Invoking in Public
http://www.perspectivesjournal.org/2006/10/essay-invoking.html
by John Rollefson
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."
--Flannery O'Connor
The call came from our County Supervisor's office inquiring if I would be
willing to "do the invocation" for an upcoming Los Angeles County Board
meeting in mid-April. A quick glance at my appointment book confirmed that
the date was the Tuesday after Easter, when I would still be in recovery
mode from Holy Week. But since yet again my congregation had failed to book
me on a cruise to Ensenada for a little R&R, I told the voice on the phone
I'd be delighted to accept the invitation. She said she'd get back to me
with the details.
Weeks passed, and from time to time as I came across the date in my
calendar, I'd wonder briefly about just what I should do for the occasion.
Finally, in mid-Lent, I heard from the supervisor's aide again, confirming
the date and assuring me that a letter would be arriving shortly to fill me
in on the details. In Good Friday's mail, twothirds of the way through my
furious week of leading six services between Palm Sunday and Easter, a
letter arrived on gold-embossed stationary. Attached was a second, hitherto
unmentioned, sheet titled (in bold print) "GUIDELINES FOR INVOCATIONS
BEFORE MEETINGS OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS."
Beginning with a thank you for my interest in giving the opening
invocation, the "GUIDELINES" went on to say that, under constitutional law,
"the government cannot prefer or promote a particular faith or belief over
others, nor can it disparage any faith or belief." I nodded my head. Since
the county cannot be viewed as being affiliated with any specific religious
denomination, speakers were asked to "respect this neutrality" by observing
"certain guidelines for invocations."
Then followed this paragraph that attempted to articulate these
"GUIDELINES:"
In preparing your invocation, please keep in mind that you may not call
upon or invoke names specific to a particular doctrine or denomination. For
example, the California Court of Appeal, in a case challenging use of a
prayer at a Burbank City Council meeting invoking the name "Jesus Christ,"
recently upheld a trial court judgment enjoining the City Council from
"knowingly and intentionally allowing sectarian prayers at City Council
meetings" and ordering the City to "advise anyone conducting a prayer as
part of the City Council meeting that sectarian prayers are not permitted."
However, it is not necessary to strip invocations of all religious or
spiritual characteristics. Thus, invocations may be made in the form of a
prayer and be inspirational in content, so long as these requirements are
observed.
"Huh?" I wondered, more confused than enlightened by these "GUIDELINES."
But the final sentence sounded an even more ominous and intimidating note:
"Your voluntary participation indicates that you will abide by the
guidelines."
I'm not a rookie pastor. I've said prayers before in public: in interfaith
worship settings, while blessing a tree for a public Arbor Day
commemoration, when pronouncing an invocation at a public university's
commencement ceremony. But to the best of my memory, never had I been asked
to pray for an official government meeting. Even before the County Board's
"GUIDELINES" arrived, I had begun wondering whether a prayer was the right
or appropriate thing for me to speak in such a setting. Well-schooled in
the excesses, as well as the inanities, of the piety that parades under the
banner of American civil religion, I decided that my own integrity as a
pastor (who is also an American citizen) was urging me to explore what
might be a new kind of invocation that intended both to abide by the
"GUIDELINES" and to be faithful to my own calling as a Christian.
That April Tuesday dawned warm and sunny, and I found my way to the
Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors in good time. Assigned to me
as my guide was a charming woman who told me she had worked for the County
for nearly twenty-five years. Apparently, baby-sitting the visiting
invokers each Tuesday morning was one of her duties. Los Angeles County,
our politicians love to boast, is the most populous county in the U.S.,
with a population of over 10 million people (including 90,000 homeless),
making it larger than 80% of the states of the Union. As we waited for a
quorum of the Board to arrive, I noticed how the Hearing Room was filling
with folks lobbying for various causes. I also noticed an entourage
surrounding two bearded men in black-hooded robes, whom I took to be
Orthodox priests. They were present, it turned out, to support an agenda
item to endorse an official commemoration of the Armenian Holocaust. Once
the quorum was reached, I was asked to step to the microphone to begin the
meeting with my invocation. This is what I was moved to say:
Thank you for inviting me to give an opening invocation for today's
meeting. Even before receiving your "GUIDELINES FOR INVOCATIONS," I'd
decided that as a Christian, who is also an American citizen who strongly
values the rights and protections articulated in the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, a prayer would not serve us well. Please know that I've
already prayed for you and for the business that you Board members have to
conduct and that my congregation regularly prays for its elected leaders
that you might be given the wisdom and courage to pursue justice, peace,
and the welfare of those you are elected to serve as leaders. Furthermore,
I don't believe that I or any other religious leader has the power to
"invoke" God in the sense of calling God's attention to what we're about.
