A KNOTTY PROBLEM IN THE CONTEMPORARY CHURCH

This question was asked of me and others on a different forum  by a minister who is considering taking training to be a military Chaplain. When he found out that the place he is going to take his training at is very liberal in it’s approach to the issue of homosexuals in ministry. I Answered as follows.  Many have seen this answer and have taken comfort from it, as well as some who have disagreed with it,  but,  those who disagreed stated that they saw it as one of the most considered replies that they had seen concerning this issue. That may be true,all I can say is  these are my feelings.  Where my family and I worship our Church has stood by the precept that homosexuals cannot engage in the practice of their prediliction, if they are in the clergy. If they become active in a relationship, or do not remain celibate, they must leave their ministry.

The pressure of the liberal elements of the hierarchy is tremendous and you can rest assured, that this stand will eventually fail.

Same sex marriages being legal in Massachusetts now almost gaurantees this will probably be overturned during the next world conference session in 2008.
It was incredibly close in 2004.

The proscriptions against sexual iniquity in scripture were to preclude the abuse of the helpless or the weak in relations of potential power based sexual encounters, as well as the simple degradation of human beings as objects, to be used to slake your thirst then once they had fullfilled their purpose to be discarded much like a used kleenex. A crappy way to treat any human being but unfortunately all too common.

The sexual slavery practiced by the Romans that St. Paul preaches against in the Roman letter to the congregation in Rome, is the stand out case in point if you are speaking of homosexual behaviour.

A personal stance in todays world supposedly must consider the “newly revealed research of the present” which you will note, I place in quotation marks.

As clergy the consideration is two fold,  personal,  and then the position of servant leadership that a minister must fulfill. Also to be considered,  is the role of the minister in authority,  as one in the line of apostolic succession and the discipline, which must in conscience be maintained, for the integrity of the church.

Now,  we must consider what it is we are being asked to do. In my opinion it is to be,  simply put,  Christians.  It is not for us to condone this behaviour,  due to scriptural proscription,  but we must not condemn out of hand those who are so inclined. We as human beings are all with fault, we all are broken in some way. Homosexuals are simply broken in a different way than I am, or you are.

This position has been reached after years of deep unrest and thought on my part and should in no way be considered to be an official position of anybodies church, but the result of soul searching and consideration of the human condition.

I support the position of the church at present, but will not, if the ministry is allowed to be degraded further due to scriptural caveats and directives being disobeyed.

As for those NOT in ministry, my feelings are best stated as follows,  what ever problems God has with homosexuals is between He and they, not they and I.

They are,  and will continue to be,  welcome in my church to worship,  as long as their deportment is commensurate with decorous behaviour.  Which, by the way,  I would demand of heterosexual couples also.  We must consider also,  who directed them to worship,  perhaps God?
No living human being has the answer to that one, least of all me.

I hope this will help you, Be well sister and best wishes to your husband and may he be found worthy. Rev. Bruce Holzrichter………Tawodi 

MOTHER TERESA

I am sure that over the last several days many of you have seen the stories that have come out. The focus of these is, whether or not, she lost her faith. For those who don’t understand theology, I felt it should be explained, in that light, for those who may be somewhat dissillusioned by all of this.

The first example we should examine, is that of Jesus on the cross.

In His extremity we know that He cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me!?”

This cry is exemplary of two things for us to understand, the first of which is, at that moment Jesus had assumed the sins of all human kind. It was at this moment that he was, for the first time In His existance, separated from the presence of God.

A horrifying experience of course but, once again, one for us to KNOW, in our hearts as well.

Mother Teresa knew, every day, horrors of existance we can not even concieve in the forms of, disease, poverty, starvation and, human cruelty and neglect.

The quavering of belief in these circumstances, if it did NOT occur, would be astounding. The fact that it did, is great testimony to the steadfastness of this great, humble, human being, that we, Catholic or Protestant, know as MOTHER Teresa. Indeed belief in God or the tennets of Christianity has very little to do with that understanding among all people.

The question that should be asked is how, with this question that she presents to her confidant for spiritual support, did she maintain her steadfast sense of duty and commitment to the service to those she brought comfort to and God.

Faith is the answer, faith pure and simple. People of great faith know, that in the seeming absence of God, is our greatest trial and triumph as human beings.

We realise, that to prevail in these times God MUST be present for us to succeed, or even have a chance to succeed, at all!!

Now, I have not seen anything but what you have seen on the television but, when I read the book (and I will ) I am positive this is what we will find, that in the silences of her heart she knew God and knew He was there, in her work her efforts, and her life.

How do I know this? I, like you, am a human being, and after the darkest times in my life, and I have had some pretty gloomy times, after the passing of the storm, I became aware that I NEVER would have made it with out God. I, no way, no how, had any where near the strength or fortitude or knowledge, to do so at the time. That is the plain, flat, truth of it, I can not take any credit for my success at those times, none at all. I was usually lost, frightened and alone, with no clue of what to do, or where to turn, that is the truth.

So now you have a little to chew on from two directions. How God can seem to be absent. Why He would choose to seem that way, and perhaps understand how Jesus Himself could have thought the same thing……..Being forsaken.

