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Immigration 101

I’m posting Pam‘s and my friend Scott Hick’s Facebook post regarding immigration history and some of the racist thought that has often guided these acts here on my blog primarily so I will know where it is for later. I would recommend reading it, liking it, and sharing it over on his Facebook page.

Here are Scott’s words:

Immigration History 101

Many Americans believe in an immigration mythology that you can simply get on a boat or plane and come to America. They think that immigration even today is like Fievel in An American Tail.

I recently talked to a magistrate, which means she has a law degree and is highly educated, and she was dumbfounded to learn that you can’t just get on a plane and come. Her question, “Are you telling me that say, a professional in Finland can’t just decide he wants to come to America and get on a plane and do that?” The answer under our immigration laws is an emphatic NO. So what is our history?

Until the 1880s there were no Federal laws restricting immigration. You really could just get on a boat and go to America.

But in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law was explicitly based on racism and was designed to stop any new immigration from China.

In 1907, the U.S. had what has been called the Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan which essentially was an agreement by Japan to end immigration to the U.S.

As racism became more and more entrenched in our laws (i.e. Jim Crow), it fed into distrust and hostility to immigrants as well.

In 1924 (which was also one of the high points of KKK activity in the U.S.), the nativists achieved their crowning victory. Congress passed the 1924 Immigration Act. (This followed on the heels of the 1921 Emergency Quota Act) This Act strictly limited immigration. And, it did so on racist grounds. It accomplished its goal by establishing a strict quota, and limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States as of the 1890 census. In so doing, the Congress was deliberately trying to exclude people they viewed as undesirable. The law was squarely aimed at making immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe excluded. This hit especially hard at Italians, Slavs and Eastern European Jews. In addition, it severely restricted the immigration of Africans and completely banned the immigration of Arabs and Asians.

According to the U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian the purpose of the act was “to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity”.

These quotas survived until the Immigration Act of 1965. This act did away with some of the worst racist features and instead established a system based on reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled labor to the United States. However, the system set in place then, which continues to now, still had an annual quota for much of family reunification. (And, the per country limits still apply within these categories, which is why there are extensive waiting lists to legally come even when you have an eligible sponsor) And, by that time, 40 years had passed with no immigration from much of the world. By definition then, there was no one already here from much of the world who could file for family to come and be reunified.

This is why the Diversity Visa Lottery was created. The idea was to allow people to come from countries who traditionally had low numbers of immigrants. So each year, 50,000 of the most educated people in these countries, (a high school degree or equivalent is required, which in much of the world the vast majority of the population could never dream of obtaining that much education) are allowed the chance to file an application to be considered to come.

The current administration wants to abolish much of the 1965 Act on family reunification and also wants to abolish the Diversity Visa. It tells us that this will Make America Great Again.

(I am a lawyer who has focused his practice on immigration law since 1995.)

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Why Tapestry Setups the Way We Setup – Part #1 The Coffee & Snack Table

I get the privilege of being a part of one of Marc Martin’s C12 (a business peer and coaching group from a Christian perspective) meetings each month. It is always enjoyable. Sometimes the business specific information he covers relates very well to the pastoring and chaplaining I get the privilege to do and sometimes I just get the chance to take the topic and think of other things (sorry Marc but there wasn’t much I could do with the section a few months ago concerning cyber-security – I don’t have anything to do with CCAs cyber-security and I simply used “password1234” for everything related to the Tapestry 😁)

Today we talked briefly about the struggle to delegate and I confessed how much trouble I have delegating things within Tapestry.  Specifically, that I don’t really have a problem asking someone to do something but then I struggle with them not doing it the way that I think it is important. I am basically the “jack of all trades and master of none” when it comes to setup for our Sunday morning worship gatherings. There isn’t much involved in setup that I am not at least proficient in (other than making the cover – for some reason I really stink at making the coffee). This works well in that I can fill in where every it is needed. It also leads to me being seriously tempted to take over when I see something not setup in a way that I believe reflects the purpose we are aiming for as a church that follows Christ.

Rublev’s “Icon of the Trinity” hangs beside the desk in my study where I write the messages for Tapestry, along with an image of C.S. Lewis’s wardrobe, a hatchet from my dad, and an autographed football form Bart Starr. 

Therefore, I want to write out some of the “why” of our setup for our Sunday morning gatherings. We have a purposeful idea of why we do the things we do and that should be, and ideally is, reflected in the setup of our Sunday morning worship gatherings. I have discussed before (here) why the church is named Tapestry. The short version of that post is that we best bear the image of God (Imago Dei) when we are “woven” into each others’ lives, like a tapestry whose image is created by its threads being woven together. I believe God’s nature as Trinity is the best example of this type of union. I love Andrei Rublev‘s Icon of Trinity for its image of this interwoveness (I may have created a word here). That icon displays God as Trinity as the Three seated at table in conversation.  That is what I believe Tapestry’s Sunday morning worship gatherings should look and feel like – an inviting conversation of people who love each other deeply and are ready to welcome others to that love.

