Pope Francis says, “Who am I to judge?”

With the words, “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?” Pope Francis upended the world — again.

In our very judgmental modern American society, the pope, in an 80-minute, open discussion with journalists on board his flight back to Rome from an enormously successful celebration of youth in Brazil (more than three million young people doing a flash mob for the pope on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro alone, that’s astounding), Pope Francis was not shy about stating emphatically, and here are the magic words he said, “Who am I to judge?”

It wasn’t so very long ago this pope said that atheists had spiritual dignity. Or that he has washed and kissed the feet of patients suffering from HIV/AIDs. Or did ritual washing of feet of Muslims and women. Or, something also of which the pope spoke of during the airplane press conference, he is searching for a wider, more important role for women in the church.

Understand I am not weighing in on theological matters here, but I am wading a few feet into the waters of how we humans deal with one another. I think I have a small qualification to do just that.

Nor am I focusing exclusively on gay people, but I continue to be amazed at how in a few short months Pope Francis has taken the entire, global Christian community and overturned centuries of institutionalized expectations. There must be a continuous rumble in the crypt underneath the Vatican of 2,000 years of previous popes rolling chaotically in their graves. What is this pope doing?

Historically, usually, popes have been more inclined toward repression, attacking heresy, condemning that which is not doctrine, battling anyone or anything designated as enemies to a narrow interpretation of Jesus’ ministry. That’s why Galileo was placed under house arrest for pointing out celestial truths. That’s why Copernicus met with such condemnation when he stated the fact the earth revolves around the sun. That’s why the Spanish Inquisition slaughtered so many who stood against the Catholic Church. That’s why a medieval pope sent off thousands of children as foot soldiers against Islam during the Crusades in the Middle Ages.

So it is all the more remarkable that Pope Francis — a pope of many firsts — has uttered the words, “Who am I to judge?”

Of course, five words can get lost in the modern lexicon, as we live in a world of two-minute sound bites and words that are tossed about in wanton abandon. So, “Who am I to judge?” may sound like just another trite phrase that should get only five minutes worth of attention.

But that’s the pope’s whole meaning. Why are we passing judgment, on gays, aethisists or for any reason? What is the real meaning of Christianity or the purpose of a religious life? As Jesuit-formed Pope Francis reminds us, it is to return humanity to a simpler, more humble, and far less judgmental approach to living all aspects of life.

What’s really incredible about Francis’ striking a blow against judgment is how he goes straight back to the original, fundamental message coming from Jesus and the Apostles. Even in their time judgment was so rife, so dangerous that your very life was threatened. Along this line, think of the Romans’ use of crucifixion for those they deemed criminal (anyone against Rome). Or the slaying of innocents. Or the stoning of a woman taken in sin.

It has been the wont of the men of the papacy, particularly throughout the Middle Ages and Reniassance, to be power brokers, warmongers, men of considerable sin and destruction. Two popes from the Mafia-like Medici family kept their Medici grip on the Renaissance like the godfathers they were. There was a pope who fathered both Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, a family who were known for their thuggery more than their piety. One pope hounded Michaelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel under his terms, his way and for his own personal glory (the pope, that is; Michaelangelo resisted glorifying this pope. If you look closely at Michaelangelo’s works you can find symbols that counterdict the pope who treated him so shabbily).

It’s all the more precedent-shattering that Pope Francis eschews the whole idea of judgment and personal glorification in the papacy. He even wears his papal robes based on simplicity, humility — gone are the red shoes, gold-trimmed robes, and the cross he wears is made of silver. He approaches people not with pontifical greatness but more like a pastor. He won’t go beyond the title of Bishop of Rome, and he doesn’t want to be known as Supreme Pontiff.

This humble approach is one of the foundations of his papacy that seeks to include, not exclude the faithful, and as far as Pope Francis is concerned, whether you are gay or not, he has established an inclusive direction. He strongly states that gay people are not to be marginalized. That no one who approaches God with a good heart will be shunned. He means everyone.

Why should any of this matter in the 21st century? Why should the pope have any influence on how the rest of our world goes about its daily life? I’m convinced that the pope, Pope Francis especially, is the key to undoing an age — make that ages — of damage that we have inflicted on each other, and on the world in which we live.

The past 500 years, which have included some of the greatest artistic, scientific and industrial advances ever known, also have brought with them shattering risks when religious reformation becomes the excuse of fanatics, when monarchs or a nation’s leaders establish for themselves supreme power, and when the marketplace blooms into such levels of wealth the result is rich people dominate everyone and everything else. When humans, when life itself is judged (there’s that word again) as commodities.
Pope Francis knows all of this. He knows the wealth of the Vatican can be put toward equalizing and ensuring the poor, the simple, the rejected of society are taken care of in an age that would just as soon see the last of them.

