My prayer at the Virginia General Assembly

I should have posted this a few days ago. It was my honor and privilege to give the opening prayer at the Virginia General Assembly last Friday, also marking the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. As some of you know, I was the Chaplain to the California Senate for four years and did this every legislative day. I much enjoyed seeing another legislature in action (or in the opening stages of action), and I am grateful to Delegate David Toscano for inviting me. Below is my prayer, inspired by a blessing written by William Sloane Coffin many years ago.

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Gracious and loving God, as we honor in the next few days the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we come before you with gratitude for his prophetic life and service, and we give thanks for the opportunity to serve in our own time.

Give us the eyes to see the possibilities others do not see, and the ears to hear the people whose voices are seldom heard.

May our lawmakers risk something big for something good; may they remember that the world is too large for anything but compassion, and too small for anything but cooperation.

May God kindle in our hearts the courage to break down the boundaries that divide us, the wisdom to lift up those who are poor, sick, oppressed and afraid, and the strength to work tirelessly to make real our nation’s promise of equal justice for all.

May our lawmakers build this great commonwealth not just for ourselves but as a beacon to the world for generations to come. In this we pray, AMEN.

Virginia attorney general's opinion not justice

I do not want the week to slip by without expressing my strong dismay and deep disappointment at the legal opinion by Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Virginia's new attorney general, claiming that schools and universities have overstepped their bounds by enacting non-discrimination protections for gays and lesbians. To read the attorney general's opinion, click HERE.

I am not in a position to critique his legal analysis. He may well be correct that Virginia law does not allow the education system to extend legal protections to gay people. If so, that is a critique on Virginia and its political leaders. You do not have to favor gay marriage to understand that people should have the right to earn a living and live as who God created them to be. That is the underpinning of our justice system, and here in the land of Thomas Jefferson, that ought to be the principle that guides our lawmakers and attorney general.

Sadly, that is not the case today.

It is disturbing that Cuccinelli's opinion is among his first official acts as attorney general. Cuccinelli was sworn into office January 16, and either there was little else demanding his time, or stripping away legal protections for gay people was a high priority for him. In either case, I find that shameful, and his action is a throw-back to the Anita Bryant political pandering and bigotry of the 1970s.

Let me also state this clearly: The attorney general's opinion is a direct threat to my congregation. The lifeblood and mission of St. Paul's is the University of Virginia, where many of my members are students, faculty or staff, and many of them are gay. Cuccinelli's narrow reading of the law turns on a green light to discriminate against them. And that, it must be said by this Christian, is not justice, and it has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus, or the declaration of the prophet Micah 6:8 to "do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."

I will have more to say on this in another post on another day.

Ash Wednesday and those who live in the ashes

Two items for you this Ash Wednesday: the first in Virginia and the second in Sacramento. I hope these are of interest to friends on both coasts, for we are all connected in this shrinking world.

The first was brought to my attention by Joan Burchell earlier this week: a report by the Commonwealth and Voices of Virginia Children that predicts how the recession will hit the poor in Virginia:

Forecasting for the first time the impact of the current recession’s rising unemployment on the number of Virginians forced into poverty, a new report by The Commonwealth Institute and Voices for Virginia’s Children estimates that an additional 122,000 to 218,000 people will be living in poverty by year’s end. Among the hardest hit will be Virginia’s children with an additional 44,000 to 73,000 children living in poverty.

“Increases in unemployment lead to increases in poverty,” said , executive director of The Commonwealth Institute. “This new information provides us a look around the corner to see what lies ahead for Virginia as the economy worsens.”

You can read the full report HERE.

Next, please watch Oprah today at 4pm if you get a chance. My very close friends at Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento are featured today, and the program takes a walk with Sister Libby Fernandez into the tent towns on the rivers and the gruesome poverty of Sacramento. This is from an email earlier this week from Joan Burke at L&F:

The Oprah Winfrey Show asked Loaves & Fishes if they could interview one of the homeless mothers at Maryhouse. Favor Whitesides [in the middle in the photo above with her family], a very devoted mother of three bright and beautiful children, agreed to share her story. Oprah Correspondent Lisa Ling (Carmichael native), Sister Libby and I also visited the large tent city in Sacramento with over 100 tents spread out over several acres as far as the eye can see. Over 200 people live there in a scene straight out of the Great Depression. When I asked the film crew if they had seen anything like it anywhere else, the sound man replied, “Only in a war zone.”

Our friends at L&F provided this link to the program if you want to know more: OPRAH.

On this Ash Wednesday, and throughout Lent, I hope all of us will think and pray about the role we can play in lifting people out of the ashes. While Ash Wednesday and Lent are intensely personal, part of our introspection should take us outside of ourselves to ask how we can become servants to those in poverty all around us. Tomorrow, Feb. 26, IMPACT will be holding a large gathering to talk about our involvement in the community, and if you can make it, please do. To learn more about IMPACT and St. Paul's role, please check out the IMPACT blog set up by John Frazee HERE.

I pray you have a blessed Ash Wednesday and a holy Lent.