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Suffer the Children
Paul Woodroffe's 1902 Two Light Stained Glass Window in St Ethelbert's Church in Herringswell. Suffolk, titled "Suffer little children." (Wikimedia Commons Photo by Weglinde)
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Oscar Romero
Archbishop Oscar Romero
"Our children are watching us. They put their trust in us. They're gonna be like us…"
-- Lyrics from "I Hope" from the Dixie Chicks' album "Taking the Long Way"
After a week in which children have been used as footballs in fundamentalist, sexist culture wars, I'm trying very hard not to give in to despair. And it's so hard, as my girls The Dixie Chicks sing on one of my favorite albums, "Taking the Long Way."
First there was Sunnie Kahle, a sports-lovin' tomboy of an 8-year-old with a pixie haircut and an equally impish smile. Her school, Timberlake "Christian" School in Lynchburg, Va. (quotes mine), sent her grandparents a letter saying that unless Sunnie started letting her hair grow and dressing like a girl, she wouldn't be welcome. They claimed she looked too much like a boy and was confusing the children. To the credit of her grandparents, who have adopted their granddaughter, they took Sunnie out of Timberlake and put her in public school. "She cries when the bus comes, and she cries when she comes home, because she wants to be back at Timberlake with her friends," her grandmother told the local TV station.
Next, the international mission agency World Vision announced it would accept gays and lesbians in legal same-sex marriages as employees. The fundamentalist "evangelical" crowd went ballistic, pulling thousands of dollars of sponsorships for children in a vicious backlash. The popular (and truly evangelical) blogger Rachel Held Evans, a World Vision supporter, tried to back up the organization by posting a link on her site, getting dozens of Christians to sponsor in hopes of replacing World Vision's lost revenue. Instead, two days later, World Vision USA rescinded its decision, leaving Held Evans, her fans, and many others shocked and confused.
People, what in the world are we doing? Are we so hell-bent on reinforcing gender stereotypes and bashing gays and lesbians that we have totally forgotten the teachings of Jesus Christ? I've read through the gospels countless times in my 60 years of life experience, and I'll be darned if I can find one teaching of Jesus that says a little girl can't have short hair and love sports, or that people in loving, committed, legal unions aren't fit employees for Christian organizations.
Instead I have found many verses about the sins of self-righteousness, and about religious leaders who impose oppressive rules on people, and about uncaring people who pass by those who are suffering. I can find lots of verses by Paul about specific questions within certain congregations regarding cultural values, but even then the verses refer back to the teachings of Jesus about loving God and loving one's neighbors.
We Christians should be ashamed of the ways some of our sisters and brothers have acted this week. (Yes, though we may find their actions reprehensible, they are our spiritual kin through the bond of baptism). Nonetheless, if someone or something is going to claim an identity as a follower of Jesus Christ, then to my mind that person or organization had better be demonstrating rules and actions that reflect Jesus' teachings. And if they don't, then we as the body of Christ have the obligation to reprove and even rebuke them for their behavior. Thankfully, many of us already have this week, as the online responses to these two episodes have shown.
What breaks my heart about the news stories of Sunnie Kahle and World Vision's children is the vicious insensitivity with which they were targeted. Sunnie's principal wouldn't meet with her family about the school rules; she sent an officious letter. World Vision's donors apparently didn't think about the damage withdrawing their money would do to children and their communities; they simply followed their own selfish interests, as Rachel Held Evans points out.
What makes these events doubly hard for me to endure is that this week we remembered Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated on March 24, 1980 for trying to stop the violence in his country, El Salvador. When he was named archbishop, Monsignor Romero was expected to bless the status quo, including the brutal repression of the poor. Instead his eyes were opened to the suffering around him, and he became the champion of the poor and the peacemakers, following Jesus Christ. Because he called on the Salvadoran army to refuse to kill any more, he was shot through the heart as he celebrated Holy Communion. These days many people, including me, venerate him as San Romero de las Americas, Saint Romero of the Americas.
Against the memory of San Romero's sacrifice, we have two instances in which bigotry has wounded both children and adults. Just as a bullet pierced San Romero's heart, these attacks are rifle shots through the heart of Jesus. Fear and hatred have crucified him again.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.