Rather, I believe that God is the One who calls us into the vocation of our
everyday lives where we are each and all "called" to perform God's work in
the contexts of our very specific responsibilities.
Looking out on the assembled throng, including the Supervisors and their
staff, I could tell that at least I had their attention as some probably
began to worry just what this guy at the microphone was about to say next.
I continued:
You know that just two days ago we Christians of the Western tradition
(I was aware of my Orthodox brothers in the room) celebrated Easter, the
day that God raised Jesus from the grave where he had been laid following
his execution by the political authorities of his day. Next Sunday in our
churches many of us will hear this particular text that I think has
relevance to the work you are all called to do as well as all of us who
call ourselves Christians. This text from the fourth chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles gives us a strong hint as to what it means to live in the
light of the resurrection: "Now the whole group of those who believed were
of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any
possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.... There was not
a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them,
and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles'
feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need." This is a text, as
some of you know, that became the inspiration of Karl Marx's (now I could
feel the fidgeting of the crowd) famous "from each according to their
ability, to each according to their need," a text that we can admit neither
free market nor socialist societies have found easy to embody--for that
matter, neither has the church itself. It remains for us the challenge of
seeking the welfare of the city rather than merely ourselves and "our own,"
as the prophet Jeremiah urged. So, instead of a prayer, I'd like to read as
inspiration for your important work a bit of a prophetic poem written by
the poet/farmer Wendell Berry. It's titled "Manifesto" and articulates
well, I think, what many of us think comes much closer to articulating
genuine Christian values than what some today are claiming as such."
I then proceeded to share with them Berry's fine poem--
[ This particular pastor then went on to talk about the socialism of the
early church which was the inspiration for Karl Marx, and read a poem
"Manifesto" by Wendell Berry.]
Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC30/Berry.htm
a lyric set of thoughts that include the lines,
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
The poem concludes by saying,
Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
Practice resurrection.
"Thanks. It's been good to be with you," I concluded. And finally, giving
the Board the prayer they'd invited me to give, I ended, "Blessings on your
work!" Following this we all turned to face the stars and stripes, put our
hands over our hearts, and were led in the Pledge of Allegiance by my
fellow invitee, a retired vet who got us through "one nation, under God"
alright but then stumbled over "indivisible" on our way to "with liberty
and justice for all."
Driving back home to my noon appointment (a regular pick-up basketball game
at the nearby county recreation center), I couldn't help but ponder both
the possible impact and appropriateness of my "invocation." Had I performed
the service I was invited to provide? Had I supplied the "inspiration" the
Board desired? Had I abided by the "GUIDELINES" to which my "voluntary
participation" had committed me? Had I been true to my own responsibilities
as a citizen and to First Amendment protections? Had I been true to my own
faith commitments as a Christian called to be a pastor? Had I been a
witness (a "martyr" in Greek) to the Good News of Jesus Christ? And
finally, had I lived up to my own exhortation to the County Board to
"practice resurrection?"
Just as I was dropping off to sleep two nights later, I suddenly remembered
that a tape of the County Board meeting was scheduled to be broadcast that
same evening on public access television. Rushing downstairs, I turned on
the TV to find the Board session being opened by a rather rumpled-looking,
balding guy who took something less than four minutes not to say the
opening invocation that the crowd seemed to be expecting. But for all my
admitted lack of objectivity, I was satis- fied with, if not exactly
gratified by, what I heard and saw. I was, I thought, practicing
resurrection in my own way. After all, the Gospel is an "odd" truth that
makes us free, even free from conventional "invoking."
John Rollefson is the pastor at Lutheran Church of the Master in west Los
Angeles, California. In the past thirty years he has pastored congregations
in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Ann Arbor. John and his wife Ruth are the
parents of two grown sons.
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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