Understanding Carrie Prejean

I'm trying to understand the world in which Carrie Prejean lives.

I think she's a victim of the pageant mill and conservative Christianity - both strinkingly about power and beauty, success and victory. 

We now know that she had breast implants weeks before the competition and paid for by the Miss USA California organization:

“It was something that we all spoke about together,” Shanna said referring to herself, Carrie and Keith Lewis, Shanna's co-executive director. “It was an option and she wanted it. And we supported that decision.”

Shanna, a former Miss USA herself, defended the organization's decision to pay for the elective surgery.

“Breast implants in pageants is not a rarity. It’s definitely not taboo. It’s very common. Breast implants today among young women today is very common. I don’t personally have them, but you know — they are,” she added.

According to L. Steven Seiden, Ms. Prejean grew up in an evangelical Christian home in Vista, California and is currently a senior at San Diego Christian College, a small, evangelical liberal arts college in El Cajon, California.  She attends The Rock Church, where she volunteers with their outreach ministries.

According to her interview at the The Rock Church, April 26, her first pageant was at the age of 17.

In looking at the church's website, the Rock Church (San Diego) represents a form of American Christianity that isn't my cup of tea. Yes, many a life has been transformed by these churches, and they've made a lasting contribution to the American scene. But even a clock that doesn't work is right twice a day.

The megachurches of the late 90s rely upon huge attendance numbers, high energy preaching, intricately staged music and drama, suffused with a deep sense of being absolutely right, and, of course, their numbers and success prove it.

Scripture study tends to be content-driven rather than context-aware - so Bible verses are cited and memorized, mostly at random, building a case for or against various things.


Much of the thrust is "successful living," led by leaders who are likely to have had little formal training in Scripture and theology, who are gifted and skilled in communicating basic ideas, with a lot of self-congratulations in all of it (this heightened confidence is part of the ethos - we're right, and that's that!).

Christianity loves to have causes to fight for and against, and when in other ages, it might have been keeping the races separate, decrying the evils of dancing and booze, and keeping women in the home, it's now a battle around the definition of marriage, family and the GLBT community.

In the interview/message given by Miles McPherson reference is also made to "hate speech" - that the current Hate Crimes legislation would make certain biblical truths hate crimes. And goes on to say, "the world is an evil place" and Christians are under attack. The Devil is everywhere (listen to McPherson's commentary toward the end of the interview/message).

Everything McPherson says I would say, too, but in a different context. I'd say it for those who stand up for justice and fairness, who devote themselves to workers' rights and marriage equality - the world doesn't throw open its arms to such things, because maintaining the status quo is vital to the powers that be. McPherson has made his stand on Prop 8 (listen to this part of the interview/message); I've made my stand on defeating it.

Both of us do this for Jesus.

Anyway,  listening to the interview/message, and the applause it generates, it's apparent how the system works - she is one of them, and they stand with her.

So here's 's a young woman caught up in the pageant mill, wanting to be a model, having posed discretely in a topless photo shoot, now with a brand new boob job, opposed to marriage for the GLBT community, all dressed up in Jesus language.

In the message given by the pastor in this interview, using the Book of Esther, it's all about standing up for the truth. Point made well. 

One of the key points in the message, Esther became queen because she won a beauty pageant (and she did; read the book).

This form of Christianity is very much about beauty, power and success.

We ought to pay careful attention to how this kind of Christianity works, or how it always worked - power and beauty - check out the Middle Ages (anointing kings - power; and its beautiful cathedrals and elaborately dressed clergy) and the Inquisition. Given a chance, this form of Christianity would quickly restrict civil liberties and deny the basic freedoms of American Democracy.

Thankfully, the sun is setting on this form of megalomania. History moves on and things change, and we have a chance, God be praised, to broaden the civil liberties and basic freedoms of millions of Americans.

As for Ms. Prejean, I suspect she'll grow out of this at some point in time - one can always hope!

