Demonstrators at Copenhagen

They turned out by the thousands to tell the world's leaders to take responsibility for the future of our children's children's children's children....


Will someone please, listen to the snowpeople?

Meanwhile Obama might earn his Nobel Prize if he acts decisively on climate change:

President Barack Obama, who accepted a Nobel Prize in Oslo yesterday, will have a chance to earn it at climate talks in Copenhagen next week, environmental advocates said.

“We urge President Obama to act in the spirit of this most prestigious award and move boldly to stop catastrophic climate change,” Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, said in a written statement.

Obama, during his speech accepting the award, said there is “little scientific dispute” about the dangers of global warming and called on countries to work together to deal with the challenge. (Read More)

The Universe and the Bible

The Advent meditation that I wrote for my congregation has raised an eyebrow at Viola Larson's place. Thanks to Witherspoon and to John Wilde for linking to it as well. I am glad it raised an eyebrow. The discussion illustrates the changes that have been underway for some time regarding Christianity. These changes are the result of a modern scientific worldview in conversation with a biblical worldview.

What do we do for instance when we affirm that the Universe is about 14 billion years old, Earth is four billion years old and that homo sapiens (like all living things) are the result of evolutionary processes?

Some options:

1) Oh those scientists and their itching ears. Scripture warned us about these false teachers and their deceiving ways. The Bible is God's book and the Bible shows us that the world is between 6 and 10 thousand years old. Adam and Eve were real people. Jesus came down from heaven, did his business and flew up again and will return literally on the clouds before you can say Jack Robinson. The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.

2) Modern science does not contradict the Bible, but fits in it. In this view, the Bible still provides the overarching narrative for the universe even as science or a pseudo version of science is somewhat grudgingly affirmed (ie. the 6 days of Genesis 1 could mean 14 billion years). Or God made Earth and the Universe to "look old." The Bible is seen as accurate in regards to how Earth was formed and how humanity arrived on the scene. It is also accurate regarding the future of humanity, Earth, and the universe itself including Jesus returning in some literal and bodily way.


In views 1 and 2, the universe story is bound up within the biblical story.



3) The Bible is a human product. We see the Bible as a human story within the larger picture of the cosmic story. While the various authors of Genesis 1 and 2 might have thought their version of creation was how it played out, we have moved beyond them. Nevertheless we can appreciate poetry, story, and art. It is a story of humanity seeking meaning. Jesus born of a virgin, dying, rising, ascending, returning, might have been understood by these early believers in some literal way. They lived within a worldview in which those narratives could have been plausible. The meaning behind those narratives, the heart of them, was that the values of Jesus (such as compassion) are worth living. As opposed to the dominance of Empire, the compassion and wisdom of Jesus and the prophets is a worthy hope to embrace. In this view the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and all the myths of the ancients are a testament to human creativity. The symbols of faith reveal a truth and open us to a beauty that we wouldn't know without them.

4) The Bible is superstition and we do well do treat it as such. Religion is false and harmful.



In views three and four, the biblical story (like all religious literature) is bound up within the universe story.


As you can tell by my rhetoric, the view with the longest explanation and least amount of snark is my view (#3).

Since I invented the categories and made up the explanations to go with them, the only person I will convince is me.

So how do you see the relation between the universe story and the biblical story?

For extra credit: if you identify as Christian, what does Advent mean to you?

The Bible In [or On] Your Face

I watched most of last night's game between Alabama and Florida. After Alabama widened its lead to 19 points I lost interest.


I did find the quarterback for the Gators, Tim Tebow, interesting, particularly his eye make-up.



In case that verse doesn't automatically spring to mind, John 16:33 reads:

'I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It appears Jesus had conquered everything in the world except the Crimson Tide defense.

Alabama persecuted Florida, 32-13.

What meanest thou thy Bible verses upon thy face?

The most direct answer is superstition. Eye Black Bible is similar to wearing a rabbit's foot, never washing your jock strap, or getting a tattoo on your butt cheek. Sports figures and their fans are notoriously superstitious and the American Evangelical Superstar Jesus is a natural icon for this role.