Be well all, take heart……Tawodi…out

WOW, FINALLY, SOME BODY ELSE BESIDES ME IS WRITING IT !!!

You may have noticed that I have a link to American muslim .org on my blog roll, you may have even gone there to read. Well,  I haven’t been there in about a month and did I get a surprise!!

It’s a great big GOOD  surprise. They have put,  right on the front page,  the sources links and statements of moderate Muslims everywhere against terrorism,  in   NO UNCERTAIN TERMS!!

We stand with them and applaud them,  for their courage,  and it does take courage. There are those who don’t want peace. I’ve  heard from some of them and so have some of my Muslim friends working for understanding between people everywhere.

To the People of Abraham,  Stand proud of our brothers and sisters in peace at   American Muslim .org   salute them, support them,  cheer them on,   write your comment to them,  either here,  or at the site linked in the blogroll on the right.

Be well all,  stand strong……………..Rev.  Bruce…………………………………………………Tawodi

Hospice care death and dying and psychological aspects of care

On my blog radio show TAWODI’S HAWKS NEST for the last two weeks I have dedicated the shows to the care of the dying and their families.  I have noticed that this subject gets a lot of hits here on the blog. Sooo I decided that perhaps to talk of it may help those who come here looking for that help. If you look on the right hand column you will see a blog roll and about half way down there is Tawodi’s Hawks nest click there and you will go to the show and the archived segments click on the large blue type at the top left and you will find them listed . they are down loadable in ipod or mp 3 format or you can set a tape recorder in front of your speakers and tape ie or direct feed in stereo to the tape deck if so equipped DO NOT worry about copyrighted material it is all mine and you are welcome to it as is everyone in any aspect of my ministry. If you have further questions you can ask them here or at the show page comment section .

Be well,  take care …………..Rev. Bruce………………………………………………….Tawodi

The People of Abraham, Christians Muslims and Jews

I suddenly realised it’s been awhile since I have written about the interfaith group and when I went to Robert Salaam’s blog,  got a  pleasant surprise.  He had  written about it !  Well one of the things he mentioned is that so many seem to think that you must give up,  or change something that you believe to become involved with the People of Abraham.

NOT SO!!

Well there is one thing you must be willing to let go of………your preconcieved notions of who the people who practice other faiths are and what THEY believe.

One of the biggest drawbacks we have faced is the inability for some to understand they are woefully ignorant!  Oh they think they know of what they speak about what others believe but when you ask the people who practice the faith they believe the contrasts are laughable insomuch as they are not tragic!!  The hatred and bigotry toward others of different faiths is of incredible proportions .  And is quite frankly frightening.

What is frightening about it is that those who speak as they do against others,  vehemently deny they hate,  or denigrate others of disparate faiths…..One must ask …..if not,  why do you SAY the things you do??

I will not put down here what is said,  as there are those who may mistake my writing them as my viewpoint and NOTHING,  could be further from the truth!  All of you have seen them said in writing and must have asked yourself what’s up with that ?  Or worse,  BELIEVED IT!

The bridges of understanding are terribly difficult to build,  with all the invective out there and with the just plain lousy information being parroted by ignorant fools and accepted by others as the truth!!  I’m sorry,  there is no other way to say it.

I don’t want to get into the types of things here as I said,  but Christians say them about Muslims and Jews,  the people of Islam say them about Christians and Jews and the Jews say them about the Christians and the Muslims .  What it adds up to is general dissention which leads to distrust then to out right hatred,  and it all comes from what could loosly be called tribalism. If you are not inside the tribe,  you must be from,  and STAY,  outside!!

As you may or may not know this poison has infected the human race since the beginning and we must work and work hard to eliminate it or quite frankly we may be doomed. We as a species have the means and in some cases the will,  to erradicate the human race,  even all life as we know it from this planet.  Do you doubt me?? listen to some of the evangelicals as they say it’s coming and there is nothing we can do or should do to stop it!! Almost as if they are eagerly awaiting the cosmic weenie roast, of billions of human beings and they will have a ringside seat and tickets to watch!!

Well there is one unfortunate aspect to that……… just as those who stupidly call for war seem to always forget……….The other guys have guns too and they WILL use them this is not a Jet Li movie where he shoots and for every shot a bad guy goes down but the bad guys never hit anybody with hundreds of shots …..well real life is NOT like that,  don’t you forget it !!  The bad guys sometimes are damn good shots too!!  And unlike the average fat assed American,  are not wedded to their couches,  they are NOT afraid to die,  to kill you,  your kids,  or anyone else for that matter they (the bad guys)  are in their way just as,  if not more so, steeped  and brainwashed in their belief systems,  that are a corruption of their religion, just as some Christians corrupt their own precepts.

We are concerned with reaching those who have not been so corrupted and with us can work to serve the God we all profess to believe in The God of Abraham the God of the living,  not a God of death and destruction,  as so many think. 

Join us,  we need you,  in a very short time there will be posted here a means to do just that ….be advised,  you may be called upon to put your butt where your words say you are,  so be prepared!!

Be well all take care in this crazy world………………..Rev. Bruce………………………………………….Tawodi