When the Winds Are So Strong

~ philipamerson ~ 1 Comment

When the Winds Are So Strong

On the Fourth of July another thunderstorm swept across our neighborhood—the fourth storm in less than two weeks. Two of those events carried tornadoes across southern Indiana. This one spared us the worst of that violence, but a great sycamore near our house had shed broad sheets where bark was ripped away. The tree looked skinned, wounded.

I remembered an old children’s story that sycamore trees began shedding bark after Zacchaeus slid down from its branches when Jesus called him by name. Of course, that is not how sycamores work, and yet, like many children’s stories, it tells a deeper truth. Encounters with grace leave their mark.

This Fourth of July came during a season when it sometimes feels as though powerful winds are blowing through our public life as well. Customs once taken for granted seem fragile. Public trust is worn thin. We are told daily to fear one another, to choose outrage over understanding, and certainty over humility.  Voting rights are being skinned away from our Constitutional commitments.  The deep truths of our history are “being disappeared.” Military officers are being dismissed due to race or sex.  The White House and the geography around it are being scarred by foolish bigotries, hubris, greed and discrimination.

Standing beneath that sycamore, I wondered where hope is to be found.

Then I looked down.

Beneath the broken bark, were tiny flowers quietly blooming. They had survived the storm. They possessed no great strength. They had not resisted the wind. They had simply continued doing what flowers have always done.

Their quiet persistence reminded me that the future is often shaped by small things.

We are tempted to believe history turns only on elections, court decisions, legislation, or powerful leaders. Those matter. Yet every healthy democracy also depends upon countless acts that never make the headlines: neighbors speaking honestly, citizens listening respectfully, teachers encouraging curiosity, parents teaching kindness, volunteers serving without recognition, strangers extending grace. Democracy depends on universities teaching for character and integrity — valuing the true, good and beautiful and not bending to the powerful winds of culture or politics while claiming they are bending only to some mythical “institutional neutrality.”

Columnist Thomas Friedman recently observed that our greatest challenge is not simply that we are a divided people, but that we are increasingly being divided by those who profit from fear and suspicion. Division has become a business model.

Yet love has always works differently.

Sometimes it is the small things, the small acts that make a true difference.  At Christmas 1956 Joy and Michael Brown welcomed a young friend from Alabama named Nelle for dinner. Nelle worked ordinary jobs in New York while trying to become a writer. Knowing she could not afford to take time away from work, the Browns quietly placed an envelope on the Christmas tree for her. Their gift was not an extravagant amount. It was something far more valuable – time to write.

At first Nelle felt embarrassed. Then Joy Brown simply said, “We’ve seen your writing. We believe in you.”

Years later Nelle Harper Lee said, “All I heard was, ‘Our faith is in you.'”

That simple act became one of the small seeds from which the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” eventually grew.

Perhaps that is how God has always worked.

President John Kennedy kept on his desk a small plaque bearing the words of an old Breton fisherman’s prayer:

“O God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”

Many mornings those words feel especially true.

The sea before us is vast. The storms are real. Our own efforts often seem painfully small.

But perhaps we ask the wrong question.

Instead of asking whether our single act will change the world, perhaps we should ask whether today we can plant one more seed of hope, speak one truthful word, encourage one discouraged soul, offer one unexpected kindness, protect one vulnerable neighbor. Some days it feels as if our democracy and way of life is being put through a shredder. Where is there hope?

The morning after the storm, the flowers beneath the sycamore reminded me that small things endure.

And history—like the kingdom of God—is often changed not by spectacle, but by countless quiet acts of faithfulness.

Faith, Politics, and the Seduction of Certainty

Church steeple and distant capitol at twilight
~ philipamerson ~ 1 Comment

Faith, Politics, and the Seduction of Certainty

Let’s talk about religion and politics. There—I’ve stepped into the deep end of a pool filled with controversy, disinformation, and predictable outrage. I have my ecclesiastical hip boots on, though I suspect they may not be high enough for the flooding of grievance and critique that will come rushing my way.

Even so, I proceed.

At eighty years old, I have spent much of my life as a pastor, teacher, and seminary president. I have seen faith inspire extraordinary courage, sacrificial service, and moral imagination.

I have also seen religious faith in many forms misused—sometimes by institutions, sometimes by clergy, and increasingly by politicians who seem eager to wrap themselves in religious language they neither fully understand nor faithfully practice.