But this particular superstition is pretty brazen. It is one thing to wear a gold cross under your jersey. It is quite another to emblazon a verse on your face for a national television audience.

Maybe he wants to improve our literacy level. Looking up references to Western literary classics that football players paint on their cheekbones can make you feel better about wasting three hours watching grown men beat each other over a ball. If all the players did this folks at home might read a whole book of the Bible or maybe one of Shakespeare's plays during commercial breaks.

We have a minute 39 left in the first half. It is 3rd and three and the left guard is reminding us to look up Hamlet 3/1.

In addition to superstition an element of proselytizing is at work here. But proselytizing for whom exactly? The quarterback wants everyone to buy in to his superstition so everyone can be superstitious. Um, no thanks.

I know. What right have I to say anything? I am after all, Mr. Irreverence. But really, Bible verses on football players' cheekbones? Can we make Christianity any more coarse?

Refiner's Fire and Fullers' Soap: A Sermon

A Refiner’s Fire and Fuller’s Soap
John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church
Elizabethton, Tennessee

December 6, 2009
Second Sunday of Advent

Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 3:1-6

During the Fall we have been exploring the via negativa, the way of letting go. This is one of four spiritual paths in Creation Spirituality. The others are the way of awe and wonder or via positiva, the way of justice-making or via transformativa and the way of creativity or via creativa. These four paths as Matthew Fox puts it are “like a spiral danced.”

I have decided to focus on one path per season during worship. The season of fall as the leaves turn, as the light of the day shortens, and as Earth (at least in the northern hemisphere) gets ready for sleep is a season of letting go. Beginning with the Winter Solstice we will explore the path of creativity. At the darkest, the light comes into the world, the creativity of the Incarnation opens us to possibilities that we had not imagined. This next path may be welcome after a season of letting go.

The via negativa acknowledges that God, whatever it is we might mean by that term, is in the dark places as well as the light places. God is in the grieving as well as in the celebrating. As the psalmist writes to God, “Where could I go from your presence? If I go to Sheol (the Pit) you are there.”

The psalmist is not necessarily wanting God to be around. The experience of the Divine is one of intensity, unbearable intensity and the psalmist wants to be left alone. But God won’t have it. For those whose spirituality feels like tangling, wrestling, or struggling with the Divine, you know what the psalmist is feeling.

In Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus experiences the Divine Spirit not as a gentle dove but as a raptor with talons piercing his skull and lifting him by the head. In Kazantzakis portrait, Jesus just wants a normal life. He wants to marry Mary Magdalene, settle down have kids, a mortgage, be normal, but this Divine Hawk has other plans for him.

What is being acknowledged here is that the experience of life is not always fluffy or easy or normal. Thinking of life and our experience as a way, a path, or a via, is in part how to cope with all of that. We may discover that our life is not “normal,” but perhaps we shouldn’t try so hard to make it so.

One of the distinguishing marks of the prophet (that is a person called out to speak a particular word) is that the prophet doesn’t want the job.

I don’t want to speak this. Get somebody else. Get someone with more skills, someone who is better with words, I just want to be left alone.

Moses and Jonah represent those who don’t want this role and yet it is given to them by the sheer force of Divine presence.

Jeremiah speaks of the humanity of this. Listen to the pathos of this prophet who is taken over, possessed by Yahweh:

O Lord, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.

Jeremiah goes on and on cursing the day he was born because of his role. He has been given this job and he doesn’t like it but he can’t resist it. Like Moses and Jonah and the other prophets, like John the Baptist we read about today, like Jesus, what they did was not easy, pleasant, or normal. What they did ended up being life-giving for others.

Martin Luther King, Jr. could have decided to stay home instead of going to Memphis. But staying home would have gone against his character.

Rachel Carson could have done something besides writing Silent Spring. She could have. But she wouldn’t have done her part in raising awareness as to how we were poisoning our planet.

Harvey Milk didn’t have to run for city supervisor in San Francisco. He didn’t have to lead marches and be outspoken. But he knew he had to give people hope.

