NEVER TALK ABOUT POLITICS OR RELIGION!

Having going to seminary to become a pastor in Washington, D. C., that old warning about it not being a good idea to talk about politics or religion never really made any sense to me. Of course the old adage has to do with how many arguments can take place over religious beliefs and political leanings. And as I have mentioned before, about the only thing we talked about when we were sitting around having lunch or whatever at seminary was what we believed in exactly compared to the position that other fellow students took.

However, the interesting thing about living in Washington for 17 years was that you got to the point where you really didn't ask anybody what their political beliefs were. Even if you knew that a friend was working for a particular congressman or senator, and you knew the political party of that public servant, it didn't necessarily mean that the person working for the congressman or senator was a member of the same party.

And anyway, it was better not to know if you liked the person, but were a member of the other party, and didn't want to get into any arguments that might affect the friendship. This was especially true for people that I knew at my home church. At the time that I first became a member of Foundry United Methodist Church, Senator Bob Dole and his wife Liddy, who at the time was the only woman member of the Reagan Cabinet, had been regularly attending Foundry for many years. There were other senators and congressmen who came to Foundry, too, and also children of former senators, and even a man who had run for president in the distant past worshiped there.

The first time I visited Foundry, I happened to sit in front of the Doles, and shook hands with them during the passing of the peace. And after they began living in the White House, Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton began coming to worship at Foundry, and Chelsea was involved in our youth group. The congregation was used to "famous people" being around, and the Clintons tried to keep their presence with us low-key at first, but during the Easter service of the first year that they were in the White House, a man stood up in the balcony and started shouting at them with a tirade about gay rights.

It took a really long time for the Secret Service men to get to him, and all of us were kind of amazed at everything that took place in reaction to his shouting out loud from the balcony right after the scripture had been read, during that very silent and holy time. After that, there were metal detection devices and Secret Service men and bomb dogs that went through the church before a service when the Clintons were expected to be there or came. We got used to that, and we tried to honor and respect the fact that they joined us for worship and to participate in our congregation by welcoming them and tolerating some of the inconveniences and disruptions.

For a time during the first part of the Clinton administration, the Doles continued to worship with us, too. And one Sunday our senior pastor, who had been one of the ethics professors at my seminary, noted that from where he stood in the pulpit looking out over the sanctuary, the politicians who were sitting in front of him seem to be sitting along the spectrum from left to right in the same way they placed themselves through their beliefs and party affiliations as liberals or conservatives.

For the sake of our congregation, in order to decrease the stress that we might have experienced during that time, when Bob Dole ran against President Clinton, the Doles discontinued coming to our church. Maybe that was also because our senior pastor's sermons came out of his liberal beliefs.

And also on the liberal front, concerning the perspective of the man who had shouted at the Clintons about gay rights, we had become a Reconciling Congregation, where people who were LGBT were welcomed amongst us. This was based on the belief that each person is a beloved child of God and that the persecution of any people is heinous to God who is love, as Jesus taught and demonstrated.

It took the members of our congregation seven years of strife and turmoil to become a Reconciling Congregation, and many people left Foundry over the issue. But even to talk about it as just an issue doesn't really tell the whole story. We were talking about people's lives, and about whether or not as Christians we could welcome everyone whoever wanted to come and worship and serve God with us.

This happened before the pastor who was one of the most liberal ethicists in the United Methodist Church came to serve our congregation. And at the time of the turmoil, we were blessed that a long-time member of Foundry was Arthur S. Flemming, who had been a member of Eisenhower's Cabinet, and the chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights from 1974-1981.

We were blessed that Dr. Flemming shepherded us through that difficult time when we wrestled with the theological issues and social conventions that were part of what was so upsetting to many people on both sides of the Reconciling Congregation issue. It got so that you couldn't even walk down the hallway in the church without people coming up to you and wanting to know which side you were on.

Politics and religion!

Whichever side you are on, there were people who were adamantly opposed to you. Folks would either try to argue with you, or if they could see that you were not going to change your mind, they would cut you off in anger and sometimes even with derision.

Very much like it is now, during the run up to this election.

I am just amazed that people that I love and care about would even consider voting for a man with so many bigoted and nasty beliefs that undergird the platform of the Republican Party this year at the convention. And even though I really don't like to post political opinions on my Facebook page, because people seem to need to argue and sometimes get abusive in reply, there comes a point where from a faith perspective, it is very important to continue to speak out against the way the Republican presidential candidate is so out of control.

Some of my best friends are Republican.

And my prayer is that there will be enough people in our country who recognize the underlying violence, bigotry and oppression represented by the Republican candidate's rhetoric that he won't get elected.

And another prayer is that people who believe that "all people are created equal" and that all people are endowed by our Creator with "unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" will vote against his dangerous and sickening proposals.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

My Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours. And may God continue to bless America.