I found out belatedly about another event here in Gladlyville that I would have wanted to attend if I'd known about it in time. Now that my schedule will be a little more open, I really want to get more involved in promoting justice here in my town. Justice is my priority, really, but if I can help to unseat the rep who keeps sending me regrettable letters*, so much the better.
*Do you ever think of great ideas as, like, jewels ferreted out from a deep dark mine? His letters read like they were written by someone who went jewelry shopping in a slag heap.**
**That's probably not as evocative an image for people who didn't spend their childhoods in WV, driving along country roads marred by hideous roadside piles of mining waste.***
***Which can now go unfettered into WV streams. Thanks, GOP-controlled House!
Wait, where was I before I was clotheslined by bitterness verging on despair? Oh, yeah, justice in Gladlyville.
I've been looking around, trying to find places to start. Latent racism, the kind that people don't want to hear about, is part of the problem, so I am going to see what's up with our local Black Lives Matter organization. Welcoming the stranger is important to me because it was important to Jesus, so I'm going to try to get to a rally next week supporting local immigrants.
"Hmm, I thought to myself, "there must be some kind of local clearinghouse where I can get lots of information about local opportunities to promote social justice. I know! I will search the UU church's site."
This thought made me sad.
I am committed to my parish; I am committed to the Church, my Mother. I have to say, though, the Catholic parishes in my town are not doing a bang-up job addressing the turmoil of the day. We should be a unified voice against racism, if we really believe that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. We should be a unified voice for the poor, unless we think Jesus was only joshing.
We should have parish websites that steer people toward concrete ways to be salt and light in difficult times. Maybe that part could be more prominent than the fish fry schedule.
Many churches are scared. I don't defend that, but it can be hard to act bravely when taking a firm stance in the political world may very well cost you money for the roof. The churches whose identities have already been ones of radical inclusion and activism will do better now, and those of us in denominations who have had other priorities will struggle to take our place. I'd like to think that we have all been one body and that now is the moment for the foot or the knee (or whatever humble part metaphor works) can show the rest of us how to serve. It's so hard when we are all looking at Jesus (I'm gritting my teeth as I give people the benefit of the doubt) but hearing such different calls to act.
Posted by: Jody | February 11, 2017 at 10:41 AM
I agree. Although, I'd like to grumble that my parish website is not steering anyone anywhere. Even when there were wildfires displacing hundreds of people 15 miles down.the.highway.
Posted by: Kathy | February 13, 2017 at 11:00 AM
I wish I knew the answer about getting better traction online with Catholic parishes, but it's almost universally abysmal. I think institutional memory and continuity are bad, there's no perceived value or rarely by either the pastor, the staff, or even the parishioners. And people aren't willing to tithe to parishes and thus parishes are cash poor and aren't willing to spend the money to hire someone who really knows what they're doing to do social media and websites. And volunteers are unreliable. And then even when someone good does volunteer, they're hampered by what the pastor lets them do. My husband used to manage our parish's website. Then our pastor was reassigned early and we were merged with a neighboring parish. That pastor was not interested in keeping the website updated nor in managing the FB page. My husband was basically told his help was no longer needed. And now there's no website to speak of at all. Just old Mass times and maybe the bulletin if the secretary remembers to upload it. He was also working as social media director for a different local parish collaborative. And then when money got tight he was cut. Even though the pastor is a good family friend. They simply don't value it and can't pay for it.
Posted by: Melanie B | February 14, 2017 at 08:25 PM