stoning, animal sacrifices, dietary rules and polygamy. How is it allowed that women may be teachers of male children, even past “adulthood (an age threshold that has varied widely), then arbitrarily they should not teach “adult men whatever constitutes “adult”?

Troubling also is that the pastor serves as a city councilman in Watertown. He sounds like a hypocrite in his public statement that his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader. I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to outside of the church, he said.

To his credit, Mayor Jeffrey Graham came back with this response, If whats said in that letter reflects the councilmans views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age. Maybe they wouldnt have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now.

Lambert has gotten lots of calls with support, even invitations to go teach adults at their church. Of course, what First Baptist Church of Watertown is now doing has been the policy in some Arizona churches of a variety of religions. People silently put up with it or move on. Recent news reports show 90 percent of teachers and 60 percent of principals in Arizona grade schools are women. If you look at all seminaries, the majority of the next generation of pastors-in-training are women. Why is it bad when a woman teaches men at church but its OK to learn a thing or two from them at a city council meeting or elsewhere? Wheres the logic?

This active Christian celebrates all he has been taught in adult education and from the pulpit from women across the decades. Its been a wealth of wisdom and a body of teaching that has been authentic, edifying and intellectually stimulating. Keep women silent? What a waste. To Pastor LaBouf, keep women silent and you keeping staying in the biblical dark ages.

The Christian Right has been the target of a spate of books lately, even demonized for its forays into politics and fearless methods to ensure its brand of people of faith will have their hands on the nations and communities controls. So its no surprise that Focus on the Family intends to come to the aid of the Republican Party to spur new voter registrations in anticipation of the ballot battles this November.James Dobson, Focus on the Family founder, and one of the evangelical Christians kingpins, plans to carry out a massive registration drive targeting religious voters in critical states. According to Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times, the plan is to insert registration information into church publications and set up voter registration tables on patios and in fellowship halls next to the sign-ups for cookies for the fall tea and Sunday school registration. The states where the big push will be made are Maryland, Montana, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota.

Dont look for Focus on the Family to recruit voter registrars at United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker or metaphysical churches like Unity or Religious Science. Otherwise, they might just end up registering too many folks from the wrong political party. One of their worries is that this is not a presidential election year and some of those they stirred up to vote in 2004 will sit up mid-term elections. Even in that election, about 25 million evangelicals failed to cast ballots. Focus on the Familys John Paulton doesnt want further fall-off of voters. Its a question of how much, he said, telling Focus activists in an e-mail, You could argue that the fear of of what could happen if many more liberal politicians take over could be very motivating to get out and vote as strongly.

He is asking Focus on the Family coordinators in each county to be willing to work five hours a week recruiting key evangelical churches. Among their instructions would be to encourage pastors to speak about Christian citizenship, to organize voter registration drives, give out voter guides and push folks to vote.

The Internal Revenue Service is charged with policing churches and other non-profits to make sure they dont violate their tax-exempt status and engage in political activities. Given the growing defiance about anything that might restrain religion, we can look for political evangelicals to press the envelope and push as far as they can before discipline is threatened or meted out. The outspoken executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Barry Lynn, termed the Focus on the Family-led drive for more eligible voters a blatant effort by Dobson to build a partisan political machine based in churches.

He has made it abundantly clear that electing Republicans is an integral part of his agenda, and he doesnt mind risking the tax exemption of churches in the process, Lynn continued. Dobson wants to be a major political boss, and this is his way to get there.

In his reporting, Wallsten said drive organizers vow to stick to pure registration and only discuss values, without endorsing any candidate or political party. But, they acknowledge, the goal is reaching the conservative base, he writes. In always-crucial Ohio, their goal is is to distribute items to 15,000 churches and get their stuff inserted into three million church bulletins. The meat of the voter guides will be candidates opinions on abortion, stem cell research, same-sex marriage and the conservative movements boiler-plate topics.

Theres just so much more work to get done at church these days.