All of them experienced the Divine like a Refiner’s Fire and Fuller’s Soap.

These images of Refiner’s Fire and Fuller’s Soap found in Malachi illustrate the intensity of the experience of letting go.

A refiner’s fire would be used purify metal. It was about as intense a fire as ancients could make. You didn’t want to get near it. It needed to be hot and intense to purify or refine the metal.

Fullers were those who bleached and cleaned wool before it was made into clothing. They had to practice their trade outside of the city because of the stench. The soap would be lye, white clay, urine, and ashes of desert plants.

The author of holy scripture, the prophet we know as Malachi tells us that a refiner’s fire and putrid smelling soap is an image for God.

Here is a children's sermon. What is God like kids?

God is like stinky soap made of urine.

That was the point that these ancient authors were making.

The messenger, the prophet, the one who tells the truth, is one who is repulsive as fuller’s soap and a refiner’s fire. Because that is what it will take to wake us up.

The via negativa is emptying, refining, cleansing, purifying.

The prophet of the via negativa, John the Baptist, calling out for a change of heart, is calling for us to face some painful truths. It is up to us as to how to respond.

These past few weeks during the Adult Forum we have been watching a film entitled Home. It is a film about Earth’s history and the human impact on Earth. It spares us little in describing the crises we are facing in terms of ecology. The mood upon watching the film has been sobering, almost despairing. In response to that we feel a need to avoid despair at all cost.

Give me some good news so I don’t have to feel this way.

It will come. But first we have to live with it.

Matthew Fox in his book on the four spiritual paths, Original Blessing, writes of the via negativa:

By the very acknowledgment of our darkness and of our pain we are saved, that is, healed. By refusing to cover up the cosmic despair and the cosmic anguish that life rains on us we make healing possible. We allow an entrance into the wound to take place. By letting pain be pain we allow healing to be healing, and instead of healing our projections or our imaginary darknesses we heal what is truly in pain, what is deeply and irretrievably dark. p. 163

Salvation comes through the via negativa by going into the dragon’s lair and facing the beast. It is embracing the fear and entering the darkest of the dark. This is what it may mean to love our enemies. We embrace that which wants to destroy us.

When we too soon jump to a solution or a platitude for our cosmic anguish, it feels trite. It isn’t real. It isn’t real hope or faith, it is like giving someone a Wal-Mart smiley face after she has lost a dear friend. It is almost insulting. We want to say:

Please don’t, just let me be.

The cosmic anguish is not the end. It isn’t the final answer. But we have to get to zero point first. It is like the alcoholic who has to hit bottom and that bottom can seem bottomless before the creative power of healing can happen. It is a constant return to honesty. You can’t heal unless you are honest.

The Alcoholics Anonymous book, known as the big book says:

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. P. 58.

The via negativa or the way of letting go is rigorous honesty.

With the via negativa we are going back to our source or our origins. We are going back to our nothingness. There we find the strength underneath the projections and the masks and the fake answers.

That is what this refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap thing is about. It is an unbearably hot and smelly honesty. If we are wise, we won’t hide from it. We will let it purify us. In so doing we will find who we are really are as individuals and as a species.

Langston Hughes, in his poem Mother to Son speaks of the strength of the via negativa:

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now—
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

We will find that we have strength within that we had never thought possible. We will find our voices and our courage. We will find our joy, our purpose, our meaning.

Or as John the Baptist put it nearly two millennia ago:

Then the whole human race will see the salvation of God.

World AIDS Day in Johnson City

On December 1st many communities held services for World AIDS Day. Our community held A Candlelight, Prayer, and Reflection Service at Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church in Johnson City.

Between 70 and 80 were in attendance in Munsey's beautiful sanctuary that was decorated for Advent. Symbols of hope filled the space.


Pianist James Silver began the service by playing Robert Shumann's Fantasy in C Major. It was magnificent.


John Collins sang a powerful rendition of Precious Lord, Take My Hand.

Jeff Fyke and the Munsey Youth Ministry sang their hearts out by providing contemporary Christian music and the Squash Blossoms (Ashlee, Niki, and Sara) pulled our heartstrings with Hallelujah.