So this pope, this first Francis, is, in a great, slowly turning way, as if he is steering the wheel of a gargantuan ship, he is guiding all of us, Catholic or not, toward a better destination.

The chances are, after his time, he will be remembered as the Great Reformer, perhaps one of the Great Redeemers.
All because he uttered the most sensible of words, “Who am I to judge?”

Jodeane Albright is an award-winning blogger/columnist and the community editor of the Idaho State Journal.

Supreme court explodes last barrier for gay people

Well. Well! And things are astoundingly well, too, now that the United States Supreme Court struck down — no, let me rephrase that — the Supreme Court exploded the last barrier to equality for gay people.

June 26, 2013, is a day as significant as the passing of the Civil Rights Act, which was enacted July 2, 1964. Isn’t it interesting, perhaps beyond coincidental that laws supporting equality share close dates — as if somehow, the forces of human rights for all has a life of its own that all the prejudice in the world cannot deny.

In 1964, when then-President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, just days before our Fourth of July celebration that year, Johnson was ensuring and enshrining the Founding Fathers’ dictum that all are created equal. The Civil Rights law, which still stands today on our law books, no matter what you think or how much you hate it, this permanent and eternal law of the United States outlaws major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national origin and religious minorities and women.

The Civil Rights law ended unequal application of voter rights (read this very carefully) – this week the Supreme Court struck down one section of the voting rights act, Section 4, but Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act remains intact, which states in plain language, there will be no racial discrimination in terms of voting rights — period.

The Civil Rights law ended racial segregation in schools (read this carefully, too) – this past week the Supreme Court sent the Affirmative Action lawsuit back to the lower court, meaning for now, until other lawsuits come forth, Affirmative Action stays.

The Civil Rights law ended segregation not only at educational institutions but in the workplace and by facilities used by members of the public. (Read this carefully as well because) you cannot, by law, deny someone into your establishment, be that restaurant, business, and you cannot discriminate in terms of renting or buying and selling of houses because of race, national origin, religious minority, ethnicity or because you are a woman.
That was true after July 2, 1964, and still holds today. The law is the law of our land, no matter what you wish otherwise.

And that brings us to June 26, 2013, when the Supreme Court, in a tight, contentious 5-4 vote, declared the Sept. 21, 1996 law that recognized marriage is only between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional.

That cannot be said loudly enough. UNCONSTITUTIONAL! In other words, from now on same-sex couples are accepted as equal in the eyes of the law.

Back on June 28, 1969, faced with blatant discrimination against gays and lesbians, a series of violent demonstrations erupted at Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City after a police raid. During the 1950s and ‘60s, there were few establishments that accepted gay people, so police raids were routine. In fact, attitudes 50 and 60 years ago were dead set against gay people to such an extent that even the FBI, ruled by homophobe J. Edgar Hoover at the time, hunted down anyone who was regarded as gay, whether you actually were or not.

Right after World War II the common feeling was to resist the force of change that the war had wrought. As historian Barry Adam said, many Americans were fanatic in their desire to “restore the pre-war social order and hold off the forces of change.”

So if you were gay, the FBI and even your local police department had lists of people who were homosexual, the United States Post Office kept track of addresses of people who were gay and turned that information over to your local law enforcement. Bars were shut down if they allowed gay people and even if you were not gay but visited a gay establishment, you would be arrested and exposed in the newspapers of the day.

This hate against gay people consistently worked itself into rooting out homosexuality wherever and whenever it was suspected. Sweeps were conducted of neighborhood parks and on beaches. If you dressed a particular way, you were declared gay. Professors at universities were fired on suspicion of being gay. The bottom line was that thousands upon thousands of gay men and women were publicly harassed, fired, jailed or put into mental hospitals.

In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association, in its own narrow-mindedness, declared homosexuality was a mental illness. Then again, the culture of America in the ‘50s and even into the ‘60s was nearly completely structured on discrimination, prejudice, bigotry and hate. America had grown inward, angry, arrogant and paranoid. While that may have been an understandable reaction to a world upended by World War II, it is clearly not reason to hate your fellow human being.

Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, became a symbol and the genesis of the gay movement so that by 1970, gay pride marches across New York City came into being, gay activist organizations formed, three New York City newspapers were established to support and promote rights for gays and lesbians. On June 28 that same year gay pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

From there, gay pride events are today held all over the world.

So as you can see, the history of gay rights in America has been a very long slog. And much has been accomplished for gay people since then, including the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law during President Barack Obama’s time in office that had been instituted into the armed forces earlier during President Bill Clinton’s term more than 20 years ago.

Yet June 26’s ruling isn’t just about gay and lesbian rights, it’s so much bigger. It’s that no one in good conscience can be against another simply because they are different from you. It reminds us we are all humans and gender is not so clearly as circumscribed as we want to believe.