Let’s begin with a drawing of what they looks like in our gym setup.

Now for me to explain what and why that drawing is the way it is. This is going to be long winded so I will do it in several posts.

First, I’ll talk about the most important part of the whole room, the coffee and snack table. I’m really not joking there. Yes our singing is important, yep the message is important (and hopefully I do I decent job of), sure our information table is important, but I personally believe that the coffee and snack table is the place in the room where we make it or break it on displaying a love for each other that comes from God and welcoming others into that love (unless, of course, if you consider setup and tear down – which are my favorite parts of our gatherings). This is where “threads” gather and talk with each other and also do the best job of bringing others into that conversation.  I love that I have a hard time each week getting people away from the table to “start” our gatherings, or at least start the “formal” part of our gatherings. This table isn’t merely about socializing. At its best it is deep interwoveness (I am going to continue using this word because I like it). It is a reflection of the Trinity. It is the followers of Christ letting others know that they are Jesus’s disciples by their love for one another (John 13:35) and welcoming others into that love also. I believe it also hints at the Agape Feasts that were so much a part of the early church, which were basically a weekly potluck that had communion as a part of them.

The importance of this table is why I have thought seriously about its placement. The table used to be where the sound table is now, which is by the entrance to the gym/ The problem was that the crowd that gathered around the table, to enjoy each other’s company, formed a barrier right by the entry and made it rather intimidating for guests to enter the room. Imagine having to walk through a crowd of strangers to enter the room. So we moved the coffee and snack table across the room so that our guests can enter the room easily. Soon after entering some “thread” will see them, start talking with them, and slowly but surely some way or another end up at the coffee & snack table. This is why we keep plenty of open room around the coffee and snack table.

My personal goal for every guest that enters the Washington School gym on a Sunday morning is for them to have 3 significant interactions with someone who is a part of Tapestry (one with me, one with a member of the Leadership Team, and one with another random thread). I see it happen pretty much every time a guest enters the gym. They walk in past the sound table, where I often am and I start a conversation with them. Then a member of the Leadership Team does the same thing. Finally, a random thread comes over and invites them to the coffee and snack table. Bam! “Hey come grab some coffee, a snack, and jump into the conversation.” 

This table is the beginning of the welcoming conversation and it is why the coffee that is made and the snacks that volunteers make each week are so important. When you make these snacks I encourage your to pray over them because God uses the work of your hands (or your purchases if you are running late) to invite our church to live out His image that we bear together as we are woven into each others’ lives. Our snack volunteers are on the front line of us bearing the image of the God described in Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity.

Tomorrow (or the next day), I’ll write about why we setup the chairs the way we do. For now I will leave you with the sound of our “haunted” percolator that sits on the coffee and snack table.

SIDE NOTE – Thanks for making me think about putting this in writing Marc.

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Everyday Gnosticism

I was perusing one of a  Christian writer’s books recently when I read this statement:

God created us to be spirit beings temporarily inhabiting a human body.

I seriously try not to be overly picky about words and give people the benefit of the doubt when they are trying to communicate. Therefore, I’m not going to name the author or the book because I respect much of what he has done and said. Just not the above sentence.

Apparently Gnostic jesus looks something like this.

I want to be generous in communication, but this is a sentence and thought that I believe needs to be called out for what it is. And what it is is unChristian. Specifically it is Gnostic thought, one of the first, and still most continually dangerous, heresies that the church faced.

There is a lot to Gnostic thought but I will briefly summarize it with this statement: Spirit = good, matter = evil. There is much more to it than that, but you can usually use the spirit=good, matter=evil as a good rule of thumb for understanding Gnostic thought. Gnostic thought teaches that the goal is to free the divine spark/spiritual from the material emanation. Your goal is to escape the physical. It influences how you act and what you value.

Christian thought, on the other hand,  is that God created the world and all that is in it as “very good“, and yes it and we have fallen, but Jesus has done all that is necessary for it and our redemption, and we are looking forward to the finalization of that redemption.  Thus the Christian goal is to be a part of the redemption of God’s fallen creation.

Gnosticism was considered incredibly dangerous to true Christian faith by the early church (i.e. why it was labeled heresy) because the church knew Gnosticism would lead to a non-incarnate Christ and therefore a faith that was divorced from the real life around it. That is why it still matters that Christians today understand the difference. Knowing and understanding the difference shapes how we respond to life and the world.