Rev. John Goah offered the prayer for the candlelight service and a challenge to all of us to be like Jeremiahs and Esthers speaking truth to power on behalf of compassion and justice.

I already posted the "sermonette" I delivered.

Blanca Taylor, the Ryan White Medical Care Manager, directed the service and presented three awards to people in our community who have done significant work with those living with HIV/AIDS.


Pictured from right to left, Rev. Donald Minor, Dr. Felix Sarubbi, Dr. Robin Lennon-Dearing, and Blanca Taylor.


Here are the accomplishments of each award recipient as presented by Blanca Taylor.

Dr. Robin Lennon-Dearing

This lady has demonstrated a strong commitment to volunteering in the HIV/AIDS network. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Social Work from the University of South Florida in Tampa and received her Ph.D from the University of Georgia. She is a dedicated support group facilitator for POZ, a place where HIV positive individuals can go, knowing they are in a safe environment where they are accepted. She has been a “buddy” at the Tampa AIDS Network and a volunteer counselor for HIV positive individuals at the Positive Impact in Atlanta. She has also been a facilitator of the women’s HIV support group at the AIDS Survival Project and is a board member and former president of the HIV Network. Her accomplishments are many and I have highlighted only a few. This award is being presented to Dr. Robin Lennon-Dearing.

Donald L. Minor

This young man will be 61 years old on the 21st of this month. In 1985, while having oral surgery, he received several blood product transfusions. Unfortunately, proper testing was not being performed at that time and he became infected with HIV. Already being an advocate for persons living with Hemophilia, he became involved in the issues surrounding HIV. After having his first opportunistic infection in 1991, he became a public advocate for those infected and living with HIV. He was one of the first members of the Ryan White Consortium and a founding member of the Tennessee Association of People with AIDS. He speaks about AIDS to an average of 250,000 persons per year. He has addressed congressional committees in Washington DC. Currently, he is employed by CVS/Caremark as a field service rep and is Vice-President of the Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness, being actively involved in providing housing to person with AIDS through his grant work. His prior awards are too numerous to mention. He is a musician and has recorded several CDs, the last one dedicated to those impacted by AIDS. He is a licensed minister and has been involved in a very unexpected need—the service of conducting over 600 funerals for person who have died with AIDS. He now serves as a Christian Counselor at the Clark Street Baptist Church and serves on the Johnson City/Washington County Ministerial Fellowship as Vice-President. I humbly introduce to you our next award winner, Donald L. Minor.

Felix Sarubbi, MD

I am so honored to present our final award this evening. I placed this person last on the agenda because I feel he is one of the most important individuals that have committed themselves to the HIV/AIDS community. He served as Interim Chair for the Department of Internal Medicine. This physician services on many ETSU committees and is a member of the university AIDS Advisory Panel. He also serves on the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning Committee and served on the search committee for the present dean of the medical school. More importantly to all of us, he has tirelessly given his time to maintain the health of people living with HIV. His mission began in 1981 when he saw one of the first HIV patients. He became Professor of Medicine with the Department of Internal Medicine, in 1988. Since that time, he has taught many medical students, residents and fellows through the Department of Infectious Diseases. In 2000, the ETSU College of Medicine was designated as a Centers of Excellence for AIDS Care and this physician is very deserving of the directorship. Under his leadership, he coordinates a comprehensive approach to AIDS and HIV treatment. Throughout the years, he has dedicated himself to provide the highest quality of treatment and care for his patients. I am pleased to present to you, Dr. Felix Sarubbi.

The Johnson City Press reported on the work of ETSU students who were instrumental in raising awareness on campus.

Blanca Taylor remembered to acknowledge the work of these students, Evan Baker, Stephanie Sharrett, and Sheena Stinnett by writing letters of commendation on their behalf to several university department chairs.

Paul Baggett, Ph.D.
PO Box 70645
ETSU College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Social Work
Johnson City, TN 37614

Re: Evan Baker
Stephanie Sharrett
Sheena Stinnett

Dear Dr. Baggett:

I would like to personally commend these students on their performance during the organization and execution of the planning for the World AIDS Day Program. They are important members of the team and their contributions are numerous.

