Advocacy and Ecumenical Collaboration
Friday, March 14 2008, 07:59 AM EDT
Mused by: CMcCoy
An address to PC(USA) Participants at Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Alexandria, VA as part of a dinner hosted by the Presbyterian Washington Office, March 8, 2008.
Advocacy and Ecunenical Collaboration
It gives me great pleasure to bring greetings from the presbyteries and congregations of the Synod of the Northeast, and from my co-executive colleague Mary Lynne Flowers.
When Catherine Gordon asked me whether I might address this gathering on the topic of the importance of advocacy and ecumenical cooperation, I was reminded of a story Garrison Keillor once told about an invitation he accepted to drop the ceremonial first puck at a Minnesota North Stars' hockey game. This was a number of years ago when the North Stars – who have been the Dallas Stars for fifteen years now – were still in Minnesota. Keillor said he was a little anxious about what he was being asked to do, especially about walking on the ice. He was put at ease when he noticed there was a red carpet that led out to center ice; but as he got closer to center of the ice rink he realized that someone was waiting for him with a microphone. No one had said anything in the invitation about his having to address the crowd. He had become known for telling stories, of course, but he hadn’t prepared any remarks. As he was thinking about what he might possibly say, he heard his mother’s voice in the back of his head, saying, “Gary, tell them Romans 3:23: ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!’”
"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
Keillor thought about this momentarily and then said, “But Mom, if you’re a Minnesota North Stars fan, you know that already!”
That's what I thought initially about anything I might say concerning the importance of advocacy and ecumenical cooperation to this group that has come to be part of Ecumenical Advocacy Days: “You know that already.” You have an idea of the importance of your voice, and of our voices together.
Still, let me ask you a question: Was anyone, who is here tonight, on the south lawn of the White House on July 26, 1990? Does anyone know what happened on that day?
July 26, 1990 was the day George Herbert Walker Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. That action turned out to be important to people I love and to other friends I know. The year following the passage of that law I met a man whose son, a senior in high school, had acquired a public school placement in a private school that served students with learning differences. His dad said to me at the school open house: “This school saved my son’s life.” But it is likely that the reason his son was able to attend that school was because of the ADA, and the doors it opened.
A couple years ago I returned to a church where I was once pastor to assist with a wedding. When the service was over I went unaccompanied to the pastor’s office to wait for the wedding party to return to the sanctuary for photos. As I got to the office I was met by an attractive young woman, in her mid-twenties, who was waiting for me. I must have looked a bit confused. “You don’t remember me, do you?” she asked. “No, I’m sorry I don’t,” I said. Exasperated, she told me her name, and I recognized her instantly. “I’m twenty-four!” she said, as though she could not believe it herself. Dyslexic but very bright, she wanted to tell me after thirteen years how well she was doing: that she had her Associates Degree and had plans to complete her Bachelors Degree. She wanted me to see how well she had done.
As I think about that man and his son, and about this young woman, I can’t help but think about July 26, 1990 and the doors that opened for more than 43 million Americans affected by all kinds of disabilities. We’re a better people because of it, and these two young people had opportunities opened to them that they would otherwise never have had. And their opportunity and their successes were made possible because of all the people who worked to bring the Americans with Disabilities Act into being.
I had not been a part of making that law happen, but I’m grateful for the people who were a part of it. It took nine long years to get to that signature on the South Lawn. People worked tirelessly, not letting obstacles stand in their way. And the forty-three million people who benefitted from the ADA, along with their family members, stand on the shoulders of all those others who had advocated for it.
When I think about advocacy, if I’m drawing my attention to the scripture, I can’t help but think about Moses, who was called by God to go speak to Pharaoh – to go speak God’s word to the Empire! You’ll remember that God had heard the cries of his people in Egypt, and God wanted Moses to hear those cries as well. Moses of course was full of excuses, and God took the excuses away: “You can’t speak well? Take your older brother Aaron and he will speak for you.” And although there is no record of God’s having said it, God might as well as told Moses to pay attention to his sister Miriam’s talent for teaching people to sing and dance, because they would need her to do that when it was time to celebrate.
What I want you to see is that while Moses was speaking to the Emperor about the vulnerable ones, just as God had called him to do, the Bible does not sugar coat how much persistence it took to get Pharaoh – and anyone else in the Empire system who liked taking advantage of the vulnerable ones – to pay attention and do what was right.
Just look at what happened with the signs and wonders that unfolded. It all started with Moses’ stick, that became a snake, followed by Pharaoh’s magicians, who made their sticks into snakes too, although Pharaoh should have known what he was up against when Moses’ snake ate the magicians’ snakes. But Pharaoh was still ready to veto the “We’re Leaving Egypt” bill.
This calls to mind what National Council of Churches Executive Director Michael Kinnamon said last night about the passage and veto, and passage and veto, of S-CHIP -- the national State Children’s Health Insurance Program that will provide low cost health insurance for families and children -- and the way both houses of Congress approved the bill two years ago, which was subsequently vetoed by the President. The people from Ecumenical Advocacy Days came back the next year, and people who worked for the bill did not give up. The Congress passed it again; but the President vetoed it again. Now here we are, as Kinnamon said, “back again.”
That’s the way it was with Moses and Pharaoh. Moses was persistent. What came after the snakes? The Nile river turned red with blood, and the fish died and smelled awful. But Pharaoh wasn’t moved. He got out his veto pen. The Israelites weren’t going anywhere.
Then came frogs that infiltrated every home and were in every bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, and then they died and were piled up so high they smelled. But Pharaoh still exercised his veto.
But Moses didn’t give up. With every veto God gave Moses an answer, and he was persistent: lice, flies, a live stock die off, boils on humans and beasts, hail that ruined the harvest, followed by locusts and darkness.... You know where this list ends and how horrid it is. It was an awful list of responses from a persistent God until Pharaoh was ready to put the veto pen down.
Remember that it took nine years of work to bring the Americans With Disabilities Act into being. It provided accessibility some of us take for granted now. But it took a lot of work, and a passionate belief that its passage was the right thing to do, no matter who said it was too expensive. That says something about the importance of Advocacy, and about the importance of persistence. We can’t let them wear us down.
I want to close with something about the importance of ecumenical cooperation, too. It’s this simple: we need one another. We need to add our Presbyterian voices to the voices of others; we need each other’s gifts just as Moses needed his brother Aaron’s gift to speak clearly to Pharaoh. We need one another.
And there is a special something you can take into those offices of Congressmen and Congresswomen, and Senators, and I want to tell you what that is: it’s your integrity and your passion for what is right.
I want to tell you about an ecumenical partner named Linda Chidsey. She is a Quaker, part of our delegation of the Executive and Bishops’ Collegium of the New York State Council of Churches. We come to Washington to make our voices heard each spring. Most of us want to get right to the briefings prepared for us, and then take what we know and what we think we know and what we believe, and speak to the people in power in the government – to fulfill that role to which Moses was called.
But Linda does something really special for us when we’re chomping at the bit. She’s the one who calls us to a deeper place, who calls us to our spiritual roots, who helps us to center on who were are, and Whose we are, and what we are about. She helps us get to a deeper place, to hear the voice of the vulnerable, the way God helped Moses hear the voice of those crying out in bondage, so that we can speak our truth, with our own integrity, in the halls of power. That depth of spirit, that depth of authenticity – that’s the best gift you can take with you into those offices of Congressmen and women and your Senators.
I’m glad you are here. May God give you every gift you need to hear those voices, and to speak the truth with conviction in the name of Jesus Christ.
Comments (0)
Synod Executives' Blog
http://execumusings.synodne.org/article.php/20080314075932828