The recent election of Pope Leo XIV offers one example. All too quickly, political voices—including Donald Trump and J. D. Vance—seemed eager to assess whether the new pope’s theology aligned with their own political assumptions.

That should concern all of us.

When politicians presume authority over theology, they reveal how faith has become less a source of humility and more a tool for ideological control.

And then there are the symbols. We have seen golden statues erected in honor of political leaders while some clergy voices insist there is no resemblance to the biblical warning about golden calves. One need not be especially liberal—or especially conservative—to find such spectacles deeply troubling.

But perhaps the deeper problem is our growing addiction to certainty.

I think of Charlie Kirk. His tragic death deserves mourning. It deserves condemnation and accountability. Violence is never a legitimate response to disagreement.

By all accounts, he was sincere and deeply committed to his beliefs.  But sincerity is not the same as spiritual maturity.

I spent years working with young seminarians and emerging believers. One of the recurring traits of youthful faith is the conviction that every question has a simple answer and every doubt represents weakness.

But the opposite of doubt is not faith. The opposite of doubt is certitude.

Belief — and even the desire for everyone to believe like you –may be the beginning of the journey. It is rarely the destination.

The most remarkable persons of faith I have known were not armed with slogans. They didn’t use the Bible as a cudgel. They were deeply human, shaped by the mulitple complexities of life. They were people who wrestled with scripture, history, suffering, and mystery. They understood that God is always larger than our political tribes.

To be fair, not every public or political expression of faith is performative. I recall the integrity of Senators like Mark Hatfield, Paul Simon, Richard Lugar, and most recently, Ben Sasse.

We have two candidates running for the U.S. Senate currently who offer an alternative way: James Talarico, a seminarian in Texas, attempts to bring thoughtful faith into public life; Adam Hamilton, in Kansas, has shown that large congregations do not have to be built on grievance and fear.

There are signs that many Americans remain spiritually hungry. Worship attendance has improved since the pandemic. Some younger adults appear more willing to explore questions of meaning and purpose.

I hope that hunger finds fulfillment.

But I worry some are confusing religious visibility with religious vitality.


Too many congregations are closing. Too many seminaries struggle to survive. Too many graduates enter service professions that our economic and political systems discount.

And yet religious rhetoric grows louder by the day.

The late University of Chicago theologian Martin Marty often warned against giving away the store to satisfy whatever the marketplace says religion should become. He understood that faith loses its soul when it becomes a product designed to satisfy popular demand.

That warning feels urgent now.

Faith should challenge power—not seek proximity to it at any cost.
Faith should produce humility—not arrogance.
Faith should deepen our compassion—not sharpen our divisions.

And faith should never be reduced to a campaign prop, a social media brand, or a weapon used to identify who belongs and who does not belong.
America does not need louder religion.
It needs deeper faith.

_______________

Philip Amerson May 12, 2026

Canticle for Parish Ministry: Psalm #1

~ philipamerson

Canticle for Parish Ministry: Psalm #1

Recently in a retreat with pastors in New Harmony, Indiana, I saw again the power of music to heal and restore. Pastors gathered there told stories about sacred objects in their lives and ministry and the remarkable musician, Ken Medema, would then respond in improvising a song on the spot for each person.  Often when the song ended there would be applause, sometimes laughter and other times dancing.  On a few occasions, there was sustained silence. We knew we had come to a place of holiness, a thin place, a space where the eternal presence of the divine had touched each one present in that room.  It was a sacred time of reflection and renewal.  Music gave us space to catch our spiritual breath.  Here we begin a series of reflections we will call “Canticles for Parish Ministry.”  Below is Psalm #1.

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In the movie “From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China” the internationally renowned, Polish-born, violinist addresses students in a master class in China: “What is music all about?” Stern asks and continues, “The instrument is only a means to an end; you don’t use music to play the violin, you use the violin to play music.” 

I think of the many times I have been fortunate enough to experience the music of God’s people of faith. These stories are abundant… they will be shared in future canticles. 