Today at noon, they are volunteering to participate during the World AIDS Day activities at the Johnson City Mall. They will assist Hope of Tennessee in passing out educational materials. Tonight, the second candlelight reflection service will be held at Munsey Memorial Methodist Church and these students will be actively involved with the service.

So many times, we forget to pat individuals on the back when they do an exceptional job. I am very glad that Evan, Stephanie and Sheena chose to take on this mission as their class project. They have shown compassion and understanding for the cause of HIV/AIDS in the Tri-Cities area and have truly been team players. I am sure these attributes will travel them in all their future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Blanca Taylor, RN
Ryan White Medical Care Manager

Heal the world.

The Second Coming

From the December newsletter:

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

We are in the season of Advent. Advent means coming. This season is one of expectation, longing, anticipation, preparation…hope. For what are we hoping?

Advent anticipates the birth of Jesus and the “second coming” of Jesus. Because popular Christianity has viewed the second coming of Jesus in a superstitious fashion complete with timetables and expectations of “the rapture” and so forth, many of us shy away from this metaphor altogether.

I think the metaphor of Jesus’ return is powerful in a positive way. It captures the feeling that we are not yet what we could be. We are still captive as the Advent carol says, to “our fears and sins.” We have not discovered peace within our own skin. Our civilization is not living in a sustainable way. We take from Earth more than we return. The gap between wealthy and poor is increasing and the number of the poor is increasing. The human impact on Earth is causing the extinction of plant and animal species at rate faster than Earth has known in over 60 million years.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Brief Statement of Faith puts it succinctly:

Ignoring God's commandments,
we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.

There is room for improvement.

Not only are we “not yet” as a species, we are “not yet” as individuals. Again, quoting the carol, we long to “find our rest in thee.” We are not at peace within our skin. The Buddha recognized this long ago when he showed us that the cause of dukkha (unrest) is our insatiability.

What might it mean for Jesus to return? The return of Jesus is a powerful symbol of finding rest, peace, justice, and balance in our personal lives and in our interconnectedness with Earth. To sing, “come thou long expected Jesus” is to sing with the expectation of fulfillment for balance and peace.

When will Jesus return?

Today, if we are willing to give birth. If we are willing like Mary when told by the angel that she was to give birth to Jesus, to say:

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

To be open to the creativity of the Universe, to allow ourselves space to be at peace right now in the midst of life as it is, is what I think it means for Jesus to return.

There is another part of it. To anticipate the return of Jesus is to anticipate an expansion of consciousness or awareness. It is as Joanna Macy calls it, “The Great Turning.”

The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world-we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.

For what are we hoping?

Articulating our hopes is a task for Advent. For what do you hope in your personal life and in our collective life as a human species? When the not yet becomes now what does the now look like? The world is turning or to use Christian terms, Jesus is returning. How might we prepare for that reality today?

Come, Lord Jesus!

Adam and Eve Were Freeloaders

Often I find myself unsure if the authors of letters to the editor in my local paper are engaging in satire or are for real. Your guess on this one? Satire? For real?

Bring back smog

The American dream: at the top of the list is being able to get a job. Bring back smog, global warming or whatever it takes to create jobs. God saw that Adam and Eve were going to mess up the Garden of Eden so he told them to put their clothing on and get out. He then gave humans Earth to mess it up, with smog or whatever it takes to create jobs. God was tired of feeding the freeloaders. Start earning a living, by sweat of the brow, smog or whatever it takes; he would come along later and clean up the mess. The nice politicians, having our best interest at heart and not wanting us to get smogged to death, managed to get most factories moved out of the country. I say bring back the smog, down with the green.
JAY C. WHEELER Jonesborough

I never heard that before. Adam and Eve were freeloading in the garden. Just a coupla naked dirty hippies. The moral of the story is let's trash the place for short-term gain because "God" will clean up our mess.

That is thinking ahead GOP style.