An excellent book on modern Gnosticism in Protestantism.

Gnosticism leads to a faith that is merely spiritual and doesn’t affect this world because it is trying to escape this world. Christian faith is an incarnate faith (an en-fleshed faith) that is involved in the world as a part of God’s redemption. The Gnostic Jesus, from what are known as the Gnostic gospels, just talked about spiritual things that would lead to one escaping from the world. Gnostic Jesus makes you feel very spiritual but he doesn’t change anything. There is no need to change anything when you follow Gnostic Jesus because your only goal is to escape.

The REAL Jesus talked about the spiritual and physical in the same breath. He is God incarnate so how could He do otherwise? He preached a kingdom that fed and healed people.

The resurrected Jesus didn’t, and still doesn’t, preach a gospel of bodiless spirituality. Unfortunately many times evangelical Christianity does. Just look and listen and you will see a bunch of bodiless spirituality preached in the name of Christ. The horrible thing is that such teaching leads to a faith that has no impact on this world because it is just trying to escape this world. The message of the incarnate Jesus doesn’t. The incarnate Jesus doesn’t cause us to fly away, but instead He resurrects us to a transformed, redeemed, new heaven and new earth where the new Jerusalem comes down (Revelation 21).

We are not “spirit beings temporarily inhabiting a human body”, we are creatures who bear the Imago Dei who need to be redeemed and resurrected.

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Clark Stinks

One of the things that I really appreciate about Clark Howard is how adamant he is about confronting his own errors. He encourages those he works with and those who listen to him to correct him when he is wrong. As a method of doing this he setup a message board with the wonderful url clarkstinks.com for people to discuss when they believe that he has given bad advice. Each week his staff picks some of their favorite “clark stinks” moments and Clark discusses them on his radio show/podcast. This is literally a weekly segment of his show. I love that he is this open to other people’s criticism, rightly or wrongly, to acknowledging when he gives bad advice, or makes a mistake.

I trust Clark Howard much more, rather than less, because of the fact that corrections are regularly a part of his show. Unfortunately for many the exact opposite reaction is the first and only thing that comes to mind. Instead of admitting their failures, mistakes, or mere ignorance they often “puff up” and deny the truth. Even worse sometimes they even blame the one who pointed out the error. Everyone gets things wrong. The people I trust the most admit this fact and don’t hide from their mistakes. Clark Howard is one such person. He is a great example of how to get better by recognizing when you get something wrong.

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Topless Sunday?

Every now and then Marc M brings his grandkids to Tapestry and usually asks me if the sermon is going to be G, PG, or PG-13 before bringing them. Reading “The Gospel of Luke” by Joel Green concerning our passage for Sunday, Luke 7:36-50. In describing the actions of the woman Green wrote the following:

Within her cultural context—especially with women readily viewed as temptresses and/or sex objects, and all the more given her apparent reputation as a prostitute—her actions on the whole would have been regarded (at least by men) as erotic. Letting her hair down in this setting would have been on a par with appearing topless in public, for example.

Just making sure here but I assume that it would not be appropriate for me to preach topless Sunday?

#FreeTheNipple #IKnowThatsNotWhatThatHashtagIsAbout #StillItMakesMeLaugh #IAmSoWhiteIWouldBlindPeople

#MarcYouMightNotWantToBringYourGrandkidsSunday 🙂

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Stotting

Every so often on my blog I bring up signalling theory. I’ve mentioned it here, here, and a few other times. I am sure that Pam, Adam, and Noah would tell you that I bring up signalling theory as a part of around one third of all my conversations. There may be some truth to this. I am fascinated by the idea of so many of our actions and choices (from what we wear, to what or if we drive, to who we vote for) merely being a means of signalling that we are part of one group or not a part of another group. I am a free will kind of guy, but that doesn’t mean that I believe that the majority of our choices are actually volitional.

Today I listened to a podcast that talked about stotting within the animal kingdom, specifically with gazelles on African savannas. Stotting involves the animal springing high into the air, typically with all four legs in a “relatively stiff position and the back may be arched with the head pointing downward”. There are quit a few possible reasons for this behavior, one of which is what is called an “honest signal“. Honest signals “are traits, including structures and behaviours, that have evolved specifically because they change the behaviour of receivers in ways that benefit the signaller.” In this case, jumping very high says to any predators around that the animal is in good health and will not be an easy target. That is why it is worth it to the prey animal to waste precious time and energy randomly jumping high into the air, in hopes of convincing predators they it isn’t worth their effort to try to capture them.