Or, perhaps, like Anita Bryant, she'll crash and burn, rejected by the world for her prejudice and rejected by her own Christian community (that once used her) because she's no longer beautiful, no longer powerful and no longer successful.

Maine Next? and Marriage Equality

From the New York Times ...

Gay-rights advocates moved remarkably close to their goal of making same-sex marriage legal throughout New England on Tuesday, when the Maine House of Representative voted to legalize such unions.

In about ten years, we'll be scratching our heads and asking ourselves, "Why all the fuss?"

America is a great democracy, an on-going experiment of freedom and opportunity, that everyone might have a fair shot at life. And what is life, finally, but to love and be loved - to live safely, free from harassment and discrimination - to get up in the morning and make a cup of coffee; read the newspaper or check out the news via the internet - go to work, grab a hamburger, make a life.

There's no getting around a simple sad reality: some Christians mounted a similar campaign promoting slavery as "God's way for the races" and prohibiting women from voting, citing Bible verses and great theologians. In both cases, it was claimed that change would bring about the unraveling of society, the end of the family, and who knows what other evils lurk around the corner if we end slavery and give women the vote!

Within the Christian tradition, an interesting, if not flawed, notion: that the way things are are the way things should be - God's natural order of things, immutable and forever. This was the foundation for the "divine right of kings" and the perpetual serfdom of millions. The Medieval Church saw the world in unchanging terms,, and, of course, it was the church that correctly discerned the nature of the universe and, thus, fought Galileo and others who suggested an alternative to the church's position.

Which is why some Christians so bitterly opposed Darwin, and still do, because Darwin saw nature evolving, changing, and on the move. Indeed, change seems to be the nature of things.

Darwin himself, along with his family, was profoundly committed to ending slavery long before he began his scientific work which, as he saw it, only strengthened his notion that society need not be forever cast in concrete, that things change, and need to change socially, and that societies can evolve and make progress. In other words, slavery was not inherent in some fixed order of things determined by God. Slavery was a great evil, and we had it within our moral and political power to end it!

Why did some Christians write so eloquently in favor of slavery?
Why did some oppose the vote for women?
And fight against their ordination?

Though there are some who still stand by these notions (some still believe in a flat earth, too), most Christians today would agree - it was a misreading of the Bible and a theological mistake to favor slavery and deny women the vote.

Ten years from now, we will be wonder why such a fuss was made about marriage equality!

D.C. Recognizes Gay Marriage

And the walls came tumblin' down ...

The trumpet of truth ...

The cry of justice ...

And a mighty shout of victory ...

A Washington D.C. pastor, protesting the decision (hey, wait a minute, I'm a pastor, too, and I'm in favor of it, and so are lots of pastors all around the country - it's time the media hegemony of the far right came to an end) - anyway, was quoted as saying: "Once you redefine marriage, you redefine family," said the Rev. Derek McCoy from the Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md (see HERE for article).

Well, hip hip hooray, the man is right - all kinds of things will be redefined, and not a moment too soon.

All along the way, James Dobson and Gang have inaccurately defined family - their take on it couldn't be further from the multivalent images of family in the Bible:

Abraham and others practiced polygamy ...
Jesus was single ...
And said, "My family are those who do the will of God."

When a woman piously says to him: "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you," Jesus replies: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it" (Luke 11:28).

And later in Matthew 22, Jesus reminds us that in heaven, there is no marriage!

And with regard to eunuchs ... these words:
"For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can" (Matthew 19:11-12) ... from birth, made so by others, and self-made ... hmmm ... apparently the genitals are not so important.

My conservative friends have fixated themselves on human plumbing - wonder why?

And family?

Take a look at history.

Families come in every variety and size - the American frontier experienced virtually ever version, and then some - death and abandonment were all too common, and folks survived and even thrived. The only thing that counts is love, and the human being, made in the image of God, is capable of much love in a variety of settings.

So why stand in the way?

Why harp and hinder?

Let's redefine family ... let's open the doors and let's pay attention to all the possibilities of Scripture.

