{"id":37185,"date":"2017-08-21T09:56:18","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T14:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=37185"},"modified":"2017-08-24T14:02:15","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T19:02:15","slug":"the-trouble-with-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/21\/the-trouble-with-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble with Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In light of recent events in Charlottesville, VA, it is worth calling to mind (yet) again, remarks by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in December 1963.\u00a0 He was asked: \u201c<\/strong>Don\u2019t you feel that integration can only be started and realized in the Christian church, not in schools or by other means?\u201d\u00a0 He replied: \u201c<\/strong>We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this.\u201d*<\/p>\n

We cite this observation repeatedly, and it becomes trite or banal or clich\u00e9.\u00a0 We repeat it, however, because it remains stubbornly accurate.\u00a0 This past Sunday, many Christians heard the Isaian characterization of the Jerusalem Temple as \u201ca house of prayer for all peoples\u201d (Isa. 56:7).\u00a0 The distribution of different racial and ethnic groups across the United States is not uniform, of course.\u00a0 We cannot have uniform proportional representation of all ethnic groups in each parish any more than an average family can really have 2.3 children.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Christians can and should ask whether their houses of prayer are truly welcoming places for believers drawn from \u201call peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is worth noting, I think, that each of the synoptic gospels puts these words on the lips of Jesus (Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46) and that in each case, Jesus adds a line from Jeremiah about turning the Temple into a \u201cden of robbers.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus was no doubt referring to the rates of exchange used by the money-changers in the Temple district and perhaps as well to sellers charging exorbitant prices for animals and grains to be offered in sacrifice.\u00a0 Yet when our houses of prayer are not indeed houses of prayer for all people, do they not also become dens of robbery, denying to the \u201cothers\u201d their dignity and worth?<\/p>\n

I want to avoid mere tokenism, of course, but could each and every parish (whether majority Caucasian, majority Hispanic or majority black) think about making use at least on occasion of songs with (some) lyrics in Spanish or drawn from the rich heritage of African-American spirituals?\u00a0 We run into limits here as well: for example, according to its website the archdiocese of Los Angeles offers ministry and worship in 42 languages.\u00a0 Asking any one parish to employ 42 languages would be impractical to say the least.<\/p>\n

Yet the \u201cnormal\u201d with which we now live is a problem.\u00a0 As Canadian songwriter Bruce Cockburn has put it, \u201cthe trouble with normal is it always gets worse.\u201d**<\/p>\n

I invite your thoughts.<\/p>\n

* http:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/sunday-at-11-the-most-segregated-hour-in-this-nation<\/a><\/p>\n

** https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=resQhP3pksU<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cnormal\u201d with which we now live is a problem. 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