I recall the time a colleague was scheduled to lead a holy communion service early one Sunday morning.  He was late; people were waiting; I was angry. Then the few gathered to receive the eucharist heard laughter approaching.  Folks were coming up the stairs from the street into the sanctuary.  Soon our small group was overwhelmed by the arrival of a dozen or so persons from the neighborhood. My colleague, a young pastor “who didn’t know any better” had shared communion with persons sitting on porches or waiting for a store to open.  He then invited them to join us in the sanctuary for the service. You see, a congregation is the instrument, not the music.

Parishes are historically set in geographical bounds but in truth are not limited by space, the clock, or scheduled times of worship. Parishes cut cross the limits of time and space. I know of many small faith accountability groups that were begun over thirty years ago that still gather for meals, support and prayer… some gather weekly or monthly on-line.

Think of the music that baptized the streets of Minneapolis during the winter of 2026. Following the tragic deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, even then, amid tragedy, there was song.  Song from many congregations and from many with no religious commitment at all. During the terror that ICE agents reigned across the metro area, people marched and sang and laughed and gave witness as a choir that could not be muted by violence. Some of the songs had been practiced before in the pews or choir lofts of congregations. Some songs were familiar, but not all. New music was created.

The fortunate pastor knows she is doing more than “playing” an instrument (the congregation) at worship on Sunday mornings or in ministry each and every day. She knows that with enough practice, congregations are made ready to offer up a true and much needed canticle of faith in times of terror and in times of blessing.

In the movie, Stern offers: “Every time you take up the instrument, you are making a statement, your statement, and it must be a statement of faith, that you believe this is the way you want to speak…  Unless you feel that you must live with music, that music can say more than words, that music can mean more, that without music we are not alive, if you don’t feel all of that don’t be a musician.”

As pastor, as church member, if you don’t sense a congregation, a parish, can offer the music of the spheres, why be a pastor or member at all? Perhaps the primary task of pastor is to gather resources for the music of and by the parish. In my experience, the best examples of joy-filled music of faith often comes as a surprise after weeks of practice.  It is, more-often-than-not, played from the outside in rather than from the inside out.

What is God already doing all around you? Many anxious church bureaucrats seek to save the instruments (congregations) without knowing, seeing or hearing the music, the romance, and the offerings of the people. Many remain blind to the opportunities all around. 

Some turn away from an intended democracy of voices among members toward top-down management to control – for the short term.  Or they may try quick fixes imported from elsewhere. Maybe they turn to consulting services and coaching projects for “congregational development.” Theseoften completely miss, or filter out the music, that to be heard all around. A false hope for preferring the instrument rather than the music of the surrounding parish.  (See Geraldo Marti’s “The Church Must Abandon its Search for the Perfect Formula.[i])

I remember attending meetings where those around the table were asked to share a “glory sighting” experienced in recent days. I understood the purpose. However, it seemed so contrived.  It seemed an invitation to limit the real and abundant gifts all around. It was too small in theology, too trivial in scope. One glory sighting only?  Each time I was asked for my “glory sighting,” I thought of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s words:

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

We are experienced in turning congregations into instruments to be played while missing the continuing glory all around. There are benefits to “glory sightings” I guess – asking for one sighting may be a start, but it also too often turns into a narrow focus suggesting the pastor is a fixer and the coach is the expert. Congregational revitalization too often is sold as a solution to worried investors (denominational and congregational leaders). It seeks to better play the instrument, without asking what God’s music is, already in the hearts of those beyond these walls. It ends as a selling of premature funeral plans to those deaf to the music of the spheres.

Yale Divinity School theologian Willie James Jennings speaks of visiting a place where despair and futility was the accepted institutional analysis of members. Jennings spoke then of the joy of the discovery of the newness of God’s mercies discovered as the future was seen in new opportunities.  He reports that the members came to understand they had been “leaving a whole lot of unused Gospel lying all around!”

When I saw the movie about Isaac Stern’s visit to China, I thought of a comment made by Robert K. Greenleaf, who wrote about Servant Leadership. Visiting with Greenleaf many years earlier he said that being a leader is a little like playing the violin, if you can’t hear the music, you shouldn’t try to play the instrument.

Communities contain the essentials of the ongoing human/divine encounter. They are sustained by people who weave and reweave common lives. These are the ones who live the music. These are the music makers because they hear the music of lives shared in harmony. They welcome an ongoing rebirth of a commonweal, suffused with songs, shared stories, timely rituals, friendships, brokenness, tears, language, homes, economic and social artifacts and so much more. These are canticles of human co-existence. Here is the conviviality of abundant life… lived even in the most horrid of settings. 

