"I'm really conflicted over the issue," was the comment a parishioner voiced recently after Sunday worship and the invitation was given to write a letter to a legislator encouraging him or her to repeal the death penalty in Connecticut. And, I suspect, he was not the only one who felt conflicted. Indeed, we--as a community, state, and nation--are clearly conflicted about this issue. There is no clear consensus.
Furthermore, there probably exists more heat than light when this issue is raised, and there are any number of us who would prefer not to have to think about or deal with the death penalty issue (or any other complex and controversial issue) when we cross the threshold of a church.
So, why is this issue being raised and raised now?
To begin to answer that, I would like to initially underscore the importance of raising this and other issues precisely in the church. Clearly, one facet of worship is the sense of comfort and reassurance that we find in the rhythms and ritual of the liturgy. Yet, as our Eucharistic prayer C that we use in Lent so aptly exhorts, "Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal," we are not meant to experience only comfort. There exists and intersection between world and worship, and one enters the other reality and vice versa.
Indeed, the irony should not be lost on us that during this upcoming week we reflect upon the capital punishment meted out by the Roman hierarchy on our Lord. Jesus lived very much in the world.
Yet, just because the world and worship intersect does not mean that there are clear answers to the vexing questions of life. Remember where this piece began: "I'm really conflicted. . ." And that is an honest response to such complexity. My hope is that the church can be a safe place where we raise critical issues impacting our lives and our communities and our society and we can listen to and respect the divergent viewpoints within our community.
Again, there is enough heat and too little light generated within the public square around critical issues. The church need not--indeed cannot--be a place where there is a litmus test for how you think about issue X, Y, or Z. And we recognize that we can feel strongly about various issues while acknowledging that others may differ in their opinion. We are bound together first by God's unconditional love for us in Christ, not by the political or social membership cards that we carry.
So, we start from a place of respect, and we honor the varied opinions in our community. Church, lived out this way, truly is counter-cultural.
Still, the Church exists in the world, and it has been called to engage the world. We are not called to shrink from the important conversations of our time. Thus, the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, the Roman Catholic House of Bishops and other religious bodies all develop social statements that weigh in on critical issues, provide information for parishioners, and are not, ultimately, exhaustive on the issues or require acquiescence for membership.
The Episcopal Church--nationally and in the Diocese of Connecticut--has passed a number of resolutions seeking the repeal of the death penalty. The Diocese of Connecticut urged member parishes to raise this issue with parishioners during Lent. Hence, we offered a letter writing campaign to repeal the death penalty. This effort was never meant to be coercive; we truly meant it to be an opportunity for those who felt the death penalty should be repealed, and no one should be made to feel troubled if they did not participate.
If that message was not clearly articulated, I apologize. Going forward, I hope that this experience may be instructive. There will never be unanimity around the complex issues we face in life. So while we seek to follow the call to act in the world, we do so with great humility. We try to apply the great teachings of Jesus and the themes that are consistent with the God of Scripture, and we realize that we will never fully arrive at the complete answer to life's mysteries. However, while we continue on this earthly pilgrimage, we do so seeking to be faithful, encouraging and lovingly challenging each other, remembering the limits of our understanding, and passionate about the God who meets us in life, calls us to engage more deeply with life, and guides us all to the fulfillment of life.
Blessings.
Mark
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