Genuine - Romans 12

Genuine.

Tony E Dillon-Hansen

 

A Meditation upon Romans 12: 9-18, Psalm 105, Exodus 3:14, and Matthew 16:

 

Intro Prayer:

 

Friends,

This passage is among my favorite from the epistles because it echoes much of Matthew 5. There is guidance and hopeful idealism - which is useful today amidst social unrest, storm recovery, racial injustice, political division, and this long-overdue visitor called a pandemic.

 

Lets start with a story

One day,

A contemptuous outlaw was thrashing about a small village.

This outlaw came upon a house of a master.

He had heard of stories about the master and wanted to test this legendary skill.

 

He came to the gate of the master's house. The master was tending his garden.

The outlaw called out to him boasting that he could beat him and crush him with a single strike.

He taunted the master and cried ignorance and bogus skill.

"Challenge me if you can, and show me your best technique."

 

At this, the master turned to the outlaw, bowed to him, and walked into the house.

 

The outlaw became furious at this and ranted the legends of the master were untrue and undeserving.

The outlaw raved the master knew nothing of great technique and worthy skills.

 

A short moment later, the master reappeared.

This time, he had with him a tray.

Upon the tray was a pot of tea and cups.

The master sat near a table and began to pour two cups.

He then gestured the outlaw to drink with him.

 

The outlaw, caught off guard, then bowed to the master and shared some tea.

 

Romans 12 is about hospitality and love – not just cute rhetorical words, but genuine love.  This, my friends, is the “sweet nectar” of faithful living. (KC commentator, Mitch Holtus, would say when Chiefs would score touchdowns.)

 

Amid struggles and questions of purpose, Romans reminds us to “rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering and persevere in prayer” where we must first let love be genuine.

 

Where does that start, you ask?

 

It starts with you. When we read, “Let Love be genuine” hear “let love be you.” Be present with love. When we peel off our own layers of social and personal pretense, we may uncover the vulnerable, broken child of God made with divine love within us – a child full of hope, potential, wonder, worry and yes love.   

 

Further, “love one another with mutual affection” means, we may recognize this in others. Then, we see each other as children of God, made with love, with their own vulnerability and brokenness.

 

For some people  “unaccustomed to courage

exiles in delight

… in shells of loneliness…”

For some people beaten down by the system, an abusive person or even themselves, this is difficult because we create walls or hide in substances from pain and suffering where unwinding that onion (of self) is more than tearful - but shattering and scary. Really, we were hiding the love within.

 

We don’t have to accept lies, deliberate distortions, or systemic chains. With God’s love in us, we can transform and tear down walls. When love arrives and when we recognize the love within us, along comes hope and courage - revealing beautiful and powerful results.

 

Thus, let love be you and share that love, as Paul says.

 

We share through contributing and extending hospitality. We recognize that we share gifts and learn from each other. Then, we find hope together because we let go of pretense, judgment and anger.  We are present together and paying attention to the moment. We find peace together because we find harmony through hospitality. 

 

With hospitality, we build a stronger community of love together. You won’t have time for negativity, lies or vengeance because we are a little busy doing Christ’s work building each other.

 

As well, hospitality extends to the lowly, the homeless, the forgotten and the immigrant because as Genesis reminds us, our people were once immigrants persecuted in exile.

 

We acknowledge and welcome people where they are, as Christ did, because they too are children of God. There is no need to “claim to be wiser” or more than we are. We know we are imperfectly, distinctly beautiful people. Thus, our genuine love helps to shape ourselves and to build a beautiful community with love, hope, peace and harmony. 

 

Be genuine and compassionate in speech, mind, hearing, and heart. Witness the potential and the love working within us and around us – even enemies. In fact, bless them too – not flippantly.

 

We have blessings with us, but the “sweet nectar” means we are good sports too.  Love is given to us and for us to give.

 

When we succeed with our blessings, we don’t put others down.  Besides, maybe authentic blessing is what opponents need as much as we need it - that space for forgiveness in ourselves. We let God work and share a drink.

 

When we let love and hospitality work, we acknowledge the homeless person asking for a meal, the black woman weeping over her child, the queer person’s struggle for identity, the native American praying to keep water clean, a good cop trying to do the right thing, or the veteran seeking peace from scars of war. In these moments, in our vulnerability, we can be bold because love and compassion is our strength.

 

Listen with compassion and understanding (rather than quickly conjuring responses) because we don’t have to agree.  Let go of negativity, judgment, anger, vice and vengeance and let God work. Give hospitality to people and their concerns. Let God work.