Benefit Auction for Carter County Animal Shelter

We are thrilled to open our space to benefit the Carter County Animal Shelter. Please join us Sunday, December 6th, from 1 to 3 p.m. on behalf of Earth's four-leggeds!

Thanks to Presbys, Amy Williams and Terri Haught for putting this together!

Here are the details:

The Elizabethton Animal Shelter is in horrible condition and needs your help. On average this shelter receives over 500 cats and dogs during the summer months and due to the limited space of the facility, which is approximately 1000 square feet in size, all of the dog kennels are contained outside, under cover but still exposed. The terrible condition of the shelter not only makes the lives for the animals difficult, it does little to promote a pleasant adoption experience, which is crucial to the success of a shelter and saving the lives of homeless animals.

The Carter County Democratic Women have chosen the shelter project to be their main fundraising focus this year. We have quite a few events planned for 2010, including a springtime 5K "Critter Crawl" race and a Party in the Park with live music, costume contests and vendors.

To kick off our fundraising efforts, on Sunday, December 6th, we are hosting a silent auction at First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethton. This is a great opportunity for you to donate an item, gift certificate or service to be auctioned, with proceeds going to the Elizabethton Animal Shelter Building Fund and a small portion to the church for allowing us to host the event. We are requesting that all donated items be new and accompanied by a business card or name of the donor with an approximate value of the item. Items can be dropped off at Dino’s Restaurant in downtown Elizabethton or you can contact Amy Williams at 423.213.2474 or Terri Haught at 423.217.8483 for item pickup-we will be happy to pickup from you!

Thank you very much for your help - this small act of kindness can make a huge difference in the life of a shelter animal.

Sincerely,
Amy and Terri

Ideas:

• Breakfasts, brunches, luncheons, dinners, teas, and dessert parties.
• Gatherings for watching sporting events or movies or making music or playing games
• Services: washing a dog, fix a computer, baby-sitting, leaf raking, garden labor, tutoring, taxi services, income tax, massage, photography, photograph digitalization, baked goodies
• Classes, individual lessons, instruction in just about anything.
• Handmade items
• Trips, boat outings, performances.
• Use of a lake house, cottage, or cabin anywhere.
• Gift certificates
• Tickets: NASCAR race, UT football, symphony, theatre
• nything you can think of!
  

The auction is this Sunday from 1-3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton!

Test the Waters!

This Saturday, December 5th we are hosting another of our popular "Test the Waters" programs. If you have been following First Pres on the interwebs or have attended a couple of times and are curious about us, this is the event for you! You will find the details below and in the December issue of our newsletter, The White Spire:


We invite you to come and “test the waters.” If you have either visited or have been attending regularly for awhile, or if this is your first time here, we invite you to find out more about us!

Come learn more about our congregation, tour our facilities, become acquainted with our ministries, meet a few of our fine folks, and enjoy lunch together -- and see if this congregation is a match for you as you search for a church home.

Our facilities include a newly remodeled fellowship hall, an adult education room, a nursery with separate rooms for infants and toddlers, two wheel-chair accessible restrooms, a renovated choir suite, and a beautiful, wheel-chair accessible labyrinth.

I have been the minister here for more than four years and am thrilled with how we have grown -- and keep growing! We look forward to starting some new ministries with children and families.

These are exciting times for First Presbyterian. I hope that you will be a part of them.

Many regard our congregation as an oasis. We are an inclusive, tolerant congregation that celebrates diversity and encourages openminded reflection. If you haven’t already found us on the web, please check our web site: www.fpcelizabethton.org. There you will find our philosophy, activities calendar, sermons, newsletter and all kinds of fun things.

Please mark Saturday, Dec. 5th, from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm on your calendar for you, your partner, your family, and even invite friends. Please let us know if you plan to attend so we can make preparations for lunch.

Contact the church office if you have questions at 543.7737, or e-mail the pastor at johnashuck [at] embarqmail [dot] com.

Heal the World: World AIDS Day 2009

Last night Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church in Johnson City hosted the World AIDS Day Service. The Johnson City Press reported on the event.

