Category: Cultural Commentary

An Open Letter to Those Who Bring Intolerance to the TU Campus

lbhAs you may or may not know, my day job is being Programs Coordinator for United Campus Ministry at the University of Tulsa. UCM, also known as the Little Blue House, is a ecumenical progressive campus ministry focused on peace and justice issues; we are also the only open and affirming ministry at TU. My main duty is that I get to support and work with our amazing students as they try to make TU a better, more just, fully inclusive and safe place.

We found out recently that several other campus ministries are bringing Rosaria Champagne Butterfield to speak at TU on Nov. 17th. I’m not going to provide Dr. Butterfield free publicity by linking to her website; you can Google her is you want more info. Dr. Butterfield speaks on the issue of homosexuality and Christianity. She used to be a college professor of literature at Syracuse, where she focused on queer and feminist literature. She claims to have formerly been gay before undergoing a “conversion experience.” She is now married to a Presbyterian minister, identifies herself as a “homemaker” and travels around telling her story. While she says she does not advocate “conversion therapy”, her message conveys that message, as well as presenting views hostile to the LGBT community. She explicitly claims that homosexuality and Christianity are incompatible.

Our amazing students at UCM have crafted an open letter, to run in the campus newspaper next week in advance of her appearance. Below is  the full text of this letter. If you would like to sign your name in support of the letter, please click here. Thank you in advance for your support, and please share this with your friends, families and congregations.
To the Hosts of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield:

The students of United Campus Ministry, the Society for Gender Equality, HeadStrong, Earth Matters, and Pride at TU want to state publicly that we are outraged that several ministries from the university will be hosting Rosaria Champagne Butterfield on November 17th. Mrs. Butterfield speaks openly not only about her conversion to Christianity, but also her conversion from lesbianism to straightness. Mrs. Butterfield believes that being gay or transgender is fundamentally opposed to being Christian. Inviting someone to speak about orientation as a spiritual or psychological weakness actively creates a hostile environment for all LGBTQ+ students. Many of the students who are concerned about this speaker’s presence on our campus identify as both Christian and LGBTQ+, and we believe that by hosting Mrs. Butterfield, these campus ministries are trying to silence our voices and invalidate our identities.

Just because Butterfield does not openly condemn LGBTQ+ people, does not mean that the things she says are loving. The absence of explicit condemnation is not love, and in this case serves to hide the subtle message that there is something wrong with being LGBTQ+.

While we celebrate our country’s right to religious freedom, major medical, scientific, and governmental bodies have identified conversion therapy as an unethical, and potentially harmful practice that may increase risk for depression and suicide. Any discussion or promotion of such practices, or suggestion that sexual orientation is not immutable is discrimination and a threat.

As students gathered to begin crafting this letter, certain themes arose again and again – anger, fear, and shame. The students who felt outraged enough to attend the letter writing session represented lots of different groups; there were students from a number of racial and ethnic backgrounds, of varying sexual orientations and gender identities, and consisted of both religious and secular students. We were all able to gather around the table at the Little Blue House in solidarity. Regardless of our backgrounds, when one student is oppressed we are all oppressed. We are a community that fights for each other and we will not sit back in silence while discrimination and prejudice run rampant on our campus.

We will not allow our community to be harassed without responding. We will not accept hate speech on our campus without condemnation. We will not allow our loving community to be hurt by this woman’s supposed wisdom. We will not be broken by your hate.

As a community, we do not understand why campus ministries would choose to focus on the conversion of LGBTQ+ students.

It is certainly acceptable for a campus ministry to choose to focus on whatever they think is important; however, we believe it is an egregious misuse of Jesus’ name to choose to be complicit in oppression, rather than working to address tangible human suffering.

We believe that the role of ministry should be to use our power, energy, drive, and resources to promote love, equality, and safety for all students and our surrounding community.

