The Mainline Minister

While watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday, I noticed that the Herald Square entrance to the famous store was sporting a new accessory: a BelieveMeter. This device was part of the overall theme of "Believe." The one we were supposed to place our trust in was none other than jolly 'ole Saint Nick. I didn't notice the meter moving, but I did wonder what it would be like to have one of these gizmos in church. Perhaps I'd be able to gauge the spiritual commitment of the congregation. I'd be able to use this Metric to determine which programs and ministries were working and which needed to be retooled. I could look at the meter after hymns and determine which songs were boosting peoples' faith. The more I thought about this, the more I wanted one. Then a question came to mind: what happens if the meter drops after I preach? Hmmm. Maybe I'll just leave the meter to the marketing guys at Macy's ....

For those of you who know that I worked for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts for more than two years, I am happy to report that none of the bishops I've met or worked with were remotely capable of the mind-blowing insensitivity and professional malfeasance displayed by the Rt. Rev. Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, England. For those of you with more important things to follow like the kerfuffle involving full body scans or how many oodles of dollars the latest Harry Potter pic brought in last weekend, the skinny is this: Bishop Pete has a Facebook page; he also likes to use Twitter. Using both channels, His Eminence made a variety of disparaging remarks about the royal family, took a pot shot or two at Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton, then wound up by predicting their marriage would last seven years. See here for more : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8153944/Royal-Wedding-Bishop-who-said-nuptials-wont-last-seven-years-suspended.html I

By now everyone is familiar with the immortal declaration "Don't touch my junk!" by an outraged passenger who was about to receive a pat-down by a TSA employee. Even though I no longer fly for work, something I used to do with great regularity, I empathize with the sentiment. There's something frightfully un-American about what's been going on at our airports. And, at even deeper level, what's been transpiring is dehumanizing. We're supposed to be free people in this country; instead, we're all being treated as suspected terrorists. Our country was founded in part on a recognition of the value of the individual; the process of checking in for a flight degrades people. We say we're going to beat the terrorists; instead, we surrender our civil liberties in the name of freedom. Something is very, very wrong here. While people speaking out and posting YouTube videos is encouraging, I wonder what is really going to change in the long run. My fear is