Here is the text of the speech I delivered.

I am honored to be here this evening. Honored and grateful. I am grateful to those who put this evening together including these organizations that are listed on the program:

HIV Network, Inc.
HOPE for Tennessee
ETSU Center of Excellence
NE TN Minority Resource Network
Washington County Health Council
NE TN Regional Health Office
Ryan White Program
League of AT&T

I am grateful to Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church for hosting this event.

I am grateful to LGBTieS, the Gay-Straight Alliance student group at ETSU.

I am grateful to the Tennessee Equality Project of the Tri-Cities.

I am grateful to PFLAG Tri-Cities (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People). I am honored to be a member of PFLAG’s board. That is why I am sharing a few words with you tonight.

I am grateful to the POZ support group at ETSU (a support group for those living with HIV and those affected by HIV).

I am grateful for every organization that I did not mention that I should have mentioned.

I am grateful to each person here tonight who has organized, spoken out, cajoled, persuaded, wept, emptied their pockets, shouted, advocated, despaired, hoped, cared, laughed in the face of when the tears dried out, written letters, complained, cried, stomped, stamped, medicated, loved, prayed, suffered, and stood proud.

It takes all of us. We have come a long way in 30 years.

• From a time when we had no idea what we were dealing with, to a time in which we know a little more but not enough for a cure.
• From a time when churches closed their doors in fear and judged, denied, ignored, and dismissed to a time when churches are beginning to open their doors and care as their founder cared.
• From a time when our government balked, procrastinated and fiddled while human beings died, to a time when our government is beginning to see that it is in its interest to finally build a national HIV/AIDS strategy and a global health initiative.
  

There is some good news. According to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Worldwide AIDS infection rates are curving down. People carrying the virus are living longer. Life-prolonging drugs, which also reduce transmission rates, and prevention advice, are making a difference. The counterattack in a long siege is showing results.

Borne out in a U.N. report in advance of today's World AIDS Day, these trends continue a positive trend in fighting a scourge that has killed 25 million and left 33 million infected since the immunity-sapping condition was identified nearly 30 years ago.

But with modest success go challenges. As AIDS treatment and care matures, critics want to shift money and medicine toward other problem diseases, such as malaria, pneumonia and childhood diarrhea, that are lethal and tameable. In public health politics, the AIDS fight is too successful for its own good, making the effort a target in the competition for funding.

It would be a mistake to buy this argument in total and cut AIDS spending to pay for a new fight in other areas. Weakening global efforts would lead to a rise in AIDS infection rates, reversing the progress made so far. There's no question that new health fights lie ahead, but hobbling a successful crusade isn't good policy….

....Other diseases badly need attention. But the fight against AIDS should not be sacrificed. The battle is still far from over.

It is more important than ever that we keep Washington’s feet to the fire and insist that Washington keeps the promise. We have a long way to go. President Barack Obama proclaimed December 1st, 2009 World AIDS Day and said:

Though we have been witness to incredible progress, our struggle against HIV/AIDS is far from over. With an infection occurring every nine-and-a-half minutes in America, there are more than one million individuals estimated to be living with the disease in our country. Of those currently infected, one in five does not know they have the condition, and the majority of new infections are spread by people who are unaware of their own status. HIV/AIDS does not discriminate as it infiltrates neighborhoods and communities. Americans of any gender, age, ethnicity, income, or sexual orientation can and are contracting the disease.

That is true. HIV/AIDS does not discriminate. A few years ago I participated in a World AIDS Day Service in Montana where I lived at the time. The planners were careful and accurate to show that HIV doesn’t discriminate. I think in the backs of our minds if we could show that HIV/AIDS is not just a gay disease, then non-gays might be more careful and perhaps more willing to take it seriously.
But in the effort to do that we overstated the case leaving a gay friend of mine to say, “What, gay men aren’t susceptible anymore?!”

