The President, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia took the short walk across Lafayette Park to St. John's [Episcopal] Church Sunday morning.
Obama was greeted by several parishioners with handshakes and smiles as the church members were returning to their seats from Holy Communion, which the first family also joined.
The sermon by Rev. Dr. Luis Leon was based on the Gospel of John and the Resurrection of Jesus. Leon said the message of Easter was about the 'proclamation of victory, the victory of powerful love over loveless power.'
He said the 'Easter vision' was the ability of the congregation to recognize the presence of Christ in their life, which would allow them to see the world in a new way without pain, loneliness, injustice, war, hate and despair. Instead, with the new vision, he intoned, they can see with love, hope and truth.
Leon used his sermon to encourage parishioners to look forward and not be stuck in the past, and he added a political edge with criticism of some right-leaning conservative Christians.
'The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back, back,' he said. 'For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet, and for ... immigrants to be on their side of the border,' he said.
The Obama's have previously worshiped at St. John's, including Easter services in 2009 and 2012. They attended Easter service at Shiloh Baptist Church in 2011.
Leon used his sermon to encourage parishioners to look forward and not be stuck in the past, and he added a political edge with criticism of some right-leaning conservative Christians.
'The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back, back,' he said. 'For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet, and for ... immigrants to be on their side of the border,' he said.
It is hard to see how such a comment could even find an incidental place in an Easter sermon drawn from the Gospels. The sad truth is that preachers sometimes play to their hearers and this is one example of manipulating the events and text to speak a message certain hearers desire to hear. Such a sermon may be what we want to hear but not what we need to hear... In this case, the preacher may have pleased a President but failed him at the same time....
The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back, back,' he said. 'For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet, and for ... immigrants to be on their side of the border,' he said.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how to respond to the "blacks in the back of the bus" argument. Let me say and do whatever I want, or I will cry "discrimination." At what point do people begin to assume personal responsibility for their own actions?
Women in the kitchen? Why is the occupation of homemaker an evil thing? Either the husband or the wife needs to cook the dinner. Why then do most married women want to stay home with their kids and let the husband work.
Gays in the closet? The church has never embraced homosexuality. Why push to ignore what the bible says about morality?
Immigrants on their side of the border? Why should we want millions more illiterate and uneducated people to come here. We already have millions of unemployed people in the USA. Why should a church encourage people to break federal immigration laws. Try to sneak into Mexico, and you will be thrown in jail.
Can the Episcopal church still be considered a Christian church? All of the churches that are engaging in "social justice" are dying. Will there even be an Episcopal church in 20 years?
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=17377#.UWQ5TDf77Hw
Perhaps the priest needs a crucifix installed directly in his view from the pulpit to help him stay on message.
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