There is a reason that the main meeting and worship space of houses of worship is called a sanctuary. It should be hallowed and safe place — a harbor from the storm, a refuge from trouble, a place of asylum, a space where government should keep it boots out of.But look for Immigrant and Customs Enforcement, with the appropriate acronym of ICE, to send its agents soon into Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago and take out 31-year-old Elvira Arellano, then put her in the herd of Mexicans to be deported across the border. Arellano, a plucky woman whose 7-year-old son, Saul, was born in the U.S. and has American citizenship, has been holed up in the church in a Hispanic neighborhood, generating national attention and lots of support, including from some politicians and immigration policy critics.

Complicating things is her sons Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and other health problems. She contends she asked her son to accompany her back to Mexico to comply with the deportation order, but when he said he wanted to stay in the U.S., Arellano said she was staying, too, rather than be separated from her son. She twice came to the U.S. illegally, making it here a second time, in 1997, through Mexicali. After separating from Sauls father, she arrived in Chicago in 2000.

Arellano spoke first-hand with Mexican President Vicente Fox when he visited Chicago two years ago. She started a group for parents of undocumented parents of children with U.S. citizenship. She has been involved in marches in Boston and Chicago and took part in a 24-day hunger strike to oppose deportations, the Washington Post said. Her pastor, the Rev. Walter Slim Coleman believes her activism is what has put her in the deportation sights of ICE.

The womans supporters have taken a defiant stand, plastering the churchs pulpit with signs that it is a holy sanctuary, conjuring memories of the 1980s and the famed Sanctuary Movement. It was strong in Arizona, as Central American refugees found help in churches and undercover transportation to other parts of the country to seek permanent homes and safety. At the time, repressive U.S. foreign policy in places like El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala and civil wars led to a flow of undocumented political refugees north in quest of asylum, and progressive churches were willing to give them protection and help.

According to the Post, Arellano has proclaimed, This is the house of God. What man would enter the house of God to arrest me? An ICE spokeswoman, Gail Montenegro, has answered, ICE is required to enforce the nations laws fairly without regard for a persons ability to generate publicity and support. She had not indicated whether agents would go into the church for Arellano but underscored that her agency has the authority to arrest anyone in violation of immigration laws anywhere in the U.S.

Congress can pass private bills to intercede for individual with compelling situations, and a senator and congressman from Illinois have helped gain her extensions. She was first arrested in 2002 at OHare International Airport using a false Social Security number. The woman had found a job there cleaning aircraft. Her plight adds another human story to the American immigration quagmire and Congress woeful failure to stay on task to find workable solutions.

The Post said that the womans supporters have been crowding the pews and holding vigils outside the church. Not surprisingly another person fighting his deportation, college student Toribio Barreras, 34, has been sleeping at the church to be there if the Feds come to get Arellano. He wants to be among a good-size crowd to protest because they want the world to see images on TV.

Each time I fly across the vast, vast, vast vastness of America and I behold our massive areas of territory — green valleys and ambers fields of grain, I recognized that our hearts can be as big as our geography. We CAN build new towns and cities, neighborhoods and farms — and sanctuaries. There is room for a lot more in America. Lets face it. With the will, we can find enough places to comfortably put people. Certainly Mexico has failed miserably as a nation/society in creating a healthy middle class, with public policies that create cities and towns that can employ and develop its people and keep them home. Corruption and unbreakable aristocratic power continue their grip on the nation, blocking changes and economic democracy.

In the end, we need to find a practical system of documented worker programs in the U.S., show compassion and forgiveness to those already here seeking a honest living and cut a lot of slack to a mother of an American citizen holed up in church and taking a lot of peoples time. No one gains when a woman is sent home to Mexico, leaving her 7-year-old here.

Whatever happens, The Church stands again as a witness to humankinds fumbling through the fog, sorting and separating people into groups while all cling to a fragile planet in a hostile space.

Sometimes those denied justice, yet who finally win their cause, earnestly start again fighting for the rights and dignity of the next suppressed group prevented from the fullness of life. So we salute the group of United Methodist Clergywomen, meeting in Chicago this week, who are calling for full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the church.This marks the 50th anniversary of the United Methodist Churchs removing all gender barriers and permitting women the same rights as males to be pastors and enjoy all the privileges and responsibilities. As a dramatic way of marking that anniversary milestone and reminding the organization that change in 1956 came through relentless work, a group symbolically pounded doors of the church demanding their denomination drop its rules that keep gay people from full inclusion in church and society.