At an HIV/AIDS rally six weeks ago in front of the White House, one the speakers, Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr., a gay Latino with HIV who is also the Deputy Editor of POZ Magazine said:

More than half of new HIV infections in the United States unfortunately are among men who have sex with men -- almost one in two of them are African American, almost one in five are Latino and more than one in five are white….Fighting homophobia and racism helps to fight stigma and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS.

We have a lot of work to do. Right here in Johnson City. He also said:

Approximately half of all HIV-positive Americans have insufficient healthcare coverage -- or none at all.

That one is worth repeating:

Approximately half of all HIV-positive Americans have insufficient healthcare coverage -- or none at all.

The debate we are now having over healthcare is critical to those living with HIV. It is a matter of life and death. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say tonight. So yesterday on my blog and on my Facebook page, I announced that I was going to speak tonight. I wrote:

If you were speaking what would you say? Or what do you hope will be said?

I received a couple of replies that I will share with you word for word. I owe it to them to keep my promise and share their passion with you. The first commented on my Facebook page. His brother died of AIDS. He said:

You should tell your audience that they need to demand that Congress end the wars of terror and use that money to end HIV/AIDS and to give universal health care for all Americans.

Short and to the point. The second comment was from a gay man. He wrote:

If you've never read "Last Watch of the Night" by Paul Monette, you should. In one of the essays, titled "3275" (the number refers to his grave plot in the "Revelation Hill" section of Forest Lawn Cemetery), Monette writes,

"We queers on Revelation Hill, tucking our skirts about us so as not to touch our Mormon neighbors, died of the greed of power, because we were expendable. If you mean to visit any of us, it had better be to make you strong to fight that power. Take your languor and easy tears somewhere else. Above all, don’t pretty us up. Tell yourself: None of this ever had to happen. And then go make it stop, with whatever breath you have left.

Grief is a sword, or it is nothing."

Last night I went to Barnes and Noble and to Books a Million to find this book by Paul Monette, Last Watch of the Night. Neither store had it. Neither store had any book by Monette. I asked them if they had any books on HIV/AIDS. The pickings were sparse. Books A Million had one dated book. Barnes and Noble had one as well.

The Barnes and Noble book was an interesting one. It is a book about Johnson City. I had been told about it but never read it. I purchased it yesterday. It is My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese.

The author was a doctor in Johnson City in the 1980s as the AIDS epidemic began. I had the chance to read only about 50 pages and I skipped around a bit. So far I am finding it to be a fascinating story of both this period of time and of life near our mountain.

In one section of the book he writes about other parts of the country during 1987 or so in which people are demonstrating, acting up and demanding action on behalf of treatment and a cure. But no one is acting up in Johnson City. He writes:

But in our town we simply watched the television spectacle of mass arrests, heard the fiery speeches, saw the five-second newsflash of a bridge being blocked by activists.

My patients, by contrast, were in hiding. They were not inclined to a public demonstration of any sort, scared lest the tragedy of their HIV infection be compounded by their neighbors’ knowledge of it. My patients relied on me to tell them if a cure was coming, relied on me to tell them that they should be frustrated and angry with the fickleness of Reagan’s commitment to AIDS, relied on me to draw the parallel between Nero and Reagan, between the burning of Rome and the continued lack of a firm governmental response to AIDS.

I was their surrogate activist, their link to the larger consciousness of AIDS. They visited regularly they were punctual like churchgoers, they accepted my prescriptions for “Stress-Tabs-with-Zinc,” they swallowed the antidepressants or the appetite stimulants I prescribed, and they went on. Their battle lay largely on the home front: Keeping up the appearance of health and hiding the secret of AIDS. P. 276

Secrets kill. We need to end the stigma with whatever breath we have. Right here in Johnson City. In our grief, if there is anger, it is a holy rage. None less than St. Augustine of Hippo said:

“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”

I am grateful today that you are here. I am grateful that things are changing in the Tri-Cities. I am grateful that people are realizing that keeping up appearances and staying in closets and hiding secrets is not healthy.

HIV, homophobia, and racism are real enemies.

We fight them by telling the truth. We grieve today. We grieve for those who have died.

But let our grief become a sword. As Paul Monette said:

“Go without hate, but not without rage. Heal the world."