Our vocations have been often updated by sighting the gifts of reciprocity and mutuality – dialogue, laughter, some tears and the gift of abundant joy and friendship. We have benefitted from the wisdom found in the approach known as Asset Based Community Development and our friendship with many practitioners, especially modern-day prophets like John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann. 

We will say more in future Psalms, from The Canticle for Parishes.  Stay tuned.  Share your thoughts at philipamerson.com.

Attached Below are images from the April 2026 We Belong retreat in New Harmony, Indiana. We weere learning the practice of Accompaniment. If you would like to know more about future events you may contact me at phil@belongingexchange.org.

ENDNOTES:

[i] Marti, Geraldo, “The Church Must Abandon its Search for the Perfect Formula,” in American Blindspot <reply+37rv9h&kxukl&&1d2ba7865550e339e32ead945ffe565f0f8adf82dc1dda3a827884f314f90eec@mg1.substack.com>

Little Donkey Sunday

~ philipamerson

Little Donkey Sunday

Little Donkey Sunday: this is what pastor Dan Caldwell at the Sacred Heart congregation in Bloomington, Indiana called it.  Dan suggested this was a better name for the Sunday before Easter than Palm Sunday.  I think he is right. Dan explained the waving of palms was mentioned only in John’s Gospel, but the picture of Jesus mounting a little donkey or colt is offered each of the gospels.

The parade for Jesus took place on the east side of Jerusalem, coming in from the Mount of Olives.  The crowd gathered and shouted their hosannas.  Jesus, feet dragging the ground, was riding a small donkey.  What a picture!  Is this a sign of conquest?  On the other side of town, the Roman legions were riding their stallions and marching in columns to display their strength. The Romans were there to control any disturbances during Passover observances.  One featured a man on a little donkey, a humble king as portrayed by the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9); the other was a spectacle of might, it was the military power of empire.

Over fifty years ago, my friend, Bill Wiley-Kellermann wrote of these two parades. Bill reminded us then – and now – of these two choices.  People of faith face these today.  Two divergent understandings of power, strength and right. Some like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pray for “overwhelming violence” against the people of Iran. He marries the strength of empire with a half-baked-Christian-theology that suggests faith is defended by Patriot Missiles. Missiles that smash the homes and lives of innocent people, killing thousands, even children, what power do they display?  On the other side of our nation there are the little donkey people.  More humble, even silly, these people march in No Kings demonstrations. 

Pastor Dan has it right. He helps me as I struggle with the many empires of my world.  I struggle to place my faith in the love of neighbor demonstrated by Jesus, riding on a little donkey.  I struggle with more than empires of national or world politics.  There are the empires of the social service industry, of university leaders who succumb to racism and narrow ideology, of social-media-billionaires with algorithms that do harm, or of religious denominational authorities.

In our religious denominational empires, that come replete with bishops, general secretaries, synod execs, and superintendents there are too few who seem to remember the power of the little donkey.  Instead, not all – but too many, march into town parading new structures and corporate plans that are detached from common sense and grass roots relationships.  There is little or no listening to those members in the pew. With top-down stylings and business-shaped designs, they hunger to consolidate power. Frightened by a loss of market share, these religious leaders miss the glory all-around of little donkeys ridden by the faithful.

Let me close with Mary Oliver’s poem “The Poet Thinks of the Donkey”

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
   leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
   clatter away, splashed with sunlight.

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
+ Mary Oliver

+++++++

Too often, I am “tethered by the tree as usual.” That tree is named EMPIRE.  I miss the little donkeys and their riders all around me.  Might I be brave, along with the donkey.

That Which Cannot Be Razed

~ philipamerson

That Which Cannot Be Razed

Admittedly naïve, the Christians at Broadway Church in Indianapolis in 1986 wrote: “As followers of Jesus Christ, responding to God’s love, our mission as the people of Broadway Church is to be a multicultural, Christian community that in its ministry seeks, welcomes, and values ALL people.” We knew it was a challenging aspiration, none-the-less the choice was to be a church that said it welcomed everyone – and acted like it.  No matter. Everyone.  

That congregation hasn’t done it perfectly, but over the decades it has claimed this mission.  Still does.  Yes, we were naïve, about our society, our world and the human condition… or were we? 

