As some of you know, my blog posting last Saturday for the Midland Daily News generated, let us say, a spirited response. Most of the posters were not local (Illinois, Indiana, Florida, and elsewhere). And of course our own Randy Gray chimed in. Most of you know that Randy presents himself as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and holds rather unique political and religious views. At one point, he claimed that his congregation was not like ours, so I challenged him to tell me what congregation he attended, which he refused to do. I saw this as an opportunity to reach out to a very lost soul. So, I posted the following. I doubt he will accept my invitation. But, if he does, this will be a great test of our Fellowships commitment to Standing on the Side of Love and to our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We have nothing to fear when we stand united in Love. So I ask you to be fearless this Sunday in the hopes that we can welcome this visitor. =================== For two years, you have stalked this blog. I have endured your taunts, your insults, your irrational arguments, and your wild misstatements of my positions, the ideas of the Founders, and the Bible. I have patiently put up with your childish tirades and evasions every time I proved you to be in error. Your obsession with me is so great that you actually bought my name as a domain site and continue to maintain a comically amateurish website in a tragically sad effort to defame me. You placed your ante into this game and now you are going to play. Anyone who exhibits the behaviors you have displayed for two years, but refuses to answer a couple of simple questions, has no real interest in honest, intelligent dialogue. Any regular reader of this blog would logically presume someone who posts that way to be nothing but a bully and a fraud; a racist, misogynist homophobe with delusions of superiority. But do you want to know something? I dont believe that. I think that inside all that hate, all that bravado, all that posturing, is an insecure and scared person who has bought into the fear mongering that runs rampant in this country. Deep down, I believe there is a nice guy, a loving husband and father, and a hard worker who loves America. But you have fallen victim to the true propaganda being spewed by the corporate elitists, the religious extremists, and the itinerant troublemakers of our society. You have been told that safety and security lies in our past - the fantasy of Pleasantville America where everyone is happy and knows their place. And you want that safety, that security, that confidence that you can live in America without being scared. But, Randy, that America is a myth. That America had poverty. It had injustice and inequality. And it had enormous fear - fear of everyone outside our borders, fear of the bomb, fear of influenza and whooping cough, fear of change, and fear of nonconformity. Pleasantville is a great film, but it is fiction. Americas destiny lies not in a phantom past, but in the future. Our greatness lies not in filling the trough of the military industrial complex, but in sowing the seeds of peace throughout the world. Our greatness lies not in condemning people who dont think like us, look like us, or identify the way we do. Our greatness lies in embracing our beautiful diversity and learning from each other. Our greatness lies not in the fear that only leads to violence and senseless slaughter, but in the hope of building the Beloved Community Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. Am I a dreamer? You bet. But I am in good company. Jesus presented a fantastic dream of a coming kingdom. So did Buddha, Mohammad, Solomon, Lao Tse, and many others. The Founders laid the groundwork for a previously unimagined nation in which everyone would be equal. King, Gandhi and so many others dreamed of a world without poverty, ignorance, and injustice - the primary causes of violence and crime. So, I am reaching out to you, Randy, in loving compassion in the hope that I can touch the human being that lies beneath that crusty exterior of fear. I know you want a better world for your children. Adding more guns to our national stockpile is not going to accomplish that. Vilifying the hope-filled dreamers will not accomplish that. Randy, everyone is scared. We live in a scary world. But we are not animals. We are human beings. And we can resist our instinctive fearful impulses. You think you know my congregation. Well, here is your chance to find out. I am inviting you to come to our service this Sunday morning at 10:30. Sit with us in worship for one hour. Bring you family if you like. During the service, the kids are going just down the street to Nottingham Place to visit the residents for Halloween. You will have to leave your guns at home, because our Fellowship has a policy prohibiting guns in our building. But you will be safe. I guarantee that you will be welcomed with open arms. After the service, you can decide if we are the enemy you have imagined, or just fellow travelers on a spiritual path to a better future for everyone.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:31:59 +0000
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