 

Paul says to “take thought for what is noble” and live peaceably as we can. When we do, we may expand to the possible – to our Creator.

 

Feed your enemies and offer drink. These are ways to “overcome evil with good.” This may be hard sometimes (I know), but with God’s help, things are possible.

 

Thus, we can return to the self.  We can focus upon our breath, our prayers, and our blessings. We listen for possible. Remember you too are a child of God - You are expressions of that divine love.

 

“Love strikes away chains of fear” and helps us be brave. We want freedom from “histories of pain”, worries, and injustices. Love will set us free.

 

With genuine love as “all we are”, together, we can be free from suffering. No injustice or pandemic can beat it.

 

That, my friends, is the sweet nectar.

 

We witness the divine gifts and “wondrous works” when we are free in love.

 

Thanks be to God.

 

 

Devotions Yesterday and Today

Changing Devotions and Perspectives

Tony Dillon-Hansen

May 2014

Question was posed for the Deacons of Plymouth Church: "What was God in your life in your youth; what changed; and what is God calling you to do today?" As the question asks about experiences and how they have changed, God, in this context, can be described as religion, faith or the omnipotent being that one might call a deity.  A wide breadth of change in faith is most certainly the case for me. The wealth of positive and negative memories and experiences of my life to this question reverberated, and so, I pick to split an answer to the question into two parts. This part will reminisce of the past youthful gaze and also consider what has changed especially how I found myself in constant quarrel with religion and my sexuality.

During my childhood, I was raised as a regular, Mass-attending Catholic from a devoted Catholic family that also had strong ties to Missouri Synod Lutheran via my dad’s side of the family. Religion was never a delicate subject in the house, and church was a place of sincere reverence and worship. Attendance was not optional, and I personally witnessed how important one’s religion was. This was revealed to me at a young age when I tried to tell my dad’s mother (strong Lutheran) about our first confession and communion catechism, but Dad suggested that Grandma would rather not be reminded that her grandchildren were Catholic.

I remember vividly considering an awe of priesthood, and remembering the premise of the teachings that spoke of love, honesty, compassion, non-violence, service to the community and of leading a “good-life” that is the core of the Catholic teachings. With personal strong feelings of loyalty and willingness to serve, I thought that God might be calling me to the vows of Holy Orders. Therefore, I was dutiful to the Church as an altar boy and then in high school, my duties included cantor and reading scriptures at Mass.

Yet, there was something different about me in comparison to the teachings as I began to realize my attractions did not follow what seemed to be expected of me as a young man. I was not immediately attracted to girls and wanted so much to be a model son for my family but immediately felt guilty by my mysterious sexuality.  I could not why understand those feelings were so considered disgusting and vial by many leaders in the Church because those feelings were no less the reality of my being. I was at pains to ignore them for fear of discovery or worse for disgracing my parents.

During college, there was an effort to stay involved with the Church, but that soon changed for a variety of reasons (e.g. attending regular Mass was not convenient anymore, new town, and changing feelings in general). At this time, I started finding myself aligning with members of the college gay union (UI GLBTU) and studying martial arts.  Many would be asking why a person would hold onto such convictions and devotion to a Church that denied the one’s very existence. That was crushing, and especially when members of the family learned of my apparent change of hearts, the extended family quickly labeled me as supposedly inferior and unworthy.

All of the good nature espoused by the Church and all of the good will that God was supposed to be was utter hypocrisy. Words were used at me, lies told against me, and manipulations of religion as fictitious evidence was destructive to me and my family. A massive collision of faith, family and personal struggle lead to me truly understand bitterness and hate.

Yet, I pursued an aspect of martial arts via the underlying teachings of the techniques.  While my skill and technique grew, I found strength in the new abilities and also in the philosophies from Taoists and Buddhists, like Alan Watts. Partially in my mind, I was trying to understand how these correspond to my home in Catholic teachings, which they share many ideals despite their differences about religion. What these philosophies would do was to show me a way to meditate and to lessen the hate or bitterness that I developed. These philosophies also did not seem to ignore the natural way of the world.

I found solace in the meditations and learned better ways of connecting experiences instead of through bitterness.  Natural logic of the cosmos and infinity of what we do not know had a path. These no longer required to be controlled, and God was no longer the conjured image of an old, wise man sitting on a throne with perfect plans. There was a natural order to things, but the presence of thought and action rested securely with the person conducting them. Focus turns into the betterment of oneself.