Let this be an open invitation to all campus ministries to talk about the systematic murder of people of color; to create dialogue to discuss the more than 20 transgender people murdered since January of this year; to show concern for the fact that Oklahoma leads the world in incarcerating women, and that an immense number of Oklahoma children go hungry.

As long as students on TU’s campus feel unsafe, United Campus Ministry will be here to support them. We will be here, fighting for equity and justice, fostering student growth, and creating safety until we have a truly inclusive and kind campus. We invite every other ministry on this campus to join in our mission, and to help make TU a safe place for all students – regardless of racial or ethnic background, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ability, or religion.

We want to be certain that every student on this campus knows that we will still be here, whether or not other ministries choose to join us, fighting for our kind and loving community.

We will not be broken. Our community is stronger than your hate.

Peace and Grace,
The Students of United Campus Ministry, Pride at TU, the Society for Gender Equality, HeadStrong, Earth Matters,

Kim Davis is Not a Martyr for Religious Liberty. She’s a Tool of Religious Right Hysteria.

The plight of Kim Davis has taken America by storm this week.

kimdavisThe Kentucky county clerk’s steadfast refusal to carry out her job, followed by her imprisonment for contempt of court, is the stuff Kirk Cameron and Kevin Sorbo movies are made of. Whether you think her a martyr or a bigot, you have to admit: this is dramatic stuff, especially for the apocalyptic crowd.

I’ve read two takes on the situation this week that I really enjoyed, and that I want to riff off of a little bit.

Over at Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner is as usual a refreshing source of common sense and clarity, by cutting through the rhetoric and getting to the heart of the situation:

Religious freedom, of course, has long been seen as the hot 2016 culture war issue, so it’s not surprising to see some of the candidates line up to support Davis. Religious freedom is a new litmus test on the right; of course abortion is still there, but now religious liberty is the proxy for opposition to marriage equality.

But if you listen to what Davis is saying, her real argument is that God’s authority trumps that of the courts (a truly odd statement for someone who is employed by a court), not that her religious liberty is under siege.

And over at Patheos, Brandan Robertson keeps religious liberty in the mix, but explains how Kim Davis is actually undermining freedom of religious expression:

Kim Davis posed a great threat to the religious liberties of our nation by refusing to carry out her duties as an agent of the state, issuing marriage licenses to all couples, regardless of their sexuality or gender identity. Davis forced her Christian faith on the people of Rowan County, and violated their right to be able to receive equal treatment from the government, regardless of their sexuality, race, religion, or values. If Davis was able to continue serving as the county clerk, she could, in theory, continue to refuse to grant marriages licenses or provide services to everyone she disagrees with, which would, in effect, completely dissolve the religious freedoms of the people in her county.

I think together, these two takes on Kim Davis make such an important point. Davis is not some private citizen made a martyr by a rampaging federal government intent on stamping out Christianity. Kim Davis is a state employee, an agent of the government, tasked with carrying out the duties of that government. When she goes to work, like it or not, she has a duty to check her Christianity at the door and do her government job.

Our government is one that makes no special priveleges for, or discriminates against, any religion. By refusing to do her job on religious grounds, Davis is discriminating on behalf of the government she represents against the citizens who have a right to equal treatment under the law, the right to receive a marriage license from the state.

Kim Davis has no right to her government job. If she doesn’t want to do it, she can step down. If she is more interested in working for what she see’s as “God’s law” then she should go work for a church (though, knowing what kind of church she likely comes from, they probably wouldn’t let her.) Nor is she some sort of brave martyr. She is breaking the law, as upheld by the Supreme Court just over two months ago. She is refusing the serve the citizens of Rowan County, Kentucky fairly and equally. She is acting as an agent of religious discrimination, instead of a beacon of religious liberty.

The sad thing about this is, Kim Davis is merely a tool of the religious right. Her jailing will last long enough for it to play well with right wing email appeals for money to fight secular liberalism. Folks like Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson and televangelists everywhere care little for the plight of Davis outside of her use as a fundraising tool. I’m sure she will make the rounds of speaking and interviews with all the usual suspects after this, but her fame is temporary.