Years ago Christianity Today came up with this wonderful Beards of Ministry chart.

Of course, we aren’t prey animals on an African savanna. We aren’t trying to signal predators that we will be able to outrun them. Therefore, I believe we need to consider the choices we make and why we are making them. Very often we are extending our limited resources to signal that we are part of one group or not a part of another group, for reasons that aren’t very good. Do I have Apple products because I actually like and/or need Apple products or is it just a way of signaling that I can afford them, even when I can’t? Do I use android products because I prefer them or is it just to signal that I am not one of those Apple people? Did I grow a beard because I wanted to or did I want to grow a beard because I like to think of myself as a neo-reformed evangelicals and beards are an identifying characteristics of neo-reformed evangelicals. Do I home-school my kids because it is best for my particular kids or am I doing this because homeschooling signals the social group to which I belong or signals that I am a “good Christian”? Do I read in coffee shops because I enjoy doing so or do I enjoy doing so because I want to be seen as someone who reads in coffee shops? Why did I buy a vehicle designed for extreme off-road activity when I will never take it off-road for fear that its paint will mess up?

Stotting and signalling are fine and effective for gazelles worried about predators. It can be a very useful expenditure of resources. Unfortunately, for us such expenditures often just put us in holes of our own making and separate us from other people who also bear the image of our Creator.

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Eric Weiner Quote – Self-Help Industrial Complex

I am reading “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World” by Jane McGonigal right now. It’s pretty good though I think the show Black Mirror serves as a counter-argument to most of what she is suggesting concerning games “fixing” reality. In the chapter I just finished she shared this quote from Eric Weiner (from his work “The Geography of Bliss“:

The self-help industrial complex hasn’t helped. By telling us that happiness lives inside us, it’s turned us inward just when we should be looking outward. Not to money but to other people, to community and to the kind of human bonds that so clearly are the sources of our happiness.

In my opinion there is a lot of truth in that quote.

SIDE NOTE – the photo associated with this post is from one of Tapestry’s breakfasts at various local restaurants.

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Personal Finance Podcasts

https://vimeo.com/41152287

Since I talked about personal finance with 4 separate people today whiling chaplaining and I am now a little over half-way finished with Pam’s and my income tax forms I thought I would that a quick break and post the podcasts I am presently listening to concerning personal finance.

Here they are in the order in which I like them.

I do a good bit of driving, walking, and running throughout my day so I get to listen to a lot of podcasts. I find these helpful. I listen to Clark Howard pretty much immediately and then work my way through the others as I feel like it, have time, or how I feel about the subject they are talking about.

My biggest encouragement to anyone is the following list of actions:

  • Take control of your spending – Personally I don’t care how you do it, just do it. A budget is great. Getting rid of unnecessary expenses (i.e. downsizing on lots of things) is also great. I believe giving to God should be part of this, first because it is the right thing to do, and second, because it helps you to gain control of your spending. Just do something.
  • Freeze your credit – this is closest thing to “sure fire” credit identity theft protection you can have right now (there is no such thing ass “sure fire” which is why I said “closest thing to”).
  • Start a Roth IRA (unless you are in rarefied air where tax-wise it makes better sense to contribute to retirement pre-tax) – Not only are you saving and planning for your retirement but you are also building an emergency fund because you can pull your contributions out of a Roth IRA without penalty for an emergency.
  • Learn more of what you should do – Habits grow by consistently working on them. I don’t ever want anyone focused on their money (mammon makes a lousy god) and learning new and better ways to control your finances is a great way of keeping your finances from controlling you.
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How Much Yarn Can a Basset Eat and Survive?

I’m not sure how much but I know at least this much. I assume this is about 50′ of yarn.

Normally Clive doesn’t eat non-digestible things other than liking chewing on paper. Thursday night he had an upset stomach and apparently ate some yarn in order to induce himself to vomit. I had no idea how much he had eaten until it started coming out both ends at different times. It’s funny now that I am no longer concerned about an intestinal blockage, he is eating and pooping fine. For a while there it wasn’t funny at all because I was concerned about my dog.

I’m fairly sure the dog ate enough yarn to crochet a toboggan or at least a baby toboggan (that is a knit cap for my Northern friends). Stupid dog.

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Most Influential Ministers in My Life

This week while listening to a podcast I heard the following statement: “You are the sum of the five people closest to you.” I thought it was interesting thought and it got me to thinking of the ministers who have influenced how I minister. So here’s a list of the ministers who I believe have most influenced how I minister.

