{"id":107,"date":"2017-01-22T04:10:46","date_gmt":"2017-01-22T04:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/franklinian.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2017-01-22T04:10:46","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T04:10:46","slug":"sacredresistence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"#SacredResistence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The thing I love about my church is the same thing that drives me crazy; we are neither required nor expected to be unified in our beliefs. And we often disagree. The same is true of our parish compared to other parishes in our diocese, and our diocese compared to other dioceses in the entire Episcopal Church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Try working for a church with those many divergent opinions! I\u2019ll tell you, it can be hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, there are some things that we overwhelmingly believe as followers of Christ, such as;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These two statements come from our baptismal covenant, and they speak truth to what unites all of us disagreeing Episcopalians. <\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever started singing a song with a bunch of friends, and you get to the second or third verse and suddenly everyone is saying something slightly different; then, the chorus returns and everyone is singing in unison once again? That is what it means to be a Christian I think. We\u2019re singing the same song, but we each know it differently.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then you have that friend that is only pretending to sing along because they don\u2019t really know the song. And that other friend who makes a nasty face and says they hate the song. And you feel annoyed, and wished you hadn’t offered them a ride, because they\u2019re never happy about anything. Wait, where was I going with this? Anyways\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

What I am trying to say, I guess, is stay passionate in your beliefs as long as you remember the chorus that unites our song; namely, loving our neighbors as ourselves. If you cannot see beyond your own needs, you will always be that person who hates the song. Don\u2019t hate the song. No one really likes that person (but we still love them.)<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have to be marginalized, to feel the pain of other people\u2019s marginalization. I don\u2019t have to be a victim of prejudice, to react angrily to people\u2019s mistreatment. I don\u2019t have to be a segment of this country that gets paid less because of their gender, to know that it isn\u2019t right.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, while leading prayer at church, I was able to both lead the prayer for our President and quote Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s call for peaceful resistance. I was able to \u201cpassionately discuss\u201d our Episcopal Church\u2019s involvement in the inauguration, and take to the streets with dear friends at the Women\u2019s March in Los Angeles. I couldn\u2019t be more grateful for that level of agreement and disagreement. It\u2019s one of those things that makes my faith feel real. It is challenging and it is wonderful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last weekend, a good friend was ordained and I attended the service. During the sermon, the priest said that every good priest must \u201ccommit a little heresy.\u201d I love that idea, and not just for priests. Defying the orthodoxy of faith is quite liberating. I recommend you try it if you haven’t yet. God knows Jesus did! Something tells me that many of the Rabbi\u2019s of his time didn\u2019t like him much, or so I\u2019ve read. <\/span><\/p>\n

So be brave, be opinionated, be in agreement and disagreement; and if the mood fits, take to the streets. Just make sure though that it is always from a place of love, and if it\u2019s not, try to find a way to fake it until you make it back to the chorus.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thing I love about my church is the same thing that drives me crazy; we are neither required nor expected to be unified in our beliefs. And we often disagree. The same is true of our parish compared to other parishes in our diocese, and our diocese compared to other dioceses in the entire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[18,21,20,19],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theological-reflection","category-writing","tag-sacredresistence","tag-baptismal-covenant","tag-episcopal-church","tag-womens-march"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}