A stone church building with a tall tower and large windows, surrounded by trees and greenery.

Life would teach many lessons, some hard ones.  The power of tribalism and fear-stoked resentment has too often overridden respect for all. It has even undermined alliances among western nations.  Today we see bigotry and discrimination, dressed up as ICE agents with masked faces and camouflaged outfits, terrorizing our cities.  Such threatening realities appear to trample on that simple mission statement. 

Naïve?  Surely so.  Wrong as a witness to the love your neighbor message of Jesus?  Not so then, not so, now. The Apostle Paul wrote of this in the earliest years of the church: “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.” (3:28-29 as rendered in The Message).

Twenty years ago, columnist David Brooks wrote of the coming death of multiculturalism. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/opinion/the-death-of-multiculturalism.html. Brooks spoke of what he saw as the excesses of multiculturalism where diversity was too easily celebrated and sometimes prevented true openness to all voices.  He predicted multiculturalism would pass and we would see a “rebirth of liberal American nationalism.”  I wonder what Brooks would say today of the trajectory he offered then? 

Whether one points to the multiculturalism displayed in the Ruth and Naomi story, or to the multiple ways Jesus of Nazareth broke and transformed deep patterns of race, class or religious exclusion, or to the Pentecost events, multiculturalism and faithful Christian practices are intertwined.

At Broadway, shortly after that mission statement was written, a longtime member told me that grand old building of stone and stained glass might one day be gone, it might be razed, but the gift of knowing others who differed in a community of acceptance could never be erased.  Perhaps that congregation at Broadway was not so naïve.  It continues today as faithful to its mission.  So do thousands of other gatherings and activities in the name of Jesus around the world.  Naïve?  Perhaps, it appears so, in the short term.  However, as Eugene Peterson suggested, Christians are called to “a long obedience in the same direction.”

Little Boys with Nuclear Toys

~ philipamerson

The Spector of Little Boys with Nuclear Toys

As I watch and listen to Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and many others, I find myself mumbling “We have little boys with nuclear toys.” There is war in the Middle East, focused primarily on Iran, but also overwhelming nearby Gulf States and Lebanon.  We watch in horror as the war drags on in Ukraine and can’t comprehend the destruction in Gaza. 

Always quick to justify our actions we point to others who find their identities through evil actions.  Moral decision making is flattened to either them or us and violence becomes the only tool at hand.  There are so many terrorists: Hamas, Revolutionary Guard, ISIS, Hizballah, Al-Qaida or the Latin American drug cartels.  The little boys with Tomahawk missile toys leap into the fray.  They proclaim they are showing our nation how to “man up!”  Core values and truly ‘acting like a gentleman’ is being trashed in the corridors of power.

With little or no regard for the complex unfolding of history, or intelligence (military or otherwise), we watch one debacle after another.  Trust is destroyed with allies, cities like Minneapolis or Chicago see trust for local law enforcement sabotaged and more than 170 children are blasted away at a girl’s school in Iran.

Adam Serwer’s “The Cruelty is the Point” was published five years ago.  It was a warning and a window into a more positive alternative. Serwer argues that Donald Trump’s language and behaviors (the racism, bullying, January 6th insurrection, anti-immigrant actions, misogyny) are broadly misunderstood.  Trump is not the primary cause of our current challenges; rather, only a symptom of a deeper malady.  Christians have a category for this: it is SIN. 

Further, this sin, this evil is beyond that of any one individual’s moral failings.  Something more profound is at play. Individuals matter, of course. Something all too widely misunderstood and discounted is also at play. We are wrestling with our social, corporate, institutional, and cultural sins – not carried by individuals alone.  It is no wonder that the “little boys” and their followers argue there is no such thing as social justice.  Yes, they seek to avoid the law for their personal actions, but it is more critical to see there is social immorality and illegality as well. It is no wonder these little boys and their allies suggest that whole groups can be labeled as cockroaches, as dirty, as criminals. It is no wonder persons can be targeted soley on the basis of skin color or language. These social sins require a corporate confession, an admission of responsibility and a change in more than an individual’s heart. They call for social equity and justice in our institutions, our culture and in the wholeness of our moral vision.