Yet, I struggled because I was essentially exiled from the Church with strong animosity towards those that professed good but proceeded to inflict great harm on others in the name of a supposedly “Holy one.” The “holiness” of religion was ridiculed by this, and I turned to despair about any existence as a bag of ego and lies.

I rejected organized religion as a whole and the aspects therein, especially as these parts of society sought to push their sinister hypocrisy upon the whole of our legal system by conscientiously denying equal protections or even the right to marry the one we love.

The loving and compassionate God I learned about in youth was either a far-flung illusion or God was being mocked by what these people were doing and professing. There are a number of people that share this exact sentiment.

Yes, Christianity and Buddhism have perceptible differences of perspective, but they have in them core considerations of what all people seek: to find and to be peace. The leaders of organized religion seemed too often interested in disturbing that peace.  

May your June Pride be in Peace!

Pride of the Bullied

Pride of the Bullied

Tony E Dillon-Hansen

If you have not been bullied, you will never truly know what the bottom of a foot looks like. If you have not been bullied, you will never know what it feels to be completely alone in agony and torment. If you have not been bullied consider yourself lucky to not have the learning opportunities that those of us who have been bullied. If you have not been bullied, consider yourself lucky to not need the armor to protect against what life will throw. If you have been bullied, consider how far you have traveled under so much duress and how much you have moved above the ugly of life. Consider that you survived and learned from those experiences.

We are the non-athletic, spectacle-faced, different-looking, 4-eyes, retarded, non-cliched, non-Christian, not-rich, fat, geeky, fag and queer. We, the bullied, were The Scarlet Letter every day at recess, in the locker room, on the way home, and even at home in many cases. There would be no reason given. Even more ironic, when we could excel, we were still being ridiculed and persecuted. We wanted to just be. Yet, our achievements and dreams were fodder for the taunts just the same.

More than anything, we challenge the teachings of Jesus to love our enemies or to turn the other cheek one more time. We know in our hearts that we would like to at least have done to them what they have done to us. We may find ourselves shaking fists at God for the apparent disparity of experiences. Further, the people that were supposed to be there for us were no-where to console or to support. They offered to us jerky idioms about sticks and stones, but we know, for certain, that words can cut painfully deep. We have been forced to sit on the sidelines of what it feels like to be a person because of irrational hatred.

Those bullies grow up and are surprised at how we feel about them. Unfortunately, they may go on bullying people as well as their own children while we find more ways to build more courage to work another day without much fanfare. We may applaud for the underdogs, comeback kids and may even consider that we finally escaped if we are able to leave the torment of schoolyards, churches, or even our families.

When you grow older, you find there are different sorts of bullies in the world. They call you names behind their hypocritical religious views. They taunt you for living outside their 1950s TV sitcom of normal. They defile your picture, your ideas, and very being. They beat you into submission and force you to fall in line. We cannot be frightened of Hell when Earth has been the definition of horror.

These bullies, they will never know what sensations will overcome you when people rip your child away because of some test of religion or supposed lifestyle. They will not know the betrayal felt when family members are willing to hurt your spouse and kids because they are not what they envisioned. They will never know the defeat you have when you are kicked out of the house for simply being who you are. They will not know the awful torment of knowing that your family will be the focus of the many attacks from around the community because your family does not conform.

Fortunately for us, we, the bullied, have learned to not live in the pretense of the past or stale sitcoms. We realize there is such a thing as real respect and real compassion. Some of us, instead, become empowered by bitterness; some by pride of finally feeling untouchable by the bullies. We can question why we could not enjoy days without harassment, torment or physical torture. We do not want to watch sinister fingers scheme to hurt us again.

Still, bitterness is an attachment that should be released otherwise it may evolve into more senseless hatred and violence. Maybe, this is why many want to drown out those memories and experiences through alcohol and drugs to escape that haunting history. Yet, we “made it” this far.

We have outlasted the taunts and teasing. We learn to laugh at the ridiculousness of those taunts. We learned the price of intolerance and the grace of loving fully. We found refuge in places that they cannot touch like music, writing, religion, sports and even our own families.

That is why we like personalities that push beyond those taunts and hateful remarks. This is why people seek refuge in religion because that realm is supposed to be exempt from perpetual torture on Earth. Yet, there are those that want to turn that idea into an exclusive arena that is more indicative of the gladiator trials we faced at recess instead of the place of solace mentioned in the scriptures.