At the 2006 International United Methodist Clergywomens Consultation at the McCormick Place Convention Center, women repeatedly pounded on doors as participants arrived for Tuesdays morning session. Available to sign was a Blood Knuckle Petition, calling on signers to take six actions: 1) educate themselves and their congregations about the issues of LGBT persons; 2) pray communally and privately for those wounded and excluded by the churchs sin of homophobia; 3) offer tangible and vocal support to LGBT friends and family; 4) help elect delegates to future General Conferences who will do all in their power to ensure the full inclusion of LGBT persons in church and society; 5) talk to the same delegates about electing fair-minded, faithful Judicial Council members who may some day have to rule on whether LGBT pastors can stay in ministry; and 6) become familiar with and involved in justice ministries.

Activists displayed a banner that said, Closed doors, broken hearts. We mind. That parodies the denominations widely used motto: “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.

During the event Monday, retired United Methodist Judith Craig underscored the issue in a sermon, based on Luke 18:1-8 — the account of the widow who kept knocking on the judges door until justice was provided to her. Craig, who was a bishop 1984 to 2000, first in Michigan and then in Ohio, compared the early pioneers in the womens ordination movement to the widow in the Bible. Methodist women knocked without quitting until full ordination rights came a half-century ago. Sometimes, persistent people knock on doors until their knuckles are bloody but ultimately bring change, she said.

Led by the Reconciling Ministries Network (www.rmnetwork.org), advocates for the change are angry by the church’s judicial council ruled last Oct. 31 in Houston to strip the pastoral credentials of the Rev. Beth Stroud, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Germantown, Pa., who acknowledged she as a practicing lesbian. In time, of course, Stroud will be recognized as a pastor who sacrificed her career for a cause worth fighting and that will be won.

Advocates for change are calling on activists to get their concerns heard before the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

United Methodists in the Western Jurisdiction have been especially bold in opening speaking out against bans on gay people. As long ago as the 2000 Western Conference, delegates have forthrightly spoken out. In July 2000, they adopted this statement: “We cannot accept discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender persons and, therefore, we will work toward their full participation at all levels in the life of the church and society. Six years later and the quest goes on.

Has your religious faith been jolted again by what is coming out this week with the foiled terrorism plot in Great Britain? Some media have gone to clergy to ascertain how people are reacting spiritually and what they may be seeking from them. Nothing new or original is being said. Given the steady cadence of violence and pervasive “dangers,” even the specter of 10 jumbo-jets going down, doesnt seem to be creating much new religious activity, or waves of turning to God.Dont expect to see the churches, temples and mosques to have an overrun of folks this weekend seeking comfort in the sanctuaries in wake of new threats. Certainly it will come up in prayer time. There will prayers of gratitude to God for the insidious plan breaking apart and for the vigilance, intelligence work and the intervention by agents. But it pales to the way, at least temporarily, people turned to faith after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Most of the fuss now is about the new inconvenience for air travelers from tighter restrictions on carry-on items.

What continues to be confounding is the lack of serious discussion as to why our enemies want to take down America? The faith community should be leading the quest for causes at defusing anger, hatred, mistrust and contempt for the U.S. and our society. The why-do-they-hate-us-so-much questions arose after 9/11, and President Bush asserted it was our freedom and democracy. They hate our freedom Our materialism and our decadence — films, music, video games, casualness to sex and our styles of dress — were offered as reasons, too. And this one: As the last great superpower, we were a natural target for the disaffected.

Those reasons just dont stick. Why are free nations like Norway, Uruguay and Canada not the focus for hate? We have had freedom for centuries, so why would it be an issue now? I side with those who have come to believe the U.S.A. has gotten off course and has set itself above other nations, spurning adoption and compliance with treaties on things like land mines, environmental protection and human rights. Our economic exploitation of the planet to maintain our way of life has to cause resentment. An insensitive, brazen and arrogant foreign policy that says American interests must come first adds to the hostilities. Our negative contributions to global warming on the pretext that our economy has highest priority is another.