And too, belief itself comes up for serious questioning. How can belief stand in the face of fact? Today, the very same American Psychiatric Association that claimed homosexuality is a mental illness now supports the fact, the truth that one is born homosexual. It is not a lifestyle, it is not a disease, and just as one is born with a particular shade of skin, there is simply no room, no excuse for maintaining prejudice any longer against homosexuality.

So what you believe, and no matter how offended you are by the Supreme Court’s striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, or the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and no matter how disappointed or angry you may feel, it really is high time to drop what you fully know is your prejudice.

It is now the law of the land. From this day forward, in the United States, (read this as we are all included, not just a chosen few) – couples can become united in marriage, if they wish.

Our Founding Fathers would be proud: “All (people) are created equal.”

Jodeane Albright is an award-winning blogger/columnist and the community editor at the Idaho State Journal.

Jodeane and the history of Popes

The scale of Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement Monday of his resignation shook the world to its core.  It rocked Western civilization on its axis.  As with any human event that sends us spinning off track, the effect is seismic.

Where do we go from here?  How do we get back to normal, if that is even possible now, which I doubt?  What happens to this pillar of worldwide faith that has had one brick removed and the structure is teetering, maybe ready to come crashing down?

True, it’s not the first time a pope has stepped down from the Chair of St. Peter.  But when you are the successor to the Apostle Peter, whom Jesus designated as the “rock” on which Christianity was to be built (Matthew 16:18-19), an abdication, a resigning of this post is a breach of faith, a snapping in a chain that goes back more than 2,000 years.

The earliest years of Christianity were under constant threat and tremendous persecution.  Many adherents to the faith were martyred on a fairly constant basis.  In the fading days of the Roman Empire, and with the slow but steady rise during these first centuries of the power of Christianity itself, the times were rife with tension, intolerance and grief.

It must be remembered, too, that although the 21st century may regard the pope as a figure not much more than an old man running around in a fancy nightgown, Christianity literally built Western civilization itself.  Papal resignations are not to be treated lightly.  They determine human history.

Pontian was one of the earliest church fathers.  He became pope in 230 and resigned in 235 because of threats from the Roman emperor Maximinus.  Pontian was banished to the island of Sardinia and eventually died from harsh treatment.  Following him was Marcellinus, who stepped down after a short reign of eight years (similar to today’s Pope Benedict, who also abdicated after eight years).

Liberius, a pope who resigned in 366, was exiled, to which Pope Felix III was then put in charge.  At that time, the Roman Empire wanted two popes to reign, but the contrary Roman population rejected Felix and had him expelled instead.

After him was John XVIII, in which so little was known, except a very obscure reference that this pope died as a monk near Rome in 1009 may have indicated he, too, was rejected and resigned.

Here’s something very ironic and it makes you wonder why Pope Benedict XVI chose Benedict for his designation.  Pope Benedict IX became pope in 1033, and then resigned about 1045 after bringing considerable disgrace to the papacy.  In the end, he resigned three times, finally selling the papacy itself to his godfather (back in those days popes often as not were a dishonorable, Mafia-like lot).

So this godfather, who became Gregory VI, was out after two years in 1046; the church at this time suggested he resign, the sooner the better due to his scandalous behavior.

Then there was Celestine V, an avowed hermit who was quite old (84) when he left the papal chair after five months.  He was declared unfit to be pope by other church officials, yet Celestine had the wisdom to turn the papacy over to the office of cardinals to let them work out what to do.  Celestine V resigned in 1294.

The last pope to resign was Gregory XII as a way of trying to heal what Catholic history calls the Great Western Schism.  In the 1400s, Europe was so fractured, and at a time when popes held both religious and worldly power, the papacy was divided into two factions — one in Rome, one in Avignon, France.  The French pope, Benedict XIII, refused to attend the Council of Constance, which tried to resolve having two popes heading the church.  So this pope was deposed by the council in 1417, and Pope Benedict XIII continued acting as pope in his own right from Spain, issuing various decrees, filling the College of Cardinals until the council elected Pope Martin V in November of that year, finally bringing the warring pope era to an end.

So the Catholic Church, even as late as 2013, has good reason to be shocked, upset and deeply concerned about the global effects of the current Pope Benedict abdicating.  His reasons — advanced age, seriously diminished capacity to serve, doctors telling him to not make any more overseas trips, his conscience telling him he is not up to the demands of the Catholic Church in modern times — but in being pope, the head of all Christendom, where does the personal leave off, and where do loyalty and service to God remain?

Since popes have stayed until they died for the past 600 years, Pope Benedict’s stepping down creates a crisis in the church that it definitely doesn’t need, coming at a time when religion itself struggles to find footing in the modern world.