James Dobson and Focus on the Family do not have a lock on it.

As for their house, they can live as they wish.

But as for me and mine, I'm delighted with the progress made thus far for the GLBT community.

God be praised.

I am a Christian pastor who loves Jesus, reads my Bible, prays diligently and has long supported gay rights.

As it should be ...

All Theology is Biographical

At many a point, I wanted to believe that my beliefs were more purely founded - on something called truth, or Scripture, or the Holy Spirit, and that my education, my studies, my determination to know the truth was paramount.

Which, of course, is the heart and soul of theological conflict, as we hurl "bigger and better" Bible verses at one another, along with "pure" reason and god-inspired convictions, which, when added up, make me right and you wrong.

But, then, of course, you might feel the same about your stuff. But, then, of course, you're wrong; you just don't know it. But I do! Ha! And so it goes.

Clearly, all of this is modernism at work - the conviction that reason, which is finally what it all is, even when dress it all up in the robes of faith, will lead us to the truth. And because of that conviction, people have been burned at the stake, congregations split down the middle, denominations embroiled in ceaseless conflict, relationships won and lost and perhaps never won again.

We have forgotten that when Pilate queried Jesus about "truth," Jesus remained silent.

And in one of the most telling of all notes in the gospels, John has Jesus uttering, "I am the truth," and with that, John liberates us from the illusions of modernism. Truth is not a set of data, a collection of theses or propositions - at best, such things can only dimly hint at the truth embodied in Jesus - a deep and profound self-giving love that risks everything for the sake of the other, that puts itself into the hands of a Father who at times seems distance and cruel ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?") and dies, “It is finished.”

That's the truth we see in Jesus, and to believe in Jesus, to set our heart upon him, is to move into that kind of love, and, then, suddenly we realize, just how distant that kind of love is from our meager little lives, driven as they are by self-interest (ouch, that's a toughie to admit, isn't it?)

But herein lies the possibility of discovering humility, and humility is the basis of conversation with one another.

That our convictions, which we all love to elevate to the level of god-like value, are profoundly shaped by everything we are ... in some remarkable way, we can say "I am truth" too ... because my truth is really mine - what with study and reflection and years of life and the witness of Christian history, it's still mine, in the sense that it's embedded within, flows through and emerges from my life, with all of its goodness and all of its darkness, its love and its callowness, its self-giving and its relentless self-interest.

As the tax collector prayed in the Temple, "Lord, have mercy," we are our best with those same words when we stand before one another.

I don't know how our conversations about faith and politics, abortion and homosexuality, war and national health care will turn out, but we have a choice to make: to approach one another with the illusion of "my truth" being better and bigger than your truth, or ... the humble admission: "LORD, have mercy upon me" - I am what I am, and I believe what I believe out of the stuff of my life, and my life is both good and fractured.

Perhaps we might all serve our gods better, whatever our faith is, by spending a little more time in discerning the contours of our personal histories - the matrix in which we receive the world, process the information and make our decisions about what we value and how we will live. The kind of home we had; parental influence and the deep undercurrents of family values and styles.

And to see that my life is of no greater value than anyone else's life - and, that my life is just as valuable as anyone else's life - thus, remembering, that we're all in this together.

I don't know how this could affect our discussion, but it might lessen the anxiety, turn down the volume and render us less likely to jump ship, maybe even allowing more room for one another to live “the truth” as it emerges and flows through our biography.

When queried about truth by a hostile inquisitor, Jesus choose silence.

Might the cause of truth be better served if we exercised that response a little more often.

It surely doesn’t mean that I’ll cease thinking about abortion rights and the ordination of gays and lesbians. Nor does it mean that I’m going to be less an advocate for a national, single-payer, health care plan or EFCA.

But to try to say “my truth” as clearly and as humbly as I can.

Perhaps in a common humility, we might help one another along the way, and maybe even grow a little wiser in our self-understanding and a little bigger in our compassion for the world.

As for my wife? She was right all along.

What Is EFCA?