I have done enough foreign travel to realize that most people in other countries distinguish between America and our government — the people compared to its political leadership. They wished we had better judgment in how we choose the leaders who set policy — that our famous American values that offer lessons and hope to the world were once very evident in our decision-making around the world. Our valiant efforts to bring down fascists in two World Wars and our affront to communism for a half-century put us at the top of the heroes heap. But we have since lost respect in things like pre-emptive war on Iraq, Abu Ghrab prison abuse, the U.S. Army School of the Americas where soldiers are trained for brutal dictatorships, and in our mass failure in government responses in Hurricane Katrina. And in the constant erosion of civil liberties in this country for specious and political reasons.

Its been often said that when America stops being good, it stops being great. Thus, the way to be truly great again is to begin striving to be the a truly good and decent nation of citizens — a nation looking out for the interest of the planet. People of faith need to expect more from this nation in how it lives in this world.

Turnover is a brutal fact of life for congregations. Most, because of the hard reality of their budgets, generally pay their employees less than wages available elsewhere in the marketplace. Whether they are youth pastors, choral staff, pastors assistants or custodians, folks tend to come and go more often in the quest to make a living. Continuity in programs suffer, and church members sometimes feel let down by chronic departures.From heading a pastor search committee to being in groups screening applicants for youth programs and music staffs, I have come to recognize the odd kind of special niche that is the faith community as it fills staff positions. Most churches and temples tread slowly in creating new job slots and often eliminate them when people depart. Some jobs draw quality candidates, and it takes careful evaluation and screening by personnel committees or pastoral staff to whittle down the applicants. Some jobs go wanting and the application period has to be kept open — just waiting for potential candidates to stumble onto job notices on Web sites or in classified advertising or on bulletin boards at denominational offices.

Arizona State Universitys choral and music program, for example, has been a gold mine for churches filling professional music positions, especially masters and doctoral program students. To a lesser extent, they benefit from students in education fields. But come graduation, those people tend to move on. Across much of the country, congregations fill some paid jobs with members of the the congregation — taking advantage of loyalty, peoples already established familiarity with the churchs culture and their being able to pay less than for someone from the outside. Church secretaries (better known as administrative assistants) sometimes are a pastors spouse or daughter — or the spouse of someone else on staff. Sometimes, it is hard to turn down a church member who applies for a job, and there can easily be a risk of taking advantage of that person who may still be viewed as half church volunteer or one of us. And you never fire volunteers, you know. Being both a church member and an employee can be conflicting.

Employee search committees sometimes get burned in the often informal way they hire staff. Churchstaffing.com, a Web site where the faith community can advertise jobs and search for candidates, warns about filling slots without fully checking people out. It used to be commonly believed that pastors, church staff members, or children’s volunteers would be the last group of people in the world on whom you would need to run a background check, it notes. Unfortunately, news headlines of the past couple years have shown this to be a myth. Some of the trouble has been in candidates with criminal pasts, including cases of sexual misbehavior. Churchstaffing.com, for example, provides background checks from $93.99 to $7.99 (a state criminal search, plus sex offender search only).

A Christianity Today article notes that hiring for the church is different, and hiring committees, while looking for quality, still can cut some slack. Our philosophy of grace and forgiveness enables us to consider candidates who may have a criminal record or bad credit history. That doesn’t mean we should hire a serial killer or child molester, but if someone has served time, repented of a crime, and found new life in Christ, then we should do what we can to help. Of course, bonding the treasurer is essential.

Most churches and synagogues realize they are a training grounds, stopping off places for young professionals to get experience to move on to higher roles elsewhere. Thats especially true with youth leaders, who can turn over every couple years, or sooner.

Of course, many congregations lack the “luxury” of finding quality and qualified candidates who ALSO are on the same wave-length theologically with the teachings of the particular churches. While probably most staffers make the adjustment, some suck it up and go along with doctrines or beliefs that they may privately find troubling. In multi-pastor churches, clergy just about have to be on the same page theologically, or it will be obvious and cause dissonance. A choir director and a pastor could clash over appropriate worship music if they came from divergent traditions. I recall how my church once hired a choir director who soon found herself unfamiliar and uneasy about worship language and the pastors hymn choices. She abruptly resigned because of the theological mismatch. There was a realization that both sides failed to talk about their theological positions in the interview process.