Fr. Richard Rohr writes helpfully about our failure to speak clearly about sin:

https://cac.org/daily-meditations/collective-sin-and-evil/

These are frightening times indeed.  There is a way forward – past the sin in which we all are entrapped.  The little boys with nuclear toys appear to gain pleasure from all they can destroy, whether through warfare, undermining our courts and justice systems, estranging international allies, cutting of health and food supplies formerly offered through USAID and more.

There is a better way – a way of repentance and respect for all.  We Christians pray for it every time we pray the prayer Jesus taught, which begins “Our Father.” This is a social prayer as it continues Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will Be Done On Earth.

Experts and other Obsoletes

~ philipamerson

Experts and other Obsoletes

Expertise and professionalism have shaped much of our social and economic world over the past century. Experts and professionals have their place – after all, my adult life has been spent playing one, or both, of these roles. Still, I chuckle at Mark Twain’s quip “an expert is an ordinary fellow from another town.” Later Geroge Bernard Shaw wrote the oft quoted line “Those who can do and those who can’t, teach.”

Now, at eighty, with nearly sixty years ordained as a pastor, administration and teaching behind me, I ponder the role of expertise and professionalism. I wonder if the role of “expert” and “professional” has been overvalued. A good consultant can be of great assistance. I know and have benefitted. Even so, much of professionalism and expertise is facing obsolesence. We are at the edge dramatically altered reality. Artificial intelligence is already radically shifting our assumptions and social stratifications.

Over my years of ministry, I have often been amazed by the authority and deference given to experts. Church experts on congregational life and pastoral ministry have brought their advice. It is often provided by consultants with minimal experience serving as pastor, or as one who has led a congregation.

These are good, well-meaning people, often talented and full of research that comes from arenas outside the life in a parish. However, as I have watched, I have been aware that they do not know, what they don’t know. They don’t know the reality of standing in the hospital room as the matriarch dies, the doctor not yet there, and the family looks for guidance and prayer. They have not been with parents whose child has been fatally shot, or who has committed a horrific crime, waiting for the sheriff or state trooper to confirm the tragic news. They have not faced a week in the parish when the boiler fails, there are three funerals to perform, a wedding coming on Saturday, a sermon to prepare and a church leader has been publicly accused of spousal abuse. They do not know what they do not know.

Experts function in a world of “let me help you analyze your situation and offer counsel with my preset categories.” These are often based on business, biological or cultural models. Meanwhile pastors live in ‘the overwhelming mix of emerging and overlapping situation(s).’

Often, I have appreciated the wisdom of a bishop with years of experience as a parish pastor. It makes a difference. I wonder, what if bishops served for a term and then returned to parish work? We could use this talent. This was a pattern in the former Evangelical United Brethren that merged with Methodists to become the United Methodist Church, where now bishops are elected for a lifetime. I watch as talented persons climb the ladders of leadership in the church, becoming experts on many things apart from leading a parish. Understandably something critical is being diminished, even lost. Often what is lost is the ability to value the talents of the members of a congregation. Often what is lost is a more democratic and community-building understanding of church.

This dilemma is not one faced by Mainline churches alone. A young couple I married a few years ago visited with me recently telling me of their experience in a large megachurch in a nearby city. They spoke of meeting the preaching pastor after a service and when they said, “We would like to welcome you to our home for a meal,” the preacher replied, “Oh, I am not that kind of pastor.”

Such specialization, such expertise, has limits and AI will expose these – sooner than most of us know. In the years ahead, when information about “situations” can be gained by, and speeded up by, using the powers of artificial intelligence, who will stand by the family in the hospital room? Or who will sit with the young woman in jail, or who will have gained understanding of the family dynamics often at play in weddings? Who will look in the eyes of other humans, hold their hands, pray the prayer that starts the healing? There won’t be time to login or call the consultant.

The future will require connectors, community builders. Leaders will need to convene and consecrate more than consult.

And the Nation Shrugged

~ philipamerson

And the Nation Shrugged

On CBS 60 Minutes, 9/28/25, Dana White, of cage boxing fame, challenges interviewer John Wertheim who asks about “toxic masculinity.” White responds: “You tell me what ‘toxic masculinity’ means. There is no such thing.” Wertheim shurgs. The day before two homeless men were beaten on the streets in my city by young men showing off their “masculinity” brutalizing those without shelter. Across the nation last night hundreds of women sought shelter from abusive partners. This morning hundreds of police officers and social workers seek to protect children from violence in their homes. Wertheim and the nation shrugs. Today the “Secretary of War” is gathering all senior leaders of the U.S. Military to encourage a “warrior mentality.”