  • Mike Nuss – Mike was Pam’s and my campus minister when we were working on our undergraduate degrees at the University of South Alabama (Go Jags!). Mike is the type of minister that you would name your child after because of the influence he had on your life. Pam and I didn’t but he seriously is that type of minister. Mike taught me a lot of things but probably the most important lesson that I learned from him was that ministry involves equipping and enabling others to serve. Mike was a background guy. He was the one getting others to do things that they didn’t think they could do. I don’t really remember him doing anything “upfront”, though I am sure he did. He was always getting other involved in ministry. Obviously this is still true because Mike is now the head of Baptist campus ministries for the state of Alabama. College was almost 30 years ago for me and I still quote Mike in many of my conversations concerning ministry. Mike & Judy’s relationship have also influenced much of how ministry works within Pam’s and my relationship. Judy supported Mike’s ministry, and was involved in the student ministry, but she didn’t have to be at everything he did because had a different calling. She wasn’t ministry lagniappe that arrived just for hiring Mike.  She was, and is, her own person with her on gifting and call. So maybe the name on this point should have read “Mike & Judy Nuss”.
  • Rochelle Davis – Rochelle was the first pastor that I worked with as a youth minister, even if it was only for Summer. The Summer after my Freshmen year of college I went to Detroit and served for the Summer at the Temple of Faith Baptist Church. Rochelle taught me a lot about want it meant to be a pastor who cares for issues of justice and also to fall in love with whatever is true in the culture in which you live while confronting what is false. So much of what I do on a daily basis comes back to being a Summer youth minister at a black Baptist church in inner-city Detroit. This is also a shout out once again to Mike Nuss because I went to Detroit because of Mike.
  • Frank Morrow – Frank was the third pastor I worked with as a youth minister at the First Baptist Church of Covington, Texas. This was in the smallest town that Pam and I have ever lived in, around 150 people. Nobody cared if Frank was a good preacher or not because he was probably the best servant I have ever been around. “Hey the city of Covington needs some work, let’s organize a community day of service.” If there was a need to be met Frank was making sure it was being met. Old mister big stick himself Theodore Roosevelt said “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I’ve often heard this used in reference to preaching. Frank lived it out. Frank could have stumbled through ever message he ever preached and nobody would have cared because he undoubtedly had been super busy during the week caring for the people of our community.
  • Kevin McCallon – Kevin was the second pastor that I ever worked with as a youth minister at Grove Hill Baptist Church. I only worked with him around a year so his influence isn’t day to day ministry. He was a very good pastor but his influence on me really comes down to one thing he said to me. One day he told me that ministry could either be the easiest job I ever had or the most difficult and I was the one who determined which it would be. I could go and play golf with the deacon once or twice a week and visit the “important” people every now and then and basically float through the rest of the week. Many ministers do this and they have nice cushy jobs with plenty of prestige. The other option was that I could allow Jesus to show me all that needs to be done and all that needs to be challenged. This option would lead to more trouble but a better ministry. There would never be enough hours or hands for the work, and there would always be something else to do or someone to visit. I had to choose which the job would be. I had to learn to add a focus on Sabbath to this but Kevin’s statement still influences me.
  • Paul Swadley – Paul was a long term interim pastor at First Baptist Carthage when I was there. Paul was probably one of the happiest people I have ever met. Seriously the guy smiled all the time. Of course, that smile had a strong amount of determination and grit that went with it. Paul used his time at First Baptist Carthage to take a healthy church and make it even better. He didn’t coast. He pushed forward. His year and a half at FBC Carthage was the best of my 6 years there. His preaching showed a great deal of love for the people he was preaching too. That love involved him calling out sin when he saw it because he believe that the sin was destructive to the people he loved. He did this, as he did everything, with a smile on his face and a great deal of love and grace for the people he was with.

There are other people I could throw into this mix like Pat Lee (who taught me a lot about delegating to others, she ran the best college Sunday School department I’ve ever seen), Andy & Elisabeth Leininger (who taught me a ton about missions and following your calling – the auctioning of all their worldly goods, including their dog, before they went on mission is a lesson that has stuck with me, in addition to teaching me to think creatively about culture and the gospel),My “suitemates” at Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge (Jess, Meg, Alan, Clint, and Josh – I judge how effect ministry teams are based on y’al),  Bill Pruitt (who may well be the second-best pastor as a servant I’ve ever seen – Sorry but Frank wins first), and others. There have also been a few bad examples, who I won’t name, whom I wouldn’t trust Pam’s cats with, as well as a few bad mistakes (some doozies) that I learned from from some of the very same people I have mentioned as good examples. I am the ministerial sum of so many of these men and women, and for them I am thankful.

SIDE NOTE – the image associated with this post is of Billy Sunday who is not one of the ministers who has shaped how I minister.