On the one hand, yes, religion should matter — there is no question religion is what makes us human — but so do such things as science, which tries to find answers; art, which probes the soul; knowledge, something every human must have; to develop compassion instead of hate, to search for peace and not always create war.

Perhaps you think I am overstating the importance of the Catholic Church, and certainly, faith itself is not limited to Catholicism.  Yet who we are throughout the Western world, where we are, what we do today is directly descended from what Jesus and the Apostles established long, long ago.

So Pope Benedict’s resignation, abdication, stepping down, retiring to a life of seclusion is no slight act; it rattles our lives to our very core.  The effects are already creating confusion, sadness, that familiar hollow sense of loss, as if the pope has passed away.  It means the new pope will be shadowed by the former pope, no matter who he will be, or what he will do.

History will have to judge Pope Benedict’s extraordinary abdication.  While we may think his act is either a cowardly or courageous move, only time will tell which is the right answer.  It’s impossible for any of us to think our actions will alter the future, that our decisions only affect the here and now.

Truth is, Pope Benedict’s resignation leaves us forever changed.

Jodeane Albright is an award-winning columnist/blogger and the community editor for the Idaho State Journal.

 

Christian fundamentalist rage against Islam must stop

It figures a U.S. religious fundamentalist would spark an international incident that resulted in the deaths of four people.  Nor is it the first time this particular pastor has created international controversy that puts American citizens serving abroad in grave danger.

U.S. Pastor Terry Jones is the culprit behind the latest attack, which occurred Sept. 11, 2012, that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, California-born Christopher Stevens and three members of his staff.  They were killed in an assault on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya, where Stevens was serving as a top diplomat to the Middle East nation in the post-Ghadaffi era.  There were also protests in Cairo, Egypt, against the U.S. Embassy there.  There were no reported casualties in Egypt.

What happened was a film, “The Innocence of Muslims,” made and promoted by Jones, who is a pastor of the Christian fundamentalist Dove World Outreach Center in Gainsville, Fla., insulted the Prophet Muhammad.  A 14-minute clip was seen on YouTube, and you bet Jones deliberately chose Sept. 11 to send his message of bigotry and hate on this date.  He has a long-standing and particular hatred of Islam.

Jones and the backers of this pathetic excuse of a film remain unapologetic about the deaths of Stevens and members of his staff.  Jones released a statement that he says supports his claim that Muhammad is a false prophet and leading more than a billion followers of Islam astray.

Jones said of the incident in Cairo, “The fact that angry protesters climbed the wall at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, ripped down the American flag and tore it apart further indicates the lack of respect that Islam has for any other religion, any other flag, any freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.  It further illustrates that they have no tolerance for anything outside of Muhammad.”

Talk about gall: Anyone can see Jones is clearly talking about himself and any fundamentalist who thinks the same way he does.  There is no doubt that he has been led astray by his own obsession against Islam.

Remember, too, Jones called for the burning of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, on the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11.  At that time thousands of citizens in Afghanistan set fire to tires in Kabul and other Afghan cities chanting “Death to America” in reaction to Jones’ inflammatory call for the destruction of the Koran.  Understandable actions when any idiot such as Jones touts his own belief as “truth.”

Eventually, in March 2011, Jones went ahead and instigated a Koran-burning that he put on video and posted on the Internet.  That video caused protests in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of seven foreigners, including four guards from Nepal.

Jones became attached to Marantha Campus Ministries, located in Kentucky, in the late 1970s.  He went to Cologne, Germany, with his first wife (who died in 1996), where he founded and headed the Christliche Gemeinde Koln.  By 2002, even German evangelicals were disgusted with Jones and his poisonous brand of Christian theology. In 2008, the German Evangelical Alliance released him from the leadership of Christliche Gemeinde Koln because they felt his statements were indefensible and that he craved attention.  It has also been reported he left the church in Germany after being accused of fraud.

Not only that, Jones was said to run the Cologne church like a self-styled sect leader, creating a climate of control and fear, according to members.

Jones is convinced that Islam, a religion based on peace, is intent on establishing sharia law in America.  He is far from alone in this groundless conviction, and it is sickening when you think there are Americans who share his views.  These people have no shame over their clearly insane beliefs.

By the way, Jones is running as a presidential candidate this year, although he is not affiliated with any political party.  Then again, he might want to consider coat-tailing along with the Republican Party when GOP candidate Mitt Romney responded to the attacks on the embassy in Benghazi with criticism of the Obama administration, claiming, among other statements, that the administration was apologizing for the incident and had disgraced itself.

I’m just saying, birds of a feather …

There’s no doubt Jones has blood on his hands — again.  This Christian fundamentalist rage against Islam must stop.

Above all, Jones should be held accountable for what he has done.

Jodeane Albright is the award-winning columnist, blogger and community editor of the Idaho State Journal.