The bullied are not alone and will see better days. We, the bullied, have learned and will continue to learn. We, the bullied, will march with other souls because we, too, have a place and we, too, are part of loving families. We, the bullied, will show how compassion works because we know what real compassion is rather than simply looks like. We will build better families despite the ridicule. We will embody that which Jesus taught because we have already suffered Hell. Maybe, the bullies will never learn, and maybe, they will always find reasons to scorn people. We, the bullied, will come to the aid of our brothers and sisters like soldiers because like soldiers, they should never be forgotten. We will be shining examples of good people, even if the bullies are blind to the facts. We, the bullied, have pride because we are better than bullies. 

No H8!

Holiday Interests of a Different Kind

Holiday Interests of a Different Kind
Tony E. Hansen
15 Nov 2011

This time of year brings us indoors to many festivities.  We greet each other with familiar sayings and Yuletides. There is a measure of compassion and happiness that is found in this time of year that is absent from other times. At the same time, many different cultures are enjoying a holiday, but what happens when the holiday is done? Eastern religion and philosophies may offer an idea.

I grew up Catholic, but as I grew as an adult and with the influence of martial arts, I explored the realms of Eastern philosophies (specifically Buddhism and Taoism).  As I look towards another holiday season that is definitively rooted in Christian tradition, that of Christmas, I find myself thinking that is there should be more than just the holiday compassions.  As well, the holiday season (as well as life) has to be thought of much more than in terms of narcissistic or material gratification.

While I have not abandoned the Christian traditions, I found myself questioning the manner at which the doctrine was implemented. This is similar to how one learns about revolutionary theories and ideas, but the actual implementation is far from the idealistic projection (e.g. communism). The doctrine preached by Jesus Christ seemed far from the pulpits and rituals being offered at the various churches that I attended or from the voices of those proclaiming to be saved (especially from those of the Christian right). The doctrine would seem to dissolve at the church doors as those who would profess the awe of Christ and confess “sins” would ultimately disregard the teachings.

What I found in Buddhist and Taoist mediation and readings was a completely different understanding of the world than what the Western world proposes. I cannot say that these ideas are better than the Christian doctrines, but they present a different perspective of our environment. Without fully knowing rituals, hierarchies and the traditions of these religions, I began to find a refuge in their philosophies, a way to express my thoughts, and to learn about life’s little intricacies that I had never found in Christian teachings.

As I evolved over the years, I have found myself less inclined to the Church and more towards the pursuit of the four Noble Truths and the precepts of engaged Buddhism.  Yet, the discipline for this pursuit is much the same as for Christian doctrine as both need practice and patience. There is similarity between mediation and prayer, but Buddhists attempt to find spiritual growth through un-attaching and letting solutions reveal themselves where prayers tend to be more of asking for divine assistance and spiritual growth. Each of these is a different approach to solving issues, but both are looking for a spiritual state free from suffering.

Both traditions understand that problems, emotions, discipline, and solutions are rooted in thought.  In order for problems to resolve and for solutions to be found, we have to look within before we look for changes in others (having faith in oneself). Yet, faith to most Christians resembles a “fervent hope” that there is Jesus helping us along the way and that there is a path to gracious afterlife for good behavior today. This is kind of ironic because to truly express faith seems to be more about letting go and letting life just be. For example, the plant simply grows not because the gardener tells it to grow. Yet in order for the plant to grow, the gardener needs to provide proper nourishment and care. Likewise as individuals, we need to provide “proper nourishment and care” to our lives via kindness, compassion and loving towards ourselves and to people in order see the desired positive responses. Otherwise, we find hatred and anger can control our lives, and ultimately, that blind ourselves from what we can be. Otherwise, we are constantly looking for happiness in new material things or new relationships without realizing what we already have is what we need and is very precious.

Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, said that when you realize that life and every breath is precious, you can live every moment with joy on your lips, and thus, you will see the result in every deed. This is because you will take care of yourself, and your relationships will benefit in parallel because what is important will be revealed in them.

As we get ready for yet another annual run of festivities and holidays, we should pause for a moment and meditate on our lives. Remember in your holiday gift giving to consider how precious your relationship is with the other person and how joyous your life is because of that relationship. Remember that new material things might bring a moment of joy, but compassion, a good heart and a good smile are mutual gifts that can be cherished well beyond the holiday season.

Peace be with you this holiday season and always. Namaste.