She’s the perfect stand-in for the religious liberty fight in that sense. The religious fears and concerns of white middle America have become fodder for raising money for right wing politicians and opinion leaders who actually can do very little for those they are taking money from. The actual contours and ideas of such a complicated idea hold little appeal for them, and thus they will never actually enact policy that could actually do anything, as 1) religious liberty is a real non-issue, and 2) to do so would eliminate it as a fundraising tool. The legislating options around this are nonexistent; instead, these guys raise money and then govern in a way that devastates places like Rowan Co, Kentucky economically.

So, when Kim Davis resigns and goes home finally, she will be forgotten. She will go back to her life, and Mike Huckabee will go back to New Iowa or New Hampshire or wherever the next “Crisis” pops up. Religious freedom will still be assured in America, but right wing politicians will continue to use things like this to rake in the cash on false pretenses.

As Christians, we should be ashamed that this is what is being allowed to be the face of our faith in America right now. It should outrage us that those we consider “Religious leaders” are more concerned with fear mongering and raising money than spending time on real injustices in America. It’s stuff like this that is at the root of the rapid decline of self-professed Christians as detailed in the Pew Report this summer.

This is not the face of a loving, compassion filled, merciful faith. This is small-mindedness, cruelty, and greed masquerading as religion. It’s infuriating, but it’s what we have come to expect from mainstream American Christianity.

Addressing Objections and Criticisms of Black Lives Matter

The response to my post about Black Lives Matter has been amazing. Over 50,000 (!!!) views, numerous comments and shares and likes and tweets and reblogs. It’s crazy.

In the midst of all this, I’ve had some pushback and some specific objections to my arguments come up. I want to take a few moments to address those objections in one place.

I intend this as a post that moves this conversation forward in a positive direction, not as an attack on those who criticize or disagree with me. I look forward to continued engagement and discussion with everyone.

Black on Black Crime

The thing that keeps coming up most is this idea that somehow the presence of “black on black” crime negates the purpose of BLM. Proponents of this talking point seem to think that the occurrence of crime against black people by black people somehow “cancels out” the seriousness of the problem that is police brutality.

Blacks kill blacks more for the same reason whites kill whites more: proximity. Our society is still largely a segregated one, and the interactions we have on a daily basis are most likely to be with people who look like us. Crime is just another interaction. As a white person, I am more likely to be victimized by another white person. I am also more likely to have a white person hold the door open for me, or engage in conversation at the store counter. Not because they or I are racist; its because of where I live, where I shop, who I am around, which in turn is a product of a century of zoning laws and redlining. (Read Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on that, specifically his masterful “Case for Reparations”.)

Black on black crime occurs for the same reason. Black people are in general segregated from white populations. So the people they are around look like them, the interactions they have are with other black people, and thus the majority of crime they experience will come at the hands of someone who looks like them. It’s just a simple fact of geography.

In the end, black on black crime is irrelevant to the conversation started by BLM. The occurrence of crime by black people against black people does not reduce the seriousness of the problem of police brutality against black individuals.

White Racism

The next big push back I have experienced is against my statement that White Lives Matter is a racist statement. I continue to stand by this claim.

Prior to the existence of the BLM movement, I never heard the words “White lives matter” or “all lives matter” uttered. Ever. These phrases came into existence, not in a vacuum, or by their own fruition, but in response and in opposition to BLM. That is what makes them racist. They don’t just mean “I think white lives are important.” They mean “I think white lives are more important than black lives, and asserting that point is more important than listening to the struggles of black lives.

We only say words because they have meanings. Meanings come from culture, from history, from context. We cannot separate words from the power of their meanings. White pride carries the baggage of 250+ years of racism and Jim Crow and the KKK and white supremacy. Black pride was simply not allowed.