There was a time when “be a man” meant tell the truth, take responsibility to do the right thing, be courteous and look out for the weak or vulnerable. As Dana White acknowledged he prefers to be seen as a bully! And the nation shrugs.

Shoveling Alone

~ philipamerson

Shoveling Alone

Shoveling alone. It is the story in almost all our communities in the United States. The poorest of the poor are shuffled to the edges of our economy and end up living on the streets — or in jail!

As I turned the shovel in Bloomington on a recent Wednesday, at the groundbreaking for our new Beacon center, I realized I was alone in that moment… no one on either side… but so many had gone ahead, and others would follow. Is it true in your community as well?

Not just on a given afternoon but across the years, I knew others in the faith community and beyond, who didn’t attend this groundbreaking… but who had ‘turned the soil’ of change in many places. They have been at this turning the soil, and turning our souls, in the past and will be in the future. In the process our souls are returned to an original place of hope and sharing among all.

I believe our local faith community, and others whereever you live, will do more in the months ahead, not just for places like Beacon. We must do this because our challenges cannot be fully handled by any one social service agency. Beacon, and similar agencies are a good, but insufficient response.

Bloomington Mayor Thomson is right, a comprehensive response to the challenge of persons without shelter is needed. Rise up now, faith communities and others, show more muscle, join in to assist the Emergency Winter Shelters, programs like Heading Home, the Recovery Alliance, New Leaf/New Life. Offer more mutual respect and support for all! The massive cuts to Medicaid will touch us all and especially the poor. Emergency rooms will be more crowded, retirement homes and clinics will close, healthcare will be rationed and delayed. Time for more to pick up the shovel and turn the soil toward the planting of new seeds of hope.

“When did we see you…?” the scriptures ask. “When you did it to the least among you” comes the answer. I live with the firm knowledge this shelter, even with a “better” setting where healthcare, employment assistance, public safety, addiction recovery and other resources, are provided is but a small beginning. It is not THE answer. Still, it is a needed step. Many can and will raise needed funds, offer to volunteer, and challenge public policy to do better… in God’s name.

The road is long and filled with twists and turns, social detours, myths about addiction, mental health and blindness to our own complicity in the “social welfare” practices in this country, and the misdirected, cruel political impulses and assault of so many in power in this time. Our culture lives with the myth of hero and victim. It is the “Hero Journey” story that Jung and Campbell identified as embedded in all we perceive as possible. It is so fully ingrained in our psyche and social systems that, sadly, we turn others into “clients” rather than “neighbors” and are more comfortable in speaking of THEY rather than with US.

It will take time — this turning the soil. Still as a Christian I recall the hymn refrain “We are not alone, for God is with us.” ‘Naive’ you say, of course it appears that way, of course. Others are using their constructions of false gods to continue cruelty. I know. That is why those who have theologies more tied to the larger, historic faith story must now speak the truth, afresh. Until some have seen a life changed, a person healed from addiction and communities moving away from cruel patterns of greed and domination, we are stuck. And, until a community is seen pulling together to solve such challenges, many will call me naive. I prefer to call it our shared hopes, foundational for the future — that we can care for one another. Check it out. This is a core teaching of Christianity and other great faith traditions. Interdependence is more essential to humanity’s long-term survival than independence.

Paul Farmer, remarkable physician and founder of Partners in Health (PIH) understood his life’s work as “The Long Defeat.” He said, “I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat, and I’m not going to stop because we keep losing. Now I actually think sometimes we may win. I don’t dislike victory. … You know, people from our background-like you, like most PIH-ers, like me-we’re used to being on a victory team, and actually what we’re really trying to do in PIH is to make common cause with the losers. Those are two very different things. We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it’s not worth it. So you fight the long defeat.” [From Tracy Kidder, “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World.”]

So, pick up a shovel, write a check, welcome the stranger, say ‘hello’, ask the stranger her/his name, smile… and keep doing it in your community, whereever you are. Keep at it, even when times are tough. My friend Wes Jackson put it this way, “If you think your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you are not thinking big enough!”