Employee Free Choice Act


Massive layoffs, record home foreclosures and skyrocketing health care costs are making it increasingly difficult for California’s working families to make ends meet. State unemployment jumped from 5.7 percent to 8.4 percent in the last year and with a $40 billion budget shortfall, the California job crisis is bound to get worse.

During these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever that workers have the freedom to bargain collectively with their employers for better wages, health care and retirement security. Workers who belong to unions earn, on average, 30 percent more than nonunion workers. They are 59 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage and four times more likely to have pensions. In fact, more than half of U.S. workers—nearly 60 million—say they would join a union right now if they could.

Unfortunately too few get that chance under the broken National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process. The company-dominated election process gives employers ample time to run aggressive, sometimes illegal, anti-union campaigns. Companies routinely harass, threaten and even fire workers who are trying to form or join unions. A third of companies fire union supporters in union organizing campaigns, often in the days leading up to the election. Ninety-one percent of companies force workers into one-on-one meetings against the union with their direct supervisors, and employees often aren’t allowed to speak. Meanwhile, union representatives aren’t even allowed on the premises to talk to employees.

Does this seem like a free and fair election?

In 2007 alone, over 29,000 cases filed under the National Labor Relations Act found evidence of employers harassing, intimidating and firing workers for supporting a union.

Why? The dirty little secret is the reason companies will go to all lengths to stop workers from organizing is the same reason Big Business interests have put down big money to stop passage of the Employee Free Choice Act: They don’t want to give workers the power to bargain for the fair wages and benefits that corporations just don’t feel like paying.

The Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate the problem of rigged, company-dominated elections by letting workers decide how they want to form a union. There are currently two potential ways for workers to express their decision of whether to form a union – they can petition for an election, or they can be recognized when a majority signs cards saying they want a union. The problem is that companies get to decide which way the workers decide. The Employee Free Choice Act would reverse that; it would put the choice of how to form a union into workers’ hands, not their companies’.

All employees should have the freedom to make their own decision about whether to form a union to bargain for better wages and working conditions. Our labor laws do not respect workers’ choice. Our laws promote wage inequality and depress our middle class. In today’s economy it is more important than ever that we fix them. Let’s level the playing field and give working people a chance.

With the free choice to form unions, working people can counterbalance corporate power and rebuild our middle class.

EFCA Rally Picture

Click on picture for larger view:

Did the Unions Detroy the Auto Industry?

For 150 years, American biz has fought, tooth and nail, against labor unions, and consistent with this history, are now singing Wall Street's favorite chorus: "labor unions destroyed the auto industry."

Making the American worker the fall guy (and their only protection, the labor union) is consistent with where our culture has spent much of the the last 50 years - worshiping at the alter of power and wealth.

But unions didn't destroy the auto industry.

The unions gave us a vast and decent middle class; the auto companies, along with big biz in general, destroyed themselves, and much of our economy, with relentless greed, poor planning, reduced research, skimming profits to feed the Wall Street monster, and a general disdain for the American consumer evidenced in their efforts, along with the Republicans and a good many Clinton-era Democrats, to outsource our manufacturing, deregulate our health standards, allow our rail system and infrastructure to deteriorate, and let our financial markets invent endless schemes for milking the public, directly contributing to the mortgage industry meltdown.

The Reagan-era effort to destroy unions has brought about a radical reduction of the middle class and led to a hyper-concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

As long as there was plenty of Reaganesque artificial money floating around (read: borrowed from the Chinese), nobody saw just how poorly framed the whole thing was.

But systems like this always implode under their own weight.

And throughout the years, big biz has spent billions trying to convince us that unions are bad. I wish they would have used that money for research and quality jobs for millions of workers who are now unemployed, and millions more who labor under terrible conditions, with marginal benefits at best, threatened with job loss if they even breath the word "union."

Labor Unions are not the culprit - they are the friend of the American worker, and if there's ever been a time when the American worker needed a friend, it's now.

I may be wrong ... but this is my take on things.