The nature of white and black in America are not the same. Like it or not, this is reality. As white people, we don’t need to assert our race. It has been asserted for us everyday of our lives by the racist structures and institutions that still hold up our society. To say “white lives matter” or “white pride” isn’t to level the playing field; it is to hoist ourselves on top of black America again, to soak up the sunshine and attention away from an oppressed people.

White people have a greater responsibility around our acknowledgment of race because of the years and decades and centuries of white supremacy not just being asserted, but being wielded and used to oppress black bodies. This isn’t to blame white people today for the actions of our forefathers. But it is to charge us with being adults, with responsibility, with being culturally and historically conscious.

The Deaths of 26 Police Officers in 2015

26 police officers have been killed in 2015, including 8 in the last two weeks.

700+ people have been killed by the police this year.

The death of anyone at the hand of another human being is always tragic. But, by the numbers, police deaths is not a widespread problem. It happens in the line of duty, and it is a terrible occurrence when it does. But this year, 3 people per day have been killed by police. That is a real problem. Something is going wrong.

Black people are more than twice as likely to be killed in encounters with police than white people (1). Can you understand that? That is ridiculous. If you are black, and you run into a police officer today, you’re chances of dying as a result of that encounter are 50% higher than mine!

And people are trying to say there is no problem here?

Michael Brown and Darren Wilson

The Michael Brown case was the straw that broke the camels back, the incident that set off demonstrations in Ferguson and across the country, and birthed BLM.

Yet, we still know so little for certain about what happened that day, even in light of interviews with Darren Wilson, and a grand jury, and a DOJ investigation.

What we do know is that Michael Brown was walking down the street in his neighborhood when Officer Wilson pulled up and cursed at him while telling him to get on the sidewalk.

That right there is a problem in and of itself, one that is indicative of why BLM exists. That kind of disrespect and hostility towards black people by those in authority positions is constant and pervasive in America. Everything that happened from here is a result of this moment. This isn’t to place or remove blame for one or the other. Brown acted in a way that is inappropriate and dangerous, both to him and to Officer Wilson.

But if Darren Wilson never feels the need to pull up to Brown and verbally harass him, what happens here? If Wilson doesn’t feel empowered by the badge he wears and the state that employs him to treat a young black man with less than the respect he deserves as a human being, does anyone die?

This is the issue. There is an overriding culture in America that says black people are worth less than whites, that they aren’t entitled to the same rights and privileges as others, that they can be treated with derision and discarded with impunity. There is a system that says those in power don’t have to be held responsible for their actions in the same way as others, as evidenced by the initial reaction of the Ferguson government to take no action against Darren Wilson.

Every person is entitled by the Constitution to due process and a trial by jury. Police officers are not empowered to waive these rights, to act as judge, jury and executioner. But every time they kill a person, that is exactly what happens.

This is injustice. This is why we must say Black Lives Matter.

Christianity and BLM

Finally, people seem upset with my invocation of faith in my defense of BLM.

This is a blog focused on Christianity and it’s intersection with culture, current events, and politics. I come at everything I comment on with the lens of my faith, and my desire to emulate the liberating and justice-filled life of Jesus.

Support for BLM is absolutely driven by my faith. My faith tells me that injustice is anti-God, that discrimination and oppression and disrespect and death are anti-God. The example of Jesus shows me that the proper way of living is focused on the least of these, on mercy and justice and compassion and love, on a preferential option for the poor and oppressed.

BLM is a movement of the oppressed. My faith demands that I stand alongside people fighting for their own humanity.

Christianity is inherently political. A Christianity that ignores issues like this due to timidity or deference to authority or an unwillingness to rock the boat, is no Christianity at all. Jesus stood with the oppressed, even when those oppressed had broken an earthly law, in the name of God’s justice and mercy. I strive to do the same.

P.S. This tentatively marks the end of me responding to critical comments on the other post, unless a new argument I haven’t seen before is made and I feel like addressing it. I will still leave the thread open for you all, and I will still respond to positive comments and questions, as well as correspondence from the “Contact Me” page.

(1) http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/black-americans-killed-by-police-analysis