Marriage Equality and the Freedom of Religion

Among the many different arguments for and against equality in marriage, there is subtle, if not blatantly, overlooked point about the freedom of religion (in addition to the unrelenting prejudices). If one really thinks about the marriage issue as that being presented by those supporting so-called “traditional marriages”, there is a direct correlation to the freedom of religion and how they believe religion should be taught or expressed in public law. These religious right advocates want to codify in Constitutional amendments specific religious doctrines and to whittle away at the freedom of religion for everyone else.

There is an understanding that the purpose of the Bill of Rights (both at the state-level and the federal level) is to protect the minority from the impeding or disabling whims and wishes of the majority. Further, religious right advocates often declare that the media and the left are persecuting religious freedom by silencing religious speech or religious expressions in public, not to mention allowing LGBT people to have a voice in the discussion (or any so-called “special” rights or marriage equality). The call for marriage to exclude same-gender couples is often, if not boisterously, based in a particular “mainline” Christian tradition of heterosexual marriage. Yet, there are plenty of so-called “mainline” Christian faiths (as well as other religious faiths) that accept same-gender couples into marriage.

These same religious-rights advocates have categorized those same equality-supporting Christian churches in line with un-believers or not true followers of the “word of God”. Sometimes those advocates argue that the churches that support equality in marriage are merely a disguise for some unholy ritualistic paganism (e.g. un-Christian). Incidentally, this is comparable to the Ayatollah of Iran or Osama bin Laden labeling groups as infidels because their brand of Islam or religious faith is not pure enough. This relegates all of the churches, synagogues, or mosques in terms of who has the correct belief system. By attempting to codify that belief system in law, they are subverting the reason and establishment of the bill of rights protections with respect to religion. It would be perfectly logical to follow that reasoning to suggest that one church should receive preferential treatment since the law recognizes their particular faith tenets over others’ tenets.

Thus, the state has to decide whether to be mixed up in the religious debate. The rights of people in this country are founded upon the consensus of reasonable discourse from all religions with respect to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness where people have the equal rights to protect themselves and their property from unwarranted harm. We see this in laws with regard to murder, property and harassment. People, before the law, are to be treated equally and fairly. If the state founds its civic marriage on the parallel religious marriages, then we can not exclude those religions that recognize same-gender couples marriages into that commitment. To do otherwise is to protect some religious faiths while denying the religious belief of others and to inject a particular religion into public law. This consequence appears to be congenial with Bob Vander Plaats and Chuck Hurley as long as it is their brand of religion in law.

The state could simply not recognize all civic marriages, but we know from all sorts of studies that promotion of marriages is a compelling interest of that state. Obviously, the religious right regards civic marriage to be a partial integration of civic and religious conduct (similar to how the Christmas holiday is recognized). Otherwise, the discussion over civic recognition of marriage for same-gender couples would not be an issue. We also know from the growing set of academic research that children growing up in households with couples (straight or gay) will do better in school and life. As well, there is no harm that is committed to others, or even other marriages, by allowing people to marry without the blessing of a church. Thus, civic marriage has a state purpose for fulfilling a civilized and productive society. Yet, the religious right only wants the state to recognize marriages as defined by their own faiths and therefore, in a way, they want to control the public law and protections to exclude those that do not follow those particular faiths. Ironically and essentially, they want to use public law to persecute and to ridicule people for not following their self-avowed “true” faith.

The erosion of rights, by defining who has them and who does not have the rights, beckons the parallel chronology asserted in George Orwell’s Animal Farm where established and codified rights were slowly and systematically taken away based upon false numbers and eventually upon the pretext that some “are more equal than others.”  Again, no person or group of people is more equal than others before the law, and likewise, no one religion is more equal than another before the law that protects the free expression of religion. No majority can simply redefine that protection in order to justify the persecution of minorities or to require those minorities to follow a particular religious doctrine.

If we limit marriage to that defined by only some mainline religions, the next logical part of this discussion is to question who gets to perform marriages, where are they performed and if those marriages can be nullified. Perhaps, we codify marriages  and annulments only recognized by the Vatican; only those marriages recognized by churches of over 1000 members; marriages that cannot birth their own offspring should be annulled; or marriages only recognized in exchange for an obligatory tithe to a specific church? The law should not be subject to religious edicts or Salem-witch-trial type board for approval unless we mean to reject the sanctity of civil rights protections. The arguments against marriage equality look more and more like thinly veiled disguises for claims that one religious faith is better (e.g. “more equal”) than the others. Essentially, the state should not be in the business of arguing religious doctrines with respect to marriage given the civic interest in perpetuating marriage outside of religion.

This is also posted online with other research and commentaries at http://www.iowapolicyresearch.org/